Sisters

by shysage

Chapter 2, Sisters, Part 2

Farming had slowly gotten very difficult for small farmers in the California Valley.

It used to be that a good crop would set you ahead quite a bit, and this happened with some regularity.

Large corporations saw the advantage in Federal Subsidies for farming, and increasingly took over most of the farmable land. They had some good crops too.

But if you were a small farmer, you could do everything right, and the weather could cooperate, and you could have a bumper crop... ...only to have the large corporations run the price way down, simply to increase their 'bottom line'...

It rapidly was becoming very discouraging.

But if your grandpa was a farmer, and your dad was a farmer, what are you going to do...

That was Equestria Girls Fluttershy's dad...

He was a farmer, and had a decent spread, inherited from parents, grandparents, etc. He loved the quiet life of farming, and managed to find a wife almost as fond of that as he was. They had a nice farm, each other, and that seemed to be enough.

The growing market clout of the corporations was slowly taking it's toll, but this young family had nowhere else to go, nothing else they could do.

One otherwise unremarkable summer, some very nasty weather blew through the valley. Almost unheard of, a Super-cell thunder storm took it's time blustering across their spread. It brought three Tornadoes with it, but fortunately the damage was minimal.

But for three hours straight, the lightning and thunder were very intense. And their small farm-house seemed to let just about all of it in...

Equestria Girls Fluttershy was born near the start of that storm.

Her family didn't like the insensitive bustle of a hospital, and so had a Mid-wife watch over the pregnancy and delivery. Fluttershy was born at home.

Everything about that terrible storm scared her though... Well it scared the whole family. California rarely saw such fury.

Fluttershy was born with no complications, and quickly was in her mother's arms. Yellowish tint to her skin, pinkish tint to her hair, but noone was worried. She was beautiful.

But she couldn't nurse... Every thunder-clap, every bright burst of lightning scared her, and simply brought out her 'startle reflex'. Fluttershy wanted to eat, but she... ...just... ...couldn't... Her body kept jolting with each scary sound and flash... Her mom tried to pull the bankets on the bed up over her to shield her from it... She just peeked out from under it, eyes wide in fright...

They called her Fluttershy... She was their second daughter.

The storm eventually passed, and Fluttershy could nurse, but the delay in her first feeding may have contributed to Fluttershy being a little weaker physically than most of her peers. Whether or not this was the cause, she knew she would never be able to catch up with them so she didn't even try.

In addition, from this very first day forward, Fluttershy was always very skitterish -- it was very easy to startle this little girl.

Fluttershy's ocean-deep sensitivity didn't come from this day however, she was born with this gem. Her deep blue eyes could only hint at this amazing gift.

Almost two years earlier, to the day, Fluttershy's parents had their first baby, also a girl.

This baby was also born in the rain, but it was a very different rain. It was a soft, slow, warm continuous rain. It rained softly in central California for four days straight, and the precious farmland just softly drank it all in.

It was the kind of slow, soft rain that California used to be well known for. You could easily just stand outside in it for hours, and only get 'prune fingers'. It was an amazing summer rain... ..and that's what they called their first daughter -- Summer Rain.

Light skin with a hint of tan, short blond but already flowing hair. She was beautiful.

Summer's eyes were also deep blue, she was almost as sensitive as her sister. But she was precocious, calculating, and feared little, certainly not the storm clouds that echoed their sounds and lights when her younger sister was born.

That day, after Fluttershy was born, Dad put Summer up on the bed, and she stayed very near both her mom and her woundrous new sister. Summer kept trying to look into this brand new babies' eyes, to make eye contact, just to smile at her. Fluttershy was so scared. After she could hide under the blankets, Summer was finally able to look into Fluttershy's eyes though, and Fluttershy peered back... They both smiled at each other... Summer knew from then on that she loved her little sister dearly.

Once Fluttershy finally started nursing, Summer just lay down next to Mom and her new 'Sis' and just stayed close. They would always call each other "Sis" from that day on. Summer couldn't yet say the whole word.

They enjoyed being kids together during the day, and always slept next to each other at night, until they were older anyway. It seemed like they were always together, and could always find something fun to do. And Summer was always very protective of her little "Sis".

Friends and neighbors commented at how quiet these two were. They talked, it was just very quietly. And neither seemed to get angry very often. They always seemed to be together too, and neighbors said they were inseparable, whatever that meant.

Their mom counted her blessings. She heard horror stories of toddlers who were much worse.

---

School was just hard for Fluttershy. Her classmates quickly found out that she was so easy to scare... And when something or someone startled her, She would just drop whatever she was doing, throw her arms out and shriek quietly.

Her classmates just laughed no matter what she did... And no matter how hard the teachers tried, they simply could not stop the other kids from teasing her.

At the end of the day, when Fluttershy got on the bus, she was usually a tearful wreck. But Summer was always there to help her.

Summer would usually hug her sister for a little while as Fluttershy cried through her day. It usually took until after they got off the bus, before Fluttershy stopped crying.

After Fluttershy calmed down, they would run off to a fallow field, and play their favorite game -- 'Dragonfly'.

Summer would run around and find a butterfly or moth or something, and then bring it back to Fluttershy. Then Summer would let it go, and both Fluttershy and Summer would pretend they were ferocious dragons, and chase the flying insect around, and follow it, and pretend to scare it. Of course, they would never hurt it. Fluttershy would never, could never hurt any animal. Fluttershy loved animals.

Once her few friends, those that lived close, found out about this daily dragon hunt, they too would often join them, and would all be quickly running around the field as dragons.

Once, Summer surprised her sister in an amazing way. Summer had to plan this out in advance. Summer got a large paper sack out of the kitchen and stuffed it in her pocket. When she was supposed to be finding some random moth or something, Summer caught a huge butterfly, and put it in the sack, and took it back to her sister.

Summer's timing couldn't have been better, Fluttershy's day at school was absolutely terrible. She was crying loudly even after she got off the bus.

Summer walked back to her sister, and gently pulled the sides of the sack down and out of the way... ...Fluttershy was awestruck... The Butterfly stretched it's beautiful wings a few times then darted into the air... They both ran after it, squealing together with delight. It flew up into the wind too soon, and was blown quickly away...

It seemed like every creature Fluttershy saw was amazing... Fluttershy loved animals.

---

Fluttershy always spoke softly, and very 'breathy'. Fluttershy would not, could not yell. Loud noises scared her, even if she herself made them. Her scream was a quiet 'eep' sound, and would petrify Summer if she heard it -- this meant her sister was really hurt.

Summer's voice was higher than Fluttershy's, and not quite as breathy, but very close. Summer could yell if she needed to, but that was rare.

Both girls were very 'tentative' as they spoke and talked, certainly not presumptuous or assertive.

But by their parents admission, both their precious girls grew up way too fast, it seemed...

---

When Fluttershy was in third grade, and Summer was in fifth grade, the family sold their farm and moved to the city.

A number of factors forced this change. They stopped making any profit completely, and were simply eating away savings. Summer and Fluttershy were rapidly becoming an 'anglo' minority in school, and it just got scary. The closest corporation made them an offer on their land that they couldn't refuse.

Still, leaving the family spread was very hard for their mom and dad...

They rented an apartment in a big city, that was itself the 'suburb' of another big city in the LA basin. The school was good, the neighborhood looked nice. They just wanted to start over.

Fluttershy's dad had trouble finding a job however. There was little need for farming skills in the city, and he didn't have many other skills. And he wouldn't even think about sitting at a desk in the midst of a "cubical jungle"; that would surely kill him. He and his wife were fairly 'private' people, and that seemed to further limit his job options.

He was getting nowhere fast, and rapidly getting discouraged.

'On a lark', he stopped by a large Church near their apartment. They hired him on the spot as a Janitor. He could work at night, and they would pay his wife for any work she did as well.

Making a long story short, this Church took very good care of the family. They rarely attended, and the Church was fine with that. They did however, make some very good friends from there.

Fluttershy's dad did not consider himself a religious man. Still, he knew religious phonies when he saw them -- this Church was the exact opposite. They actually tried to live out what they said they believed. He had a lot of respect for them because of that. It was very rare as far as he could see.

And late at night, Fluttershy's dad could play his quiet Piano music throughout the Church as he cleaned, and it was just very quiet and calm. Mom and the girls spent a lot of time there as well. That empty church building became a sanctuary for the whole family. It wasn't the farm, but it was quiet, calm and peaceful.

The family had to adjust to Dad sleeping more during the day, but during school, he just slept then.

School was also much calmer, and Fluttershy and Summer generally spent a lot of time together at school as well as at home afterwards, or at the Church with mom and dad.

---

When Fluttershy's sister Summer started Junior High, she discovered Soccer. Summer loved Soccer, and practiced hard, and played a lot. She would never be great, but she kept pushing... ...maybe too hard...

Fluttershy just got left behind...

For the next four years, Fluttershy saw less and less of her sister. And Summer treated her more and more harshly when they were together. Fluttershy wanted her sister, but it hurt to be around her sister. It was a down-ward spiral.

Early in Fluttershy's first year of High school, her sister Summer died in a terrible car accident. The family was devastated. Few knew, but it hurt monstrously.

Fluttershy had developed a small group of friends, and they got along really well, until that first year of high school... It just seemed like they all got in one big fight at the same time, and they went their ways too. It was just hard...

Well that wasn't totally fair. A very nice Princess who said she came from a different world, did come and pull she and her friends back together. And they helped her do some amazing magic or something. For that week, the pain was lifted, and Fluttershy was hopeful.

But it was soon over, Fluttershy lost another nice friend, and all she had left was terrible aching inside....

The rest of that first year was basically a terrible blur of pain...

Fluttershy had no-one left...

Fluttershy had already given up, and knew she was going to 'end it', she just didn't know when or how. This sensitive soul was just carrying too much pain. It was just a matter of time...

One day she was handing out flyers for volunteers for the animal shelter.

Some random jerk from School walked up and kicked the entire stack high into the air, scattering them into the wind, and hurting Fluttershy's hand a lot in the process. He walked off laughing.

Fluttershy curled up into a little ball, right there, and cried... After a while she stopped crying.

...

Fluttershy had no hope left...

...

Fluttershy was just sitting there, actually thinking through some options for actually ending all this pain... when...

...

...she saw her sister laying on the grass next to her...

It had to be her sister... She looked exactly like her dead sister... She even sounded like her...

But she really wasn't. She was from the Princess' world. She was the Princess' friend. She came from a different world... ..for Fluttershy...

In less than an hour, this 'new Summer' had promised Fluttershy she would be the best 'best friend' Fluttershy ever had...

Fluttershy and this new Summer cried a lot together.

Fluttershy desperately needed this 'best friend' that day...

---

The results of this friendship with this 'new Summer', Equestria pony Summer Rain, would far surpass even Equestria Girls Fluttershy's wildest dreams...

Equestria Girls Fluttershy would be reborn...