Chapter 11: Rainbow Dash?
Although the travel had started off a bit jumpy, things adjusted far more comfortably overtime. The presence of wild critters scurrying about the forest could be heard occasionally in their surroundings, whether in the grass, bushes, or trees. As much as Fluttershy wanted to go up to them and greet them, the tingle that surrounded her body made her decide differently.
But, Fluttershy was content with just listening to their voices, some of them singing even. She and Rainbow Dash were following the path in these woods together by walking rather than flying. She wasn’t sure why Rainbow Dash was content with just walking, but at least they were chatting.
“So while you were getting checked by Nurse Redheart, your promise slipped up?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, sort of,” Fluttershy responded and looked away. “I… don’t think I mentioned who I promised it to.”
Rainbow smirked. “I don’t see why you’re so worried then. I mean, it’s not like she’s gonna come to your cottage and ask you more, right?”
The response brought Fluttershy discomfort. “I… don’t know… Doctors tend to ask a lot of questions. And it’s...” she squeaked, “so uncomfortable.”
Fluttershy accidentally stepped on and broke a stick in half. It wouldn’t have been so scary, but at the same time the stick broke, a few birds started flocking away as well as some critters scurrying about. The sound of their cries and flapping made her stop walking to squeal. When the sounds settled, she brought her head back up.
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
Rainbow Dash just looked at her, not exactly unamused, but with a raised eyebrow. She looked at Fluttershy like that for a few seconds before continuing to walk.
Noticing Rainbow Dash continued moving, Fluttershy trotted her walk to catch up. But she noticed Rainbow Dash had her wings flared out. Realizing Rainbow was probably getting impatient, she tried to strike up another conversation.
“R-rainbow Dash…” She paused for a second to think while Rainbow’s attention was drawn. “How would you feel about sharing our promise to our other friends?” As soon as she asked it, she gulped nervously.
Rainbow started flapping her wings to bring herself airborne, but her eyes seemed to wander a bit. “Let me ask you something,” she suddenly said. “How do you think they’d react if we told them what we did?”
Fluttershy’s mind felt like it was struck as the question was re-asked. All she could do was look down and imagine what would happen if she and Rainbow Dash told them face to face.
”She licked your hooves?!” Twilight’s voice spoke shocked and surprised.
“Y’all were enjoyin’ it?!” Applejack’s voice
“Oh my gosh! How did that taste like?!” Pinkie’s voice.
“That just sounds repulsive!” Rarity’s voice.
“Wow, Twilight, can I try a taste?” Spike’s voice.
“SPIKE!” All of them yelled.
Fluttershy cringed at her overactive mind. Maybe that wasn’t exactly how they’d react, but it sounded pretty close enough.
“Oh… forget I asked… it’s just-”
“Fluttershy, come on!” Rainbow’s voice sounded and interrupted her from a distance.
When Fluttershy brought her head up, she squeaked, noticing Rainbow was flying up ahead. “W-wait!” Fluttershy started galloping in an attempt to catch up. She would try flying, but she didn’t want to risk crashing with these trees so low. She could barely see Rainbow Dash flying through the bushes where the path ended.
Fluttershy’s heart started racing the second she lost sight of Rainbow Dash. The trees continued to grow thicker making it quite dark. Bushes rustled in her surroundings, terrifying her even more. The only thing that brought her comfort was the sight of what looked like an open area ahead, past the bushes. She continued rushing through, squeaking before pushing herself through the bushes and into open light.
Once through, she gasped and stopped. In the center of the opening was a large spring that shined and sparkled brightly by the sun. Rainbow Dash’s bags could be seen on the grass just by the spring, but Rainbow Dash herself was no where to be seen.
“R-rainbow… Dash?” Fluttershy walked a little closer towards the spring, looking around the scenery for her. The light wind was making the trees rustle their leaves together, providing an ominous feeling. She looked in all her surroundings, looking for her friend while shivering in fear.
“Rainbow Da-Ahh!” Suddenly, something knocked right into her, making her bags fly off her body while she was flung towards the spring. Her screaming drowned out as soon as she hit the water with a loud splash.
Squirming, she opened her eyes underwater. She could see many fish in the spring quickly swimming away from her. She glanced her eyes left and right to check her surroundings. Besides the fish, there was something else swimming underwater, barely visible, but much larger. Gasping violent bubbles, she hurriedly swam up towards the surface.
Fluttershy soon managed to break the surface, spraying water everywhere and panting for breath. Her comfort ended when she heard the sound of rippling water indicating the presence of something swimming towards her. While kicking her limbs to keep herself afloat, she looked towards the source of the sound.
Fluttershy started whimpering when she saw the source. There was something that looked like a blue fin sticking just above water. It swerved from side to side in a predatory motion, trailing the waters as it approached. Fluttershy edged herself to back away, but couldn’t find the will to try and escape. It’s predatory approach continued to make her heart race faster. But It moved slower and slower the closer it got.
Just before it came within striking distance, the fin submerged underwater, and replacing it was the head of the creature. That creature, being Rainbow Dash, who had the widest grin on her face. The blue fin must’ve been her wing.
“I’m a shark, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said in a very low and dark tone. “Better run while you can.”
More chills were brought into Fluttershy’s features. She slowly backed away while Rainbow Dash closed in with that grin.
“R-r-rainbow Dash… y-you’re scarying-”
*RAAAWWRRR!*
Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs as Rainbow Dash lunged at her with her wide open mouth. Moving to the side to avoid that lunge while water sprayed on her face, she started swimming as fast as she could towards the shore. She pushed her limbs as hard and as fast as she could, gasping her pants while the presence of water trailing could be heard behind her.
“AHH!” Fluttershy felt Rainbow Dash chomp on one of her hind hooves and dragged her down underwater with a splash. Holding her breath but flailing her legs, she twisted her body to turn around just before hitting the bottom level. She could see Rainbow Dash removing herself from her hind hoof and moved towards her face.
Fluttershy squealed underwater, breathing violent bubbles again. She barely managed to move to the side while Rainbow’s head shoved itself against the floor, kicking up dirt in the water. She managed to get out of Rainbow’s grip afterwards.
Fluttershy swam as fast as she could towards the surface. She was so close to shore, yet so far. The increasing violent actions Rainbow Dash was doing was making her more scared than ever. The surface came within reach.
But just when she was about to emerge, Rainbow Dash caught up and pushed them both straight out of the water. All Fluttershy could do was squeal as she and Rainbow Dash plummeted back towards the ground.
After rolling a bit, Fluttershy was stopped to land on her back, pinned by Rainbow Dash. She held her hooves in her face and squeezed her eyes while Rainbow Dash growled and snapped her head towards her. Fluttershy shivered under Rainbow Dash, awaiting the imminent attack. With her wings pinned down, there was nothing left she could do to resist.
But then she realized that the attack wasn’t coming. She very slowly moved her hooves away to peak. Rainbow Dash’s face was so close to hers, holding a sly grin on her face. With a slow move to her ears that made her flinch, Rainbow whispered.
“If I was a real shark, you’d be a goner now.” Rainbow’s warm breath brought a shudder to Fluttershy’s body and increasing her heart rate. She found the weight on her suddenly be released as Rainbow flapped her wings. Rainbow placed her hooves under Fluttershy’s forelegs to pick her up from the ground. Fluttershy flapped her wings after being released in the air so that she could gently drop back to the ground.
“But sharks aren’t as fast as you are,” Fluttershy complained. “Especially above water.”
Rainbow Dash just chuckled as she turned around, walking towards their bags. “A shark is the least of your worries around here anyway.” She ducked into a stance and looked left and right. “You never know what sort of wild creatures are lurking, ready to strike.” She started sliding a hoof along the ground in a predatory state.
After Fluttershy took a deep breath and recovered from her torment, she responded. “You’re more of a wild animal than anything in here.”
Rainbow shot her head up just as that was said. The sight of her just slowly turning her head around made Fluttershy instantly regret her response. Rainbow’s eyes sharpened at her. All she could hear was the ominous rustling of bushes stirred on by the wind as she witnessed those daggering eyes.
“What did you just say?” Rainbow asked coldly.
“I-I mean… I’m sorry, I-”
“No seriously,” Rainbow interrupted as she turned fully around and started walking towards Fluttershy. “What did you mean by that?”
Fluttershy slowly backed away, whimpering as Rainbow Dash closed in. But the more the wind rustled the bushes, the more ominous this forest became. She tried to say something, but could only stutter.
But then, Fluttershy noticed something behind Rainbow Dash, making her release a terrified gasp. She realized all that rustling was caused by movement, not by wind.
“R-r-rainbow D-dash… Eep!” Fluttershy’s shivering caused her to trip and fall on her rump. She desperately pushed herself to slide backwards as Rainbow Dash continued to close in.
“What did you mean, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked again with that cold tone. The bushes behind her were moving. In fact, different sections of them were moving.
“R-rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy lifted a shivery hoof to point. “I-I t-t-think there’s s-something-”
“Stop avoiding the question and answer!” The combined force of ominous movements and Rainbow’s rage utterly terrified Fluttershy.
“YAAA!” Just as something emerged from the bushes with a loud battle cry, Fluttershy looked away with squeezed eyes and screamed. The first thing she heard was a loud smack and a painful groan from the victim. The smack startled her to looking back up.
What she witnessed was a yellow stallion with red hair receiving a powerful punch to the face by a rough growling Rainbow Dash.
As that pony was being knocked backwards, another pony of similar shape and color emerged from the bushes and rushed straight for their bags on the ground. Rainbow Dash switched her attention to that pony and flew straight towards him. He was within inches of grabbing the bags before Rainbow Dash tripped him to be launched in the air. While the pony was yelling from his fall, Rainbow Dash zipped in front of him and bucked with both hind legs straight at his stomach, making his eyeballs pop wide open and sending him flying backwards.
“AHH!” Fluttershy felt a third pony grab behind her, lifting her up to her hind legs and squeezing her neck. She could be no more terrified than she was now, clutching her throat as she was immobilized, desperately trying to squirm and breathe.
“Stay where you are! Or I will-”
The pony’s speech was interrupted by another loud smack. Fluttershy found herself being released immediately. Before she hit the ground, she found a hoof catching her so that she could be placed in a sitting position.
Fluttershy was wincing while clutching her throat to catch her breath again. Besides her own painful breathing, all she could hear was painful groans coming from the other ponies that attempted to attack them. With a groan, she opened her eyes to look around.
Rainbow was dragging the third pony over to where the others were, who were all practically knocked out and moaning in pain. One of them was clutching his stomach for obvious reasons while the other one was completely limp.
Rainbow Dash dropped the third pony to meet with the others. “Hmph. Pesky thieves.” She turned to the bags they were trying to steal. Opening them, she pulled out a spare rope and took flight, quickly spinning in circles around the three thieves.
All Fluttershy could see was a rainbow blur that circled them. But when it stopped, she saw Rainbow tightening the rope she had tied them all together on, making them sit upright and face back to back. After confirming the rope was tight, she let it go with a snap.
“They’re the worst of the wild creatures in these woods.” Before Rainbow turned away from them, she took a gargled breath and literally spat in the face of one of them, probably the one that was choking Fluttershy. She then went back to the bags and picked them up.
While Rainbow was walking away, Fluttershy had managed to recover and started walking up to the three thieves. They all looked quite similar with their yellow coats and red manes that tied behind their heads like ponytails. All their cutie marks were different though that seemed to represent their task.
One of them was a rhinoceros which represented strength, one was a cheetah which represented speed, and the one spat on had a snake which represented stealth.
"Wild creatures... Was this what Rainbow Dash meant?"
"Leave them alone, Fluttershy." Rainbow's voice snapped Fluttershy's thoughts away and looked at her. "They don't deserve your pity."
Fluttershy took a second to look back at the thieves, seeing that they were still out cold. Now that she thought about it, all that rustling… Did Rainbow Dash know this gang was following them? Was that why she seemed so distracted earlier? Maybe they were even the real reason why all those animals suddenly got scared off after a snap of a stick.
But like Rainbow Dash said, she did feel sorry for this gang, but she couldn't deny that they had brought this upon themselves. With that in thought, she turned away from them and followed Rainbow Dash to continue the path.
The sun was starting to set, and all Fluttershy could think about was Rainbow's reaction to her response about being a wild animal. Rainbow sure had a sudden interest for talking about wild creatures, despite not being an expert on animals. But after what Fluttershy witnessed, it hit her.
Was Rainbow Dash actually talking about ponies like those thieves being the wild creatures? Was that how she always viewed them?
"Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy tried to ask, but she made no response. She didn't even look at Fluttershy. All Fluttershy could see was that mad frown on her face as she continued walking.
Fluttershy was so confused. She had so many questions she didn’t know how to ask. And all these events were giving her even more questions.
Right now she wanted to know why all these conversations always ended with Rainbow Dash upset. The more she saw that frown, the more her stomach ached and the faster her heart pounded. While flapping her wings, she braced her chest with her hooves to null the pain. It felt like something was desperately trying to escape her body. Despite all the internal pain she was feeling, she still followed.
But all Fluttershy could wonder was what was on Rainbow Dash's mind.
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For a minute there, I thought the two yellow stallions with red manes were going to be Flim and Flam.
Dash keeps displaying disproportional responses. Taken on it's face, she is being irrational and rather scary. The way she gets dangerously enraged by the slightest comment is worrisome. Though there are a few reasons that could explain this.
First of all, I'd have to wonder if Dash is 'really' responding this way, or if it is merely Fluttershy's point of view, colored by her anxiety. A small frown could be taken by Fluttershy as a full on scowl, etc. It does fit a bit with her very skittish nature around other ponies if that is how she experiences the world.
Alternatively, something happened to Dash. We see here that Dash does not for even a second trust even her closest friends with their secret. Coupled with how serious she is about swearing FS to secrecy and warning her, it seems to imply Dash has had a bad experience. Maybe her secret was outed once, and the results were awful. That might also fit with why she was so angry at being called an animal, if that was an insult she had to endure at the time.
5697064
Nah, there were three of them.
Being scary is a natural part of her character. The enraged part, actually, I think that'll be explained better in the next chapter. For now I'll just say, Nurse Redheart.
Hurricane Fluttershy. One simple giggle from two pegasi leads to an entire crowd laughing.
This was already explained in Chapter 2. When she attempted to get a Hooficure around her friends during the spa, she couldn't go through with it. Yet, despite not doing it, the Foal Free Press revealed to everypony that she took it anyway. It wasn't just her that was affected. All of the Mane Six were so mad at the CMC for that, and Fluttershy cried to the point Angel had to be the one to answer the door. So when it comes to something more intimate than a hooficure, Rainbow Dash is far more secure about it. And I think Fluttershy would be too. They're just not ready yet.
Fluttershy: "Wild creatures... Was this what Rainbow Dash meant?"
5697136
True, but until the 3rd one appeared, I thought it might be.
Looking forward to this next chapter.
Exactly. Hm, are you confirming Fluttershy might be a slightly unreliable narrator in this story?
I meant significantly worse than that, but i guess this reply would mean that guess was wrong.
I assumed Fluttershy was wrong because RD's response didn't appear to make any more sense if you 'translate' it to "You're the worst bandit here." when spoken right after RD proves FS's point by 'attacking' her, and could reasonably expect a jab.
I'll see what happens later though.
5697371
If that were true, nopony would be a good narrative because THEY ALL have overactive minds. Rainbow Dash, worries so much about failing in the Best Young Flier's competition, she thinks Celestia will banish her to the Everfree Forest. Rarity, 'The, Worst, Possible, Thing!', Applejack, overprotective nature for Apple Bloom, Pinkie Pie, the time she went Pinkamena, and Twilight, 'Magic Kindergarten!'.
Well, I guess this was explained or expressed poorly in this chapter. I'm not sure if it can be explained better later on, so, I might try to explain it here if you want.
5697632
Actually, nevermind. Now that I think about it, the next chapter is a very important one. It will have to explain a lot of the confusion in this story.
5697632
Sorry if I wasn't quite clear in what I was asking. Even if Fluttershy(Or any main character) has an overactive mind, that doesn't necessarily mean that the descriptions you write from their PoV are a product of that, but it is a possibility. I was asking if the story was written that way. I retract the question by the way, since the next chapter may provide insight. Looking forward to it.
This was a great chapter thanks for sharing!