What Comes Next

by Rocket Blaze

The Fall

Cloudsdale fell away as Rainbow Dash tumbled through the air crying out desperately. "FLUTTERSHY! FLUTTERSHY! I'M SORRY!" Even as the ground rushed towards her, she felt terrible. I wasn't going to jump. This isn't what I wanted! "FLUTTERSHYYYYY!"

Her legs flailed about as she struggled to right herself, forgetting momentarily about her handicap she almost expected to pull out of the dive. Tumbling down and down, Rainbow Dash managed to catch a glimpse of a tiny speck silhouetted against the blue sky. It could only have been Fluttershy. Dash closed her eyes hoping against hope that she could make it - she never was the strongest flier.

Expecting everything to end at any instant, Rainbow was jarred from her resignation by Flutterhsy's call, approaching nearer and nearer. "I'm coming Rainbow Dash!" Hooves clasped around her midriff. Fluttershy strained against the combined weight of two ponies as her wings beat at the air with a fierce urgency.

"We're... still going... too fast..." she warned, trying hard to slow their descent. The trees were now close by, their tops meeting and then dwarfing the two as they fell. As Rainbow Dash braced for a rough landing, the ground started to pull away again briefly before Fluttershy dropped her with a light thunk.

Touching down gracefully, she turned to her friend with tears in her eyes. "Rainbow Dash... Why'd you-"

"-I wasn't gonna, Fluttershy, I swear! You just startled me. That's all."

Fluttershy immediately stepped back as her sadness turned to visible anger. Blinking away her tears, she growled back "That's not what I meant, Rainbow Dash! Why were you that close to the edge at all? Were you just going to abandon me? Abandon Twilight? Rarity? Applejack? Why... Why didn't you just..." and as quickly as it had come, Fluttershy's anger was replaced by pain. Rainbow Dash knew that coming up with the right words must have been no small challenge for Fluttershy, but she did not relent. "Why didn't you just come to me?" she asked pointedly.

"Fluttershy? Why didn't you come to me!? I waited for you guys in the hospital, but only Rarity came. Then those fillies at the school said something and I just snapped. Rarity couldn't hold me back. I really wanted - No, I needed all of my friends. This..." She couldn't continue. All of the emotion that she had been holding in - the rage and anxiety and doubt that had caused her to lash out - was welling up to the carefully guarded surface.

"You don't know Fluttershy. You weren't there." An itch at the back of her throat caused her to swallow. "I've been so in my head these last few days. I want-" Rainbow Dash couldn't stand. Her forelegs came crashing down as she reached out to Fluttershy's. "I wanted to let you guys in, and tell you what I've really been feeling... But I don't even know!" She sobbed loudly. "My head is all over the place, and I don't want to drag everypony else down with me!"

Rainbow Dash held nothing back as tears rushed down her face, glowing in the evening light. Finally sharing the burden was a welcome relief - She didn't have to hide behind a mask any more, and knowing that set her free more than her wings ever could have. "Fluttershy, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

Fluttershy looked down on Rainbow Dash with an odd combination of shock and sympathy. All she could do was run her hoof through her friend's mane. "Oh... There, there, Rainbow Dash. You're right. I don't know what it's like to be in that head of yours, but I want to be. We all do. Just like you've always been there for me, to stick up for me when I get made fun of because I can't fly very well..."

That stopped Rainbow's tears. Sniffling, she looked up at Fluttershy who was now laying on the ground next to her. "But... You can fly. Fluttershy, you saved me. That was... That was really awesome!"

Fluttershy blushed. Rainbow Dash looked up, her tears now rolling over a breaking smile that spread from cheek to cheek. "And something else: I promise that from this point on, I won't try to hold things in so much. After seeing how upset it made you, I could never do what I did again." And that made Fluttershy smile too.

Standing up, Fluttershy offered a hoof to her fallen friend. "Come on, Rainbow Dash. Let's get you home!"

***

The flight back up to Cloudsdale was a lot longer than the fall down. Fluttershy was not the strongest flier to begin with and carrying the full weight of Rainbow Dash did not help, but she managed.

Together they spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the mess that Rainbow Dash had made inside the house and looking after Tank, who seemed just as concerned for Rainbow Dash as Fluttershy did. The work was mostly silent, as Rainbow felt the weight of the shame that her episode had caused. This was an uneasiness that Fluttershy easily picked up on before finally breaking the quiet.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I'm not sure what good it'll do."

"Well, when Angel is having a bad day, sometimes I just ask him about it and it makes him feel better once he starts talking."

"Well, I don't think Angel's ever had a day like this..." She swept some broken glass into a tray that she steadied with her hoof. Her reflection looked back up at her. Broken.

Seeing this, Fluttershy gently flew over to her and touched down gracefully to help her get rid of the glass. "Well... How about you tell me anyway?"

There was a long pause as Rainbow Dash thought about it. Remembering her promise, she agreed. "Can we at least sit down first?"

Locating a pair of soft cushions, the two sat across from one another and Fluttershy listened as Rainbow Dash explained the day to her. It had started so well, with her and Rarity sharing a pleasant walk together. Then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon taunted the Cutie Mark Crusaders and something inside her snapped. "And I just let everything fly at them. I don't even know why, but I wanted them to just... Stop. And I told them if they ever taunted them again, I would take their cutie marks... Like this." She pointed at her scarred flank.

Fluttershy winced, but did not pull away. Actually, she leaned in towards her friend and pressed on reassuringly. "But Rainbow Dash, you know you would never do anything like that."

"No. I don't think I would... But I didn't think Pinkie Pie would either." Just the mention of that pony's name caused her to shudder - laughter echoing from the back of her mind. Despite there being no outward display, Fluttershy could sense the disquiet within her and so countered it with a reassuring hug to remind her that she was there.

Rainbow Dash continued with her story, telling Fluttershy about how she screamed at the sky, rolled in the dirt without caring what became of her, and borrowing Twilight's balloon. "I just wanted to see home so badly. I thought Twilight would come with me to help me adjust... But I guess she was just too busy."

Fluttershy shook her head. "No, no Dashie. You have it all wrong. Twilight hasn't been sleeping because she is trying to find a spell to get your wings back. Don't you see? She wasn't ignoring you. She was trying so very hard to help you."

"My... My wings back? Like... P-Permanently? Can a spell do that?" Her face brightened, but the despondent look on Fluttershy's face told her everything she needed to know. "Oh... No luck, huh?"

Again shaking her head, Fluttershy said "I'm sorry. So far there hasn't been any luck. But I want you to know that you are still special without them. Even if you can't fly, Dashie, we still love you."

Then Rainbow Dash realized something startling. "But... What if I don't love myself?"

"Well, why wouldn't you? You're so amazing. You're the most loyal friend anypony could have. You're never a bully. You don't need your wings for any of that."

"I know, I know. But it's like... What if I'd seen the danger coming? I should have! I always thought I could trust my own instincts but this time I was wrong."

"Dashie. Nopony could have thought Pinkie would do something like this. It could have been any of us."

Rainbow Dash jolted to her hooves. "But it WASN'T!" she roared. "It wasn't YOU. It wasn't APPLEJACK or TWILIGHT or RARITY... It was ME! Now I don't even know who I am any more! I don't even know where I belong!"

Fluttershy had flown into a corner and cowered away from the anger Rainbow Dash was projecting. Seeing this, and realizing that she had once again lost her temper, she backed down. Fluttershy stood slowly. "Are... Are you saying you wish it... It was one of us?" she asked meekly.

"What? No! No... Of course not... I don't wish it were anypony. I'm sorry Fluttershy, that's not what I meant."

"Rainbow Dash, I want to help you... But you should also help yourself." She looked around at the home still blanketed in disarray, and Rainbow Dash could see an idea forming behind those concerned eyes. "Do you remember the parasprite invasion?"

"Yes, of course. But I don't see how-"

"-If I never found that first parasprite, and took it home, and fed it, then the town would never have been overrun. We almost lost it that day. I think... I think there's a parasprite in you, put there by what happened. And if you stay here, in Cloudsdale, you'll only feed it, and it'll multiply, and then you'll be overrun. I don't want that. I care about you, but I can't be here all the time to help you. I might not be here the next time..." Fluttershy's voiced trailed off into a whimper.

"...I trip." Rainbow Dash finished, knowing Fluttershy was right. A wingless pegasus had no need to stay in the clouds. Even if Fluttershy hadn't been there to startle her, and she did back away from the ledge that time, who's to say that she wouldn't have found herself back there the next day? "But... Where will I go?"

"Rainbow Dash, you can always stay with me. I don't live in Cloudsdale! I am not used to having company over, but you're my friend. It's different! And besides, Tank would love it there with all the friends he could have."

"You... You would let me live with you?" She pled as she once again felt the emotion building up in her. Her eyes watered again, but with joy and a positive outlook she hadn't expected she would ever feel again.

"Of course. I'd be happy to!" Fluttershy's wings batted gracefully, lifting her in the air as she clenched her hooves tight to her chest and smiled welcomingly.

Somehow the idea of staying with Fluttershy made sense. The two had known each other since they were fillies, and complemented each other in the strangest of ways. Usually Rainbow Dash was the one sticking up for Fluttershy, but that didn't mean it couldn't be the other way around. "I'd love to come live with you, Fluttershy. But it's very late now. Let's stay here for tonight."

"Yaaay!" Fluttershy flew at her friend, throw her forelegs into a tight hug. "Rainbow Dash, I promise you won't regret this."

"No, Fluttershy. I promise you won't regret this. Thank you. Thank you so much!" Rainbow Dash truly didn't know what else to say.

***

Rainbow Dash's emotional roller coaster of the day didn't end then, however. Her dreams did not improve, as once more she found herself facing the laughing face of her tormentor. This time Princess Luna did not save her, and she rocketed from her sleep drenched in a cold sweat.

Fluttershy was asleep on a piled mass of cushions at the base of her bed. She didn't want to be treated any differently, and in her house the guest ponies always slept more comfortably out of common courtesy, but Fluttershy had insisted that Rainbow Dash take the bed to get a good night's sleep. Fat lot of good that did me. Rainbow Dash thought bitterly. The least they could do was compromise on staying in the same room, in case just such a night terror awoke her. Well if I didn't wake her up I'm not going to. She needs sleep as much as I do.

She tried to get back to sleep, but her efforts proved fruitless. Either she tossed and turned trying to scratch a phantom itch in her wings, or ached as she turned onto her inflamed haunches too quickly.

At one point she felt her eyes closing, but the tapping of hoofsteps downstairs startled her. It's nothing. She thought. She couldn't even be sure she'd actually heard them. Not anymore. That was until she'd heard them again, accompanied by a loud crashing noise.

"HUH!?" Rainbow Dash shot up out of bed and crept to the door. Peering out into the spaces below, all she could see was blackness. "Nothing," she whispered. As she turned to head back to the bed, a chuckle from downstairs halted her in her tracks.

Against better judgement, she decided to explore further. I can't let anypony hurt Fluttershy. She crept downwards into the darkness of her own home, but no sign of movement availed itself.

"Rainbow Dash..."

She jumped. "Who... Who's there?"

"Don't think I forgot about our party. We were just getting started, you and I..."

Rainbow Dash spun in place, but couldn't see anything through the darkness.

"Pinkie?"

"Hehehe! You're so perceptive, Rainbow Dash. I've come to get my cupcakes!"

Rainbow Dash fled into the foyer and away from Pinkie's voice, but it merely followed her. "Come on now, Rainbow. It'll be FUN! I promise it won't hurt... After we're done, that is."

She turned on the spot to see if Pinkie was coming, but there was nothing but black. Rainbow Dash knew she was there though. "No... Stay back!" She backed up to the door, but the hoofsteps kept approaching, getting louder and louder with no Pinkie in sight. Dash's eyes strained against the darkness, darting every which way to catch a glimpse of her tormentor.

"Let's finish our party, Rainbow Dash!"

"NO!" Rainbow Dash bucked down the door to her house with a tumultuous crash, bathing the foyer with moonlight that glinted off the scalpel wedged in Pinkie's hoof cleft only inches away. Pinkie's face was behind it. Smiling.

Rainbow Dash backed out through the open door before turning to run as far as she could. The drop at the edge of the clouds stopped her from going any farther. When she looked back, she could see Pinkie standing in the doorway goading her. "Go on, Rainbow Dash. You know it's the only way out of here." She didn't take a single step.

Rainbow Dash turned and gazed down at the abyss below. "No! I promised Fluttershy I would carry on. This... This isn't real! This can't be real, I saw you die! That means..." She braced as if to jump, knowing that if she were prepared to throw herself off the edge, she would awake.

Then, with one final cackle, Pinkie disappeared. Rainbow Dash, however, did not awaken... She hadn't moved a single inch. She was still standing at the edge of the clouds, bathed in the pale moonlight.

She had never gone to sleep.

***

Fluttershy's eyes crept open the next morning with sunlight bathing in through the tall windows above. Cold air rushed in from the living room and the bed dressings had been strewn about the room, though Rainbow Dash slept peacefully at her side with forelegs folded tightly around her dear friend.

Comments

[The Cynical Brony]

Yes! More please!

[The Cynical Brony]

And Fluttershy almost killed Rainbow. Lovely experience after having your body parts sliced off, topped by being gutted minutes later.

[Rocket Blaze]

Yes! More please!

Working on Chapter 5. Not sure when it'll be up, but it's coming!