Fluttershy & Discord: A Fluffy Friend Fanfic

by DevheartsRJXD

Chapter 2: The Friendship Breakdown

The following day, the town square was bustling with commotion; all the merchants were out selling their wares, ponies were going in all different directions towards their destination, and some were just shooting the breeze with their fellow ponies along the main street. But the biggest commotion of all, was the setting up of the carnival, that would be taking place the next day. Tents and stands were starting to take form, as were some of the rides; Fluttershy watched the roustabouts work as she passed by on her way to visit Rarity, where they would enjoy their weekly visit at the spa together. As she passed through the market, Apple Jack called to her from one of the stands. As Fluttershy walked over she noticed that Apple Jack, Big Mac and Apple Bloom were carrying knapsacks strewn with pots and pans, sleeping bags and marshmallow sticks.

“Howdie Fluttershy, whatcha doing today?” asked Apple Jack.

“I’m on my way to meet Rarity for a spa date, how about you? It looks like you’re all going on a trip.”

“We are! Me, Apple Jack and Big Mac are goin’ on a camping trip for the night before the carnival tomorrow! We’re going to eat s’mores and sing songs and watch the stars and did I mention eat s’mores!” Apple Bloom said while jumping around excitedly.

“That sounds wonderful, I’m happy you can make it to the carnival. But I thought you couldn’t make it since you had so much work to do at the farm?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Well that’s the funny thing Sugar cube, when me and Big Mac went to start the days work, we came out to find all the apples were already picked and sorted. No idea how it happened, there was no note or any sign that somepony had been there, so we just figured somepony was just payin’ it forward and we’d better not waste the opportunity to spend some time together.” said Apple Jack.

“Actually, you were running around the panicked chicken thinking the farm was bewitched, until I said we should take advantage of our good fortune and spend mmhmm hmpff mmm!” Apple Bloom was cut off by Apple Jack stuffing an apple into her mouth before her younger sister’s gabbing embarrassed her any further.

“Well we better getta move on Fluttershy, have a good trip to the spa and we’ll be seein’ ya’ll tomorrow at the carnival, come watch the pie-eating rematch, I’ll be sure to get that blue ribbon this year.” said Apple Jack with confidence.

“Nope” chimed in Big Mac, giving a cocky smile to his sister.

“Oh yeah you overstuffed turkey, well you better move your hind quarters if ya’ll want to beat me to the camp site!” Apple Jack hollered to brother, who had began to run ahead, with Apple Bloom in tail. Fluttershy watched the Apple siblings, laughing together as they race off down the street, she was overjoyed to see the hardest working family in Ponyville finally having the chance to spend some quality fun-time together. All of a sudden, her thoughts were interrupted when a pink blur crashed into her. It felt like she had been hit by a ton of bricks or in this case, rocks and more specifically, rock candy. When Fluttershy finally sat up, she saw Pinkie Pie picking up her suitcases and trying to stop them from leaking her candy all over the road.

“Hi Fluttershy! Sorry for knocking you over but I’m in a hurry to get to the train station, so I can spend as much time with Maud as I can while she’s on break. Apparently the royal ponies at Mount Monument all have runny noses so she is on break until plug them up again. I can’t wait to see her and build rock candy necklaces together! Hopefully I packed enough candy to last me the trip and make necklaces! Oh my gosh, I got to go, bye Fluttershy, we’ll see you tomorrow for the fireworks!” and in a flash Pinkie Pie was off down the street towards the train station, leaving a trail of rock candy behind her. Finally processing what Pinkie had said, she got up, brushed herself off, then continued towards the Carousel Boutique.

As the Carousel Boutique came in to view, Fluttershy heard a loud squeal come from within it. Panicked that Rarity had found another mouse in her kitchen, she took off running and burst through the door in attempt to save the poor creature. Although, to her surprise, Rarity was not screaming in horror at a bewildered mouse, instead she was jumping and squealing like an excited filly. Relieved at the sight, she asked Rarity what all the excitement was about.

“My dear Fluttershy, I have just received the most incredible news! Sapphire Shores was completely dazzled by my latest couture for her next tour, that she has invited me and a guest to spend the afternoon at her studio in Manehattan and to accompany her to a private showing of Whiny on the Hill! This couldn’t possibly have happened at a better time, since what better way to show Sweetie Belle how much I appreciate all her help, then to take her to meet her idol and see her favourite play! Oh dear, we’ll have to leave right away if we want to make it on time, I have to pack and tell Sweetie Belle and I should book a hotel, oh dear there is simply too much to do!”

Using her magic, Rarity pulled her chaise longue towards her, in which she proceeded to dramatically collapse upon. Looking over she saw Fluttershy standing there awkwardly, trying to come up with a way to dismiss herself politely, but Rarity interrupted her before she could.

“Oh Fluttershy, I do apologize for having to cancel our spa date, but do not fret, I do not wish to take away your time
at the spa, so please accept my membership card and get
whatever treatment you like! I promise we will attend the spa together next week, but, oh my is that the time already, I really must be going now, au revoir darling, I shall see you tomorrow evening for the fireworks!”

Before Fluttershy could decline her offer, Rarity thrusted her card into Fluttershy’s hoof and directed her out the door and towards town, then Rarity ran back inside to call Sweetie Belle with the good news and to pack for their evening in Manehattan. Fluttershy stood there dumbfounded for a moment, until she accepted her fate and headed for an all-expenses payed trip to the spa, figuring she’d only offend Rarity to not accept her generous gesture.

Passing through the park on her way to the spa, Fluttershy saw Twilight Sparkle practicing her magic, but something was off. Instead of using her horn to produce magic, she was using some sort of spindly twig and she was dressed in the strangest attire: a long black cloak and a pair of circular glasses. Worried about her friend’s mental health, she went over to inquire about her strange behaviour.

“Hello Twilight, lovely day isn't it? Perfect day to try a new form of ancient magic?”

“Hi Fluttershy, yes it is a lovely day, but I’m not practicing any new magic, I’m taking a break from that since some of the hieroglyphs from Starswirl the Bearded’s old
manuscripts are difficult to decipher and I’m waiting to hear back from Moondancer about her findings. In short, my studies are on a hiatus right now, which couldn’t have a happened at a better time since guess who’s got tickets to see J.K. Rearing this afternoon?” she asked excitedly.

“Umm you?” Fluttershy perplexedly responded.

“Technically no, Shining Armour has them, but he’s taking me to see her reading of Hairy Trotter later this afternoon. It was supposed to be a Hearth’s Warming Eve present, but they moved the date to today, which works out perfectly since we can finally spend some time together.”

“That sounds wonderful Twilight, I’m- Eeeek!”

All of a sudden, a purple toad with green warts jumped on Fluttershy’s face, causing her to run around in circles madly while shrieking trying to get the freaky frog of her face. Twilight, reacting to her friend’s distress, summoned the toad over with her magic, giving it a disapproving look when it was in front of her.

“Spike, why did you do that? You scared poor Fluttershy!” scolded Twilight.

Spike turned around to look at Fluttershy with the biggest, cutest eyes a toad could muster. Fluttershy’s heart melted and said with a smile, “I except your apology Spike.”

Spike then turned to Twilight and began ribbiting his displeasure about being turned into a toad.
“Alright, alright Spike, I’ll change you back into your little annoy- I mean your handsome self again, come on Hop-Along. I got to go Fluttershy, but I’ll see you tomorrow for the fireworks.”

While enjoy her treatment at the spa, she thought of all her friends and how happy they were to be able to finally spend some much needed time with their siblings. This got her thinking about her honorary sibling, Rainbow Dash, and seeing as everyone else was celebrating early for Sibling Day, they should do something together that evening as well, maybe a sleepover, the they could get an early start at the carnival the next day. With her plan ready to be set in to motion, she headed off to find Rainbow Dash, but not before thanking the spa ponies for doing such a wonderful job.

It was late in the afternoon, which meant Rainbow Dash would more then likely be taking a nap somewhere, so Fluttershy surveilled the clouds for any signs of her.

Concentrating so much on her search, she didn't notice that she was walking right through Scootaloo’s flight path. CRASH! Scootaloo flew right into Fluttershy, not having noticed her either since she was too focused on nailing her new trick that she was in the process of showing Rainbow Dash. Rainbow galloped over to the two, who were know in a heap of limps and scooter equipment.

“Are you guys okay? That was some gnarly crash you guys had!”

“I’m okay.” said Fluttershy.

“Same here, that’s what all this padding is for anyways!” said a beaming Scootaloo.

“Good, and speaking of good, that was a pretty good trick Squirt, but this is how you do a great trick!” With that Rainbow Dash took off like a shoot into the air and started doing all sorts of flips and loops with incredible speed. Finished with her aerial display, she landed back on the ground to be greeted with Scootaloo’s fangirling.

“Oh my gosh, that was AMAZING! I hope I can be as good as you one day Rainbow Dash!” squealed Scootaloo.

Patting Scootaloo on the head she said, “Well with me as your coach, you will.”

“I can’t wait to start training tomorrow, EEEE! This is so exciting, oh my gosh I gotta get all my stuff ready, I better go Rainbow, I’ll see you back here tomorrow though. Bye Rainbow Dash! Bye Fluttershy!

As Rainbow waved goodbye to Scootaloo, she turned around to a scowling Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I promised Scootaloo I’d help her out and tomorrow worked out since I didn't have anything important going on anyways.”

“So spending time with me isn’t important to you then?” said Fluttershy, tears welling up in her eyes at her friends statement.

“Of course it is, it’s just that the carnival has gotten boring for me and I wanted to do something else this year.”

Trying to stay positive, Fluttershy suggested maybe accompanying them for moral support, but Rainbow squashed it by pointing out how pitiful her cheering is and that it would just make Scootaloo even more nervous having another set of eyes watching her. And before Fluttershy could suggest another solution, Rainbow Dash excused herself saying she needed to go rest up for tomorrow, leaving Fluttershy alone in the park, feeling dejected. Making sense of what had just happened, Fluttershy ran to her cottage, trying to contain her tears with her best effort, but they were not enough, as her tears began to drop off her cheek onto the road as she ran to the comforts of her cottage. Once inside, she collapsed into tears, having realized that she had no family or friends to spend the holiday with, just like when she was a little filly. She cried herself to sleep, hoping that she would sleep through the following day and avoid the sad truth of being alone once again.