You Can't Take The Sky From Me

by FailcopterWes

Chapter 2: The Setting Sun

Chapter 2

The first thing Fluttershy felt was pain. Darkness and pain. Nothing else. Every inch of her body ached and screamed and roared in agony. The dark clouded her mind and her sight and pushed in, imprisoning her within herself. For a moment she wondered what she had done to deserve such a torture, what had happened when she landed.

Then she slipped. Her wing grated down the shaft embedded in it. Fluttershy’s eyes shot open as she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was now she saw where she was. She had not landed, she was still in the air. Three of her hooves hung limply towards the ground a few metres below.

Her last hoof was pointed sharply up, her whole rear right leg was cracked up, pierced by a shaft of bamboo that roughly burst through the muscles of her leg. Fluttershy tried to control her frantic breathing, but panic was setting in, the pain unbearable. Her eyes flitted back and forth, from the ground below to her skewered wing and punctured leg. It was near impossible to breathe, something felt like it was pressing against her lung. Something ripping through her insides and tearing out her back. Slowly, she twisted her neck to look beneath her aching body. Another shaft of bamboo and struck through her, stabbing in just under her ribcage. As she looked, a bead of red trickled out from her punctured skin and ran down the stalk, leaving a crimson streak in its wake.

A thought came into Fluttershy’s clouded mind.
“No, Flutty, no” echoed in her head. A friendly voice, the voice of a grey Pegasus that meant the world to her. The voice tried to repeat before the sounds of wind and thunder swept it away in her head. Fluttershy squirmed at the thought, and she slipped again, roughly sliding down the shafts a few centimetres. The bamboo burned on her insides, jabbing and wrecking everything it found. Fluttershy cried out again, sending her down another inch with her writhing. Somewhere in the back of her mind something told her she could get down if she carried on squirming. And for a moment, in her desperation, she nearly listened to its advice.

But she was weak. She could not move or scream any more. It hurt to move. It hurt to see. It hurt to live.

Her body went limp again.

And so she slipped away, into the darkness.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. Ahead of her lay grass, as far as she could see. Hills and hills of grass. Brown grass, moulding and dying grass. Over the sullen hills it stretched and coloured the landscape in its rotten tone. She could feel it under her belly and brushing her face in the gentle wind. It was brittle, scratchy, and covered Rainbow’s sight in gloom, through which the orange glow of sunset burned. With a grunt, she grounded her hooves and pushed herself to her feet, hissing at a pain in her flank. She must have landed awkwardly. A quick glance along her side confirmed it, bruises and cuts ran along her side, and by opening her wings Dash saw the ruffles and slashes along them.
‘Nothing deep’ she noted ‘Should be able to fly’. She flapped her wings experimentally, prompting a slight twinge in her otherwise useable wings. ‘Best not use them too much’

Content she was still in serviceable condition, Rainbow Dash turned to see her landing spot. A large track carved out an arc in the grass, stopping where she awoke. Her gaze followed the track, and noticed that she must have just missed the trees that jutted up behind her waking spot. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.
“Alright, alright” she said to herself. “Let’s get a few things straight. One: I have no idea where I am. Two: wherever I am, it’s probably beyond the Everfree Forest, great. Three: no Fluttershy or Ditzy”
She thought for a moment.
“Fluttershy! Ditzy! You there?” She called out. “Hello?” For a minute all she did was stand and shout, calling out to her friends. “They were right behind me before I hit” she muttered, giving up the shout. In her head she replayed the last few hours of her memory. The weather report, her friends, Ditzy in the sky, Fluttershy’s cottage, the wind dragging them out the house, and trying to fly in the grey world that had become all she could see in the hurricane. They had to be close, they were all trying to land about the same time.

But then Dash remembered, she landed diagonally, when she last saw the others, they were headed straight down. She gazed into the trees ahead of her, hoping the forest might reveal itself for her.
“I have to go in there?” she said hesitantly. “no, wait...”

She flapped her wings quickly, making sure they worked, before launching into a low level hover.
“Good to know these still work” she smiled as she rose above the trees. But her face fell when she saw the sheer number of trees ahead of her. It stretched for miles in most directions, interrupted by streams and hills, and a pair of mountains. “Ah...that’s a problem.”

With a sigh, Dash floated back down to ground level. She muttered to herself, trying to think of anyway she could find her friends without searching fruitlessly for miles. Until her eyes caught the landing marks she had made. They curved slightly, but Dash could roughly see the angle she came in at.
“I wasn’t going down for long, and they went pretty much straight down so...” Rainbow thought aloud as she drifted into the air again. “...they should be somewhere that way” she pointed a hoof triumphantly.

It took a moment of waiting for applause for her to realise she was alone. She cleared her throat quickly and set off over the wild terrain. All the while she called out the names of her friends, hoping she would catch a sight of pink and yellow or grey and yellow in the vegetation beneath her. But there was so much, and the mass of cluttered plants and trees just served to remind her of the refugees from the storm, huddled together in their crowd, looking towards one another with panicked looks and worried expressions on their faces. For a moment, Rainbow forgot she was flying, and drifted. There had been so many people. And none of them knew what was going on around them. What if the hurricane changed direction, or got worse? Rainbow thought in horror of what would happen to the exposed crowd if the hurricane caught up with them.
‘It’s okay’ she reassured herself ‘They’re with the Doc, they’ll be fine’

But this did little to calm her, she beat her wings faster, beating down the sorrow, beating back her desire to run, beating away her desire to give up. She shut her eyes, trying to focus.
“Rainbow Dash!” called a voice below her, snapping her out of her thoughts. She braked sharply, banked and turned to the sound.

There, against the ever setting sun, was a shape. It was tiny at this distance and unsteadily flapping its way towards her. As it got closer, Dash squinted, shielding her eyes from the sun with a hoof.

It was Ditzy, flying unsteadily above the ground. Rainbow’s eyes widened in disbelief and rushed forwards, barrelling the poor mare out of the air. For a moment they spiralled together, Ditzy held awkwardly in Rainbow’s arms.
“I can’t believe I found you!” Rainbow cried, hugging her tight. “I thought you were both gone”

Ditzy squeaked. Dash let her go, realising how tightly she had been holding her. Ditzy took a moment to catch herself in the air and fluttered back up. Rainbow saw that the mare seemed to be in a surprisingly good condition, a few bruises and dirt everywhere seemed to be the full extent of damage at first glance.
“Oh, sorry, I just...wait, where’s Fluttershy?” Dash suddenly realised she had not found the yellow Pegasus yet.

Ditzy looked away, her eyes unfocused again.
“Ditz” Rainbow placed a hoof on her shoulder “Where is she?”

A tear formed in Ditzy’s eye, rolling down her face. With a jerk, her right wing gave out, dropping her a few metres down before she regained flight. Rainbow noticed her right wing was bent awkwardly in the middle, and with each flap of Ditzy’s wings she bobbed awkwardly to one side. Another tear dripped down Ditzy’s face.
“Oh, Ditz, I’m sorry” Rainbow said, embracing the grey Pegasus again. “I’m so sorry”

No response came from the water-eyed mare. Rainbow wrapped a foreleg around her and began to descend, slowly, trying not to make any sudden drops. Their faces were close, and the wind gently tossed their manes over Dash’s shoulder. Ditzy buried her head in Rainbow’s neck and let the tears flow. They drifted down into the trees. A branch dragged itself across Rainbow’s back and flicked her mane, but she paid it no attention. Their hooves touched the ground, and sunk into the dark green grass, but did not hold. Ditzy tumbled into a heap, and Dash could do nothing but stay beside her, and let out a little tear of her own.

In the distance, the last few rays of sunshine were dying. The glowing Sun set majestically through the horizon, caring not for those below who wanted it a little longer, who wanted just a little more time to see by. Through the thick trees, light grasped at the world around it as it was dragged away to the other side of the world, until eventually, the warm light was gone. Only the cold gloom of moonlight remained.

Rainbow Dash watched the light leave. She sat and stared, her wings tucked in. Beside her, still sobbing tearfully, lay Ditzy. Dash could see clearly now, her wing was not just bent, it was twisted. Every time Rainbow saw it out of the corner of her eye she imagined how painful it must be to fly like that. It was not the only damage Ditzy had suffered in the fall, her body was bruised and cut, one of her hooves had split and the leg attached to it seemed to be causing trouble.
“Rainbow Dash” came a quiet voice.
“Yeah, Ditz?” Rainbow responded gently, looking down at the pony beside her. Ditzy gazed back. Her eyes had dried, but they were bloodshot. A cut ran over the surface of one, and they both were caked with dirt from her landing.

And both eyes were focused on Rainbow Dash.
“Why was it Flutty?” She asked. “What’d she do?”

Rainbow paused.
“Nothin’” she said eventually, hanging her head. “Nothing at all”

There was silence for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Ditzy whispered. Rainbow jerked her head up and sniffed back a tear.
“I’m fine, I’m fine” she protested. “How’re you?”

Ditzy took a moment to put her feelings into words. She eventually came up with:
“Sad”
“You and me both, Ditz” Rainbow said, laying a hoof on the mare. But Ditzy shook her off, getting to her hooves. She flapped her wings a few times, trying to fly. Rainbow could see her wincing with the initial wing flaps. “What’re you doing?”
“You wanted to know where she is” Ditzy explained, her voice monotone.
“You can’t fly like that!” Dash exclaimed. “Come down. Get on my back and point, but please, don’t hurt yourself anymore”

Ditzy landed heavily on the sparsely grassed ground with a thud, and slowly made her way to Rainbow Dash, taking each step slowly, as if she physically could not move beyond a crawling pace. She draped her right hoof over Rainbow’s back, and Dash helped her put her back leg over too. And with the damaged Pegasus in place, Rainbow flapped her wings. She felt the night air against the feather of her wings, feeling for currents, but the night was still. She could hear nothing save the breathing of Ditzy and her own wingbeats. Then, breathing in the cool air, she took off.

“Down there” Ditzy pointed a hoof down to Dash’s left. Rainbow looked down; she could see a river, reflecting the sliver of the waning moon in its ripple-free waters. Along its banks grew bamboo. It grew in clumps, poking through the trees and sprouting freely in the more open areas. Ditzy was pointing to a section relatively clear of trees, but thick with bamboo. Rainbow banked and glided in slowly. It was hard to see at this time of night, but Ditzy seemed to know it was the place they were searching for. As Dash came close she began to think she could see something in the bamboo, lodged awkwardly halfway up. She ignored her thoughts, forcing herself to think that it was just a clump of leaves of part of a plant. But as she got closer, the silhouette became more and more recognisable, and as Rainbow landed she could see all but the detail in the moonlight. Rainbow Dash stood there for a second, refusing to accept what she had been told but now saw with her own eyes. Ditzy slipped off her back, and slowly padded ahead, pushing stalks of bamboo out of the way with her head. Dash followed soon after, breaking the stalks in her way, until they both came to a stop before the shape that had slid almost to the ground, impaled upon three of the stalks.

There was no doubt in Rainbow Dash’s mind. It was Fluttershy.

Rainbow turned away, unable to bear seeing her friend in such a condition. She felt a rage build, for the hurricane that sent them here, for Celestia and Twilight for not stopping it despite knowing it was coming, and also for Fluttershy, for if she could only use her wings like any other Pegasus she would have hit the river and survived.

Rainbow bucked in anger, snapping bamboo beneath Fluttershy. With a snap and a crunch, the limp body collapsed to the ground in a heap. Dash whirled around to face the body.
“Why didn’t you land somewhere else!” she screamed. “Why couldn’t you just open your wings and fly! Even Derpy managed it and she’s out of her skull! So why, couldn’t, you!” By the end, each word was punctuated with a stomp. She felt the anger fall away slowly, replacing itself with guilt.
‘I just yelled at my friend. My dead friend.’ She thought ‘and I called...’
“Ditz, I’m sorry, I...” Rainbow said aloud, turning to Ditzy. Ditzy returned a stare, not angry, not remorseful, but lonely.
“’sokay” Ditzy mumbled. One of her eyes skewed a little and Ditzy clamped shut her eyes to hide it.
“Should we bury her?”
“Uh-huh”

Rainbow turned away and trudged over to an open spot area near a clump of trees.
“At least she’s in a forest. She always did love these places” Dash called to Ditzy, who was nuzzling Fluttershy’s face. “Maybe she’ll get a few animals visiting her.” Ditzy ignored her. “Come on Ditz, let’s get her out of there” Rainbow moved behind Fluttershy, her back to the river, and pushed gently with her head. Fluttershy rolled easily, but the bamboo sticking out of her got in the way. Dash had barely finished rolling her when she heard a squeak.
“Did you hear that?” she asked Ditzy, her ears snapping up to listen. Carefully, Rainbow lowered her head to push again. Gently, she rolled Fluttershy again.

Another squeak.
“I think she’s alive” Dash muttered. She rushed over to Fluttershy’s head, placing her cheek right next to her mouth. Faintly, a little gust of air played over Rainbow’s cheek. “Ditzy, she’s alive!”

Ditzy galloped closer, poking Fluttershy with her snout.
“Flutty? Flutty? Wake up! Flutty!” she said hurriedly, nudging and poking her marefriend.
“Ditz, we gotta get these plants out of her” Dash instructed “Bite ‘em off on that side”

Without waiting for Ditzy to respond, Dash leant down and began grabbing the stalks in her teeth, before sharply turning her head and snapping the stalks as close to Fluttershy’s body as she could reach. Ditzy copied her on the other side, pausing a moment to make sure she was doing it correctly.
“Alright, you pull on her from that side” Dash told her, pointing where she need Ditzy. She then leaned down and took a piece of bamboo in her mouth, the one in her leg, just beyond where it had been snapped off moments earlier. “Alright, pull!” she said.

Ditzy tugged at Fluttershy’s body, and the bamboo began to shift.

And then Fluttershy screamed. Rainbow and Ditzy jumped back in surprise. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth and face contorted and bellowed.
“Hold her still!” Dash yelled. Ditzy, stared helplessly at her. “We’ve got to get these out of her!”
“...But it’s hurting her...” Ditzy said hesitantly.
“Do it!”

Fluttershy had stopped screaming, and so Ditzy reluctantly placed her legs around her, pinning her to the ground. Rainbow gripped the stalk in her teeth again and wrenched it out. Fluttershy screamed again and writhed in agony, but Ditzy held her down, whispering something into the yellow pegasus’ ear. Dash tossed the bloodstained stalk to one side.
“Wing next” Rainbow told her companion “Keep it still”

Ditzy waited until Fluttershy had calmed before moving. She lay he forelegs over the damaged wing, pinning it down.
“Ready?” Dash asked, gripping the chunk of stalk with her teeth “Three, two, one”

She yanked it out, tearing with it a chunk of wing. Blood sprayed up across Rainbow’s face, accompanied by another chilling scream. Ditzy recoiled, letting out a yelp. Fluttershy’s wing extended in her spasms, flicking droplets of blood into the air.

Rainbow could see right through it, right through the ragged hole and dripping flesh. Feathers, once so clean and graceful, now ruffled and stained, hung limply around the hole. It took a moment for Rainbow’s mind to kick in. Blood was pouring from the wing hole, and Dash could see that needed to be stopped. She turned tail and galloped for the trees, ignoring Ditzy’s cries. Reaching a tree, she flew up and snatched out a tuft of leaves in her mouth, and shot back to Fluttershy. The wing had settled again, but red was spreading across the Fluttershy’s yellow coat. Dash grabbed the wing in her hooves, held it up, and stuffed the leaves in the hole. It was messy, but it would have to do. Ditzy saw Fluttershy flinch as the wound was patched up, and tried to comfort her.

Rainbow stepped back. She was breathing heavily.
“How’s that last one?” Rainbow said, indicating the last stalk. “Anywhere important?”

Ditzy craned her head to look.
“I don’t think so...”
“Alright” Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. “We can leave that one for a minute.” She glanced around, seeing if there was anything in the immediate area they could use to help their fallen friend.
“Drink” Ditzy said. “When one of the animals was sick, Flutty used to give them something to drink.”

Ditzy and Dash turned to the river on the other side of the bamboo.
“You move her, I’ll clear the way” Rainbow instructed, and began snapping bamboo all around, clearing a wide path for Ditzy to pull Fluttershy through. As Ditzy tugged, the fallen Pegasus twitched and squealed. Rainbow waited for them at the water’s edge, as Ditzy pulled Fluttershy closer, she reached out and helped guide Fluttershy down to the water. The water lapped around their hooves as they lowered her head down. For a moment, they submerged her mouth, before raising her head again. Ditzy rubbed Fluttershy’s throat. And then motioned for them to repeat the action.

For a few minutes they stayed. Eventually, Ditzy began to pull Fluttershy out of the water.

A few hours later. Ditzy was still up. The moon shone high above her, and the night breeze played across her face. But she didn’t care. All she cared for was the mare at her feet. Every few minutes Ditzy would nuzzle Fluttershy, if anything to reassure herself she was still there. Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep nearby. They hadn’t moved far from the water’s edge, just past the bamboo stalks. It was too much to move Fluttershy any further, and with the strain both Rainbow and Ditzy had suffered recently just made them want to lie down and forget, and hope they would wake up at home after a particularly strange dream.

But that wasn’t going to happen. This was all too real.

Comments

[Writer12577]

They way you finished this chapter...

Makes me instantly want more.

You truly are a talented writer.

[CommissionerMuffin]

This hurt me a lot to read. Who would do such a thing to poor Flutty I didn't comment on the first chapter so i missed out on saying this but i love what you did with the Doc. I was particularly tickled by the term "Scoltish" David Tennant is ultra-scottish and that's how i hear the Doc in my head haha I love this story and hopefully the next chapters aren't so mean to our dear Fluttershy. (found this story while finding Derpy/Ditsy stories so I'm really pleased you didn't put Derps into the bamboo. I probably would have cried haha)

[FailcopterWes]

1201532 Yeah, it hurt to write that bit with Fluttershy. But it had to be done for the sake of the story.

That and have some weird thing for doing in my favourite character of a story. But in this case mostly because it helps with themes.