Everything is Sound

by ThePwnzorMuffin

What if This Storm Ends?

How?

All alone, with water streaming off of her coat, trembling uncontrollably, she was, almost literally, a leaf in a storm. If she were a leaf of course.

None of that seemed to matter anymore, now that she was here. One thought remained, buzzing around in her head despite the pounding rain, howling wind, and inky blackness of the night, rendering any attempts to see utterly futile.

How did she find me?

Maybe she should count her blessings, not question them. She still had no idea how she let herself be caught, alone and far away from Ponyville, in what was sure to be stormy weather. She still had no idea where they were.

But she would lead the way. Fluttershy had enough trust in her friend to do that much for her, for the both of them. She had to trust her. Who knows what could happen otherwise?

How long had they been walking... no, blindly groping about by now? Already, it seemed an eternity ago that Fluttershy had been curled up, in a helpless, shivering ball, not too far away from the only tree that she could find in the pitch dark.

Then, a searing, blinding bolt had pierced the air, momentarily painting the sky a pure white. And standing above Fluttershy, illuminated momentarily by the lightning behind her, another pony stood.

Her mane was flattened against her face by the relentless rain, her tail the same, but the bright pink of her coat was unmistakable. It even seemed to flash along with the lightning in that brief second.

And right before the inevitable boom of the thunder, Pinkie Pie leaned in close to her friend, so that Fluttershy could feel the pink pony’s breath on her face, despite the pouring rain. In that one moment, Fluttershy heard Pinkie smile. And she said simply:

“Let’s go.”

A bellowing rumble resounded, enough to shake the earth. Too shocked by the thunder, Fluttershy didn’t even realize what was going on, until she felt her right hoof somehow draped over her new companion’s back.

And she felt the two of them start to walk, as one.

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Another flash. The world was, again, blinded in that moment, the only time Fluttershy could look to her friend, right next to her.

She needed to. She needed to know this was real, that she wouldn’t be stuck out in this awful storm, that Pinkie was really there, walking right alongside her, and leading her to safety in more ways than one.

She was never let down. With every flash, Pinkie smiled her smile, staring right back at Fluttershy with her bright, blue eyes. The yellow pegasus had to smile back.

And with every flash, Fluttershy never heard the thunder that followed.

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A new thought entered her head. They still pressed on, the only two figures of defiance in what Fluttershy imagined to be her defeated environment, surrendered to the storm.

What if this storm ends?

The rain, thunder, wind and lightning had almost taken her, just like it had everything around her.

Yet whenever Fluttershy looked to her right, she knew who was there. She didn’t really need to see her, as her very presence was known, and more importantly, needed. She knew Pinkie would always be there, by her side.

But would she?

So Fluttershy had to come back to that same question. What if it ends?

What if she won’t see Pinkie the same way again?

For as long as she had known her hyper friend, Pinkie Pie was essentially unreachable. Always (literally) bouncing off of the walls, full of energy, and as a result, Fluttershy could barely give her a “Hi” before Pinkie had rattled off ten or so sentences about sharks with laser vision.

What was she compared to that? Sure, her friends would reassure her that she was, no doubt, a great friend and a kind pony, but she couldn’t even rationally compare her own traits to that of her pink friend’s. In fact, she had spent much of her own, personal thinking time (something that she possessed much of, considering she lived with no one but her animals) dwelling on this very subject. And every time, she convinced herself that she shouldn’t be counting her blessings, that she should just accept Pinkie Pie’s wonderful friendship and leave it at that.

But then there was tonight. This Pinkie was almost... comforting. The kind that would sit down, listen to your problems, and make everything feel better with a smile and a hug. The kind that would stay with you until you smiled, knowing that everything would be alright. She managed to do all of that, and still be the Pinkie Pie that Fluttershy had always known: unreachable yet still always there for her.

And everything was going to be alright. For now.

For one of the first times that night, a thundering boom shook Fluttershy right through her ears and into her very core, almost literally shocking her out of her thoughts. Tearing her thoughts off of their current train, the thunder caused Fluttershy to reconsider, what with the rain pounding, wind howling, and lightning flashing in every direction.

Like every storm, this one had to end. So it wasn’t a question of “what if,” it was a question of “what will happen when.”

Fluttershy couldn’t bring herself to think about that. Right now, she didn’t want it to end. And when she stumbled upon that inevitable question, of why she would think something so crazy, her thoughts filled with the party pony who just so happened to be walking next to her right now.

Unfortunately, when her she tried her best not to think about it, that only brought her to think about it more. Such is the case for thoughts that the thinker is actively trying to avoid.

She could only imagine at this point. But her imagination was clear enough.

She caught sight of Pinkie Pie, her mane, tail, and body all bouncing at the same time, yet in different directions. After their accidental meetup on the street, which involved Pinkie Pie hurtling into Fluttershy mid-bounce, they would talk for as long as two completely opposite personalities would allow.

But Fluttershy saw no trace of the Pinkie that had so captured her interest on the night of the storm. Again, she was out of reach, her fast-talking and bubbly spirit were too much for Fluttershy could compare to, let alone match. And so she was only left with the distant echo of a memory, and she could only hope that Pinkie Pie still had that in her, just beneath the surface, and Fluttershy could only reach out and...

She paused. And then what, exactly? Maybe her imagination wasn’t as clear as she had thought.

The mud still sloshed under their hooves.

-----------------------------

“Pinkie Pie?”

Oddly enough, she didn’t have to raise her voice to get her friend to hear her. That was the last thing she wanted to do, anyway.

She felt, rather than saw, Pinkie’s head swivel, and their eyes locked. Unbeknownst to the other, both of their gazes wavered slightly at the contact, before Pinkie spoke up.

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy?” As she spoke, the buffeting wind slowed its assault ever so slightly, allowing the yellow pegasus to hear her friend’s inquiry.

Fluttershy looked down, her cheeks suddenly heating up, as if they were ashamed to have doubted her friend. “Oh, um, I was just wondering where we’re going... and if we’ll be there soon.” She lowered her head even further as she finished her sentence, her sopping mane blocking what little vision she still had.

She felt an equally soaking, dripping, but still comforting hoof drape across her shoulders. “Fluttershy... You trust me, don’t you?”

The wind seemed to have completely faltered in its advances, as all but the endless rain seemed to wait for a response from the shy pegasus.

As the storm held its breath, Fluttershy looked up. Any remnants of a blush from earlier were gone, and her eyes now narrowed; not in anger, but determination.

“Of course I do, Pinkie.”

“That’s great,” came the uncharacteristically flat response. “Then let’s-”

Anything she still had left to say was cut off by the dark sky, suddenly illuminated by a silver fork of raw light.

Fluttershy didn’t even need to hear the thunder. Her pupils shrunk to pin pricks, her wings shot out to either side, and her legs sprung her a mile in the air (in reality, only a few inches). Instinctively, her right wing wrapped around the object nearest to it. Which happened to be soft, pink, moving, and talking. So why not?

The sensitive nerve endings on her right wingtip immediately felt the responding object tense up, and only then she realized what, or rather, who Fluttershy was wing-hugging. The offending limb quickly locked itself up at Fluttershy’s side, followed by an even quicker apology.

“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry Pinkie, I didn’t-” She stopped herself there as she took a closer look at her friend. What with the darkness, and Pinkie’s, well, pink coat, Fluttershy was almost positive she hadn’t just seen her friend blush. Fluttershy didn’t have any time to voice her thought, though, as Pinkie chose that moment to respond.

“No, Fluttershy, it’s okay. Actually, could.... can you do that again? It’s... nice.” Pinkie looked away.

Fluttershy only stared. It wasn’t polite to stare, and she didn’t do it unless the most dire circumstances called for it, but she couldn’t help herself.

What was going on with Pinkie tonight? Everything else that she had done deserved nothing short of a grand show of thanks, but this was just plain odd. Pinkie Pie never acted nervous, and she was never at a loss for words. That almost screamed “Fluttershy” herself, not her energetic friend.

More pressing matters were at hoof, though, and her friend needed, well, something that Fluttershy wasn’t even beginning to understand.

Without another word, she draped her wing over Pinkie’s back. The earth pony’s eyes widened for a second as she looked back at herself, and she turned back to meet Fluttershy’s curious gaze.

Pinkie smiled again, but this smile threatened to expand right past the corners of her face if she pushed it any further.

And of course, that kind of smile can never be resisted. Fluttershy smiled back, and they walked on.

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The mud that seeped into her hooves only seemed to make her whole body heavier. As she walked, her rhythmic steps slowly degraded. She didn’t notice at first, but soon enough, Fluttershy realized that she was literally dragging her hooves through the mud.

And then, the inevitable happened. One of her dragging hooves stuck fast in the mud, one of the three hooves she kept on the ground while taking her next step. She tried to stop and focus on the offending leg, but what little momentum she had refused to stop for something as silly as a hoof in the mud. As a result, Fluttershy felt herself falling, and before she knew what was going on, her tail, underbelly, and the lower parts of her mane had caked themselves in thick, brown sludge.

She hadn’t realized they were walking downhill until she felt her body start to slide in the mud, much too fast for Fluttershy’s liking. Her surprised yelp was lost in the pouring rain, and it was all she could do to throw her forelegs in front of her face, and brace for whatever impact came at the bottom.

But it never came. After she felt herself stop moving, the pegasus pony dared a peek behind her. Another flash, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she clearly saw the silhouetted hill she had slid down level out into a flat space, with no danger involved. A pony-sized groove in the mud indicated her path downwards.

It really was amazing how much she could see from that one moment, one flash of lightning.

Right next to her, a splash, or rather, a plop sounded as something landed in the mud. Her eyes widened, but she couldn’t stay surprised for long as she saw Pinkie Pie in a very similar state to her own. She had somehow gotten the brown muck all over her body, but on what appeared to be her face, her mouth widened in a signature Pinkie-grin.

“Whee! That was so much fun! Let’s go again!” She managed to bounce up and down while still sitting next to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy, though lightly panting from the adrenaline rush that her impromptu mud-slide had given her, had to smile. She shook her head, flingling small droplets of water and mud alike in all different directions. “Pinkie... was that part of your plan?”

The party pony giggled, a sound that made Fluttershy’s smile widen ever so slightly. “Well, it is now!”

She still didn’t want this storm to end. She didn’t know if she ever would.

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If she ever would...

It had been too long since that thought had crossed her mind. They had walked over hills, jumped over ravines, crashed into more than a few seemingly invisible trees, and even gotten themselves stuck in a particularly stubborn bush or two. Now her breathing was laboured, her mane, coat, and tail had various sticks, leaves, and maybe even thorns sticking out at various points and angles, and she could hardly drag one hoof in front of the other.

Yet the rain continued to pour down, the wind continued to shriek and howl, and the lightning continued to strike.

Every minute or so, the silver-forked sky lit up with a brilliant flash, assuring Fluttershy that her fellow pink-maned friend was still right in front of her, despite everything that the two were going through. Oddly enough, the thunder and lightning always seemed to flash and roar, respectively, behind the pair of ponies, almost as if they were following them.

When the lightning struck again, Pinkie wasn’t in front of her.

Fluttershy nearly jumped a mile for the second time that night when she felt somepony’s breath tickling her ear, as ragged as her own. The breath hovered in the air for a moment, lost in the storm, before its owner spoke.

“Almost th-there, Flutters... just a little bit longer...”

Instinctively, Fluttershy stretched out her wing, still weighed down by the water and mud from earlier, poking it blindly in the darkness that follows a flash of lightning. She finally found what she was looking for, and she draped her wing across her friend’s back, just as she had done before.

“I trust you, Pinkie Pie...”

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She still trusted Pinkie, even as she felt her knees grow weaker with each step, even as her breathing verged on desperate, even as the shivers began to rack her body, the storm’s first warning signals to get out before their situation got even worse. Even as she realized she had no idea where in Equestria they currently were.

“Achoo!” Fluttershy sniffed once, wiping at her nose. A cold didn’t seem like a lot to worry about at this point. If they didn’t get out soon, though...

“Achoo! Achoo! Wah...choo!”

They were short, rapid-fire sneezes, but they seemed to rack her whole body, taking what little energy she had left right out of her weakened and battered self.

It was all too much. Fluttershy collapsed, making a splotch sound as she fell into the mud.

Through her blurred and wavering vision, she felt herself being lifted off of the ground, coming to rest on a very soft, if not wet, earth pony’s back. In her current worn-down state, she barely heard snippets of Pinkie’s worried voice.

“...worry... almost.... there...”

Realizing how much she was troubling her friend, Fluttershy tried her best to calm down her friend. She managed a weak “It’s okay,” but the mere act of speaking caused Fluttershy to flutter her eyes closed, drifting off into unconsciousness.

---------------------------------

KA-BOOM!

She woke not twenty seconds later, almost bolting upright at the rude awakening, until she remembered where she was. Pinkie, somehow, was still rattling off reassurances. Now that she was jolted awake, she could hear her pink friend’s clearly distraught voice much more clearly.

“It’s right there, Flutters... just hang in there...”

She looked up, and was immediately reminded of the fatigue, the call for rest, that seemed to simply sit in her whole body, and she couldn’t move a muscle even if she tried. She closed her eyes again, not even able to gather the strength to speak-

And then, she no longer felt the rain on and all around her. She was no longer buffeted by the wind, like she was just moments before.

Her eyes were still closed, though, and just before she gave herself up to the call of rest, she felt herself being set down, stomach-fist, on a patch of unusually dry grass. Even as she felt herself falling away, she knew she wasn’t dreaming the foreleg that rested over her back, and the sopping yet comfortable body that pressed against her side.

Finally, she surrendered herself and slipped away into a warm, dry unconsciousness.

Overhead, the lightning still flashed, and the thunder still roared.

Comments

[RaptorJesus]

I need to read more of this! :D

[ThePwnzorMuffin]

1029503

I'll try to have the next chapter up by the end of the week. No promises though, since my work ethic is awful. :P

[EspLobo]

Sorry, Im sooo late but this story is so beautiful, and is one of my favorite Flutterpie fics. Nicely Done