Éadóchas

by Jake Was Here

2: It's The Same Old Thing As Yesterday

Sometime around lunch, a ground-bound yellow pegasus was making her way across Ponyville. The tireless encouragement of her friends had given her greater confidence in her wings, but she wasn't much in favor of flying today; she felt like keeping herself firmly planted on something solid. Or as planted as you could be while walking.

Fluttershy shook her head firmly, trying to keep it clear. She'd been nothing but a bundle of nerves all day. Of course, she was usually a bundle of nerves when she wasn't around her friends or her animals, but it was especially bad today. She'd woken up and gotten out of bed feeling strangely worried about nothing in particular – not exactly an unfamiliar sensation – and gone promptly to work on the morning's chores, doing the rounds of her animal companions to see that all were fed. The pleasure of routine and the satisfaction she derived from taking care of the littler creatures, however, failed to restore her peace of mind as they usually did; when she went in to make breakfast for herself, the meal just sat in her stomach as though she'd swallowed a ten-kilo barbell, and she found herself moving restlessly from room to room all morning, looking for something that she might have forgotten to do. Nothing was wrong anywhere in her house; it was a plain, normal, everyday kind of day – except that all her innards seemed to be twisted up into one giant tangled ball of twine.

Eventually, her phantom anxieties had pressed in on her to the point that even she became annoyed with them. She needed an excuse to get out in the fresh air, to get some exercise, even (gulp) to talk to somepony. Anything was better than this. Her eyes had darted to the clock, and she found herself wishing that it could be afternoon and that she could be on her way to the Boutique to meet up with Rarity for their weekly spa session... And then, of course, the idea hit her: Why not go over NOW? It's an hour or two early, of course, but Rarity's my friend, after all. She won't be unhappy to see me... and maybe we can just talk until it's time for our appointment.

That settled things. Fluttershy left Angel Bunny with the usual admonition to watch the house, and set off for Rarity's. The knots in her stomach mercifully loosened as soon as she'd made the decision; it was the memory of the knots, though, that weighed down her wings. What on the green earth had visited such anxieties upon her?

Well, she could probably put it out of her mind – rising before her now, much to her relief, was the Boutique. She approached and knocked quietly on the door. No one came to open it, and Fluttershy screwed up the courage to knock one more time, louder; again there was no response, but she could hear the faint sound of a conversation somewhere inside. Oh, dear. She's got a customer... Well, this is awkward. She looked down to the ground, unsure how to proceed; she felt a brief urge to chuck the whole idea and return home, but managed to suppress it. Maybe it's not all that important. And even if I walk in on her and it DOES turn out to be something important, would she really tear into me just for that? Good grief, she's your FRIEND, Fluttershy!

She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, peeking through the crack. Over her head, the bell rang. "Um... Rarity? It's me. I know I'm early – I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Of course not, Fluttershy!" Rarity called from the other end of the room. "Do come in!"

"Th-thanks..." Fluttershy entered and shut the door softly behind her. "Um, I was just wondering if you – oh my goodness! W-w-what's all this?"

The show floor of Carousel Boutique was a mess... no, not quite a mess, Fluttershy amended, but it was positively untidy compared to the spotless condition in which Rarity usually kept the place. Mountains of fabric had erupted from old cardboard boxes in every corner of the room, a chaotic miscellany of sheets and swatches in every imaginable color, texture, and pattern. She saw Rarity seated among the piles, examining two apparently identical sheets of deep-violet linen for subtle differences.

A head poked out of the mound of cloth nearest Fluttershy's face. "Hi, Fluttershy!"

"Yeek!!!"

"Hee hee. Sorry," Pinkie bashfully continued, climbing out of the pile, "but you were right there and I was right here and it seemed kind of rude not to say hello."

"... Oh, good morning, Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy managed to say over the roughly heart-sized obstruction in her throat. "What on earth are you wearing?"

Pinkie's frizzy fuchsia hair was done up in a paisley kerchief, there was another makeshift bandanna – this one a leopard print – tied around her neck, and she had draped a large piece of black-and-green plaid flannel over her withers like a cloak. "You like it?" she said, turning one way, then another. "I bet these would be great." She whipped all three bits of fabric off in one quick sweep, then trotted over and dropped them in front of Rarity. "I think we can find a way to work these in, don't you?"

Rarity shook her head. "I doubt it, dearest. The flannel's thicker than anything else you've picked out; it wouldn't sit evenly on you, no matter where we used it. And plaid flannel? Green plaid?" She shuddered. "I don't even know why I bother to keep that ghastly stuff around. It clashes with everything."

"Ooh! Even better!" Pinkie bounced gleefully.

Rarity glared at her. "Pinkie Pie, if you're using my revulsion as some twisted sort of barometer for what's to go into this thing, I really must warn you – "

"What's it for?" Fluttershy asked, eyeing the neat but very small stack of folded cloth that Rarity had assembled in the center of the room.

"I would tell you, darling – but one, you'd never believe me if I did, and two, I'm bound by a Pinkie Promise."

"That's okay, Rarity, I'll tell her myself! So, anyway," Pinkie recited, skipping circles around Fluttershy, "Mister and Missus Cake are setting up a haunted house at Sugarcube Corner for Nightmare Night this year and I'm supposed to be in charge of the whole thing and I want to start getting stuff together as soon as possible so I thought it might be a good idea to get my costume made first so I don't forget and then have to panic about it later and I came over today to ask Rarity to help me make an outfit that looks really random and crazy and creepy because what other kind of pony would live in a haunted house, anyway?"

"She wants it to be all patchwork," said Rarity, placing a hoof on the pile of "approved" swatches. "We're just trying to decide where to draw the line. I keep telling her to stick with these – such nice blacks and purples and reds, I could create a truly ominous effect with them – but she insists on throwing in more and more things like this." She held up, distastefully, the sheet of green plaid flannel and the leopard-print bandanna. "I mean, I know we're trying to come up with something that no sane pony would wear, but I honestly suspect that an insane one might flinch at this."

Fluttershy sat and put a hoof to her chin. "Maybe... you could do the whole outfit in the dark colors, and save the bright and flashy bits for piping around the edges. If – if you don't mind my making a suggestion, that is."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Do you know, that might actually work! I don't know why it never occurred to me that – Ooh. Pardon me, girls, I feel an idea coming on..." Rarity rushed over to the workbench where Pinkie's drawings were laid out (with pairs of shears for paperweights), pulled a small array of colored pencils from the nearest drawer with her TK, and began to scribble simultaneously with all of them. "Now let's see. We ought to cut the plaids on a diagonal to keep the pattern nice and busy, and then..."

"So now that you know what I'm doing here," said Pinkie, "what are you doing here?"

"Nothing, really," said Fluttershy. "Rarity and I have an appointment at the spa today, so I thought – "

A gasp came from the vicinity of the workbench. "Good heavens, you're right!" Rarity's head swiveled rapidly toward the clock. "Is it that time already?... Ah, no. Three quarters of an hour to go. Thank Celestia for the small favors."

Fluttershy nodded. " – so I thought I might come over a little early. You know, just to talk."

"About what?" asked Pinkie.

"Anything," Fluttershy said, and she could not keep a note of desperation out of her voice as she said it.

The other two mares noticed. Rarity glanced up again, a concerned expression on her face. "Is there something wrong, darling?"

"I was just about to ask," said Pinkie. "You don't seem like yourself at the moment."

"I don't feel much like myself." Fluttershy slumped further groundward. "I feel... depressed. It-it's just awful, and it's been going on all morning and I can't figure out why. Th-there doesn't seem to be any reason for it."

"Hmm." Pinkie squinted. "Are you sure you're not just coming up on your time of the month? I know my older sister used to get – "

"W-wait, my what?"

"I'm sure it's nothing, darling," Rarity interjected as quickly as possible. "Everypony gets down in the dumps once in a while. There's no shame in it. Why, I myself was feeling a little low this morning, as I was just telling Pinkie..."

"That's right," Pinkie nodded reassuringly, "she was telling me! And if you feel like talking it out, that's what we're here for. Well, not exactly – we're here to design a Nightmare Night costume – but there's no reason we can't do the other thing at the same time!"

Fluttershy smiled. "Th-thanks, girls. I think just being with you is helping a little."

Rarity let out a triumphant laugh. "I knew I'd have this finished in record time! Pinkie dear, come have a look at this and tell me what you think."

Pinkie darted over to the workbench, Fluttershy following in her wake. On the paper next to Pinkie's self-portrait, they saw a smaller, cleaner picture of her in a slightly different costume: a quilted cloak, jacket, and vest of midnight blues and purples and lurid reds, the edges of all the pockets and lapels highlighted with thin strips of various bright and eye-splitting patterns, and topped off with what appeared to be a pale yellow-green silk cravat that did not so much clash with Pinkie's mane and coat as skirmish with them violently.

"Well then?" grinned Rarity. "Is this macabre enough to suit your haunted mansion?"

"Macabre, malignant, morbid, monstrous, and menacing," Pinkie grinned back. "Oh, I am going to capital-zero 0wn Nightmare Night in that. It's absolutely perfect!"

"Excellent. My work here is done – for the moment." Rarity laid down the last of her pencils and stepped back from the table. "I'll start in on this tomorrow, Pinkie. For now, I've got to get this room fixed back up... and then I have an afternoon of rest and relaxation with another good friend to look forward to." She wrapped one foreleg around Fluttershy's shoulders and shared a smile with her.

"...Say, you wouldn't mind if I came along, would you?" Pinkie said. "I've got the rest of today off and nothing better to do – please? I'll even help clean up this mess!"

Rarity felt her eye wanting to twitch, but Fluttershy decided to put in a kind word. "I wouldn't mind, Rarity. After the morning I've had, I'd be glad to bring her with us."

"You're right," Rarity finally convinced herself to say. "I don't suppose I'd mind, either. Just as long as there's no more attempts to swim laps in the mud bath."

"Don't worry, I'm never doing that again!" Pinkie looked mildly embarrassed. "And I mean never... I Pinkie Promised and everything, but they made me put it in writing too."

"I just hope they don't mind having an extra pony about the place," Fluttershy murmured. "When I made the appointment, it was specifically for the two of us."

"Well, I've got a bag full of bits that says they won't mind," said Pinkie, pulling her coin purse seemingly from thin air. "Money talks, after all! Although it never seems to say much... actually, that's kind of a silly proverb, now that I think about it."

"It's settled, then," Rarity said. "Let's finish up here, and then we can close up the shop."

---

There was a giant, nearly shapeless brown blob seated in the corner of the mud bath. A glass of iced sweet tea balanced precariously on the rim of the tub next to the blob; it leaned over to the straw and took a sip. "You girls were right," the blob said in a warm, drowsy purr. "This is the life. I haven't had a massage like that in, like, ever."

Rarity, seated nearby and wrapped in a gigantic plush bathrobe that somehow managed to be whiter than her coat, giggled. "I warned you about that Aloe, Pinkie dear – she's a master with those hooves."

The blob of mud giggled as well. "This is turning out to be a fun day. Not the gee-golly-gosh-wow-fireworks-and-music-and-confetti-and-cake kind of fun, but yeah, definitely fun." It turned toward Fluttershy, who was resting in the jacuzzi. "You having fun too?"

"Yeah," mumbled Fluttershy. "Fun."

Both of the other ponies present pricked up their ears at the sound of her voice; Pinkie's ears cracked through the layer of mud surrounding them. Rarity reached up and removed the cucumber slices from over her own eyes. "What's wrong, dear?" she said, blinking.

"Well, it's just what I was talking about before," Fluttershy sighed. "I'm enjoying this, I really am, don't get me wrong – but at the same time, there's still that bad feeling I was telling you about. It's just sitting there in the back of my mind."

"Oh heavens," Rarity said, sliding off the couch. "Perhaps you'd better begin at the beginning, darling. How did it start?"

Fluttershy slumped until her chin was resting on the rim of her tub. "I don't remember. It's been there since I woke up, or almost since I woke up. I'm trying to explain it to myself, but all I can come up with is that I must have had some kind of – "

"Bad dream," Pinkie and Rarity finished for her. Neither of them was looking at her when they said it; they were staring uneasily at each other.

Fluttershy's head shot back up in surprise, her wings flapping open and splashing a tiny amount of water over the lip of the hot tub. "Yes! That's it!"

"And you don't know what it was about?" asked Pinkie, peeling dried chunks of mud from her face.

"I'm not even sure I had a dream... But it's the only thing that makes sense. I just felt lost and tired all morning." She paused, closing her eyes and thinking. "You – you know something? It was really at its worst when I was out feeding my animals. I got this weird idea in my head that – n-no." Her eyes opened again. "No, you'll just think it's too silly."

"Go on, darling," Rarity said. "It's all right. We're listening."

Fluttershy looked up toward the ceiling. "I... I got this idea that – that it was taking too long to feed them or to take care of all of them. It felt like it was never going to be over."

"Like you were stretching yourself too thin?" said Rarity. Fluttershy nodded. "That's... odd."

"I know. It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

"No, Fluttershy, what I mean is – well, now you're going to think it's too silly, but – that's almost exactly what my dream was about. That feeling like things are never going to be over and done with."

Fluttershy nodded again, mutely.

"Well, as A.J. would say, don't you two worry your pretty little heads over it." Pinkie got out of the mud bath and walked over to the nearest showerhead; as she turned the tap, a steaming spray of water began to take the residue of mud off of her and send it spiraling down the floor drain. "I mean," she said, turning to look at the other two mares, "it's just a dumb old dream, right? Dreams can make you feel bad, but there's no way they can hurt you!" A length of sodden fuchsia hair flapped down onto Pinkie's nose, and she casually flicked it away with a toss of her mane.

"Absolutely," Rarity smiled.

Fluttershy tried a smile on, too, and for the first time all day it felt natural to be wearing one. "I'll try to keep that in mind."

Comments

[CLAVDIVS CAESAR]

As a proud member of Clan Campbell, I must take issue with Rarity's objection to green plaid.

Other than that, glad to see you on here, and I'm anxious to see where this goes.