Can a Flower Bloom in the Desert?

by DashieSoup

Chapter 2 - Rude Awakening

Fluttershy stood under the grand archway of her father's opulent manor, looking resplendent in an elegant dress, the light catching its intricate embroidery. Her father, wearing a dapper nobleman's attire, was preparing to depart out the front door.

She wasn’t sure why she was suddenly curious about his destination, or why she hadn’t been curious about it much earlier in life. Perhaps it was simply the phenomenon of children not questioning their environment, perfectly content to remain ignorant of the outside world until adulthood.

"Daddy, may I come with you this time?" Fluttershy pleaded, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

He scoffed lightly at her request, "My dear, I fail to see why you would want to visit such a place. It's a dirty, dreary old iron mine."

"But, it's where you work, isn't it?" she asked innocently.

Her father let out a hearty laugh. "Oh mercy no, they work for me princess."

“Does that mean I can’t go?” Her voice sounded soft and defeated.

Mr. Shy looked skeptical, yet apologetic. “Darling I just don’t think you understand what that part of town is like. I’ve always done my best to keep you away from the rabble and filth of the lower city. It simply isn’t the place a lady of noble blood like yourself should visit.”

Her lip trembled, and she put her front hooves on his foreleg, a time honored strategy for getting what she wanted.

“But, daddy, I’m an adult now, I can handle it! And you’ll be there to keep me safe.”

He let out the long dejected sigh of a nobleman and replied "Well, I suppose I can’t keep you cooped up forever. But just know, you probably won’t like what you see.”

Fluttershy thanked him excitedly, her heart fluttering with anticipation. She gave her father a kiss on the cheek before departing with him down the long winding stone road to the black wrought gate surrounding their home.

She noticed as they headed out that they did not make a left as they had always done. They instead headed right, and again she couldn’t understand why she had never wondered what was in this direction before. Surely she had asked her father, or even further back her mother about it, but no memory arose.

The further they walked, the sadder her surroundings seemed. The landscape shifted from the paved cobbled roads and accompanying trees of their home to lumpy dirt roads, with scraggly little bushes along the sides. The houses were small and dirty, with thatched hay roofs instead of tile. Foals with unkempt coats played outside the houses in rowdy, rough and tumble games, blissfully uncaring of their lack of clothes.

They could hear a stallion shouting from inside one of the houses, and Fluttershy unconsciously moved closer to her father, their sides brushing against each other as they walked.

A few minutes later, her father said “Almost there dear, we’re just coming up on the mining town now.”

And indeed, there seemed to be a planned town up ahead, although she couldn’t understand why anyone would purposefully design something so dreadful. The houses were even worse than the ones they had just passed, and there seemed to be more than one family relegated to each tiny home.

Still, she was determined not to react or vocalize any of these feelings. She had said she could handle seeing the harsh reality, and she was determined to do so, strengthened by the knowledge that her father would likely never trust her with this sort of thing again if she couldn’t.

They finally arrived at a large craggy mountain, with a handful of ponies and old looking tools surrounding it. There was a square, wooden framed entrance to the mine from which clanks and coughs echoed back up to them.

Mr. Shy said “Now darling, I have to go speak to the forepony. Don’t go into the mine, stay out of trouble, and I’ll be back very soon.”

She gave him an obedient nod, and looked around, wanting to take in all the sights at once. It certainly was dreary, and a little scary, but that wasn’t enough to quell her curiosity.

Her eyes caught sight of a figure emerging from the mine, a young blue mare covered in grime and dust. She watched as the athletic looking pony stored her goggles and helmet in a locker and pulled out a modest sandwich of bread and butter.

Timidly, Fluttershy approached the hardened miner with a weak smile. "Um, hi, I'm Fluttershy, my father owns the mine." she introduced herself.

Rainbow gave her a brief, tired nod, her energy drained from the day's work. “Yeah, great, I’m Rainbow Dash.”

Fluttershy recoiled slightly, like a dog from the hoof of an unfamiliar pony. She had never spoken with this type of mare before, and was determined to make a good impression.

“So, um,” she began timidly, “Do you like working here in the mine?”

Rainbow stopped chewing, and her brow scrunched up as if unsure the question had really been asked.

Fluttershy’s smile faded, uncomfortably aware that she had said the wrong thing.

"Do I like working in your father's mine? Do I like it?" Rainbow's voice echoed through the area, bitter and raw. “Do I like working over a mile underground in dim light, breathing in rock dust? Do I like knowing that the tunnel could collapse at any minute because it would cost your dad a few more bits to use metal rafters instead of wooden ones? Do I like working 12 hour days and still only being able to afford bread and butter while my boss and his spoiled little daughter eat crystal soup and cake imported from Manehattan?” Her words were cracking with emotion now, flowing with barely concealed tears. “Yeah kid, it’s a real dream out here. Now go home and let us work in peace.”

Fluttershy’s father had come back just in time to hear the end of her diatribe, and turned to see his daughter with tears welling up in her eyes from the harsh words.

"How DARE you speak to my daughter that way you ungrateful whelp! You're fired! Get out of my sight!" he roared at Rainbow.

Fluttershy looked terrified now, and cried “Daddy please no! It’s-it’s not her fault! I said the wrong thing, I-” she continued on, but her words became unintelligible between fresh bursts of sobbing.

Rainbow Dash spat on the ground and looked at Fluttershy with malice. “I don’t need your pity, I’m out of here.”

And with a strong jump and the swift beating of her wings, she was off, leaving Fluttershy’s father to console the sobbing mare as grizzled workers walked by, too exhausted to care.

Author's Note:

I've quite enjoyed writing this story so far, although I always get the feeling I advance the plot too quickly. Better than too slowly I suppose, and I've seen far too much of that.