Rainbow Dash flared her wings and landed at a trot, collapsing into the soft cloud with a exhausted sigh after a few steps. Twilight only felt a bit sorry for her, but then, she had called her a wimp for not wanting to land during the day.
The Alicorn clambered out of the basket, stretching her wings out with a few pops. She turned, channeling what little magic she had tamed into lifting Applejack's weak back legs out of the basket. Her horn sparked viciously, but her head only ached a little; an improvement she knew she'd remember.
Applejack looked around as Twilight's magic continued swirling around her hooves, holding her above the cloud layer. "R-Rainbow, could you-?"
The Pegasus looked up from the cloud, dashing over to carry Applejack as Twilight's magic wavered. "Sorry, Twi, keep forgetting you're not as strong as you used to be."
"S'alright." Twilight gently laid Applejack on Rainbow's back, taking a few moments to quell her nausea before looking up. "Okay. You said you saw where she went after school let out?"
"Yeah." Rainbow shrugged her shoulders, jostling Applejack into a more comfortable sprawl, and trotted off. "She went just down this road, and then took a left. Turn here and here, and then... hah!"
The Pegasus stopped in front of a wide wooden door, a building that stood out blandly among the white clouds. Twilight had to run her hoof down the wall, just to make sure.
Fluttershy had built her house, in a city made of clouds flying hundreds of feet above the ground, out of wood.
"I knew she was kind of eccentric, but..." Rainbow hesitated, took a deep breath, and rapped her hoof against the door.
Twilight shrank back as a beam of light lanced across Rainbow and Applejack. There was a sharp intake of breath, and the door slammed shut.
"Was that her?" Twilight whispered.
Rainbow frowned, but nodded. She knocked again.
"Nopony's home!" The familiar voice called out from inside. "Uh... this is a recording!"
"Fluttershy, let me in!" Rainbow tapped the door again, sighing. "Please, I know it's been a while, but-"
The door swung open, narrowly avoiding Rainbow's nose. "'But' nothing!" Fluttershy shouted. "The things you said after... after..."
"I didn't mean it." Rainbow pleaded. "I was drunk, and exhausted, and hurt, and..."
"So was I!" She blushed. "Well, not drunk..."
"Flutters..."
"Don't call me that." She hissed in a breath. "Come on in."
Rainbow looked over at Twilight, ears flicking. "Uh... Blossomforth, come on in."
Twilight looked behind her, searching for the mystery pony, before realizing it was her. She ducked her head, replying in what she hoped was close to Blossomforth's tone. "Be right there, Rainbow!"
Twilight ducked inside the doorway, barely getting her hindquaters out of the way before Fluttershy closed the door behind them. Almost immediately, a whole menagerie of critters peeled themselves from the walls and wandered out of their houses. The large majority of them clustered around Twilight, purring and hissing and rubbing against her.
"They seem to like you." Fluttershy muttered.
"Uh, yeah." Twilight pulled a hoof away from a particularly large snake.
"You sound like you have a cold. Do you want some soup?"
"Uh, no, I'm fine."
Fluttershy's eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't keep all bundled up with a cold, it's better to get air."
Twilight backed away from her friend's helping hoof. "N-no! I'm okay!"
The edge of Fluttershy's hoof caught the knot in Twilight's cloak, and the thin string unraveled. Twilight stood, suddenly naked, in a pile of brown cloth.
Her eyes shot up to meet Fluttershy's terrified stare. "I-"
"You lied." She whispered.
"What?"
The butter-coated mare turned away from Twilight, looking at Rainbow for only a moment before turning away from them as well. "You lied to us."
"I had no choice."
"It was you who stole all of that food from my shed, wasn't it? I needed that, Twilight! I barely scraped through the month!"
"I'm sorry! I was starving!"
"So were all of the animals!" Fluttershy yelled, shrinking back the moment the words left her lips. "All you had to do was ask."
Twilight ducked her head, looking around the small room. "I'm sorry."
Fluttershy jutted out her chin as if to shout, but she slumped before she could will her anger into existance. Timidly, she drifted closer to Twilight, brushing her hoof against her wing as the Alicorn turned her head away.
"You're-"
"I know. I'm a monster." She muttered, closing her eyes.
"-filthy!" Fluttershy finished with a shout.
All three other heads in the room shot up. Twilight extended her wing. "You're not... terrified?"
"Why should I be?" She stretched out the bones, testing the strength of the skin between them. "After all, Spike's been helpi-"
"Spike's here?!" Twilight shouted, snapping her wing shut. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"He tried going with the dragons, but they excluded him from everything, so he was forced to come back home or starve. When he couldn't find anypony at the library or the farm - it was about when Applejack was in the hospital - he came over to the cottage and caught me leaving. I took him with me." She took a deep breath, smiling. "He's been helping me with my fear of dragons, and my shyness."
"He's always been a helper." Twilight sighed. "You said he's be back?"
"He works the night shift at the local library, sorting books and keeping the place warm for any ponies who need a place to stay the night. He makes a great soup for anypony who needs it. Cloudsdale has more starving ponies than you'd think."
The four sat in silence, Twilight opening and closing her wings nervously.
Fluttershy broke the tension by flying into the next room, waving a hoof for Twilight to follow. She found herself in a cozy little bathroom, in the most literal sense of the word. There was a wide basin taking up the greater half of thee floor space, while the rest was towels and cleaning supplies. Fluttershy twisted the knobs at the edge of the dish, steaming water slowly filling from the tap opposite.
"You're going to... bathe me?"
Fluttershy nodded, smiling. "Your scales are tarnished. I don't think you've been caring for them properly."
Twilight clambered into the bath, submerging herself in the hot water. "I was dead, I come back to life without warning, and you're giving me a bath?"
Fluttershy nodded again. "Open your wing."
"A bath." Twilight repeated, stunned. She stretched open her wing, the water working wonders on the membrane. She nearly hissed with pleasure.
Fluttershy frowned. "You should wash your mane and tail too, but I think you can do that on your own."
"Uh, yeah. I'll do that." She ducked her head under the water, suddenly aware of how long it had been since she bathed. How on earth had her friends dealt with the stench?
When she surfaced, Fluttershy had a bristled brush strapped on either hoof, and was rubbing some kind of foam between them. "This won't hurt a bit." She promised. "Could you open your wing again, please?"
Twilight watched as she rubbed the brushes on either side of her wing, scrubbing dirt and dust away with ease. "I thought you'd freak out. This seems like more of a Rarity thing."
Fluttershy dipped her brushes in the water for a moment. "Well, ponies are animals just like bunnies and dragons are, and I'm an animal caretaker."
"But a bath?"
"The first step in discovering the depth of injuries." Fluttershy happily replied, running the damp brush over Twilight's soapy wing. "Oh, wow."
Twilight looked over her shoulder, trying to see what had stopped Fluttershy's gentle brushing. She found herself suddenly stunned. The scales on the back of her wing, formerly a dull shade of her coat, glimmered with rose sheen. Experimentally, she lifted her wing. The darker underside gleamed with the color of her mane highlights, a dark blue shimmering with purple and rose.
"Whoa." Twilight glanced between her wing and Fluttershy, noticeably stunned. "How did you-"
"It's the same product I use to clean the snakes." She squeaked, blushing. "I-I'll leave you to clean up."
Twilight watched her fly out of the room, and started to wash her own mane.
-----
"-and we have no idea what she'll do!"
Twilight halted, the damp towel around her neck swinging as she leaned back from the doorway. Was that Fluttershy?
"Come on, Flutters, it'll be fine."
"You don't get it! Spike's all dragon, and even he has trouble controlling his instinct! Yesterday, he nearly burnt down the bedroom because he sneezed 'the wrong way'."
"What does that have to do with Twilight?" Rainbow Dash's voice had taken on an offended edge. "She's can't breathe fire!"
"I'm scared." Fluttershy muttered. "None of us know what she's capable of, not even her!"
"She's still Twilight." Rainbow hissed.
Fluttershy frowned, an almost audible action. "Our Twilight wouldn't last a day without using her magic. Our Twilight would have inspected every part of her dragon anatomy. She doesn't even know that she was dirty! Is that the Twilight we knew?"
"Give her time, Flutters, it'll-"
"She's had months." Hoof struck wood. "If doesn't know what she is now..."
Twilight's tail vanished through the small bathroom window, towel draped forgotten across the floor, as a pair of glimmering wings snapped open and carried their bearer out towards the pale moon.
Fluttershy sighed. "Then she never will."
Rainbow frowned, draping a wing over Applejack's sleeping form. "And what do you suppose we do?"
"We get her to the Princesses, and they find a solution. Or keep her under lock and key."
"They can't do that to Twilight!" Rainbow slammed a hoof down on the wood. "She's Celestia's prodigy, she's an Element of Harmony, and she's our friend!"
"She's also a dragon." Fluttershy pointed out. "One that's escaped the Princess's care, broken into numerous houses, stole hundreds of items, and is a public disturbance."
Rainbow cast her eyes to her hooves.
"I get that she was our friend." Fluttershy brushed a hoof against Rainbow's shoulder, but the latter mare showed no sign of feeling it. "But she's not Twilight any more."
A dark silhouette against the moon dipped through a silver-edged cloud, beginning an descent towards the towering spires of Canterlot. Almost unseen save for the light shimmering from their surfaces, a light dusting of glinting tears fell in her wake, and a dark Alicorn raced along as a lost shadow below.
The shy Pegasus set her mouth in a firm line. "Twilight has been gone since the day she died. I mourned her death then, and I miss her dearly, but our Twilight can't come back."
Rainbow stared up at her, jarred by her calmness. "Goodnight, Fluttershy."
Kindness watched silently as Loyalty, a dim red glow around every strand of fur and the tines of every feather, gently lifted Honesty from the floor and left the quiet house.
Flutteryshy, you BITCH.
Twilight is FINALLY recovering from an epic spiral caused by her transformation, coming out of all of that and into her old self, and you try THAT number on her? You don't deserve that element.
Wow, way to be a dick fluttershy.
Flutts has become a bit of an ass...
Great chapter, I can't help but feel that she'll go to rarity next.
GAH! You updated RIGHT as I was about to go to sleep.
People like you are why my cold won't go away. You don't let me sleep it off.
Also, for the sake of relevance - anyone find it odd that Fluttershy and Luna think the same way?
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Sleep is for the weak. Fanfiction is better.
Soooooooo good!!
Also, to everypony saying that Flutts is a bitch, imagine the circumstances!
I'm guessing the story-linked blog post thing doesn't actually work, since I received nothing I've never tried it, myself
That said... It might be I'm misremembering the earlier chapters, but this is not the first time someone has accused Twilight of 'lying' to them... about her own death? I was under the impression that it was Celestia that told them she was dead, and she didn't even find out until recently. Admittedly, she went along with it for a short while after finding out, but I still wouldn't call that 'lying'
Did I miss something?
Even good ponies can make a poor judgement.
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Not intentionally. Originally it was simply 'Loyalty', but that seemed rather bland compared to the others.
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Well, that might be alongside the update. Anyways, for those who didn't see the update, I may or may not write a sequel.
Celestia was sure Twilight hadn't died, and the small crimes in Ponyville solidified her belief. but in order to protect Twilight, she said she was dead. Twilight didn't know she was presumed dead until she was captured,.but then, she hadn't decided to go and visit anyone. I think it was Rainbow and Applejack - so everypony - who accused her of lying.
That was...... horrible.
I-I-I.... I just. The tears won't stop. HOW COULD YOU FLUTTERSHY!?
HOW DARE YOU! HOW DDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRREEEEEEEEEE YOU!
iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/237147__UNOPT__safe_animated_solo_octavia_angry_seizure-warning_rage_vibrating_artist-scramjet747.gif.gif?1360601412
That functionality appears to be broken. The only items in my feed by you are "new chapter" notifications.
And seconding what Cast-Iron Caryatid said. Fluttershy, she can't have been lying to you if she wasn't communicating with you at all. Even lying by omission requires some sort of communication around the omission to create or further the misunderstanding. And I really want that thing with Fluttershy to happen in this story. All of them happening would be good (and I think you're implying they're all going to happen), but I want that delicious
ironingirony first.i never thought i'd say this, even now it leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. fluttershy i am disappointed in you, i don't know happened to you but it's not twilight who's died, it's you.
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Updated the author's note with a link. Sorry for the confusion. And get ready for some ironing.
The feels rollercoaster!! First you had me heart broken that Fluttershy could be so mean, then you had that lighthearted moment when Fluttershy was nonchalant about Twilight position (is this a bucking game to you?) then... OH THEN!! You have her not only speak badly about her, hell you even go so far as to have flutters call her an it. Don't get me wrong I can get where the mistrust in dragons come from I can get they're broken from what has happened still no reason whatsoever to deny some one a place among them.
Now at the end. Perfect, simply perfect, loved that you spoke about them in element reference, that just made it all a little more a kick to the heart. Kindess, left by loyalty and honesty. Excellent. Now... Release the next chapter!! NAOW!!
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Good news; I may release the next chapter tomorrow at this rate! Also, you may want to check the blog post linked in the updated author's notes, you may have been mid-chapter when I changed it.
two updates in such a quick succession, ima likie!
i don't know how to take the situation, i like the change in character of everyone so far, although i think the only one that didn't accept things too quickly was fluttershy, and that's because of her cold demeanor (saying that this isn't the real twilight etc.). even if that minor as long as it's a sub-plot.
also, it's still hard to get a grip on how much time has passed and how much twilight really has changed, on the later it seems more like it's little things, but everyone seems to expect her to go all dragon on everyone.
i have to say, i most certainly hope that she doesn't get turned back into a pony/alicorn completely, the whole scenario would kinda lose it's founding, the only thing that would have changed (majorly) with the whole journey, if she turns back completely, are her friends: applejack will be crippled, RD will have lost her way of life, fluttershy will be a cynical pretender (and we don't even know about the others yet).
there's also the possibility that the elements might restore AJ, if that's the case i have to ask; what was the point of crippling AJ if she was just gonna be healed again by some deus ex-ish mechanic.
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Don't worry, I think you'll be pleased with the ending I've prepared.
FUTTERSHY!!!! You B****!!!!!!! I should punch youbover and over again for what you said!! She got turned into a half dragon alicorn, had to live on her own, and feared how you would react!! And guess what, you react the worst way possible and behind her back no less!! You sicken me!!
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hehe, i hope so, you've dealt with everything in a good manor so far (even if there's room for improvement in my opinion), so im not really doubting that you're gonna pull off a satisfying ending (even if it might sound like that...i have a way off being kinda cynical).
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Don't worry, I know there's room for improvement too. In fact, your comments; and comments like yours, are truly helpful.
Woah. Fluttershy was the last one I expected to turn her back on Twilight, whatever the reasons.
wow flutterbitch, way to go
I'm with Tatsurou, I thought the Element of Kindness would be the one to care about Twilight the most. RD coming in second. But instead she is first. That is why she is my favorite pony.
god damn it fluttershy, you and your freaking paranoia about dragons!
It you tagged a blog for this story, I didn't receive it.
Damn Flutterbitch damn. Starting to feel for Twilight here, also this chapter was awesome cause of how Fluttershy acted
All of my words to say have been summed up by this one line.
has Fluttershy been discorded again? cause even though her argument was valid, twilight needs her and she just turns her back?
2310988 no now I will be up watching MLP videos again WHY CELESTIA WHY?!?!?!?!?!
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MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good GOOD Let the friendship flow THROUGH you.
Wow... Fluttershy, inspect yourself. Have you turned a shade of gray? If not... You have serious problems with being a Kindness element bearer. (I would've read this earlier but I was distracted by Mann vs Machine. With a little Doctor Whooves and Derpy play Portal 2)
mm personally, I think that was pretty OoC of Fluttershy to do that. She should be the first to understand that appearance don't mean anything, that Twilight is still Twilight under her scales. Despite this, I'm still enjoying the story. The cliffhanger last chapter about Celestia finding a possible cure seems awfully convenient, but I guess the show itself has many inexplicably convenient events so hey, why not?
Gosh Flutters, you really are the element of kindness. Christ, mare, ponies change! Just because she's changed more than most doesn't make her any different! Should I have had a funeral for one of my friends when he stopped liking Guns N' Roses? Maybe when a slacker picks up the pace, they're dead too! So what she didn't know she's dirty? It's been an astoundingly weird couple months for her! If you were suddenly part-dragon, would you pay attention to the state of your coat?
All in all, I hope your rear meets the business end of an angry lamprey eel. Thank you for your time.
Makes sense to me. Her friends did break with her gone after all.
Fluttershy, go jump off the edge of cloudsdale.
Then fly to Canterlot and apologize.
Fluttershy...
2311310 we also know flutter shy can be mean she is probably just shocked and broken but hopefully she will come around also i dont know if this prediction is correct but it could open a sort of gateway into showing her dragon instinct to some extent seeing as Twilight is hurt emotionally.
Now I want this to have the "Tragedy" tag so I would know everything would fall apart. Celestia, Rainbow, and Applejack trying to comfort Twilight but Twilight still ultimately falls into a heavy state of depression due to Fluttershy's refusal. Then the suicides would start.
Take that back Fluttershy! Or else the following will happen: You will wake up in the middle of the night. Next to your bed three persons are standing; Mitt Romney dressed as a ninja-pirate holding a rubber chicken, Carl Bildt in a mankini holding an electric flyswatter and Nicolas Cage holding the dreaded Lyra plushie.
You'd better take back what you said Fluttershy...
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- What?! What?! Did Spike is helping Fluttershy with your shyness? (Swag!)
- A moment! A moment! She don't have fear of sleep with Spike, a complet dragon, but did she have bad opinion about Twilight?
- This history is very bad tell! Flutershy? What do you making with Spike?
- Flutterbitch is now is Flutterwhore too.
Yep, Fluttershy is learning all sorts of things about dragons and all her old fears are just melting away. Of course she's also learned a few new reasons to be afraid of them. Fear is natural, but also very dangerous. Fluttershy is treating Twilight like a dangerous animal. She wants to be nice but she's also afraid. So afraid she can't see the truth. The truth that Twilight's damaged in some very serious ways and needs kindness to get better.
I spotted about six mistakes but other then that it was a good chapter. I can pretty much see where Flutershy is coming from....danm I had this whole paragraph prepared for this comment but forgot.
Wow... That was cold...
FLUTTERS, WUT R U DOIN?STAHP!!
UR BEING A BITCH
This is your chance Twili, throw grab Spike, leap from Cloudsdale, and slam that little bitch into the ground!
How dare Fluttershy be so cold, how dare she say that old Twilight is gone and dead, if any pony is dead, it is old Fluttershy, as this new Fluttershy is nothing like her old self, and by following Fluttershy logic, all element bearers are dead since they act differently.
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The irony is that Twilight broke this trust a bit because she was afraid her friends will fear her or threat her as monster, and it is part of the reason why Fluttershy fear her and threat her like monster now.
Still, I find Fluttershy far to cold, she say that Twilight is not Twilight any more, but all I see is that old Fluttershy is dead, sure, Twilight changed outside and it affected her life ( after being unable to use magic to well, she stopped to relay on it ), but Fluttershy did not transformed into Dragon and she act like she was brainwashed or something ).