Seeking Help
What do you do when someone you love hurts you? When someone you care for does or says something that cuts deep, that can leave a scar on your pride, on your self-esteem? They may be aware of it, but most of the time they probably don’t even know they hurt you. So what do you do?
Fluttershy asks herself this question each and every day. It’s on her mind when she wakes each morning, and while she drifts to sleep every night. It consumes her everyday life, this one impossible question.
Rainbow Dash is a dear friend of Fluttershy’s. The latter knows without a doubt her friend would never knowingly hurt her, that she would be prepared to give her life for her friend in a heartbeat. But Rainbow has a fatal flaw, and that is she expects everypony to behave exactly like her. She expects them all to perform as she does and when they don’t she expects them to endure her scorching rebuking. A rebuking Fluttershy doesn’t think she can endure any longer.
It’s no secret that the yellow pegasus is an extremely timid mare who would sooner avoid conflict rather than seek it out. The mere thought of confronting a pony like Rainbow Dash who was notorious for acting rashly rather frightened her. So it was that each day that went by she continued to endure the verbal abuse without comment, saving her sadness and sometimes tears for when she was unobserved.
Her dear Angel was supportive is his own unusual way. He was sooner exasperated by his owner’s timid nature than sympathetic, but in this case he knew to be encouraging. That did not mean he was speaking softly, stroking her hoof, but he supported her all the same. He was very verbal in his recommendation to give Rainbow the “what for,” as her father would say, but she didn’t believe she was capable of such a thing. Rainbow wasn’t meaning to hurt her, she was just being insensitive, and that was no reason to be rude. Fluttershy remembered all too well the results of the last time she had tried to be more forceful, and she had no desire to go back.
So it was how now she stood shaking slightly at the threshold of Sweet Apple Acres looking to find help from a third party. A third party who she hoped would be able to deliver clout which she lacked.
It wasn’t difficult to find the mare she was looking for; she just needed to follow the sound of trees being struck over and over again. Before long she beheld the joint owner of Sweet Apple Acres hard at work harvesting apples. Littered around her were rotten and bruised fruits as well as a few cores from a snack the apple bucker had eaten while on the job. The mare responsible reared on her front legs and delivered a mighty kick to the tree closest to her, sending a shower of apples down into the buckets she had set out to catch them; thanks to the farmpony’s experience not a single apple went uncollected.
A wide smile broke over Applejack’s face as she watched the fruit fall. Suddenly her eye caught her friend standing a little bit off and she turned her bright smile to greet the pegasus. “Howdy Fluttershy! What brings you to the farm today?”
“Hello Applejack. I, uh, need your help with something.” Fluttershy looked at her hooves, then up to the tree beside her friend, not looking her in the eyes.
“Sure thing Sugarcube, what can I do ya for?” She picked an apple out of a nearby bucket and tossed it towards the pegasus, who squeaked and caught it. She turned the food over in her hooves, still refusing to meet the other’s gaze. Applejack cocked her head quizzically. “Are you all right Flutters?”
The use of Rainbow’s nickname for her provoked something in the pegasus. “Don’t call me FLUTTERS!” She threw the apple at the ground with surprising force, and her face suddenly was twisted with an extremely uncharacteristic anger. Within seconds however she realized what she had done and she retreated inside her mane, mortified. “Oh, I’m so sorry Applejack! I didn’t mean to yell at you.” Tears began to fall unseen behind her mane.
Shaken by the outburst, Applejack tentatively walked over and put a hoof around the other mare’s shoulders. “There, there now Fluttershy. It’s all right.” She waited a moment, letting her friend collect herself. “Now, what’s botherin’ ya so much?”
Fluttershy sniffed and pushed her mane back slightly. “Oh Applejack… It’s Rainbow! Every day she talks to me like I’m a recruit at the Wonderbolt’s Academy, like I’m supposed to be like her, but I’m not! Every time I hear it, it hurts more; to the point where it’s everything I can do to not burst into tears! I… I’m just so tired of it!” The yellow mare’s voice faltered as the tears started to return.
Applejack was at a loss as she fruitlessly tried to comfort her friend. She knew Rainbow wasn’t the kindest of ponies when it came to criticism, but she honestly had no idea it hurt Fluttershy this much! The poor mare was pushed to the edge but couldn’t do anything about it because of her introverted nature. It wasn’t as if she herself particularly liked being talked down to by the hotheaded pegasus either, but she had the strength to withstand it, unlike Fluttershy. Abruptly she knew what to do, and her expression set itself to steely determination. “Come on Fluttershy. Let’s go talk to Rainbow together.”
The tearful mare looked up with hope in her eyes, tears starting to dry. “Really? Oh thank you Applejack!” She wrapped her hooves around the farm pony in gratitude. “I didn’t think I could do it on my own! With you I’m sure Rainbow will understand!”
Applejack wore a sheepish grin at the shameless display of appreciation. “Aw shucks Fluttershy, it’s nothin’.” She carefully, gently disengaged herself from the embrace; and they started on their way to their mutual friend’s home.
However Rainbow wasn’t to be found at her cloud home, or Sugarcube Corner. Asking around, they got wind she was last seen somewhere the south of Ponyville. The duo made their way towards there, both relatively silent. For Fluttershy this was the norm, but Applejack was lost in her own thoughts, something she rarely did when in the presence of other ponies. She wasn’t a brain dead country pony by any means, but she generally kept her moments of deep thought to while she was working the fields where she was alone. So it was her expression of somber contemplation attracted a few strange looks from the others the pair walked by.
One thing was immediately certain- this was necessary. Whatever Rainbow’s disposition or relationship with Fluttershy, it was not ok for this bordering on verbal abuse to go on, especially when it affected the shy pegasus so negatively. That said, Applejack was not looking forward to this. Confronting one of her closest friends on the behalf of another of her closest friends on such an issue? It did not fall into the kind of encounter she would seek out. And, if Applejack was completely honest with herself, she had no idea what she was even going to say. Did she expect any real anger from the pegasus? No, no she did not. Regardless, her apprehension was not easily dismissed.
A telltale whoosh snapped the mare out of her own thoughts and drew her attention to the multicolored streak crossing the sky before them. Their search was over, but that had been the easy part.
“Rainbow!” Applejack called out to the streak. “Get over here, will ya? We need to talk to you!”
“Yeah, one second!” A familiar voice reached their ears over the sound of the wind. The streak looped over a nearby cloud and around a tree then began its path towards the waiting ponies. Within a matter of seconds it cut a tight curve around them to reduce its inertia then it came to a perfect stop directly in front of them revealing the cyan mare with a cocky smile on her face. “Pretty impressive, huh?”
“Yeah ya did great Rainbow, but we need to talk to you about a… ah… sensitive issue.” Applejack struggled for the best words.
Rainbow looked from one to the other and her wings, which had been held high from her flight, started to fall. “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”
Applejack’s own frustration at her inability to orate her thoughts burst through. “Yes, Rainbow, somethin’ is wrong.” She turned to Fluttershy who stood as unobtrusively as she could. “Fluttershy, you want to tell Rainbow why we’re here?”
Fluttershy looked absolutely terrified. “Um, well, not really, but if you want me to, then I will.” She shrank further into her mane beneath the dual stares. “Well, you see Rainbow, lately… Well all the time really, you have a habit of saying some really rude things to me, and that’s been bothering me for a long time now.”
Applejack jumped right back in. “Thank you Fluttershy.” She turned to the stricken pegasus in front of her. “Fluttershy came to find me on the farm today and burst into tears because of the “motivation talk” ya use on her. And I can vouch for this- you talk that way to near all of us at one point or another, but ta be honest you do it to Fluttershy the most, and you know how, well, fragile she is Rainbow! She told me she feels like this every day, and I believe her!” She fixed the subject of her searing rant with an equally intense stare. “Ya got anythin’ to say fer yourself?”
Rainbow Dash stood open-mouth, clearly unprepared for the sever rebuke. The possibility of her “motivation talk” as Applejack put it, being a source of grief for her demure friend had never crossed her mind. The shock was enough to render her speechless, a rarity for the normally loud-mouth pegasus. After several moments of blinking and false starts, she stammered out, “I-I had no idea.” Her voice cracked a little and she winced. She turned to Fluttershy, “Honestly Flutters, I would have never meant to be so mean to you, especially enough to make you cry!” Her voice was rising now, looking between the two ponies, seemingly desperate to prove her sincerity. She opened her mouth again, but no words came out.
Applejack’s hard gaze softened as Rainbow’s apology poured out and a small grin fought its way to her muzzle. Fluttershy gradually emerged from her mane, a smile growing on her face. By the end of Rainbow’s confession tears threatened the edges of her eyes.
“Can you please forgive me?” Rainbow asked quietly, tears visible in her eyes as well.
Fluttershy threw herself at the other pegasus with her arms wide open. “Yes, of course!”
Rainbow caught off-guard for the second time that day collapsed under the friendly assault. Both friends laughed as they fell, and both would be lying if they said tears weren’t spilled. Applejack simply just smiled as she witnessed the catharsis, and then soon joined in the laughing herself.
What do you do when someone you love hurts you? Do as any clichéd story tells you. It really works.
- Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle