The Night and The Flashback
" Thank you again, Fluttershy! ", Rarity yelled with a smile as she and the CMC's made their way back into town. Fluttershy waved her hoof at them one last time before entering her cottage. She sighed, those Cutie Mark Crusaders were certainly a challenge to take care of. They all stayed with each other a little while longer until the late afternoon. The CMC's played happily with her animals quite nicely. In fact she could have even sworn it reminded her of something but she couldn't figure out what. "Oh well.", she thought in her head as she lay down on the couch next to her window.
She lay on her side to see the starry night sky. She wasn't sure why but she really liked the night. Sure the day may calm her most of the time but the night always dazzled her for some reason. The stars twinkling always reminded her of something rather odd. Something that actually seemed so peaceful yet so dreadful at the same time. Oh yeah! It was the time her mom-
Fluttershy's eyes widened. Then she turned her head away from the window, eyes shut tight. How could she have forgotten of her mom after all these years? She had wanted to forget of that night for so long, yet when she did the memories flooded back into her mind once more. She closed and relaxed her eyes as a memory of her childhood flashed through her head.
As a little filly, Fluttershy lived in a small cottage along with her mother and father on the clouds. It was very far from CloudsDale so she didn't have many friends close by. During her childhood, her free days usually consisted of lying down on a small cloud in the distance to simply gaze into the sunlit sky. Then once the moon rose in the sky she'd like to gaze up at the twinkling stars. That was her usual routine when she wasn't helping her parents with cleaning up the dusty old cottage. And that kind of routine was certainly a lovely one.
She never really played with her parents since she always liked to give them lots of time to be with each other. Just the two of them. But things changed soon after she got used to her usual routine. She was a little filly of 8 when she heard the tragic news of her mother.
It was just a nice early morning when her dad sat her down at the break feast table and simply told her that her mom wasn't feeling well. Fluttershy didn't even question her father. She couldn't. In fact, she was so scared for her mother that every time she even passed through her mom's room her heart ached. She didn't know what kind of illness her mother had but she did know from how her father's voice sounded it wasn't just a small fever. It had to be something worse. Even though she wasn't very close with her parents she still cared for them very much. After all they were the only family she had.
Soon things became worse for her mother. It turned out Fluttershy was right. Her mom had a much more serious illness. Cancer. Her dad was very kind and caring when he found out of her severe illness yet there was nothing he could do about it. He was no doctor and the illness of his wife was more severe then he ever thought. His usually cheerful wife would always moan in pain no matter how much he tried to calm her and Fluttershy was still too scared to even enter her room. After a long while, the stress of Fluttershy's dad started to make him weaker and weaker.
His white hair was even paler than usual. The burden of seeing his wife suffer became heavier and heavier with each passing day. And he could never take it off of his mind. He never paid any attention to Fluttershy and things were becoming worse for everypony in the family.
Every morning and night he would check on his wife to see if her illness had faded. To see her joyful smile spread quickly on her face but it was nothing but a hopeless dream. What he only saw every time he went there was her sleeping in bed, her bright red hair dull and faded, and moaning in pain. Fluttershy often heard her mentally-unstable father thrashing in his sleep and throwing heavy items into the walls causing them to have bold dents in them. He would do that for hours on and on before collapsing onto the ground and break into a fit of sobbing.
The little filly would often curl into her blankets hoping that the nightmare would be over soon. But it never did.
Her dad continued like that for months until one night he finally snapped. After cursing for hours and punching everything in his room, he stuffed all his belongings into his saddlebags and with a broken heart he ran away, never to be seen again.
All he left was his entire family, the ones who had needed him most at the time.
During that night Fluttershy had heard the door slam and his hoof steps run out. She got out of her bedroom and ran outside. But her dad already escaped into the night sky and left them all behind.
All the little filly could do was stare. Her dad just left her. All alone. Her dad just abandoned her. "NOOOOOOOO!!!" she screamed. She fell to her knees. " No,no ,no ,no ,no ,no..", she kept on repeating those same words. She couldn't live on taking care of her mom.
She knew that if she did she would definitely slip. It would only be a matter of time before she would slip. Slip even more then her dad had.
Tears were streaming down her face and she was covering her eyes with her hooves. Until she saw them glow. Glow? She slowly put her hooves down to reveal the tiny source of light that suddenly got her full attention. A little firefly. She suddenly felt warm and fuzzy around the little thing. It produced a light of hope for her.
Suddenly the little source of light flew inside the cottage. "Wait, don't leave me! " Fluttershy yelled as she dashed after the small creature. The firefly sped down the short hallway, then suddenly rested on a small door knob and started to glow brighter than ever. Fluttershy stopped and stared at the little thing. It was resting on the door knob of a room, her mom's room.
The firefly flew away from the door knob and hovered beside Fluttershy. Fluttershy took a deep breath and put her hoof on the door knob. She quickly turned it and stepped inside. She peeked over to see how her mom was doing. Her mom's hair looked like it was going to turn grey at any second and her skin was more wrinkled, her fur, was a very light yellow.
She was no longer moaning but she still looked like she was in pain, as if she was going to pass away within a few minutes. In fact it could be her last few. Fluttershy looked over at the small firefly. It flew over to the bed on her mother's side, no longer glowing brightly as it was just moments ago. If it was her mom's last minutes she had to do something to make it worth it.
She couldn't read her a story as that would not be relaxing enough. She wouldn't be able to make a painting as that would take to long but she knew she needed to do something to help her sick mother. To at least ease her pain once she drifts away to the starry night sky.
Her mom always told her she had a cute voice. Maybe she could sing her a lullaby. Lullaby. That's it.
Fluttershy looked over at her mother once more. She placed another blanket over her mother and adjusted her pillow. She had to make sure that this procedure was done correctly.
The little pink- haired filly lay her head on her side as she kneeled down and placed it on the bed. Then she began to sing. She made sure to make her words soft and calming. She came up with the words from the top of her head yet she still made them all go swiftly by through her lullaby. She had her eyes closed so she could read the lyrics from her head. Her heart ache stopped and she actually felt light inside of her.She knew her lullaby was going to work. She just knew it had to. She owed it to her beloved mother. So she continued to make the words soft and sweet.
She sung for a few more minutes until finally stopping. She no longer heard any breathing in the room.
Just silence. Nothing more.
She closed her eyes for a few more seconds before slowly raising her head up. She knew she had to face what laid ahead of her. You can never run away from the truth. You can never.
Her mom had tears streaming down her face but they slowly stopped due to her face already being relaxed. The firefly was already gone leaving her alone completely . Fluttershy had a sad smile on her face and tears streamed down it once more. She had saved her mom. She had saved her from dying a sad death. She turned her attention to the moon. It was glowing brightly and the stars twinkled brighter than ever just like that firefly that helped her.
A few days after her mom's death, Fluttershy was moved to an orphanage in CloudsDale where she learned to leave the past behind.
To this present day, Fluttershy sings her lullaby to all her animals. Always making her voice soft and calm as she sings her lullaby. The full grown mare still regrets not spending more time with her parents but she was glad she helped one of them during her time of need. Fluttershy would sometimes fly up to that small cloud at night and gazes at the stars in the sky and smile. For she was glad her mom was with them now. But she would stare at the fireflies the most.
But out of all of them, one shines even brighter than the rest. One that will always be in her heart. The one that helped her with her lullaby.
Fluttershy's lullaby.