It's the Little Things That Count
One Small Mistake
There were only positive words, really, that Fluttershy could use to describe Rainbow Dash. When asked by an acquaintance or perhaps even a total stranger whenever her crippling fright left for a moment long enough to permit it, she would most likely state that Dash was a brave, loyal pony, as her Element of Harmony suggested, one who risked humiliation in order to protect Fluttershy's own honor. Somepony she greatly respected and looked up to as one of her best -- if not her very best -- friend, and a pony which she would often say she wished and ultimately prayed to be like one day once given enough motivation and practice.
And she really meant those words, as anypony who truly got to know Rainbow did -- after all, it was Rainbow Dash herself who had protected her time and time again through multiple races and tiny fights, listened to her problems, got her through the entirety of Flight Camp. And, though not most importantly, managed to drag Fluttershy away from her critter friends that day, bring her up into the cool morning sky and motivate her to get in some much needed practice. It was these things about her that made Fluttershy love her just so much.
Unfortunately, these facts about Rainbow Dash were what also made Fluttershy feel a bit selfish as she stared forward, to where the blue pegasus held in a light blue, steady hoof a stopwatch. Not about lying at all -- she wasn't, of course -- but about an ever familiar tug in her stomach and shuddering chest cavity whenever this particular train of thought she was on managed to pop up. It wasn't one she thought of often, and, she supposed, as her wings flapped just the tiniest bit faster against the strain of the wind, wasn't exactly one she was thinking of then as her thoughts wandered. But it was there, swimming amongst her thoughts and slowly being brought up by that tug.
And she wouldn't have that. Couldn't. It wasn't fair. To Rainbow Dash. It wasn't.
Fluttershy shook her head against the swirling cloud of thoughts, stretching her already wide smile despite the firey, shocking pain shooting through her veins and willing the yellow appendages at her sides to flip over at a higher velocity. While her eyes wished to screw tight, she held them open against the chill of the above-cloud gusts, not allowing them to do as they pleased until her body slowly buzzed past Rainbow's own.
Rainbow brought her other hoof to the watch in her grasp, tapping at the top of it and stopping the timer dead. "You're doin' great, Fluttershy," she said. "Heh, at this rate, those teams at the Games won't know what hit 'em."
Rainbow Dash was rather young at the time anyway, Fluttershy supposed, and it wasn't as if she knew any better -- and Gilda and the other petite foals' stories were much too complex to place into words or damn them for. They shouldn't have mattered, these tiny things, and yet they still surfaced at points -- years and years placed in between the events, even. It didn't make any sense, and yet it clung there, to her wings, pushing her down.
"Oh, are you sure, Rainbow Dash? I don't know if I'm cut out for this."
It was simple really, the words spoken, and the things themselves had not even come from Rainbow's own mouth. It was fast, short, a flash of color and muddying and blurry light, surrounding her from all sides with a flash of warmth to her eyes and cheeks. Almost, in a certain sense, as if a bandage was being ripped off in a clean swipe, or a needle was being plunged into her foreleg for an annual shot. Painless and, eventually, no matter how much time could pass between it and any particular event, able to be seen as helpful through the squint of sapphire eyes and a shrug of the pale yellow withers. Nothing. Just nothing.
"Are you kiddin'?" Rainbow Dash asked, whistle dangling from her neck and gently tapping against her chest being flipped idly with a hoof. "You're like a whole twenty percent better than last time! Just stay with me, Fluttershy, and we'll be in first place in no time." She smirked. "Now, uh, sorry 'Shy, but I don't think I hear those wings flapping fast enough -- I guess if you really don't want to take this seriously...?"
Fluttershy smiled at that, though the annoying, aching tug had grown unbelievably stronger as that particular train of though once again left its cozy, cut-off station, and set to continuing her excersizes with a quick flap. Her heart, she could say, seemed to flap by itself, as though a hummingbird had lodged itself inside of it, as her body weaved amongst the froth of the clouds -- slowly, with thought placed behind the actions, if only to correctly remember the order in which her actions were to be performed in. Remember. Remember perfectly. For her.
Rainbow Dash had done, also, so much good in her short friendship -- bringing a weak and bullied pegasus filly into her flock, showering a lonely griffon with attention when it seemed neither of them would have ever been able to hope for anything but a vicious word of insult. And that was not even including what had occured once she had finally become an Element, with the mare saving an entire country, and an entire world, from chaos and death -- and being inadverdently responsible for the possibility of those savings by creating that Sonic Rainboom in the first place. She was a good mare, Rainbow was, a wonderful mare, even though she did have a habit of harping on that fact.
And this was just one, tiny--
Fluttershy yanked a feathered wing to her side, allowing it to pull her into a slow turn as she glided, and her eyes scittered across the blue abyss hugging her from all possible sides, dotted only by the snowy, puffed white of the clouds attempting to lure her into them, let her wings relax and stop -- particularly the set of ring-like clouds sprawled directly before her, set as a short, marked freefall to eventually dissolve into a safety net of cloudy sorts.
--itty bitty, insignificant--
Fluttershy gulped as her world spun, blue melting into white into a -- very strange, she supposed would be the correct words for it -- soup of pure sky color, the fall twisting around her brain and pulling on her just like that insistant tug. It had been quite a while since Fluttershy had attempted a freefall, years upon years, in fact, and she wasn't quite positive her wings would be able to take the pressure and gusts of balmy wind that came with one. That was what the net of clouds was there for, but... Rainbow Dash needed her to be able to do this particular stunt for the show. Needed it. Wanted it. Deserved it after Fluttershy would dare think of her like this -- the Element of Loyalty who had stood up to her protect her very name and pride when it was damaged most.
--microscopic, unimportant--
Fluttershy felt the pressure of hooves gripping her back, at her withers, and then the roll of movement they had as they shoved forward. She wasn't ready -- not close -- though she had attempted to steady her mindset before the eventual fall would be set to happen, and before she knew it the ever familiar, jarring snap of her wings connecting and gluing to her sides was heard. Couldn't move them. Couldn't flap. Just fall. Fall. Scream. Fall.
--unforgettable, more hurtful than it should have been but was--
The bounce and natural spring of all of Cloudsdale's factory-quality clouds -- the ones, while placed by the Ponyville weather team, had surely been made not only by the two hooves sewn clearly to Rainbow Dash, but also from leftover materials Rainbow had gathered and collected from her time at the place for projects such as these. There was one final gasp, one nearly yanked away from the tug which still ached inside of Fluttershy's own lungs. Throbbing. Aching. The stinging of eyes from the aspect of possibly of dying if somehing went wrong. And then...
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Looking up to the voices. The immediate humiliation.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Crying. Desperately looking for a way out. Looking for Rainbow Dash.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Finding her. Finding her and nothing. And watching her do nothing, just stand there, staring, looking around with her eyes shrinking to the sizes of the very tip of Rarity's own priceless sewing needles. Just stopping. Fluttershy seeing her look into Fluttershy's desperation, watching it dribble out of her eyes in hot tears. Seeing her see the pain.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
And then watching her laugh with the crowd, too.
--mistake.
Fluttershy blinked wildly as the world once again came to her in a rolling sea of cyan and a bright, wild magenta, the beauty of which Fluttershy could never allow herself the pain of forgetting. Rainbow Dash had, though Fluttershy knew not when, flewn directly to her side, wings dangerously close to Fluttershy's own and partially risking them both a short if not terrifiying and humiliating fall. Worry shone out on the larger pegasus' features, and Fluttershy was, after coming to, struck with the churning decision of looking at that worry or the freefall still below her. Of the hurt-hurt or the regular hurt.
And so Fluttershy made a desicion, between the two, between the tug in her chest and flying away and quitting -- she didn't wait for Rainbow Dash to say anything. Just dropped. Because Rainbow Dash needed her. And it wasn't fair. Not to Rainbow Dash. Not for her to think of her this way after all of this time. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair.
"So some punks poked a little fun at you when you got stage fright. Big deal. You aren't gonna go quit just because of that, are you?"
Not fair enough.