The Story
In Fluttershy's opinion, there was nothing quite like a lazy summer day in Ponyville. The sun was shining directly on her cottage, but the cool breeze kept the air from it being too stifling and still to spend time outside, and most important of all, there was a certain silence that could be felt around her.
Not that she didn't like being around other ponies or spending some time watching the citizens of Ponyville chatting and laughing as they went about their busy routines, but she loved being able to retreat to the silence of her cabin whenever she felt overwhelmed.
And she had been overwhelmed lately. Between traveling all over Equestria with her friends, saving Equestria multiple times, and worst of all, coming home from either kind of endeavor and then having to go into the marketplace to buy food; all she wanted was some time to herself with her animal friends.
Finally, she had the opportunity to do just that.
Fluttershy laid out the picnic blanket and smoothed out all the wrinkles as her animal friends came out of the cottage with the food and lemonade she had spent all morning making. Everything was meticulously placed for every one of her friends to have a pleasurable picnic: Angel bunny had his carrots in front of his spot, her duck and squirrel friends each had a piece of her own signature cake, the fish she had caught this morning were piled up in front of Harry's usual spot, and, of course, the picnic blanket had one corner right near the water on the opposite side of Harry so her aquatic friends could join them as well. She joined the picnic in her usual corner of the blanket and poured herself a glass of lemonade as one of the kittens she had been fostering, made a spot for himself against Fluttershy's hind leg, purring loudly.
“This is perfect,” she said to her animal friends before taking a sip of her drink. “There's nothing in all of Equestria that could ruin a day like today!”
“Fluttershy!” A familiar voice yelled out as a flash of colors flew past her at high speeds.
She waited for the inevitable crash that followed, and briefly wondered if she had spoken too soon.
CRASH!
Fluttershy picked up an extra glass, filled it with lemonade, and presented it to her multicolored friend once she had recovered from her fall. Rainbow Dash rushed over to her best friend and knocked the glass of lemonade out of her grasp and onto the grass below.
“There's no time for that!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “The fate of Equestria is hanging in the balance and the princesses have called upon us and our friends to save it!”
Fluttershy sighed. She had just set up her picnic and she hadn't even had a bite of cake yet; did she really have to leave her home again to go on yet another adventure? She looked up at the sun, it seemed to be begging her to stay and enjoy the first instance of free time she had had in a while. She couldn't say she disagreed, all this traveling and running around has been hard on her and her animals, all she wanted was a little bit of time with them; was that too much to ask?
She looked at her animal friends sitting around her, who seemed just as visibly upset as she felt as they slowly started to pack up the picnic that they had just set up. She truly hated to let them down like this.
“Actually, I'd just really like to stay at home... if that's okay with you,” Fluttershy said slowly, trying desperately to appear calm when in actuality this small ounce of resistance was making her heart pound so hard she felt like it was going to beat right through her chest.
“Um... no, it's not okay with me. Twilight and the rest of our friends are waiting for us in the castle, we need to go now!”
“Oh, uh... I can't go right now. I have a kitten sitting on my lap, I wouldn't want to move this little guy. He just looks so comfortable.” She motioned to the kitten resting up against her leg, who, despite the crash and Rainbow Dash's yelling, was still curled up against Fluttershy, undisturbed. “That would be mean.”
“Forget the cat! Mean would be letting whatever is happening, destroy Equestria!” Rainbow Dash groaned. She picked up the kitten and moved him to another spot on the blanket, away from Fluttershy. “See? No cat sleeping on you can stop you now. Let's go!”
“But... I don't want to! Whatever it is, it sounds dangerous! Can I just sit this one out? Pretty please?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head and grabbed Fluttershy under her forelegs and started pulling her away from her cottage, despite the yellow pegasus's desperate attempts to dig her hooves into the ground to slow Rainbow down.
“Fluttershy, the princesses are counting on us! We're the Elements of Harmony! We're heroes of Equestria!”
“Why... why don't the princesses do it themselves?” Fluttershy cried out as she tried to reach out towards Harry the bear. “We don't even have the elements in our possession anymore!”
“So? The princesses trust us to save Equestria! That's the most important part! Let's go already!”
Fluttershy had finally managed to get Harry to grab onto her forelegs and pull her back towards her home. Her heart was still pounding harder than ever as she desperately racked her brain to come up with more excuses to just stay at home.
“But you don't even need me! I don't bring anything to the team,” she finally said.
“Of course you do! We never know what terrifying creatures we'll run into on the way...”
“T.. t... terrifying creatures?” Fluttershy interrupted.
“And when that happens we need somepony who knows how to communicate with them! Stop struggling and let's go!” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings harder and was able to lift Fluttershy up in the air and out of Harry's grasp. “Let's go, Twilight is waiting for us!”
Fluttershy let out a small sigh as she looked down at her destroyed picnic. Apparently, as much as she really wanted it, having a pleasant day at home just wasn't in the cards for her this time around; perhaps next time it would go better. She followed Rainbow Dash across Ponyville and followed her into a window near the room that contained the cutie map. Fluttershy trudged behind Rainbow Dash, gazing occasionally at the ceiling as if it would provide her with a way out of this. All she had wanted to do today was enjoy the outdoors and have a picnic, especially since summer was coming to an end and nice days like today were at a premium.
It wasn't as if she disliked the idea of spending time with her friends though, not at all, she loved spending time with them, but she also enjoyed a chance to recharge and not running headfirst into another potentially dangerous situation.
“Girls, I'm so glad you're here! What took you so long?”
“Somepony didn't want to leave her picnic to save Equestria,” Rainbow Dash explained with a huff.
Fluttershy looked down at the crystal floor and scuffed her hoof against it. “I'm sorry, I just... you've done stuff without me before... so... I was just wondering if maybe I could... I don't know... sit this one out just this once?” Her request was met with blank stares and her mind scrambled to come up with something else to say just to keep the silence from leading to the obvious and inevitable no. “You girls have all been on adventures without me before, and it seems like we've been running all over Equestria lately; I was just hoping to enjoy one last nice summer day with the animals I take care of.”
She held her breath as she watched her friends look among each other; the milliseconds seemed to stretch on endlessly before Twilight Sparkle finally nodded.
“If that's what you really want to do, I suppose you could sit this one out,” Twilight said. “I don't think any of us would hold it against you.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Fluttershy said as she trotted out of the cutie map room with a spring in her step.
“Why'd you let her go like that? We're the Elements of Harmony, for Celestia's sake! We're supposed to save Equestria together!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, throwing her hooves up in the air in frustration. “You know, stuff about the magic of friendship and everypony using their own special skills to save the day? Does that ring a bell?”
Twilight Sparkle shrugged. “The way I see it, Fluttershy stood up to us, her best friends, with a reasonable explanation; that was probably the bravest thing any one of us will do all day.”
“I dunno, I think saving Equestria is pretty brave,” Rainbow Dash mumbled.
“However, unlike Fluttershy, you aren't going out of your comfort zone to do it,” Twilight pointed out. “Besides, I think we'll be able to manage without her just this once. We can't force her to go on every mission. That wouldn't be fair, now would it?”
“I guess not,” she admitted.
“Good, now let's go! Princess Celestia is waiting for us!”
* * *
Fluttershy watched in the distance as the Friendship Express departed for Canterlot. From her front yard, she could barely make out the outline of the train, but still she waved as it pulled out of the station, in case her friends were on that train. Once the train was out of her sight, she turned back towards her picnic. After leaving Twilight's castle she felt like she was on cloud nine. She had stood her ground and instead of going off and doing something she didn't want to do, she got to stay at home and keep her animal friends company.
Everything worked out perfectly.
Except...
No. She wouldn't let any negativity seep into this perfect day. It was one of the last real days of summer and she was not going to let it get away from her just because her friends could potentially be in danger and of course, if anything happened to them...
Even though nothing bad would happen. They were brave ponies, they could take care of themselves.
On the off chance something did happen to them though, well, she would never forgive herself for choosing to stay at home just to enjoy being alone. What if somepony misconstrued that as selfish? Was it selfish?
Fluttershy distributed the desert to her animal friends, but instead of joining them for the delicious looking pastry she had set aside for herself, she ran into her home and grabbed her saddlebags.
“I'll be right back,” she promised her animal friends as she attached the bags around her waist and flew a few feet off the ground. “There's something I just need to do real quick.”
She took off after the Friendship Express. Less than five minutes ago, she had waved goodbye to the train and her friends who, she hoped, were passengers on the train, from her cottage on the outskirts of town. Now, she was watching as the once tiny outline of a train came closer and closer until it was no longer a small outline, but a very large and colorful train. Fluttershy flew up against the windows and peeked into each and every one of them until she spotted her friends. She knocked on the window closest to Rainbow Dash and felt nothing, but relief when her friends finally turned to face her and quickly opened the window for her.
“Took you long enough,” Rainbow Dash joked as she helped Fluttershy into the train car. "I'm sorry I was so pushy earlier. I could understand why you would prefer to stay at home instead of chase after bad guys, but I'm so glad you changed your mind."
“We all are! Which is why we all pitched in and bought you a train ticket, just in case you changed your mind. After the train pulled away from the station though, we weren't sure if you were going to join us,” Twilight said as she helped her exhausted friend up off the ground. Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out where a few quiet wheezes as she tried to catch her breath. “Not that we aren't incredibly proud of you that you stood up for yourself, of course. It just means so much to us that even though you didn't want to come, you still decided to join us anyway.”
“Well, I could never let down my best friends,” Fluttershy responded. “Especially not when they needed my help!”
Her friends smiled and pulled Fluttershy into a group hug as the train continued on towards their next big adventure.