From a Flake to a Flutter
"Congrats, Fluttershy - you really earned it!" a voice said.
"Thank you very much... I really couldn't have done it without your enthusiasm, Snowflake." Fluttershy said, slightly blushing.
"YEAH!!!" Snowflake yelled, hooves outstretched.
The other pegasi were cheering on Fluttershy as they whisked her off into Ponyville for a celebration. Meanwhile, Snowflake slowly trotted in the other direction.
"Hey Flake!" yelled Cloud Chaser.
"Where are you going?" Flitter added.
"Umm, I just need to rest - my wings are cramping up a bit." Snowflake said with a forced smile.
"Can't you stick around for the celebration later? Flitter and I would love for you to be with us!"
"It will be fun! Treats as far as the eye can see, and just chatting with friends!" Flitter said, beaming with pride. Cloud Chaser tried to pull her back before she became consumed with a rush to be with the others.
"Nah, I really think I'll need the rest though." Snowflake added.
"Well okay... I guess Flitter and I will just stick around for a bit."
"But I want to go to Sugarcube Corner now! Who cares if you want to stalk Spitfire of the Wonderbolts for an autograph?" Flitter protested.
The two sisters continued to argue with each other as Snowflake continued his trot back home. He was grateful that his enthusiastic nature was able to rally the pegasi into getting the needed water to Cloudsdale, but there was something else that was agitating him.
___________________________________
Back home, Snowflake was in his bed. A job well done, he thought, as he looked outside his window to see Ponyville very much alive. It had been a few hours, but the town was still rocking.
There was a sudden knock at his door. He walked up to it and peered through the peephole.
"Snowflake, do you mind if I speak with you-- that is, if you don't mind me intruding..." Fluttershy said.
"Fluttershy's at the door? But she was supposed to be the center of that party?" Snowflake wondered.
He opened the door and welcomed Fluttershy. His home was littered with lots of weights and exercise equipment - he was a buff pony, and there was no way that he was ever planning to give up his temple of a body, or so he thought before...
"Why are you here? Isn't that party meant for you?" Snowflake quizzed.
"Well, no... you see, I wasn't really feeling all that well with everyone hounding me for attention. It was worse back in my modeling days, and I just couldn't deal with so many people swarming me." Fluttershy said.
"Sometimes, people should be left alone."
"Yes! They really should but I don't--"
Fluttershy was interrupted as she said Snowflake wipe away a tear.
"Oh my... are you okay?"
"I'm fine, really - just some dust in my eye is all."
Snowflake didn't expect for his own words to make him tear up. He picked up a frame from his bedside - it was a younger and scrappier version of himself from the first day of junior flight camp. He seemed much happier then, but that was only the first day - the rest were not that great at all for him.
"Is that.. you?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yep, in the good old days." Snowflake lied.
"Depends on your definition of good." Fluttershy pouted.
She never liked her junior flight camp tenure since she was so afraid of flying, thanks to the other pegasi that teased her. It was instrumental in some way, as Rainbow Dash stepped up to defend her honor and in the end, Fluttershy discovered the wonders of the world below her - earning her cutie mark in the process.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you never actively began to take charge of your own life?" Snowflake asked, startling Fluttershy out of her flashback.
"Um, slightly? I guess if I never helped you guys with the tornado, more of you would've been hurt badly." Fluttershy added.
"That's good, though I was thinking back more to the days where I wasn't such a buff-looking jerk of a pony."
"You're not a jerk, you're very kind for a pony."
"Well, I know there's somepony that thinks of me that way - it's just because of how I look... muscular, threatening, stuff like that."
Fluttershy held Snowflake's hoof.
"I feel that there is some tension deep inside you that you need to release. Do you want to talk about it?"
Snowflake agreed, and began to set up a nice little therapy area so that he could finally get his tribulations off his chest. Fluttershy donned some lovely reading glasses and tied her hair back into a neat bun.
"Now," Fluttershy started. "Let's see what's going on with you..."
"Um, okay?" Snowflake said with some skepticism.
"I want you to close your eyes and think back to your early days... a day where you think that everything started to go wrong."
Snowflake took deep, calm breaths as he envisioned his second day of junior flight camp.
*****************
THUD!
The sound of a pony hitting the hard ground was heard as three others snickered. He was beat up, with bruises on his face, body and his wings.
"What's wrong, Snowflake?" asked a male orange pegasus.
"Can't muster the power to stand up for yourself?" another one chimed in.
"Guys, guys, everypony knows that Snowflake isn't even capable of defending himself." a brown pegasus added.
Snowflake was on the ground, writhing in pain, hoping for his adversaries to leave him alone. He wasn't a fighter, nor was he one to resort to violence. He was only interested in just being able to grow into a functioning member of society without any trouble, although trouble always managed to present itself to him - even in the form of three pegasi bullies.
Much to Snowflake's delight, the bullies decided to leave him there on the ground - hopefully as a reminder of what would happen again in the future if he so much as crossed their paths again. However, as much as he tried to stay away, trouble always managed to find him.
******************
Snowflake snapped out of his flashback, steadily sweating.
"Bullies... beat up.... flight camp..." Snowflake was rambling incoherently as Fluttershy took down notes and nodded as he went on.
"I see that you definitely kept in some very disturbing moments of your young life." Fluttershy said.
"I will never forget that day." Snowflake said, eyes looking at the roof of his home.
"Is that when you decided to change your life?"
"A better way to put it would be the day life decided to give me a sudden wake-up call," Snowflake snorted. "After flight camp, I became obsessed with getting stronger so I pretty much lived at the gym, pumping iron 24/7."
"Are you happy with where you are now?" Fluttershy asked. Snowflake's grin degenerated into a small frown.
"If I was happy, I would be partying it up with you guys at Sugarcube Corner. Instead, I'm stuck here with a fake wing cramp while I try to recall these days and try to not to cry at them." Snowflake said with a slightly sarcastic but progressively depressing tone.
"Why do you put yourself through that? Isn't that detrimental to your well-being?" Fluttershy said.
Snowflake was wondering if Twilight Sparkle manifested herself as Fluttershy - she was never this articulate... ever.
"Um, well, I do this in a way to prove how tough I am - if I get through it without crying, it shows that I can forget the past and live my life well." Snowflake said.
"Which is why you're talking with someone about those very same problems as a way to show that they don't matter, right?" Fluttershy added with a slight smirk.
Snowflake baited himself into Fluttershy's trapping statements - now he felt like a top-class idiot.
"Bottling up your emotions isn't really the best course of action. That only leads to more chaos and discord in the future." Fluttershy concluded.
"You're one to talk." Snowflake said.
Fluttershy herself was baited into that as well, and as a result, the two pegasi shared a hearty laugh. She continued to chat with him, as he began to warm up more and more to the point where he was no longer in the driver's seat. His feelings were at the helm, answering questions as truthfully as possible.
"I still remember one thing though..." Snowflake mumbled.
"What was that?" Fluttershy asked, with a hoof at her ear.
"I said I still remember one thing - the reason why the bullies beat me up."
"I thought it was because you were weak and scrawny."
Snowflake shot Fluttershy a disturbing glare. Fluttershy was scared.
"No, it was because... I was defending someone. She was-- no, no, I can't say it. It's too much for me to handle." Snowflake sighed. "I don't even remember her name anymore."
"Well, that's a shame," Fluttershy said. "She would be grateful to hear that somepony was sticking up for her when she needed it the most."
He led Fluttershy to the front door, thanking her for visiting him and discussing his problems.
"Whenever you feeling like chatting some more, you can always come down to my cottage near the forest." Fluttershy said.
"I'll keep that in mind, Flutters." Snowflake said. Fluttershy was surprised.
"Flutters? When did you start hanging out with Pinkie Pie?" Fluttershy giggled.
"I thought everyone else calls you that - that's all." Snowflake said, averting his gaze from her eyes. He was slightly blushing.
Fluttershy hugged him, then flew off into the distance.
Snowflake felt a lot better, but he still felt that there was some more tension going on inside of him. Somehow, it didn't matter anymore. He was finally able to talk about some of his problems, and there was no one better to tell them to than Fluttershy - her kindness really helped him to be much contented and now, he was vehement to live on the remainder of his days as Cloudsdale's most resilient and toughest pegasi.
Back in bed, he thought back to that fateful day...
****************************
"Someone... help me..." Snowflake said, stretching out his hoof into the sky. He was still in pain, and everyone else left him there, expecting him to nurse himself.
A yellow filly flew over his body. She was moving at a snail's pace and the opportunity presented itself to him.
He called out again, and to his surprise, his voice was strong enough to stop her. She looked down to see a beat up Snowflake and rushed to his side.
"Oh, you poor thing!" the filly said. "Are you alright?"
"I'm in pain." Snowflake said with a flat tone.
"I should call my friend Rainbow Dash to help you! Just... stay there!"
The filly was about to take off, when Snowflake grabbed her tail. He had a burning question.
"Wait, I didn't get to thank you... what was your name again, I forgot..."
"Oh, my name is Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy flew off to get help from Rainbow Dash.
"Fluttershy... that's a beautiful name... At least it was worth trying to stick up for her that day."
Snowflake smiled as the pain he was experiencing suddenly faded away...