“The most skittish pony you know!?”
Fluttershy lighted down outside the Wonderbolt Barracks.
“Dash...?” She called tentatively. Even though it was after hours and deserted, the military base made Fluttershy uncomfortable. It wasn’t a place whose spirit exactly meshed well with her own, and she wouldn’t even voluntarily be here if she hadn’t been summoned.
“Dash?” she called again, less softly.
An office window several floors up slid open and a multicolored mane popped out.
“You’re here!” Rainbow Dash bellowed in the stilted voice of a bad drama student reciting something pre-rehearsed. “Don’t come up, I’ll come down.” Not waiting for an answer, the recently-promoted Grand Marshal ducked back inside.
Fluttershy felt a frown of suspicion form, but she stood where she was, taking note that all the windows on the barracks seemed shuttered for some reason. Eventually, the front door opened.
“Come in,” an unseen Rainbow Dash called.
Fluttershy did as she was told, feeling the satchel she’d been asked to bring bump her side with each step. She entered the lobby and blinked several times. Despite it being early evening, the lights were all off.
The door behind Fluttershy slammed suddenly, making her jump out of reflex and throwing the entire lobby into darkness.
“Power’s out,” Rainbow Dash’s voice said off to her left. “Pretty spooky, huh?”
“I thought you once told me this place used oil lamps and candl-“
“That’s really neat, Fluttershy,” Dash cut in. “Did you bring the glowstones?”
Fluttershy nodded, then realized gestures wouldn’t work in the dark. Wordlessly, she used a wing to flip open her satchel and the green illumination of the rocks within it allowed her to see somewhat.
“Oh no,” Rainbow Dash declared loudly. “Glowstones were supposed to help, but all they did was make this room even spookier.”
There was a moment of extremely awkward silence.
“I said,” Dash nearly shouted, “that this room is now even spookier.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to voice her growing irritation, but was interrupted by an echoing whinny that sounded like it was coming from the walls itself. She glanced around before finally settling back on Rainbow Dash, who in the light of the glowstones looked... pleading?
Fluttershy wasn’t the worst at picking up social cues, but she wasn’t the best either. Dash wanted her to do something, but seemed to not want to say it out loud.
“Um...” Fluttershy fumbled. “What was that noi-“
“What noise?” Dash interrupted again. “Probably nothing. Stop being silly and paranoid. Let’s go up to my office.”
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and began trotting in the direction of the spiral staircase.
“Slower,” Dash suggested.
Fluttershy grunted in frustration, but reduced her pace. Under different circumstances, she might have been unsettled by all this buildup, but Rainbow Dash was such an atrocious actress that-
”Boo!”
The shout had been so loud and near her face that Fluttershy’s only response was to freeze midstep and scrunch her eyes shut. She barely noticed when she dropped her satchel, sending glowstones rolling in all directions. Back behind her, Rainbow Dash groaned in exasperation.
“Too early, you see-through idiot!” she said. “Too early!”
“Wha-?”, came a voice in front of Fluttershy. “But I thought you had her good and wound up.”
“I think it was pretty obvious that she was not good and wound up.”
The second voice took a moment to reply.
“Well...to be honest, it’s kinda dark so, ya know, it’s not that obvious. Whoa, hey, what’s she doing over there?”
Art by u/readynwillin
Taking advantage of Rainbow Dash’s argument with the unseen other, Fluttershy had maneuvered her way through the gloom and found one of the shuttered windows.
Ignoring the two protesting voices behind her, she gave the shade a yank.
In the now sunlit room, Rainbow Dash was standing on the center rug, ears flat against her head submissively. Near the stairs where Fluttershy had just been, a messy-maned specter of an Earth Pony hovered slightly off the floor.
Fluttershy looked back and forth between the two of them with the same miffed but expectant expression that a mother might make after coming home to find one of her foals had broken a vase.
“Dash, who in Equestria is this?”
To Fluttershy’s surprise, the specter burst into tears.
“You said she was the most skittish pony you know! A total freebie! But look at her, she’s not afraid at all.” The specter buried her muzzle in her translucent hooves. “You were wrong, Grand Marshal Dash. I’m not… I’m not scary! I’m a failure!!” Still sobbing, the specter phased through the ceiling and into the upstairs where her continued cries were muffled, but not muted entirely.
Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Guess I kinda look like a jerk right now, don’t I?”
"The most skittish pony you know!?" Fluttershy marched over and delivered a sharp flick to the nose.
“Owww!” Rainbow Dash whined, more out of indignation than actual pain. “You know, you could’ve at least pretended to be scared. Stock Image is a mopey mess on her regular days and now after this, she’s gonna be... uh... where are you going?”
“The most skittish pony you know...” Fluttershy repeated under her breath, already halfway up the stairs. She paused just long enough to toss back a withering look.
“I’m going to talk to her. Without you in the room.”
“Without me? Wait, then what am I supposed to do til you get back?”
Fluttershy made a sweeping gesture to the glowstones still scattered across the floor. “You can clean up my mess," she suggested. Then her tone hardened.
“While I try to clean up yours.”