That Is A Friend Who Cares

Disclaimer: Companionably not mine.

A/N: Based entirely on this fanart by hirurux (although my knowledge of flight school comes mostly from the epic comic Rainbow Dash Academy by SorcerusHorserus). I aimed for this to be purely friendship, but I guess you could call it Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash if you squint.

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‘When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.’ ― from ‘The Road to Daybreak’ by Henri J.M. Nouwen.

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Fluttershy stared into the mirror. It … kind of looked okay. It didn’t look … too bad. Did it?

Someone banged on the door. “Hey, Flutterbutt, why’s the door locked?”

She cringed. Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly concerned with fashion or her appearance. She frequently came to class with hair mussed from a quick flying practise she had squeezed in before school. Sometimes she and Gilda, the new transfer student, even disappeared at lunch to sneak out and practise really dangerous tricks that would make the teachers yell if they knew.

“Hey!” The banging continued. “Fluttershy? Are you okay in there?”

Rainbow Dash hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen what happened. Fluttershy had seen her roommate. She hadn’t done anything to help. Would Rainbow Dash have stepped in? She had been so different since Gilda arrived; like being cool was the only thing worth caring about anymore. The filly who had defended Fluttershy against bullies was fading into a mare destined for the spotlight.

Fluttershy hated the spotlight. She would much rather fade into the background. She definitely wasn’t cool; now more than ever.

“All right, I’m gonna count to three. If you don’t open this door I’m gonna buck it down. You listening in there? One … two … two and a half … I’ll do it! I’ll totally bust this door down! Two and three quarters … three!”

Fluttershy didn’t look up as legs that could buck a thunderbolt from a storm cloud slammed open her bathroom door. Rainbow Dash strode in, wings fluffed belligerently.

“All right, now why the heck are you …” She caught sight of Fluttershy sitting on the floor. “… locked … in … here … oh man. Fluttershy, what did you DO?”

“Does it look okay?” She turned to see Rainbow Dash’s dismayed expression. Her cheeks flamed. She dropped her head onto her chest but she couldn’t hide behind a curtain of hair like she usually did. “It looks bad. I knew it looked bad but it was the best I could do.”

“You cut off your mane – and your tail!”

“Uh-huh.”

“But … but … WHY?”

Fluttershy looked at the scissors. She supposed unicorns could use them more accurately. Magic made everything fiddly a lot easier. They wouldn’t have been crying so much they cut off a jagged chunk and then had to keep cutting and cutting, trying to make it even, until there was practically nothing left.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash advanced on her. When Fluttershy recoiled she seemed to realise how aggressive she seemed. Folding her wings back, Rainbow Dash stopped and said at a lower decibel, “Your roommate came and found me. She said you were crying and you’d locked yourself in. What happened?”

Fluttershy sniffed. “Promise you won’t go and d-deal with it? You’ll get in t-trouble.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Did Comet and Snowfall pick on you again?”

Fluttershy closed her eyes. Just hearing their names brought the two colts’ faces to mind. Their derisive laughter echoed in her skull like she was standing inside a giant bell. “They … put gum in my mane and tail.”

“Seriously?”

She nodded, remembering how she had opened her locker only to have dozens of freshly chewed gum splots slide off the cling-film they had rigged inside the door. “And bird seed.”

“What?!”

“I was … it was a message. They must have seen me going down to feed the animals and birds.” She often descended to the outskirts of Ponyville to visit her precious creatures. It was the highlight of her day whenever she managed it. Last time they had led her to an old, dilapidated cottage and she had spent a wonderful time poking around, imagining what it could be like with a little love and DIY. Comet and Snowfall’s scathing comments had robbed some of the joy from it. “They weren’t impressed.”

“What did they say?”

“I don’t want to –”

“What. Did. They. Say?”

She refused to look her friend in the eye. “They said I’m not a real pegasus so I should go join the other groundlings.”

Rainbow Dash bristled at the offensive slang for ponies who couldn’t fly. “I’ll kill ‘em!”

“No, don’t!” Fluttershy grabbed her before she could turn around and make good on her words. “No, don’t. You’ll just get in trouble. It’s fine.”

“It is NOT fine! They insulted you and hurt you. I’ll shove their heads up each other’s butts so they can see what buttheads they really are!”

“Rainbow –”

“I’ll tie their wings together and toss them off a cloud!”

“Rainbow –”

“I’ll make those two punks regret ever picking on you –”

“Rainbow!” Fluttershy was startled at the volume of her own voice. Evidently Rainbow Dash was too. She stared until Fluttershy let go and sat back down amidst her own cut hair. It looked like dead worms on the floor. “It’s not worth it. THEY’RE not worth it.” She tried a watery smile. “It’s just hair. It’ll grow back. And next time I’ll let grow even longer.”

“That’s not the point. Where did this happen?”

“In the hall. They were … waiting for me to go to my locker when there were lots of other students around.” She recalled the thin strands of white and pink gum, studded with brown seeds, as she pulled away and realised she was still stuck to her locker door. Comet and Snowfall’s laughter had echoed as she struggled to disentangle herself, getting covered in the horrible threads and growing steadily more embarrassed. By the time she flew off crying, risking punishment for the ‘no flying in the halls’ rule, she had drawn quite a crowd of onlookers. “They thought it was funny.”

“I. Will. Kill. Them.” Rainbow Dash’s voice was a growl. “They need it. They’ve been getting too cocky lately.”

“Please don’t, Rainbow. I couldn’t bear it if you got into trouble for fighting. You might be suspended, or expelled. You’d certainly be cut from the sports teams. You need a scholarship if you want to get a job with the weather team after graduation, remember?”

That brought rainbow Dash up short. Guilt and anger twisted up her face. “But … but you … I can’t just let them …”

Fluttershy smiled. It wasn’t much better than last time, but at least she could pull off that much. It was more than an hour ago. “I’ll be fine. Like my mom said, soon enough we’ll all have graduated from Flight School and we’ll never have to see each other again. Uh, me and the bullies, I mean, not you and me. Unless, of course, you want me to never see you again once we graduate and I move down to Ponyville …”

“Don’t be dumb.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “We’re friends, aren’t we? I never abandon a friend and never will. Whether you choose to live in Cloudsdale or Ponyville – and I totally still think there’s a perfect job up here for you that we just haven’t figured out yet – we’re gonna stay friends.”

“You mean that?”

“Look, I know I’ve been busy with Gilda and everything lately, but we’re still buds.” She shot out a foreleg and wrapped it around Fluttershy’s narrow shoulders. “Get it?”

“Oof! Got it.”

“Good.” Rainbow Dash nodded emphatically. “Do you, uh, want any help cleaning this up?” She gestured at the hair and scissors.

“No thanks.” Fluttershy got up and shook back her head. Her neck felt cold but inside she was warm. Rainbow Dash’s words had buoyed her out of her tears. Maybe she wasn’t the coolest, or fastest, or prettiest pony in Equestria, but she had a friend she could count on. How many ponies could say that and truly mean it? “But … would you like to go flying later?”

“YOU wanna go flying?”

“You can show me the new tricks you’ve been working on.”

“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash beamed. “You wanna see me fly a double inside out loop?”

“Is that what you’ve been practising with Gilda?”

“No, it’s something I invented on the way home from practising. You can see me test it out. It’ll be awesome!”

Fluttershy smiled properly for the first time that day. Rainbow Dash’s enthusiasm was infectious. “I’d love to.”

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Fin.

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