“And then—heehee—he drinks the whole jar of liquid rainbow! Just because I bet him he wouldn’t! Ha!" The filly in front of me bursts out laughing as she slaps a hoof on the lunch table. The colt sitting next to me, however, has a blush turning him beet red.
“C’mon, Feather Duster, it’s been almost a week. Give it a rest already, will you?”
“Whatever you say, Mister Rainbow Breath. If that stuff tastes half as bad as it smells, then you’re an even bigger goofball than I thought." She turns to me. “What a doofus, am I right Fluttershy?”
“Um, I don’t like to be a part of arguments,” I reply with a forced grin. “I’m just glad Dew Drop is okay. You make it sound so serious!”
“Pfft, of course you’d say that,” Feather Duster says, flipping her short tan mane out of her eyes. “I know I can’t be the only pony who thinks drinking rainbows is stupid. Right, Dew?”
“Are you kidding?! You’re the one who talked me into it in the first place!” Dew Drop shouts, glaring at her.
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
The two of them continue fighting. I take another bite of the processed wheatloaf in front of me, if only to keep me from being hungry tonight. Stepping in and breaking it up would be the right thing to do, but siblings fighting is as natural as the sun shining. At least, that’s what ponies with siblings tell me.
“…And what about just last week when you wrapped all the Hearth’s Warming Eve presents in paper? What are you trying to hide, huh?!" Feather Duster is seething now, standing on her seat with her hooves on the table.
“That’s what you do for the holiday, ya wingnut!" Dew Drop replies, taking the same stance as his sister. The two of them lean forward in anger, literally butting heads. Other ponies in the lunchroom are beginning to stare, and I shrink back from their gaze, even though I know it isn’t directed at me.
My whimpering is overshadowed by the arguing of my friends, until a bell chimes twice through the air. Immediately, ponies begin funneling through the double doors on the opposite side of the lunch room, heading back to classrooms all over the school.
The tide of young pegasi sweeps both my friends with it. The two of them climb down from their chairs—eyes locked in anger—and march out of the cafeteria, grumbling and glaring all the way. As I follow them, I can’t help but snicker at their antics. Siblings will be siblings, I guess.
The walk home from school has been a quiet one, and a cold one. Not many of the other fillies and colts live in the same part of Cloudsdale that I do, and there aren’t many ponies that are outside this time of day either. I can tell I’m getting close to home by the familiar stench of garbage that our neighbors leave out on the street every night. The cloud marble that makes up the road may be cracked in places, but that doesn’t mean it can’t hold up the measly weight of a few empty bottles and boxes. Daddy always complains about the smell and says we’re going to move soon, but he’s been saying that for a while now.
The apartment building comes into view as I turn the corner. It’s not a very tall building by Cloudsdale standards—only two stories—but it’s home. I walk up the steps, taking special care to avoid stepping on the step I know has come loose. The one time Feather Duster and Dew Drop came over to play after school, Dew got his hoof stuck in the stairs and Daddy had to take off a few pieces to help him get out. After that day, Daddy keeps forgetting to go buy some materials to fix the step that’s broken, so I make sure to remind him every day before leaving for school, as long as he’s awake and at home.
I reach up to knock on the door, but it’s already open. Is Daddy talking with one of the neighbors about the noise? Maybe he left the door open. But if there’s nopony home, who’s the one shouting?
“Dammit, Redwing, you’ve had months to come up with the bits! Months!” the stallion shouts. He’s loud enough that I can hear him through the door. “Nopony wouldn’t be able to scrounge together a couple hundred in half a freakin’ year!”
“I-I know, Whiplash, and I’m very sorry that—“
“Don’t you pretend you can talk your way out of this, ya mangy waste of your father’s seed!" There’s another stallion inside too, and he’s shouting at Daddy.
“Steel, if y-you’d just give me more time, I could get you what I owe! The Lucky Horseshoe is open all night and—Oof!”
There’s a crashing sound. I gasp and push the door open, just in time to see one of the stallions slam Mommy’s vase over Daddy’s head, covering him in black powder.
“H-hey!" My voice comes out as a squeak. “You leave my Daddy alone!”
I do my best not to shrink back as the huge stallion turns to look at me, glaring down at me with piercing blue eyes. He snorts once, and nods at his companion. The other stallion kicks Daddy fiercely in the stomach. I scream.
“Don’t think this is over, Redwing!” the blue-eyed stallion says over his shoulder. “No lucky break is at roulette is gonna pay out what you owe me.”
The two brutish ponies push past me and take wing, flying out of sight. I rush over to Daddy, who is cleaning some of the black dust off his face.
“Daddy! Oh, Daddy, are you alright? Those ponies, they were so loud—Daddy, they hit you! Oh Celestia, can you walk? Should I call a doctor? Should I—“
He puts a blackened hoof to my lips. “I-I’m alright, Fluttershy. I… I’m okay, thank you. Th-thank you so much…" He wraps his hooves around me, sobbing. I don’t know what to do, so I return his hug and start crying too. It’s the only thing that makes sense to do.
“Daddy, what w-was that all about? Who were those ponies, why were they so mean to you?”
Daddy takes a deep breath before answering me. “Don’t you worry about it, Fluttershy,” he says. “It’s just work troubles.”
“B-but they were so violent!" I say between sobs. “You work at a bank, nopony attacks a banker at his house! Celestia, look what they did to Mommy’s vase!”
I feel him cringe at that, and I do too. He doesn’t say anything in response; he only hugs me tighter. The two of us sit like that for a few minutes, on the floor of our apartment, Daddy covered in ashes.
After a few minutes, Daddy speaks. “Fluttershy, sweetie… I need to go to the bank…" He pauses at the word, taking a deep breath. “I need to go to the bank to get some money for dinner, okay?" He recedes from the hug and brushes his hoof through my mane.
“O-okay, Daddy,” I stutter in reply. I feel so shaken, and the thought of being alone—of Daddy being alone—after what just happened scares me. I think it scares him too, but Daddy is brave.
“You be good now, alright?" He says, standing up. “No wild house parties, promise?" He snickers weakly.
“Heeheehee—I promise, Daddy. No wild house parties.”
“And no secret boyfriends, either!" he says with a smile, picking up his coat and putting it over his wings. “I still have to fix the stairs from when your last one broke ‘em.”
“Ewwww, Daddy!" I squeal. “Dew Drop isn’t my boyfriend!”
“Heh, well good,” he says, “because I know my princess can do better than some doofus who gets his hooves stuck in floorboards." Daddy picks up his bit bag from the table by the door and puts it in his pocket. He stumbles a bit as he’s leaning his head over to do so, and clutches the spot on his side where that mean stallion kicked him.
“Daddy?" I take a nervous step forward as he grunts and stands straight again. “Are you sure you’re okay? I-I’m not that hungry, honest!”
“Don’t give me that sass, princess." He flashes me a grin as he opens the door. “What kind of father would I be to let my baby girl go hungry any night of the week?" He steps out into the cold, and turns around to close the door. I turn to go get a broom and dustpan from the kitchen to clean up what was left of Mommy’s vase. Maybe if I get enough, we can get a new vase and everything will be good as—
“Fluttershy?”
I turn around again. Daddy hasn’t closed the door, but is instead standing on the step, looking at me. He sighs, shifting under his coat.
“Y-yes, Daddy?”
“You know I love you, don’t you?”
The question takes me by surprise. “Of course I do, Daddy!" I exclaim. “And I love you too, because families love each other. You and Mommy taught me that years ago.”
“I… I know, Fluttershy. I’m so proud you remember what your mother and I said, that you—" He lurches, as if he were choking on something.
“D-daddy?”
“N-nothing, don’t worry about it." He coughs once, and flexes his wings through his coat. “I’ll be back in a few hours, okay sweetie?”
“Okay Daddy,” I reply. “Be safe!”
The door closes, and I’m alone. I look at the wall clock, and see that it’s just barely past four. And yet, I’m so tired. Maybe it’s because of what happened with those two stallions, but I want nothing more than to lie down for a little while.
I look at the pile of ash and broken shards that used to be Mommy’s vase. I decide Daddy will help me clean up when he gets back; he’ll probably want to help anyway, because it’s Mommy’s vase. Rather than going to get a broom and dustpan, I head to the bedroom, where my mattress and blanket lay on the floor, inviting me to take a nice, long nap. I climb under the sheet, pulling the whole thing over my head to block out as much of the cold as I can. Thankfully, the blanket is just big enough to cover me completely.
I shift around a little, trying to get comfortable. I feel my mind clearing of the horrible thing that happened just a few minutes ago, and within seconds I’m drifting into a dreamless sleep.
When I wake up, the room is dark. There’s a dull thudding noise, and it’s gotten much colder. I wish I had a bigger blanket so I wouldn’t be so cold when the winter comes.
That noise is getting louder. I roll around a bit and try to fall back asleep. It’s so dark out. What time is it? Maybe Daddy came home and decided to let me sleep.
The thudding becomes a banging. I think somepony is at the door.
I can hear the voices of two ponies. Neither of them are Daddy. I’m so tired, and I don’t want to get up. I wish they would just go away so I could sleep some more. My stomach hurts, probably because I’m hungry. I should have eaten more of that wheatloaf at lunch today.
One of the ponies outside, a mare, is shouting. “We’ve knocked enough times, that’s it! Break it down!”
I’m starting to feel more awake now. I realize the two ponies are trying to break in, and I gasp and leap up off my mattress. It’s even colder without my blanket, but I need to find a place to hide, someplace where I’ll be safe from the burglars until Daddy comes home.
“A-are you sure, Windwhip?" I hear the other pony say. “We could get in a lot of trouble with the chief if we just barge in like a couple of—“
“Dammit, I don’t care! You saw what happened to that stallion, are you gonna tell me your badge is worth more than making sure the same thing doesn’t happen to his kid?!”
The other pony says nothing. I crawl under Daddy’s bed—trembling—and hold my breath as I wait for something, anything, to save me from the shouting ponies outside. I shut my eyes with a whimper, remembering a brutish black stallion smashing Mommy’s vase over Daddy’s head and kicking him in the chest.
“Alright then! On the count of three, ready?" the mare says. I shift in place, trying to make myself smaller so that they might not see me under the bed.
“One!”
I try not to shiver from the cold or from fear. I’m positive that if I move even the slightest bit, the bed will twitch with me and give me away.
“Two!”
I don’t breathe, waiting for the countdown to turn into crashing.
“Three!”
The sound of hinges breaking lets me know I’m not alone. The voices are clearer now, and I shut my eyes, doing my best to suppress the instinct to quiver in fear.
“I swear to Celestia’s sparkly tiara, if we get in trouble for this, you are so taking the heat,” I hear the stallion say.
“Can it, there’s more important things going on than keeping good graces with the chief. Look at this place! It’s been ransacked!" The mare’s voice is even louder now that she’s inside. I can hear my heart thudding in my ears, each traitorous beat giving away my hiding spot. I can hear it, and I know they can hear it too.
“You don’t think they got here first, do you? I mean… I don’t hear anypony, maybe we should just go back to the station and report this.”
“You can wimp out now if you want, but I signed up to protect ponies, and I’m gonna freakin’ do my job." I can hear the scraping of the kitchen table across the floor. “So long as you’re being useful standing by the door, see if you can’t find a closet or something. She may be hiding somewhere.”
Oh Celestia, I knew it. I knew they’re looking for me. And when they find me, they’ll do to me what the other ponies did to Daddy, maybe even worse. I don’t want to get shouted at. I don’t want to get beaten. I just want Daddy to come home, to make them go away, to keep me safe from the mean pony I can hear walking into the bedroom right now.
My eyes peek open. I can see a pair of sky blue hooves walking across the floor, stopping, and turning towards my mattress. The pony leans down. Something glints on her chest as she moves my blanket aside and feels the mattress with a hoof.
“It’s still warm…” the mare says. She stands up again, and I close my eyes again, my body shuddering against my wishes. I press my wings tightly into my sides and try not to cry. If only I could fly, then I could have flown away as soon as I knew the bad ponies were breaking in.
I try to hold back a whimper, but it forces itself out as a squeak. Immediately I gasp, for I know I’ve been found out. My eyes open wide, and I feel a pressure build up behind then as tears start to form. I can see the mare is turning towards me, walking over to me, leaning down to look under the bed...
“Oh, thank Celestia! You’re—“
“Eeeyaaaah!" I scream and struggle to back away from the mare. As I shift backwards, my head lifts up and hits a board under the bed. “Oof!”
“Easy, easy, girl! I’m not here to hurt you, I promise!" She sounds sincere, but I don’t trust her for a second.
“Y-you leave me alone!” I shout at her, cowering under the bed. “Don’t c-come any closer!”
“Okay, okay, I’m staying right where I am, see?" I open my eyes, squinting, and see she’s true to her word. She is still leaning down, her face under the bed, but she isn’t moving an inch. It's too dark for me to make out her face, but I can tell she isn't coming for me yet.
“Windwhip, what is it? Did you find her?" I hear the stallion shout from the other room.
“Yeah, just gimme a minute!" the mare replies.
I shift a hoof to wipe the tears from my eyes, but the space under the bed is really small and I hit my head on another board. “Nnnnngh… Go away! Both of you!" I shout with a sniffle.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, sweetie pie,” she says, still not moving. “There’s no way in Tartarus I’m gonna leave you alone here.”
“I-I’m not alone! Daddy lives with me, and he’ll be home soon! Then you’ll be sorry for breaking in!" I’m almost screeching now. I can feel myself shaking incessantly. I can feel the moisture dripping down my cheeks. Daddy isn’t here with me to make it stop, only this awful, awful mare who broke into our home.
“K-kid…" She stutters for a moment. “Look, your dad isn’t coming home, okay? I need you to come with me. I need to get you somewhere safe.”
I try to shuffle backwards again, only to feel my backside hit the wall. “Why sh-should I go with you? You’re gonna hurt me, just like the ponies that hurt Daddy today!”
“I’m not gonna hurt you, girl! I’m here to keep that from happening!" She lets out another sigh as I shrink back towards the wall. “Alright, alright… What’s your name, kid? I’m running low on cutesy nicknames.”
I can feel my tail bunching up behind me. I know I’m cornered, that she’s going to wind up moving the bed eventually. All I can do is cry and wait for her to give up talking to me.
“Kid, seriously. I’m trying to help you, but you’ve gotta play along, okay?”
I hear her say that, and suddenly I remember what Daddy did when he was with those two mean stallions. He was stalling, because he knew something would make them leave. I have to stall too, just like Daddy would, until he comes home and makes these burglar ponies go away.
“F-Fluttershy,” I squeak out.
She sighs again. “You’re gonna have to speak up, girl.”
“My name is Fluttershy.”
“Fluttershy, eh? That’s a pretty name." She moves to scoot forward, and I flinch, nearly hitting my head again.
“Wh-what’s your name?" I whisper. I have to keep talking, so long as it keeps her from coming for me.
“Me? Name’s Windwhip, I’m a police pony for Cloudsdale’s southern district. That’s actually why I’m here.”
Police pony? Why would a police pony break into our apartment? Maybe she’s lying, maybe she’s not a police pony at all. But if she really is, she must be here to help me find Daddy. But what if she isn’t?
“Prove it,” I say, trying my hardest to be as stern as I can. I try to look her in the eyes, but I can’t help but flinch back again.
“What? Prove what, that I’m a cop?" She seems surprised. I hear something clicking, then she slides something under the bed. I open my eyes and see a shiny gold badge resting on the floor in front of me.
“Only the best and brightest are fit to walk the beat, kid. That there is reserved for true ponies of the law." She speaks with pride, and I can see a grin on her face when I look up from the badge. I’ve seen these before, once on the stallion that was talking with Daddy before we had to move out of our house, and once on another stallion who Daddy was arguing with about rent a few weeks ago.
The mare looks at me pleadingly now. “Is that proof enough, Fluttershy? Because I really need to get you out of here.”
I say nothing in response. Daddy hasn’t come home yet. The mare—Windwhip, I remember—is going to get upset and just move the bed soon enough. Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job stalling. But she is a police pony, so she wouldn’t be here to hurt me. At least I think so. Police ponies are supposed to be good, even if Daddy doesn’t get along with them.
“Windwhip, we can’t sit around here much longer!" the stallion shouts from the other room.
“Alright, enough’s enough. Sorry Fluttershy, but it’s for your own good." Windwhip stands up again. “Hey, get in here and help me move this bed!”
“Wait!" I scream.
“No can do, girl,” she says as she starts to push the bed, a loud scraping noise filling my ears.
“I’ll come with you! Promise!”
She pauses. The scraping stops. I see another set of hooves enter the room as Windwhip says, “Well, alright then. Need any help getting out from under there?”
I know there’s no other choice. I grab Windwhip’s badge in my mouth and scoot forward, using my rear legs to push myself along the floor and crawl out from under the bed. As soon as my head pokes out, I get my first look at the mare I’ve been talking to. She’s wearing a navy blue jacket over her natural sky-colored coat, with a navy hat to match. She leans down to help me out from under the bed, pulling me by the waist. I flinch at her touch, but say nothing.
Windwhip takes her badge from my mouth and fastens it onto her jacket. Her partner, a green-coated stallion in an outfit matching hers, looks nervously at her.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re going. Sheesh, you act like the reckless heroism was your idea.”
The stallion rolls his eyes, and Windwhip sits down on her haunches, leaning forward. “Hop on, Fluttershy,” she tells me, “it’s a bit of a long flight to the station.”
I climb onto her back without a sound. She stands up again and follows her partner out of the bedroom and out of the apartment. I give my blanket one last look, making a mental note to tell Daddy it’s too small for me now as soon as the police ponies let me go. As Windwhip walks out the broken door of my home, I see Mommy’s shattered vase is still on the floor. I never cleaned it up so that Daddy and I could get a new vase. I hope Daddy won’t be mad.
Windwhip’s wings spread, and she takes flight. It’s too dark for me to see how high up we are, but I cling to her backside anyway. The rhythmic beating of her wings and the rushing sound of cold wind in my face are all I hear as she carries me away from home.
The police station is almost empty. I’m sitting on a stool—shivering—clutching Windwhip’s navy jacket to my chest for warmth, as I have been for what feels like hours. Windwhip gave it to me when we got here and I told her it was cold. She’s filling out a paper on the other side of the room, but doesn’t seem to mind not having her jacket. Maybe police ponies are used to the cold.
The other pony who flew with us isn’t here anymore, so it’s just Windwhip and I. Every few minutes she turns around to look at me, then goes back to filling out the papers. The voices of two mares are carrying over from another room. I wonder if they’ve found Daddy.
“Miss Windwhip?" I say with a yawn.
She doesn’t turn around from her papers. “What’s up, kiddo?”
“When can I see my Daddy? I wanna go home.”
She stops writing. I see her shoulders heave, and she turns around, looking forlornly at me. She takes a deep breath, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, she stands there, eyes closed, until I ask again.
“I can see him soon, right?" I squeak, my mouth hidden under Windwhip’s jacket. I think I’m bothering her. Maybe she doesn’t know.
“Look, F-Fluttershy..." she stutters, looking at the floor in front of me. “Your dad, he’s not... I mean, he can’t..." She looks off to the side, grimacing. “Sonuva peach basket, I’m no good at this.”
It’s then that the double doors to the room open, and a tall grey mare shuffles in from outside. Windwhip breathes a sigh of relief and says, “About friggin’ time you showed up. Couldn’t have better timing too.”
“Nice to see you too,” the other mare replies. She gestures to me. “So working the night shift payed off for once?”
“More like breaking and entering payed off,” Windwhip says sheepishly. “B-but it was totally worth it! I found her hiding under a bed, who knows if those goons might’ve shown up there next?”
The taller pony begins pouring coffee from a machine in the other corner of the room. “You did the right thing,” she says.
“Yeah, well, mind telling that to the chief?" Windwhip taps her pile of paper with a hoof, rolling her eyes. “She’s gonna have my flank on a platter for the stunt I pulled to get this li’l one out of trouble.”
“I’ll be sure to put in a good word or two for your actions, however brash they were. Now..." She takes a sip from her coffee as she walks towards me. The smell is strong and bitter, nothing like how Daddy’s smells before he goes out at night. She leans down and smiles at me. “What can you tell me about yourself, young lady?" Her voice is soft, like the flower petals Daddy put in my hair on the first day of school.
“I-I want my Daddy,” I squeak out.
She looks at Windwhip, who shrugs. She sighs, then turns to me. “Why don’t we go have a talk in the other room, okay? It’ll be a little warmer than in here. That’ll be nice, won’t it?”
I nod. If nopony is going to tell me where Daddy is, I’d rather wait for him somewhere warm. She smiles at me again, before taking me by the hoof to lead me out of the room. I’m still clutching to Windwhip’s jacket, and I nearly trip over it as the tall mare is walking me away.
“Why don’t we give Officer Windwhip her uniform back, okay?" She lets go of my hoof and gestures me towards Windwhip, who is sitting on her haunches and looking forlornly at me. I shuffle over to her, the large jacket draped over my back. She shifts in place as I stop in front of her. I wait for her to take her uniform from me, but instead she grabs me and pulls me into a hug.
“Eep!" I don’t like it when ponies touch me without warning, but I don’t want to seem rude either, so I stay motionless. Despite the jacket having dropped to the floor, I’m surprisingly warm thanks to Windwhip’s forelegs that are draped around me.
She pulls back and looks into my eyes, her own eyes misty. “Things are gonna be okay, Fluttershy,” she says intently. “I’ll make sure of it.”
I’m about to question what she means, but she stands up and immediately walks away, grabbing her jacket and papers on the way out of the room. She goes through a single door next to the coffee machine, and disappears.
It’s colder now. I sit in place, shivering, as the other mare walks over to me. “Let’s go, sweetie,” she says.
She takes me by the hoof again and leads me through another door on the other side of the room from where Windwhip left. It opens into a hallway cramped with file cabinets, bookshelves, and even a water cooler. It’s less cold as we go further into the building, and I want to ask where we’re going, and if Daddy is back here somewhere, but I remember Windwhip and don’t want to upset this pony too.
Finally, she opens a door and ushers me into a tiny room with two chairs and a table. It’s very warm here, and the chairs are cushioned and one even has a pillow on it. I think the mare is going to sit in that chair, because she’s a grown-up pony and grown-ups get to pick things first, but instead she points me to the big chair and says, “Why don’t you take that seat there? I bet it’s loads more comfortable than that crummy stool in the lobby.”
Seeing no reason to argue, I walk over and climb onto the chair. It’s softer than my mattress, and the pillow rests on one of the sides so I can lean into it. I want to fall asleep right there, but the mare keeps talking.
“What’s your name, young lady?” she asks me.
“Fluttershy,” I answer quickly. The chair and pillow and warmth of the room are making me very comfortable, more comfortable than I’ve ever been in my life.
“My name is Silver Bell,” she says, “and I’m a social worker for the city of Cloudsdale. It’s my job to make sure all the little fillies and colts are safe with their families, or..." She pauses, grimacing. “...Or have other arrangements in place.”
This mare—Silver Bell—sounds like somepony who would know where Daddy is, or at least when I can see him again. I remember Windwhip getting upset when I asked her, but I don’t think this pony will be the same.
“M-miss Silver Bell? Do y-you know where my Daddy is?" Even though I’m not cold, I still shudder as I ask her.
Just like Windwhip, she lets out a sigh and looks at the ground. At first I think she’s upset, and I start to think that I was right and that I shouldn’t have asked her. But then, she looks up at me, smiling painfully, and walks over to the other side of the table and sits in the other chair.
“Fluttershy, I need you to listen to me. I need you to listen very carefully." Her tone is almost urgent. I’m starting to feel uncomfortable again. I lean forward anxiously.
“You’re going to go through a very hard time, something nopony should ever have to go through. You’re going to experience things nopony should, and there won’t be anypony around to relate." She pauses, taking a deep breath in and out. “You’re going to feel alone, because your friends won’t understand. It doesn’t mean you’re any worse, only different.
“But you will never be alone, Fluttershy. So long as you are as patient with your friends as they are with you, and as kind to them as you’d want them to be to you, you will never be alone. You’ll never have to be alone if you don’t want to be.”
“Wh-what do you mean? Where’s D-Daddy?" I stammer.
Silver Bell sighs, then opens her mouth to speak. Moments later, I’m crying, sobbing, bawling in her embrace.
Weeks later, I sit alone at a lunch table.
Feather Duster and Dew Drop sit across the room from me, laughing along with two other ponies in our class. I haven’t spoken to them in a while, so they haven’t spoken to me in a while. That’s okay. I don’t really feel like speaking anyway.
I’m living in a foster home with many other fillies and colts. Silver Bell still checks up on me every few days, asking if there’s anything I need. I want to ask her to get my blanket from my home, but it’s not my home anymore.
I feel a pressure building up behind my eyes as moisture fogs my vision. Feather Duster says I cry too much now, but I can’t help it. I shove my lunch tray away and put my head down, sniffling.
“Hey, you gonna eat that?" A filly’s raspy voice rings in my ears. I ignore her, hoping she’ll leave me alone. I wish everypony would leave me alone, so I could leave them alone.
She speaks to me again. “Cuz, y’know, it looks like you’ve barely even touched it. Like, not even a little.”
I try and fail to suppress a shudder. It’s so cold in the lunchroom now, just like it was cold under the bed and in the police station. Images of a brutish, blue-eyed stallion and a shattered vase flash through my mind, and I whimper out loud.
“Woah, you alright?" The filly is still there. “You’re not crying or anything, are ya? Not that there’s anything wrong with crying, I mean—”
I lift my tear-stained face from the table. I’m greeted with the sight of a pony with the same color coat as Windwhip, only with the most bizarre rainbow-colored mane and tail.
She takes one look at me and winces. “Awwwww, poopsicles—I mean, hey, uhm..." She rubs the back of her neck nervously.
“Know what?" Her grimace transforms into a grin. “You’re looking awfully lonely over here in the corner, and this is my first day in this joint. Whaddya say we do each other a favor?" With a single beat of her wings, she hops over the table and lands at my side. “Name’s Rainbow Dash, most awesome pegasus this side of the universe." She flashes me a devilish smile. “And you? Tell me it isn’t something lame like Dewey Droppings over there.”
I wince at that. “F-Fluttershy,” I whisper.
“Ha! Suits you, girl!" She drapes a forehoof around me, waving the other in a wide arc before us. “You and me, Buttercry—”
“Fluttershy.”
“—Same diff.”
As she proceeds to stand on the table and buzz her wings fiercely, I can’t help but grin at her antics. Other ponies look over at us—at her—and I don’t shrink back from their gaze. I know the spotlight isn’t on me, but I also remember, as I will always remember, that I don’t have to be alone if I don’t want to be.
