Chapters ''Fluttershy! Fluttershy over here!'' Screamed a tall green mare as she held up her hoof to attract a little too much attention for Fluttershy's liking.
If only they knew that none of this was her fault. Screams filled the air but Fluttershy knew how pathetic and defenceless she was as the sounds exploded around her. The delightful sunny day fell into a chasm of black.
Beep!
Fluttershy opened her eyes. A dream. No, a nightmare... again. The mare rolled out of her expensive yet tacky bed. Suddenly she became aware of where she was and the memories flooded into her, breaking her heart as she remembered that most of the nightmare rang true. She pulled on her 'incredible van-off-a-kind' outfit, well that's what Photo Finish called it anyway.
She knew that she had to escape.
The pink maned mare sighed as she stared herself down in her dainty mirror, her reflection was no longer her. It wasn't who she truly was. She had lost weight, at first she was joyful of this as Pinkie Pie's cupcake season always lead her to gaining a couple pounds. Then the real loss happened after an encounter with the other models.
Fluttershy recalled the day clearly. The day she was finally going to meet some of Photo Finish's other models she had been helping to ''shine all over Equestria''. At first she was quite excited about the day but as soon as she saw three of the exquisite, expressionless models she thought otherwise. The first one introduced herself as Limelight, she sounded sarcastic and insincere as she spoke those words. She was light green in colour with a straight blonde and light blue mane. She wore an incredible diamond encrusted dress with satin bows, so beautiful that even a great designer like Sapphire Shores would be jealous of them. Secondly there was a deep blue coloured mare named Catwalk, Catwalk sounded very upper class and had a most gorgeous face. Fluttershy remembered how intimidated she felt when she saw Catwalk's cheekbones for the first time. Again, Catwalk looked Fluttershy up and down, then crinkled her snout in disgust. Fluttershy lowered her head so it had almost touched the ground that day, like the time she was bullied at flight school. She had never felt so unworthy to be in anypony's presence in her whole life than at that exact moment.
And so it did.
The light yellow coated mare stared at her sad reflection again, letting the memories flow. She flashed back and saw herself begging Photo Finish to let her see her friends again and how they would think of her as selfish if she didn't even get to see them. She saw herself trying to run out of the large doors of ''Photo Finish's Institution of Extreme Modelling'' but the tall, shady stallions grabbing her harsly and shaking and shouting and telling her to get back to her room. She kicked and screamed for hours. For hours and hours.
She remembered how she couldn't escape then and how she still couldn't escape now. Unless she timed her escape, unless she waited for the right moment.
Fluttershy drooped her ears slowly and sighed again as she stared at the bottle of mane dye on her dresser. It had a note scruffily taped on it which Fluttershy didn't bother to read after seeing the initials ''P.F'' on them. She knew what this meant as it had happened a hundred thousand times before. Quickly, she picked up the bottle and read the front, ''black ombre dye for extreme fashionistas''.
My prize model, Just to informing you zat I vill be travelling to Germaney zis veek so please be preparing yourself for ven I return.
Photo Finish
Germaney..? She was leaving for a whole week? Fluttershy couldn't help but smile as tears formed in her dazzling turquoise eyes. Maybe this was the opportunity she has wished and prayed for. Maybe she could finally escape this horrid institute once and for all... to see her friends again. She wiped away her tears, skipped down the large spiral stairs and called for Shapshot to inform her of the plan she was making to leave for good.
She called ''Snapshot... umm... Snapshot?'' Only to be met with the response of a different mare altogether.
Escaping with Snapshot was going to be harder than what naive Fluttershy had thought.
Fluttershy cantered past the doors to the large auditorium when she found herself stopping to peek through the windows at the young and hopeful auditionees trying to ''shine all over Equestria''. She knew that none of them would actually be accepted though, as all the models here had one thing in common; Photo Finish had found them , they weren't looking for careers in fashion with Photo Finish. This made all auditions destined to fail and today was no exception as the yellow mare saw. As expected, the filly strutting her stuff on stage soon burst into tears after the judges all simulatenously gestured ''NO'' without any hesitation. The filly saw this as a terrible thing but for poor Fluttershy trapped in the Institute, she saw this as a blessing for each filly trying to model. After all, why on earth would any pony want to live their life in a dreadful, controlling place like this.
''C'mon Fluttershy, I watched the boring butterfly migration with you, now it's your turn to watch the dragon migration with me!'' Rainbow Dash hissed impatiently, which was the usual tone she used when dealing with ponies like Derpy and Fluttershy.
''I...said...NO!'' Screamed Fluttershy
She smashed Rainbow Dash to the floor then jumped onto her harshly, pressing and sqeezing the air out of Rainbow's lungs, and dove for the window. She had never felt such power come from her back legs before.
Fluttershy took a large breath of air in, readied herself and bucked the door so hard, a farm pony like Applejack would've been proud! The oak door slammed down to reveal Snapshot. She was bound, ropes tied tightly around her fore and hind legs. Her snout was completely enclosed in a mess of dirty rags to prevent her from squealing and indeed breathing well. Her mane was a mess, clumps torn out and strewn across the floor of her chic room. Two drops of blood poured down her forehead.
''Snapshot, Photo Finish is is Germaney all week, this is our one chance to really leave this place for good, so, well, here's what I think we could do...'' Fluttershy began to hatch her plan.
Pinkie Pie sat at a pink table, poking a cupcake.and had tried to visit, but she still wasn't able to visit her friend. She sighed deeply.
The five set off to the Fashion Institute, exchanging ideas of how their shy friend had turned out after the months of modelling, wondering whether they really were prepared to see her again after she had tried so hard to ignore them.
3 months earlier. ''Limelight! Limelight please. I'm begging you. Just one letter p-please... one letter...'' Fluttershy begged, her figure lowered to the ground, one hoof slightly raised, eyes teary, like when Gilda the Griffon yelled at her publicly. Catwalk stood slightly behind Limelight, sniggering. ''Get out of my face, you worthless fat, ugly thing,'' Limelight began, ''you'll never be as beautiful as us, so why don't you just give up?'' Limelight ripped up Fluttershy's decorated letter and threw the shreds in her face before strutting off. ''But... I Pinkie promised'' Fluttershy sniffed. Some of her letter's shreds began to crumple as Fluttershy's tears soaked the ground.
Five ponies trotted gently down to Ponyville train station, chatting loudly as they exchanged ideas. Rarity had decided to hide her guilt on this beautiful morning by chatting happily to the others. The bitter-sweet situation seemed almost too good to be true. And it was. One of the five, usually a loud, bubbly character had whittled down to a quieter character over the last six or seven months. She lowered her head in a sulk, contemplating. No pony had to ask what was wrong, as the answer was in plain sight. Although the pony would hate to admit it herself, she missed her friend a great deal. Her ears lowered as she flashed back to when she first became friends with Fluttershy.
''And what are you gonna do, Rainbow Crash?'' ''Keep making fun of her and find out!''
The daredevil recalled the race she won in defence of her friend's honor and smiled. It was the first nice thing she had ever done for a meek, timid pony like Flutters. She felt remorseful that she hadn't treated other timid ponies such as Derpy in the same way. The mare looked back and cherished the sweet memory of Fluttershy's face as she smiled, admiring the fast pony's newfound cutie mark.
''Wow Dashie I can't believe you got your cutie mark in that race, it must've been incredible!'' ''It sure was, but you got your cutie mark too!'' ''Yeah but I'm way older than you... I should've got mine way earlier and yours has awesome lightning bolts. Mine is just a couple of butterflies.'' ''Fluttershy, pal. Our cutie marks are equal, if it wasn't for you being so shy I wouldn't have even raced and then I wouldn't have got this amazing cutie mark. It's thanks to you that I have it, ya hear me? You're the cause of my sonic rainboom and both our marks, my awesomeness is all thanks to you! You don't realise how amazing you can be, you always try so hard to equal yourself to all the other fillies and colts but today I've realised that you're actually better than them in many ways. You're kind and sweet, you're the kindest pony I know and we'll always be the bestest of friends. I'm sorry I don't appreciate you as much as I should and forgive me for not saying this before. You're like the sister I never had, even if we aren't alike. So don't put yourself down. You have to stop beating yourself up about things, alright? Promise?'' ''Rainbo-'' ''Promise?'' ''I promise.'' The two fillies exchanged a tearful hug. Of course, it was only tearful for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash never cried. Something huge had to happen to make Rainbow Dash cry.
Like right now, for example. Try as she might, Rainbow Dash just could not contain herself as a single, solitary tear trickled down her nuzzle. However, unlike usual she didn't attempt to snap out of it and wipe away her liquid pride - or in this case liquid sorrow. The cyan pegasus continued to allow her memories to flow. It was at that moment that she realised that it was not her that allowed her friends to find their destinies, therefore obtaining their cutie marks. It was Fluttershy. A wave of bitter guilt swept through her body as she recalled how awfully she had treated her 'bestest friend' after they had left flight camp.
''Er Twilight, are you sure you want to bring Fluttershy?! That pony is afraid of her own shadow!'' The pegasus interrogated impatiently.
Rainbow Dash sighed, once again her impatience and arrogance had blinded her all day. Why had she not helped Fluttershy instead of bullying her and then allowing her other friends to step into a dangerous situation which she knew Fluttershy would easily be able to handle if she put her mind to it? All she needed was the right encouragement from her.
The two pegasi pulled the carriage with all their might to try and catch up with Applejack, who had the upper hand with four earth pony stallions pulling her carriage through the plains. Applejack raced ahead, but the others were hot on her tail. They were about to catch up when a defenceless bunny which reminded Fluttershy of Angel hopped in their way. Fluttershy wouldn't allow the bunny to be killed. With all her might, she dug her hooves into the ground so hard that they stopped the cart, the three ponies in it and Rainbow Dash beside her, saving the bunny's life. The enormous effort made her hooves bleed slightly but she was sure that her heroic task made Rainbow Dash proud. But no such luck. She turned around to see anger, impatience and disappointment in Rainbow Dash's face. At this, she lowered her head. Rainbow Dash must value Applejack more than her.
Dash kicked the ground. Why didn't she appreciate the gift of her friend? If she had just given Fluttershy some praise, they would have achieved so much more.
''Come on! You aren't gonna go quit because of that are you?!'' Rainbow Dash asked, annoyed. ''YES!'' Fluttershy's eyes filled with tears, they streamed down her face and she breathed heavy, helpless sobs. ''Rainbow Dash's face changed instantly from impatience to understanding. Only Fluttershy could move the cyan pegasus in this way. But still Rainbow Dash pushed her on, ''But I need you!'' ''I'm sorry Rainbow Dash,'' She tried to continue ''I just don't have the courage right now'' Fluttershy ran off. She remembered earlier, how she looked up at the sky to see the flight leader, brave, fearless Rainbow Dash who she looked up to with all her heart. She hoped Rainbow Dash had admiration to give to her too, but Dash just stood there. Dash looked upset for a second, but remembered her reputation and gave an angry kick to the ground before sulking off.
''Why didn't I help her?!'' Rainbow Dash had now burst into tears, much to the shock of her friends. She hadn't meant to say that part aloud, it must've made her sound insane, but she didn't care. It was almost instinctive to her, the pegasus has always known when something was wrong with Fluttershy and over the months, something didn't feel quite right.
''Rainbow Dash, what ever is the matter?'' Rarity inquired, confused.
''But you do know something about Rainbow Dash.'' Twilight announced. ''I know that she's a true friend and I'll do anything I can to help her!'' Fluttershy exclaimed.
''Because she's always been like a sister to me.'' Finished Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy was hard at work, cleaning up the many cuts and bruises on Snapshot's body whilst humming a comforting lullaby. Occasionally Snapshot winced, but she was very grateful for the help.
''So... you really think we can leave here?'' She asked
Meanwhile, the five friends were boarding a two day train to Fluttershy's destination.
''Rainbow Dash, are you feeling any better?'' Pinkie Pie questioned.
At the institute, Fluttershy and Snapshot were hard at work, planning carefully.
The next day, they put their plan into action.
It all began by acquiring the door password and they needed Catwalk in order to do this. The two ponies had completely forgotten about Snapshot until the next day, when to their horror they realised they had left her tied up.
''Ok, ok. We can fix this. Limelight? Go untie her! I'm sure she hasn't starved to death yet! It's only been a day! But still..Photo Finish will kill us if she finds out we left Snapshot tied up!'' Catwalk ordered.
Limelight ran into Snapshot's room when WHAM! Before she could even wonder how the door had been bucked down she was hit hard in the face by a frying pan. By Fluttershy, who had hit her with the frying pan. The butterscotch pony dragged Limelight's unconscious body to the corner of the room, smiling at Snapshot.
A few minutes later, Limelight awoke and was eventually 'persuaded' to give up the door code. Although she looked tough, over the months Fluttershy came to realise what a soft, background character she was. It didn't take much to break her. Two bottles of mane dye and a pair of scissors to be exact.
''I told you it's 2-3-6-4! Now leave me alone!'' Limelight cried.
Fluttershy nodded at Snapshot, but Snapshot seemed distracted. The pegasus began to wonder why but suddenly...
As the frying pan collided with Fluttershy's face, causing a large cut, she fell to the ground. She hit her head on the table nearby with a large thud.
She could barely see, but she looked up to see the inevitable. But the inevitable was not seen. Instead, Snapshot held the frying pan.
''S... Snapshot.. w-why...?'' Fluttershy mumbled before passing out.
Fluttershy's eyed opened. She gazed out of a window nearby to see that it was the next day before realizing her situation. She was tied up in her room. Her door was fixed. Nothing was out of place. Everything was tidy. Then she looked up to see Limelight, Catwalk and Snapshot. Was it true? Had Snapshot betrayed her?
''Snapshot?''
The three ponies left the room, leaving poor Fluttershy alone to once again feel pathetic.
Meanwhile, the 5 friends were almost at their destination. The train was warm, with butterscotch walls and little lanterns that illuminated the train when it became dark. It was mid afternoon and the ponies were enjoying tea on the train.
''Oh these scones are wonderful Pinkie'' Twilight began.
Silence fell over the ponies.
''Do ya think she's fergotten us?'' Applejack asked.
More silence.
''Do you guys think... it's possible something happened to Fluttershy?'' Rainbow cried.
Evening was drawing near, and still Fluttershy sat bounded by rope in her room. Suddenly, something errupted inside her. She instantly felt a power, an urge to escape. An urge to break free. An urge to get revenge. She began to smile.
''Snapshot...''
Idiots... Fluttershy thought as she spread her wings. Of course they had forgotten to tie those up. She spread her right wing and buried it into her mane, pulling out her hidden pen knife with great difficulty. She slid it into her mouth and began hacking at the brown rope. It was going to take a while.
The five ponies finished their very long walk up to the institute, approaching the large black gates.
Fluttershy had just finished tearing off the final rope pieces. She flared her wings in triumph and then paused to notice the large amount of blood the cut on her face had created.
''I'm sorry, Fluttershy is not available right now.''
The yellow pegasus began trotting at first down to the front of the building, Luna's moon had risen high in the sky and it was beginning to get very late. It was the perfect time to escape and only two grey guards were on patrol, nopony else was visible near the front entrance.
''Can you just let us in darling, this is getting quite nonsensical. I know Photo Finish you know. I'm Rarity.''
Fluttershy had found her advantage. Wings. She just had to fly along these three dark corridors and she'd be on the home stretch.
''JUST OPEN THE GATE OR WE'LL BREAK IT DOWN. THIS IS STUPID! I'M NOT ONE TO GET MAD BUT...SERIOUSLY. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?'' Twilight could no longer contain herself.
Fluttershy burst through to a corridor connecting to the main hall, she made a break for it, her wings furiously flapping like crazy. She clumsily dropped her little knife as she flew.
Finally, it was Rainbow Dash's turn as midnight drew near.
Fluttershy was surrounded, her heart beat sped impossibly.
Snapshot handed the knife to her. ''I can't''
She was about to make it, she was reaching the door, she was typing the code in..
Rainbow Dash sighed, ''I'll give you to the count of three to open the gate and the door.''
Fluttershy screamed as she doged a guard and soared upwards.
''That sounded like Fluttershy!'' Twilight exclaimed.
Fluttershy was swooping upwards. She smiled, everything was going to be okay, they couldn't get her up her. She heard Catwalk's muffled screams from below as she beat her wings.
''Two''
The yellow pegasus had almost reached the top when she looked down and saw her worst nightmare.
''THREE!''
CRASH!
Fluttershy burst throught the glass roof and raced off into the night, she was going to die. Why? The grey guards had spread their large wings which were hidden under their uniforms and had sped off after her. They were gaining on her and she knew it. She heard the clock from the institute strike midnight, she smiled a sad smiled and silver tears welled up in her big eyes. My birthday... She thought as she closed her eyes. This time there was no going back. She turned to face the guards, to face her fate. They were mere metres from her yet the world seemed to slow down in that brief moment.
''My friends, I'm sorry I never got to say good-''
BANG.
Fluttershy was knocked back and began to plummet towards the ground, and as she fell she opened one eye. She smiled the biggest smile she could manage. It was her saviour, Rainbow Dash. Loyal, dependable Rainbow Dash coming to save her in the nick of time with a sonic rainboom. But she hadn't counted on the fact that Fluttershy was blown back so far that she was falling too fast, losing the ability to use her wings.
''Guys I think I see her falling!'' Twilight yelled ''Quick, Rarity, help me!''
Rainbow Dash had just finished her wonderful rainboom. She laughed in joy at the fact she had defeated the baddies and saved the day! Then she turned around and her face fell. Fluttershy wasn't behind her, cheering, she was falling.
The yellow pegausus was very near the ground now and the unicorns began to focus their aura on her.
Rainbow Dash was unresponsive as she sat beside Fluttershy. Her once sleek yellow coat was ripped and in tatters. Her delicate wings now bent, tired and worn. Her long shiny mane was now a black knotty mess with several parts ripped out. Her body was covered in rope burn and scars. Rainbow could do nothing but sit for a while, her unimaginable guilt resting on her shoulders. Then she walked over to her friend.
''You didn't fail Rainbow. You saved me'' Fluttershy smiled.
