"But... but HOW. DID. THIS. HAPPEN?"
Rainbow was losing her patience. This was old.
She had always stood by Fluttershy's side. Fluttershy had always downplayed all that was done to her. So afraid that they might be harmed in Rainbow's rage. So unwilling to look out for herself. So happy to just let this slip by without notice. But Rainbow Dash knew better.
She knew all Fluttershy's tricks, and would not let her get out of this without explaining EXACTLY what happened.
She had an awful lot to explain.
Like WHAT had she been thinking, and doing, wandering the Everfree so late at night? HOW did she end up in her current state? WHY would she not speak to her oldest friend? WHO did this to her? WHAT. THE. HAY. HAPPENED. in there. Most pressingly, WHY was she covered in blood?
Fluttershy refused flatly to make eye contact with her friend. She was well meaning. Fluttershy knew that, had always known that. But she could not speak to her. Not about this. Not now.
Rainbow huffed. She snorted like a mad bull. She screamed. She sighed. She admitted defeat. She hated admitting defeat. She admitted it now. Nothing was going to convince her quiet friend to own up to whatever had been done to her in the darkness last night. For now.
Rainbow let out a slow, sad breath.She sat dejectedly at the end of the bed, the fresh morning light catching the gentle notes of colour in her glittering mane. She looked down sadly at her gentle friend.
Nopony had seen Fluttershy in days. This alone was not so unusual. She did keep to herself, after all. She did always avoid other pony's eyes and words like the plague. But she had declined her friends' invitations to a party, a barn-raising, a book reading, a fashion show and a sports event. That was not like her. She would not hurt their feelings unless there was a darn good reason for it. Now Rainbow Dash was determined to find out what that was.
"Fluttershy..." she began, more gently with her easily frightened friend, before realising something: Fluttershy had not shrunk back from any of her previous ranting, instead sitting, unmoved, between crisp white sheets, and staring blankly at Rainbow's attempts at interrogation. This was extremely unlike her. Rainbow did not like it, one little bit.
"Fluttershy... Please. Tell me. Tell me what happened last night. You know you can tell me anything. I swear, if you don't want me to hurt whoever did this to you, I can hold my hooves. Just this once. I need to know. Please..."
At her friend's pleas, a small shiver went down Fluttershy's spine. But she could not speak. Her tongue was trapped like a dodo in a thorn bush. No word would cross her soft yellow lips.
Rainbow steadily grew more depressed, watching the light run over her foalhood companion's face, and took to staring blankly at her shining pink hair, spread in a curtain across her pillow. There must be something that could be done. Surely. There just had to be. But everything had been done already! Her little bunny soft toy had been fetched from the bed in her chillingly empty cottage. Her favourite food had been prepared, and sat, uneaten, before her. That little rat Angel Bunny had been searched for, but was nowhere to be found at this most urgent time for his gentle mistress. Typical. The other four had been fetched and stood outside the room, murmuring softly of their worry. But she had only wanted to speak to Rainbow Dash. And here she lay. Silent as the grave.
Rainbow Dash began to cry. Softly. Shamefully. There was nothing left to do. She slowly lowered her head down into the pillow next to Fluttershy, resting her forehead in her best friend's long, silky mane and letting the tears flow out. Here was the only friend she would trust with her tears. The only friend to have stood by her, quivering, when she got into trouble in flight school or picked fights with the bigger students. The friend who's entire being seemed to consist of nothing but kindness. Infuriating, sweet, beautiful kindness. The friend who had been found on the edge of Everfree at midnight, covered in blood. The friend who would not explain this.
Fluttershy suddenly began to cry. This was an improvement. She felt the tears of her oldest companion, the friend who had protected her from bullies and from danger her entire life, sliding down her own left cheek. She slowly lifted a hoof to Rainbow's shoulder to comfort her, but then it happened again:
The animals crowded about her, her ever-beloved animals. Their soft faces should be filling her with joy. She knew that. but she felt... repulsed. Was that it? Was that possible? No. She was sure it couldn't be. She pushed the thought from her mind. Why would she think such a thing? What was wrong with her? Then she saw it. The big, strong beavers had taken well over half of the food, while the hundreds of little mice had almost nothing left over to eat. "Oh! You must be vey, very, hungry, my little animal friends! Let me get that for you!" She poured out more food in front of the mice. The biggest rabbit jumped forward and ate it all in one gulp. She blinked. How did he even fit all that into his little stomach?
"Now, now, don't ruin your appetite for lunch, my little friends! You'll make your little tummies hurt! Now here's some food for the mice. They look awfully hungry!" She poured some food directly before a small mother mouse, whose baby was crying gently from hunger in her arms.But before she could stop to smile at the sweet little creature, who was reaching toward the food hungrily, a big white shape bounded onto the scene, and before shew could say STOP! the food was gone. The mother mouse began to cry. Angel happily gulped down his mouthful and grinned mischieviously at his master. But she was not impressed. That was the last of the bag!
She ignored her insensitive friend and leaned forward to comfort the mouse, but the baby would not be consoled.It cried out in its high, piercing little voice, demanding nourishment and attention. Fluttershy cried a little bit. The poor baby! Seeing that they had upset her, the rabbits gave her a little pat on the back and a flower, but then hopped outside without concern for the smaller guests that had hurt.
Walking through the market, Fluttershy was doing well. She had so far not screamed or cried at any of the frighteningly surprising things or ponies around her. But then she saw something that made her jaw drop and her whithers quake. She tried to turn around, but it was too late.
"Hey, look, it's Stutter-cry!" Yelled a thick and dull voice. "How's it going, Stutter-cry?"
The voices had followed her, laughing, all the way home, though their owners remained at the market place, She had thought that leaving Cloudsdale would finally rid her of those awful ponies from Flight School! The world below the sky was going to be a wondrous paradise, filled with lovely gentle animals that understood her and never took advantage of those smaller than her. Right?
Wrong. So very wrong.
When she arrived back at the cottage, she gasped. The biggest otter was pushing a baby bunny around: It was angry, really angry. The little bunny had sat on the riverbank and been accosted by the bully, who demanded the the baby give him food in exchange for the priviledge of having sat there. When the baby had adamantly claimed to have no food, he had begun pushing it around.
Tears welled up in Fluttershy's eyes. She had failed, in her panicked flight from the Flight School cronies to pick up the food. And when she looked at her coin-purse, she realized it was empty. She had already spent the last of her savings on food for her little friends. But somehow they managed to turn it into a horrid competition, and hurt each other over what she had gotten them. As she watched the otter, it looked up at her curiously. It's face twisted into a guilty little smile. But that wasn't what she saw. The otter was grinning at her deviously. His eyes glittered. Suddenly, he spoke.
"Heya, Stutter-cry! What's wrong? Don't like getting your mane wet?" He let go of the struggling bunny, who rolled forward into the stream on its own momentum, and cried at it dragged its shivering form up onto the bank. Fluttershy was horrified. She scream and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, the otter was just growling softly like a normal otter. She shook her head, and scooped up the little bunny, who was shaking violently. She needed some sleep.She had been up all night, every night for a week now, trying to keep peace between her furred friends, but no matter how hard she tried, they kept fighting.
"Stutterrr-Crryyyy..." The voice came softly, chillingly, and Fluttershy squeaked as she dropped her poor patient and looked over at the otter. Was it grinning again? It couldn't be. No, it was Angel who had spoken this time. He stood in her path, grinning maliciously. But he was suddenly enormous. and turning brown. Her eyes glazed over with fright at this new apparition, and she tripped backward over her own hooves, landing on something that wasn't the hard ground of the cottage garden, but something softer, gentler, and... white. She was seeing in blue and white.
As the new figure of her adversary stepped forward, she gripped the little bunny against her chest so hard that it began to squirm from her grasp, gasping slightly.
"Oh, Stutter-Cry, shouldn't you know better than to stand around this pony? You know she smashes every cloud she touches! She might smash you, one of these days! Gee, what a shame. looks like she's taken a bit of a tumble into the rain machines! Guess Mr. Lightstorm won't be too happy about that, will he?"
The otter stepped forward, but he was big now, really big. "Ho-ho-ho! Stutter-cry! YOU, standing up for HER?
He gestured to the little rabbit in her arms. She couldn't take it any more. She ran into the house.
"You should stand up for yourself, Fluttershy. Not let yourself get pushed around, you know?" this a husky, familiar voice to her right. She spun around, but there was just a rabbit, staring at her blankly. She looked out side. Nothing abnormal. Just rabbits, otters, beavers and birds. She sighed. "Now to get you cleaned up, I guess! She smiled weakly down at the bundle in her arms. Clasped so tightly to her chest. So very, very tightly. That was when she realised it had gone limp. Her eyes shot open in horror. Then it happened again.
"Hey, watch it, Fluttershy, you're squeezing me too tight. You're going to KILL my daredevil reputation!" The voice was very familiar. Flutttershy shook, chilled to her core, as if a great wind had blown through her. "Well? You gonna stand up against those dumb, stupid bullies, or what? What's a little rainwater to me? They were pushing you around! Are you really going to just sit by your whole life and let them do that?"
Suddenly, her own voice was crying out to her from the corner of the room: A little mouse had crawled from her hole.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash, if it means so very much to you, of course I won't!"
The bunny in Fluttershy's arms flopped wetly to the floor with a sickeningly unexpexted heaviness. Was it hopping? falling? Suddenly it was flying.
Harsh laughter crashed the odd silence of the room.It was the bullies again.
"What's that, you're going to stand up for Rainbow-Crash? You can hardly stand up for your own legs!" The otter rushed between her trembling hooves, tripping her up. Suddenly her house was lit up with light and terrible laughter. A whole crowd of them stood around her toppled form, murmuring and wispering. One of them yelled.
"Oh, gee, Stutter-cry! Did you fall over? That's too bad, far too bad! Let me help you up there!" he hopped (flew, surely?) up to her head and pushed it up with his hoof. But his hoof shook (with laughter? weakness?) and dropped it back down so it hit the dirt (cloud?) hard. Suddenly, they were all laughing, so hard they cried.
"Hey! What's wrong, Rainbow Crash? Flight School too much for you?"
*The daredevil is dead! the daredevil is gone! They sang and danced around her fallen friend (had Rainbow tripped?).*
"You can't let them push you around..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I promise..."
"Rainbow Crash..."
"Stutter Cry... "
"Raaiinboowww Crraaasshhh..."
"Stuuutteerrr Crrryyyy..."
"STOP IT!"
The yell came suddenly, startling Rainbow Dash from her reverie and calling nurses into the room.
When she opened her eyes, she was startled for a moment to find her world had become pink.
Fluttershy had sat up suddenly, and it took a while for Rainbow to disentangle herself from her hair.
"Hey! Hey, What's wrong, Fluttershy? Are you all right?..." She paused,and became slightly nervous when she saw that her friend had a wild, crazed look in her large green eyes. "Uhh, Fluttershy?"
She reached out and clasped Rainbow's hoof to her own, her hoof shaking ever so slightly. "I kept my promise, Rainbow Dash!"
"Wh-what promise, Fluttershy?" Rainbow shrunk back a little from the gentle yellow pegasus, who grinned slightly in return.
" I didn't let them push me around, Rainbow!" This triumphant, certain. The murmurs of the friends outside rose, slightly worried. She wasn't sure how much of this they were hearing. "Don't worry, Rainbow, They will never push you into that rain vent, Ever again. I promise."
"Ummm, Miss Dash, I'm not sure if this is a good time, but as we could not reach her nearest family, wee thought it best to inform you: Fluttershy is unharmed!" The nurse looked as confused as Dash felt.
Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, who was now giggling slightly. "Are you sure about that?"
"Well...This is the really hard part of what I have to say... The blood... it wasn't her's..." She bit her lip. Rainbow thought back to the empty, empty house near the forest.
"I didn't let them push me around, Rainbow! Not this time! Not ever!"
"Oh, Celestia..,"
