Author's Note

Was going to have this as a flashback taking place after Fluttershy killed her mother, but I thought having its own chapter would be better in the end.

Chapter 2: Flight Camp

12 years ago

It was the first day of flight camp, and one butterscotch little filly couldn’t be more excited. She looked every which way with a large smile on her face, this was going to be the best day ever!

“I’ll pick you up after school, ok sweetie?” Her mother, Velvet, said with a gentle nuzzle.

“Ok mommy!” Fluttershy responded in kind. She gave her mother one last nuzzle before strutting forward with confidence.

Velvet watched her little filly trot away with pride as she ventured ahead. Unbeknownst to her, today will change her daughter’s life far more than she would ever know.

Fluttershy made her way around the campus, the rowdy foals around her quickly dashing her earlier confidence. As she toured around she did her best to avoid those groups, but while she was avoiding one group she accidently bumped into another and fell back onto her haunches.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” Fluttershy looked up to the much larger colt and his two friends behind him. They each wore unfriendly scowls as they glared down at her. “Well? Got anything to say?” Their leader asked.

“I-I-I’m…” Fluttershy tried to force out.

“Huh? What was that Stutters?” he asked, the mean name eliciting a bout of laughter from the colts behind him.

“I’m Fluttershy!” She managed to squeal out. The bullies laughed at the display.

“Aw, what’s the matter Stuttershy? You gonna cry?” The bullies once more erupted in laughter.

Unbeknownst to the bullies, Fluttershy was fuming with rage. Her body was wracked with shivers, not of fear, but barely holding back something much darker. If the stories were true, she would never be able to live with herself. But time was against her. As the bullies continued their assault, she heard a mental ‘snap!’ as her rather weak will was overpowered by the blood of the lich in her veins. Her features hardened, her shivers subsided, and her eyes became like ice as an unnatural strength rushed through her.

“Hey!” The bullies ceased in their laughter to glare at the one who would dare interrupt their mirth, while Fluttershy was shocked to her senses, leaving her as she was before the bullies made fun of her. “Leave her alone!”

Fluttershy glanced up to see the biggest mess of a filly she ever laid eyes on. Her light blue coat was slightly shaggy and matted in more than a few places while her rainbow colored mane and tail were unkempt at best. Her wings, however, were absolutely pristine with care, not a single feather was out of place and they reflected the light with a clean sheen, that alone speaking of the great care she puts into her wings.

The bullies quickly smiled at the new prey before them. “Well what are you gonna do about it, Rainbow Crash!”

“Keep making fun of her and find out!” Rainbow yelled back at them.

“You think you’re such a big shot?! Why don’t you prove it?!” the lead bully said, stomping closer intimidatingly.

Rainbow kept up her confident smirk and she glared back at him, “What do you have in mind?!”

“A race! We’ll settle this once and for all!” He declared triumphantly.

“Ha! You’re going down!” Dash declared.

“We’ll be at the track in five! You had better be there if you know what’s good for ya!” The bullies called out with another peal of laughter.

Rainbow watched them fly off before she turned to Fluttershy, “You okay?” Rainbow asked, “I’m Rainbow Dash, what’s your name?”

“Oh, um, I’m Fluttershy.” She said. She was only partially listening to Rainbow as as they made their way toward the track, deep in thought the entire time. ‘Did the seal really break? If it didn’t then were did that anger and power come from? But if it did… How am I not consumed by the power, let alone calm once more? Should I even tell Mama about this? Or even the princess?’

She glanced ahead, noticing they were nearing the race track as Rainbow continued to gloat about how great of a flyer she was. ‘No, I can’t be too hasty. I’ll just have to be careful and make sure nothing else happens.’

“Hey you in there Fluttershy?”

“Huh?” She blinked rapidly, bringing herself from her thoughts. She saw Rainbow standing in front of her waving a hoof in front of her face. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was just thinking about some things.”

“Oh ok. Anyway I asked if you wanted to be the Flag Filly.”

“The Flag… what?” she asked in confusion.

“You know, the filly who waves the flag at the start of the race. I think it would be cool if my new friend started the race where I beat those bullies with my awesome skills!” Rainbow declared in excitement.

“Oh, well, um… I would love to be your friend, and I would be honored to be the Flag Filly.” She said with a smile. Rainbow grinned back in excitement.

“Whoo hoo! Yeah! I’ll go grab you a flag, and all you need to do is stand on that cloud-“ she pointed to a lone cloud in the middle of the track, “-and give it a good wave to start the race, okay?”

Fluttershy looked to the cloud, then back to Rainbow before giving a firm nod, “Okay.” With that, Rainbow flew off to the storage area for a flag and Fluttershy gently glided to the cloud, making it just in time to get the flag from Rainbow.

“Don’t worry ‘Shy, you’ll do fine!” she encouraged once Fluttershy gripped the small wooden pole in her mouth.

Fluttershy grinned around the flag pole and nodded, wishing her new friend the best of luck in her race. She tried her best to ignore the growing crowed around them as they chattered about the impromptu race, instead she watched as Rainbow readied herself at the start line alongside the three bullies from earlier with few words being exchanged before their eyes set upon herself.

A shiver of cold rage slowly crept up her spine at the sight of their stares. She forced her eyes closed to break eye contact and force the feeling down. That done, she reared up as high as she could and swung the flag down, marking the start of the race.

Time slowed down as the three racers rushed toward her with a speed she had never heard of before. Rainbow fell slightly behind the first bully as they both pulled up above the cloud Fluttershy stood upon. However, the two slower bullies saw this as an opportunity to inflict further pain.

Instead of pulling up and over the cloud, they streaked right above the surface and shoved Fluttershy off the cloud with a strong gust from their wings. Fluttershy was too focused on watching Rainbow Dash in amazement that the gust of wind caught her off guard as she was flung into the open air.

Panic flooded her senses, her wings flailing wildly as the ground below rushed up to meet her. She saw a flock of butterflies directly in her path and hoped in vain that they would be able to save her, but she fell straight through the swarm and impacted the ground with a sickening crunch.

The clearing around her prone form was silent for several moments, her chest sporadically rising and falling the only indication that she survived the fall. Consciousness slowly returned to her, as well as the rush of pain. The clearing was quickly filled with screams as Fluttershy tried to pull herself up.

She had landed on her back, both wings broken and stabbing into her sides, her writhing worsening the wounds and letting the blood flow freely as the bones were forced in deeper as her shattered ribs forced their way out her sides and into her lungs. Despite her screams she couldn’t hear them, her ears a bloody mess from her imploded ear drums. Her sight was nothing but a curtain of red as they cried tears of blood. She tried to reach up to her face but her leg past the elbow was missing, instead managing to dig the exposed raw stump against herself. Her other limbs fared no better, twisted and shattered in grotesque ways. Her spine was much worse, cracked and shattered throughout its length, forever paralyzing her from the upper chest down.

She was dying, slowly and painfully. Her screams turned to whimpers as darkness enclosed her vision. But before death could take her, she felt it. The rage from before, stronger and more pronounced. The blood on the grass and dirt around her quickly cooled and froze as a ring of frost crept from her body into the meadow.

Her body slowly changed from yellow to a cold blue as wafts of cold froze the air around her. Ice slowly encased her body, sealing her inside and blocking her from view. The ice slowly stretched higher into the air to the height of Princess Cellestia for a brief moment before cracks shot across the surface, revealing a bright light from within.

All at once the ice shattered in a freezing explosion punctuated by a challenging feral roar towards the heavens, revealing Fluttershy whole once more with wings of frost and eyes of an icy glare. As she roared at the sky, the sky roared back. A rainbow colored explosion rocked the meadow and crashed into Fluttershy, blasting her into a nearby tree.

As quickly as it had come, the force of the blast relented. Fluttershy opened her eyes, once again soft blue as she looked around in confusion. Confusion turned to realization and fear, she had died and become a monster, and a rainbow had saved her, bringing her back to her senses. She shook her head and ruffled her wings, shards of melting ice breaking away from her as she does.

She cautiously began to look around the meadow, steering clear of the still bloodied ground near the edge. She soon spotted several critters peering fearfully at her from the bushes. Taking pity on them for witnessing what she knows as something truly horrible, she attempts to reach out to them to comfort them and in turn, find comfort from them.

At first she is unsuccessful, resulting in her breaking down into hopeless tears as despair fuels the curse of her bloodline once again, but before she could stoop too far she feels a soft nuzzle against her withers. She looked up with teary bloodshot eyes at a small doe, which leaned forward and licked up a stray tear.

Fluttershy let out a small laugh, full of relief as she wrapped her hooves around the doe. This simple act of kindness encouraged the other woodland critters to cautiously approach her. She soon spent the better part of an hour comforting and being comforted by her new critter friends, never before had she felt such happiness even as her flanks warmed up with a surge of magic, revealing a cutie mark: a tri of butterflies.

“Fluttershy! Oh my gosh there you are!” The voice pierced through the meadow, startling the critters back into their hiding spots. Fluttershy was saddened for a moment before she realized who had called out to her. She smiled as she looked up to Rainbow Dash as she descended towards her, then gasped as she saw her new friend had earned her cutie mark too!

“You had me scar- er, I mean, I thought you might have lost your way or something. I couldn’t find you after the race and somepony told me those bullies blasted you off the cloud and they kind of figured you would just fly back up ya-know? So I thought I’d go look for you.” She rattled off quickly. Fluttershy smiled gently, a feeling of warmth and calm flowing through her at the thought of such a loyal friend.

“Oh, thanks for looking for me. I was busy with my new critter friends.” She said, motioning toward the bushes, several heads poking out at them curiously. Unfortunately, the critters didn’t hold her attention too long as her eyes started to wander the meadow. Fluttershy panicked, how would she react if she sees blood spattered all over the ground?!

Rainbow’s eyes fell on some red on the far side of the clearing and felt a chill down her spine for a moment before Fluttershy jumped in front of her, blocking it from sight. “Oh! Rainbow Dash, you got your cutie mark!” she said in forced excitement.

Rainbow decided to ignore the strange sight as she focused on telling Fluttershy about her cutie mark, and in turn hearing about how Fluttershy’s interaction with the critters earned hers. All the while, Rainbow Dash had a nagging feeling about what she saw and decided she would investigate later after everyone went home for the day.

The rest of the day was uneventful for Fluttershy, hanging out with Rainbow Dash really helped to hold the demon inside her at bay, and when she really thought about it, maybe friendship was the answer to her control. But even then she had to be careful, making her overly shy and self-conscious that would follow her the rest of her life.

That evening she and Rainbow parted ways, Velvet had come as she promised and brought Fluttershy back home after a quick introduction to Rainbow Dash. As Rainbow waved them off, she let her smile drop as she flew into the air, circling back down towards the woods below.

She soon found the clearing as the sun began its decent into night, and it didn’t take long for her to find what she was looking for. She followed a path straight down from the race track and landed next to a patch of maroon colored grass and dirt. She hesitantly leaned down and gave it a sniff. The meadow was filled with the sound of a retching filly, the smell of old blood flooding her nostrils.

“What… What the…” she muttered. She forced her stomach to settle down long enough to get a closer look, she had to be sure. Squinting her eyes in the dying light, she managed to find several feathers covered in the blood. Hoping against hope, she reached forward unsteadily and pulled it closer.

She dry heaved for a moment before managing to spit on the feather and clean some of the blood off. As she did, she quickly reeled back in horror, “No! it.. it can’t…” tears fell from her eyes as she cleaned off more of the feather, revealing a familiar butter yellow color.

Fluttershy was sleeping soundly, dreams of the new friends she’s made that day drifting through her head. She was startled out of her nice dreams by something banging against her window, nearly causing her to fall out of her bed in panic.

She lay still for a moment before the noise came again from her window, forcing her to go see what was making all the racket. She opened the window and looked over the ledge, there below her was Rainbow Dash with several pebbles surrounding her and one held in her hoof ready to be thrown.

She smiled down at her friend, but Rainbow didn’t return it. Worried, Fluttershy flew down to greet her. As she landed Rainbow cautiously backed away a few steps. “Rainbow, what’s wrong…?” Fluttershy asked, the hurt in her voice making Rainbow wince.

“Fluttershy… Are you okay? I mean really?” She hesitantly asked.

“Huh? What are you talking about? Of course I am, see?” Fluttershy stood and slowly spun around, “I’m perfectly fine.”

Rainbow looked unsure for a moment, “Okay, but I want to ask you something and I want to hear the truth, okay?” Fluttershy didn’t really know where this was going, but hesitantly nodded. “I went back to the clearing a little while ago.”

Fluttershy gasped in surprise, “Rainbow I can explain-“

Rainbow held up a hoof to silence her. “Explain this to me.” She tossed a blood covered yellow feather to Fluttershy’s hooves. “I found that, right below the starting line in a huge pool of blood. Explain how your feathers were there. Where did all that blood come from? “

Fluttershy had tears streaming down her face as she carefully picked up the bloodied feather. “Please…” Rainbow begged, drawing Fluttershy’s attention to the tears streaming down her face as well. “Please, tell me what happened, tell me you’re really okay…”

Fluttershy took a deep steadying breath, “Okay… I’ll tell you. You deserve to know if you’re going to be my friend… It’s a bit of a long story, but…” she motioned for Rainbow to follow her up to her bedroom, Rainbow flew in and settled on the bed as Fluttershy closed her window and deposited the feather in the trash.

She joined Rainbow on the bed and began her tale, “I guess I should start out with the Earth Pony King, back in the war against the dragons.”

And so she spoke of her ancestry and the events of that first day in flight camp, of the troubles and fears she now faced. And through it all, Rainbow Dash stayed calm and silent, listening intently to Fluttershy’;s words.

“… and then you found me in the clearing.” Fluttershy finished, unable to make eye contact with the pony she thought at one point as a friend, because who would want to be friends with a freak like her? She felt the tears begin to well up in despair as a familiar chill ran over her body, but they were quickly dashed away as a set of strong hooves wrapped around her in a tight hug.

“I… I believe you. I’m not gonna leave you, friends need to stick together, right?”

Fluttershy was speechless, instead returning the embrace and nodding into her friend’s shoulder, streaking tears of happiness through her fur. “Th-thank you…”