Chapter I: Aww, Are You Gonna Cry?

"So, Fluttercry," Shouted a hostile voice, using a not-so-flattering, yet widely accepted nickname. "How's it feel to be the only pony in all of Cloudsdale who has no friends?"

A timid, yellow pegasus cowered in the corner, barely able to withstand the barrage of verbal attacks being unleashed upon her for about the twelfth time this week. The storm was being delivered by a stallion about her size, but from the angle she was looking at him from, he seemed to tower over her. "I have friends!" she countered.

"No no no. Your mother doesn't count, Flutttercry, because not even she likes you. She only pretends to like you because she feels sorry for you!"

"Why are you being so mean to me? I never did anything to you, Hoops" she asked through tears barely being kept at bay.

"Because I have friends and you don't." Hoops answered. "Plus it's fun to make you cry, it's so easy, I can do it in, like, a second!"

Fluttershy couldn't stand it anymore. She was doing good at keeping herself from crying but the pain just built up too much with every slow second. Suddenly she felt something cold and wet running down her cheek, leaving a wet streak down her face as a sign that her tear glands had betrayed her at the worst of times. "Just leave me alone!" she tried to say, but through her tears, there was no way anypony could confidently translate it into any form of language.

"Haha, you're crying already?" Hoops giggled to himself. "You didn't last nearly as long as yesterday! In fact, I think I just broke my record time." he concluded with pride. "Anyway, I don't have time to stay any longer, I have friends to hang out with right now!" The stallion opened his wings, ready to flee the scene. "It's been fun, Fluttercry! Wish I could stay longer but my friends are waiting for me and I'm late as it is. See, my friends have this thing planned out for all of us to do and they invited me because we enjoy each other's company- Oh I'm sure you understand." With that last sarcastic comment, he gave his wings a powerful flap and took to the skies, leaving Fluttershy to cry in her corner.

His words stung with an especially powerful venom, more powerful than any form of insult: truth. Because it was all true, Fluttershy didn't have any friends. She had been too shy to approach anypony she didn't know. She was afraid of their rejection, which was likely because nopony liked her enough to give her a chance. She did occasionally try to talk to other ponies, but every time she did, her shyness got the best of her and she became too afraid to be able to say anything loud enough for pegasus ears to pick up. A trait which was apparently extremely laughable throughout the whole school.

She wasn't the butt of the joke, like some would think, because she usually WAS the joke. When she wasn't busy having her shyness shot down during a failed attempt to make a friend, she was usually crying afterward. Few ponies took pity on her and the ones that showed it usually got themselves shunned by everypony else, making it extremely dangerous to make any form of a positive comment about her. In short, she was essentially an "untouchable."

There was one pony that seemed indifferent, however, and as far as Fluttershy was concerned, that was probably as good as it was going to get. This particular pony happened to be the captain of the school's flight team: Rainbow Dash. She seemed to be the only pony who didn't pick on Fluttershy. For whatever reason it was, Fluttershy decided it was a good reason. Rainbow Dash didn't particularly know Fluttershy and that was probably why she didn't hate her, but Fluttershy knew all about Rainbow Dash.

She admired Rainbow from afar. Rainbow Dash had tons of friends, Fluttershy envied that. Rainbow Dash also had tons of haters but didn't let them bother her. Fluttershy envied that, too. They had spoken only once before: They accidentally bumped into each other in the hall and Rainbow Dash apologized. It probably didn't mean much to Rainbow Dash, if she even remembered it happened at all, but that was everything to Fluttershy. It was because of that apology that Fluttershy decided Rainbow Dash was her favorite pony in all of Cloudsdale. Rainbow probably didn't remember Fluttershy even existed but she decided that may be for the best. No reason why she should make Rainbow Dash hate her as well, so she steered clear of Dash ever since then.

Fluttershy's tear ducts were tapped out again so she decided it was best to just start heading home. She sat there crying for what she estimated to be about 30 minutes after school ended, meaning that nopony was around to scold her any further, they were all at home enjoying themselves. She took a minute to compose herself and collect her books into her bag then stood up to head out the door.

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After about ten minutes of walking with the enthusiasm of a soldier marching to his inevitable end, Fluttershy heard somepony following her. Not too far to remain undetected, but not too close to seem suspicious. Probably just Hoops again, ready to laugh at me! Fluttershy thought, refusing to look behind herself. She knew it was Hoops, waiting for the right moment to make her cry a second time. Coming "back with a vengeance" he liked to call it. And she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction, not today! *ACHOO* The pony behind Fluttershy sneezed and even though Fluttershy knew what it was, she involuntarily turned her head to discover the source of the noise, much like in class when somepony showed up late and the sound of the door opening seized everypony's attention and curiosity. They all knew what it was but the sudden noise made them look, whether they wanted too or not. But when Fluttershy turned around, she saw that it wasn't Hoops. No, this pony had light blue fur, almost teal. Pretty magenta eyes in the center of a face with the whole "I Just Don't Give a Buck" attitude plastered on. Fluttershy almost flinched when she notices the multicolored streaks in this pony's mane. *EEP!* Fluttershy squealed, "I can't believe SHE'S following me!" she said silently to herself. "Maybe she wants to be my friend? No, Fluttershy! Nopony likes you! They don't wanna be your friend, don't be ridiculous!" She scolded herself for such inane thoughts.

"Hey, um, can I talk to you for a second?" the mare behind her asked.

Her tone of voiced seemed sincere but Fluttershy refused to believe that something so positive would be the end to such a negative day. "Look, whatever it is, I don't wanna hear it! I've had such a bad day today so just leave me alone!" Fluttershy lashed out, essentially shooting down any insult Rainbow Dash may have prepared.

"What? No! I'm not gonna make fun of you or anything, I just wanna talk!" Rainbow replied.

"Well, what ever it is, forget it!" she snapped. "I am in no mood!"

Rainbow Dash's ears folded back in shock and disappointment at Fluttershy's sudden hostility. "Oh, OK." she said, sorrowfully, "Sorry to bother you." she finished as she turned around and walked to her own home in the opposite direction.

The reality of Rainbow's disappointment was lost on Fluttershy. She was sure it was all a ruse so all she felt was pride that she finally stood up to somepony. Her victorious feeling was short-lived, however, once she thought back on it. This was one of her few "victories" against somepony's vicious verbal attacks so she replayed it over and over again so she could keep reliving the confrontation.

But was it really a confrontation? When Fluttershy played it in her head, the truth became clearer and clearer with every view: Rainbow Dash was being genuine and sincere. Fluttershy felt awful! Maybe Rainbow really did want to just talk but got shut down for no reason. The feeling of victory was wiped clean from Fluttershy and quickly replaced with guilt and shame.

She turned around again in hopes of seeing Rainbow Dash so she could try again but nopony was there. Fluttershy had just shot down Rainbow Dash so she couldn't make her cry but because of that she ended up making herself cry and the irony of the situation did not go unnoticed. Tears ran down her cheeks as she galloped home, her mane in front of her face to hide her pain from any passersby.

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When she got home, the first thing she did was run to her room, drop her bags, lay on her bed, and sob. Loneliness felt awful enough but guilt felt even worse. "Rainbow Dash must hate me now!" she yelled. "There's no way she doesn't hate me. She absolutely despises me!" she kept yelling to nopony in particular, not caring who heard. Hearing her problems voiced aloud just made matters worse, their vocalization acted like punctuation and every time she said something, it hurt worse, causing her sobs to intensify. Eventually, she latched onto one phrase that she just repeated over and over again. "I did my best! I did my best! I did my best!"

A few hours later, she had calmed down. Though voicing her problems hurt more, at the same time, it also helped her cope with them. And now that she was calm, she was able to think more clearly and more rationally. "Maybe Rainbow Dash doesn't hate me." she said, suddenly full of hope. "I did mention I was having a bad day, maybe she could tell I wasn't upset with her particularly. I was just lashing out at anypony who tried to talk to me. Unfortunately, she just happened to be that anypony." She still felt terrible for yelling at her so Fluttershy made it a point to find her tomorrow and apologize for her behavior.

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Fluttershy was having trouble sleeping that night. Her mind decided it would have been a fun idea to perpetually replay the whole conversation in her head. She tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. Physically, her bed was comfortable enough, the problem was that she wasn't emotionally comfortable: she had potentially slain her chances of making her first friend and that was eating her alive. "I'm going to apologize tomorrow and set things right. Rainbow Dash will understand." She repeated these two sentences over and over, trying to calm herself but she still had her doubts.

What if Rainbow Dash didn't understand? She had a perfect life, she had lots of friends, she was the most popular pony in school. She would never have anything to be upset about so she might not know what a bad day is like!

Fluttershy went through this cycle of hope and despair for about three hours until her body finally shut down as she drifted into unconsciousness, not to be confused with sleep.

Sleep is when you lie down and relax deep enough and let your body rest. Unconsciousness is what Fluttershy did; she simply passed out from exhaustion and her body's need to sleep. She would have collapsed onto the floor, had she not already been lying down. She got the sleep her body needed to function, but not the relaxation her spirit needed to want to function.

**********

Fluttershy had woken up at 6:00 in the morning and took about an hour to get a shower, eat breakfast, get her bags together, and walk to school. Only this time she was on a mission: Find Rainbow Dash and apologize to her.

As far as Fluttershy knew, Rainbow usually hung out with the flight team at the football field, so that's the first place she looked. She wasn't there. Instead of giving up, she decided to keep looking for her elsewhere. She didn't know Rainbow Dash's schedule, aside from P.E. in third period, so she had no idea where to even start. Feeling defeated, she decided to go to the library. Maybe some peace and quiet would help clear her mind.

At the library, she started contemplating her next plan of attack. She would ask the school counselor for a copy of Rainbow's schedule in hopes of knowing where she could look. Suddenly she heard a voice saying exactly what she was thinking, though the voice wasn't hers.

"Man, where the hay could she possibly be? I've looked everywhere?" the voice was female, obviously, but it was strangely deep for a mare. The voice sounded familiar but Fluttershy couldn't place a name. It couldn't be Hoops, he's a stallion. It wasn't any of her teachers, the voice sounded young, like its owner was a preteen, it had a level of spunk in it, with a dash of feminism. Wait, Dash! Fluttershy had no doubt the voice belonged to Rainbow Dash. Excitedly she trotted over to confirm her suspicion.

"Rainbow Dash! I finally found you! I've been looking for you!" Fluttershy screamed with delight, completely forgetting the defeat she felt just moments before.

"Heh, it's funny; I could say the same about you!" Rainbow replied.

"Wha- YOU were looking for ME?" Fluttershy was shocked.

"Yeah, I figured that sense you were having a bad day yesterday, that that would be why you lashed out at me. So I decided to find you today and try again." Fluttershy couldn't believe her ears, Rainbow would and did understand.

"That's exactly why I was looking for you! I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I thought you were going to pick on me like Hoops did and I wanted a preemptive strike. I didn't realize until after that you could've been sincere!" She didn't to mean bring Hoops up, for fear of Hoops possibly being a good friend of Rainbow's, encouraging her to agree with him and attack Fluttershy as well.

"Yeah, I saw Hoops giving you a hard time. He can be a real jerk."

"Oh, you saw that?" Fluttershy was relieved to hear that Rainbow didn't like Hoops either but at the same time, she was also embarrassed that she saw it all. Her embarrassment showed up on her face in the form of a nervous blush.

"Yeah, I did. I hate that guy! Anyway, I saw him giving you a hard time and thought maybe you needed a friend."

Again, Fluttershy couldn't believe her ears. Did Rainbow Dash say what she thought she said? "I'm sorry, but did you just say 'friend?'"

"Yeah, I did! So, do you wanna be friends?"

If Fluttershy was dreaming, nopony better wake her up! "Yes! Yes, sure! I would love a friend!" Fluttershy was probably the happiest filly alive right now. She couldn't contain her excitement and didn't know what to do, so without even thinking, she wrapped her forelegs around her new friend in a huge, appreciative hug.

Now it was Rainbow Dash's turn to blush; she didn't generally hug her friends often but if it was what Fluttershy wanted, then she shan't object. Instead, she wrapped her own forelegs around Fluttershy and returned the embrace. Fluttershy's smile couldn't possibly get any bigger, she had stretched the muscles in her face to their limit.

"I am so happy to have you as a friend. I love you, Rainbow Dash!"

"Uh, I love you too, Fluttercry!"

Fluttershy froze at hearing her nickname Hoops used so much. "What did you just call me?" she asked, on the verge of tears.

"Fluttercry, isn't that your name? I heard Hoops calling you that."

"But... but that's a nickname he uses to tease me! Because I- I cry a lot." Rainbow felt awful.

"I'm sorry, I thought that was your actual name."

Fluttershy wiped a tear away, "Oh, ok!" Fluttershy was still crushed at hearing Hoops's nickname for her.

"How about I just call you... Flutters! I like that! It's cute, just like you!" Rainbow suggested, poking a hoof at her new friend.

My first nickname. And this one isn't an insult! "Flutters" thought. "I love it!" Fluttershy hugged her new friend again and enjoyed the embrace better than the last time. She thought about what Dash said about her nickname and it made her happy.

"I like that! It's cute, just like you!" Fluttershy smiled as she got lost in the friendly embrace. She thinks I'm cute.

Author's Note

There's a Dane Cook reference in here somewhere. (I don't give a buck what anyone says, Dane Cook is hilarious!) I'm gonna try to have at least one reference in every chapter. See if you can find them! Whoever finds the reference first will make a cameo appearance in the next chapter. I will message you if you won and ask for a brief description of your OC (I got the idea from whoever wrote "Vinyl Scratch and Octavia: University Days") Keep in mind, though, that despite you OC's actual species, I will make them a pegasus. (Just because only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds, so earth ponies and unicorns wouldn't make sense in a story like this.)