It was a pleasant day in Equestria. Whilst the summer sun was high in the sky, that sky was dotted with clouds, keeping the heat from getting to be too much. The slightest hint of a breeze blew through Ponyville, bringing with it scents of green and growing things. All told, it was a perfect day to be out and about. Such a perfect day, in fact, that some Ponies decided that going about their normal routine was simply not called for.
Above a meadow liberally speckled with wildflowers, a creamy yellow Pegasus pony hovered, an expression of intense concentration on her face. The object of her scrutiny? A great, fluffy mass of white cumulus cloud. In fact, the only cumulus above the meadow. It had not always been that way, mind. Before her arrival, there had been many such clouds, each of them considerably smaller, but none of them large enough for what she had in mind. So, she had gathered them up, and smoothed them together, and now was ready to begin. If she could only figure out how to.
She thought for a minute, and then nodded, gently settling to the meadow. There, on the ground, was a pair of saddlebags, marked with pink-winged butterflies. One of them was open, a small white rabbit rummaging around inside. The delicate looking filly nudged the rabbit’s back with her nose, softly, and it spun about, hands clasped behind it’s back, unsuccessfully hiding the apple it had just removed from the Pony’s bags. “Well, Angel bunny. What do you think we should make?” She asked softly, her voice as delicate as the rest of her. The little rabbit let go of the apple, and began to hop up and down, flapping its arms. The filly gazed at it for a moment, and then let out a little excited peep. “Oh, Oh! A… A bird!” She exclaimed softly.
The rabbit stopped. Shook its head. Its face was graced with an expression of disdain. After a moment it began to grin. It stood on tiptoes, leaned forward a little, and took a few steps, picking up a pebble and miming swallowing it. The filly knelt down, and watched, and then, her voice just as soft, spoke again. “Um… Angel bunny, I still think you mean a bird…” The rabbit let out an exasperated sigh, and slapped himself in the face. And then hiccupped loudly. PERFECT!, it thought, and when the next hiccup came, it was ready, flopping onto its back theatrically, and holding up a rolled up sheet of parchment out of the saddlebag behind it. The yellow filly let out a squeal of delight, which still managed to be a soft, delicate sounding noise, and smiled sweetly. “Oh Angel bunny, that’s such a good idea! We’ll make Spike!” Ignoring (Or more likely, not noticing) Angel’s lack of enthusiasm, she patted him on the head, and then lifted gently into the air, returning to her cloud.
She began to fly gently around it, tugging softly at the top and bottom of the puffy mass. Slowly, the fluffy white orb became a cylinder, under her careful manipulations. Down in the grass, Angel leaned back against the saddlebags, nibbling his apple and watching. It didn’t taste quite as good as the ones he and his kin regularly pilfered from Sweet Apple Acres, but it was still delicious, and though he would never let anyone find out, he enjoyed it when Fluttershy was enjoying herself. When her cloud was the right size, she began to work it. With slow, steady strokes of her hooves, she would stretch out a bit here, pat a tuft down there. It was painstaking work, cloudsculpting, and not every Pegasus could do it.
Those same traits that made Fluttershy so delicate and endearing, and seem so weak and helpless, that made the animals accept and trust her, were the same traits that made her so good at sculpting clouds. For just as the slightest sudden move would startle a worried bird, so to would a careless flap of her wings disturb the cloud, and undo her work. But, moving with her gentle grace, this was not a worry. And under her hooves, the cloud began to take shape. Every so often, she would drift down to where Angel was sitting, to see it from the ground, and work out what to do next, and to get his gestured opinion. First, it became two orbs, a smaller one atop a larger one. She tilted them forward, and drew tufts of cloud out into the beginning of a muzzle and a tail.
So lost was she in the work, that she didn’t notice one of her friends stopping down below. It wasn’t until her next decent that she realised she was an audience. A warm and friendly “Why, I Nehva knew you fer an artist, Sugahcube.” Prompted a startled squeak, and Fluttershy dove behind her saddlebags, poking her head up as she recognised the voice. Sure enough, ‘twas a pale brown pony with wheaten hair tied back, and the brown, broad-rimmed hat, and three apples on her flank. Angel shot the newcomer a glare, startling Fluttershy like that. Applejack responded with a glare of her own. She recognised the thieving varmint, as she liked to call him. But off the farm, she had no quarrel with him, and they both knew the other to be Fluttershy’s friend, so after a moment, they went straight to ignoring the other.
“Well… I… I just… you know… Dabble…” Fluttershy explained, hiding her face, and Applejack grinned. “Well, Y’all go back to dabbling, then. If ye don’t mind, Ah reckon ah’ll wait an’ watch ye a spell.” She plonked her rump down in the grass, tipping her hat. Fluttershy nodded. “You can watch, if you like.” She affirmed softly, and then, still blushing, rose gracefully to return to pulling out a strip of cloud that would become a leg. A little while later, the cloud now having two stubby little protrusions that would be legs, and two more for the arms, a young magenta mare with a mane like cotton candy came bounding along. Seeing her friend, she bounced over, exclaiming loudly. “OOH! What are we watching?” She asked, and the tawny earth pony and the white rabbit both turned, paw and hoof to lips. “Shhhhhhh” They commanded in unison, and then looked a mite abashed at being in agreement.
“Fluttershy’s… Well. Ah don’t rightly know what tae call it.” Applejack started softly. “She’s makin’ some’at. Outta clouds. An we’re gonna give her the peace tae do it in.” she explained. The pink pony settled down. For once she was silent, or at least mostly so. And still. Or at least mostly so. Her eyes, and her head, and her neck, followed every move the pale-skinned Pegasus made. Occasionally, she’d utter an “OOOH!” or an “Aaaaah.” But then Applejack or Angel would flash her a glare, and she’d quieten down again. They sat in companionable mostly silence, whilst Fluttershy smoothed out the limbs, and stretched out bits at the cheeks for flared scales, and began to tug at the back of the cloud to form spines.
So caught up in watching were they, that the three of them, rabbit, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, jumped slightly when a voice from the path called out. “Applejack? Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here?” They turned towards the speaker, not that they needed to. Only one pony in Ponyville really had that particular refined quality to their accent, a sort of overly-cultured tone. And of course, it was Rarity. “I was on my way to pay Fluttershy a visit, and I say you and…” Applejack interrupted her. “Weel. Had ye got there, ah reckon ye’d ‘ave been a mite disappointed.” She looked like she was going to say more, but then Pinkie Pie cut in. “’Cos Fluttershy’s not there, silly. She’s here!” The pink pony, prancing in place, pointed skywards. “She’s making a statue out of clouds!” The pony looked at the ground, and then back up at Rarity. “Or maybe it’s a sculpting. Sculpture? Whatever it is. She’s making one. Out of Clouds. Isn’t that great?”
“Indeed.” Rarity agreed, and then looked up. Fluttershy was still working on the details, but it was obvious who she had made in the sky. “Is that… My… Spikey-wikey?” Rarity asked, her voice for a change sugary sweet. And then it returned to normal. “Oh, this is simply fabulous. Twilight has to see this, my dears. Do wait here, and I will go and fetch her.” With that, the white unicorn with the immaculately styled mane trotted back the way she had come.
By the time she returned, a protesting, confused Twilight Sparkle in tow, accompanied by a small, purplish dragon with green spines, Fluttershy had finished the sculpture and was lying on the ground, chatting with her friends. They could hear, as the latest arrivals approached, Twilight’s objections. “Rarity, can you not tell me what this is about?” The violet unicorn was asking. “You came rushing into the library, dragged me out with nary a word. I was in the middle of my new book!” Here the irritated look on the purple-maned pony’s face faded, to be replaced by one of longing. “Swirling Stars” She went on “A Study Of The Most Influential Unicorn Of The Pre-Classical Era. It’s a biography of Starswirl the Bearded” She explained pedantically. “Written by Dusty Tomes, one of the foremost experts on the Pre-classical age. It’s only just been released, and I got one of the first copies….” She trailed off, finally noticing her surroundings.
She was standing in the middle of a field. Well. A Meadow. But still. She turned to Rarity. “Why am I here?” A white forelimb pointed up. She glanced up. “Wow. That’s… Wow… Who?” Fluttershy stepped forward. “Um… I did it… I hope you don’t mind…” the nervous filly said, and Twilight grinned. “Mind? Of course I don’t mind! But I didn’t know you did cloudsculpting. I’ve read about that!” The other ponies groaned inwardly. They knew what was coming. At least, until Spike cut off the ensuing lecture. “Is that… Me?” He asked, and Fluttershy nodded. “Angel suggested it. I think he likes you.” Spike looked at Angel. Angel looked back. They both returned to looking at the cloud, unconvinced.
At that precise moment, a rainbow coloured blaze streaked across the sky. It burst through the cloud, back to front, leaving a tunnel through the left breast of the big fluffy baby dragon in the sky. Spike clapped his hand to his heart, and collapsed onto his back, dramatically. Hearing Twilight’s sigh, he slid one eye open. “What?” He asked, and then opened the other, standing up and dusting himself off as though nothing had happened. Rarity looked dumbfounded, Pinkie Pie was as unreadable as she always was. Applejack was busy bellowing “RAINBOW! YOU WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” Whilst Fluttershy begged her to quieten down.
The cyan filly so addressed slowed, and turned back, coming to a stop in front of Applejack. “WhaddidIdo?” She asked petulantly, to be greeted by six glares, and by five hooves and a rabbit paw pointing skyward. “Oh.” The new Pegasus looked down, shamed. “Sorry, Fluttershy.” She said. “I was practicing for the Wonderbolts, and I guess I didn’t look where I was going.” Then she perked up. “Do you want me to help you fix it? I can do it in ten seconds flat!” She had barely finished when Fluttershy yelped “NO!” And then settled back down. “I mean… no thank you… I can fix it myself.” Fluttershy knew that Dash’s style of flying would only make matters worse. She lifted off, flapped gently up to the cloud, and with a few careful tugs and pats, that still took several minutes to do, had covered over the gap.
Again she drifted back to the ground. “It won’t last as long now…” she said softly, a little upset, but then brightened. “While we’re all here…” She suggested, “Why don’t we have a picnic? I mean… if you want to…” Her proposal was met by a series of giggles, and very seriously, Twilight answered her. “A picnic sounds like a great idea, Fluttershy.” And so it was decided. They all settled down to chat, and Rainbow volunteered to dash down to Sugarcube corner to fetch refreshments, her means of making amends. A delightful way to spend the afternoon of such a delightful day.