--Caregiver--

The ride to Fluttershy's home from the hospital was long and excruciating. Twilight had to pick Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy up because Dash’s car was recently deceased, and Fluttershy never had one. The entire ride was spent in an awkward and heavy silence. The only time Dash tried to speak, she was quickly shushed by Twilight. She had continuously received scrutinizing glances from her at practically every red light, and no longer felt up for conversation.

Yet, she could never blame her friend for being angry with her; especially with Fluttershy sitting right behind her, a constant reminder of what she had caused. Fluttershy looked tired and covered in bruises. Her arm dawned a cast, and the new wheelchair she was to use leaned on the seat next to her. Fluttershy could walk, but in endless and mind numbing pain, so she swindled the hospital out of a wheelchair for assistance.

Fluttershy was also filled with pain pills at that point, and was lost in her own world staring at the back of Twilight's seat.

Dash sighed and turned her attention to the scenery around her. She noticed that they were on Fluttershy’s road, and were making the turn onto her impossibly rocky and long driveway; something Fluttershy took pride in having. Kept unwanted company out, after all. “It’s about time we got here, I need food.” Her stomach gurgled along with her thoughts. The large SUV pulled to a stop in front of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Hehe. Looks like its lunch time, right Twilight?” Dash chuckled and nudged Twilight, who was currently opening the drivers side door.

“Dash.” Twilight paused and turned to give Dash a cold, hard stare. One that held little to no sympathy.

‘Y-yeah, Twi? She gulped and nervously scratched at her leg.

“After what happened, I don’t want to hear you making jokes and fooling about. You hurt her, and for once, you need to be serious. I’m not in the mood for small-talk, and you shouldn't be either.”

“Hey, I’m only trying to lighten the mood…”

“Yeah, well It’s not really time for that. Now get out and grab the wheel chair, please.” Twilight twisted around and pushed a button that unlocked the rest of the doors. She slid out of the over-sized vehicle and slowly opened Fluttershy’s door.

“Sorry, I guess.” Dash also clambered out of the meaty vehicle, and trudged over to the rear doors. She pulled open the door on the passengers side to pull the wheelchair out. She struggled to get it twisted out from in between the seats without bumping it into Fluttershy, but she quickly popped it loose without damaging anything. She brought it over to Twilight and unfolded it, a maze-like jumble of metal bars and fabric unfolding into an expensive looking wheelchair. “Ooh this one has Two cup-holders. Fancy.”

“Alright Fluttershy,” Twilight gently nudged the injured girl to attention, “We’re going to help you out of the car and into the wheelchair, but you need to tell us if we’re hurting you, o.k?” Fluttershy sat and stared, seemingly bewildered, at Twilight for a few moments, before coming back to reality and and complying.

“O.k.” she gave both girls a meek smile and slid her body around so her legs were hanging right above the ground. Twilight took her by her uninjured arm and Dash lightly around her waist to keep her steady while she eased herself into the chair. Fluttershy winced as her legs made contact with the ground, and gave a little “Eep” as she sat in the chair. “Ouch.” She thought, “Being hurt is… Painful.”

Dash grabbed the handles on the mobile chair and started to push Fluttershy towards the placid cottage. “Thanks for picking us up, Twi!” She yelled and waved back to her friend, who had already backed up and turned around to drive off.

“Take care of her, Dash.” Twilight gave a half hearted wave out the window and sped off, taking extra care to avoid hitting any rocks on the trip down the long driveway.

“Not even a goodbye, she must be pissed.” Dash sighed and continued pushing Fluttershy to her door. “Can I see your keys, Shy?” she motioned her hand towards her friend, who quickly dropped the keys into her open palm. “Why thank you.” She fumbled with the multitude of keys a bit but eventually found the right one and unlocked her friends cottage, and was immediately rushed by a multitude of ecstatic animals, all too happy to see their beloved owner.

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise but shot the happiest smile in the history of giddy smiles at the barrage of furry creatures. Her prized bunny, Angel clambered onto her lap and sat down, nuzzling her gently in the stomach.

“Aww, Angel I missed you too.” She winced as the bunny jumped on her lap, but still started to scratch behind the bunnies ear. Angel thumped his foot happily in response. “Sorry for being away Angel, Mommy had a little… Accident.” Rainbows heart sank when she heard her petite friend already bringing up the incident. Angel turned and motioned his head away from his owner and caught sight of Dash. He immediately tensed up and his ears shot out, trying to scope out any noise from the “intruder.”

“Uhhh…” Dash stared back and the white ball of fluff and gave a nervous wave, “Hey lil’ guy…”

And like that the rabbit was off. He used all the power he could muster from his hind legs to propel himself off Fluttershy. She yelped in surprise mixed with pain at the rabbits sudden motion. Angel took off around a corner and into the living room of Fluttershy’s cottage, and was soon followed by all of the animals she had in her care.

“Oh-oh my…” Fluttershy turned to Dash with a shocked expression.

“He-he, I guess they don’t really, like me all too much… Um you hungry.” Dash scratched at her head awkwardly and stared at her feet, not quite brave enough to make eye contact with the animal caretaker. A clock on the wall had started to whistle a tune like a bird, signifying that it was already five o’clock.

Fluttershy’s stomach rumbled in response to the question and she blushed heavily. She was also starting to find her feet a very interesting thing to stare at. “Umm, yes, but my animals need to be fed first and…”

“Oh, I can do that!” Rainbow quickly placed herself behind Fluttershy and took hold of the wheelchair. She speed walked into the kitchen and began opening cupboards, in search for animal food. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Umm.” “You seem to have a dire situation here Fluttershy; it seems all of your cabinets contain cobwebs rather than food...” “Shy, you’re outta’ critter chow.”

“Umm… Sorry, Rainbow, but all the animal food is in my shed.” She pointed out of the kitchen window to a wooden shed, nearly surrounded by overgrowth and shrubbery. “Their food smells, um, bad, and I don’t like to keep it in the house… Sorry.” She shifted uncomfortably in the wheelchair.

“Oh, uh, duh. Hold on, Shy; I’ll be right back, I’m gonna’ go get that.”

“Oh no Rainbow, I can get it. Besides, you have to do a lot of sorting with food for specific animals.” Fluttershy put her good hand down onto the chair handle and started to push herself up, wincing in immense pain while she did so. Dash whipped around and sprang away from the kitchen cabinets. She gently pushed her back into the seat.

“Nooo way Shy’. The doc’ said you need to stay relaxed and that you can’t put pressure on that arm or midsection. I’m no expert, but that probably means you shouldn’t be getting up and walking around. No no, Shy’. I can do this as long as you tell me what critter gets what.” She put her hands on her hip and beamed at Fluttershy.

“Gosh she has such a cute smile.” Fluttershy blushed and looked away from Dash and to the floor. “Oh my, I almost said that out-loud.” “Umm, o.k, thank you, Rainbow.” She looked up and gave her a meek smile.

“Cool.” Rainbow took her chair and swung around, out of the kitchen. She went slower than before because some of Fluttershy’s many animals were coming out of hiding, and a few of the braver ones were taking interest in this new contraption their owner was sitting in. Soon they reached the door, and after a small struggle to get it open without hitting any small critters, Rainbow managed to get outside with Fluttershy.

“Alright, now lets get those guys some food.”

Fluttershy had seen through all of the feeding to ensure Rainbow did what she would call an “on par” job. She explained to Dash what animals needed what kind of food, how much they needed, and when they would need it. All the information was mind boggling for Dash, so she ended up writing it all down and nailing the sheet of paper to the inside of the shed anyhow. Much to Rainbows surprise, animal care was very difficult, and proved to be exhausting. By the end of the three hour ordeal, through all the yelling at pets that stole from other pets, she was completely exhausted. And still hungry.

Dash slowly trudged back inside the cottage, she slumped over Fluttershy’s wheelchair as she pushed her along, half asleep. Her stomach gave another earthshaking rumble, and she grumbled out a few curses as they entered the kitchen. “how the hell does she take care of those beasts… Why the hell does she take care of them?” She almost wanted to ask, but she kept quiet as to not offend her long term friend and more recently, patient.

“Fluttershy…” Dash sighed as she brought herself to the fridge “I. Am. Starved.” She opened the fridge, and was shocked to find it filled with mostly beverages and lunch meat. “Freezer?” the freezer contained only frozen snack foods and a tub of ice cream. “Shy’, you’re outta people chow.” Dash looked at Fluttershy and gave her the worlds most heart melting sad-puppy face she could muster.

“Aw, Please don’t give me that look, Rainbow.” “ I, normally eat out or get food delivered, it’s much easier on me…I’ll order pizza, If you would like, that is.” Rainbow quickly nodded and grabbed her phone out of her jeans pocket.

“I actually have that new place in my contacts, I think they deliver.” Rainbow found the restaurant in her phone and brought it up to call. “What kind do you want? I got the tab so get what you’d like.”

“Oh, any kind is fine, but you don’t have to pay i’ll…” Fluttershy was cut off by rainbow bringing up her hand in defense.

“No-ope! I’ll pay, it’s the least I can do.” Rainbow clicked send on her phone and brought it up to her ear. “Now is just a plain cheese with garlic o.k?”

“Yes…”

“Cool.”

Rainbow ordered a large pizza for her and Fluttershy and much to her disdain, waited over half an hour before the delivery guy found the house. There would have been an all out fist fight between the lanky teen and Rainbow if Fluttershy hadn’t luckily wheeled herself outside to calm Dash down. Dash brought the pizza into the living room and helped Fluttershy onto the couch, the couch in which she soon sprawled herself out on.

“Mmm this is good.” Rainbow said as she grabbed at a third slice, hastily taking a bite out of it.. “They really pounded the garlic into this thing.” She reached over and snatched a remote off the coffee table and flipped the t.v on. She grazed through the channels until she settled upon one of her favourite movies, Ronnie Darko.

“It is quite good, and I love this movie… though it sort of um… scares me.” Fluttershy blushed and shrunk down into her couch a little more. She put her half eaten slice of pizza back onto a paper plate. Dashes eyes shot towards her and she stopped eating mid-bite.

“Thif mofie scaresh you.” She swallowed, “Sorry, but this isn’t that bad.” She calmly took another bite out of her pizza, never taking her eyes off of Fluttershy.

“Umm… Yes, that bunny is… creepy. Sorry…” She shrunk down even further into the crouch, wrapping herself into the blanket she donned.

“No need to be sorry,” Rainbow reached over and took hold of Fluttershy’s shoulder, “it is kind of creepy… don’t tell anyone I said this, but I cried when I saw this the first time. I mean, I was only nine but still, that thing scared me… Yeah don’t tell anyone I said that, ever.” Fluttershy was startled at the sudden contact but soon calmed and melted into it. It made her feel warm and safe.

“Oh, I won’t say anything Rainbow.” She turned her attention back to the movie and sighed happily. “She’s so warm… I wonder…” She looked at Rainbow who was eagerly watching the movie, and decided to take her chances. She calmly brought her head down to rest on Rainbows shoulder, and held her breath, waiting for her to say something.

Rainbow was confused for a moment, but shrugged off the sudden affection as more of a “friendly touch.” She decided saying something about it would probably scare Fluttershy out of her mind, so she let it be.

“Yay! She doesn’t mind.” Fluttershy silently cheered. “Maybe I do have a chance… I shouldn’t push it though… I’ll settle for this tonight.” She smiled and closed her eyes, relaxing into her friends shoulder like a human pillow. Soon enough she drifted off into a light snooze.

“Aww.” Rainbow whispered when she took note of the now sleeping Fluttershy. Fluttershy let out a soft, high pitched snore, and nuzzled further into Rainbows neck. “Thats kinda’ cute.” She sat silently and watched Fluttershy snore away until the movies last scene played out. She flipped the t.v off and was left with the soft glow of the table lamp next to her. She decided against waking her friend and scoured the room for something interesting to look at. her gaze fell upon a pile of cd cases Fluttershy had stacked on her coffee table. she picked up the one at the top and silently read it over. She frowned and placed it lightly back onto the pile, and shuddered slightly. “that's some… brutal stuff Fluttershy.”

Dash sat in the silence for a while until she began to feel sleep grabbing at her as well. She nudged Fluttershy gently a few times before the sleeping girl awoke, albeit still in a groggy daze.

“whaa.” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around the room, still gathering her surrounding, she noticed she was using Dash as a pillow and abruptly pulled away from her. She winced in pain as left her resting spot.

“Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t mean to uh…” Fluttershy rapidly shot out a defense while her mind raced at a mile a minute. “I really hope I didn’t do anything foolish while I slept.” Rainbow quickly pulled up her hand and waved Fluttershy’s hasty apologies away, laughing all the while.

“hahaha, calm down Shy’, It’s cool. But I’m going to get going, I’ll see you in the morning.” She got up from the couch and stretched out, releasing all the pent up tension from sitting for a couple hours. She leaned over and snatched up the track jacket she left in a crumpled mess on the floor.

“But Rainbow, you don’t have a car, and It’s dark out.” Dash stopped halfway to the door and looked outside, only to see the pitch black sky staring back at her. A large type of canine barked off in the distance; the loud yet heavily muffled screech of something could be heard.

“Oh yeah…” She brought her hand up to scratch her chin, “Shit…” she gave an awkward smile to Fluttershy and turned to her.

“You can spend the night, if you want to that is. It would be… easier for both of us. And also,” Fluttershy pointed towards her stairs and frowned. “My bedroom is up there, and I can’t get up the… stairs by myself.”

Rainbow followed her finger and facepalmed when it dawned on her how stupid leaving would have been in the first place. “And to think I’m supposed to be taking care of this girl… I’m so stupid, it’s ridiculous. “I’m sorry shy, I’ll help you get upstairs and I’ll just crash on the couch.”

“I could sleep here… It would be easier.” Fluttershy twiddled her fingers as she spoke.

“Yeah, but that’s not fair to you, and I figure you need a bed to sleep on. I really don’t want you to like, roll of the couch in you’re sleep, or something.” Rainbow smiled and while grabbing Fluttershy’s good hand, helping her into her wheelchair yet again. She moved
Fluttershy slower than last time, trying her best to keep her completely free of pain. Her plan worked until Shy's landed softly in the seat, where she winced in pain despite Rainbow's efforts. Fluttershy was a trooper however, and her small frown was back to a smile after a couple seconds.

“Oh, um, o.k.” Rainbow grinned and wheeled Fluttershy to the bottom of the stairs and stopped at the bottom. She stared blankly up the darkened stairwell and scratched at her head.

“Shy’, there’s no way I can bring this thing up the stairs…” Rainbow leaned over Fluttershy to turn the hall-light on, illuminating the ten measly steps that stood in their way

“Oh, that's alright Rainbow, I can sleep on the couch…”

“I can carry you up.” Rainbow gave Fluttershy a weak smile as she held her arms out. “Promise I wont drop you.”

Fluttershy blushed madly at this. “Yes… hold me… Oh my that sounds ridiculous.” “...Sure. Please be careful, this isn’t that safe…” Fluttershy allowed Rainbow to pick her up, one hand under her legs, the other behind her back. “Please don’t drop me, please don’t drop me, please don’t drop me.” Rainbow turned and took the first step, slowly but surely she began ascending the stairs.

“Please don’t drop her, please don’t drop her, please don’t drop her. At least she’s light.” It took a few moments, but soon enough, Rainbow made it to the top of the stairs, and then to Fluttershy’s bed. She placed her lightly onto the bed, and set up the pillows behind her head so she could sleep upright due to the recovering elbow. Fluttershy shifted herself under the covers, and relaxed into the pillows. She let the universes most adorable yawn.

“Thanks Rainbow.” She closed her eyes with a gentle smile still plastered on her face.

“Heh, no problem Shy’. Imma’ going to go crash on your couch, yell if you need anything, alright.” Rainbow turned and headed towards the hallway, turning out the light as she left the room.

“Ask her to stay here, in the bed, with you… No! don’t ask that, not yet…” Fluttershy sighed, and rested back into the pillow. “Alright… Goodnight, Rainbow.”

“Night!” Fluttershy closed her eyes again and lost herself in her own thoughts, seemingly sporadic. She thought of how hard living with her crush was going to be, she thought to how hard the next few weeks would be in general, and how she should be grateful that the miracles of modern medicine aided her in a quick return home. All sorts of thoughts flooded her head, and ever so slowly, she drifted off into a very shifty and shaky sleep.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to shove out, I haven't been very inspired to write lately.

"Doogle Gocs" often gives me a hard time with formatting when I transfer it over to this site, so If you notice any random paragraphing mishaps (or any issues for that matter) please tell me, and I'll fix it up. Thanks :3