Beneath her hooves there was a soft but firm stability, not really the rock solid reassurance she was hoping for. Rainbow Dash knew in her head that she wouldn't break through the cloud, but the little filly still reminded herself that just because the floor is soft, doesn't mean it's not sturdy...enough. Everypony else walked on the clouds, well everypony else that had feathered wings like she did, and they never broke through.
But the stories she'd heard were getting to her, and she couldn't get what her tormentors had told her out of her head. One of their older sisters had said that the bad ponies, the ones that were weak or that couldn't pass all of their tests at flight school, were banished to a secret room in the weather factory, where they were fed cake and chocolates and popcorn and candy until they gained so much weight that their wings would no longer support them and neither would Cloudsdale's frail ground. They would come crashing through the clouds, hoof-first, only to meet a painful death as they breached land. She shuddered at the thought and sank deeper into the cloud surface, bracing herself for impact and shielding her eyes with her sky colored feathers.
She owed her life to her feathers. Without them, she would have plummeted to the earth ages ago. What a terrifying thought. Thank Celestia she's a pegasus and not a unicorn or an earth pony. So what if she couldn't keep her cool on Cloudsdale's pseudo-ground? Struggling just means that you're working twenty times harder than the rest of them! Besides, pegasi belong in the air, and it just wouldn't cut it to act like a wimp in the hometown of a plethora of Equestria's best and boldest fliers. She stood erect at the thought, expanding her pale blue wings in a display of new found confidence. Which abruptly shattered as a pale yellow, fair-haired filly tumbled into her.
Rainbow crumpled to the ground in defeat and shut her eyes, shivering in fear as her worst nightmare was realized. Surely she had fallen through the clouds that were supporting her.
..............................
The pale yellow pony would have left Rainbow Dash there in a heap like that if she hadn't known what it felt like to be so utterly horrified by something. She hated feeling distressed herself, but there was nothing she loathed more than seeing others in distress, so she tried to cheer the disheartened pony up a bit by apologizing a little louder. The little filly didn't think Rainbow Dash had heard her the first time. And maybe not the second time either.
She was about to try again when the devastated blue pegasus realized that she hadn't broken through the surface. When Rainbow's eyes met those of the fair-haired filly, instead of expressing relief, her eyes narrowed in recognition and then widened in fear. Maybe she had landed on the ground, with such a weak flier standing before her.
"You're Fluttershy right?" she blurted.
The pale pony nodded.
"And you're a year older than the rest of our class right?"
Fluttershy nodded her head again, and the azure pony responded in an inquiring tone,
"Because you failed the class we're in now last year right?"
Fluttershy nodded vigorously, anxious to get away from somepony that remembers her for being a failure. Rainbow peeled herself off of the cloud floor, noting it's soft-but-firm familiarity, and she enveloped the yellow filly in the kind of embrace you give someone that just saved your life.
"Oh, thank Celestia! You're living proof that those jerks were lying about the factory!"
Fluttershy drew back in surprise, and Rainbow interrogated her again,
"They were lying right? You haven't been fed anything deceptively delicious lately have you? Like popcorn or chocolate, or-"
Fluttershy couldn't manage to stifle a giggle.
"Hey! You laugh! But what's so funny?"
"Nothing, it's just that I've heard that story too, and I can assure you that it's total malarkey."
"Ma- what?"
"Malarkey! It means nonsense. Haha! I didn't think that I would be teaching the Rainbow Dash, the best flier in Cloudsdale Primary, anything she didn't already know. To be honest, I've always kind of envied you for being so naturally gifted at flight."
"I am pretty awesome, but I always goof up when it comes down to it. I just get nervous! And then I goof up during the tests, and I crash head-first into objects that I've cleared a hundred times in practice, and I'm left with a failing grade and a huge headache. And a dumb nickname to boot. I could come up with a better pun than Rainbow Crash!"
"Oh is that what those two call you? That's not even funny. They call me Clutcher-shy. I think. Or maybe Klutz-er-shy? I'm not really sure because I don't really understand what they're saying, maybe they're calling me something else..."
Her voice trailed off and Rainbow Dash wasn't paying attention anymore. Instead she focused her gaze to the practice course that loomed over the city, on the high grounds where their school was located.
"You know Fluttershy, I could teach you enough of what I know so you won't end up failing this year."
The fair-haired filly stared blankly into Rainbow's expectant eyes until she registered what the brash pegasus had said and she managed to stutter out,
"I-I-I'm sorry, but I think I'm just going to try passing on my own this year."
Fluttershy didn't want to tell her, but Rainbow Dash was just too intimidating for her to handle as a teacher. She could hardly handle her as a classmate! With her possessing so much raw power and being a year younger than her and all. It was down right embarrassing. Rainbow gave a brief pause and then spoke,
"That's too bad! You're just a flutter shy of acing that class," she exclaimed with a wink. Fluttershy burst into a fit of laughter.
"You," she gasped, "really can make better puns!"
And then Rainbow Dash flew so fast that nopony would have been able to tell what was her azure body and what was the clear sky, except for the brilliant blaze of color that trailed behind her as she took off.
"Thank you," the fair-haired filly whispered to the wind.
Author's Note
-I didn't know whether to use "fliers" or "flyers," but I looked it up and it appears that they have the same meaning, so I kept it in it's original form
