Rainbow Dash fidgeted anxiously, gazing around the immense waiting room.
Cloudsdale waiting rooms were always so barren.
Some cushions for sitting, one or two paintings of old architecture, a desk containing a bored-looking receptionist, and occasionally a mirror. There was never anything to pass the long duration of time between arrival and a summons. And flying was strictly prohibited, as proclaimed by a sternly worded sign on the other side of the door.
With such a rule in place, Rainbow Dash felt they might as well take the extra step and tie her down completely.
She had been so elated when she arrived at Summer Flight Camp. She finally had the chance to dazzle both her classmates and a panel of worthy adults with the moves she had been practicing for years. But now, all thanks to a dentist, all of her efforts to be awesome would be worthless. She could forget about being considered “the coolest filly at camp”.
The only ray of comfort was that she wasn't the only anxious pony in the waiting room.
A tall, gangly filly with a pink mane sat awkwardly two cushions away from Rainbow Dash. She looked frightened to be there at the moment.
Haven't I seen her around before? Rainbow Dash wondered.
It was difficult to tell. There were so many fillies and colts at the camp, each sorted into their respective groups. If Rainbow Dash didn't know this particular filly's name, she was probably an “egghead” or one of those other crowds she didn't associate with for the sake of her reputation.
And then, as the gawky yellow foal tapped her hooves together anxiously, Rainbow Dash realized who it was.
How could she have forgotten, even for the slightest second, Fluttershy?
Fluttershy was partially a celebrity at this point. Unlike Rainbow Dash, who had joined the camp's elite for her prodigious flying, Fluttershy was somewhat of a celebrity for her incredibly disastrous flight performance. Just three days previous, she had practically dissolved into tears during one of the tougher drills. The instructor had barked at her for five minutes straight before, with a look of disgust on her features Finally, she had excused the cowardly pony from doing the drill because she was holding up the lesson.
Rainbow Dash hated to admit it, but she had felt bad for Fluttershy during that time. However, she had been one of the many students who had laughed in a mean-spirited fashion during another incident in which Fluttershy nearly fainted from attempting to do twenty wing-ups.
Since they were the only ponies in the waiting room, a bored Rainbow Dash decided to strike up a conversation.
“'Sup?” she inquired, employing her favorite “cool” tone of voice.
A tiny squeak popped out of Fluttershy's mouth, her gaze snapping to the filly who had spoken.
“H-Hi,” she stammered timidly, barely making eye contact.
“Name's Dash, comma Rainbow. You're....Klutzersh-- Um, Fluttershy, right?”
Fluttershy nodded, staring at her hooves. She was acting in the same manner she did at flight camp.
“I know who you are,” she practically whispered. “Everyone knows who you are. You're...one of the best flyers at Summer Flight Camp.”
She turned slightly red as she spoke.
“I'm sorry! I'm embarrassing you...”
But Rainbow Dash swelled with pride at the praise. It was what she had been hearing from her classmates and instructors for over two weeks. The only thing she hated about it was that she still wasn't considered the best flyer at camp. However, she was confident that it would just take a bit more training to reach that inevitable point.
“Nah, I get it all the time,” she assured the taller filly. “My awesomeness is well-known.”
Still, Fluttershy looked a bit mortified at having said such a thing. Her face remained slightly red and she began anxiously tapping her hooves yet again.
“I'm here to get my teeth checked,” Rainbow Dash continued brightly. “You know that wicked epic trick I did yesterday? The one that totally and completely blew away the instructor? I'm here to make sure my super extreme awesomeness didn't damage my teeth. When you do a trick like that, you've gotta make sure every part of your body is still intact.”
Fluttershy recalled what trick Rainbow Dash was referring to. She remembered that it had been deemed the “Fantastic Filly Flash” or something similar by their classmates. She wished she could have done something like that, or at least been brave enough to try it, with everypony staring at her.
“That's nice,” Fluttershy uttered, her voice tiny and rather hollow. “I'm here to get braces.”
For some reason, the confident smirk on Rainbow Dash's features evaporated slightly.
“You...you mean those...metal things on your teeth? That is what they're called, right?”
Fluttershy nodded, brushing her mane from her eyes.
“I don't want to get them. I'm....scared.”
The last word came out in a puny squeal.
Since being scared seemed like a normal state of mind for this particular pony, Rainbow Dash didn't think much of it.
Until Fluttershy broke into loud sobs.
She began, quite abruptly, to wail in anguish. Large tears bubbled from her eyes and descended down her cheeks.
In a crowded waiting room, this might have been an issue. But currently, they were the only ones in the room. The receptionist had departed soon after Rainbow Dash arrived, leaving behind a sign on her desk which proclaimed “Out to Lunch” in a hasty scrawl.
Rainbow Dash was lost for a few moments, wondering what she was meant to do. She wanted Fluttershy to cease crying, but she had a feeling screaming at her wouldn't do the trick. She had witnessed the instructors using the same tactic, always to no avail.
Ignoring the blatantly stated rule posted outside the office, the blue filly unfurled her wings. She hovered in the air for a moment, surveying the room around her. At last, her eyes came to rest on the empty receptionist’s desk and what it contained. Grinning, Rainbow Dash flew to the desk, which was a little too tall for her to reach without the aid of her wings, and seized the candy dish in her hooves. She stuck her face into the dish and took several wrapped lollipops, holding them awkwardly in her mouth. Her task completed, she carefully returned the dish to its original place. Even though the thrill of flying was beginning to consume her, she forced herself to return to the floor.
“Mghghgmhmhh...”
She spat out the lollipops in front of a still sobbing Fluttershy.
“I mean, take these. When your eye's are all runny, get something sweet in your tummy!”
At these words, Fluttershy's tears began to subside. Sniffling, she gazed in surprise at the offering in front of her.
“B-but....the receptionist will be ma-mad....,” she began heavily, her sobs tangled within her words.
The rainb0w-maned filly interrupted with a laugh.
“I can take her on! I'm Rainbow Dash after all! She's just some cranky old lady who can't possibly keep up with soon to be the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!”
Despite her cascading tears, a smile spread across Fluttershy's features.
The two fillies, one struggling to get over her tears and the other smiling encouragingly, each took a lollipop, unwrapped it with some difficulty, and commenced a taste test.
“Blueberry! My favorite!”
“I've got cherry. Even though I don't particularly like cherry...”
Holding her own lollipop in her mouth, Rainbow Dash snatched Fluttershy's from her grasp. As the waiting room for some reason did not contain a garbage can, she stuck it to the underside of one of the cushions. Then she started digging around in the tiny pile of lollipops in search of a different flavor. Finally, after a search that lasted barely a minute, she handed Fluttershy a brand new lollipop which she assured her wasn't cherry.
“If you don't like cherry, don't eat it,” she uttered rather aggressively. “I'll never understand why you put up with all sorts of food you obviously hate. I see you eating that disgusting slime in the mess hall, even though they have oat burgers and lots of much better stuff! What's your deal?”
“Well....um.....” Fluttershy fumbled to undo the wrapper. “I don't want to bother anypony.... What if someone else wants to eat that delicious oat burger or that salad? I don't want to upset anypony by taking something they want.”
Rainbow Dash realized that that wasn't the entire truth.
Ponies would, either intentionally or unintentionally, grab the exact bowl Fluttershy had been about to take. On the rare occasions she tried to speak up, they would pretend not to be able to hear her. Defeated, she would end up taking the food that nopony else wanted, namely the unidentifiable slime that carried the aroma of burnt garbage.
But Rainbow Dash didn't point these things out. She merely contemplated for a few minutes, something that wasn't a frequent occurrence.
She had never realized how difficult it was to be somepony like Fluttershy.
A sigh drifted from her mouth.
“Hey, can I tell you something? Not that everypony isn't going to know soon enough.”
Fluttershy nodded, the lollipop in her mouth. She appeared in much better spirits than she had been before, her tears almost completely dried up.
Rainbow Dash allowed her confidence to build. She knew there was no reason for her to be this reluctant, yet she hesitated before speaking.
“I'm getting braces.”
She got the utterance out quickly, in much the same way one quickly removes a bandage to make the sting less painful.
However, Fluttershy's response wasn't the least bit dramatic. She simply tucked her lollipop back into its wrapper for safe-keeping and responded composedly,
“Really? I'm glad I'm not the only one.”
Her calm response apparently didn't match the other pony's state of mind.
“I'm the exact opposite of glad!” Rainbow Dash announced miserably. “Do you have any idea how many coolness points I'm going to lose?! Hundreds! Thousands! Millions! All because some stupid dentist says I need stupid braces on my stupid teeth! How dumb is that? My teeth are fine and that hack dentist knows it!”
Before she spoke, Fluttershy arranged her words with care.
“Ar-Are you sure it's....coolness you're worried about? I-I mean, you're already really cool and I don't think anypony is going to care if you have braces. Maybe you're a little....scared?”
The word ignited a certain fire within the rainbow-maned filly.
“Scared?!” she practically screamed. “As if! That is literally the most ridiculous thing anypony has ever said in the history of ever! How can Dash, comma Rainbow, the most awesome flyer in Cloudsdale, be scared of some dumb braces? A future member of the Wonderbolts isn't scared of anything!”
“O-Oh, I'm sorry...I just thought...”
“Well, stop thinking whatever you're thinking because it's a lie! I, Rainbow Dash, am not scared of anything!”
She crossed her hooves, a look of anger on her features.
“I just thought we might have something in common,” Fluttershy tried to make amends. “You probably haven't noticed, but I'm terrified of getting braces. I just know it's going to hurt and....and....”
Unfortunately, she appeared to be on the edge of tears again.
The look on her face softening, Rainbow Dash reached over and patted the other pony's shoulder.
“It's not that big a deal. Not everypony can be a totally brave and awesome pegasus like me!”
She adjoined, faltering a little as she spoke,
“Do-don't tell anypony, but.... I am kind of scared. I've always been a little nervous at the dentist. This whole braces thing freaked me out the moment I heard it. I'm mostly cool now, but....I'm still kinda shaky.”
Knowing that an immensely courageous pony like Rainbow Dash was “kind of scared” soothed Fluttershy. She had always been jealous of this particular filly for having everything she herself didn't possess: Bravery, amazing flying abilities, and the adoration, rather than scorn, of their instructors and classmates. Knowing that they had one thing in common was enough to return the smile to her visage and boost her failing tenacity.
The door to the inner office opened and a bulky pegasus poked his head out. He called Fluttershy's name, paying no mind to the fact that there were only two pegasi in the waiting room and only one of them could have been named “Fluttershy”.
“Good luck!” Rainbow Dash called as her new friend was taken away.
The last thing Fluttershy saw before the door closed was a rainbow-maned pegasus giving her a hoof-up.
“You were right. Nothing can diminish my pure radicalness!”
“The dentist is a really nice pony, isn't he? He wasn't mad at all when I told him about the lollipops!”
The two fillies were admiring their new braces in the mirror in the waiting room.
The procedure had taken an hour for each of them.
Rather than depart once her turn was over, Fluttershy had generously chosen to wait.
“I notice you didn't cry,” Rainbow Dash commented, turning to Fluttershy. “Good for you! I knew you had guts!”
Her and the blushing pegasus exchanged a hoof bump.
“All thanks to you,” Fluttershy replied happily. “I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here to help.”
To Rainbow Dash's astonishment, she was given a sudden and very tight hug. A muffled
“Thank you. You're the best friend I've ever had!”
came from the hugger.
Rainbow Dash allowed the embrace to continue for several seconds. Then, somewhat red-faced herself, she pushed the over-affectionate filly away from her.
“Chill out! No need to get all sappy! I appreciate the compliment, but I'm not really into all that touchy-feely stuff. Got it?”
“Right!” Fluttershy uttered immediately, nodding. “No sappy stuff. Got it.”
“That's Rule 1 of being Rainbow Dash's friend. The second rule is...”
They departed the waiting room together, Rainbow Dash speaking pompously.
Their new braces gleamed in the light of the sun.
Author's Note
Don't hold back with the criticism. This is my first story on here.
