Never Been Better

Fluttershy woke up with the immediate thought of Where am I?

The place she was in had barely any texture. There was blue, which she knew was the sky thanks to its shade of blue, but there was also white, which, while it was the texture that Fluttershy stood on, she did not know what exactly this texture was. She turned around.

There it was - Cloudsdale Stadium, the glorious arena where every CYFC (Cloudsdale Young Fliers Competition) was held. That was when Fluttershy realized this bland wasteland was Cloudsdale, or some version of it.

For some reason, she felt intrigued by Cloudsdale Stadium, so she decided to fly to the top of it. There she saw herself and her friends watching the CYFC in the front row. But where was Applejack?

This was when she realized that Applejack gave up her ticket to let Rarity go instead.

The world around her flashed black and changed its appearance to look like Applejack's house. In it, Applejack was reading a book and sobbing. She was very lonely, Fluttershy could see.

The world flashed to black again.

"Why is this happening to me?" she cried. She wanted answers.

The world changed appearance yet again, except that this time, it went back to Cloudsdale Stadium. The CYTC was at halftime, it seemed, and the Fluttershy in the stadium was going over to the concessions stand. Suddenly, the Fluttershy in the air flashed into her stadium self's body.

A pegasus about her age walked up to her and began laughing. "Hey, look! It's FlutterFail! Why are you here? Entering the Cloudsdale Young Failers Competition?" This pony was Johnny Pancake, a bully from back in flight school. He was known for his loud outbursts and mean jokes. Johnny's two goons, Dill and Dale, began laughing, too.

This was too much for Fluttershy to take. She burst into tears and shouted to the skies, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Just make it stop!"

The crying ended long after Fluttershy woke up.

It took a while for her to realize all of this misery was just a bad dream. She looked at her alarm clock. It was almost noon! She had to get to Sugarcube Corner quick!

Thankfully, when she got there, they were still arriving.

"Glad that you could join us," Rainbow Dash quipped. "Are you guys ready for the good news?"

"Yeah!" the others, excluding Fluttershy, shouted.

Rainbow pulled out the tickets. "I got us front row seats to the Cloudsdale Young Fliers Competition!" They cheered at this.

Applejack stared at the tickets. "But there's only five. Where's the sixth?"

"I won these in the raffle, and there was only five."

Twilight gasped. "This means someone can't go! What are we going to do?"

Fluttershy felt bad. She wanted to help. But how?

Her thoughts went back to the nightmare she had. This gave her a good idea.

"Hey!" she interrupted. "I know what to do."

"What's that?" Twilight asked.

"I'm gonna stay home."

Rainbow Dash felt as if she was about to faint. "But you can't! It's the Young Fliers we're talking about!"

"No is no, Rainbow. I won't change my mind." She was acting stubborn, but her friends could see this was the only way for her to get her point across. "You girls, go. I need to take care of my animals, anyway."

Rarity sighed. "Well, okay, Fluttershy. But if you change your mind, you can go in my place."

"Thanks, Rarity, but I think I'll be fine."

The train to Hot Air Junction, the town that exported hot air balloons, was about to leave with Fluttershy's friends on board, when she stopped them.

"Wait, Rainbow Dash?" she asked her best friend.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash answered.

"I want you to take this." She took out a golden horseshoe. "It's my good luck charm." She passed it to Rainbow.

"Thanks, Fluttershy. Now, are you sure you don't want to come?"

"I'm sure. Oh, and say hi to my old teacher, Mrs. Kathie." She waved goodbye, and with that, her friends left.

The thought crossed her mind a few minutes before she got back home.

It changed her and Equestria alike forever.

The thought was: "I'm getting pretty lonely already."