Chapters Chapter 1 - Raffle Tickets
"Fluttershy, wake up!" a voice told Fluttershy. "Get up!" It sounded like... Rainbow Dash!
Fluttershy perked up and looked around. She was in the park. Suddenly, it all came back to her. Pinkie's party... the cider drinking game with Derpy's endless muffin eating... Rainbow getting unconscious... It was one horrible night - worse than last year's Grand Galloping Gala. It eventually ended around four AM when Rainbow woke up and walked home with Fluttershy. Except they both fell asleep in the park, too drunk to have a clear head.
Fluttershy looked at her dress. It was all ripped up. For some reason, she could not remember why that happened. She kept trying, but it didn't work. And the more she tried to remember the night, the worse her headache got.
Ah, yes, the headache. It felt worse than any hangover she'd ever experienced. She was giving up trying to remember to relieve the pain, when a memory popped into her head.
Rainbow Dash was wobbling like a vertigo-induced patient in a mental hospital when Twilight nudged her on the shoulder and asked, "Hey, Rainbow Dash? You alright?"
"You wanna f-fight?" Rainbow mumbled. "I'll give you a... a fight!" She began clawing at her friend which got Fluttershy to try and help.
"Rainbow, could you please stop?" she asked politely. "You're destroying the decorations."
"It... it's my birthday, butterfly, and I won't stop!" She began clawing Fluttershy, too. "Isn't this fun?" She stopped clawing, however the dress was ruined thanks to her. "Let's see who can drink the most cider!"
Fluttershy groaned and looked at Twilight, who shrugged.
"You should probably do it," Twilight advised, "or she'll go back to fighting."
"Fluttershy? You okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, getting her friend back to reality.
"I'm okay," Fluttershy replied. "I just have a headache."
"Ah, got it. So you wanna go to the Ponyville Raffle?"
Fluttershy felt sick to her stomach. The cider make her feel a little bit better, but her body felt worse.
"Why do I go t-to these parties if... if I always end up s-sick?" she asked herself. Her conscious wouldn't have a clear answer, so she gave up with these tedious questions and went back to dancing with Rainbow Dash.
"H-hey!" Rainbow shouted over the music, which wasn't that loud. "How about we... we enter the dumb raffle? For kicks?" She laughed at the thought. Usually, the prizes were horrible, so it would be funny to enter just for the heck of it. "And how about we just enter the friendly friends while we're... we're at it?"
"Th-that's a great idea!" Fluttershy agreed. "Let's do this raffle!"
Fluttershy was surprised at this idea. "Why should we go?" she inquired. "It's never worth it."
"Well, I talked to Mayor Mare," Rainbow Dash explained, "and she told me that the grand prize is five tickets for front row seats at the Cloudsdale Young Fliers Competition!" She was certainly excited about this raffle.
"But five tickets? Who's gonna stay behind?"
"We'll worry about it later. Right now, we've got a raffle to go to."
Fluttershy looked at their number, which was 236. It seemed like a large number, and it made sense. There were almost three hundred ponies there. It would be a stretch to win those tickets.
"...and the winner of this antique vase is... number 160! Where is number 160?" A red pony raised his sign. "Come on up and get it, number 160!" He did so.
Fluttershy gulped. "I hope we win those tickets. I don't want you to miss the competition."
"Don't worry," Rainbow Dash assured her. "No matter what, we still have this trading card collection that's worth like twelve hundred diamonds! Let's see who wins the tickets, though."
"The final item for this month's raffle is this collection of five tickets for the Cloudsdale Young Fliers Competition, front seats and all!" The announcer closed her eyes and reached her mouth into the bucket full of raffle numbers. She pulled out a slightly soggy paper. "And finally, the moment almost all of you have waited for - the winner of these tickets is... number 236! Where's number 236?"
Rainbow Dash sat there with her mouth gaping open. "I won!" she cheered. "I won the tickets!" She ran up to the stage and grabbed the tickets. "Thank you so much, Ms. Announcer Lady!" She ran back to her seat and showed the tickets to Fluttershy. "Isn't this awesome?"
"It certainly is," Fluttershy replied. "But when are you going to tell the others?"
"Don't worry. I'll gather them at Sugarcube Corner and give them the news tomorrow."
Fluttershy eyed Rainbow strangely. "But what about the fact that there's only five tickets?"
Rainbow Dash left that question unanswered.
Chapter 2 - Doubtful Ambitions
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."
Every time that I looked upon the windows of my lovely abode, I saw a snowflake or two falling onto it. I wanted to go outside, however, I knew that I was too old to do such a thing. Why did I want to anyway? Snow is just watery crystals, coming down thanks to the pegasi in Cloudsdale. What fun could come out of getting all wet in such boring material?
It was one day that I realized that it wasn't the immediate fun that brought us such smiles. It was the knowledge that we would remember these happy times whenever we saw the snow anytime after that. Memories were what brought us these smiles.
The memories came back to me, too. I remembered how, as a child, I would grab a sled and ride down to the bottom of the hill behind my family's house. My brother and I would always have such fun for years. The joy would take until springtime to leave us. However, there was no reason to fret, we knew. There was always the next Winter to have fun.
So looking upon the season of snow to come out my window, I realized that no matter what, snow could bring joy to my face in many ways.
What followed was a loud run, the opening of a door, and a cheer all from me. This was the first time in ages that I'd gone outside for snow. This was the first time in ages that I'd gone outside to have organized fun.
This was the first time in almost forever that I had fun in such circumstances.
And nothing would stop me.