Last Rays

by YetAnotherBrony

Rating: teen
Tags: Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 5740

The hardest part of friendship is watching as those we care about make choices that harm them. Is there any helping those who don't appear to be helping themselves? Fluttershy doesn't know, but she only has a day to figure it out.

The hardest part of friendship is watching as those we care about make choices that harm them. Is there any helping those who don't appear to be helping themselves, or is that just an excuse ponies make to do nothing?

Fluttershy doesn't know, but she only has a day to figure it out. Good thing she has the princess of friendship to help her.

Published 2015-01-21 06:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-21 06:20:01 UTC

Chapter 1

Ray appeared to be smiling, but it was hard to tell due to the dark mass seemingly trying to overtake his face from the inside out. It was centered behind his eye, but to call it a black eye didn’t do it justice, as it didn’t appear to know that an eye takes up less than half the face.

Fluttershy hated to see him like this; she felt useless. Yet, if there was any help she could offer, she had to try. She couldn’t imagine how Ray had ever fallen in love with a mare who would do this to him. She rarely saw Ray’s wife, but she had heard Class Act’s voice on a number of occasions, and that was frightening enough. She always sounded like she was yelling and like nopony could possibly be more of a burden to her than whoever was in earshot.

Maybe a year or two ago this discomfort at feeling useless and fear of Class Act would have caused Fluttershy to shy away from Ray, but now she couldn’t abandon him if she wanted to. How could she be so selfish when her friend was the one suffering?

Ray was an earth pony, but he lacked the callouses and muscles that came with farming. His tidy, dark blonde mane looked out of place on his disheveled body, and his coat was a white that bordered on transparent, making his injuries that much more obvious. That wouldn’t stop him from trying desperately and futilely to hide them around others, but he knew better than to bother with Fluttershy. Instead, he tried a different angle with her.

“You’ve probably noticed that I’ve fallen down the stairs again. I’m such a klutz,” he said with an even more unconvincing smile.

Ray took a seat across from Fluttershy. He would have had a seat before her if he didn’t insist on pulling out her chair for her. It was a habit Fluttershy wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t something that seemed almost programmed into him. She couldn’t help but wonder if it had been drilled into him growing up or beaten into him after getting married.

The wooden table they sat at had a nice finish that complemented the wooden house, but it was uneven. This defect was unnoticeable unless sitting at the table, so Fluttershy guessed that Class Act never had. She wouldn’t have tolerated such a thing in her house otherwise.

Fluttershy was hungry but didn’t so much as glance at the daisy sandwich on her plate before replying, “Oh, Ray. That looks like it hurts… a lot.” She trailed off for a few seconds feeling stupid for pointing out the obvious before continuing, “I have some ointment that might make it less sore. I usually use it on beavers with sore tails, but it should work on ponies too.”

“Thanks. It feels like it looks.” He nodded. “I really hate the stairs,” he said with his grin from earlier faltering.

A few months ago Fluttershy wouldn’t have understood what he meant, but now it was obvious. She didn’t really understand the point of this linguistic game, but she played along. If it helped Ray feel more comfortable, that was all that mattered.

“I wish I could go back to the way things were. If I could just tutor ponies, young and old, the way I used to. Helping somepony better understand their special talent made it impossible to have a bad day. Ponies that feel unneeded just need a gentle nudge toward the right opportunity, and yet so many of them go overlooked. If I had that back, I don’t think I would mind falling so much.” He sighed.

Fluttershy loved hearing about Ray’s life before he met Class Act. He always seemed happy when he talked about it. She knew it wasn’t a very nice thing to think, but often she found herself wishing that she had met Ray before he got married and had talked him out of it. She’d sometimes even imagine what words she would use to persuade him. But no matter how she pictured the scenario, it never worked. Why should anypony listen to her after all?

She should just be grateful she met him at all. He didn’t leave the house and, while she had gotten considerably better, she didn’t exactly go out of her way to meet new ponies either. Ray and Fluttershy had met through Pinkie Pie not long after they had moved to Ponyville a year ago, and shortly before Pinkie had been banned from coming over. As much as Pinkie Pie would never admit it, this effectively ended Ray’s friendship with her. He always had to be at the house just in case Class Act dropped by at an odd hour and needed something.

“You really miss it, don’t you?” asked Fluttershy.

He replied almost instantly, “Terribly. Why can’t she… I mean if only I were better at not falling flat on my face. I can’t even have clients come here because I never look presentable.”

Fluttershy knew from the numerous photos she had seen that Ray had never cared about looking presentable, and he seemed to have had plenty of ponies coming to him for help. But there was no point in calling out his flimsy excuse.

Yet he appeared to notice her disapproval and so added, “Who am I kidding. That was years ago. With my friends in various industries having moved on with their lives, I couldn’t be of much help anyway.”

He seemed far too young to be saying that, but he was five years her senior and had married young. Regardless, he said this with much more conviction than his previous excuse.

Despite having known Pinkie Pie for a little while, Ray hadn’t made any other friends in Ponyville, and he never really hit it off with any of the other mares, so that just left Fluttershy. She always hated bringing it up, but she had to do something.

Sensing her nervousness, and being familiar with what that meant, Ray’s limp smile crept back onto his face and he interjected, “So how is Angel?” He then bit into his sandwich.

Ray knew that Fluttershy could go on for hours about her animal friends. She had talked about them often with Ray, and they always had a great time when she did. Though he would often ask about them in normal conversation, she had noticed he also did so to deflect certain topics, and it had sometimes worked. But not today. “She’s fine, just like you’d be if you moved.”

“To a house without stairs?” Ray added.

Fluttershy nodded. She still wasn’t great at remembering they were talking about stairs.

At this Ray put his half eaten sandwich back down on his plate across from Fluttershy’s untouched one. He gazed down at the floor and said, “Gravity is everywhere. I can no more get away from it than I can leave Equestria behind and soar into space.”

“So you feel trapped?” asked Fluttershy.

“Am I not? Besides, with what money would I buy a house?” he said looking up at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy couldn't think of anyway to incorporate stairs into what she wanted to say so she abandoned all pretense and began saying, “The police would protect you and—”

He had never said anything before when she broke their little metaphor, but today he interrupted her. “The police would protect a corpse,” he said sharply. After a brief pause during which he drank some water, he continued, “Besides, I need stairs. They’re good exercise.”

Fluttershy wore a defeated look. Her stomach grumbled, and she remembered for the first time since arriving that she had food. They ate in complete silence.

While Fluttershy was chewing her last few bites, Ray spoke up. “I know I complain sometimes, but my life is livable. However, there have been times when it wasn’t. The worst of which lasted for months. I really thought I was going to die. And do you know what brought that about? Somepony I’d run into a time or two at the grocery store put two and two together and called the cops. Please, Fluttershy, don’t make things any worse.”

He had never been this frank with her before. She wasn’t sure whether to feel honored at him finally opening up to her, or horrified that the police had not kept him safe. Regardless, this would not be like last time.

“But I know Twilight. She is smart. She can figure something out. Besides, she’s related to the captain of the royal guard and she is friends with Princess Celestia,” pleaded Fluttershy.

Ray sighed. He was glad Fluttershy cared but it wasn’t nearly as simple as she seemed to think. It was great though that she didn’t understand, because that likely meant she had never been through it.

He got up and cleared the dishes off the table, then washed them. It was a simple meal, so there wasn’t much cleaning to do. Before long, he was sitting back at the table with Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was looking at him expectantly, but didn’t feel the need to give a verbal prompting. Ray replied, “It isn’t worth the risk. Please just be the one pony I can go to about this without worrying they’ll tell somepony. Please just listen and don’t offer advice. ”

“I can do that,” said Fluttershy softly. Some day they would figure this out, but if it was easier for Ray to just get some of it off his chest for now, that was fine.

Ray liked that Fluttershy didn’t push things too far. She cared about what he was going through, but didn’t treat him like a child by insisting she knew better about how to handle a situation she had never been in. It probably wouldn’t hurt if he reminded her just how special she was to him. “Good. I’ve never had another friend I could talk about this with before, and I need to be weak for a little bit one last time.”

“One last time?” repeated Fluttershy, puzzled.

Now Ray felt stupid. Sure, he hadn’t exactly been given much notice either, but he had at least a week to tell Fluttershy. “Oh, how could I forget to mention it! You can’t tell by this room because she insists that the front-most room always be presentable, but much of the house is filled with boxes.”

“You’re moving? Where to? I hope it isn’t far away,” said Fluttershy.

At this, Ray’s eyes began to water. What he was about to say next hadn’t sounded so bad before, but now that he was about to actually tell his best friend, he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think she wants anyone knowing our address. Too many solicitors, she says”

Seeing Fluttershy’s face quickly furling into a frown and feeling his own not holding up so well, he futilely attempted to not make it sound as bad by adding, “but I have the P. O. Box right here, so we can write each other every day!”

Tears began flooding Fluttershy’s eyes and began slipping down her face. “Oh, I don’t know if I can bear not seeing you.”

Despite trying to hold his composure for her, he wasn’t far behind her. Once they were both crying, there was no use trying to salvage it. It was going to be a bad day.

Ray got up from his chair and hugged Fluttershy.

“I don’t know if I can either. I really do hate stairs. I hate her,” he said while they were still hugging.

After they let go, he asked with a smile, “Should I get the photo album we left off with?”

This time Fluttershy didn’t feel like he was trying to sidestep awkward questions so much as spend well what little time they had left together. She couldn’t agree more with this sentiment. So they spent over an hour looking through the album together before a harsh voice ended their fun.

Apparently Class Act had much she wanted done before the move, and didn't trust Ray to get it all done without her supervising.

While leaving, Fluttershy glimpsed one last time at her friend’s cutie mark. It was the most intricate mark she had ever seen. There were several downtrodden aimless ponies with a ray of light shooting down on a single one of them, with that one exhibiting Pinkie Pie levels of exuberance. Ray brought out the best in ponies and it sounded like he really loved doing it. It was only too bad Fluttershy had never seen him at work with her own two eyes, but based on how much he had helped her, she could easily imagine it.

As she continued toward the door she stepped on something sharp. Upon pulling it out of her hoof she noticed it was a tooth. Fluttershy just looked back at Ray with the most pathetic look she could muster before leaving.

~~~

The decision to come to Twilight’s had been an easy one. Despite what Ray said, with only one day left to either help out or do nothing, Fluttershy couldn’t just not say anything to anypony. She needed guidance on what to do even if that did mean letting one more pony in on the secret.

Her first instinct had been to go to Rarity, but with Rarity’s idealized notion of romance, her advice didn’t seem ideal for this situation. Though Fluttershy hated to admit because she had the utmost respect for Rarity and hated to think poorly of anypony, it was possible she would think Fluttershy was blowing the whole violence thing out of proportion and would be more focused on fixing the underlying relationship.

That said, if Rarity had seen the shape Ray was in, she would undoubtedly come to her senses and offer her usual sage advice, but with Class Act home for the rest of the day that option was definitely out.

Fluttershy’s next instinct had been to consult Rainbow Dash. But she also had certain biases that could potentially cloud her view. She could just imagine Rainbow Dash flying in there and beating up Class Act with no thought for how that might affect Ray later on.

It was weird acknowledging her friends’ faults like this. Something still felt wrong about it, but Fluttershy had learned from her experience with the breezies that, in order to be as nice as possible to some friends, she had to be willing to consider everypony’s flaws. In the case of her winged little friends, they were too short-sighted. Her friends had similar limitations that it did nopony any favors to ignore.

Finally, her third instinct had been Twilight. That may seem far down the list, but when you had as many wonderful friends as Fluttershy, it really wasn’t. In truth, perhaps the princess of friendship should have been her first instinct.

“Oh, hello, Fluttershy. Please come in,” said Twilight, opening her front door.

As soon as they entered the main hall Twilight immediately got to work reshelving the mass of books that had overtaken the cavernous room.

“I had just been researching a magical fungus that grows in the Everfree Forest. I suppose I acquired a pile of books since I started last night,” Twilight muttered, blushing slightly as she continued to return the room to an orderly state.

With extensive use of her magic she was done before long and she sat on the chair designated with her element. Fluttershy sat across from on her similarly ornate chair. Even years later, sitting in such an outlandish building and having a throne felt odd. But this was Twilight’s home and, after a while, one gets used to the uncomfortable furniture.

“So did anything in particular motivate you to drop by?” asked Twilight.

“I need your advice with a friendship problem,” said Fluttershy.

At that Twilight’s ears visibly perked up. “You can always come to me with anything that is troubling you.”

“Well I have a friend who is being…” now that she was saying aloud for the first time to somepony else the word got caught in her throat.

“Being what?” said Twilight with an arched eyebrow. Fluttershy had started the sentence and Twilight had acknowledged it, so there was no backing out.

“Abused,” muttered Fluttershy inaudibly.

“Could you repeat that?” asked Twilight.

This reminded Fluttershy briefly of her first meeting with Twilight. But unlike then, she wasn’t going to get quieter and quieter until she was squeaking. Not this time. She was going to, as Rainbow Dash’s put it, “pony up” and say what needed to be said.

“Abused” Fluttershy repeated evenly.

At this Twilight’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. After a couple seconds “WHO?” was all she could muster.

Twilight was a compassionate pony but Fluttershy was still surprised by her reaction. Then she remembered that Twilight likely didn’t know Fluttershy had any friends outside of their group as it hadn’t really come up.

“I can’t say. It’s no pony you know though.”

“I don’t mean to insinuate anything, so please don’t look too deeply into what I’m about to say but, for reference, you are somepony I know,” replied Twilight.

At this Fluttershy gave her an odd look.

Twilight continued, “It’s just that if something bad is happening to somepony that they want to talk about without giving themselves away often times they will frame the conversation as though they are referring to some unknown third party.”

Fluttershy had no idea who Twilight could even suspect she would be abused by. But Twilight did like to be cautious and this was hardly the time to be wondering such things. “It’s not me, Twilight,” she replied.

“That is all I needed to hear. And that is a relief. Abuse is always terrible, but I don’t think I could bear it if it was happening to any of my best friends,” said Twilight.

“So what do I do?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well, ideally you have been taking extensive notes on any abuse you have witnessed, any resulting bodily harm you have seen, and your friend’s claims about what exactly happened. That would make the process of keeping the abuser away from the abused much easier,” said Twilight. She wanted Fluttershy to know what to do in case this ever came up again.

However, she knew that Fluttershy likely hadn’t taken any notes so she continued, “ If you haven’t been doing that, then I’d take those notes the moment you next see signs of abuse and I’d immediately contact a lawyer. Alternatively, if you witness abuse, forget the notes and immediately call the police.”

Fluttershy had been tempted to interrupt Twilight, since she could go on for hours. Thankfully, she hadn’t needed to. But Fluttershy still felt stupid for wasting time by not clarifying earlier.

“Oh, sorry. Not that that wasn’t extremely helpful, but what I really wanted advice on is if I should contact somepony about this,” said Fluttershy.

“Of course. That’s what the legal system is for,” replied Twilight.

Fluttershy hadn’t expected her friend to treat this as the most obvious thing in the world. She had to do something, and yet she couldn’t help but picture everything that could go wrong if she did. “But what if he still doesn’t admit what has been happening to him, even when questioned by police about it? Then I would have just made things worse for him once his wife finds out.”

“Why would he do that? He does want you to report the abuse, doesn’t he?” asked Twilight, cocking an eyebrow.

Fluttershy hadn’t realized she had done such a poor job stating what she needed advice about. Still she couldn’t help but wonder why Twilight thought she was here exactly.

“No. I’ve asked him about it, but he’s shot me down everytime,” said Fluttershy.

Twilight blushed faintly. “Oh. I just assumed that he was scared to say anything himself, so he wanted you to do so for him. I can’t imagine why somepony wouldn’t want something like that reported.”

It wasn’t Twilight’s fault she didn’t understand. She had never been in Ray’s situation. Fluttershy hadn’t either, but she had seen the ponies they were supposed to trust implicitly fail completely.

“He’s scared, Twilight. I know you put a lot of faith in authority figures, but they don’t always do the right thing.”

Twilight still didn’t understand. She had read plenty of incident reports about times where ponies with authority made disturbing and awful choices. But they were the exception and not the rule. Fluttershy spoke with an unusual confidence. “You’re speaking from experience aren’t you?”

Fluttershy hesitated briefly. Twilight wasn’t asking her if she’d been abused again, was she? But she quickly determined that probably wasn’t what was meant. “I’ve never been abused, but I have seen ponies in positions of authority do the wrong thing. I’ve seen them convince themselves that words don’t do any real damage, just so that they didn’t have to actually do anything about it. I’ve seen them turn a blind eye towards bullying and a mare who was clearly hurting.” The chanting of “Fluttershy can hardly fly!” rang in her ears as she spoke. Her eyes began to water.

“Oh, Fluttershy,” said Twilight tenderly, as she got up off her throne. She walked up to her friend and hugged her. It was a brief hug, as hugging a sitting pony was a little awkward.

“Thanks for understanding. I know that, as somepony who likes to do things by the book, it can’t be easy for you to acknowledge that some ponies fall through the cracks that way,” said Fluttershy before realizing they had gotten off on a bit of a tangent. “But this is no time to be focusing on me.”

It was rare to see Fluttershy this determined. Twilight forgot sometimes just how far her friends had come. Taking a moment to admire her friend only made what she was about to say even harder though.

“If your friend doesn’t want us to say anything, there is nothing we can do.”

From one extreme to the other, Twilight came up with answers far too easily. At any other time Fluttershy would likely have attributed this to her brilliance but now it just made her seem callous. Fluttershy knew the moment she thought it, it wasn’t right, but for that moment the thought still bothered. How could Twilight spend hours researching the magical properties of fungus but not even spend a few minutes on how to help a good pony who was really hurting?

“How can you be so cold?”

Fluttershy instantly regretted saying it, but Twilight took it in stride.

“I wish it weren’t so, but anything we could do requires his cooperation.” said Twilight.

Fluttershy had set unrealistic expectations for Twilight, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when she couldn’t meet them. But it did. Fluttershy had been hoping there was spell to make things right, or even an obvious solution she had overlooked.

She knew the answer to her next question before even asking, but she couldn’t help herself. When she had transformed in the battle against Tirek, she felt capable of overcoming any obstacle to help ponies in need.

“Can’t we use the harmony chest or something?” asked Fluttershy.

“That only works on evil threats to all of Equestria. Not ponies who sometimes do bad things… even if sometimes is frequently and they are really bad things. Otherwise we wouldn’t need a legal system,” said Twilight.

Fluttershy knew it was coming, and yet it didn’t hurt any less to hear. Despite all that power she had used at times, she was still useless. She stared at the floor.

“There has to be something we can do,” muttered Fluttershy unconvincingly.

Twilight sighed. “I’m glad you care so much, but by being there for him and encouraging him to speak up, you’ve done everything you can.”

To Fluttershy, that sounded too much like an excuse. It sounded just like the sort of thing the teachers at summer flight camp would have used to convince themselves not to help when she was hurting.

“Well, as long as I have an excuse to make ME feel better about it...” mumbled Fluttershy bitterly.

“What?” asked Twilight.

She wasn’t sure if she was glad or not that Twilight hadn’t heard her, but she didn’t have the courage to say it again regardless.

“It was nothing,” replied Fluttershy while looking at the floor. “Do you think if I did tell somepony, maybe then it would dawn on him that this is his one chance to finally speak up, and it’d make it easier to be brave?”

“Weren’t you the one who was saying earlier that authority figures don’t always do the right thing?” asked Twilight

“I was just trying to explain how he might feel. Just because I’ve had a few bad experiences doesn’t mean I don’t trust them,” said Fluttershy.

Twilight was still proud of her friend’s determination, but was a little taken aback by the suggestion of not letting somepony else make their own decisions. She was tempted to say that it could never work, but she remembered that honesty was one of the qualities that holds a friendship together.

“It’s hard to know what anypony will do when put on the spot like that, so maybe. But it isn’t really your choice to make is it? Sure, he’s making a poor decision, but that doesn’t mean we get to make it for him,” asked Twilight.

Fluttershy’s reply came the moment Twilight closed her mouth. “But is he choosing? When you are under the influence of so much fear, are you really making a choice? He confided in me that he feels trapped. Doesn’t that mean that he isn’t choosing so much as progressing through life in the only direction he can see to take?”

Twilight couldn’t believe it. She was about to give the most basic kindness lesson to the element of kindness herself. That being the simple mantra of “Would you want somepony to do that to you?”

“That’s an interesting thought. However, given that you have had to deal with and conquer fear so often, I would think you’d have more insight than I would. During those times you felt so frightened, would you really have wanted somepony to force you to face your problem head on?”

Fluttershy considered this for a moment scratching at the ground with her hoof idly. “I don’t know. I chose to face my fears, and that was for the best. But I have no idea what second best would have looked like. Somepony dragging me everywhere, and never leaving my cottage both sound just awful.”

Twilight remembered how miserable Fluttershy had looked when they practically dragged her up a mountain to face a dragon with them. The thought of Fluttershy living her whole life that way was too terrible to picture, yet she wasn’t convinced that was a worse fate than not knowing any of her friends. Twilight was humbled by how much her friend valued friendship and began to wonder if Fluttershy didn’t understand it better than she herself did.

This was a remarkably difficult situation and so Twilight said the only thing she was certain of. “Maybe there isn’t a right answer. All I know for certain is that there is a wrong answer. Running away so you don’t have to deal with this is that wrong answer. Whatever you do, just be sure to always be there with a sympathetic ear and continue to encourage him to turn her in, no matter how hard it must be for him to do so.”

Fluttershy didn’t feel satisfied at all by this answer, but she recognized this was all the help that Twilight would be able to give her. She had a lot to think about.

“Thanks, Twilight. This really helped. I’ve got to figure this out today, so I have a lot of thinking to do,” said Fluttershy opening the door.

“Sorry, I couldn’t be more help. I wish there were always easy answers,” said Twilight, waving a hoof before shutting the door behind Fluttershy.

It didn’t take her long to get back to her cottage. For some reason, when she had been back at Twilight’s, the idea of thinking while alone sounded easier but, even when she got back to her cottage, the problem became no less daunting. She just kept making the same arguments with herself that had brought Twilight and her to a stalemate.

Unfortunately, feeding her animals didn’t prove to be a distraction at all. She had started a little early in hopes of getting a much needed break. Instead, she found herself thinking no less intently or futilely than before. The only difference was now, while thinking, she was opening a bag of chicken feed half-heartedly. If she had been focused, she would have realized she didn’t even need to open a new bag.

Once back inside, Fluttershy felt a furry foot tapping on her head.

“I’m sorry, Angel. I’m just feeling a little distracted today,” said Fluttershy as the bunny leapt down from her head.

Angel pointed out the myriad of animals ranging from red jays to otters that were trying to comfort her. It was great to see how much her animal friends cared, but she still felt uneasy and, before long, was caught up in the same thoughts. She soon succame to a restless sleep.

She was pulling Ray by his tail, down to the police station with him crying the whole way. She just cackled in response. When they got to the entrance of the station, even with all her strength, she couldn’t pull him through.

“GET IN!” she yelled, looking just as crazed as she had at the end of the gala.

When he refused, she slapped him hard across the face repeatedly until a tooth dislodged from his skull. With a defeated look, he whimpered and entered the station.

Fluttershy awoke with a start. It was dark outside. She clearly didn’t have much time left. But that didn’t matter. Her heart still racing, she realized no matter what was the right thing to do, there was only one thing she could do. She wailed. As tears flew from her face, she understood what she secretly knew all along. She couldn’t say anything. She was too weak.

~~~

It had been several years since Twilight had had that conversation with Fluttershy. She was at the post office, because her shipment of new library books was too large to deliver through traditional means, and she was the only unicorn in ponyville capable of teleporting them all.

Twilight had taken the opportunity her not-so-new home provided by significantly expanding her library. There were considerably more bookcases to fill. She didn’t make frequent trips to the post office; between Spike and Derpy, she rarely needed to. But when a new case worth of books arrived, she saved the mail ponies the trouble of figuring out some way to deliver them to her.

Only one pony was ahead of her in line today, and that pony was Fluttershy. Twilight hadn’t thought much of it the previous times she had run into her friend here, but now that she thought about it, she couldn’t recall a visit to the post office when she hadn’t run into Fluttershy. Considering most Ponyville residents visited the post office an average of zero times per year, this piqued Twilight’s curiosity.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we don’t have any letters for you,” said the pony behind the counter without looking up from his paperwork.

“Letters are so small. I wouldn’t blame somepony from accidentally dropping one without noticing. I’m sure if somepony looked for it…” Fluttershy trailed off as the eyes of the pony behind the counter bore into her. “I’ll just come back tomorrow.”

“Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” asked Twilight.

“Oh hello, Twilight.” said Fluttershy turning around. “I was just expecting a few replies from a friend. They’re a good friend, so I’m sure the letters must have gotten lost.”

“When was the last time you got a reply?” asked Twilight.

“Two years ago,” said Fluttershy sheepishly and blushing slightly.

They had only talked about him once, but Twilight had a sinking feeling she knew which friend Fluttershy meant. There were a number of possibilities that could explain why he wasn’t replying, but none of them were good. She wanted to avoid spelling out such terrible possible scenarios, but she couldn’t let her friend go on hoping for something that clearly wasn’t coming.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but if one hasn’t come by now, I don’t think a reply is coming,” said Twilight.

Fluttershy stared at Twilight for a while, then looked down at the ground. “Do you think I did the right thing, by not telling anypony, I mean?” she said suddenly.

Twilight didn’t hesitate in softly replying, “Of course. Even Starswirl, for all his magic, couldn’t peer into the future or know how his actions would affect other ponies. He did more for the advancement of magic than any other pony who ever lived. Can you really blame yourself for not knowing more than him? What counts is that your heart was in the right place.”

Fluttershy knew that Twilight meant what she said, but her words still felt hollow. Fluttershy’s was still unsure if she did the right thing, but her heart hadn’t been in the right place. Her decision had come from a place of weaknesses and selfishness. She hadn’t been thinking about what was best for Ray at all when she made her decision.

Still she made a half hearted smile and said, “Thanks, Twilight” before leaving the post office.

When Fluttershy got home, she tore an unfinished letter she had written off a table, balled it up and threw it away. She had lost count of the number of similar letters she had sent. It read, “Dear Ray, I’m sorry for whatever I did or said wrong. But please, even if you hate me, just let me know that you’re alive.”

Author's Note

Slice of life is not my usual, so please go easy on me. =P Also, I tried to fix all the gdoc import errors, but I may have missed some.