“Is she going to be alright?”

“Yes…she’s lucky even to be alive in my opinion. Any later and she could have really lost her life and her cutie mark forever. As for her condition, she’s fine now. A night’s rest is all that’s left.”

“Oh, if I ever see that pony escape, I swear I’m gonna…”

“Pinkie, no. She learned her lesson and she’s in prison now. You don” have to stomp on a broken snout.”

“But she…she…she did THAT…that despicable, cowardly move…I can’t stand it! Why would she…”

“Ssshh!”

Rainbow groaned feebly as her eyelids started to flutter as she regained consciousness. Opening them fully, she found herself back in the Ponyvile hospital, with multiple syringes beside her and her friends smiling happily in front.

“RAINBOW! YOU’RE AWAKE! YIPEE!” The pink pony screamed joyfully as she prepared to jump on the hospital bed. Luckily, the magic of the three unicorns were able to stop her movements in mid-air, causing her to somersault multiple times above the bed before crashing beside it onto the hard floor.
“Pinkie! Did you forget that she’s still injured?!” Rarity reprimanded, walking over to her with a hint of disgust.

“Oh…HOW COULD I FORGET?! Oh I’m so stupid…” Pinkie suddenly flung herself to the unicorn and broke down in tears in Rarity’s arms.

“Er…is she ok?” Rainbow Dash asked, bedazzled.

“I…think so. She has been in and out of a frequent rate of mood swings since Starlight hit you with that blast.” Twilight replied.

“So what exactly happened? How did we come back here?”

“Oh it was awesome!” Pinkie randomly appeared and knocked Twilight flying to the side. “After Starlight hit you, we all freaked out, and Twilight got mad, and then we all got mad, then our cutie marks started glowing, and then we acquired the Rainbow Power thingy, she tried to blast us with the equal spell, it bounced off us, then our Rainbow magic glowed, and then BOOM BOOM POW POW WHAM!”

She stood in front of the staring ponies with her hoof in the air proudly, then fainted in front of Rainbow Dash and started snoring.

“I told her to stop using cider as a stress device…come on Rarity, let’s get her to a bed and let the doctor fix her up.” Applejack said while shaking her head. The two left with the doctor following them.

“Er…yes. That’s…kind of what happened. After we subdued her I sent her to Celestia in a magical bubble to later trial for brainwashing and kidnapping ponies. You should have seen the vault in the caves where she puts all the residents’ cutie marks! She’s just plain evil!”

“So what happened to the rest of the citizens? You know…the ponies who were under her brainwashing far longer than I was.”

“Oh, we found three ponies who wanted their cutie marks back, and they brought us to the vault, which we destroyed, freeing all the cutie marks back to the townspeople. Most of them didn’t understand their purpose in life and therefore went to the town, so all of them refused to leave, but thankfully I think that they will have a much better and diverse community thanks to our help.”

Twilight blinked as the main question came back on her mind.

“Oh, that reminds me. How did you find that place?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I was just going as far as possible from Ponyville. While flying through a hill of snowy mountains I met two colts, Blueberry and Sunrise Spark. They told me that they were going to a place to find another life and purpose. I…joined in with them and well…you saw how I looked in that awful house.”

There was a long period of silence after that statement. The moon reached its peak as the clock struck midnight. Twilight sighed at the clock, then looked back at the pegasus with a tired expression.

“You know that what you did was wrong, right Rainbow?”

“I know…leaving Scootaloo and deserting you guys…I shouldn’t have been so foolish. It’s just that…” She tried to suppress her emotions as she wiped her face. “…I didn’t know what to do.”

“Didn’t we reassure you Rainbow? Didn’t we tell you that no matter what happens to Fluttershy, we would be there for her, together?”

“But…she has…”

“So what if she has cancer? It shouldn’t make you give up. We will live through this together. Just as we helped you get back home, we will help her in our own ways.”

Twilight reached out both of her hooves and placed them on Rainbow’s shoulder, her expression determined and ready.

“And trust me, we will find a way.”

Rainbow start to grit her teeth, then slowly one by one tears started to drop from her eyelids as she finally released all her restrained emotions, pulling herself closer to Twilight as she broke down.

“I was so stupid…A jerk…an idiot…Element of loyalty my plot…I’m really, really sorry Twilight…I did such horrible and stupid things…not just to myself but to you…but to my friends…”

“It’s ok, its ok, Rainbow. I forgive you. We all have.”

“So have I. And I hope that you can forgive me as well.”

The curtains pulled back as Fluttershy revealed herself in the neighboring bed. The tubes were gone, along with the machine.

“Fluttershy?!” Rainbow spluttered.

Twilight smiled. “She was worried sick when we brought you back to Ponyville and requested to move here. See, what did I mean by doing this together? Everypony’s here for you.”

“You were?” Rainbow asked guiltily.

“Of course! What did you think I felt, along with Twilight and the others? As for the thing…I’m ready, Twilight.”

The alicorn nodded and left the room, leaving the two alone.

“Are you alright?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Yes…yes I am. I see that they removed those tubes on you…that’s good…I guess.” Rainbow stammered.

Fluttershy took a deep breath, and then breathed out solemly.

“Look, there has been something that I wanted to tell you since we met Twilight for the first time, Rainbow.”

“What? Why are you suddenly saying this? And why now?”

“Because there’s no time left for me…so it’s better if you knew the truth beforehand…” She muttered.

“Then what is it Fluttershy? Tell me.”

“Remember when we met for the first time in flight school?”
“Wait…what? Cloudsdale? I thought you said that…”

“Listen. When you first met me…where was it?” It was an odd question, though her look was completely serious.

“Oh! You protected me from a group of bullies that were tormenting me because I couldn’t talk very well back then.”

“Yes, and after that we became best friends and spent 2 years in flight school. I taught you to speak properly and you soon found yourself having a natural gift for flying, and so did I.”

“We used to fly around Cloudsdale 20 times a day after school didn’t we?” Rainbow asked, leading to a small nod from Fluttershy.

“Do you remember how I was like? My personality?”

“Um…you were energetic, brave, and happy…which was why we became such good friends…but then...”

“I suddenly became shy and scared of everypony around me, going to the extent of even a leaf from down below causing me to faint.” Fluttershy interrupted.

“Yeah you kind of did…and when you got bullied I had to protect you as you did from me…but you never changed…and once you accidently fell from the skies when I did that race…you never came back, forcing me to go down to Ponyville with you and live there.” Rainbow Dash moved around on her bed uncomfortably.

“Well, I didn’t mean for you to actually come down to Ponyville. I ignored and ran away from you everytime you came close.”

“And over the years I slowly started to ignore you as well…I didn’t like it when I kept getting rejected…so I mocked you instead…until…”

“Until Twilight came along and brought us back together.”

“…………..…” Rainbow looked down, embarrassed.

“The reason I changed so much Rainbow, it was because of my parents.” Fluttershy finally spoke.
“Your parents? Weren’t they on a expedition to somewhere outside Equestria?” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Yes…they were. I was raised by a foal sitter for quite some time, but I didn’t mind since they promised that they would come back.” Fluttershy’s voice was starting to crack.

“Fluttershy?”

“One…one day…I received a letter from the Ponyville Express. It was a telegram for me, and I opened it. They had disappeared in the forests of the outskirts, and the bodies…were found 2 days later.”

She started crying on the pillow, silent tears that flowed gracefully like a river from a mountain.

“I…I’m as guilty as you are. I abandoned you, my best friend…for my own selfish emotions…and forced you to hate me…” She sniffled.

“Fluttershy…you can’t blame yourself for reacting like that…I lost my parents before I was born! I know how you feel…” Rainbow urged.

“That’s the point! You were so brave back then…and I wasn’t…I caused our friendship to end…and even after we became friends again…I kept trying to stall the bond, even break it…desperate to escape from you personally…” Fluttershy sobbed.

Rainbow got out of the hospital bed slowly, balancing one hoof after the other due to the aftereffects of the medication.

“Rainbow! Don’t…”

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’m fine.” She crossed over to her friend’s bed and gave the crying pegasus a tissue from the counter.

“I forgive you. You taught me to be confident and loyal. I will never forget that. Friends are supposed to stick together, remember?” She winked, causing Fluttershy to smile softly.

“Now go get some sleep. Everything will be better in the morning.”
Rainbow turned off the lights and climbed back to her bed.

“Good night, Dashie.” Fluttershy whispered.

She smiled. “Good night, Flutters.”

Author's Note