The Harder They Fall

Chapters

Chapter I: A Late Night Visit
Chapter II: Reflections
Chapter III:Excuses
Chapter V: Memories
Chapter VI: Arrival
Chapter VII: Confrontation
Chapter IV: Preperations

Chapter I: A Late Night Visit

This chapter has been modified from its original state to include more content for your reading pleasure. Earlier comments may be referring to the previous release and do not necessarily apply to this version of the chapter.

Knock Knock Knock

Fluttershy slowly cracked opened her eyes, having heard an unfamiliar sound inside her dream world. I sounded almost like somepony knocking at the door.

Knock Knock

There it was again, except that she was no longer asleep, and there actually was somepony attempting to get into her cottage. She looked out her window, expecting to see sunlight, indicating that it was morning and one of her friends probably wanted her help, but instead all she saw was darkness. It was still the middle of the night, and there was somepony knocking at her door.

‘Oh no oh no oh no no no! It’s a burglar, or a kidnapper, or a pirate, or a criminal, or a plumber. Wait, why would it be a plumber? But still, what should I do, what to do?’

She was snapped out of her panic when she was kicked by a small white bunny that had hopped up on the bed beside her.

“Angel! That wasn’t very nice. What did you do that for?”

The pet held up a piece of wood and started rapping his paw against it, imitating the knocking downstairs.

“Yes, I know there’s somepony at the door, or something, but they might be dangerous.”

Angel facepawed and tried a different charade. This time, he propped the wood up and stepped back. He ran at it and mowed it down with his shoulder, as if he were breaking down the door. He then shook his head, and resumed knocking on the faux door.

“Oh!” Fluttershy said, realization hitting her like a rabbit breaking down a piece of wood, “If they were dangerous, they would break down the door, not knock.”

The pegasus still didn’t know who it was, but with her fear slightly reduced, she decided she should at least take a look. She got out of her bed and made her way downstairs, leaving the lights off as she went so as not to give any indication that she was awake. The visitor still might be dangerous, even if they were knocking. I could be a trick. Every creak that her stairs made seemed a hundred times louder than it should have, and Fluttershy felt that whoever may be outside would be sure to hear it. Eventually, she reached her living room and made her way to the window beside the door. Pulling the curtains aside and looking out revealed a dark shape standing on the opposite side of her door, its tail swishing back and forth as the pony stood there. The visitor raised their hoof again and knocked, the sound eerily amplified by the surrounding silence. It was impossible to tell who it was in this lighting, so she would have to actually open the door.

Fluttershy lit a lantern in the middle of the room before unlocking the bolt on her front door. She cracked the wooden panel to let some light shine on the pony outside her house, and was able to catch a glimpse of a rainbow colored tail moving side to side in the night air. Breathing a sigh of relief, Fluttershy opened the door the rest of the way to reveal Rainbow Dash standing there, shivering from the chill and just…standing there. She didn’t appear to realize that the door had been opened, for she simply continued to stare past Fluttershy and into the cottage, as if the door were still there. She confirmed this theory when she raised her hoof to knock again, and was about to give Fluttershy a nasty bruise when the yellow pegasus let out an involuntary “eep” in fear of being treated as a door, instead of the usual doormat.

Snapping out of her daze, Rainbow spoke first. “Oh, hey Fluttershy. Sorry, didn’t realize you had opened the door.”

“Oh..it’s okay I guess…so,ummm…why are you here in the middle of the night? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Well, sorta, could I come in real quick? It’s kind of chilly out here.”

“Oh, yes, come in. Can I get you some tea?”

Fluttershy stepped aside to let her friend in, and was surprised at what she saw. Once Rainbow was in the full light of her lantern, it could be seen how tired she actually looked. Her mane was a mess, more than it usually was, and her eyes were even more magenta than usual. Her coat was covered in patches of dirt with small cuts and scrapes showing through. Dash was no longer shivering from the cold, but she continued to fidget, tapping her hooves on the hardwood floor beneath her. A few of the indoor animals had already been woken by the sound and were glaring at the late night intruder with distaste.

To fix the problem, Fluttershy pulled a rug over beside the blue pegasus and then very gently nudged her onto it. The carpet muffled the tapping considerably, but of course, Rainbow Dash stopped the tapping as soon as she was on the rug.

“Oops, sorry, didn’t realize I was doing that.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond, but instead got to work cleaning and tending to the cuts on Dash’s wings and body.

“What were you doing to get all these cuts…if it’s not a secret that is?”

“Well, I haven’t been able to sleep for the past few nights, bad dreams and all, so I thought I’d do a bit of late flying. Thought it might relieve some stress, or at least make me more tired. All I’m going to say about that idea is, darkness, high speed, and dark colored trees do not go very well together.”

The caregiver nodded her head, having expected something along those lines. She trotted into the kitchen to re-dampen her sponge that she was using to clean the wounds.

“Ow! That stings. What are you doing anyways? Giving me a sponge bath?”

“No, I’m cleaning the dirt and blood off the cuts so that I can get some bandages on them. That way they won’t get infected and you won’t get sick. You should have known not to fly near trees in the dark.”

“I didn’t see them! I just wanted to do something instead of just lying there doing nothing.”

“You mentioned bad dreams? Do you mind telling me what they’re about?”

“Honestly, I’d rather not; it’s sort of…personal.”

After saying that, the tapping of the hooves started again, apparently indicating that whatever these nightmares were about was enough to cause Dash to be nervous. Fluttershy couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Dash so nervous, if ever. The athlete always seemed to be on top of things, always knowing what to do. It was odd seeing her in such a state.

‘I want to help, but if she won’t tell me what’s wrong, I can’t really know what to do. I won’t press though; she can tell me what’s wrong in her own time.’

“There is something I did want to ask you though,” Rainbow said, perking up considerably as she remembered her reason for coming. “You think you could come with me to Cloudsdale? I need to ummm, get some stuff that I left with my parents.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I would be much help with that sort of thing. You go on without me. My animals need me anyway.”

“Come on Fluttershy! I don’t want to go alone, that would be boring. I don’t think it’s anything big anyways, so you could still help.”

“But my animals…and I’d only slow you down.”

Having finished cleaning and bandaging her friend, Fluttershy put her first aid kit away and sat down on the floor across the rug from the visiting pegasus. Rainbow appeared to be thinking, probably about how badly she would be slowed down if Fluttershy were to go. She’d realize it would take way too long with such a burden, and then she’d withdraw the offer, leaving Fluttershy to stay at home.

‘It’s for the best. I would slow her down and just be an annoyance to her, just like with the dragon, or with the tornado. I always slow her down.’

“I know! I bet Twilight would be willing to take care of your animals for you. She knows enough about them from all those books she reads, so she’d know what to do. I don’t mind taking a while either. Like I said, it’s boring flying alone.”

“Well, I guess that could work, but are you absolutely sure you want me to come along?”

“Hey, if I didn’t, would I have come by and asked you?”

“I guess not, well then, I guess I will go with you. Thank you for asking.” Fluttershy smiled, both from the fact that her friend was willing to hang out with her, and that Dash seemed to be feeling a lot better than before.

“No problem. I guess I better get going, it’s sorta late.”

“Yes, I guess it is. Would you like some tea before you go though?”

Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash agreed. Usually when she visited, she never stayed for tea, always having something else she needed or wanted to be doing. As she set about fixing the beverage, the host thought about what could possibly be wrong with her best friend.

‘This is just weird. Who shows up at…three in the morning to ask a pony to accompany them on a trip? I don’t even think she realizes how late it actually is. Maybe she’s drunk? I don’t think it’s a salt addiction; she probably wouldn’t be able to stand in that case. It would help if she’d tell me what the dreams were of; they seem to be a major part of all of it.”

She finished making the tea and carried it out, only to find that Dash had actually left. Fluttershy didn’t blame her though; she did seem really out of it and probably needed some sleep. Speaking of sleep, the yawn that escaped her mouth reminded her just how late it actually was, and she decided that she should get back to bed. She put the tea into her icebox, figuring that she could have some cold tea in the morning, and then put out the lights before heading back upstairs.

Once in bed, the yellow pegasus didn’t have too much trouble falling asleep, only occasionally worrying about if Rainbow was going to be alright. It occurred to her that she had never asked when the trip actually was. She may be able to get her pets taken care of, but Rarity would never forgive her if she didn’t show up to the spa on Saturday.

‘I’ll have to ask her tomorrow if I see her.’

With that, she slipped back into her dreamland, and resumed her adventures with Angel. It was so much fun being a bunny!

Rainbow Dash staggered into her bedroom, somehow tired from the short flight back to her house from…

‘Where was I again? I think…practice field! That’s it! I was at my practice field, and I crashed and then…how did I get these bandages? I guess maybe I went to the hospital…and they must have knocked me out or something, but why? Did I injure myself that badly? Well, at least I know I can fly; just hope the bill isn’t too much. No more nighttime flying in that field. Boy, I am tired. Oh look, bed.’

Dash collapsed onto her bed, and instantly started to fall asleep, her body trying to catch up on the lost sleep over the past week. She had the strangest feeling that she was supposed to get tea, but that was absurd, she didn’t drink tea.

‘Oh well, must just be the drugs from the hospital.’

Chapter II: Reflections

Morning in Rainbow Dash’s house was always a sight to behold. The morning mist rising from the clouds would refract the golden sunlight, causing millions of miniature rainbows to fill the rooms. Rainbow was of course used to this by now, and took no notice of the spectacle as she got up and shook the dew out of her mane. She yawned and rubbed her eyes with her hooves. She felt grateful that she had finally been able to get some sleep without being haunted by memories of her filly-hood. All those other ponies, laughing at her and calling her names like Rainbow Crash and Lame-o Dash. She hated nightmares like those, ones that she knew actually had happened in her past. The worst ones though had nothing to do with the bullies at camp, but rather the one filly that actually had been her friend. Her nightmares involving Fluttershy were not what most ponies would consider nightmares, most would consider them fantasies.

Ever since her first year of summer flight camp, Rainbow had felt a stronger attraction to mares than to colts. At the time, she hadn’t realized it was anything different, and had just led her life as if it were a perfectly normal way to think. One day though, some of the older campers had seen her talking with another filly, and we’ll just say that Dash wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding her true feelings for the other mare. Before she knew what had happened, the whole of camp was gossiping about how the mare with the rainbow mane was a filly-fooler, a faggot, a queer. Dash learned that day that society looks down on mares who like mares, so she started work on her façade, her mask of a tough filly that was not to be messed with.

By her third year at camp, RD had almost perfected her alter ego, right down to the ‘I don’t give a buck what you think’ attitude to go with it. It had been hard work, but she had done it, and now none of the other ponies at camp would dare to challenge her sexual orientation again. The drawback to her deception though, was that nopony wanted to hang out with the ego-centric, ‘I’m better than you’ Rainbow Dash; they would much rather avoid her, or make fun of her for her many failed attempts at breaking the speed records. To summarize…Rainbow Dash had no friends.

The dreams that Rainbow was having though were not about those first three years of camp, they were about the fourth, when a certain yellow furred, pink maned pegasus attended camp for the first time. Her name was Fluttershy, and she was older than most of the fourth year fliers, but was obviously weaker than most of the sixth years. That first day of camp when Rainbow Dash saw that pony, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, for she knew that this underdeveloped filly was going to be picked on to no end, much like herself. She swore on that day that she would try her best to help this pegasus against the camp bullies as best she could. If she had known that this self-made promise would start to erode her disguise, she would have stayed as far away from Fluttershy as possible.

The preliminary trials for camp were well on their way, and Rainbow Dash was sitting on a cloud bank above the rings section of the course. She liked to watch the first year students fly the course to see who might actually be at a threat to her later on in the year. This year, she had a second purpose, and that was to do her own evaluation of the new shy pegasus that she had decided to help.

‘It’s almost her turn,’ Rainbow thought, looking down at the cloud at the start of the course. ‘I hope she does well. Maybe she won’t be so bad and I won’t actually have to keep the bullies away from her. Maybe she’ll actually be good enough that we could hang out as flying buddies, which would be cool; I’d actually have a friend. It’s her turn now, I hope she does well.’

Fluttershy jumped into the air and started flapping her wings, only to give into gravity and fall right back onto the cloud.

‘That doesn’t look good, but it was kinda cute.’ Rainbow shook her head, trying to get that last thought out of her head. ‘No, no, no, no, no Rainbow; you’ve got to stop thinking like that,’ she scolded herself, ‘Ponies don’t like ponies who think like that, just focus on the trials.’

She looked back at the course, but couldn’t find Fluttershy. She swiveled her head frantically, looking for any sign of the yellow pony, and finally found her on a cloud at the very bottom of the course, being bullied by the two idiots that she had never bothered to learn the names of. She hopped off her cloud bank and swooped down to the site of the confrontation, and interfered just in time to be challenged to a race.

‘Great, a race, now I’m just going to have to show Fluttershy how much better than her I actually am; she’ll never want to hang out with me after this. But I can’t decline, because that would just ruin my entire image…which one should I do?’

She accepted the challenge, and the next day the race was underway.

Rainbow snapped out of her daydream when she heard a knock at her door.

‘Probably Cloudchaser coming to ask if I’m coming to work today,’ she thought.

She looked down at the breakfast that she had been preparing, and saw a bowl with a piece of bread floating in milk, and a plate with some cereal, which appeared to be toasted.

‘I really need to stop daydreaming while fixing breakfast,’ she noted as she walked over to the door to answer it.

Chapter III:Excuses

“Hi Cloudchaser! Don’t worry, I’m coming into work today, I just need a little bit of time to get a few things fixed around my house.”

“Kay, that’s good, but that’s not what I was here to tell you. Fluttershy just wanted to let you know that she had a question for you. She’s waiting down below, didn’t want to fly up here herself for some reason.”

With that, the grey pegasus took off from Dash’s doorstep and flew off towards town. Dash walked over to the edge of the cloud that her house sat upon and peered over at the ground far below. She could vaguely make out a speck of yellow and pink on the road below, pacing back and forth while waiting for Rainbow to emerge. The cyan pegasus leaped into the air and glided with ease to the surface, where her shy friend stood with her back to Rainbow.

“Hey Fluttershy, you had a question for me?”

Fluttershy jumped with surprise and let out a small eep at the sound of Rainbow’s voice. She quickly spun around and shrunk back in order to defend herself from what instinct told her might be danger. Once she realized that it was a friend though, she stood back up and composed herself enough to ask the question that was on her mind.

“Yes, I just wanted to know, when is that trip that you had planned? You see, I don’t want to have to cancel anything I already have planned, and I’ll need to get somepony to take care of all my animals while I’m away, so I just wanted to know when it was…”

‘Trip, what trip? I planned a trip? Since when did I plan things?'

Dash thought back, trying to remember a trip that she had organized, and suddenly recalled the events of the previous night. During her daydreaming that morning, she had entirely forgotten about asking Fluttershy to accompany her to Cloudsdale. She couldn’t even remember why she needed to go to the floating city.

‘This isn’t good, maybe I can get her to tell me why I asked her to come along without actually asking her, don’t want to seem like I forgot my own plans.’

“I didn’t really have any date actually planned, so whenever is fine with me. You sure you still want to come along, you don’t have to if it’s too inconvenient. I should be able to do whatever it is that I needed to do by myself.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. You may need somepony to help you carry your stuff if there’s a lot of it. I just need to get a pet sitter. Does next Monday sound like a good day to start?”

‘Ah-ha!’ Dash thought as she remembered what had happened. ‘I asked her to come and help me move my old stuff from my parent’s house, it makes sense now. But wait, I didn’t leave anything at my parent’s house…why would I ask her to help me move stuff that didn’t exist? Even worse though is why would I even go back to my parent’s house, they hate me; and if I went there with Fluttershy, they would probably jump to the wrong conclusion. I have to think of some way to get out of this trip now, maybe she would buy it if I …'

“…Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy exclaimed, almost loud enough to be a normal speaking voice for any other pony. Dash shook her head in order to regain her thoughts after being interrupted; but of course, Fluttershy took it as an answer to her question.

“Oh, Monday isn’t good. Okay then, how is Wednesday? Does that work for you? Or we could leave Friday, or next Monday.”

“No, Monday is good. I just remembered that I might not have left anything at my parent’s house…’cause I just found a box in my basement this morning! Yep, just found it this morning.”

“But you don’t have a basement.” Fluttershy said, glancing up at the floating cloud castle above her.

“Oh, did I say basement, I meant attic. I think the box may have the stuff I thought I had left. If it does, we won’t even have to bother with the trip.”

“Oh, okay then…” The shy pony lowered her head a little and her eyes turned towards the ground. “Well, thank you for inviting me anyways. I’ll see you later Rainbow Dash,”

Fluttershy turned around and started trotting back towards her cottage.

“See ya later!” Dash called towards the now growing distant mare. The blue pegasus started heading back up to her cloud house, thinking of how cleverly she had gotten out of visiting her parents.

‘Wow, she actually bought it; I can’t believe she actually bought it. I better find a box though; she might come back and see if I actually did find the stuff. That was even better than the housesitting for a bear excuse we gave Pinkie that one time. Okay, maybe not, but it was close.’

Rainbow smiled at the thought as she looked for a box to fill with junk from around her house. She loved it when she was able to think of convincing excuses.

‘I hate that I had to lie to Fluttershy though, but I just don’t think I could put up with what my parents would put me through if I showed up with her. I just hope I didn’t hurt her feelings, she did look sort of sad when I said the trip would probably be cancelled…’

Rainbow Dash picked up a cardboard box from the floor and dumped the contents out. She started rummaging through the clutter absentmindedly, continuing to think about the conversation with her friend.

Picking up a picture from the bottom of the stack, she saw her and Fluttershy standing beside the yellow pegasi’s parents the day that summer flight camp ended. They all looked happy. Shy had improved her flying, and Dash had made her first friend. ‘That was a great day, I got to meet Fluttershy’s parents and she got to meet…wait a second, she’s never gotten to meet my parents even once. She probably wanted to at least meet them, and that must be why she got sad!’

Dash stood up as she reached this conclusion, congratulating herself on finally being able to correctly read somepony else’s feelings. She then realized that she should probably at least make the trip to introduce her parents to Fluttershy and vice versa, it was only courtesy after all.

‘Not to mention I just can’t stand to see Fluttershy sad over something that I could have fixed years ago.’

She stretched her wings and prepared to go and visit the cottage at the edge of the Everfree Forest for the second time in the past six or seven hours.

Chapter V: Memories

Authors Note: This entire chapter is a flashback. I know that flashbacks are usually in italics, but due to the fact that reading an entire chapter in italics can get tedious on the eyes, and there is going to be thoughts in the flashback, I have decided to type it in standard font. Now, without further ado, chapter 5…

She had just returned from her first year of flight camp, and Rainbow Dash was feeling happy. No longer did she have to put up with her annoying teachers, thinking they knew everything and she knew nothing. She also knew that she needed to find a way to hide the filly that she truly was, and thus gain social acceptance. She hadn’t made any friends though, but that might come later, once ponies got to know the new Rainbow Dash, right now they all still associated her name with the little filly-fooler pegasus they thought she was.

She entered her home, only to be met with silence, as her parents were nowhere to be found. They were most likely out drinking, or maybe in police custody, again.

‘Of course they don’t care enough about me to actually be here when I get home after being gone the ENTIRE summer.’

How did she get stuck with parents as horrible as these? Every other pony she knew had nice parents, ones that were actually there for them, that cared. Instead, her parents tried to avoid her, and when they were together, they were mean to her.

Dash flew up to the second floor where her room was, her only place of unquestioned refuge in the entire house; even more so now that she had bought a state of the art lock for the room so that her parents couldn’t bother her in their usually drunken state. She fiddled with the various dials until she heard the distinctive click that signified the unlocking of the door and pushed it open. Her room looked exactly as she had left it before camp, empty. She had nothing but a bed, and a small chest with her few personal belongings at the foot of said bed. She opened the chest and dumped her saddlebags into it, sighing as the posters and medals finally filled the bottom layer of the box.

She flopped down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow and letting out a soft sob. She would never be able to find a special somepony in her life now, but that was the price she had to pay if she were going to be accepted.

Rainbow heard the front door open, and then shut with an ear-splitting slam. Her parents were home. She hoped that they wouldn’t realize that she was home, and just leave her alone so she could wallow in her misery, but no such luck came her way. Within a minute of arriving home, Mr. Dash called up to Rainbow and requested her presence downstairs.

Rainbow got out of her bed and walked over to her door. She looked at the condensed panel of cloud separating her room from the outside world and contemplated just returning to the bed. A second shout from her father dispelled those thoughts from her mind though, for she knew that if he chose to, he would not hesitate to buck her door down, lock or no lock. She emerged from the room and looked down the hole between the two levels of the house, and got her first look at her father in the past three months. He hadn’t changed too much. He still had the dark, royal blue coat, the oddly bent right wing, and as it had been for his entire life, a blank flank. Rainbow’s father had never once in his life put any effort into trying to find his special talent, and he honestly just didn’t care. He was perfectly content to go along without a cutie mark, as long as he was still allowed to buy cider without it.

He looked up and noticed Rainbow looking down at him. “Hey! Go into your little hidden stash and get a few hundred bits. You’re bailing your mother out again. And if you even think about disobeying, I’ll whip that little flank of yours until it’s as red as the red in your hair.”

With a sigh, Rainbow contended to his wishes, knowing that he would have absolutely no second thoughts about following through with his threat. She retrieved a small pouch of about 200 bits from underneath her bed and tossed it down to her father below. She began to turn and return to her room, but his voice stopped her again.

“Where do you think you’re going? I told you that you’re bailing her out; so get on down to the station while I see if I’ve got any cider left,” he said while walking towards the kitchen.

Again, Rainbow sighed and fluttered down to the main floor. She grabbed her bits and exited through the front door. Rainbow started her journey towards the police station, flying slow so that she wouldn’t have to go home anytime soon, reflecting on how the other pegasi from camp must be happily spending time with their parents right now, while she was off the spend her savings to get her mother out of prison. She considered running away. She had the bits, and it’s not like she had anything at home that she actually needed to keep. She could simply leave and nopony would care about her. There was only one problem with the plan, she didn’t know anywhere outside of Cloudsdale to go and anywhere inside the city would be too easy for the police to find her. It would never work; she would never be able to get away from the tyranny of her parents until she was 16.

Rainbow Dash was familiar with bailing her parents, for it was a standard occurrence when living with them. Tonight would probably be the tenth time this year that her mother had been at the station. It was such a common practice that the officers in the Cloudsdale police force were very familiar with the young filly, so much so that they greeted her by name when she entered the small building.

“Evening Rainbow, come to collect you mom again?”

“Yes sir, just one question. What did she do this time?”

“Same as always, got drunk and got violent. It was the barcolt who got her fury this time around. He’s in the hospital with a broken muzzle.”

“Oh, it’s that bad? I guess this means the bail is gonna be higher.”

“Well that depends; is your father making you pay with your money again, or is it his bits this time?”

“Mine.”

“In that case, I’m going to go and tell him that he has to come and get her himself.”

“No, no, no! Please don’t do that. He’ll know you did it because of me and then he’ll punish me for it. Just tell me what the bail is and I’ll pay it.”

With a groan and a shake of his head, the captain named the price and accepted the bits from the young Dash. “I swear Rainbow Dash; he only takes advantage of you because you let him. Stop letting him be such a flankhole to you. I can’t believe I’m telling you to do this; but kid, disobey your parents for once.”

Rainbow looked at him with a look that said ‘I wish I could’, and then turned and left the station. She knew that an officer would drop her mother off at her house within the hour, so she could just wander around the city until that happened (no use going home until her mother was there, otherwise her father would think she hadn’t done her job). The little filly decided to visit a small café that she enjoyed, since it was quiet and nopony ever asked her why she was there alone.

She entered to the familiar ding that accompanied her opening of the door. There was only one other pony there, a dark grey filly with red hair. Rainbow recognized her from camp, and so decided to try to avoid her, lest she decided to poke fun. She sat at a table on the opposite side of the room and was soon presented with a menu with various smudges of unknown substances on it. She stared at the plastic coated paper, even though she knew exactly what she wanted, reflecting on the previous summer. She had learned her lesson about love. Fillies should only love colts, and colts should only love fillies. Nopony liked it if it were any other way; but if nopony liked it, and it weren’t supposed to be that way, why did she think like that? Why was she so different? Why couldn’t she just be normal like every…

“Hey!”

Rainbow jumped out of her seat and almost hit her head on the low ceiling above the booth.

“Whoa, scared easily?”

The grey filly from earlier had wandered across the café and had sat down across from Dash. It was she who had startled the distracted filly so. Rainbow slowly lowered herself back into the booth before replying.

“No, you just startled me. What do you want anyways?”

“Well, I thought I recognized you from camp, and I just wanted to say hi. I’m Cassandra. Rainbow Dash, right?” the filly asked as she extended her hoof towards Rainbow.

Rainbow took the hoof and shook it, albeit warily, still expecting this to be some sort of buildup to a joke about her alleged problem. “Yes, I’m Rainbow Dash. So you just wanted to say…hi? That’s it?”

“Well, yah. Just thought I’d at least talk to somepony I recognized before heading back to Las Pegasus. My allergies have been acting up way too much to get any sort of decent flying done here.”

After that statement, Rainbow suddenly recognized the filly. She was the one that always had to go to the first aid building after coughing and sneezing fits. Everypony thought she was just sick, but allergies made so much more sense. She also realized that this pony would have been so busy with the medical problems that she didn’t know the rumors concerning Dash. Rainbow relaxed at this, losing the fear of mockery from this strange pegasus.

“So, you’re from Las Pegasus? Why’d you come here? I would think the bigger city would be more interesting.”

“Oh, it most definitely is, but the flight camp there sucks, and most of the ponies are all stuck up jerks or have had too much to drink. Thanks to my stupid allergies though, it looks like I’m going back.”

“How does the camp suck? It couldn’t be worse than Cloudsdale’s.”

“There’s absolutely no challenge whatsoever, I was the best in my class by far, and none of the teachers could even think of anything that I couldn’t do. At least here there are actual difficult things to do.”

Dash looked at Cassandra, and noticed something that she found intriguing. Throughout her entire tirade concerning the shortcomings of her home city, her facial expression had not changed once. It had simply remained the same, as if it were frozen for eternity into a face that said, “I don’t care”. It was exactly what Dash wanted to feel, as if she didn’t care about the world or what they thought, she just wanted to be able to wear a mask like this filly in front of her was. If she could do that, maybe the world wouldn’t completely shun her. But giving the impression of not caring would probably be way too hard for her, so maybe, just maybe, she could find some other charade that she could adopt as her own.

“So, you just gonna sit there and stare into space, or should I wait around in case you say something interesting?”

Dash shook her head and replied to the question, “Oh, sorry, just lost in thoughts.”

“Nawww, I never would have guessed.”

‘Sarcasm face, exactly the same, surprise surprise.’

“Well, it’s been nice meeting you Cassandra. I think you’ve given me an idea for something, though I’d really rather not explain what.”

“Well…okay,” the grey filly said in a drawn out style as she stood up, “I’m just going to try not to think dirty thoughts about what that idea might have been, and say it’s been nice talking to you. Goodnight.”

Cassandra wandered back over to her own table and resumed looking at her menu as Rainbow proceeded to return to her world of thought. She tried to think about what she wanted to be like to others, but all that her mind kept coming back to was the taunting that she had received at camp.

‘I want to prove them wrong, prove to them that I’m not a queer. Make them believe that I’m actually someone that they would want to hang out with. But how? I don’t have anything special going for me, everything is actually going against me. My parents hate me for even existing, everypony else hates me for being a filly-fooler, my teachers hate me for being so good and making them look stupid. Wait. That’s it. I’m a really good flyer! I’ll show them up with my flying. Nopony else at camp is as fast as me, and I’ll prove them wrong by being better than them. I’ll take captain Dave’s advice; I won’t let them do this to me anymore. I’m going to stand up for myself and show them that I am a pony worth knowing!’

With her internal monologue out of the way, Rainbow Dash felt as if she were ready to face the world and prove herself. She’d start with her parents. She’d show them that they couldn’t just boss her around just because she was there and was their daughter. True, they might beat her up more than they did now, but if she could prove to them that she wasn’t just a slave, it would be totally worth it. She looked down at the table and saw her fries that she had ordered sitting there. ‘Yum,’ she thought, as she began her assault on the condiment covered culinary creation.

Dash arrived back home later than was necessary, simply to spite her parents. As she approached the cloud house, she noticed with satisfaction that the lights were still burning brightly from within the living room. Good, her parents were still awake, probably waiting for her to show up so they could yell at her. Boy, were they in for a surprise. She giggled to herself at what she was about to do, taking off from the cloud and flying towards her window. She entered her room through said portal, and landed lightly as to avoid any indication that she had arrived. It was time to make her parents feel like the stupid ones.

She left her room and called down to the first floor, adding a slightly annoyed undertone to create the effect of well, annoyance. “Would you two mind turning the lights off for Celestia’s sake, I can’t get any sleep with them on!” She heard a crash as one of the two stood up, probably shocked that she had apparently been home the entire time. She grinned, thinking of the expression that was probably on their face. Rainbow quickly lost the expression though as she heard hoofsteps approaching. It was her father who had decided to come and confirm that it was actually her. ‘Yes, come on old man. Come and pick on your daughter and yell at her for not letting you know she was home. Just come and see how she takes it.’

“Where the hell have you been all night! Don’t you dare tell me you’ve been in your room sleeping, because I won’t buy it,” he said, practically yelling, his face turning a slightly purple color from the mixture of the blue and red.

“Well you’re going to have to believe it, because that is what I’ve been doing, sleeping.”

The stallion was shocked, never before had she talked to him in that tone. She almost sounded as if she were mocking him, and nopony got away with mocking him, nopony! Before Rainbow knew what happened, she was being pinned against the wall by her enraged father. Usually in this circumstance, as it happened quite often, Rainbow would break down into sobs and start apologizing, anything to get her dad to let her go and leave her alone. But this time was different; this time, she simply stared at him with a look of indifference, practically begging him to tan her hide. Much to the young Dash’s dismay, he happily obliged.

Dash had now put up with two years of summer flight camp, and was once again returning home to her parents (keep in mind; it was not until the third year that she met Fluttershy). They hated her even more ever since her change in personality last summer. It was now not solely because they simply never wanted a foal, but it was because she was now proving just how much better than them she was. They hated this, for now she not only lived in their house and took up room and money, but she was making a laughing stock of them at the same time. Rainbow of course loved it, nopony made fun of her for her previous lifestyle, and she found that more ponies actually talked to her now. There were still those ponies that would make fun of her, but it was now mainly because of her tendency to collide with the many semi-solid objects that composed a majority of the city.

Dash lay in bed, waiting for her parents to arrive back from their night out at the bar so that she could ignore their requests and just be a general nuisance to them, when he heard a knock at the front door. It wasn’t a soft, “Hi, I’m here for a visit and your doorbell is broken,” kind of knock, but a loud, heavy banging at the door, signifying that if they were not let in, they would come in anyway. Not wanting to have to bother replacing a door, the young pegasus proceeded to leave her room and answer to the unwanted disturbance. Standing on the other side of the door was Dave, the captain of the police force, with his hoof raised in preparation for another barrage at the door. When he saw that it wouldn’t be necessary, he lowered the appendage and asked if he could come in. Nodding, Dash stepped aside and let the light grey stallion through into the dark foyer area. Rainbow set about lighting a few candles as the captain wandered farther into the house, glancing around at the sparse furnishing and multitude of empty beer cans.

“I assume you’re wondering why I have to make such an intrusive visit to your home,” the police stallion began, looking back at Rainbow as she entered the room, “but I’m afraid I have some rather unpleasant news for you. Oddly enough, you may take this very well, but both of your parents have been taken into custody on suspicion of child abuse, and due to the circumstances, you being underage and also not having any immediate relatives, we are required to place you in a foster home until a time that they are released.”

Rainbow looked at him in shock. Did she hear that correctly? She actually wasn’t going to have to put up with those two ponies that she so much despised? It sounded too good to be true, but she could not think of any reason why Dave would lie to her in such a way, so before she could stop herself, she jumped and let out a cry of joy. A smile was plastered to her face when she landed, and she quickly turned and rushed upstairs to gather her stuff. She was leaving this house!

The trial had not gone how Dash wanted it to. Somehow, her parents had gotten a decent lawyer, and had been declared not-guilty. She knew what this meant, it meant that she would be moving back in with them, and just as she was starting to get accepted by the others at the foster home. Life never seemed to work out how Rainbow wanted it to, always deciding to throw a curveball directly at her face. She wanted to leave this city, to move anywhere else as long as it was away from here. There was only a single, minor problem with her wish, and the word minor was the problem. She still had a year to go until she was 16, the legal age of becoming an adult for ponies.

On the other hoof, she had gotten to spend most of the year without having to deal with her parents, which she liked, and the summer would be good since she was going to her final year of flight camp. Once she got that out of the way, she would be able to carry out her plan, and then she’d never have to see her parents again. All she had to do was get through these last two weeks of the school year, and she knew how fun that was going to be.

As Dash was leaving for her third year of flight camp, she did not look back at her parents, nor did she hesitate, say goodbye, or show any sign of affection whatsoever. Not that doing any of these things would have done her any good, seeing as her parents hadn’t been there to see her off in the first place. No, they were both at a pub, celebrating her leaving for the summer, and without their knowledge, her leaving forever. She had packed everything she owned, save for the actual bed and chest, into her saddlebags this year and was ready to leave as soon as camp let out at the end of the summer. She would leave sooner, but it just so happened that her birthday was actually on the last day of camp, so she wasn’t allowed to by law. She had even already picked her destination, Las Pegasus. After hearing Cassandra talk about it all that time ago, she couldn’t help but want to visit the city, just to see what it was like.

There was only one thing that Rainbow Dash did not count on. One thing that would cause her grand plans to take a side rail that led somewhere else entirely. That one thing was a canary yellow pegasus by the name of Fluttershy.

Chapter VI: Arrival

Rainbow Dash was no stranger to waking up with a throbbing headache and having absolutely no idea what had just happened, one got quite used to these things being as crash prone as she was. This isn’t to say that she enjoyed the feeling; just that she was not surprised when it happened. What did surprise her though, is that this time when she awoke, there seemed to be another pony there with her. As her vision cleared and the world around her came back into focus, she was able to see that her companion was in fact Fluttershy, who was standing over Dash and had been calling out to the downed daredevil for the past few minutes.

“Fluttershy?” mumbled Dash, as she tried to look around her, but quickly decided against the action when her head felt a jolt of pain from the movement.

“Oh thank Celestia, you’re okay. I was afraid I was going to have to get more help. Are you feeling alright?” the yellow pegasus said in relief.

“My head hurts, but other than that, I think I’m good. It’ll take more than a crash to bring me down for long,” Rainbow said with a smile, “What did I crash into anyways?”

“Well, you see, we were flying, and I think you were daydreaming or something, and well, you weren’t looking where you were going… please don’t be mad, I tried to warn you, but you flew right into that cloud column over there. I’m so sorry…” Fluttershy trailed off, bowing her head in shame over something she didn’t even do.

Dash slowly got to her hooves, flinching at the pain, but continuing nonetheless. Once she was up, she placed a hoof around Fluttershy to comfort the older mare, “Hey, it’s not your fault. You tried to warn me, I just didn’t listen. If it’s anypony’s fault it’s mine.” Fluttershy sniffed and looked up at Dash, but before she could say anything else to discount herself, Rainbow interrupted, “Now, I don’t want to hear anything else about it. Now let’s go, we need to get checked into our rooms before they give them to somepony else.”

“Are you sure you’re good to fly? Didn’t you say your head hurt? You might have a concussion, and we should get it checked out.” Fluttershy said, suddenly worried again.

“Naw, I said I’m fine. I’ve had worse crashes that I could fly after, so this one’s nothing.” With that, the blue pegasus took off towards the gates of Cloudsdale, soon followed by her shy companion.

Cloudsdale hadn’t changed much since the best young fliers’ competition. The only major addition was the new city gates, which were only installed because the city had extra funds and they thought the gates looked cool. All the buildings were in the same places; nothing had been torn down or remodeled; everything was exactly the same. The atmosphere of the city is what stuck Dash as odd. Everypony just seemed more, removed than they should have been. Nopony had greeted them or even looked their way since they had arrived, and it was starting to creep Rainbow out, even more so than Tank did during the pet competition.

The hotel that the two were staying in was an older establishment, with only two floors and about thirty or so rooms. They had reserved two of the one bed rooms for the half week that they were planning on being there, but when they arrived in the lobby, they were informed that one of them was out of commission due to plumbing issues. So as compensation for the inconvenience, they had been moved over to one of the larger, two bed rooms, completely free of charge. Dash took the key to the room from the stallion behind the desk and proceeded to head upstairs where the larger rooms were located.

“Well that sure was nice of him,” Fluttershy commented as she followed her friend up the stairs.

“Yeah, it definitely was.” Dash couldn’t help but keep the slight annoyance out of her voice. The only reason she had gotten the two separate rooms in the first place was so that she would be able to sleep without having to think about Fluttershy being right there in the room with her. It was a really strange reason, but she knew that the shy yellow pegasus was the reason for her current mental troubles, and she just didn’t know if sleeping in the same room as her would be a good idea. Dash just hoped that she wouldn’t do anything that she would regret later, and also hoped that she didn’t talk in her sleep.

The room was exactly as Rainbow had pictured it, much to her dismay, with two beds spaced about 3 or 4 feet apart, a small bathroom set right beside the door, and a nightstand between the beds with a lamp and alarm clock on it. Dash had had a hope that the phrase ‘two bed room’ might have actually meant ‘two bedroom’, but no such luck was hers to have, seeing as it was obviously just two beds in one room. ‘Oh well, looks like I’ll have to deal with it. It’s only half a week anyway.’

Once the two were settled in the room, they began making plans about what they should do. It was only early afternoon and they had a few hours to kill before dinner. Rainbow had claimed that her parents weren’t expecting them until tomorrow, even though her parents were not expecting them at all. She had only told Fluttershy this so that they could spend the rest of the day wandering the city.

They decided that they would go and see the campgrounds and maybe watch some of the younger fillies and colts practicing. Maybe it would give them some common memories to talk about, or if nothing else, at least give them some sense of nostalgia. So they set off towards the outskirts of the city, where the grounds reserved for summer flight camp were located. On the way there, Rainbow continued to notice that a lot of the other pegasi in the city were keeping their distance from her and Fluttershy, some even going so far as to cross the street before meeting up with them.

“Hey Fluttershy, any ideas why everypony’s avoiding us?” inquired Dash, glaring at a bright maroon mare that had just turned around when she saw them.

“No, do you?”

“If I had any idea, do you think I’d be asking you?”

“Oh right. I’m sorry.”

“Stop being sorry for everything, it’s not always your fault.”

“Oh, I’ll try. I’m sorry.”

After completing her facehoof, Rainbow Dash suggested they enter a nearby restaurant in order to find out what everypony’s problem was. It was a long shot, since it appeared that nopony was going to willingly talk to them, but it would be worth it if they could get some information. They picked a random diner on the side of the road and entered, and as luck would have it, it turned out to be the exact same café that Dash had been daydreaming of earlier that day. ‘How about that…this place looks exactly like I remember it, right down to the staff.’

They sat at the counter, figuring they were more likely to make contact with somepony there than in a booth. They were correct. Within five minutes of sitting down, a strange Chartreuse Green stallion sat down next to Rainbow Dash. He had light brown eyes and a pair of black rimmed reading glasses perched on the end of his muzzle. His mane and tail were pure white, but despite this he appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He wore a set of black bracelets on his front left hoof, and a similar set on his rear right hoof. Unfortunately, his wings appeared to be slightly larger than normal and because of this, Rainbow was unable to make out his cutie mark, if he even had one.

“Well hi der! Name’s Peppermint. How ya doin?”

“Okay, except that everyone keeps avoiding me and my friend here. Any idea why?”

“Ehh, nope, nodda clue. Hey, just wonderin, do you dye yer mane? Cuz it looks really good if ya do. I tried doing it sorta like dat fer a while, but then I hadda go to plain ol white cuz it was jus too hard with all da colors. Take a look.”

Somehow, the stallion had retrieved a photo from somewhere, of himself with a mane dyed in a rainbow spectrum. It did appear to be sloppily done and all the colors were starting to run together at the ends, causing the tips of his mane and tail to be brown.

“No, it’s natural. So if your mane is dyed white, what color is it normally?”

“White wid pink stripes in it, dats how I got mah name.”

At that moment, the staff colt that had taken Dash and Fluttershy’s order returned with their meals. “Here you are Ms. Dash, and Ms. Dash’s friend.”

“Wait wait wait, Dash? As in… Dash? Like Rainbow Dash?” Peppermint stuttered, eyes widening so much that the glasses fell from his muzzle. He quickly picked them up and returned them there before continuing to stare at the blue pegasus.

“Yes, as in Rainbow Dash. Rainbow colored mane, hello…”

“Well den, I might just be able tah help ya wid yer problem den.” The stallion followed this up by sitting there, giving no impression that he was actually going to say anything.

“Well, go on then,” Dash prodded, giving the usual nod of the head and circling hoof motion that goes with the phrase.

“Oh, well, ya see. Ever since dat competition dat was here a little while back. Da one dat ya won, ya know. Well, ever since den, rumors have been goin’ round Cloudsdale dat ya saved dat unicorn cuz ya was in love wid her. Now everypony tinks yer some sorta filly-fooler, and I guess that when dey see ya wid an-udder mare, dey just assumes dat you two are to-getter.”

“WHAT!!!!” Suddenly, every other pony in the café was looking at her, some with looks of disapproval, and some just with confusion on their faces. They gradually went back to their business and Dash continued her tirade in a quieter voice.

“How could they possibly think that I saved Rarity because I loved her? I saved her because she’s my friend, and I never let my friends down, nor anypony else if I can help it. So now everypony in Cloudsdale thinks I’m a lesbian?”

“Well, not everypony, but quite a few. I tink da rumor was started by some guys who had some sorta picture of ya as a filly wid some udder filly, and I guess dey just used it against ya. Just ta be honest dough, I neva was one dat thought ya was like dat.”

‘Ah-ha! A couple of stallions with a picture, that could only be a picture from that first year at camp when she didn’t know, and the stallions could only be those two bullies that were always picking on her and Fluttershy.’ Dash had a score to settle with those two, but it would have to wait. Right now, she needed to figure out some way to convince the city that she wasn’t a filly-fooler.

“Dash, does this mean that they think I’m a…?”

The quiet voice of her friend surprised Dash, who had almost forgotten that she was even there. She turned around and looked at Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was sitting there, with what appeared to be tears around the edges of her eyes. She didn’t look sad, just worried. Dash just about hugged her to comfort her, but then thought better of it given the circumstances.

“Well, yeah, I guess so. But don’t you worry Fluttershy, I’m going to prove to them that they’re wrong, and the first ones to start with will be our parents. We’ll start with mine tomorrow.”

A thankful look crossed the worried mare’s face, but then it returned to the distraught expression it was in before.

“But what if they don’t believe us? I don’t know how my parents would react if they thought that I was…well, you know. And since I don’t even know your parents, I can’t know how they would react.”

‘I know how they’re going to react, and I don’t think it’s going to be good.’

“Come on Fluttershy, let’s go back to the hotel, I don’t really want to see the race track anymore,” Dash said as she got up and left some bits on the counter. “Nice talking to you Mr. Peppermint, and thanks for the clarification.”

“Glad to be a help. Wish ya luck wid yer parents.”

The two friends exited the café and started making their way back towards the center of the city, again being avoided by almost everypony. Now that they knew the reason, it just seemed so rude and so homophobic of everypony. Dash really wanted to yell at all of them that they were being stupid and they were wrong, but she knew it wouldn’t help. Nopony listens when the pony the rumors are about claims that they’re false. If it worked that way, there wouldn’t really be any rumors, now would there? The hotel was like a refuge to the two pegasi, a place where they weren’t constantly judged by the world around them, and after a brief conversation regarding Dash’s parents, the two went to sleep. Fluttershy was asleep within ten minutes, but Rainbow Dash took a while longer as she tried to figure out how she was going to convince her parents that everything they were hearing was lies.

A half hour later, Dash was summing up her mental argument with her parents, and it had not gone to plan. Her entire point had been repeatedly ripped apart by her parents’ refusal to accept any sort of reason. Time and again they had simply brought the battle back to the beginning by stating her sexuality as if it were obvious fact.

‘And maybe it is…’ she thought, as she lay in her bed, ‘Maybe I actually have let it slip. Could it be possible that I let that part of me show, after all of these years? If I have, how could I ever cover it back up? There were already the rumors from all that time ago, however deep they were buried, and I may have just resurfaced them. Even worse though, is that I’ve brought Fluttershy into it with me now. She never knew of my first year at camp, because I never told her. She never knew that I was once accused of being a fag, never knew how much risk of public humiliation she was getting herself into when she befriended me. Now she’s had to find out the hard way, and I don’t think that she liked what she learned. That look on her face, it was just so pleading. It was almost as if she were begging me to tell her it wasn’t true. I hurt the first pony to ever show me true kindness, and it’s hurting me just as much. I don’t want to have to see her like that again, which means I have to win this argument with my parents. I have to convince them that I’m not that kind of mare.'

The athlete rolled over and looked at the subject of her thoughts, sleeping soundly in the bed across the room. She could make out the slight rise and fall of Fluttershy’s chest as she breathed the night air. To her surprise, Dash found it quite relaxing to watch the yellow pegasus in such a state, completely oblivious to the world around her, living in a world of dreams that was entirely her own; in which she could swim in the deepest oceans, or soar over the highest clouds.

‘Oh if only I could just shut the world out so easily, but no. I’ll probably always be tied back by the prejudice directed towards me; and now her too. I don’t think I could stand to see her suffer for my flaw, but if I continue to hide, I’ll never be able to avoid these accidental slips of my true self, which lead to times such as these. Maybe, just maybe, if I were to come out, but just deny that Fluttershy is my marefriend, then everypony will leave her alone. The hatred will be directed back at me, and she’ll be safe. But she might not want to be my friend anymore. I will be admitting that I’ve been lying to her all these years that I’ve known her, and I don’t think that could score very well of the friendship scale. Even if friendship is magic, there are always things that can cause such a spell to go wrong. No, I will not lose my friendship with Fluttershy. I will deny the rumors, and fight my way to bury them again, for the sake of Fluttershy.’

With her purpose decided, Rainbow Dash slowly drifted into a dream world of her own, telling herself over and over, for Fluttershy, for Fluttershy…

… for Fluttershy….

Author’s Notes: Sorry to anypony who wanted an account of Dash’s 3rd camp year, but I’m planning that for a side story after this one (I have way too many stories planned, but never enough time). Also, yes, I know that the beginning paragraph makes it sound like Dash is drunk, I thought it was funny, I don’t know if anypony else did.

One last thing before I leave you alone. I realize a lot of you may be thinking ‘This has all been done before,’ but please bear with me. As I said, it’s my first ongoing story, and I’m really just working out my writing style. If there are any things I should try to do (more description, less dialogue, spacing and structure issues, etc.), please don’t hesitate to tell me in the comments. I, like every aspiring artist, strive to improve my technique, and I can’t do that without everypony’s input. Thanks, and until next time, deuces!

Chapter VII: Confrontation

Author’s Note: This is probably going to be the chapter with the harshest language in it, due to the nature of it. I’m just giving this warning now just in case there are some ponies out there that are just really sensitive to it.

Bzzzzzzz

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA! I’M COMING!”

The dark blue stallion, who had been peacefully sleeping on a sofa until being rudely awakened, flipped off the couch and onto the floor below. He absolutely hated early morning visitors, especially ones that used the buzzer. He had asked for it to be muffled or even removed entirely, but the maintenance department for the complex always ignored him. They probably enjoyed his suffering, and ignored him for the purpose of their own entertainment. He trotted over to the door and pressed his eye to the peephole, only to remind himself that it was installed backwards and thus prevented him from seeing outside. Sighing, he opened the door to find himself with a light grey mare with blonde hair. It was his neighbor, Polixa Hooves, and she stood there with a huge grin on her face.

“Hello dearie! You don’t mind if I come in do you? Of course not,” the visiting pegasus said as she walked into the apartment and sat down on the chair across from the couch. “Oh, how wonderful, muffins!” she exclaimed as she grabbed part of her hosts’ breakfast and ate it in one bite.

“Polixa, why are you here?” the stallion asked, glaring at the intruding mare who had stolen his muffin.

“Oh isn’t it obvious Balder, gossip!”

Balder rolled his eyes, knowing he’d never get his unwanted guest to leave, and sat back down on the sofa. He quickly grabbed the rest of his breakfast before the mare could pilfer any more of it, and finally leaned back to listen to whatever news Polixa had come across this time.

“Okay, first things first my dear, have you heard anything from your daughter lately?”

“No, but what does she have to do with anything? Look, if you’re here to lecture me about my family life, you can just go now.”

“Oh no no no, I was simply wondering. This means you’re in for even more of a shock! Oh how lovely.”

Polixa reached into her bag and pulled out a muffin in a plastic wrap. She proceeded to unwrap the muffin and eat it before getting on with her story.

“Well, you’ll nev…”

“Why do you carry a bloody muffin in your saddlebag?”

“Oh, I carry more than just one. Derpy sent me one in the mail a while ago, and I just can’t get enough of them now. This friend of hers from Ponyville makes the most wonderful baked goods. Anyways, as I was saying, you’ll never guess who I saw in the streets yesterday!”

“George Hoovey?” Balder said sarcastically, rolling his eyes again.

“No, of course not dearie, he’s not a pegasus. No, I saw your daughter with that yellow filly she always used to hang out with.”

Polixa looked at Balder, waiting for some sort of reaction. She was expecting surprise, thinking that his daughter being in town without his knowledge would make him wonder. What she got though, was anger.

“What the hell is she doing back here? She goes and runs off without a word, and then, she bucking comes back for a competition where she shows off like the little bitch she is. Now, she’s got the nerve to come back, probably to brag about how successful she is. She better not show up at this apartment, because she’s not getting a warm welcome if she does.”

The look of surprise was worn by Mrs. Hooves, who was shocked at the apparent dislike of his daughter that Balder Dash showed. She had always known they had an iffy relationship, but she had never had any idea just how much the two despised each other. Now that she knew, she felt like it was her duty to add a little bit more drama to the situation.

“Oh I don’t think she’s here to brag, but I do think she might have come to introduce her new marefriend to you.”

Balder was already mad, but suddenly, he just lost it. He picked up the nearest vase and threw it against the wall. It shattered, leaving thousands of shards of green glass scattered around the base of his bookshelf.

“What…the…buck!” the blue pony yelled, probably loud enough for the whole floor to hear him. “That little faggot is going to get it now, the nerve of her, my own daughter. If she can’t give me a pretty damn good excuse for this, she’s gonna get it big time. And I know exactly what I’m gonna do too.”

Fluttershy wasn’t usually much of a late sleeper, but she also didn’t usually sleep on a cloud. In all her years living in Ponyville, she had forgotten how good it felt to sleep on the floating water vapors. The only reason she woke up when she did was because she had unintentionally rolled off the side of the bed and was now lying on the floor.

“Ow,” she said meekly, standing up and shimmied her head to remove the excess water.

“’bout time you got up sleepyhead, you actually slept longer than me.”

Rainbow watched as her friend rubbed her eyes and then went and tended to her mane.

‘Such a beautiful mane, even without brushing it still looks amazing. Maybe I should brush my mane for once, just to see if she notices.’

“Let’s go, I want to get this over with ASAP.”

“Yes, me too,” Fluttershy agreed, grabbing her bags as she followed her friend out the door. “But can we get breakfast first, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course!” Rainbow laughed, “What would I ever do without you reminding me to eat?”

“So this is where your parents live?” Fluttershy whispered, looking back and forth down the hall as if somepony were waiting to attack her.

“Last time I checked, yep; and stop being so nervous, the building may be old and in a rundown area, but that doesn’t mean everypony is going to jump you.”

“Maybe, but it’s still scary. Eep!”

“Relax Flutters, it’s only a breeze through a window. Now, should I knock, or hit the buzzer?”

Rainbow dropped into a deep psychological analysis of the pros and cons of each possible approach to announcing her presence, and eventually decided on the buzzer. This took all of two seconds.

Bzzzzzzz

‘Hey, that sounded annoying. I’ll press it again to get on their nerves!’

Bzzzzzzz

“NOT AGAIN! WHY CAN’T ANYPONY KNOCK FOR ONCE!” a voice shouted from the other side of the door.

‘Heh, better do it again before he gets to the door.’

Bzzzzzzz

The door swung open to reveal Rainbow’s father, still as annoyed as ever, and still without a cutie mark. He stood there and stared at Rainbow for a good twenty seconds, without blinking, and without changing facial expression whatsoever. He looked over at Fluttershy and repeated the procedure, and then, he slammed the door in their faces.

“Oh my… how rude.” Fluttershy took a step backwards, involuntarily bumping into a potted cloud and letting out another high pitched squeal of fright.

“He’s always been like that; we’ll just have to try again. I think I’ll knock this time though, that buzzer really is annoying.”

Knock Knock Knock

“THANK YOU, FINALLY SOMEPONY WHO KNOCKS!”

The door opened again.

“And of course, it’s you two again. Doesn’t slamming a door in your face sort of give you a hint; or are you just that dense?” the stallion asked as he attempted to mow them down with a stare that could rival Fluttershy’s. Fortunately, Dash was used to it, and Fluttershy was immune, for obvious reasons.

“Humph, what do you want?”

“Dad, I need to talk to you. It’s about those rumors.”

“Oh, I know plenty about the rumors, and I want you to come explain them to me, and I’ll tell you this now, you better have a damn good story about them.”

Rainbow entered the small apartment, but as Fluttershy tried to follow her in, she was stopped by Mr. Dash.

“Oh no, I want you to wait right here little filly. I need to talk to Rainbow alone.” He then slammed the door in her face for the second time that day.

“Oh my…how rude. Oh, I said that already.”

“I understand you not wanting Fluttershy in here for this, but that’s no reason to be so rude to her,” Dash commented.

“Shut up, okay. This is my house, and I’ll treat my guests how I see fit. Now, get to explaining.”

“First, where’s mom? If I’m going to explain this, I need both of you in here.”

“Humph, I should have known. You just threw that letter away when you saw it was from me, didn’t you? Well if you had actually bothered to read it, you’d know that your mother is dead. She died three months ago in prison from some sort of infection, and of course you didn’t show up at the funeral, disrespectful whelp.”

“Oh, okay then, I’ll just have to do without her.”

Rainbow honestly didn’t feel a single bit of sadness in learning that her mother had died, seeing as the mare had always seen her as just another mouth to feed. She deserved it anyway.

“First of all, Fluttershy is not my marefriend, despite anything you may have heard. Secondly, I’m not gay, the rumors only got started because I…”

“Saved that bloody unicorn, I know, I know. What I want to know is why you’re here, and with her,” he interrupted, pointing a hoof at the door as he emphasized his last word.

“Fluttershy’s my best friend, and I was going to introduce her to you guys since she’s never even met you. But of course, now you’ve gone and made the worst impression possible.”

“Just a friend, but you bring her all the way back to Cloudsdale just to introduce her to me. That’s bucking likely. Tell me, if she’s not your bucking marefriend, then why the hell did you even bother? Why the hell did you even bother even if she was for that matter?”

“I brought her because she wanted to meet you, not because I asked her to come meet you. How stupid do you think I am? I would never ask anypony to come meet you.”

“Oh, and so you agreed to introduce us? Just because she wanted you to? Then you come and claim you don’t have feelings for her. I don’t think you would bother unless you actually liked her.”

“SHE’S MY OLDEST FRIEND! OF COURSE I LIKE HER!” Dash sat back down, having stood up to lean into her dad’s face as she shouted.

“So you do have feelings for her?” Balder stated, and then slowly started clapping, “Whoopee for you, you just made your entire argument meaningless with that one statement.” The sentence was dripping with sarcasm, and it made Rainbow furious, furious enough that her mouth slowly, very slowly, started to get ahead of her brain.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it! I like her as a friend, not as a lover!”

“Not based on what I heard this morning. I’m pretty sure sharing a room with her makes it more than just friends.”

‘What? How does he know that? Oh well, at least I can explain that.’

“How the hell do you know that? Just for your information though, it was a two bed suite and they only gave it to us because there was a problem with our original rooms.”

“I have a source, and they said that you were sharing a room, you went out to eat together, and they saw you hugging outside the city when you arrived.” The stallion leaned back in his chair, confident that he had the upper hoof now, and smiled as the blue mare across from him attempted to reply.

“But…ah…you…You’re taking all those things out of context!” she finally managed to say. “We went out to eat together because we’re visiting the city together, and we got the room because we didn’t have a choice.”

“And the hug?”

“I was just comforting her because she was worried about my head after I crashed.”

“You were comforting her? After you crashed? Likely story you’ve got there. Why would you have to comfort her if you’re the one with the injury unless you simply wanted an excuse to hug her?”

This conversation was going nowhere, exactly as she had imagined it, just without the added arguments of her mother. Overall, she knew there would be no easy way to end it, since her dad would continue arguing until he got the answer he was looking for. The only two ways to end this were to either walk away, or give him what he wanted. Both ways he won and she lost. She hated to lose so easily, but she could feel that she was losing control of her arguments, and if she did that, she would let something slip. The best course would be to walk away, and not grant him the satisfaction of a confession.

“You know what, I don’t have to put up with this,” she said as she stood up and turned towards the door. She started towards the exit, only to be stopped by the mocking tone of the stallion behind her.

“Going to talk to your fillyfriend about how you’re going to try to prove me wrong next? Or maybe you’re going to go try her parents first. Go on then, just go and have a happy time, as bucking faggots.”

That was it. Rainbow couldn’t stand to hear him insulting Futtershy like that anymore. She turned on him, and before she could think what she was doing, she hoofed him in the face, hard.

“WHAT IF I DO LIKE HER YOU SON OF A BITCH? WHAT WOULD YOU DO ABOUT IT?” She hoofed him again, connecting with a good solid thwack. “I HAVE MY OWN LIFE, I CAN DO WHAT I BUCKING WANT!” Years of built up anger towards the stallion had been put behind those blows, and there was still more where it came from. She continued her assault for another minute, moving away from the face and trying to break a few of his ribs. When she finally stopped, she looked down at her father below her, and he was smiling, why was he smiling?

“You see, I was right,” he chuckled, “You are a filly-fooler. You’re a disgrace to me, and the rest of your family, you always have been. And now, I’m going to fix that problem. Rainbow Dash, you are no longer part of this family. I’m disowning you.”

With that, the blue stallion lost consciousness, as he lay bleeding on the floor of his apartment.

“Good riddance,” Rainbow muttered, turning towards the door. She couldn’t care less about the disowning, she had been thinking of seceding for years. The thing that bothered her though, is what she had yelled. If she remembered correctly, she had just yelled her love for Fluttershy across the entire floor of the apartment building, which included the pegasus sitting outside the door.

‘Did she hear it? How’s she going to react? I hope she doesn’t cry. Maybe she didn’t hear. Maybe I can just tell her I got disowned, and then she’ll feel sorry for me. She could comfort me, and then we could continue being friends just like usual. Of course, I didn’t really help the rumors, probably just made them worse. Especially since Derpy’s mom heard me, being the gossip hound she is. Oh my gosh, I bet it was her who told my dad, or my used to be dad, all those things. I’m going to kill her if I ever see her.’

By this point, Dash was at the door. She decided she better call an ambulance, more on the premise of wasting a little more time before confronting Fluttershy than from genuine concern. She did so, and once she had confirmed that the medics were on their way, she re focused her attention on the task at hoof. She raised her hoof and placed it on the door, pushed, and as the door swung open, she prepared what she was going to say.

‘Fluttershy, I don’t know how much you heard, but there’s something I need to tell you. I think that I have feelings for you, like romantic feelings.’

It would work, or so she hoped. Sadly, she wouldn’t get to find out, for as the opening door revealed the hall, there was absolutely no sign whatsoever of her yellow friend.

Chapter IV: Preperations

Her saddlebags were packed, she had the gifts for her parents, and Derpy had been informed to hold her mail for the week. All that was left to do was go and get Fluttershy and then they’d be on their way. Flapping her wings once, Rainbow Dash propelled herself off the launch platform at the top of her house, setting herself up to simply glide all the way to her friend’s house. She caught an updraft under her feathers and rose higher into the clear blue sky. She could see the cottage, and all she had to do was let the cool air beneath her carry her over to it, but her mind suddenly turned on her again, telling her that this was a bad idea, that she ought to cancel the trip entirely.

She Ignored the feeling, knowing that at this point, she had to go through with it, so as not to upset Fluttershy. She touched down lightly on the road in front of the cottage and started trotting towards the front door. It opened before she got the chance to knock, and Fluttershy was standing there with her own saddlebags already on, and a pair of flight goggles resting on her forehead.

“Since when did you have flight goggles?” Dash asked, not knowing her friend to be the kind to wear the somewhat uncomfortable eyewear.

“Oh, I’ve always had these, I just only wear them when I’m going to fly for a long time,” she explained as she slid the goggles over her eyes, “So are we ready to go?”

Dash was mesmerized, the goggles must have had some sort of curvature to the lenses, and once Fluttershy had placed them over her eyes, the teal of her eyes was magnified. She didn’t know why, but Dash just found this entrancing. The very back of her brain though, knew why, but refused to let her know yet.

“Sure, let’s go, it’s gonna be a long trip, so the sooner we start the better!”

Fluttershy exited her house, and after calling a goodbye to her animal friends, closed the door and locked it.

“We need to stop by the library really quick if you don’t mind. I need to give the house key to Twilight so she can get in.”

Rainbow agreed, and with that, the two pegasi took off, heading towards the center of Ponyville where the library tree was built. When they arrived, Spike opened the door, welcomed them in, and told them that Twilight wasn’t really in condition to see them at the moment.

“Oh no, is something wrong? Is Twilight alright Spike?” Fluttershy asked, looking extremely concerned for her unicorn friend.

“Well, not really. She had a bit of a mishap with a spell that she found, and now she doesn’t really want anypony to see her. She’s trying to fix it right now, so she’ll be fine.”

“Oh that’s a relief. But what went wrong, is it serious?”

“Well, I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell her I told you,” Spike said, shifting his eyes back and forth as if he were worried that somepony was eavesdropping on them.

“Oh, well if it’s that secret, I can just leave it be.”

“Are you kidding Fluttershy? This could be good. We promise not to tell her Spike,” Dash exclaimed, causing Fluttershy to flinch at the suddenness of her outburst.

“Okay, well, here goes; she created some sort of portal to a different dimension, and when Colgate knocked her into it, they sort of combined into one pony. Heh heh, I like to call her Twigate now.”

Rainbow Dash let out a low whistle, trying to imagine the librarian and the eccentric dentist as the same pony, and then cracked up once she got the picture in her mind.

“Wow, even eggheads can get into big trouble. That’s just rich!”

“I hope she can figure out how to fix it,” Fluttershy said, “Oh, and here’s my key so that she can take care of my animals while we’re away.”

“Thanks Fluttershy, Twilight told me to wish you two a good trip, and we’ll see you when you get back. I’ll go get this to her.”

Spike turned and padded up the stairs, leaving the two pegasi to show themselves out. They did so and resumed their flying, this time heading towards the floating city of Cloudsdale, which had recently been blown a couple hours away from Ponyville. The weather pegasi were trying to generate enough winds to get the city back to its correct location, but it was a slow process. The trip was a slow process as well, given the speed limitation that Fluttershy placed on the duo, but Dash didn’t mind, finding the slower pace to be somewhat relaxing. It gave her time to think, mainly about her recent time with Fluttershy.

She had been subconsciously seeking the company of the shy yellow pegasus a lot more often recently than she had in the past. She couldn’t understand why she enjoyed spending time with her so much, given the canyon of differences between them. The only thing she knew is that every time that she was with Fluttershy, she felt a little bit happier. Maybe it was because she was her oldest friend, and she accepted Dash for who she was. Maybe it was because she was the only friend that could actually go everywhere she could, being a pegasus as well. Or maybe, it was a third thing, that Dash did not want to accept, but was slowly working its way to the front of her thoughts. May be she loved Fluttershy.

‘No, I’m not like that anymore! I’m not a filly-fooler. I’m not. Not, not, not, not, not. My parents already hate me enough, and if they found out I was in love with another mare, they’d hate me even more.’

The thought of her parents brought back a whole flood of memories of her life in her parent’s house. They were memories that she tried to avoid, but were now invading her mind without cease, and she could not get away from them.

She had just returned from her first year of camp…