Freedom For Fluttershy

For Fluttershy all was black. No sounds, no feelings, no sights, and barely no thoughts. A flash of something would come to her then recede into nothingness and thus plunging her back into nothingness. Then the images became more frequent and longer. Her walking up to her house with Rarity's dad watching her, her with a boy with green dreadlocks, her in Rarity's room wearing a beautiful dress, her yelling at Rainbow Dash, her with Twilight? - Twilight and Flash? How was that possible? And all the scenes seemed to be running in reverse order. Finally her and Rainbow out front of school, arguing, and Rainbow keeping Fluttershy's secret. But, wait, that didn't happen. Rainbow and she had argued but Rainbow told everyone about how she was being abused by her mother. And then, that image came to her and all went black again.

Fluttershy then felt something. She felt stiff and sore. She also felt somebody holding her hand. Slowly she was able to force her eyes open. The light came rushing in and made her close them again. She tried once again and was able to keep them open longer but saw only light. A third time and she could make out shapes; a fourth, blurry images, and on the fifth try, she saw where she was and who she was with.

She was in a hospital room, hooked up to various machines. At her bedside sat Derpy, a nice, sweet girl with down syndrome whom Fluttershy talked on occasion. She was surprise to see the girl sitting there, holding her hand, smiling. She tried to talk but could only moan and croak. Derpy looked shocked and then got up, ran out of the room, and came back with a nurse who then called for a doctor. By the time the doctor came in, she felt strong enough to speak. The nurse took Derpy out of the room so Fluttershy and the doctor could talk.

"How, how did I get here?" Fluttershy asked, still very weak and horse.

"You passed out at school two days ago. Your friends and principle informed us you were being beaten by your mother. We looked to see if there was any traumatic brain injury. We found some evidence for some, but nothing to explain the collapse or coma. Oh and I'm Doctor White." He stuck his hand out for Fluttershy to shake.

Fluttershy just stared at him in shocked disbelief. First, just the word "coma" was incomprehensible. How could she have been in a coma? Then the second part hit her - TWO DAYS! She had been in a coma for two days. Lights out, gone, nobody home. Well almost.

"Am, am I alright?" she asked more quietly than she could.

"Well, we'll have to run tests to make sure whatever caused this doesn't happen again and we'll have to see if any of your mental or motor functions have been affected, but for now, I think you'll be fine. Any other questions?"

"Yes, where do I go now?" Fluttershy felt the full enormity of her situation. Her mother was most likely in jail, her father was missing in action (or inaction as it were), so she had no where to go. No money, no house, no nothing. She was completely alone.

Dr. White looked down at the ground and took a step closer to the bed and sat down. "That, I can not tell you. I do know that for the past two days, someone has been by your side; and, your friend, uh, Rarity? - her father's been paying for your hospital bills. But what children and youth and the family court decides to do, I have no idea." He tried to sound as sympathetic as he could. He hoped that she would get the fact that she had never been alone here.

Fluttershy just nodded and said thanks, not really looking at the doctor, just kind of staring off into space. Doctor White patted her hand and left.

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It wasn't long before all the other girls and her other friends started showing up. Derpy came back, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, Scootaloo, Sunset, Pinkie, Bulk Biceps, Principle Celestia and Vice-Principle Luna all showed up. They all hugged her, asked how she was doing, what the diagnosis was, and they all told her how much they loved her. Fluttershy smiled at first and tried to answer all their questions but then started crying uncontrollably. Celestia said it was best for everyone to leave but Fluttershy was able to say no.

"I . . . I don't want to be alone. I have no where to go. Dad left me, momma hates me, I don't want to go into foster care. I, I just can't be alone," she said.

"And you won't," Rarity spoke up. "I talked it over with my parents and they talked it over with children's protection and you are coming to stay with us. That's it, no ifs, ands, or buts."

"And you never have to worry about being alone," Rainbow said. "We never left your side. All of us took turns watching over you just in case. Heck, we had to come up with a schedule, an actual schedule, of who could come by when."

"Thank you. Thank you all," Fluttershy said and started weeping again; this time with joy.

Everyone came in for a big group hug. They all continued to talk and fill Fluttershy in on what had happened in her absence. They laughed, told jokes, and eventually, one by one, they all started to leave. Only Rainbow remained.

"So, I guess I'll be going to," she said not knowing exactly what to say, but feeling like she should say something.

"Yeah, and I'm getting tired. But, Rainbow, thank you. You saved my life."

Rainbow smiled and nodded. She turned around and left; all the while thinking that was something she had needed to hear.

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It was around seven o'clock at night when Fluttershy received her next visitor. Their was a knock on door way to Fluttershy's room. She looked up from the book she was reading to see it was -

"Twilight! You're here!"

Twilight walked in with a big smile and waved. "Sunset wrote to me and told me what happened. There's no way I wasn't coming to see you."

"Aw, thank you. So how have you been?" Fluttershy asked; desperate to keep the focus off her.

"Boring actually. I mostly sit in my castle reading. Which isn't as fun as it used to be," Twilight said with a laugh.

"You're always free to come back here," Fluttershy said hopefully. "We all miss you. I think Sunset especially. Maybe Flash. But I know we'd all love to see you more."

Twilight's face took on a shadow of sadness and shook her head. "I wish I could. I'm only allowed to come over when there is an emergency. I miss you all too."

"oh," Fluttershy said disappointed. "I guess there's reasons, but it feels . . . incomplete when you're not here. You were the one who brought us all together. It just feels weird without you here."

"It feels weird for me too," not the least of which is because all of you are doubles for my friends back home, Twilight thought to herself. "I'd like to come back. Maybe not to stay, but at least visit. I was told I could say bye to Flash, but I can't make myself do it."

"Well, you're here now. So fill me in on what's been happening."

So Twilight told her about the map, Starlight Glimmer, going back to Canterlot and fixing things with her old friends, and so on. She told her how Spike got in trouble for not quite impersonating her, but giving orders under her name while she was asleep and how horribly wrong that went. Both girls laughed at that one.

"Uhah. I guess I should be going back now," Twilight said with regret.

"I wish you didn't because I don't know when I'll get to see you again. But you are a princess and that takes responsibility."

"Yeah, sending everyone else to do what I wish I could do." Twilight paused and then looked Fluttershy in the eyes, "Will you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything." Fluttershy was concerned by Twilight's tone of voice.

Twilight reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a necklace with a heart on it. "Will you give this to Flash? It's a locket with my hair in it. It's not much, but it's something of mine, a part of me, and I want him to have it."

"Of course," Fluttershy said with a smile.

The two hugged and Twilight started to leave. Twilight stopped briefly and turned around. "I'll be back in tomorrow. I have a book on the animals of Equestria you might like."

"I can't wait. You want me to let the others know as well?"

"No, this is our time. I'll catch up later. Besides, Sunset keeps me informed about what's going on. Take care Fluttershy."

"You too Twilight."