Equestria Days: Hearts, Hooves and Wings

Standing alone against all odds to defend  Fluttershy’s honor! What else would a potential Wonderbolt do? Bullies in Cloudsdale? Not on my watch.

Okay, Rainbow Dash. You can do it. Wind in my mane? Check. Adrenaline pumping? Oh, check! Clouds packed with spectators? Oh ho ho! Chee-yeck.  There’s the flag! Let’s dash! Heh heh! The Dash. I’m awesome. We’re off!

Did I bump into something…? Ugh. It was probably that jerk! I-I won’t let him beat me! Just a little faster. I’ve never flown like this before. I like it! These colts are nothing but a canter to The Das--

Oof! You’ve messed with the wrong Pegasus. Not gonna lose. Not gonna lose! Just… a little… bit faster.  I can win! I have to win. I NEED TO WIN.

R-Rainbow Dash?

THE LEGENDS ARE TRUE! Ohmigoshomigoshohmigosh! Totally Awesome Rainbow Dash saved the day for Bzzterbuzz and Clouds… dale goes… wild?

Mmferhmf?

Why can’t I remember that pony’s name? Where’d she even go? I’m out here defending her and she’s not even at the finish line? Geeze, you’d think a Pegasus who can’t fly would stick to the clouds. STICK TO THE CLOUDS?! Did I knock her down? Ohnonono. I can’t even see the surface from up here! All I see is…

Rainbow Dash.

The Rainy Season Tornado…? In the middle of my race? Where’d everypony go? Did she get sucked up into it? That filly was my friend… I-I have to save her! Gulp. But it is a big tornado.

S-stop crying Rainbow Dash and help her! Help *Bzzzzt*.

*Bzzzzt*

Rainbow Dash!

“FLUTTERSHY!”

Sweat beaded on normally light blue fur, rendered a ghastly pale hue in the dim room barely bathed in the morning light. Matted multihued mane a victim of chronic Bed Head, tussled even more so than usual. Labored breaths continued to break the silence long after the shrill cry of fear shattered it.  A cool hoof pressed against a puffy cheek that had been slept on at all the wrong angles only to find it moist with neither sweat nor drool.

“Worst. Dream. Ever. Some Element of Loyalty I am.” The weary Rainbow Dash mumbled as her hind legs kicked away the blankets into a pile at the bottom of her bed.  At least now the nightmare was over, Dash had thought to herself as she indulged in a moment of private weakness.

What? Even would-be Wonderbolts aren’t allowed to cry from time to time? The Pegasus mumbled in her own thoughts at some invisible, judging pony.

“You okay, Rainbow Dash?”

Cerise saucers. The young mare bolted from her bed, wings unfurled and ready to pounce at the intruder disguised as a talking mound of blankets! It even started moving! Shifting and shuffling in such an unponylike manner until a bit of fuchsia atop a pair of innocent eyes peeked out at an idol at her most vulnerable.

“Squirt? What the hay are you doing in my bed?”

The sudden shock melted into crisp deadpan, eyes narrowing shiftily as Rainbow Dash fully recognized that featherlike mane. Normally, she’d be a little more stern with the rambunctious Crusader but there was something off and she couldn’t place her hoof on it. The pint size Pegasus seemed a bit on the thin side of winged ponies lately. That, and she was also blushing furiously at possibly being overheard and trying to hide it, of course.

Scootaloo started to wiggled her way out of the pile. “Well I-”

“Waitwaitwait. How in Equestria did you even get up here?” Ponyville’s best flier had wagged a hoof in front of her as if to shield herself from what would likely be an insane story. It was a minor feat in and of itself. Not much of a secret that the tenacious tangerine troublemaker is temporarily terrestrial and the older Pegasus can’t seem to recall bringing the runt home.

Spindly filly legs kicked their way out from that entangled mess once called a bed, trying to squeak out a reply. Despite being a motor mouth outside her idol’s presence, Scootaloo could barely contain her fillylike glee. Sliding down from the bed onto all four feet, she bowed her head down to scoop up a purple helmet bearing white racing stripes, marked and scarred with obvious use onto that feathery mop top.

“My scooter! It was a daring trick, of course! Though not without a few… complications.”

Strewn outside the home with the greatest view of Ponyville had been yards of fabric and a pair of sleeping, paint-covered fillies huddled together in the middle of it all. Towering over the mess was a ramp of epic proportions! Paired Pegasai eyes peered over the surprisingly stable structure. Rainbow Dash found herself slack jawed at the sheer size of the ramp and the fact she slept through it all. Supplying Cloudsdale with water must have left her more fatigued than she had realized.

Said ramp bore the markings of Appleboom’s handiwork. Pennants displaying the Cutie Mark Crusaders emblem showed signs of Sweetie Belle paying a little more attention to her sister. The charred remains of what was once a scooter rest in the side of one of Rainbow Dash’s clouds where it had mysteriously exploded moments after impact the previous night. Dash simply shook her head in bemusement, nudging the thought that the little squirt should of made the jump without a hitch to the back burner.

“Hey pipsqueak. You’ve been following me around an awful lot lately. Somethin’ up?” The elder Pegasus had taken a bit of a shining to the runt recently. Sure, having a devoted fan was nice, but the flightless filly started to tug at the radical heartstrings of the self-described Iron Pony. If only subconsciously. The building concern for Scootaloo’s wellbeing budded into Dash’s mind when she realized during the Centennial Meteor Shower when it became clear that she seemed to be Scoots’ de facto big sister. The fellow Crusaders spent the night perched on the backs of the older sisters they so loved to gush about, leaving Scootaloo to awkwardly hang by Rainbow’s side the entire celestial event.

This thought terrified Rainbow Dash to her core! She was not big sister material, nor did she want to be one. But as the Element of Loyalty, she pushed aside her own growing adult fears for the sake and safety of somepony who couldn’t care for herself.

“N-No, Rainbow Dash! Nothin’! Nope!”

Young eyes full of idealism suddenly grew large and full of shock, as if the jig were up. Shaking that fuchsia mane side to side, Scoots rustled through her saddlebag that had been under the window that the two of them had been peering out of, and that the pint-sized pony had found her in the night before. Retrieving a rolled up copy of the Foal Free Press, she had tried unfurling it to show off to her heroine but clumsily dropped it with a moderate look of shame plastered on her face as the paper dropped from her mouth.

Pages of the Foal Free Press rained down over Ponyville from an inexplicable and quite horizontal rainbow blur heading toward Fluttershy’s cabin. The sound of hooves stamping on once lush grass were drowned out by the gabber and gossip whinnying outside the moss covered home. It was normally meticulously well kept; bushes, flowers and trees grew in the most beautiful natural ways as if each one had been guided along by a nurturing mother.

“Um.. Could you please not--”

Pops and flashes from cameras rendered the normally quiet animal sanctuary devoid of critters and instead infested with several dozen pony paparazzi, up and coming stars and would-be suitors. Petunias pulverized. Marigolds mashed. Daffodils… daftly avoided.

“Watch out for the anim--“

A bird feeder lies in ruin! The horror! A timid gasp is followed by a sharp inhale, a signal that somepony had enough.

“WOULD EV--”

Rainbow streaked from the horizon into the partially open attic bedroom window that the pink-maned Pegasus had  imagined was an impenetrable keep holding back a siege just to stay sane. It was an act performed a thousand times before by someone familiar with the quirky direction and destination that one window provided.  Fluttershy always preferred to work quietly and simply in the midst of her animal friends, and through the days of Flight

“Eek! VisitorsnotwelcomeduringtheweekofHeartsandHooves! Please go away~!”

Fluttershy turned her head to the side, peaceful eyes shielded from her supposed terror by pale gold eyelids while bright blue nostrils flared as Rainbow Dash awkwardly straddled over the coweing pony in the corner of her own house. Heart beating, wondering what to say or do, Dash did the thing she was best at: Charging hoof first into things. Dropping the Foal Free Press from her mouth, the only page left was the front and that alone barely contained three things.

A color spread of the shyest pony Rainbow Dash knew.

Above an article by Photo Finish, with commentary by Spitfire.

Capped with a shocking headline: “Ponyville’s Most Eligible Star!”

“Fluttershy! How did this happen? I mean, you’re not exactly model material.” It took a moment for Rainbow Dash to realize what she had said about her PFF, to which the creamy yellow Pegasus opened an eye to the familiar and comforting voice. “I mean you’re a wallflower! Not that you’re not pretty or anything…” Something had been welling up inside Dash since the tornado incident, leaving her filled with self-doubt about her element. Just being there for her oldest friend didn’t seem like it was enough for the brash soul. Perhaps it was the pang left in Dash’s heart from Fluttershy’s insecurities getting the best of her. Maybe because she pushed her wistful nature aside for a moment to not just be there for Ponyville, but  because Rainbow Dash just wanted to fly with her best friend.

Lithe legs shot a slender body up from the floor to embrace a close friend, eyes as blue as the sky Dash loved so much to fly in welled up with tears. Despite the downpour, Fluttershy’s voice remained as beautifully soft as it always had been as she spilled her worries out in a manner that nopony but the blue streak ever had the privilege of hearing.  Not that Rainbow Dash knew. Flight school was such a terrible experience, and due to the events at the race: some then-nameless pony sticking up for the socially awkward filly, Fluttershy felt like she finally had one pony she could confide in.

“Oh Rainbow. Look at my cottage… it is ruined! There’s reporters and famous ponies and not so famous ponies and soooo much I need to tell you.”

“I can tell that much! But uh. Start with the good news first?” Rainbow Dash did her best to adjust to being so close to another pony, having never particularly enjoyed physical contact. Especially one getting bodily fluids soaked into her mane. But this time, she’d stick around until the waterworks were fixed.

“Well… Um… there isn’t any good news. Only bad news. …And weird news.”

“W-what?”

Fluttershy had leaned her head back, letting the soft mane that smelled just as rosy as it had been hued cascade against Rainbow Dash’s face, whose eyes grew wide and cheeks burned to pull a feather from her wing! Not a luxuriously soft golden feather, but a short orange Pegasus remix broken and soiled. With it in her mouth, Fluttershy turns around to balance the feather on Dash’s nose gently, trying to find the words to spell out what she thinks. A feat she seems much more adept at when Dash is around.

“I found it in the chicken coop. I think, maybe, that one of the girls might be um…”

Rainbow Dash’s heart had been racing since she plowed through the bedroom window like she had countless times before. The pace picked up the moment she and Fluttershy started to converse. It came to a dead stop when the all too familiar feather rest on her snout. Deep down, she knew, but desperately wanted to chalk it up to those Cutie Mark Creampuffs having their tails in places they don’t belong on a regular basis. Still, she found herself being painfully direct.

“One of those squirts might be what, exactly? Spit it out, Fluttershy!”

“Eep! I think one of the girls is sleeping in the chicken coop and eating all my bird seed!” It suddenly made sense to Rainbow Dash why Scootaloo seemed so emaciated. The pit of her stomach sank as her mind swirled with the thoughts that the reason the pipsqueak was too weak to fly was due to malnourishment. Anger and bile threatened to spew forth from her mouth.

“What about her parents?! I’ll kick them out of Cloudsdale myself!”

“I-I don’t think she has any…”

The eager to jump the gun Pegasus found herself hovering mere feet from the bedroom floor, eyes filled with the same grief and shame as her past self, unable to tolerate her inability to handle things for those she cares about. But this time, something has to be done. With all four hooves back on something solid, Dash came to a sudden decision.

“Then Scoots is just going to stay with me.”

“But she can’t fly yet! How will she get back and forth without you around?”

“…I don’t know.

“You don’t make a lot of money on Weather Patrol…Can you handle her?”

“I don’t know!” Tense legs rest up on the sill of the window Rainbow Dash made her entrance in, peering over the amorphous crowd still begging to get the scoop on Ze Flootershy and her mysterious guest. “Just… Tell me about the weird news. I need to clear my mind.”

Fluttershy, flapping her wings to give her the needed boost to stand up, gently placing herself down without so much as a clop found herself idly kicking at a knot in the floorboard, almost trying to avoid having to answer it. Her soft, golden cheeks turned brassy as her voice squeaked out.

“Well, you see… Because of all this attention I’ve been getting… Soarin’ of the Wonderbolrs has asked me to be his special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day. But I--”

“Gotta go check on the pipsqueak.”

A collective gasp hissed out as the mob that had swarmed Fluttershy’s cottage had gazed up to see a Pegasus buck off a window sill. For a moment, everypony was silent. One could hear the trickling sounds of the small creek in the back garden. But it was not meant to last. Everypony standing felt the sudden need to hug the ground due to a deafening explosion. The cottage shook. Camera lenses shattered.  Grass and flowers flattened.

The full visible spectrum of colors washed over the area.

Several slightly warm, crystal clear droplets of the purest rain water found their way to Fluttershy’s cheek.

“--knew you were a better match…”