The Present-day

Fluttershy was many things: an avid animal lover, an extremely patient person, a decent singer but a good flyer was not one of them. She knew this because of the current lecture she was getting from the P.E. teacher.

“For Celestia’s sake Shy! What was that?” Coach Arduous Hooves roared from his fold up chair.

Fluttershy landed face first on the cloud where her coach was seated comfortably barking orders at students all morning, much to his visible disdain. He grabbed an iced tea from his cooler and took a long sip to cool his vocal cords for one of his signature “pep talks”. Why should he strain himself while he whipped this punks into shape? Arduous already went flight school and he could outfly this punks even with his slight belly. Especially that little rainbow haired tomboy that went on bragging that she was fastest in all of Magicka the other day. Rolling his eyes at the memory, Arduous hailed himself up to lecture the hot mess that was this awkwardly tall Skyling.

Fluttershy began brushing herself off from her most recent acquaintanceship with the cloud. She immediately felt the hot wash of shame when her eyes met with her coach’s. Despite her newly acquired height that came with becoming a teenager, her teacher still towered over her. Not to mention his fierce glare made her shrink in fear.

“F-flying.” She answered meekly under her breath.

“I’ve seen newborn babies fly better that!” Arduous went on, completely ignoring Fluttershy’s barely detectable response.

“I tripped.” Fluttershy muttered.

A vein popped out on Arduous’ head and his tanned skin turned a deep red. Fluttershy clamped her mouth shut, realizing she was only digging her hole deeper.

“YOU TRIPPED!” He screamed, “Over what? The air?”

Fluttershy struggled to hold back her tears as she felt the eyes of her classmates. She could hear their whispers and laughter from here. She felt like the center of attention, something she hated especially when it was at her expense.

With a great sigh, Arduous stopped his verbal assault. He lifted his hat and ran his pudgy and sweaty fingers through his short brown mop of thinning hair. His words done their job, now running on shame Fluttershy would perform better. It was either that or be left an outcast by her classmates. This was the thing about teaching teenagers, they did most of the work when came to correcting mistakes because their insecurities provided incentives more than grades. Now he could focus on relaxing and leave the work to the kids.

“Run the basics for the rest of class, tomorrow morning we’ll measure your wing power and go through the course again.” Arduous turned away and marched back to his chair and iced tea.

Fluttershy hung her head in shame and made the long trip to the shed to get the weights for strength training. It was already hard enough to fly normal, now she humiliate herself further by barely getting the air with weights on her awkward limbs. She felt oh-so-familiar tears sting her eyes, threatening to tumble down her cheeks. Don’t cry, you big baby. she berated herself, You already embrassed yourself enough.

Like sharks sensing blood in the water, the sound of laughter began circling around her. Two boys from her class swooped down from the course and landed directly in Fluttershy’s path. The wind from their landing knocked the unexpecting girl to the ground. The two boys howled like hyenas as if Fluttershy’s misfortune was the funniest thing in the world.

“Where are you going, Klutzershy?” the shorter boy jeered.

“Probably to go buy a new pair of wings.” his friend elbowed him, causing them to erupt in laughter again.

“I-I’m g-going to get weights. L-leave me alone.” Fluttershy managed, hiding behind her bangs.

“You’re going to more than that to fly like a normal Skyling tomorrow. You’ll need a miracle.” The lighter haired bully shouted through his laughter.

Fluttershy didn’t respond and tried to push past them. The taller bully grabbed her long hair and pulled it hard, yanking her back down to the floor of the cloud. She yelped in pain from not only the fall but the rough pull to her hair. Tears began streaming as she massaged the scalp where some strands of hair was yanked out. Her wet eyes began searching for some help as she was clearly outnumbered. All the other students had cleared after Coach stopped yelling and said Coach was currently napping oblivious to her distress. Fluttershy cried out in resignation of her fate and braced for the emotional or physical pain.

“You call yourself a Skyling? You might as clip your wings now!” The obvious ringleader of the two bullies continued.

“In fact...” the boy roughly grabbed her right wing and pulled it to the full span. Fluttershy cried out in pain and began to struggle to get away. The other boy grabbed her arms and used his weight to pin her down.

“No, please don’t...” Fluttershy begged fully crying. If the boy pulled even one of her flight feathers, she would have to fly unbalanced for months. And she knew they wouldn’t stop at one, Fluttershy may have been a weak flyer but she didn’t want to have go without something that made a Skyling. She made a small pray that the bullies weren’t paying attention in Biology and gritted her teeth for the pain.

Before any of her feathers were pulled out a strong gust of wind knocked the main bully off Fluttershy’s wing. Through her tears, all she could see was a rainbow of hair. With the confusion she managed to push the other boy off of her and stood up. Wiping her eyes, Fluttershy could finally see her savior. The girl was small, almost five inches shorter than Fluttershy. She had slightly tanned skin, no doubt due to exposure to sun from a lot outdoor activities. She was wearing a bright turquoise crop top with a black tee underneath, athletic short shorts and white and magenta sneakers. Her eyes were the same shade of magenta as her shoes and fixed in fierce glare at the two bullies. But most alarming besides her sudden appearance was her hair, it was in short ponytail and had six bright colors to make a rainbow. Fluttershy couldn’t take her eyes off it, she had never seen anyone with so many separate colors in their hair. There’s no way that’s natural. She must have dyed it. Flutershy declared, then again here she was with pink hair so who was she to judge.

The rainbow haired stood bravely in front of Fluttershy, not taking her eyes off the two bullies. Now off of the ground, Fluttershy could put together what happened. The light haired boy was blown off of her by the wind of how fast the rainbow girl was flying. He wasn’t just a few few feet away, he had been knocked back into a few clouds. After recovering from the shock, he pulled himself from the large fluffy cloud covered in water and spare pieces of cloud. Despite his new appearance his eyes were burning with anger and hatred for the new girl. His friend started to laughing at the boys new look, the rainbow smirked cockily and even Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle.

The boy shot his friend a death-glare, instantly shutting him up. He quickly flew back to the cloud and swooped right into the girl’s face. Even with the person between them, Fluttershy still shrunk back and hid behind her bangs. The rainbow girl didn’t even flinch and, despite the sheer size and weight difference between the two, stood her ground.

“What’s your problem, Rainbow Crash?” the boy shot to the smaller girl.

“You’re my problem, you jerk! What did she ever do you to you, huh?” this Rainbow “Crash” shot right back.

“She existed, what’s it matter to you anyway? Don’t you have a race to lose or something?” the boy waved his hand dismissively.

Rainbow “Crash” fumed and clenched her fist, if looks could kill both boys would six feet under. She opened her mouth to say another insult before stopping as a thought crossed her mind.

“Okay, why don’t we have a little bet?” she smirked confidently.

The boy raised one of eyebrows.”I’m listening.”

“You, me and that idiot over there.” She shot a finger to the other boy who snapped to attention after being called out.

“We race, if I win you don’t mess with her ever again.” she shot a look of sympathy in Fluttershy’s.

“And what if I win?” the boy smiled haughtily, already looking down on the girl.

“Then I’ll be your servant for all of Flight school.” she countered fearlessly.

Fluttershy gasped, the boys leered lecherously, but the Rainbow girl glared back unabashedly as if already knowing what kinds of thoughts with through these pubescent boys’ minds. The boys looked back at each other for a moment before agreeing to her deal.

“Around the usual place, one lap.” she finished, not showing any fear or hesitation at the prospect of losing.

“Fine Rainbow Crash,” Fluttershy assumed that wasn’t her real name. “I hope you like maid uniforms ‘cuz that’s the only thing you’ll be wearing.” the taller boy looked a little too happy at that idea.

Both boys began laughing confidently and flew over to the track were the big races took place, a place Fluttershy rarely visited. The Rainbow girl exhaled as soon the boys’ were out of earshot. She suddenly turned to Fluttershy, causing her to jump in surpise.

“You think you can hold the flag.” Fluttershy nodded unable to get herself to speak clearly.

The Rainbow girl smiled a genuine smile and flew off to meet the two boys, leaving Fluttershy alone. A stream of stress tears flowed down her face. Her legs shook like newborn deer nearly giving out and made her fall. She was petrified, not only had she nearly some of lost her flight feathers but now she had roped someone else into this. If only she had a strong enough flyer none of this would have happened in the first place. Everything the Rainbow girl had, Fluttershy wanted. She had myriad of colorful hair while she was stuck with boring and flat pale pink color. The girl managed to pull off comfortable and athletic clothes while she wore the bland sundresses her mother left up for her in the morning. And most of all she was oozing confidence and assertiveness, she took over the situation, was able to protect Fluttershy and stand up to the bullies despite being outnumbered. Thoughts raced through her mind as took the flag Coach thrown on the cloud in frustration with her poor attempt of flying. Would the girl win? What if she didn’t? Would she blame her for losing? What would those two have her do if she lost? Her racing thoughts and anxiety caused to chest to tighten. It was like lead weights were placed on her chest, her breathing became rapid like she wasn’t getting enough air. Fluttershy had always had problems with being high up in the clouds, but this, it was like being air tight elevator with ten people.

After seconds that felt like they were stretched to an eternity, she began to recognize that this was one of her panic attacks. Fluttershy dropped to the ground and began slowing her breathing. She focused on her surroundings and began listing all things that affected her five senses. Children laughing and talking excitedly with their friends, the cool almost cold feeling of the cloud below hear, the black and white checkered flag she found a moment ago, the scent of water in the condensed clouds all around her and finally slight metallic taste of blood from bitting her tongue when she fell. With a calm and measured exhale, she managed to stand and her spread her wings to take off.

Eventually her slow and weak wings managed to carry her to the flag bearer’s cloud in the middle of the track. She heard many people express that exasperation with her slow arrival, but said nothing. Counting down in her mind, she raised the flag. The racers spread their wings in anticipation, a look of determination spread to Rainbow girl’s face. Confindent in the face of fear, Fluttershy mused taking another shot at herself. Finishing her countdown, she waved the flag as hard as she could triggering the racers to go. Before she could blink the three racers took off whizzing by her, the wind stung her eyes and pulled her hair into her face. Trying to push her hair, Fluttershy was blown back by the torrent of air. The final racer flying was did it, she lost her footing and tumbled of the cloud.

Her long hair was blinding her until she turned towards the earth causing it blow the opposite. Gravity, a tool that caused balloons to float and clouds to hang over the sky, was now pulling the teen Skyling to the surface. Her lungs froze in fear not allowing her to scream. Despite the stinging pain to her eyes, she stared unblinking to the green surface of the planet. Her skin burned with freezing cold winds whipping all around. Her wings snapped firmly to back, absolutely refusing to heed her prayers and open to save their from this fate. Her mind went blank with the abject terror of her current situation, not allowing her to form a single, coherent thought. Her body was betraying her, despite her whims it was making not effort to listen her and even try to save itself. Nothing could save her, she wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating. She was powerless to stop it.

She was falling.

Author's Note

All right second official chapter . I’m still super nervous about this whole, I’ve written short stories for years now but this the first I’ve ever had others read it. I think that why I choose to write about Fluttershy, I really relate to her especially in sports. Anyway let me know how the pacing is going, I’m going too fast, too slow. I’m open to criticism of all kinds I need to get better, thanks for reading I’ll try to finish the next asap. Oh and to anyone curious the five sense technique is something I thought of to help with my panic attacks it really does to anyone struggling.