Pure success. As if there had been any doubt.
With the convenient (and inexplicable) incapacitation of the princesses of sun and moon, Canterlot was faced by an invasion of abominable monstrosities from all angles. From the mountains came a dragon as fearsome as the great lord himself, whose wings beat tornado-force gusts in its wake. From below, an ursa major and her three hulking cubs, each the size of a small hospital in their own right, dug rents into the cliffs as they climbed at speed, their jaws gnashing with a hunger for little ponies. From the west, the bodies of two thousand changelings blotted out the sky like a hail of black arrows, while the easterly wind vomited forth a mass of ancient creatures straight out of Daring Do’s deepest jungle adventures.
Everypony ought to have been running around in circles, blind panic whiting out their thoughts as they prayed to whatever deity would hear them. Instead they went about their business, sipping jasmine green tea or almond milk lattes at corner bistros while genteel harpsichord music filled the air.
There was nothing to fear, for their salvation was nigh.
At twice the speed of sound her courses came, a phaser blast of rainbow power scattering the changeling cloud like bowling pins. The sky was free to refract her colors, and the creatures of the east fled at the mere coming of Daring Do’s totally awesome, never-sidekick partner. The dragon she scruffed about the neck, using it as a flamethrower to send the ursa pack home with their massive tails between their legs. The mighty lizard begged for mercy, and in her righteousness she spared it any harm beyond applying a firm buck, which sent it careening back to the blasted landscape from whence it had come. Burning a blazing "R" in the sky with her sonic powers alone, the pegasus was gone as quickly as she had come, remembering on her way to set the princesses loose from...wherever it was they had been.
The citizens chanted her name. Her standard rose from every palace tower. Life was good, until a soft wall of goose down and cotton choked her awake.
Snorting into her pillow, Rainbow Dash sat up straight for lack of oxygen. The movement had been too quick, and dizziness assailed her until she melted back into the sea of blankets that had been tossed over the green couch where she had made her nest for the night. She winced, her eyelids insufficient protection from the sun streaming in to meet her.
“Nngh...wha…?”
Something wasn’t right. While not nocturnal by nature, Rainbow Dash drew thick blinds over the windows of her bedroom every night like clockwork anyway for a reason. The sun was her companion during any busy day of cloud-kicking and napping, but it was she who chose when to meet it. Sunshine greeting her before she greeted it was an affront to her very sensibilities, and she rubbed her eyes until she could open them sufficiently to offer complaint. What met her was a scene unfamiliar for approximately two and a half seconds.
“Oh...right.”
It was not her home at all. Memories of her predicament flooded Dash’s mind as her ears subconsciously swiveled to pick up the crowing of a rooster and the scurrying of each tiny critter. The emerald couch belonged to Fluttershy, as did the doilies on the coffee table, the lace pillows on the loveseat where the bunnies often slept, and the decorative, yet infuriatingly drawn back drapes. Dash sat back, chasing the last remnants of sand from her eyes with another wipe from the back of a cyan hoof.
“Right, right…” she muttered again to nopony in particular, “...cloud mite fumigation. Can’t go home until tomorrow.”
Dash’s stomach left little time for reverie. Rumbling with complaint, it insisted that she take advantage of her dear friend’s hospitality. There were rummaging noises coming from the kitchen after all, and the pleasant odors emanating from that direction suggested that it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition to keep her rump where it was as she made her inquiry.
“Hey Fluttershy!” she called. “That smells awesome enough for a pony like, well...me! What’cha got cookin’?”
A familiar, melodic voice offered reply from out of sight. “I have a lovely cinnamon sugar Prench toast for us this morning, with a side of sunflower and daffodil salad. It’s not straight from Prance I’m afraid, but it comes with a glass of apple cider!”
Rainbow Dash salivated. Apple cider wasn’t in season, but even bottled and stored it was common knowledge that the Wonderbolt couldn’t get enough. “Wow, do you always have such complicated breakfasts?”
“Oh my, no,” Fluttershy called. “But I don’t often have houseguests either, and I wanted everything to be just perfect. And I know how much you love cider!”
Dash’s lips parted in a wan smile. She knew it was just Fluttershy being Fluttershy - the sunny-flanked mare probably already had the menu in her head before bed last night. The couch was exceedingly cozy, and Dash was less than enthusiastic with her next inquiry.
“You, uh...need any help with anything?”
“Oh no, that’s alright. I’m almost done anyway. Maybe you could clear the table though, if you wouldn’t mind?”
Dash glanced at the coffee table. There was nothing on it but a stack of coasters and a scattered deck of playing cards that the pair had used for a dozen games of Old Mare over a pot of darjeeling the night before. The laughter was already chiseled into the more recent recesses of Dash’s mind - it had been a slow night, but sharing an evening with a good friend was time well spent at any pace.
“Sure thing!”
Never one to spare pizazz even without an audience, Dash beat her wings towards the table, sending the deck of cards into a controlled bluster. With expert poise she manipulated the small gale, altering the movement and intensity of her feathers until the cards were all swirling before her in a convenient breeze. She took up the deck box in her mouth, and merrily conducted her symphony of wind until each card was stacked cleanly within.
“Hah, see that?” Dash nabbed the box from her mouth and nodded towards the loveseat. “Didn’t miss a single one this time! Not that I normally would, of course.”
Upon the loveseat sprawled Angel, Fluttershy’s pet of irritable repute. He rewarded the performance with a bat of his eye and a smarmy cocking of one brow. Dash waved a hoof dismissively at him and rolled her eyes. “Oh, what do you know. I bet you’d care if I was juggling carrots.”
Angel harumphed and closed his eyes again. His tummy replied for him, and Dash felt her own responding with equal complaint. In an effort to keep from pestering her friend, Dash put the cards aside and busied herself with setting out the coasters. It was too short a task, and thus she attempted to fill the rest of the time by taking in the scenery.
Fluttershy’s cottage was a setting with which Rainbow Dash was familiar, and yet not - the frequency of her visits over the years had been high, but few of them had the duration to rouse her somewhat shallow attention for details that didn’t relate to her own interests. Everything was in perfect order, to a level that bordered on the obsessiveness of Twilight Sparkle. The difference was that Fluttershy’s abode was far less cluttered with the eccentricities of a genius mind, and though her books were arranged just as neatly on their shelves, they were not in order by title, author, thickness, dewey decimal number, spine color, or whatever other means the Princess of Friendship used to bring method to her madness. Fluttershy’s living room was spartan in terms of knick knacks, but it was amazingly clean and smelled of lilac; quite a feat as far as Dash was concerned, considering how many animals typically used it for crash space.
Dash’s eyes passed over something unfamiliar. She did a double take, and noticed that under Fluttershy’s stairs was a small chamber, secured behind a portion of wall that stood partway open on hinges. Dash had never seen such a thing in her friend’s house before - she was about to chalk it up to mere lack of attention for subtleties, but she noticed that the hinges were on the inside of the wall and the cracks were organized in such a way that anypony without a considerable eye for carpentry might never know the chamber was there, so long as the wall was ‘closed’.
Dash’s imminent (and greater interest) in breakfast kept her rump in it’s place, but curiosity encouraged her to squint against the sunshine and glean what other details she could from afar. The tiny nook was just about large enough for the twin-sized bed it contained, which a pony would have little choice but to mount and dismount directly from the living room. The bed was heaped with a number of excessively soft quilts and pillows, such that Dash suspected it would provide comfort to rival the pick of the litter among even cloud perches. A shelf running along the interior wall housed a number of extinguished candles, though the wax rivulets upon them suggested they had recently seen use. There was a picture frame too, but it was angled such that she couldn’t get a good look at it from her vantage. She craned her neck, but the sudden aromatic spike from syrupy toast wiggled her muzzle and drew her attention. Breakfast was clearly imminent.
Distracted, Dash’s mind caught onto another thought that brightened her. She called towards the kitchen. “Oh hey! Today’s the latest dragon migration. You wanna go watch?”
The reply was hesitant: “Um, I...have things to do today, I think…”
“Things?” Dash replied obliviously. “Like what kinda things?”
“Oh, um, well,” Fluttershy’s voice came in snippets. “Things that are, you know...very important. That are happening. Today. So I need to...do them. Today.”
Dash grinned wryly, and without thinking she was soon hovering over the couch to the constant beat of her own wings. She folded her forelegs. “Aw c’mon, there’s nothing to be scared of. We’re totally friends with the Dragonlord now, right? They’re not fast like me or anything, but they’re still pretty awesome to look at!”
“I...think I’d rather look at them from here.”
“But you can’t see any of them from here!”
“Exactly!”
Dash found her eyes rolling heavenward for the second time that morning. She struck a pose in midair for the benefit of Fluttershy’s errant critters, shadow boxing and flexing her legs. “Heyyyy, don’t worry about a thing! When a brave pony like me has your back, you can’t go wrong! Any dragon gives you trouble? Psh, I’ll just buck ‘em right in the nose! That’ll show ‘em!”
Fluttershy’s voice threaded itself between the clinking sounds of flatware. “The last time you kicked a dragon in the nose, things didn’t go so well.”
“Details!” Dash announced. “And do I have to remind you just who saved the day back then? One hint - she has as many butterflies on her flank as she usually has in her stomach! You can totally handle dragons!”
“That dragon was just looking for a quiet place to make his nest. He made a bad decision, that’s all. All I did was show him some kindness.”
Dash snerked, “If telling him off counts as ‘kindness’, then you did that in spades, yeah. And it was pretty awesome, by the way.”
Fluttershy’s volume dropped. “I was terrified the whole time.”
Dash softened. “Eh, don’t worry about it. You’ve really come a long way, Fluttershy. You ought to be proud of that. We can’t all be as crazy brave as I am, after all. I mean, I took on the deepest jungles south of the Badlands with Daring Do - more than once! How many other ponies can say that? Well, besides Daring Do that is, but she’s just about as awesome as I am. Just about.”
The clinking noises subsided, and at length a sunny yellow rump with a pleasantly-swishing tail attached appeared from the kitchen. Fluttershy spun about and emerged properly. Most burdened pegasi would have simply hovered along, but she chose to walk on her hind legs, each forehoof turned up to balance a steaming plate of fragrant goodness that set Dash’s tummy atwitter anew.
“Oh ho ho,” Rainbow Dash grinned, parking her bottom on the couch again in anticipation. “You really know how to roll out the red carpet. Keep this up and I might move in!”
With dainty grace, Fluttershy swept the dishes onto the table, marrying each plate up with a fresh glass of apple cider. There were no utensils. The matron of the house certainly owned a modest set of knives, forks, and spoons, but they were typically reserved for formal occasions or the presence of ponies who could make better use of them, such as unicorns. Equestrian table manners had little to say about eating with your muzzle, so long as you did so with some semblance of grace. In the presence of other pegasi, it was simply too convenient not to have to bother with extra dishes to wash later. She did not forget the moistened napkins however, to deal with the inevitable outcome of contact between maple syrup and muzzle coat hairs.
With the spread set out before her atop flowery placemats, Rainbow Dash prepared to dig in. Half her glass of cider was already gone before she spared a moment to glance at her friend, but the image before her made her freeze in mid-swallow. Fluttershy was patiently munching on her side salad. She seemed quite content, but her eyes looked positively dreadful. They were dry, but red-puffy rims instead of grayish-purple bags suggested her countenance was not for lack of sleep. Fluttershy had either experienced an awful allergic reaction to something in the kitchen...or she had been crying.
Dash paused, gently setting her empty glass back on the table. For a time she sat in silence and simply watched her friend eat. Fluttershy’s hoof occasionally came up on auto-pilot to brush her mane out of the way as she dipped her head to enjoy her toast, but other than her eyes, she seemed none the worse for wear. Inevitably she noticed the lack of movement from her friend. Fluttershy’s sea green eyes, swollen rims and all, rolled up to meet the other pegasus.
“...what? Is there something on my face?”
“No, just,” Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what to say. “Are you okay?”
Fluttershy’s head came back up. She tilted it, looking genuinely oblivious. “Um, I think so? The toast is a little burned because I left it cooking a too long when I went to pick up a spatula I dropped. Sorry about that. I’m a bit of a butterfeathers in the morning sometimes. If I ruined the meal...”
Rainbow Dash wasn’t convinced, and was less a pony given to skirting the issue. “I’m talking about your eyes. You look like you just came from a funeral.”
Fluttershy touched her cheek and glanced at a small mirror hanging on one wall. “Oh...oh, yes. Well, Mister Blue Jay died yesterday.”
“Wait...what?”
“Mister Blue Jay,” Fluttershy repeated. “He died yesterday afternoon. I didn’t hear about it until a few hours later though. He was old, and it was his time. He was surrounded by his friends and family.”
The casual delivery of a bird obituary threw Dash off. She scratched the side of her head with a hoof, suddenly looking sheepish. “Gee, uh...I’m sorry. That’s gotta be pretty rough on you. I remember how much you worked with him and the other birds for that chorus the day Twilight first came to town.”
Fluttershy was patiently sipping her cider. “Oh goodness no, not that Mister Blue Jay. He died three years ago. He was already six years old back when when Twilight arrived.”
Dash ran the numbers in her head. “He was only nine when he died?”
“Blue jays only live about seven years or so, on average. He had a nice full life.”
Dash pondered the information. She glanced around the room, her eyes passing over the rabbit on the loveseat, the mice cozing up on the carpet before the hearth, and the pair of parakeets nestled into one another’s wings on their perch. “Gee, I guess...some animals don’t live very long, do they.”
“No,” Fluttershy replied, “But don’t worry. Tank is a tortoise. If he stays healthy he’ll probably outlive even you.”
Dash hadn’t been thinking about her beloved pet, but hearing that was a comfort anyway. She didn’t plan to voice it, but she was no less selfish than most when it came to the idea of wanting those she cared about to outlive her, rather than having to go through the pain of losing them. Not certain what else to say, she went about the task of quieting her tummy with the lavish breakfast spread. Inevitably the job was done, and as she slinked back towards the arm of the couch, a thought she had to voice occurred to her.
“Wait...are you saying your blue jay friend died while we were hanging out playing cards yesterday?”
Fluttershy had moved to the loveseat following her meal, and had Angel on her lap. She was gently stroking one of the bunny’s floppy ears, who showed his gratitude by lazily presenting her with the other. “It was before that.”
Dash felt a little ashamed. “I...didn’t mean to keep you busy with silly games and laughter.”
“There’s nothing silly about laughter,” Fluttershy uttered the strange reply, and then chuckled at herself. “I mean, there’s nothing silly about spending time with your friends. And I didn’t find out about it until a few hours later anyway. A little bird told me.”
Dash knew that Fluttershy had probably meant the sentiment quite literally. The visiting pegasus found herself again without topic, and the couch felt suddenly less comfortable. Fidgeting, she looked for some way to break the recurring silence. Her eyes strayed to the cubby under the stairs, and she nodded at it.
“So what’s that all about?”
Fluttershy followed her friend’s attention until she too was looking at the clandestine space under the stairs. “Oh, I thought I closed that, sorry.”
“Huh? You don’t have to apologize for an open door.”
Fluttershy’s ears flattened. “I meant, I’m sorry you had to see it.”
“Why not? It’s just a little room.” Dash grinned and tried to lighten the mood, “Got something dirty under that mattress?”
“That’s my mourning nook.”
Dash tasted the words, “Morning nook? You mean like a breakfast nook? Shouldn’t there be a table in there instead then?”
“Not morning,” Fluttershy corrected, “mourning. Like...a place where you mourn.”
Dash peered at the little room and chuckled. “What, you just do nothing but cry in there?”
“Yes.”
Rainbow Dash’s joking tone abruptly ceased. Without hunger to distract her, she craned her neck again to get a better look into the room. The picture frame had a photo of a blue jay in it, posing happily with Fluttershy herself.
“I...didn’t realize how close Mister Blue Jay was to you. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, I didn’t know him that well. We met a few times but that was it. His family lives on the other side of the Whitetail Woods, so he only came to town to visit his relatives once in awhile.”
Dash made a face. “Then why do your eyes look like that?”
Fluttershy didn’t skip a beat. “Because I cried for him this morning. While you were sleeping.”
“But...but you just said you barely knew him…”
Fluttershy watched her hoof move over the fuzzy surface of Angel’s back. “...I cry for them all.”
“All?” Dash blinked. “Like every animal in the forest?”
“Every animal everywhere. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the moles in the ground, and the sheep in the pastures. Yesterday morning I cried for Zephram, a mountain goat who lived near Neighagra Falls. He slipped.”
“B-but how can you even-”
Fluttershy let out a breath and kept her eyes on her petting. “It’s a wonderful gift I have, understanding animals. But there’s a great responsibility that comes with it. Because I’m the only one that can talk to them, they all come to me. I hear things. I hear everything. And every single life matters. Somepony has to cry for them.”
Rainbow Dash sputtered, “But there’s like hundreds of thousands of animals all over Equestria. With that many out there, one probably dies like every single day!”
Fluttershy only nodded. “Sometimes more than one.”
Dash could scarce believe what she was hearing. She thrust her foreleg towards the nook. “How often are you in there?”
By contrast, Fluttershy’s voice remained soft and even. “Every morning. Before I start my day.”
“So you just...get a list of all the animals that died the day before and sit in there to cry over them before breakfast?”
Fluttershy spun her hoof. “It’s not so...formulaic as that. Sometimes I don’t even hear about it before I mourn. I just...know. I get a spring in my step when a little baby fawn is born somewhere. And when an old doe dies, I go in there.” She pointed at the nook.
Dash’s brow furrowed with skepticism. “Fluttershy, I think what you do with animals is absolutely amazing and I totally respect it, and I get that you’d feel bad when one dies, but you’re telling me that you cry when a salamander dies in the jungle, or when fire ants get stepped on by accident in Appleloosa. How can you possibly feel that much emotion for animals you don’t even know who died miles and miles away?”
“What if I took away your wings?”
Dash faltered. “...huh?”
“What if I took away your wings?” Fluttershy repeated with some indignance. “How would you feel?”
Dash glanced over her shoulder, as if needing to confirm that hadn’t actually happened. “Well...awful, sure, but those are my wings.”
“How would you feel?” Fluttershy insisted. Dash scratched her head dully for a moment and then muddled on.
“I guess...I’d feel...like I’m not me anymore. I dunno if I could deal with not being able to fly. I’d feel like part of me died.”
“It would be awfully traumatic, and it would mean a lot to you.”
“Sure it would. But I don’t see how that relates to--”
“Do you think anypony else would care?”
Dash’s confusion piqued. “Care…? I...well I guess my friends would care? I...I hope they would?” Uncertain where the conversation was going, she hesitated. “Would...would you care?”
“Of course I would,” Fluttershy’s hoof returned to Angel’s back. “I would care very much, because you’re my friend and I love you. Your friends would also care. But thousands of other ponies all over Equestria would probably say how badly they feel for you, and then go about their day. The difference with the animals is that nopony cries for them because nopony even knows most of the time when they die. But I do. I care about all of them. Each and every one, even if I never met them. I care so much that…” She glanced again at the nook, pausing to collect herself, “...that I mourn every single one. Applejack can’t help being honest, even when it goes too far. Pinkie Pie can’t help her laughter even when it gets overwhelming to the rest of us, and Rarity would give you her last bit, even if it left her with nothing. I...can’t help being kind, and animals need so much kindness. Just like your wings being a part of you, they are all a part of me.”
Rainbow Dash was without words. “That...that’s more than kindness…” She muttered uncertainly.
“Maybe,” Fluttershy replied. She glanced down at Angel, who was hovering just above sleep. The rabbit rolled over and presented his tummy, which Fluttershy obligingly stroked. “Most animals don’t live very long. Do you think this is the same Angel I took in shortly after I moved to Ponyville?”
Dash peered. “It...I mean he’s not?”
“This is Angel the Third,” Fluttershy replied gently, her skritches intensifying. Angel grinned deliciously, his eyes never opening. “Son of Angel junior. Son of Angel the first, who I befriended when I moved here. Angel the Third’s brothers and sisters prefer to live in the woods and just drop by for visits, but his parents and grandparents have long passed away.”
“I...I thought it was the same bunny the whole time…” Dash admitted. “Why didn’t you say anything? You must have been crushed, but I never even noticed.”
“Because I cried for both of my past little angels,” Fluttershy replied, nodding at the nook. “Right there I cried, and when I had cried enough, I bid them both goodbye. I say goodbye to every animal that dies, and that gives me closure. But you’re partially correct in the sense that sometimes I cry for more than one at a time - typically those who died the day before. I have to live my life, after all. I would do no good for any critter anywhere if I didn’t.”
Dash found herself fidgeting with her empty cider glass, which she had nabbed from the table without thinking. “But how can you stand that? It’s like you’re dealing with a friend dying every single day of your life. You’d be dealing with a huge amount of grief every day, but I don’t see you unhappy any more often than any other pony. Heck sometimes I come by here in the morning and you’re out singing to your flowers.”
Fluttershy blushed at the idea of being watched while singing, but didn’t let it derail her. “Because it’s the circle of life. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are the only exceptions that I know of to the rule that everything that is born eventually dies, and I don’t even know that for certain about them. They may just be very long lived. The point is, everypony and everything else dies eventually, and I came to terms with the fact that animals tend to live shorter lives than we do just after I started devoting my life to them. I mourn when a dear friend dies and I lose a piece of myself, but there is always another beautiful birth to grow a new piece, and there will always be another sunny day. I have to move on, and anypony who owns a pet is setting themselves up for the same thing, whether they realize it or not. You have to accept that your pet will die one day, probably before you do, and you have to be able to get past it. Or you won’t be able to live.”
“They can’t all be your pets, though.”
“No, but that’s how it feels to me.”
Dash stared down at the glass of cider. A single rivulet of the sticky liquid had run down the inner wall. It pooled in the corner; an amber trail left staining the glass. Dash thought for a moment about how the bit of liquid would likely evaporate or vanish into a stain long before the glass was cleaned. “...you said Tank won’t die before I do.”
“Well, anypony or any critter can die without warning,” Fluttershy said softly. “All we can do is take our best guesses based on health and average lifespan. But most likely he won’t, no.”
Dash felt Fluttershy’s gentle eyes on her, and it seemed as though the Wonderbolt was shrinking into her friend’s couch. “...you...put him in that lineup on purpose, didn’t you. When I was looking for a pet.”
Fluttershy only tilted her head thoughtfully. Her eyes were partially lidded, and the soft smile on her lips was so motherly, Dash nearly forgot she wasn’t actually talking to her own mom. She pinched the glass of cider between both hooves and brought it to her lips before realizing it was still empty. Fluttershy finally spoke.
“Failing means a lot to you. I couldn’t live with myself if you ended up thinking on the death of your beloved pet as somehow a failure of your own. That’s why I treated you the way I did when Tank went into hibernation that first time as your pet. I saw everything you tried to do to keep it from happening, and I can only imagine how you must have felt when none of it worked. And he wasn’t even dying then. I’ll say it again, Rainbow Dash - you have to be able to move on. Those who leave you behind would be sad if you didn’t.”
It was Dash’s turn to blush, as she thought on the memories Fluttershy had given voice to. Her words were even smaller than that of her friend. “I...dunno if I could deal with Tank...dying on me. Or any pet...I guess.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Yes, I know. And I’m glad you made friends with Tank.”
“...I owe you an apology.”
The gentler pegasus took up her own glass of cider, which still had a measure left in it. She thought to drink from it, but then reached over and dumped the contents into Dash’s glass instead. “For?”
Dash couldn’t look her friend in the eye. “You’ve been my friend for a long time and I totally care about you, but...I always thought you were a fraidy-cat. That you needed protection. And it felt...well, good whenever I got to give it to you.
Fluttershy’s smile turned somber. She sat back, and waited for Dash to drink from her glass again. “And I appreciate it every time you do that for me. You’re the first pony I think of when I’m feeling frightened and in need.”
“But you’re totally braver than I am!” Dash blurted. “I...I wouldn’t last a week doing the things you do!”
“Oh, don’t sell yourself so short,” Fluttershy said simply. “You’ve stared down monsters that made me run and hide, and I still get a little afraid of flying too high or too fast. That’s kind of silly when you’re a pegasus.”
“But that stuff is easy!” Dash exclaimed. “If Tank died every single day I...I...I don’t even want to think about it!!”
“One isn’t easier than the other,” Fluttershy observed. “They’re just different. I could never do the things you do. I’m just learning to assert myself, and I’ll be happy if I can accomplish that much.”
“But you’re not afraid to be who you are,” Dash snapped.
Fluttershy was now the one caught off-guard. “I...don’t think I understand…”
“You’re shy.”
Fluttershy’s ears flattened. “Y-yes…”
“But you’re not afraid to be shy. You don’t have an exclusive contract on feeling shy, you know. Everypony feels shy sometimes. Even me.”
Fluttershy wrinkled her muzzle. “Well, I suppose that’s true, but--”
“But for ponies like me,” Dash thumped her chest, “who don’t want to show it, we have to keep it bottled up. Wonder if what we’re saying sounds cool enough, or what ponies think of what we’re wearing. That, or we try to make some boring painting in the corner of a crowded room look like it’s totally awesome because we don’t know what else to stare at and we don’t want to look awkward. You just come right out and show how shy you are all the time.”
“I...but...I’m trying to be less like that…”
Dash grinned. “You’re working on it. But I don’t think you realize how brave it actually is just to let yourself be shy in the first place.”
Fluttershy smiled sweetly, flattered by her friend’s candor. She was quite certain Dash would never admit such things in public, or even in their extended group of friends. “Th-thank you.”
Dash was scratching her head again, glancing at the table. “Uh...thank you, too. For giving me a pet like Tank. It’s...a heck of a thing to have a friend who knows you better than you know yourself.”
A robin fluttered through an open window, drawing the attention of both ponies. It perched for a time on the sill, jerkily bobbing its head and pecking at the wood. Finally it flew over to Fluttershy, whistled a song into her twitching ear, and vanished back from whence it came.
Rainbow Dash looked on with worry. “Did...a critter die?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “No. That was Matilda. Her elder sister Florence just hatched three eggs. Healthy fledglings, every one.”
“Hey, that’s great!” Dash brightened, perhaps more than she might have at such news before. Fluttershy rose to her hooves and sat Angel the Third back on the body-heat warmed loveseat to sun himself. She brushed a lock of her pale pink mane out of her eye and began stacking up the plates.
“And that’s how we all go on, Dash. We die, yes, but everypony, and every critter, makes the world a brighter place. Even if you don’t realize you’re doing it. Ask yourself, if you died tomorrow, who would attend your funeral?”
“Well, uh...my parents. My friends. You. Probably the wonderbolts. Maybe even Daring Do I guess…”
Fluttershy nodded. “That should be a comfort, to be able to name that many. But even if you could only name one single pony, then your life mattered. You meant something to somepony - you brightened their life. You don’t have to change the course of civilization or reinvent the wagon wheel for your life to have meaning. Leave something beautiful behind, even if it’s just love, kindness, or friendship for another...and somepony will be there to appreciate it. Every animal has something beautiful about them, too. I just make certain that the somepony who appreciates it is always there...even if that somepony is just me. And when they die, I go to my nook every morning in order to remember them and their beautiful works, great and small.”
Dash forgot to ask if she could help with the dishes until Fluttershy was already disappearing into the kitchen. She shook her head and let out a murmur.
“You’re the bravest pony I ever met, Fluttershy.”
“I’m sorry?” The daffodil pegasus called, the sounds of plates mingling with her voice.
“I said, uh,” Dash raised her volume abruptly, “If you ever uh...need help with your nook, or...I dunno, things get...hard...you just let me know, okay?” She pondered, “I dunno if I can cry at the drop of a hoof, but...you know, you don’t ever have to cry alone.”
“I know,” Fluttershy called melodically. “And if you ever need help pulling off a sonic rainboom, just ask. I’ll...do whatever I can.” She managed a giggle. “I like having tea after breakfast, and I have a lovely earl grey and vanilla blend with a hint of currant and cornflower. It’s just lovely with soy milk. Would you like some?”
“Sure!”
“And then we can go watch the dragon migration. I know you’ll protect me.”
Dash glanced at the loveseat, and the floppy-eared little life that was relaxing without a care.
“...nah. Let’s just have tea. You can tell me all about Angel the First. And the Second.”
“I’d like that.”
On a pleasantly mild spring afternoon, two pegasi whiled away the hours in the manner of best friends. Under the stairs, a hidden door stood open to the warmth of the sun.
