Rainbow Samurai

Confirmation…!

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start in her mother’s room, on the floor. She looked around, confused as to how she’d gotten there. She quickly looked up on the mare’s bed to check and see that Daring Do was sound asleep with a blanket over her.

“Mom! Wake up! I had a bad dream!” Rainbow called. Daring did not stir. “Mom! Wake up! Mom! Mom!” the filly placed a hoof on the mare’s face and withdrew it almost instantly. Daring Do felt cold… ice cold.

“Ra… Rainbow… My baby…” Daring murmured, still not moving. Rainbow stared at the mare, bewildered. She shook it off and proceeded to take hold of the blanket covering Daring.

“It’s okay, mom. I’m right h—! *GASP*” Rainbow removed the covers to see a grisly sight of her mother with deep cuts all over her body, with the bed soaked in her blood.

“D-Dashie… Mommy nee…”

*BOOM* In charged three mysterious ponies through the door on the opposite end of the room, all of them wearing black jumpsuits and red goggles, looking almost identical. One of them had a shard of glass stuck in its throat, while the other had what looked like Daring’s sword lodged in its abdomen.

“Who are you!?” Rainbow apprehensively asked. “What do you want!?”

“You know what we want! We want the Element! Hand it over or we’ll kill you like we killed your mother.” The three said in almost-demonic unison.

“Wh-what!? But, you didn’t kill her! She’s right—!” Rainbow began as she turned around to see that Daring wasn’t in the bed. Shocked and confused, she turned to the horrifying sight of the three ponies with her mother’s bloodied, battered body in front of them. The largest of the ponies picked the body up by its neck with his fore hoof. “Let her go!” she screamed as she charged at the ponies. She stopped when she saw him turn to his left. The stallion threw Daring’s body.

*THUMP* Daring’s body collided hard with the wall. Before it could hit the ground, however, the stallion instantaneously made his way over, forcefully pinning it against the wall with his fore leg. He raised his other one and revealed a long, slender, gleaming object that sharpened to a point, protruding from his fore hoof. “What will you do? You Weak, Pathetic Foal…” he taunted as he retracted his knife before tearing his mask off to reveal the red coat, white mane, and orange eyes she’d come to despise. He turned his head to her, with a sick, bloodthirsty grin on his face.

“Da… Dashie…” whispered Daring, who’d somehow come to life. “Where are you…? Help me…” the mare just barely opened an eye to look at the frightened blue filly, who upon hearing her mother’s plea, charged into action. She tried attacking the stallion head on, only to dive right through him.

“What the hay?” before she could consider what just happened, she tried again and again to attack, seeming to do nothing but pass through the stallion as if he were a ghost. She stopped after realizing the futility of her barrage and looked on in horror as the stallion proceeded to bury his knife into Daring’s abdomen, grinning evilly at Rainbow as he did. He let her body fall to the floor and began to cackle as he marveled his work. Rainbow, distraught and with tears pouring from her eyes, ran over to hug her mom, only to find that she was also intangible. She couldn’t understand what was going on. She looked around again, to see that the setting had suddenly changed to that of her home’s living room, trashed and bathed in blood. The two other Pegasi were lying on the ground, dead.

*BOOM* In came ANOTHER Rainbow Dash, who was quick to grasp her dying mother. Rainbow watched in utter confusion as the other Rainbow Dash hugged her mother. She squeezed her tear-filled eyes shut and shook her head to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. When she reopened them, she found herself in a dark, creepy forest. She suddenly felt vicious aches and pains in her left wing, head, and right hind leg. She almost collapsed to the forest floor as she writhed in agony.

“You did not think… you would get away from us, did you…?” asked a familiarly dark, deep growling voice. The filly’s eyes popped open to see two Timberwolves standing before her. However, there was something different about them… their eyes were no longer yellow. They were a devilish shade of red that aimed their gazes past the filly. Fearing the worst, she curled into a ball and whimpered as one of the wolves breathed its hot death breath on her. It walked past her with the other one following suit. Terrified and confused beyond comprehension, Rainbow turned around to see that the wolves were making their way towards Daring’s body, which she had no idea was there before this point.

“I said NO!” she involuntarily shouted. She then found herself charging at the wolves as fast as she could with three legs, as the force controlling her made sure not to allow her injured leg to touch the ground. Her body was acting completely on its own, no matter how hard she tried to stop herself. She bit the wolf on its tail, causing it to smash her against a tree, introducing a new surge of tormenting pain as she crashed to the ground.

“We’ll let you live… just long enough… to watch us eat your kin…” growled one wolf as the other dragged the body in front of Rainbow. Before they sunk their teeth into the mare, however, the stallion from before, still unmasked and carrying a sword, calmly trotted in between the wolves, stopping in front of Daring’s body and giving Rainbow a serious look. He tossed the sword towards her.

“You are Loyalty… Fight as she did, or die as she did…” he flatly stated.

“You are Loyalty…! Fight as she did, or die as she did…!” he said again, this time joined by the Timberwolves. “You are Loyalty… Fight as she did… or DIE as she did…!”

“You ARE LOYALTY!! Fight as she did… or DIE as SHE DID!!” the three shouted in unison before Rainbow’s body picked itself up and became enveloped in a white light.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!” she roared as the light expanded into a blinding flash.

Rainbow awoke with a start and a shout of terror in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as she was finally freed from her nightmare. She looked around to see herself in a room she’d failed to recognize. She was lying in a bed in a very decorative, fancy room. She sat up and looked out of a window to see that the sun was rising. She averted her gaze to her bed to examine her body. Her head was throbbing as if she’d collided head on with a rock. She found herself wrapped in bandages on various parts of her body. She’d also noticed that her mom’s necklace had mysteriously reappeared. She painstakingly moved to get up out of the bed, only to collapse onto the floor when she touched down.

“Oww…” she groaned as she moved to sit on her rump. She noticed that her right hind leg had been especially cared for, wrapped in a cast. She tried flapping her wings to lift up, only to wince in agony. She looked back to see that both of them had been tightly wrapped in bandages. Her left wing was wrapped more tightly than her right. From all of this, she deduced that she was in a hospital.

“Is the patient awake now?” called a graceful voice. Rainbow didn’t know what to feel; fear, happiness, or confusion. The voice sounded friendly, but she had no idea where she was, how she’d gotten there, or who brought her here.

“Um… d-down here…” she whispered.

“Oh,” said the voice as its owner trotted in to reveal herself as Princess Celestia. The winged unicorn mare walked in and peeked behind the bed to see Rainbow sitting down on her haunches. “Good morning, my little pony. What are you doing on the floor?” Rainbow Dash found herself unable to answer as she gazed at the princess in awe. Every feature of the divine Unicorn captivated her; the mane, her sharp, yet benevolent violet eyes, and the fact that she was so tall...  She was staring in the face of supreme royalty, and had no words to describe how star struck she’d felt. “Are you okay…?”

“Wow… you… you’re…!”

“Yes, I am Princess Celestia. Might I ask your name, young filly?”

“I’m… I’m Rainbow Dash…”

“Well it certainly is nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash.” The Princess smiled warmly as she enveloped the Pegasus filly in a radiant golden magic glow and levitated her back onto her bed. “It’s great to see that you’re awake. You were in a very bad condition when we found you…”

“I-I was…?”And then it hit her: She’d just gone through the worst day of her entire life the day before. Watching her mother die, having the killer taunt her before leaving her to be blamed for the murder, being forced to run away into a forest where she was nearly killed by wild animals before some random explosion saved her… “Oh, yeah… I was…” the filly answered for herself in a much more remorseful tone.

“If it isn’t too much trouble… may I ask what happened to you?”

“No,” the filly flatly answered. Celestia took no offense to Rainbow’s blunt response.

“I understand your feelings, Rainbow Dash. It’s okay if you’re still feeling shaken up.”

“It’s not because of that… it’s because… because…” Rainbow was unable to finish her statement before she began to weep. “…you’re probably gonna think I killed her, too…” Celestia laid a hoof on the filly’s mane, stroking it in an attempt to soothe her, despite her surprise.

“I assure you; I will listen to you and make my judgment only after I hear your plight. I assume that the gold Pegasus mare we found with you was your mother?”

“Yeah…”

“I’m deeply sorry about your loss… It’s… going to be okay…” The Princess felt herself welling up with tears of sympathy.

“No… no, it won’t…” Rainbow tearfully began. “My… my mommy’s dead, and everypony in Cloudsdale thinks I killed her…” The Princess was taken aback by the Pegasus’s confession, gasping in shock. “These… Pegasi came to my house while I was at school and I guess mom killed two of them before the third one got her by the time I got back… H-He took his friends and left, and somepony else came and saw me and blamed me for it. They even told the police…”

“Oh… Oh, my… May I ask what made these Pegasi want to take her life?” Celestia asked. This prompted Rainbow Dash to look down at the luminous golden necklace bound to her neck. She brought her fore hooves to it and lifted it up to show the Princess.

“This necklace, I guess… Mom always said something about some ‘Elements of Harmony’ and how this one was supposed to represent Loyalty… then the Pegasus who killed her said that now I’M the owner of it and that he would come back for me someday… he told me to get ready for him… for a grudge match… and when I went to pick it up so I could wear it in my mom’s memory, I heard some weird voice telling me that I’m the one… and I haven’t been able to get this thing off of me since…”

The fact that a Pegasus filly had gotten her hooves on such a powerful, coveted mythical object that was rumored not to exist was shocking enough to Celestia, but what was more shocking was that it bound itself to the filly. Fearing for the safety of Rainbow, she’d address the issue of possible attempts on the filly’s life before she dug into her about the Element.

“I see… Do you know what the Pegasus looked like?”

“I couldn’t forget if I tried…” Rainbow began, taking a bitter, spiteful tone. “He and his two friends were wearing black suits with red goggles. I think there was some symbol where Cutie Marks are supposed to go, too… It looked like a red letter ‘D’ with a Seven in the middle of it… After he killed my mom, he… he took off his mask and showed me his face. He was red with a white mane, orange eyes, and a scar on his face… He told me to remember it and his voice and told me to learn to fight… then he gave me my mom’s sword and left.”

“How bizarre…” Princess Celestia was a little confused at the actions of the stallion responsible for another pony’s death. Why would he show anypony his face? Why didn’t he take the Element of Harmony when he had the chance? Why did he allow Rainbow Dash to live? And who was he working with if he and his comrades were wearing black suits with insignias on them? Celestia had no answers as of yet, but she was going to get them later. There was a more important issue at hand… “Do you remember that explosion that happened while you were in the forest?”

“Hardly…”

“Do you know what triggered it?”

“Not really… All I remember was me on the ground while these monsters that called themselves Timberwolves were about to eat my mom. I kept telling myself I wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to her, but there I was, completely helpless and too beaten up to fight anymore. I almost gave up before I felt this… light take me over and lift me up into the air. Then everything around me blew up…”

“I see…” the royal winged unicorn began to think.

“Princess Celestia!” called another voice from outside of the room, taking the Princess away from her thoughts. Soon, a small purple unicorn filly entered the room, curiously observing the surroundings. “Is the new pony okay?”

“Hm, yes, my student. She is right here,” Celestia responded. The filly scurried to her mentor’s side to get a better look at the other filly resting in the bed. “I… I have an important matter to attend to. I’ll be right back. Why don’t you introduce yourself to our new guest while I’m away?” she asked as she turned to trot out of the room.

“Sure thing, Princess!” the unicorn filly obliged with a wave as Celestia left the room. She directed her attention towards Rainbow. “Hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”

“Rainbow Dash…” the Pegasus filly halfheartedly answered.

“It’s nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said as she climbed onto the bed to extend a hoof. Rainbow only glanced up at Twilight with eyes full of sadness before lowering her head down and whimpering. “What’s the matter?” Twilight asked with a hint of worry as she lowered her hoof.

“I… you don’t want to be friends with me…”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re going to hate me…”

“Hate you? Why would anypony hate you?”

“My old friends hate me now…”

“Why??”

“Because…! Just… because…” Rainbow couldn’t stand having to tell the same story about what happened to her again and again. Not so soon. It all just happened yesterday. Simply thinking about the events of yesterday brought about morbid torrents of pain and sorrow. After relentless hours of being forced to hold in her emotion, she finally stopped fighting her tears and let them run freely from her eyes as she fell into fit of mournful sobbing. Twilight was deeply hurt by the injured Pegasus filly’s crying.

“I-I’m sorry... Did I say something to upset you…?” the Unicorn filly asked guiltily. Rainbow said nothing back. She could only shake her head ‘no’ as she continued to cry. Twilight had no idea what to do. She didn’t want to leave her new acquaintance all alone, but the Pegasus was clearly not in a conversational mood. She felt a wave of pity overcome her as her eyes began to tear up. After a few lengthy moments of silence, she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Rainbow.

“My mommy’s gone… *sniff* My mommy’s gone…” Rainbow choked out in between sobs. “She’s dead… and everypony thinks I killed her… *sniff* I can’t go back home or they’ll lock me up… I don’t have any friends… Nopony likes me… they all hate me… I’m all alone again…” Hearing Rainbow’s grief-stricken confession hit the Unicorn hard. She didn’t expect to hear anything Rainbow had just told her. She was devastated. She couldn’t fathom what it was like to lose a parent at such a young age... to have everypony against her. But what did she mean by ‘alone again’? Being bright for her age, Twilight understood to some extent the gravity of Rainbow’s loss, despite not knowing the circumstances. Crestfallen, the Unicorn slowly inched towards the Pegasus and hugged her before she let her own tears flow from her eyes. Rainbow, although surprised by the Unicorn’s embrace, did not return it.

“I’m… really sorry, Rainbow Dash…” Twilight managed to choke out. “If… *sniff* if it helps… I don’t hate you… and even if I’m the only one to do it… I’ll be your friend… no matter what happens…” Rainbow heard Twilight Sparkle’s words loud and clear. She found comfort in them. It was… strangely uplifting to hear Twilight say she wanted to be friends with her, even after what she’d heard. Her tears were still flowing, but not entirely out of grief at this point; a small amount of them were out of relief.

“Thanks… Twilight Sparkle…” Rainbow choked out as she closed her eyes and placed a fore hoof to return the Unicorn’s hug. Neither of them noticed the Element of Loyalty taking on a dim, yet slowly strengthening glow as the two fillies let out their sadness. Just then, Princess Celestia trotted back into the room, followed by two guards. She saw the heart wrenching scene of the two fillies forming a bond, but what really caught her attention was Rainbow Dash’s necklace glowing.

“I see you two are getting along well,” Celestia stated with a small smile, alerting the fillies as they broke their hug and directed their attention towards her. “Twilight, I need to speak to Rainbow Dash… alone,” she informed with a serious tone and face. Twilight was confused by Celestia’s request, but she obliged without question.

“Okay, Princess,” the purple Unicorn responded as she climbed off the bed to walk towards the door. “I hope you get well soon, Rainbow Dash! Maybe we can play together sometime!” she said with a smile before she left.

“Rainbow… What I’m going to ask you may not be the easiest for you to answer right now. I understand if you do not want to answer right now, but I’m afraid I need answers. First, why were you in possession of your mother’s body?” Rainbow, who hadn’t finished grieving, wasn’t exactly willing to answer any questions of such magnitude. However, she felt like she had to, given that she was speaking with royalty.

“I… I promised I’d give her a proper burial. I didn’t want anypony doing anything bad to her…”

“I see… I understand your sense of concern for her, but you should have left her where she died… You understand that taking her with you would serve to make proving yourself innocent of a crime as severe as murder much harder, do you not?”

“Y-yeah, but I didn’t kill her!” Rainbow shouted defensively. “I wouldn’t do that to her! Ever!”

“I believe you. The stab wounds on her body didn’t match the shape of the sword you were in possession of, despite the blade being covered in blood. Do you know where the blood on the sword may have come from?”

“It was stuck in one of the dead Pegasi I saw when I found her… the stallion who killed my mom pulled it out of him. Wait… what are you doing to her?! You’re not hurting her, are you?”

“I assure you, your mother’s body is in no worse shape than we found it in. We merely examined the wounds on her and compared them to the shape and size of the sword. As I said, they do not match. Now, onto the next question…”

Fluttershy awoke bright and early in the morning. She figured Thunderlane’s father would’ve wanted her to, given that he said he would take her home first thing. She looked around to see Thunderlane still soundly asleep. The house lacked a guest room, so the Pegasus filly had slept in the colt’s bed with him, separating herself accordingly so as to avoid any awkward situations. She made sure not to disturb him as she rose and carefully climbed off of the bed. She exited the room to see her friend’s father up and walking towards her.

“Ready to go, Fluttershy?” he asked.

“*yawn* Yes, Mr. Thunderlane’s dad, sir.”

“Please, call me Roaring Wind.”

“Okay.”

“You hungry?”

“No thank you, Mr. Roaring Wind…”

“Y’know, I like you. You’re sweet. You have impeccable manners.”

“Um… Thank you…”

“You’re welcome.” With that, the two walked out of the door and took flight towards Fluttershy’s house. The flight was a slow and largely silent one, given that it was early in the morning. Eventually, Fluttershy broke the silence.

“Mr. Roaring Wind?”

“Yes?”

“If you don’t mind me asking… could you please not be too hard on Thunderlane?”

“I’m sorry for what my son did to you. I taught him better than that, and he will be punished accordingly.”

“I understand… but don’t hurt him. He was only trying to teach me to be better at flying…”

“Is THAT what he told you? Well trust me, Fluttershy, he and his friends hitting a defenseless filly hardly counts as a ‘flight lesson’. That’s what Flight School is for. It’s a good thing you had Rainbow Dash and Gilda come to your defense; even if it DID escalate into a fight that shouldn’t have happened. Speaking of which…” the stallion trailed off as they noticed two griffins, one large, and one small, headed in their direction.

“Gilda?” Fluttershy said as the griffins halted in front of the Pegasi. Gilda looked like she’d seen something horrible.

“Oh, hey…” she halfheartedly greeted.

“Good morning,” greeted the larger griffin. “I’m Gilda’s mother. My name is Nala,” she added as she extended one of her eagle claws towards the stallion.

“Good morning to you, too,” Roaring Wind Greeted back. “I’m Roaring Wind. Nice to make your acquaintance,” he added as he mimicked her gesture, shaking hoof with claw.

“Um… I’m… Flu’rsh…” Fluttershy timidly greeted, looking away.

“I didn’t catch that, dear. What was it?” Nala asked.

“Fl’r’sh…” she whispered even more quietly.

“*sigh* It’s Fluttershy, mom,” Gilda impatiently answered for the filly.

“Oh. You must be quite the shy one, huh?” the larger griffin asked. Fluttershy only nodded as she looked down.

“I take it you’re here to take Gilda away from her father?” asked Roaring Wind.

“That I am. Her father hasn’t exactly been treating her too well, to my understanding. So I’m taking her to live with me in Wingspan Rises. It’s just outside of and well above New Colt City.”

“I see…”

“Wait…” Fluttershy finally spoke up. “Isn’t your house back that way?” she asked as she turned and pointed a fore hoof behind her.

“Yeah,” Gilda answered. “But I just had to make sure you guys weren’t lying to me about Dash… I kinda wish I’d have just listened…”

“What happened there anyway?” Nala asked.

“A filly by the name of Rainbow Dash is on the run. She murdered her own mother, and as it appears, she took the body and fled,” Roaring Wind explained.

“Oh, dear! That’s horrible! And this Rainbow Dash was your friend, Gilda?”

“Yeah… I guess not anymore… I won’t be seeing her ever again…” Gilda said in a tone uncharacteristic to her usually intransigent and impulsive nature. She sounded remorseful and dejected. “…can we just go now? I’m getting tired of this place already…”

“Aw, of course, sweetie…” Nala answered in a tone of worry. She then turned to face the Pegasus stallion. “It certainly was nice meeting you, Mr. Roaring Wind. Maybe we’ll see one another around sometime?”

“I’d like that,” he assured. With that, the two parties said their goodbyes and headed off to their respective destinations. A short time later, Roaring Wind and Fluttershy arrived at the doorstep to her home.

“Well, little filly, looks like this is your stop,” announced the stallion.

“Thank you… for letting me stay at your house for the night, Mr. Roaring Wind,” Fluttershy said, flashing him a heartwarming smile.

“Aww, you’re just adorable… The pleasure was mine. Don’t be a stranger if you want to stop by for a visit or a play date with Thunderlane. Hopefully, he and you can get along well together as you spend time in school. Speaking of which, he should be up and preparing for school by now. I suppose you should do the same.”

“Okay,” agreed the yellow filly.

“Have a good one,” Roaring Wind said as he took off. “I hope everything works out between you and your parents!”

Fluttershy flinched at the word, ‘parents.’ It refreshed all the recent events of her parental situation in her mind. She smiled and waved at Roaring Wind until he was out of sight. At that moment, Fluttershy’s demeanor quickly changed from one of calm to one of sadness and guilt. The events of the day before came flooding back to her… her parents’ bickering and arguing… their mentions of sacrifices… unhappiness… the cease to their lovemaking… all because of her.

Her parents gave her so much… maybe it was because they gave her too much; to the point where they didn’t have enough to give to each other. She figured it was all her fault. Daddy ignoring Mommy… Mommy getting unhappy and finding a second special somepony— who could quite possibly be her real Daddy— to get love from… they tore each other apart… all because they were trying to make Fluttershy happy. The filly was brought to tears by her guilt over her parents’ situation. She didn’t even want to open the door. She figured that maybe she should just go someplace far away. That way, her parents wouldn’t have to be bothered with her anymore. That way, they could have all the love they needed for each other. Fluttershy was just about to act out her grief-stricken impromptu idea and take flight away from the home when the door suddenly opened up to reveal a Pegasus mare equipped with a couple of suitcases.

“Fluttershy, honey! You’re back!” the mare practically shouted as she dropped her luggage to hug the filly, who didn’t return the embrace. The mare took note of this, and released her.

“Mommy… why do you have those suitcases?” Fluttershy inquired. “Where are you going…?” The mare almost froze at the question. It was bad enough that poor little Fluttershy was caught in the middle of an argument that had nothing to do with her but… how was she going to break this bad news to her? Nimbus pondered for a moment, all the while trying not to make it look obvious. This was going to hurt her more than it was going to hurt her daughter.

“Um… Mommy… just needs a vacation, sweetie,” Nimbus said.

“A vacation? C-can I come with you? If that’s okay with you…?” the filly asked.

“Ooh… I’m sorry, ‘Shy… this vacation is uh… for mommies only…”

“Oh… okay…” Fluttershy dejectedly looked down at the ground and whimpered. The evident look of disappointment on her face was a killer for her mother to see. Nimbus couldn’t stand to see Fluttershy in such an unhappy mood, so she was quick to wrap the filly up in a tight embrace.

“I… I promise to be back REALLY soon, okay, honey? I-I’ll send you gifts and letters and even pictures to let you know how I am… I’m going to miss you so much…” Nimbus soon found herself on the verge of tears as her voice cracked up, followed by her sniffling. This didn’t go unnoticed by Fluttershy, who took it as a sign that her mommy needed comfort. So she returned the warm, loving hug that her mother was giving her.

“I’ll miss you, too, mommy,” Fluttershy began, tearing up. “You don’t have to go on vacation. You can stay with me and Daddy and we can all make love with each other and be really happy…” That last line almost alarmed Nimbus, but knowing her daughter’s innocently naïve nature, she was merely confused. What did ‘Shy mean when she said ‘make love with each other’?

“Sweetie… what do you mean by ‘make love’?”

“Oh, um… I don’t know, really… I heard you say that you and Daddy stopped making love with each other after I was born… It’s because you gave all of the love to me, so you couldn’t make any more with each other, right? That’s why you got a different special somepony? So you could make some love to give to Daddy and me?” Nimbus went silent. She had no idea where to begin explaining things to the filly about her inaccurate observation. She was getting close to the age where she’d learn about ‘the Birds and the Bees,’ but at this point, Fluttershy had no idea of the terminology behind ‘making love.’ Nimbus could only blame herself, as she did say that right in front of her.

“Um… S-Sort of… Hey, it’s almost time for school. Why don’t you go and get ready?”

“Oh!” the filly said. She realized that she was going to be late if she stayed for too much longer. “Okay… will you be here to say goodbye to me?”

“Of course I will, honey,” Nimbus assured as she kissed Fluttershy on the forehead. “Now go along and get ready…” Fluttershy wordlessly complied as she quickly made her way up the stairs to clean herself up. Nimbus took it upon herself to make the filly some pack lunch before she saw her off. It was the least she could do, considering the fact that she probably wouldn’t be seeing her only daughter again anytime soon after this day… Eventually, the filly came back down. “Here, ‘Shy. I made you some lunch for school today.”

“Oh! Thank you, mommy,” the filly said as she gave her mother one last, tight hug before she was out of the door. “Bye bye! I hope you have fun on your vacation!” she added as she flew off. Nimbus said nothing as she smiled and waved until her daughter was out of sight. She soon shed her happy mask and fell into a state of despair as she moved to pick up her suitcases and take flight. As she flew, her vision became blurry and her stomach began tying itself up in knots. Her heart was pounding as if she were in a race.

“I’m so sorry, Fluttershy…” she whispered as streaks of tears began to run down her cheeks. “I’m so, so sorry… You don’t deserve this… You’ll understand… someday…”