“No way!” Rainbow whinnied stamping a hoof on the ground.
“Oh please Rainbow? I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Fluttershy begged her friend.
“I’m not going to watch some butterfly migration!”
“Oh please Dashie.”
“No, why do I need to go? You’re no filly Flutters I’m sure you’d be fine on your own.”
“I just wanted to have a friend with me…”
“Listen, Fluttershy, it’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you, it’s just, butterfly migration really doesn’t sound like my kind of thing. Can’t you bring somepony else?”
“Sure I could, but Pinkie and AJ are out on a family vacation and Rarity is busy with orders.”
“Ask Twilight!”
“I already did, I was gonna have both of you come, but Twilight’s leaving on an Equestrian library tour.”
“Am I really the only option?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded
“You’re sure?”
Fluttershy nodded again.
Rainbow sighed, “fine, I’ll come, but don’t expect me to be excited.”
Fluttershy made almost a chirping noise in excitement, “okay okay, got it, see you tomorrow at noon!” Fluttershy trotted off.
Rainbow sighed, “See you tommorow”
Rainbow trotted home, trying to look on the bright side of the situation. To find the silver lining of sorts.
“Well, I mean, I didn’t have anything to do tomorrow anyways,” she thoughts aloud, “so at least now I have something to keep me busy.”
Rainbow sighed, drilling out her wings, pulling her hooves off the ground, and flying into the sky, she may not like butterflies very much, but at least she’d be making Fluttershy happy. She bounced off cloud after cloud, too lazy to fly the whole way on wing power alone. She landed with a gentle prance on her doorstep, shaking drops of rain off her wings. Dash stepped into her house and smiled, fluttering over to her bed and flopping onto it.
“I mean, how boring could it be, it’s not like it’ll take that long anyways,” she wondered aloud, flicking her tail back and forth, dusting stray bits of cloud from the air.
Rainbow closed her eyes, pulling her blanket over herself and eventually drifting to sleep.
As the sun rose outside her window Rainbow woke, immediately remembering her obligation. She shook her head, bothered that she’d agreed to such a boring plan for the day. But she knew how much this probably meant to Flutters. She shook out her wings and tussled with her hair, then walked out the door, fluttering down to the ground below.
The day was nice enough, few clouds in the sky, and the sun shining just bright enough that would light the ground below without hurting Dash’s eyes.
She sighed as she walked to the door of Fluttershy’s cottage, tapping on the wood with a single hoof.
Fluttershy opened the door faster than Rainbow had ever seen her. A bright smile shone on the yellow Pegasus’s face. She whinnied with joy.
“I’m so glad you came. I thought you wouldn’t show.” Flutters said with soft excitement.
“Are you kidding, butterfly migration sounds lame, but I’m not the element of loyalty for nothing.” Dash reminded her friend.
“Oh yes,” Fluttershy giggled, “here, take these.”
Flutters gently placed a pair of binoculars and a bag of snacks in Rainbow’s hooves with a smile.
“I packed your favorites, cloud puff cookies and barley bites.” She said with a smile.
Rainbow smiled, but, not wanting to look uncool promptly responded. “Uh, thanks. So where we going?”
“Just over in little-pond meadow, it’s got the best spot to watch them.” Fluttershy said.
“Alright, cool, let’s go.” Dash said, grabbing flutters and zooming over to the field.
“Slow down dash,” Fluttershy said dizzily, shaking her head to regain her senses. She gently put her hooves to the ground and landed with a small sniff, “just over there is the spot I picked out, I put up a picnic blanket for us to sit on, the bush will keep the butterflies from seeing us and getting spooked.”
“Alright, cool.” Dash said, sitting on the blanket, wondering to herself how long this would take.
“They should be here soon.” Fluttershy said, clapping her hooves together excitedly.
Rainbow stared at the sky and laid back. It felt like forever to the pegasus before her friend signaled her to sit up.
“Look dash.” She excitedly whispered, “they’re here!”
Rainbow looked up and saw a swarm or oranges yellows and reds coming their way, the butterflies fluttered through by the thousands, above and around the ponies, shifting and blocking the light with their little wings.
Rainbow stared at the creatures, fluttering and gliding forward. How did they do it, how did such little creatures have the energy to fly at all.
“Magical isn’t it.” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah-i mean uh, no, not really.”
Fluttershy smiled a bit and sighed, turning back to the butterflies.
Dash sat in silence. Watching the little creatures glide so effortlessly through the air. It’s like they weren’t even trying, she grabbed a barley bite with a wing and put it in her mouth, not lookin g away, fully captivated.
“They fly farther than any creature in comparison to their size, this migration goes all the way across Equestria,” Fluttershy said.
Rainbow tried to hold back her curiosity, don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t- “how do they do it?” She broke.
Fluttershy looked over, shocked that the brute Pegasus had asked.
“Well… they drink a lot of nectar on the way, and when they cross big stretches of water they fly as quick and as fast as they can.”
“That’s awesome.”
Those words, they were the words Rainbow would never say if she didn’t mean it, and the look in her eyes was pure wonder.
“Do you like them?” Fluttershy asked.
“Like them? I don’t like them, I love them!” Rainbow said, “you never told me how fast they were!”
Fluttershy smiled wider than Rainbow had ever seen. “I’m so glad,” She whinnied.
“…me too,” dash said.
The two mares sat and stared at the little creatures all day until the sun set, rainbow laughed, flutters smiled, and both of them watched and watched the little creatures.
“So, was it more fun than you thought?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes.” Rainbow said, “but-“
“But what?” Flutters asked anxiously.
“We never speak of this in front of anyone, ever, okay?”
Fluttershy laughed, “okay, we won’t,” she said with a smile.
Rainbow smiled as the sun began to set.
“Thanks Flutters, this was fun.”
