30 Minute Delay

Where Is The heart?

On two different edges of Ponyville, two very important letters were being simultaneously opened.

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“WHAT?!” A loud cry came from a floating cloud villa, high above the town.

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“Oh….my…” Emerged a quiet whimper from a cottage on the border of the forest.

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Within Ponyville proper, a studious Unicorn received two visitors at the same time, from two different directions, using two different entry points. Fluttershy, the timid tamer, knocked hesitantly on the front door while Rainbow Dash, the proud performer, took the more direct route and slammed down onto the balcony from on high.

“Rainbow Dash, good to see you. However, as Fluttershy so serendipitously demonstrated, I do have a door.” Twilight Sparkle gently chided her friend, who barely noticed the remark.

“No time for that now Twilight, I’ve got bigger problems!” Dash was in constant agitated motion.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong?” Door etiquette forgotten, Twilight waited anxiously for her friend to continue, Rainbow finally stopped dashing about long enough to toss her a letter.

“They’re gonna kick me out of Cloudsdale! Or Ponyville!! OR BOTH!!!”

“What? Let me see that.” Twilight quickly scanned the letter and then looked up in concern.

“I’ve never heard of this before. I never had any trouble like this when I moved her from Canterlot. Has anypony else gotten a letter like this?”

“Umm…….Twilight, Rainbow Dash……” The two turned to see Fluttershy, forgotten in the confusion, digging a similar letter from her bag. Instantly, Rainbow whizzed down to her friend.

“Fluttershy! You too?” The wallflower nodded weakly.

“It says that since I relocated here right after flight school, I was too young to hold a valid citizenship outside of Cloudsdale where my family is. Since it’s been a year past the point where I should have registered, I have to obtain one or I’ll be sent back to Cloudsdale!” Fluttershy’s eyes were watering at the thought so Rainbow put a hoof around her shoulders before speaking to Twilight.

“Mine’s a little different but mostly the same. The difference is that since my house is technically not Ponyville airspace it’s classed as a Cloudsdale residence, but since I have a Ponyville-centric job as Weatherpony and keep my bits in a Ponyville bank the government thinks I should be living in Ponyville, even though I get my work from Cloudsdale and have other duties there. It’s dumb.” The cyan Pegasus tried crossing her arms but forgot that one was currently around Fluttershy, resulting in an awkward and mutually uncomfortable embrace.

“Whoops! Sorry Fluttershy.”

“Oh, that’s okay Rainbow Dash, you didn’t mean it. But what are we gonna do about our letters?” Twilight, though no lawyer, still prided herself on being well-read, and was convinced that the answer would be found in her extensive library.

“Why don’t you two go ask at Town Hall and see what they have to say about this? I’ll take a look through my books and see if I can find any solutions.” Twilight tried to be reassuring but her two friends didn’t look any more at ease.

“What if you can’t?”

“I will Rainbow, trust me. You guys just try to keep calm and see what the Mayor’s staff has to say.”

“Are you sure, Twilight?”

“I am. Don’t worry Fluttershy, this will all be resolved soon.”

Still wearing unhappy expressions, the two pegasus' departed.

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Exiting Town Hall, Rainbow waited until Fluttershy came out before bucking the door closed, hard.

“Well that was a bust! Did you see the size of that ‘To-Do’ pile that smug clerk put us at the bottom of? We’ll never get this fixed before the deadline!”

“Now now Rainbow, I’m sure they’re doing their best…” Fluttershy quickly shrank back as the acrobatic pony rounded on her.

“Well their best isn’t good enough!” Noticing her friend’s demeanour, Dash relented,

“Sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to be so harsh.”

“It’s alright, this isn’t an easy situation.” Both ponies sighed and plopped down onto the grass. Neither spoke as they sorted their thoughts. After a few minutes, one of them spoke up:

“What……what are we going to do?” Shaking her head, the other couldn’t give an answer.

“I……don’t know.”

“I wish I could talk to my parents about this.”

“Me too.”

“Maybe……maybe Twilight will find an answer? I….I don’t….”

“I know. Me neither……”

Thoroughly unhappy, the two fillies sat in silence.

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“There’s nothing?!” Twilight sadly shook her head at her friend’s outburst. She’d been up all night looking for anything that could help them, finally exhausting her search, loophole-less. She felt a terrible crushing shame for having gotten her friend’s hopes up like this.

“No. I’m sorry Rainbow, it’s pretty cut-and-dry. It’s as they say: If you want to keep both Ponyville and Cloudsdale open to you then you need to spend at least 2 weeks of every month living in each one, which means having two registered addresses. Same goes for you Fluttershy.”

“But Twilight, neither Rainbow or I can afford a second home!”

“I’m so sorry girls, I wish there was a way out of this but I just can’t see it.”

“I don’t believe this this!” Whined Rainbow. Twilight didn’t know what to say. Fluttershy spoke up instead.

“Thank you for trying anyway Twilight. If, if it’s okay with you, we’ll be going now.” Teary-eyed, Twilight just nodded and watched the two go.

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“It’s really starting to look like we’ll have to move.”

“Yes, it does.” There was an awkward silence as each waited in vain, hoping the other would ask the question they’d been afraid to think about since this whole mess began. When the silence began dragging on, they spoke up simultaneously:

“Ponyville or Cloudsdale?”

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On two different edges of Ponyville, two letters lay discarded on the floor.

Fluttershy sat in the middle of her house, Angel Bunny eating from the bowl she’d just laid down with her left hoof while she held a picture of the butterfly migration in her right hoof. She gazed from one to the other dejectedly, tears running down her eyes.

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Far away, Rainbow Dash still somehow mirrored her. In her right hoof she held the trophy she’d won in the Best Young Flier competition. In her right hoof, the same picture as her friend. Miserably looking at each one in turn, she eventually let them both drop from her hooves with a frustrated groan. Lying back on her bed with a hoof over her eyes, she did nothing and stared at nothing.

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What should I do? I have to stay here to look after the animals but…

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If I was in Cloudsdale I could race every day and I’d have a much better chance of meeting the Wonderbolts but…

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On two different edges of Ponyville, two minds thought the same thought simultaneously.

I don’t want to leave her.

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The next day, Rainbow Dash drifted lazily on a cloud above the rooftops of Ponyville, watching, but not really taking in, the town below. Her lifeless reverie was interrupted as the sound of a Pegasus and Earth pony arguing reached her ears. Shifting slightly, she brought them into view.

Derpy Hooves and Carrot Top at it again. It was a comforting, familiar sight. Everyone in Ponyville knew how it’d go. The two went through the same dance every time. Derpy would do something silly, usually at Carrot Top’s expense, which would cause the Earth mare to berate her, albeit half-heartedly, then one’d storm off and the two of them would be miserable for the rest of the day. Sure enough, after Derpy’s latest counterpoint had showered Carrot Top in sticky muffin crumbs, she’d stalked off, leaving the wall-eyed Pegasus to sit unhappily on her own. An hour later, Carrot Top would be running her stall sans enthusiasm and Derpy wouldn’t even cheer up when around her daughter, Dinky. The next day they’d be all smiles again after obviously making up overnight.

It’s just not the same without the ponies in your life that make everything better.

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The filly was all scowls as the Cutie Mark Crusaders walked away, her attempts at lowering their spirits having backfired. Fluttershy had been walking through the market, coincidentally keeping pace with the whole thing, as Diamond Tiara’s town-wide ego was dented. The pink filly huffed down, utterly uninterested in the world, a few tables away from Fluttershy, showing absolutely no concern or care for other ponies, slinging insults and barbed remarks at all who approached her. Well, except one. Silver Spoon’s arrival had surprised Diamond Tiara, who’d been busy making the waiter (no doubt an employee of her father) cry by questioning the quality of the garden salad served. When she saw her bespectacled friend, Diamond Tiara had flashed the only true smile Fluttershy had seen from her in a day full of smirks and lopsided grins. The modus operandi didn’t change an ounce with the addition of a second operator, except to perhaps become more vicious in their words and actions, but when they ran out of ponies to talk down to they were just two filly friends, chatting and laughing with each other, not a care in the world.

Even if you don’t change who you are, you’re still happier when you’re with those you care about.

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Fluttershy opened her cottage door and was surprised to find Rainbow Dash standing there.

“Oh! Um…hi, Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey Fluttershy. Can we talk?”

“Yes, I’d like that. I was just coming to find you, in fact.” She stepped aside to let her friend enter.

“Hey Angel.” Rainbow greeted the rambunctious bunny, who sniffed her hoof briefly in response before bounding away.

“Oh, sorry Rainbow,” Fluttershy apologised for her pet,

“He’s just a little on edge about this whole thing.”

“Heh, haven’t we all?” Rainbow tried to laugh it off but thinking of the letter still brought her mood low. Fluttershy tried to keep the conversation going.

“You, um, said you wanted to talk?”

“Well yeah, I did, but honestly I don’t know what I’d say. I still don’t know what I should do but I was hoping that talking with you would help me find it. Didn’t work though, I’m as lost as ever.”

“Me too, Rainbow Dash. If I stayed in Ponyville and you didn’t I’d feel like I was missing something really important in my life, but if I went to Cloudsdale I’d feel the same way.”

“Yeaaahhh, meeting the Wonderbolts or spending my time flying didn’t seem to have the same appeal when I was leaving my friends behind, but I still can’t turn my back on Cloudsdale. It’s tough when you have only one house but two homes huh?”

“That’s it exactly.”

“So what do we do?”

“Um, perhaps…”

“WAAAAAAIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!” Both Pegasus’ jumped at the sudden (and loud) interruption, 4 ponies having just popped, screaming, into the room.

“YAY! We found ‘em!” A bubbly magenta Earth pony bounced over and gave the two a big hug.

“Girls? What are you doing here?” Stuck in the Pinki-embrace, Fluttershy was a little confused, Rainbow Dash too.

“Oh thank goodness we’re not too late.” The prim white Unicorn offered a more gracious, but equally expressive smile than her pink friend.

“Too late for what?” Asked Dash, finally shaking free of Pinkie’s grip.

“Well, once Twilight told us about your problem, which, by the by, we shoulda heard from you direct,” Applejack fixed the two with an admonishing glare as they looked back, abashed, “me and Rarity got ta thinkin’ and, weeell….”

Twilight gave Rainbow and Fluttershy a knowing smile.

“How do you feel about sleepovers?”

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Two weeks later, the six walked out of Town Hall, Twilight triumphantly levitating her quill before her as she walked.

“So the paperwork is all in order. You shouldn’t have any problems so long as you stick to the guidelines for the dual citizenship.”

“Have you two decided who’ll be where and when? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Pinkie was all ears to find out what the two Pegasus’ had decided upon. Fluttershy shared a smile with Rainbow Dash before answering.

“Well, we’re working on a 4-week rotation, though we haven’t got the order down yet. We’ll spend one week together at the cottage,” she nodded to Rainbow to continue,

“We’ll solo a week with me at the villa and Fluttershy at the cottage, a week where we’re both at the villa,”

“And a week where we solo me at the villa and Rainbow at the cottage,” Finished Fluttershy,

“We thought this would be the best way to stick to the guidelines but still allow us to keep to our regular schedules as much as possible.”

“Will y’all still be able to handle all those animals and the weather with a setup like that?”

“We hope so. That’s why we’re thinking of doing the solo-switch week last, so we can get each other up to speed with each other’s duties, enough to manage them for one week at least.”

“Well, you two are certainly organised. Here I thought I was gonna be making your new schedules.” Twilight was smiling on the outside but thinking Drat! on the inside. Soon the six reached the cottage and the two Pegasus’ found their way blocked by the Unicorns and Earth ponies. Rarity stepped forward,

“In honour of this new change, I took the liberty to whip these up. I hope they’re to your liking.” Her horn glowed blue as she floated two small, gift-wrapped trinkets over to the two flyers, one for each. Unwrapping their presents, Rainbow and Fluttershy gasped happily before giving the group a pair of bright smiles, which were soon joined by four more.

Bedecked in Rarity’s trademark elegance, and sporting both of their Cutie Marks, the two signs read, in fine flowing writing:

Home of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

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Author’s note: I’ve portrayed this as a Dash ‘n’ Flutters-centric story but obviously they’d miss their other friends just as much if they had to move away. They were just the viewpoint characters and had been friends for the longest of the mane 6.