Raise the Sun

Fluttershy looked around Ponyville, looking for any sign of Rainbow Dash. At first she tried her cloud castle, but no one answered and she couldn't find Rainbow through the window. Still as she turned around, about to give up her search she discovered none other than Rainbow Dash sulking on a small cloud. The yellow mare flew up and landed beside her friend, but stumbled back in seeing Rainbow's fetlock brush out as if to sweep her away.

"Rainbow?" She whispered, "Come on, this isn't like you."

"And what is, Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked, her voice rising a little as she stood. "Just who am I if I can't be there for my friends?"

"Rainbow..."

Rainbow sprang off the cloud, hovering only a few inches from it, but with a serious look in her eye. "What am I supposed to do, huh?"

Fluttershy trembled, struggling to overcome her fear of not only the situation, but the rising temper in her foalhood friend. "Rainbow Dash, I just want to talk. I'm not angry or upset." she pleaded.

It seemed to have stuck. Reluctantly, rainbow crashed a foreleg through the cloud, splitting it so that she and Fluttershy could have their own, hers of which she promptly lay down on. "This is about the rainbow factory though, isn't it?"

"Um, yes but-"

"I can't shut it down."

This took Fluttershy by surprise. "W-what do you mean?" She asked, growing more fearful by the second.

"I'm the overseer of operations, not the head manager." Rainbow Dash explained, "Even if I were to try and shut it down, the next rainbow you'd see would probably be the last of me."

"Rainbow, don't say that!" Fluttershy gasped, "You can't give up so easily!"

"But what can I do?" Rainbow countered, once again on her hooves and panting slightly. "I know you all need me as a friend but all of Equestria needs that factory! Do you think it's all sunny skies for me seeing a rainbow after a rainy day, knowing what it took to make it?"

Fluttershy again began quivering.

"Do you think I can just brush off that ponies die on a regular basis because of what I'm constantly having to watch? Do you understand how I feel about-"

Fluttershy hesitated with a twitch, but she quickly flew and tackled her friend to the cloud she had been on. "You're still our friend, Rainbow Dash." She whimpered, "And you're right, I don't know what to think after all of this, but I know that even if I don't understand, I know you need your friends right now."

Rainbow's surprise stamped clearly on her face. It had hardly been seen as a pattern, but Fluttershy's occasional outburst of this caliber only really happened whenever she knew a friend to be in danger.

Or was already hurting...

"Fluttershy..." Rainbow closed her eyes. "What should I do?"

Fluttershy looked out to the horizon, estimating mid-afternoon. "The weather facility's open to public until eight in the evening, right?" She asked, stepping off of her friend.

"Y...yeah?"

Fluttershy looked with a genuine compassion to her friend, and offered a hoof to help the mare to her hooves. Despite all her pride, Rainbow took the offered hoof and set herself back on the cloud.

"You should come with me, then." Fluttershy resolved. "We can end it together."

Rainbow thought for quite some time on this, but with a reluctant sigh she shook her head. "We're going to need help." she remarked, "The guards in the factory can drop you right out of flight easy. We're gonna need a plan."

"Alright, then." Fluttershy nodded, looking again out to the sun. "I say we leave at nightfall."

"Huh?"

"That way Princess Celestia won't be busy with the sun. If anypony can shut down that big a factory, it's her."

"Alright..." Rainbow shuddered, "I think if we're taking the princess we can make it a fairly direct trip, too..."