It had taken her far too long.
Some may have said the opposite, most actually called her mad for truly wanting to find the Old Farm by the Coast. Pegasi didn't go so much to farms, and Fluttershy herself was scared of the ocean as a filly. It was a white lie told to her by her parents. Which was okay, she wasn't sure what to make of being lied to as a filly, despite it definitely having spared her the feelings.
She turned out to be a veterinarian, at least in practice, if not on paper. So she ended up learning anyway.
Fluttershy though, unlike most of the fillies her age, instead of frowning and moping and wondering when her beloved pet would return from the Old Farm by the Coast... A spark had been lit. A truth she didn't understand at the time, but learned more and more about as she searched for it.
And then she found it.
It had taken her far too long to do it, but Fluttershy.... Well, she was an adventurer. Anypony looking at her from a far or by a glance would never have imagined she'd been to more places in the world than them, more places in the world, not just Equestria. After Twilight ascended... and then ascended to the throne, she only took longer trips for greater importance. She'd been anywhere, and as she got older, and went on more missions, and saw more of the world...
That impossible feeling of being able to do anything became...
Fluttershy was an adventurer, she was a hero, a friend and... It had finally become real to her. Like her friends had always been saying, and that little spark stayed lit all through those years, burning brighter when it needed to.
Fluttershy, while never taking it as a laughing matter, had begun laughing at her old memories of yelling at dragons and trying to intimidate Discord. Compared to now, at least, the old Fluttershy was a firecracker. Make no mistake, even Applejack couldn't wrestle down Fluttershy anymore, leverage, and animals that liked to test their luck had honed her skill to the point that energy was simply no longer required.
Legends had been told about the time she took down a raging hydra with one hoof, but in reality, she just so happened to see the unaligned scale under its tail... That didn't mean that she... couldn't have wrestled the hydra down with one hoof... Fluttershy was skilled, and it had taken her far too long to realize exactly what she could do. Yet the spark always remained lit, and in all those tiny ways, she stoked the fire as she went on.
Until today, when she set out to find what it was for.
Of course, the Old Farm by the Coast was a fairytale, like all of the other old mares tails that definitely weren't true. Fluttershy had heard the story so many times that one evening... She just made a decision. Much to Discord's dismay, though, she couldn't remember what exactly he'd said at the time, only that he was upset.
She remembered what she told him though.
"I'll wait for you." She mouthed to herself. The whole... action... of making that choice, of... leaving. It was shrouded in confusion in her mind. She was an adventurer, for the first time in her life, she'd chosen her own adventure, her own path.
So she set out.
It was arduous, of course, every adventure has its highs and lows. She stopped in memories, hopes, and dreams. Collecting hints, getting help from strangers pointing her the way forwards. Traversing across Equestria to find where the legend came from, where the stories became truths. Where misunderstanding became casual acceptance. It was nothing new to her, her whole life had prepared her for this exact moment, and as they passed her, she watched silently contemplative behind an experience that almost felt like it didn't fit.
It was so deeply strange to remember who you were so intimately. Fluttershy remembered exactly where she'd come from, and her path only led her deeper and deeper into her own self. Visions of friends, pep talks, clipping her hooves, everything. It was all there. It was all a journey.
You could say she lived her whole life all over again on that trip to find that place.
She wanted to see all of those animals again. All of those ponies, her parents. She was going to go there.
The Old Farm by the Coast.
Out of her musings, the sound of water rushing caused her fluffy yellow ears to flick around. Her mane had long since turned grey from Time, but her eyes never lost that glint of Life, the spark never went out. Sand mixed with her coat, ironically, mostly the same color. A storm brewed in the distance, and she felt in her wings the rumble and tumble of clouds and thunder as the sensations fell upon her.
The Coast in question. It wasn't special, it wasn't supposed to be special. It was just a place, like any other place. With stuff and things, with air and Time that passed if you blinked too quickly. There were crabs and rocks and sand and light.
And then there was her.
Fluttershy.
She chuckled.
"How far have I gone to finally be here?"
On the horizon. There was a lighthouse, except... Not.
The legends she'd heard, along with the rumors and stories all pointed to one particular fact. The lighthouse was where it was. The Old Farm by the Coast. Find the lighthouse, find the Farm. It had taken her far too long to learn that little tidbit of information. A whole stretch of time after finding her talent, and finding her friends where she just wandered across Equestria, wondering what it was all for, what she was meant to do with her spark.
And she knew. Obviously.
Fluttershy had gotten a sense for the arcane, due to the oppressive diffusion from Twilight over the years. All it was... just a short swim to the lighthouse, and she'd be there to prove the legends true. The storm meant there would be no return if she went. It was like reading a warning and an instruction in the air. It came to her so esoterically that it nearly overwrote her thoughts.
Fluttershy hummed to herself instead. Twilight as a thought, stuck out into her mind. Her friends always did. Blame concern over mortal peril, but Fluttershy was never worried about herself so long as she had her spark.
"How far until she finds herself here?" She asked no-one in particular.
Long, most likely. She eventually settled on.
She looked around the beach slowly. Back towards... Sounds... there was a hospital... ponies were crying... There was something back there. Her hooves hadn't touched the water yet, she could still go back...
If she wanted to.
"Funny." She said, smiling to herself. "I don't want to go forward." She looked out towards the water and the storm and the lighthouse on the horizon. Then she slowly turned back around towards the sounds and the crisp visions of reality behind her, "and I don't want to go backwards." She mused.
Time kept passing around her. The waves kept flowing forwards. They were like anything else in the world, Fluttershy was a titan, an adventurer, she'd seen the world nearly end a few times. They were just waves. They tried calling to her, and she heard them, but that's all they could do.
They couldn't douse her spark. Nothing could. Nothing would. Fluttershy had gone past the strength of will to go on. If there was one thing she couldn't compete with, it was herself.
She wanted to go, but...
The sounds, the noises... She... remembered those things.
Living.
That's what it was all for, of course. She'd found that out long before she'd set out on her first truly solo adventure. It just took her far too long to actually realize it.
"So..." She mused with a smile. It had become a habit to speak to herself when Discord wasn't around. "I can't leave yet. Ponies need me." She decided, so she turned back towards the lights and the sounds and the living. She raised herself up to start walking.
Her hoof stopped short in the air as she stared at the sand and hummed to herself. "But I don't want to go back." Her hoof, and the greying fur to match the sand wavered slightly in the air. "I've come all this way..."
It was her own choice, of course, that had her split between both decisions. Call Fluttershy anything, but indecisive was something trapped neatly at the top of her mental list of character traits on most occasions.
She knew she could go back. She knew she could go forwards. It was her choice, but she didn't like either.
She could go. She could finally find that place. The Old Farm by the Coast.
She could go there and be there for as long as she wanted. She could be there with all of those faces and voices and chittering sounds she remembered. She could dive into the waves and let her spark finish its adventure around Equestria. It wouldn't have been sad, because it wouldn't have been over. It only would have been different. It wasn't a change, it was only forwards.
She could go back. Back towards the air, back towards her friends, back towards the sights and the sounds.
She could wake up from this dream, and stay for as long as she could keep her spark lit. Which may be forever, so long as she was careful. She could feel that fire in her now, that border along the impossible that could snap with only a choice. She could go back and be there for them... But then... What was the point of it all? If the spark was simply meant to stay lit forever?
Fluttershy hummed in approval as she came to a pair of simple conclusions. She had simply needed to remember them from before, of course. As she had already done this all a long time ago. Far too long ago, in her opinion.
She only wanted to stay for her friends. They were the only thing that mattered now. Call it selfish, but she was only in the breathing game because everypony else was doing it. She didn't want to go because she was scared. Scared of wandering again, scared of being alone. Scared of never seeing Twilight cut herself off mid ramble. Scared of never seeing Discord try his talon at spontaneous cosplay.
And the other realization was that it was her own choice.
The wavering hoof in the air lowered gently, until it pressed into the sand.
Her hoof dug down, wiggling itself under a rock, digging slowly down until she was safely wedged right there.
On the Coast, right before The Old Farm.
The lights and the sounds slowly faded until it was just Fluttershy, with her back towards the lighthouse and her eyes forwards into the mist.
Waiting.
Once in a while, the waves would draw up and try to pull her back legs into the water, but her hoof held firm in the sand.
"I'll wait for you all, before I go." She said, her sparkling eyes searching the mist for the faces she'd never forget. "Then we can all go together. Like always." She mused, smiling to herself, and reminiscing of all of the adventures past.
The waves rumbled in annoyance, but they couldn't truly be mad at Fluttershy.
The storm did not mind, its only job was to remind her of the rules.
The lighthouse shone above the Old Farm by the Coast, reminding her where she'd need to go when she was ready.
Fluttershy waited for her friends.
