The floating city appeared on the horizon, making its way around the endless orbit that it swam about the continent. It was the last place Rainbow expected to find Fluttershy, but the irritable rabbit was quite adamant about it, and quick to dismiss her so he could return to his nap with a fevered flap of his arms and a paw pointed towards the sky.
Rainbow set herself down on what the residents of Cloudsdale habitually referred to as ‘ground’, and pondered where in the bustling city she could find her timid friend. She knew Fluttershy would never fly this high unless there was good reason. The yellow mare practically glued herself to terra firma every chance she got.
In a prismatic flash, Rainbow took off to scour the city. It didn’t take long to find the only pony around who preferred walking along the cloudwalks to soaring from building to building. “Hey, Fluttershy! Wait up!” Rainbow called, as if it would have been difficult for Equestria’s best young flier to catch up to the slowly sauntering mare.
Fluttershy gasped and ducked her head into the cloudwalk in a feeble attempt to hide, instead only calling further unwanted attention to the awkward pegasi. Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker a little at her friend’s naïveté, and gave a gentle jab in the cutie mark. The yellow mare squealed and jumped from her hiding spot, shielding her sensitive cutie mark with her hooves as her wings barely generated enough energy to keep her hovering.
“Relax, Fluttershy. It’s me.” Rainbow pounded her chest proudly. She began to wonder how the most frightened mare in Equestria was going to help her calm down and work out her issues.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash! Thank goodness you’re here!” Fluttershy timidly exclaimed.
“Well I won’t argue with that, but why? Something wrong?” Rainbow asked, knowing that with Fluttershy, there was always something amiss or worth complaining about.
“Um… I’m kind of… lost.” Fluttershy whispered, her voice muffled through the mane that hung low over her face to hide her embarrassment.
“Oh, well that’s no good.” Rainbow replied, simply glad it was a genuine complaint instead of one of Fluttershy’s usual excuses for her actions. “Not surprising though. I can’t remember the last time you came to Cloudsdale.”
A bit reassured, Fluttershy let out a soft giggle. “I guess you’re right. It’s just so… big and unfamiliar.”
“Uh, Fluttershy? We grew up here.”
“Um, yeah. I guess. Was it always this big?”
Rainbow nodded. “’Fraid so. What ‘cha looking for anyhow?”
“Um… I’m supposed to go to the Department of Mobile Pegasi.”
“The DMP?” Rainbow shuddered at the thought. Standing in lines. Slow. Boring. Monoto-whatits. Forms upon forms upon endless forms. Oh, Celestia. She had picked the wrong day to be in desperate need of Fluttershy’s companionship. “Well I was hoping we could chat, but do we have to go there? It’s so boring!”
Fluttershy shook her head. “I… I’ve been putting it off for quite some time, and now my license is expired.”
“License? License for what?” Rainbow cocked her head quizzically at her friend.
“I, uh– I never finished flight school. I flunked out, and now I need a license to fly.”
While she did sympathize for her friend’s struggle, Rainbow did find it difficult to hold back the laughter. Flight school had been a joke to her. She passed with flying colors, literally. “So… what then? You gotta pass a test or something?”
“Oh no, thank goodness. Not this time.”
“Then what was the big hold up. You busy?”
“Uh, not exactly.” Fluttershy began to trail off, her words soon becoming censored and inaudible through her mane.
“Hmmm?”
“I have to…” the frail mare mumbled, her words fading off quickly again.
“LOUDER!”
Startled, Fluttershy finally spoke up clearly, “—get my photo taken!”
The two stared at each other in silence for a brief moment, Fluttershy too frightened of the truth, and Rainbow silently slamming her head against a desk in her mind. “That’s it?” Rainbow eventually asked. “That’s the big deal?”
“I… don’t like it.” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves as she stood nervously.
“What’s not to like? Getting your picture taken is fun. Makes you feel like a star! Besides, it’s over in like, a second flat!”
“I don’t look good on camera.”
“Uh, Fluttershy? Weren’t you a supermodel for, like, a week?”
Fluttershy turned her head away, finally speaking loud enough to be heard by anyone questioning her. “I just don’t like it!”
Rainbow’s neck arched back in shock of her friend’s reaction. She knew it was rude of her to prod Fluttershy, but she had meant well. It wasn’t often that Fluttershy was willing to stand up for her feelings, and considering where she was in her own life at that moment, Rainbow didn’t want to poke and prod at open wounds. “Geez, Fluttershy. Sorry. That’s not what I meant by it.”
“It’s… it’s fine, Rainbow. I don’t expect you to understand.” Fluttershy continued to shift her hooves around as she fumbled over her words. “You love being in front of cameras, but it’s just not for me.”
“Uh, if it’s that difficult for you… want me to come with?” Rainbow tried to force out her best and coolest smile as she realized what she was agreeing to.
“Yes~!” Fluttershy perked up. “I mean, it would really help, but I know you probably have more interesting things to do.”
Rainbow’s weakness for pride overran her instinct for loyalty for a brief moment, and she wasn’t willing to admit that all she wanted was to spend time with Fluttershy and talk about her personal issues. “Uh, yeah, but it’s nothing that can’t wait. Friends come first!” Rainbow closed her eyes and nodded, whipping the disheveled mane from her face and trying to hide her true feelings behind her cool façade.
“Oh, thank you, Rainbow!” Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around her friend’s neck and squeezed, before quickly bouncing backward, embarrassed at how outward her emotions were getting. “I-it really means a lot.”
“Don’t mention it.” Rainbow seriously hoped she never would, she’d die of embarrassment if she told anypony she had spent all afternoon doing something so uncool. The pair continued to stand silent and awkward for a few moments before Rainbow asked, “So, we gonna go, or what?”
Fluttershy looked back and forth about the city, and hung her head disappointingly, “I still don’t know where I’m going.”
Rainbow smacked her hoof flat against her face, then peeked an eye out to make sure Fluttershy didn’t notice. “Come on, the city is a lot smaller from the sky.” She realized her faux pas and corrected herself. “I mean, you know, up above.”
The timid mare relaxed and giggled a bit, trailing behind Rainbow’s flight path. “I know what you meant. Lead the way.”
***
“B-b-but I was just in that line!”
“Not sure what to tell yah’ darlin’,” the mare behind the counter scoffed without so much as looking up from her hooficure. “This line is for form thirty-seven-dash-b: Class A licenses for military and related personnel.” She eyed her hoof closer and pointed the sanded-down file in the direction of the line Fluttershy had just came from. “That’s the line you want. Thirty-seven-article-b: renewal for expired licenses, Class C and under.”
“But I just told you, I was in tha—”
“You know what? I don’t need this.” The snotty pegasi poked her head under the counter and promptly returned with a small plastic plaque that read ‘ON BREAK’. She quickly returned the far-more-pressing matter of her already perfectly glorious hooves.
“But you’re not listening!” Fluttershy pleaded.
“You’re right. I’m not.”
“I just want my—”
The ornery attendant merely tapped her hoof on the sign and pulled closed a shutter between her and Fluttershy’s barely audible complaints. Fluttershy gave up and hung her head as she wandered back to yet another velvet-roped queue.
Rainbow slouched further in the hard plastic chair lying against the corner of the government office, trying aimlessly to find a comfortable position on such a confounding device. “Who the hay designed this torture device?” She lay across three chairs as she peeked her head under the bench and found a sticker amongst the museum of chewing gum from ages past: ‘Chairs generously donated by the Lyra Heartstrings Furniture Conglomerate TM’. “Figures,” Rainbow muttered to herself.
As she pulled herself out from under the row of chairs, she saw Fluttershy crawling back into yet another line. “Oh, for the love of Luna. What is it this time?” She hovered across the crowded room and floated above Fluttershy’s place in line. “What are you doing back at the end of the line, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, it’s my fault, really,” Fluttershy meekly responded. “That was the wrong line anyway, and I didn’t want to disturb her when she’s on break, that would be mean. She must be really exhausted.”
“Darn it, Fluttershy! Stop being such a pushover. You’ve been in every line here, and they all have told you the same thing! Don’t you get it?”
“Don’t I get what?”
“They’re playing you. You’re not going to get anywhere unless you push back.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Rainbow Dash.”
“Nonsense, watch how the pros do it.” Rainbow hovered towards the cubicle Fluttershy previously stood at.
“Dash, please. You’re embarrassing me,” Fluttershy whispered, her words unheard by the bold pegasus.
Rainbow knocked firmly on the screen between her and the government agent on the other side, peeking her eyes over the top as she hovered above the counter. “Hey. What’s the big idea?”
The bitter employee pulled the screen aside and heaved a sigh. “Can I help you?” she spoke in monotone, showing no interest for whatever Rainbow had to say.
“As a matter of fact, you can. Who do you think you are, pushing around my friend like that? I have half a mind to knock you clean into next week!”
“Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to calm do—” the mare froze mid-sentence as she peered up from her hooves to see Rainbow glaring at her with fire in her eyes. “Yo-you’re…”
“Ah,” Rainbow boldly patted her chest. “I see my reputation precedes me.” She had no clue what she was saying, but she heard Twilight say it to a few ponies in Canterlot once, and was jealous of how uncharacteristically cool she had looked saying it.
“You’re darn right it does! Can I get your autograph?”
“Why, of course, I’m flattered. Now how about my friend’s license?” Rainbow asked as she placed the pen in her mouth and made her John Hoofcock on the paper the mare behind the counter held out.
“Sure, but first, your own. Rainbow Dash, your license is officially revoked, pending your record of two hundred and forty-seven unpaid speeding tickets.”
“Bwah?” Rainbow stared back confused as the mare hammered down a stamp on the autograph she had just freely given without a second though to read the fine print.
“Report to remedial flight school to have your revocation overturned upon completion.”
“Are you crazy? I haven’t gotten a single speeding ticket in my life!”
“Of course not, nopony could ever catch you, and that darn mailmare in Ponyville kept losing the notices we sent you. The office has had a bounty on you for years!” the lazy mare cackled as she pulled a sheet off the wall of her cubicle and laid it on the counter for Rainbow to see. There, not-so-clear as day, was a picture of an iridescent streak in the sky, and some gibberish about a reward for the first pony to ever catch the pegasus in question.
“Th-that’s not me! That could be anypony!” Rainbow flatly denied as she pounded her hoof on the picture.
“Really?” the mare let out an evil smirk, proud of her capture and eager for her reward. “I’m sure I must have the wrong rainbow-maned pegasus,” she said as she rolled her eyes and prompted jumped for joy from her desk. “Hey girls! The hunts over! I got her! Pay up!” A series of jealous groans emanated from the side of the room sanctioned off behind the counter.
“I-I-I-I…” Rainbow stammered, too dumbfounded to realize how uncool she looked stuttering with her jaw hanging slack from her face. “You can’t do this to me!”
“Darling, I just did,” chuckled back the mare between jumps of joy as she trotted off to collect her reward.
“Hey! Hey, wait!” Rainbow pleaded.
“Look, I got a bounty to collect, and you have a flight school to report to. Got it?”
“No. My friend’s license…”
The snobby mare rolled her again. “Oh dear, where are my manners?” She returned to her desk in a huff. “Guess I at least owe you that much.” She called Fluttershy over with a wave of her well-manicured hoof. “Come here, dearie.”
Fluttershy hovered over from the other line and with a few quick motions, the agent slapped a few stamps on the form and pointed off to the other end of the room. “Head over there and Over Exposure will take your photo.”
“I-I can’t believe that worked,” Fluttershy exclaimed in shock.
Rainbow responded a little less enthusiastic. “Yeah… me either.”
“What did you say to her?”
“N-nothing. Can we hurry and get your photo so we can leave? Please?”
“Yeah, sure,” Fluttershy responded as they made their way across the office building. Fluttershy beamed brightly as she hopped in the chair to get her photo taken, too happy that the ordeal was finally over to worry about the fear of the photographer.
“Hey, Rainbow? Thanks,” she said before she turned to face the camera.
Rainbow blushed brighter than her friend’s mane as she suddenly forgot about the strict punishment just hoofed down onto her. “Don’t mention it,” she said with a shrug, and made her way next to the stallion behind the camera. “Fluttershy?”
“Hmmm?”
Rainbow peeked her head out from behind the camerapony, shaking her head back and forth with her eyes crossed and tongue wagging back and forth from beyond her maw. “Phbbbbt!”
Fluttershy’s forehooves shot up to stifle the smile forcing through her face and she let out a heavy snort as the wall was enveloped in a bright flash and the click of a shutter.
***
“It doesn’t look that bad!” Rainbow pleaded as her and Fluttershy made their way down the streets of Cloudsdale in the setting sun.
“No, it looks absolutely awful,” Fluttershy said as she tried to hide the plastic card away from prying eyes.
“Lem’me see it again,” Rainbow swiped the card away before Fluttershy could respond, and inadvertently made a face similar to the one on the card as she tried to contain the laughter bubbling inside her while she looked at it.
“Stop teasing me!” Fluttershy begged.
“Sorry,” Rainbow snickered as she hoofed the card back to Fluttershy. ‘Worth it.’
