It was a start of another beautiful day where the sun slowly peeks over the horizon, bathing the lush green fields of Equestria with its warm glow. The song of the birds marked the start of the day and a soft glow of sunlight peeked through the crack of the window of a certain yellow pegasus.
The pony in bed squeaked softly as glow of the morning greeted her. She slowly sat up and lightly yawned into her hooves. She looked around and saw her pet bunny; Angel was still asleep next to her.
Not wanting to wake him up from his peaceful slumber, she slowly and carefully slid off the bed and opened the window. The mix of the warmth of the sun’s glow and the coolness of the morning air greeted Fluttershy. She flapped her wings a few times and turned towards the stairs.
As she reached downstairs of her cottage, she was greeted again by soft cuddly critters that were in her care. The bunnies and mice squeaked happily and the birds sang a beautiful tune in her presence. “Good morning, everyone,” she spoke up demurely as she head towards the kitchen.
Then she started the day by feeding the animals first and preparing a special salad breakfast for Angel when he wakes up. After she finished her daily chores and had her breakfast, she wondered what she will do for the rest of the day. She thought she wanted to visit her friends but then she remembered all of them were busy that day.
She remembered Twilight was planning to do an intensive training for a new spell she has been working on. Rainbow Dash had a Wonderbolts show to go to, Rarity had a fashion meeting at Canterlot, Applejack was going to her cousin’s place in Appleloosa and Pinkie Pie was busy planning a birthday party for a filly in Ponyville.
She let out a sigh at the thought. But then, Fluttershy finally decided she’ll take a stroll in the park. With that, she locked the door of her cottage and trotted off towards her destination.
A few moments later, she finally reached the park. It was lively as usual. The park was filled with the laughter of fillies and colts who were playing tag. There were also the parents of the children sitting under the shades of the trees and enjoying each others companies and conversing to one another.
Fluttershy waved at a couple of fillies that noticed her presences and smiled politely as she was greeted by passersby. She continued along a path in the park and stumbled upon a baby bird fell from its nest. “Oh my,” she spoke softly. “Let me get you to your nest,” she continued as she took the baby bird and returned it to its nest. The mother bird let out a chirp in appreciation. She returned with a nod and a smile.
On her way down to the ground, in the corner of her eye, she saw a little light blue pegasus colt was sitting all alone under a tree that was hidden behind a bush. She became curious and felt sorry for the colt. As she finally on all four hooves, she trotted where she saw the colt.
When she reached the tree, she noticed that the colt was still very young. Young to the point he did not have his cutie mark yet. She noticed that the colt had not acknowledged her presence yet because he was looking at the sky with a lonely expression.
“Uh,” Fluttershy spoke up softly which caused the colt to slightly jump.
“Who are you?” The colt asked nervously, shaking in fear.
“You don’t have to be scared of me. I won’t hurt you,” she explained in a polite manner. “My name is Fluttershy,” she answered with a welcoming smile. “How about you, what is your name?” she asked kindly as she approached the young colt.
“M-my name is Sky,” the colt answered worriedly.
She got close to the colt and sat next to him. The yellow pegasus smiled warmly at the colt. “Why are you sitting here all alone?” she asked.
“Because nopony want to be friends with me.” Sky replied sadly, his eyes drooping.
“Why is that?” she asked again, feeling sorry for the pegasus colt.
“They think that I’m weird,” he answered again, this time his eyes started to tear up.
“I’ll be your friend,” Fluttershy said softly, wiping the colt’s tears away. The colt was surprised and turned to look at the ground, flustering. She saw a smile cracked on the colt’s face. Both of them sat under a tree for a long time, enjoying each others company.
A couple of hours passed and Fluttershy heard the colt’s stomach was growling. “Do you want to go to eat?” she suggested, smiling at the colt. The colt’s face slowly turned to a delightful shade of red, nodding to the suggestions. “Okay, follow me. I know a great place to eat”. Then, they stood up and began to walk to their destination.
A few minutes later they arrived to a restaurant and ordered their meal. Fluttershy and Sky sat across each other as they wait for their meal. “So,” Fluttershy spoke up softly. “Where are your parents?” She asked.
“My mom and dad are probably still working at the weather factory,” he replied, looking at the table.
“Aren’t they worried if you are all alone in the park?”
“They are but because of their busy work schedule, they can’t do anything about it”.
“Can I ask you something else?” Fluttershy asked carefully.
“Sure,” Sky replied, looking at her.
“Why did you say that other kids think you were weird?”
“Because,” he answered slowly, ears dropping. “I can’t fly.”
Fluttershy understood the colt’s situation and scooted closer. She lightly touched the colt’s shoulder. “I understand how you feel. When I was a filly, I was the weakest flier in my class,” She explained, smiling softly. “How about this,” she proposed with a wink. “Even though I’m not the best of fliers, I can teach you the basic of flying.”
Fluttershy suggestion sparked a light of happiness in the colt’s heart. Sky looked at her with his eyes wide opened. “Really?” he asked, with a hopeful expression. Fluttershy answered with a nod and a smile. The colt was so happy that he jumped and hugged the yellow coated pegasus. Both of them we laughing happily and even nearby ponies smiled at them because the feeling joy was contagious to everypony. As their meal arrived, both of them began to plan the lesson activities for tomorrow.
The next day arrived quickly and Fluttershy was waiting under the tree where she met Sky the day before. After a few moments later, she was greeted by a familiar voice behind her. “Hello, Miss Fluttershy,” Sky greeted with a smile.
“Hello, Sky,” she greeted back and returned the smile. “Oh, just call me Fluttershy,” she said in a soft tone. Sky nodded in reply and they began to trot towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
Upon arrival, Sky was greeted by the melodious bird songs and soft cuddly animals hopped happily around him. He was ecstatic in the situation and clopped his hooves together in delight. He began to hop along with the bunnies and listened to the birds’ song.
Fluttershy beamed with happiness as she watched the young colt enjoying the companies of the animals and having fun under the sunlight. Even her pet bunny hopped happily along the colt.
After a long moment of fun, Fluttershy and Sky finally went to business. She explained the basic of flying as she was taught when she was in flight camp. They put every effort into the lesson and even the birds showed their support by showing a demonstration. Hours passed by and both of them decided to take a break inside the cottage.
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” Sky apologized, with a sad expression on his face.
“It’s not your fault, Sky,” she assured him. “Flying takes a lot of effort and a long time to learn. We’ll keep on trying until we get it right, okay?” Fluttershy spoke in an encouraging tone. Her small speech perked the colt right up and he nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, then,” she continued. “Wait here and I’ll prepare lunch for us.”
“Okay!” Exclaimed the colt cheerily and sat next to the window, staring into the sky. While he was waiting by the window, he caught a glimpse of a tiny baby bird, trying to fly, like he did a few hours ago. He cracked a smile as he silently encourage and support the baby bird.
Suddenly, the baby bird fell from its next and dangerously falling towards a pond below. Without any second thoughts, Sky’s wings flapped ferociously and he rocketed towards the falling baby bird. He caught the bird just in time before it hits the water and set the baby bird back to its nest.
As the mother bird chirped its appreciation, he noticed that he was flying. He was so excited that he cheered as loud as his young lungs could. Fluttershy ran out of the kitchen to see what was wrong. She was surprised by the sight of Sky flying. She flew slowly to him and gave the colt a congratulatory hug.
Sky felt something tingling on his flank and saw something that he always wanted: a cutie mark. It has a picture of a bird flapping its wings. His eyes filled with tears of joy and hugged Fluttershy with all of his might. “Thank you!” he said cheerily as he hugged her. She responded by hugging him tighter.
Sky’s and Fluttershy’s laughter caught the attention of two adult pegasus in a weather factory uniform – which were heading towards Cloudsdale. “Sky?” the female pegasus asked loudly from above.
Sky looked over Fluttershy’s shoulder and saw his parents. “Mom! Dad! Look, I can fly!” He yelled to his parents as he waved his hooves. Fluttershy released him and he rocketed towards the two pegasus. The family of pegasus laughed and danced in the sky. Fluttershy cannot do anything but smile at their joy.
Then, Sky’s father flew towards Fluttershy. He quickly grabbed her hooves – which made her squeaked a little, and shook it. “Thank you for helping my son,” his father said happily. “It was supposed to be my responsible to teach my son to fly but, his mother and I had this busy schedu-“ Fluttershy cut him by raising her hoof.
“It’s not your fault, I understand that you and your wife had to work hard to support your child,” Fluttershy said demurely.
“Again, thank you,” said the father. “Say,” the father spoke up. “Would you like to go to our home tomorrow? Tomorrow my son’s is turning ten years old, it would be great if you could come,” his father explained with a smile on his face.
“I would love to,” Fluttershy agreed, smiling warmly.
“Great!” His father smiled and flew towards his family. “Let’s go and have a picnic,” his father exclaimed jovially.
“But, what about your work?” asked Sky with a worried expression on his face.
“Today, it’s all about you, love,” his mother answered lovingly. Sky squealed in happiness and hugged his parents. As they began to fly away, Sky turned back and yelled to Fluttershy.
“Meet me under the same tree tomorrow!” He yelled, beaming with happiness.
“You can count on me,” Fluttershy yelled softly back, smiling warmly at the pegasus family. After that, Sky and his parents flew of to Ponyville to have their family picnic.
The next day arrived quickly and Fluttershy was sitting under the promised tree. She had a wrapped gift beside her that she wanted to give Sky for his birthday. It was a pair of goggles. It was for him to protect his eyes from harmful debris.
As she sat there, waiting. She remembered back on how she met Sky and how she successfully helped him. Even though she new him only a couple of days, she felt a bond has forged between them. She looked at the gift and excited to see Sky’s reaction when he receives it.
Hours passed by but Sky there was still no sight of Sky. She was determined and kept waiting. As time began into a crawl, it was already night time. She began to worry and wanted to search for him but she did not know where to begin with. So, she took the gift and flew home, hoping Sky would show up tomorrow.
Next day came, and Fluttershy was about to go to the park, she heard somepony knocked on her front door. She quickly trotted to the door, hoping it was Sky but instead, she was greeted with the sad faces of Sky’s parents.
“W-what happened?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. “Where’s Sky?”
Sky’s mother was crying against the shoulder of her husband and his eyes were red, as if he also had been crying recently. “He wanted you to have this,” his father said in a raspy voice as he handed a sealed letter.
Fluttershy gingerly received the letter and asked the same question, “Where’s Sky?”
The father’s eyes down casted to the welcoming mat and said, “Sky... died.” With that the mother cries grew stronger and Fluttershy felt that her heart dropped into her stomach.
“H-h-how?” Fluttershy asked again, this time tears flowing out of her eyes.
“When he was a little baby colt, he had been diagnosed with an unknown type of pegasus illness. We had tried every doctor to help him to be cured from the illness but, none of them succeeded. We asked all of them: how long can he survive? Again, none of them can answer,” his father answered. “Yesterday, the day he flew, we finally thought that he had been cured that we finally can stop working and have time with our son, but... we never tho-“ he continued but cut by Fluttershy.
“Stop,” she interjected. “I’m... I’m sorry for your lost,” she said as her voice turns raspy from sadness. “If I can do anything to help, let me know,” she offered, trying to smile.
“You helped us enough,” his mother replied softly. “You made our son happy in his last moments. For that, we thank you,” she said, bowing slightly. With that, Sky parent’s turned to leave. In Fluttershy’s cottage, she sat there with the sealed letter in her front hooves. She gathered her courage to open the letter and began to read.
“Dear Fluttershy, first I wanted to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I never told you the condition I was in. Personally, I don’t want you to worry about me and I just want you to be happy. You know, the day we met was the best thing that ever happened to me. Even though I only know you about a couple of days, I feel that I never had a better friend than you. You helped me to trust somepony, you became my friend and you taught me how to fly. You were and always will be my friends and best friend. Thank you and please, keep on smiling.
Your friend, Sky.”
Fluttershy finally broke into tears as she finished the letter. She holding tightly onto her chest and whispered into the open blue sky, “Happy Birthday.”