The Photo From Flight Camp
The Photo From Flight Camp
Scootaloo stayed tightly on Rainbow Dash's heels as the older pegasus picked up another book from the floor and tossed it over her shoulder. “Ugh, where did I get all this junk?!” she groaned.
“This isn't junk!” said Twilight, catching the book with her magic. “This is literature!”
Rainbow shot her a look. “It's a 'How-To-Fly' book from, like, I don't even know how many years ago. It's junk.”
Twilight turned her nose up. “Well, it's going in the library with the rest of them.”
“Fine, whatever,” said Rainbow, turning to pick her way through the mess that was the living room of her cloud home. “The rest of this stuff is junk though, I don't even know how it got like this...”
“Sure ya don't,” Applejack chimed in. She shoved an old bookshelf aside to reveal a pile of chocolate wrappers, then smirked at Rainbow. “It couldn't be on account o' you're lazier than a bear in winter, could it?”
Rainbow scoffed. “I don't even know what that means.”
Emerging from a doorway with one of Rainbow’s old scarves around her neck, Rarity offered a smile. “What Applejack is trying to say, darling, is that if you spent a little more time keeping your home clean and a little less time... erm--”
“Procrastinating?” Twilight offered.
“Napping!” corrected Rainbow. “And what does it matter anyway? It's my house – not like anypony else is going to see it.”
Applejack shrugged. “Sure, 'til y'all invite us over for lunch.”
“Well-- Uh...” Rainbow cut herself off, her cheeks starting to go red. Scootaloo couldn't help but smile as the others giggled and Rainbow scratched her neck awkwardly. “Yeah, okay, well... I'll remember not to do that again,” she finished darkly. The others just laughed harder.
“We've finished in the kitchen!” declared Pinkie Pie, naturally appearing at the sound of laughter, with Fluttershy following close behind. “And we're baking cupcakes--” She turned to smile at Rainbow Dash. “By the way, you're out of sugar!”
Rainbow facehoofed and muttered to Scootaloo. “Yeah. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me...” Scootaloo snickered and smiled up at her.
“Um, what were you all laughing about? If you don't mind me asking...” said Fluttershy.
“They're makin' fun of me, 'Shy!” said Rainbow, throwing a hoof around accusingly. The others smiled or giggled, whilst Fluttershy gasped in shock.
“Oh my! T-That's not true, is it girls?” she asked worriedly, looking over at Twilight.
Rainbow chuckled. “Take it easy, I'm just kidding.” Fluttershy's mouth hung open for a moment, before curling up into a sheepish grin as she retreated behind her mane.
“Oh... right...”
Casting her one last smile, Rainbow turned to look around the room again. “Okay, you guys are doing good here, so I'm going to go up and check the attic.”
“And by 'check', you mean 'take a nap in', right?” teased Applejack.
Rainbow rolled her eyes as she started towards the stairs. “Fine, I'll bring Scootaloo, happy? C'mon, squirt!”
Scootaloo jumped forwards happily and followed.
“You keep an eye on her, missy!” Applejack called after her.
“Yes ma'am!” Scootaloo chuckled.
The attic was surprisingly well-lit compared to the one in Scootaloo's house – thanks to the roof being made of cloud-stuff, she guessed. She came to a stop beside Rainbow, who was sadly frowning around at all the clutter. “Okay, I've got to admit, this is kind of bad...”
Scootaloo trotted forwards and looked around. “It's not so bad,” she lied. “I mean, most of it's in boxes...”
Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, let's get started before AJ busts my flank for slacking.”
Picking a box apparently at random, Rainbow strode forwards and started rifling through it. Scootaloo followed her and did the same with the box next to it. It had been stuffed full of paper, the top of which was now covered in a layer of dust. Picking her way through the scraps, Scootaloo found several things of interest – some old drawings of the Wonderbolts that were pretty cool, along with the crayons that they were drawn with and...
“...'The Fashionista and the Farmpony – a romantic friend-fiction by R.M. Dash'?” Scootaloo read aloud, furrowing her brow in confusion.
“Gah!” squealed Rainbow, snatching the stack of paper and hurriedly screwing it up into a ball. “That's nothing! Nothing at all! Just... forget you saw that!”
Scootaloo watched in awe as Rainbow chomped down the offending friendfic in mere seconds, swallowed it and let out a satisfied sigh. “Um... okay,” Scootaloo muttered, offering an uncertain smile as she turned to go through some more boxes.
The next box was empty except for a few plastic figurines and something that looked as if it used to be a rulebook for a board game. And the next box was full of folded cardboard boxes. When Scootaloo pulled her nose out of it though, her eyes fell upon another box, part-way across the room. On the side were the words ’My Old Stuff', written in thick, black ink.
Scootaloo slowly approached it, nudged the flaps open and bounced up to rest her fore-hooves on the top so that she could peek inside. On the very top was a slightly tattered copy of 'Ace flier' magazine... edition one. Curious, Scootaloo put it to one side and reached in further.
She found a hoof-full of certificates, addressed to Rainbow Dash. 'First-place sprinter', 'First-place distance flier', 'First-place talent show performer'... Scootaloo chuckled, this was Rainbow's stuff alright. Beneath them though, was something that caught Scootaloo's eye...
...A photograph.
Carefully grasping it in her mouth, Scootaloo lifted it out of the box and set it down into the light so that she could see. The photo was of two familiar-looking pegasi – undoubtedly younger versions of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow had her hoof around Fluttershy's back, and was smirking coolly at the camera, whilst Fluttershy had the tiniest of smiles that was mostly hidden behind her mane.
“What've you got there, squirt?” came Rainbow's voice from behind. Scootaloo stepped aside as Rainbow approached and looked down at the photograph, a smile spreading across her face. “Heh. I forgot about this.”
“Where is that?” asked Scootaloo, cocking her head at the background. “And... how old is this?”
“It’s Cloudsdale flight camp,” said Rainbow. “And it’s pretty old I guess, I haven't really been counting.” She leant closer to the picture and nodded in recollection. “Yeah, there it is. Check it out...”
Scootaloo leant closer too, and saw what Rainbow was pointing out – around the young Rainbow's neck was a gold medal. Fluttershy had one too, except that it was blue and looked as if it was made of plastic.
“What're those for?” Scootaloo asked.
“Just a race,” said Rainbow, reaching into the box. After a moment of searching, she emerged with a pair of medals in her teeth, just like the ones in the photo. She laid them down in front of Scootaloo. Unsurprisingly, the gold medal was engraved with 'First Place'. The blue one simply had 'For Participation' written on the front. Scootaloo cast a questioning look at Rainbow, who was smiling warmly down at them.
“So you two were friends back then?” said Scootaloo.
Rainbow nodded and turned to meet her eyes. “Guess that must seem kind of weird, huh?”
“Uh, n-no! Not really, I just--”
“It's cool, squirt,” Rainbow chuckled. “Back then, I was the strongest flier, she was the weakest. It wasn't exactly a likely friendship, right?” She looked down at the photo again. “But yeah, we were friends. Best friends, actually.”
Scootaloo followed her gaze to the two fillies smiling up at them and frowned in thought. “...So how did you two... you know, become friends?”
“You want to hear the story?” said Rainbow with a smirk. “Hmm... okay, I guess it won't take too long.” She fell back onto her haunches and dragged the photo over towards her. “Let's see, how did it start? ...Oh yeah!”
Even though I was the fastest flier back in camp, I wasn't exactly very... 'popular'. I was kind of a clutz – always crashing into stuff during practice and falling through the clouds when I got mad. And most of the guys there were jerks. I mean, real jerks. I guess they were probably jealous and trying to make themselves look better, I don't know... Anyway, wasn't long before people started calling me 'Rainbow Crash', and the name stuck.
Fluttershy was kind of in the same boat. Not only was she clumsy, she was a really weak flier too, so she got the worst of the bullying. She was always really quiet about it about it though – never argued...
I don't really remember how it happened, we just kind of... gravitated towards each other. More like, I gravitated towards her, I guess. She always took the seats furthest away from the jerks in class, so I eventually ended up sitting next to her. And from there, things just kind of... went.
I've got to admit that it was awkward – she hardly said anything. Maybe 'Yes', 'No' or the occasional 'Thank you', but, other than that, completely silent. I didn't care though, I just figured that was her way. I mean, her name was Fluttershy – it made sense, right? Anyway, she might not have been much of a talker, but she could sure listen.
I just... talked about stuff. I made jokes, sometimes even got her to giggle. And whenever ponies picked on her, I scared 'em off and told her that what they said was a load of horseapples. Uh, don't tell your mom I said that in front of you...
Ahem, but yeah, we went on like that for a while, and before long I started to feel… happy around her – y'know, like we were friends, even if neither of us said it. It was cool, 'cause I didn't really have any other friends, 'cept Gilda of course. I introduced them one time, but they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye. Whatever, right? I just hung out with whoever, whenever they were around.
But then one day, I went up to Fluttershy's dorm to see if she wanted to hang out. And she was crying. It was kind of hard to figure out what she was saying, but I got the gist of it – she was upset about something those jerks had been calling her.
Clutzershy. Stupid nickname, huh? I mean, yeah, Rainbow Crash kind of made sense, but Clutzershy? I was pretty ticked off about it, and I wanted to march right over to their dorms and give 'em a piece of my mind!
But I didn't...
Seeing her crying like that, it felt... bad. I can’t explain it. Anyways, I couldn't just leave her like that, so I--
Rainbow cut off and glanced over towards the staircase with a furrowed brow. “Hey, who's there?”
Scootaloo followed her gaze and saw the tip of a white horn poking up through the hole in the floor. A moment later, Rarity popped her head up into the attic, an innocent smile on her face. “Oh, don't mind me, darling. Do go on, I believe you were just getting to the juicy part?”
Narrowing her eyes, Rainbow grabbed a nearby pillow with her teeth and hurled it across the room. With a yelp, Rarity ducked out of the way and disappeared. Rainbow glared at the entrance for a long moment, until the sound of hurried hoofsteps told of Rarity's departure.
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow, whose cheeks were still a little red. “So what did you do?” she asked.
Rainbow cleared her throat and met her gaze again. “...I hugged her...”
It was weird – I didn't really know what I was doing. It just... seemed like the right thing to do, y'know? I didn't even say anything, I couldn't – I just hugged her and let her cry herself out into my mane. Surprising, how many tears that pegasus has in her, but eventually she went quiet.
Don't tell anypony I said this, but it was... nice. I'd never hugged anypony before, 'cept my mom, of course. I guess she hadn't either, 'cause she didn't want to let go. We skipped our evening class, and dinner... wasn't until I woke up the next morning that I realised how long we'd been there.
After that, things changed. We couldn't help but smile whenever we saw each other... She started talking to me over breakfast and lunch – just about random stuff like her parents, places she liked, which of my tricks she thought was most awesome. Okay, that last one was kind of my fault, but who's counting?
We did pretty much everything together from then on. We hung out at my place on weekends, I tried to help her strengthen up her wings a bit and teach her some flying moves... but she could hardly get off the clouds, so that didn't go too great. We had fun though...
Rainbow shook her head, as if snapping out of a daydream. “Uh, yeah, so... that's the story, I guess. Pretty cool, huh?”
Scootaloo cocked her head. “Huh? That's it? But then... how did you two end up living in Ponyville?”
Rainbow bit her lip. “It's kind of late, squirt – maybe we should just finish up in here and--”
“Ple—ase?” pouted Scootaloo.
Rainbow gave a sigh. “Ugh... those eyes. Fine, I'll tell you the rest. But don't interrupt me...”
You remember the story of how Fluttershy got her cutie mark, right? She fell down to the ground and found out that her special talent was talking to animals. Of course, there aren't a lot of animals up in Cloudsdale, so when she came back, she was kind of... sad.
I didn’t notice it at first – I was way too psyched about my new cutie mark and my sonic rainboom. I got invited to a place called Skyhaven Academy For Gifted Fliers – which was as big a deal as it sounded. I jumped at the chance – dropped out of flight camp, packed up and moved to Skyhaven without a backwards look… Have I told you about this before?
Ah, it doesn’t matter anyway – this story’s about me and ‘Shy.
So leaving for Skyhaven meant that I didn’t see Fluttershy anymore. At all. She sent letters though, and she tried to pretend that nothing was wrong – told me not to worry about her… But I had to. I missed her, and knowing that she wasn't happy was a real kick in the heart. Pfft, okay, now this is sounding like one of Rarity's cheesy novels...
Whatever.
So, one day, she finished one of her letters with 'I miss you', and that was the last straw. I'd already been thinking about dropping out of Skyhaven to go back and live with my mom, but that pushed me over the edge. I flew right back home one weekend, told my mom everything and then went over to Fluttershy's place.
You should've seen the look on her face when I walked into her room... We sat up there, talking about what Skyhaven was like and stuff, until I finally got her to talk about her talent. She said that she wanted to see the animals again, that she was thinking about going to live down on the ground. But, of course, she was scared.
We met up pretty much every day over the next few weeks – even if I had to sneak in through her dorm window at camp. She wasn't happy there, you didn't have to be her closest friend to figure that out. I asked her why she didn't just drop out and take some time to think about stuff. She went real quiet whenever I asked that.
And then, one weekend...
“I'm leaving.”
Rainbow opened her eyes and rolled her head so that it laid sideways atop the pillow. She saw Fluttershy perched on the edge of the bed, her back turned. “Say what?”
Fluttershy slouched down a little. “I'm leaving...” she muttered again.
It took Rainbow a moment to figure out what the hay she was talking about. When she did, her eyes went wide and a smile found its way onto her face. “You're leaving flight camp? Hah! Right on, Fluttershy – it's about time!”
Silence.
Furrowing her brow, Rainbow pushed herself up into a sitting position and stared at the back of Fluttershy's head. “Uh, how about, 'yay'...?” Rainbow tried.
Still nothing.
“Geez, what's up, 'Shy? You're usually real happy when you make a decision--”
Fluttershy edged a little further away from Rainbow. “...I don't mean flight camp.”
“Uh, then what do you mean?” asked Rainbow. A moment later, her eyes went wide in realisation and she put a hoof to her face. “You're leaving to go the bathroom, aren't you? 'Shy, seriously, I don't need a newsflash every time. And you don't have to be so embarrassed about it anyway--”
Fluttershy shook her head and sniffled. “I... I'm leaving Cloudsdale.”
Rainbow recoiled, as if she'd just been bucked in the gut. “S-Say that again, 'Shy...” she said, certain that she must have misheard.
“I-I'm... I'm leaving--” Fluttershy tried, but she clearly couldn't get the words out. Rainbow scooted closer, only to have her friend shy away again. “I-I wanted to tell you...”
“W-Wait, back up,” said Rainbow. “I don't get it – you're leaving Cloudsdale? A-Are your parents moving or somethin'?”
Fluttershy lowered her head and sniffled again before starting to shake. Rainbow's mouth fell open, uncomprehending. Finally managing to compose herself, she slid from the bed and trotted around to Fluttershy's front. The timid pegasus turned away, hiding her face behind her hooves.
“Fluttershy, look at me,” begged Rainbow, creasing her brow.
“N-No...”
Beginning to feel a block in her throat, Rainbow reached out and put a hoof on Fluttershy's leg. “'Shy, please – you've got to tell me!”
Fluttershy stirred. A moment passed before she slowly dragged the hooves away from her face and turned to Rainbow. The poor mare had red-rimmed eyes and was biting her lip to try and stop the tears. “...I-I wrote to the Mayor in Ponyville... th-that's a p-place on the ground. She... she said they have a-a house I could live in, a-and they'd love to have somepony who... who could look after animals...” She trailed off into sniffling silence.
Rainbow's mouth fell open a little as she worked the information over. “You're... going to live on the ground...” she muttered. Seeing Fluttershy begin to tear up, Rainbow quickly shook off her surprise and forced a smile. “T-That's awesome!” she managed. “But... what're you crying about?”
Fluttershy looked away again and closed her eyes. “I'm not crying,” she mumbled. “I-I'm happy...”
“Uh huh,” Rainbow deadpanned. “And I'm not Equestria's best flier...”
“W-What? Of course you are!” said Fluttershy, looking up at her with wide eyes. Rainbow just raised an eyebrow and smirked. “O-Oh... that was sarcasm, wasn't it? I'm sorry...”
Rainbow shook her head and chuckled silently before climbing up onto the bed and sitting beside her friend. “C'mon, 'Shy – tell me what's up.”
Fluttershy frowned across at her. “...My parents said I'm not allowed to go back down there.”
Rainbow raised her eyebrows. “But you're going anyway?! Hah! They always said I'd be a bad influence on you!”
Fluttershy actually smiled at that, even if it was only for a second. “I-It's just that... they won't go with me... I'll be all alone...” She shook her head. “I miss them even when I'm staying at flight camp for the week. Staying in Ponyville for goodness knows how long... I just... I don't think I could do it.”
Breaking off, Fluttershy looked down at her hooves. “A-And then there's you...”
Rainbow bit her lip, having a sneaking suspicion as to where this was going. “What about me?”
Fluttershy took a steadying breath and closed her eyes. She opened her mouth and whispered...
“...What?!” said Scootaloo, leaning forward so much that she almost fell over. “What did she say?”
Rainbow shook herself out of her reverie once again and turned to quirk her brow at Scootaloo. “Since when did you get so interested in this kind of story? I thought you were all about the action?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, then closed it again and looked away timidly. “Well, yeah... but if you're telling the story...”
Rainbow chuckled at that. “Yeah, okay – I am a pretty awesome storyteller.”
“...So? What did she say?” Scootaloo asked again.
“It, uh... y'know, I don't really remember,” Rainbow lied obviously. “But that's not important. What is important is that, after that night, I decided what I wanted to do...”
Nopony in Cloudsdale wanted a school drop-out working for them... well, except the ponies offering really boring jobs... so there wasn't much future for me there anyway. Ponyville was my best bet. Only... there was one thing that was still holding me back...
“Mom?”
Rainbow Dash plodded into the kitchen ever so slowly. She could still turn around and forget the whole thing – then she wouldn't have to explain any of it...
But no – that was quitter talk, and Rainbow was no quitter.
“Mom? You in here?”
“Over here!”
Stepping around the sink unit, Rainbow caught sight of her mom beside the stove, cooking up dinner, which smelled awesome as usual. She looked around as Rainbow approached. “Something wrong, squirt?” she asked warmly.
Rainbow bit her lip. “Uh... C-Can we talk for a second?”
Mom raised her eyebrows. “That sounds ominous,” she said with a little chuckle. “What's on your mind?”
“Oh, you know... stuff,” said Rainbow unhelpfully.
Mom rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know 'stuff', alright. Could you be a little less specific, dear?”
“Sorry,” muttered Rainbow. “It's just, um--” She met Mom's eyes – the same smiling, warm eyes that she woke up to every morning. “...I-I was thinking about what Fluttershy said. About how she wanted to go and live on the ground, with the animals...”
“What about it?” said Mom, cocking her head.
Rainbow licked her lips. “I... erm... W-What do you think she should do?” she said slowly.
“Me? She's your friend, squirt – you know her a lot better than I do, isn't that right?” Mom raised an eyebrow and smirked suggestively.
Rainbow just shook her head, not in the mood for being teased. “Yeah, but... Just, tell me what you would do if you were me. Please?”
Mom huffed, but smiled all the same. “You're no fun this evening. Alright, fine...” She turned her head up to the ceiling. “Hmm, what would I do if I were Rainbow Dash?” she mused aloud. Rainbow rolled her eyes at her deliberately slow speech. This was a waste of time...
Finally, Mom met her eyes with a faint smile. “I think, if I were you, I would go to Fluttershy and tell her that, if she were to move away, I would miss her very much. But,” she continued. “I would tell her not to worry about that. Because, more than anything else, I wanted my best friend to be happy, and to follow her dreams. Even if that meant that she had to leave me.”
Rainbow's mouth fell open a crack as she took in the words. Mom just smirked. “If I were you, that is,” she finished coolly. “So, why do you ask, squirt?”
“I... I...” Rainbow stammered hopelessly. Finally, she shut her mouth and shook her head. Forcing a wide smile, she met Mom’s gaze again. “Ah, it's nothin', Mom. I just... want to give her some advice, y'know?”
Mom nodded and smiled warmly again. “Okay. Dinner'll be ready in ten minutes, go and wash up.”
I couldn't tell her I'd already decided to move away with Fluttershy. It was hard enough just looking her in the eye – we hardly talked all through dinner... When I left, later that night, I didn't even say goodbye. I just left a note on my bed – explaining everything, telling her I was sorry for being such a coward, and saying that I'd be back to visit someday.
Leaving like that was... almost impossible. But, once I took the first step out of the window, all that seemed to disappear to the back of my mind. I needed to go with Fluttershy – this was the only way.
We met up at the balloon station, since I knew Fluttershy would never be able to fly with saddlebags weighing her down. And we didn't like her chances of landing in a cloud of passing butterflies again if she fell...
Anyway, her parents were there. They were waiting for us at the boarding platform. Fluttershy swore that she hadn't told them anything, so I guess they just overheard one of our conversations. I thought we were busted. If it was just me, I could've made a break for it, but Fluttershy would never run away from her own parents. Well, not literally at least...
But they weren't there to stop us. They were just there to say goodbye to Fluttershy and give her some stuff for the road. She cried. Oh man, she cried... Couldn't blame her though, I felt pretty bad myself. At the time, I didn't know why my mom wasn't there too – I figured she should've picked up on our plan as soon as I talked to her that evening... Part of me was kind of put out that she didn't show.
Fluttershy was still sniffling when she got onto the balloon. Her dad came up to me and told me to take care of her, as if I needed telling. Heh, he looked like he was on the verge of tears too... poor guy. But I told him she was safe with me, and he took my word for it.
And that was it. It was just the two of us and the pilot on the way down, 'cause it was so late I guess. ‘Shy was too... well, 'Shy'... to talk around the other guy, so the trip was quiet – I had lots of time to think. About what Ponyville would be like, what I was going to do when I got there, but mostly about my mom...
We landed in Ponyville while it was still real dark, so it was way too early... or too late, whatever... to talk to the Mayor about getting a house. We spent the night in one of the rooms at the stable, that's where we finally got a chance to talk – on account of Fluttershy already being too homesick to sleep.
I told her about the conversation with my mom. 'Shy was always good at that stuff – seeing the meaning behind words... She told me that I did have my mom's blessing. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about right then, but she got me thinking and, eventually, I figured it out.
...Moms are cool...
The next day, we talked to the Mayor and she showed us to the Cottage Closest To Everfree – the same one Fluttershy lives in now. Apparently, nopony wanted it because they were afraid of the forest. Me and 'Shy, being new to the whole 'ground' thing, thought that was pretty silly at the time – how bad could something called 'Everfree' be, anyway?
So yeah, we lived there together for a while. Fluttershy made friends with a bunch of animals around there, and more came by every day. Rabbits, foxes, squirrels... before long, she actually had her own coop full of chickens. I'd never seen her so happy. At nights, she still missed her parents, but I was always there to back her up when she felt like crying. I missed my mom too, but being with 'Shy kind of made it seem less...
Gah, whatever – That's not important.
We stayed there for a couple of months together – with me just helping out around the place as much as I could. But after Fluttershy had stopped feeling homesick and gotten settled in, I started to feel kind of useless. She was moving on with her life, doing what she loved, while I was just there playing some dumb supporting role…
I went into town, showed off my skills to the weather team and got a job the next day. They even offered to set me up with my own place – this cloud home. And I accepted. I knew that ‘Shy wouldn’t want me to leave… and I really did love being with her, but I needed to do something with my life, y’know? Well, I guess you don’t… yet.
Anyways, I set up my place right above her cottage. I didn’t find out until later that the cloud home hated the Everfree – it kept floating away at night… To start with, I pushed it back every day, so that I was just a holler away if ‘Shy needed me. And there was a lot of hollering to start with – whenever somepony knocked on the door, or whenever she found a spider in the bathtub… stuff like that.
It wasn’t that way forever though. As time went on, she started to get more… ‘sure of herself’. She wasn’t exactly Miss Assertive, but she was getting to the point where she could stand on her own four hooves. She needed me less and less – she started doing things for herself... I've got to admit, it was awesome to watch.
Pretty soon, we found a place we liked – not quite going completely solo, and not quite tripping over each others' hooves either. And… well, we’ve been in that place ever since.
“...And that's the whole story, I guess,” Rainbow finished with a shrug. She smiled at Scootaloo, who was staring up at her, holding on to every word. “Y'know,” said Rainbow thoughtfully. “I don't think I've ever told anypony that story before...”
Scootaloo's eyes went wide. “Really? I'm the first one?”
Rainbow chuckled. “And probably the last. That was way too sappy for my tastes.”
“...But it's true, right?” said Scootaloo, furrowing her brow.
“Well yeah, I guess, but--” Rainbow cut off and shot a glare at Scootaloo. “Hey! You sayin' I'm sappy?!”
Scootaloo shook her head emphatically. “N-No! No way! I--”
“Kidding, squirt – I'm kidding,” chuckled Rainbow.
The two of them turned towards the stairs down as they heard a clattering sound from below, followed by a loud growl from Twilight. Rainbow smiled. “Yeah, I think we'd better get back to work before somepony comes up here and sees that we haven't done anything.”
Scootaloo giggled and nodded.
Rainbow stood out on the edge of her cloud porch, watching as her friends and their balloon touched down in Ponyville, far below. She let out a yawn and smiled up at the starry, night sky. Her neck still ached a little from all that cleaning, but at least her friends were happy with her house now. She chuckled to herself and shook her head.
“Um, Rainbow?”
Turning slowly, Rainbow Dash saw Fluttershy touching down on the porch beside her. She couldn't help but smile. “Hey, 'Shy. Not heading home?”
Fluttershy shook her head and returned the smile. “Not yet.” For a long moment, they just stared at each other, with Rainbow expecting her to say something more. Finally, Fluttershy lowered her head and scraped at the cloud-stuff with her hoof. “Um, I wanted to talk to you...”
Rainbow faced her properly. “Go for it.”
“I might have... 'overheard' you earlier, just a little bit,” Fluttershy muttered. “When you were talking to Scootaloo.”
Rainbow felt her face growing red, but she did her best to hide it. “O-Oh yeah? What'd you hear?”
Fluttershy hid behind her mane. “Only um, most of it... after you scared Rarity away...” She gulped. “...I didn't actually think you would remember all of that.”
Eyebrows raised, Rainbow fixed Fluttershy with a look. “Huh? You thought I'd forget?”
“N-No! Of course not!” said Fluttershy hurriedly. “I just thought that... you might not... remember.”
Rainbow huffed and strode over to her. “Of course I remember, 'Shy – even I'm not dumb enough to forget something that special.”
“...Special?” Fluttershy repeated, looking up at her with glistening eyes.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you know – important?”
“Oh, yes – I know what special means... I just--” She broke off and looked away. “It's nothing...”
“'Shy, seriously, what's up?” Rainbow asked, leaning in.
Fluttershy gulped again, before looking up at her with the one eye that wasn't hidden. “Um... Well, I heard you talking about… The Hug. And, um... well, I--”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Rainbow, lifting a hoof to stop her. “You telling me that you're fishing for a hug? C'mon, seriously?”
Fluttershy, blushing brightly, took a step back. “Y-You're right, it's silly. I'll just, um, I'll just go...” She hurriedly turned and started trotting towards the edge of the porch, unfurling her wings.
But, just as she was about to take off, Rainbow pounced – tackle-hugging the poor, squealing pegasus to the ground. Fluttershy squirmed around desperately, until her shocked, teal eyes met Rainbow's smirk and she realised what had happened.
A blush spread like wildfire across her face as she smiled up at Rainbow, who started to chuckle at the sight. Fluttershy bit her lip to try and keep herself from joining in but, in the end, it did no good. The laughter went on for what felt like minutes, before finally dying down into a companionable, cuddly silence.
“...Rainbow?” said Fluttershy finally, her lips curling into a thoughtful frown. “You never told Scootaloo what I said to you in my room... D-Did you forget?”
Rainbow curled her own lip. “Hmm, I don't know... it's kind of hard to remember that far back,” she teased. A moment later, she smirked at Fluttershy. “Oh wait a sec, didn't it go something like this? ...”
She leant closer and whispered into Fluttershy's ear, which twitched adorably as Rainbow's breath blew past it. She gave the words a moment to settle before pulling back to see that Fluttershy was beaming from ear to ear, and it was all but impossible for her not to do the same.
Without warning, Fluttershy shot upright and pulled Rainbow into a crushing hug, which she returned along with a grateful chuckle as she nuzzled into Fluttershy's mane...
~The End ♥
