There was no rush, no hurry. There was no need to actually do anything, but why use all that time to just sit down and do nothing? Wonderful as it might be to just sit quietly and let the world spin gently around you, there was a time when one just has to stand up, open the door, and venture forth.
No destination, no goal, no drive, no needs, no goad… just one hoof stepping in front of the other, the gentle caress of the sun across mane and coat, the whisper of wind across grass. Branches rattle softly, leaves dance their dances and sing their own secret songs to the distant chorus of birds and bugs and beasts of all stripes. The world was turning gently around her, and she was in some small way a part of it for once rather than separate, and there was a joy in that that she so rarely felt.
It lit a little spark in Fluttershy's heart; a tiny place buried so deep inside, curled around and over itself so many times that it was barely anything at all, but now, in the freedom under the sun, it stirred. A seed long resting dormant since she was a tiny little thing, now warming and starting to open, and it was something she had wanted for so long, had been so frightened of for so long.
Pale yellow hooves stepped silent over the open grass, no more than a delicate whisper of sound lost in the swirl of breeze. It stirred her mane, sent a few errant strands dancing in their own mad fashion away from the rest; rebels reveling in their audacity before tangling together in exhaustion to settle across her nose, to be swept back amongst the rest. The air had a sweet coolness to it; just enough to contrast the warmth of the sun, a tactile delight tickling across feathered wings, coaxing her to draw them out and up.
She was atop a hill, a small one not all that far away from her house, but it may have been the other side of the world for how it felt. She had never felt so free before, rarely so calm and so… happy. For maybe the first time in her life, Fluttershy stood tall, her wings shining honey-gold in the glowing sun; spread wide, vanes and primaries shifting and ruffling gently at the touch of the soft wind. Her eyes closed, and she felt herself flying without having to leave the earth.
There was no pressure, no hardship; no fear lurking, threatening to cast her down and send her scrabbling back to the dubious safety of her cottage. Pegasi have never felt so free as she did right now, birds know not the dizzying heights Fluttershy now lofted, standing there on the grass. That tiny spark in her heart was glowing with heat now; its shell, once hard and glittering like granite, flaking away to reveal a tiny bud of hope… of love.
One never truly knows the ecstasy of freedom until they have spent time in chains. Bonds of hemp, chains of iron, shackles of steel--- those are only the physical torments. Terrible they may be, but just as awful and somehow worse were the bonds within, that held the heart in a vice and made every living moment a dread. Never being able to step past one's door for the fear, never being able to speak to another pony for the terror of judgment…
Not being able to do anything.
Hopelessness, helplessness; a life cringing and crouching, the weight of the eyes on her back, across her shoulders. Whispers and titters, a susurration of noise; all of it somehow directed right at her, all of it picking apart every single thing that had ever been wrong and ever will be wrong with everything she did...
A perfect prison: one that traveled with her wherever she went. Never free, always hidden; shackled and bound from within, the scars invisible but hurting so much worse than any physical wound…
But not here.
Here, Fluttershy flew. Her wings were spread wide, her chin lifted proud for the first time in her entire life. All four hooves set firmly into the grass, yet she flew all the same for it was her heart that was free now. The shell within fell away into dust and ash, and from it something bloomed: hot as the sun and hued in every colour of the rainbow unfurling at the centre of Fluttershy's very being. Tears hot and sweet glittered against her cheeks, yet they were not tears of pain or fear--- it was the bliss of feeling those shackles break and fall away, of being able to breathe without constriction, of not needing to look over her shoulder to see who was muttering hurtful lies, true or imagined.
Free from fear, free from hate, free from the world, free from herself--- of what she used to be.
She had never felt this before, had never known there could be such colour in the world, let alone inside. A sob escaped the gentle pegasus, tears flowing freely, yet her smile did not falter, did not fade. The sun warmed her face, gentle as a lover's caress, guiding her heart upwards and outwards into the heavens, to flit amongst the clouds in a way that Fluttershy could never do on her own. She flew higher still, drifting through the deep Azure where no birds could fly, then beyond into the glittering night-blue tapestry dusted with diamonds. She soared with comets, chased the lazy paths of twirling planets, drifted through the impossible majesty of galaxies…
Birdsong in her ear, so soft and sweet, drawing the pegasus away and down back to the earth where she stood, to the small and tiny body she truly inhabited, standing there lost on the tiny hill in the sea of emerald grass.
A deep breath in, then out. The breeze had fallen silent, the world now just a quiet cacophony of life, of birds and bugs and beasts of all stripes, moving about in their own important lives. Fluttershy brushed the back of a hoof against her cheeks, wiping away some of those soft tears, but she felt no shame in them for once, for the blossom in her heart still glowed all in prism, no longer with the heat and brilliance of the sun but with the quiet strength and energy that would never, ever go out.
Wings soft in the air beside her, stirring the grass about her hooves, heralding the fall of four more. She did not mind. She did not for one single instant even think to crouch or cower in the presence of another pony, or at least, never again in the presence of this pony.
Turquoise eyes turned to meet soft magenta, and a shared smile passed between the two. Rainbow Dash shed her cap, whistle, and flight goggles to the grass, stepping up right next to Fluttershy, one wing blue as a horizon sky and soft as can be curling lightly across her butter-yellow back.
Together they stood on that little hill, their hearts soaring into the furthest heights without needing to leave the ground.
Author's Note
Inspired by and written to:
