Love In The Adjacent Corner

Chapter 5

Fluttershy was beginning to grow accustom to sleeping on the ground. The next morning she felt more rested than the last few nights. Lantana was awake before Fluttershy, but waited for her mother to wake up before asking for permission to play in the park with some friends. Since it wasn't a school day, Fluttershy encouraged her filly to run off and play.

Fluttershy was about to put on her saddlebag before heading out to meet with Rainbow Dash. She stopped herself after remembering that it still contained the drugs for her next delivery. It would be best if I didn't bring this with me, she thought, I don't want to alarm Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy was on her way down to the same coffee shop where she agreed to meet Rainbow Dash. The sun was already up, and the sky was free of clouds. A beautiful Saturday morning! the yellow pegasus thought.

Fluttershy trotted toward town, humming a happy tune when Rainbow Dash flew down cutting Fluttershy off her path. Fluttershy jumped back, once again, startled from Rainbow Dash's approach. Fluttershy was still a few blocks away from where they were suppose to meet, and they were the only ponies on the path.

"So what have you really been up to?" Rainbow Dash asked.

For a moment, Fluttershy believed that Rainbow Dash knew about her new job in Ponyville. "Well... nothing really," she replied. Fluttershy walked around Rainbow Dash and proceeded walking down the path.

Rainbow Dash flew in front of Fluttershy, cutting her off again, and blocked her path. Fluttershy stopped. Rainbow Dash returned a glare of disbelief at Fluttershy, "Really? Nothing at all?"

Fluttershy began to worry, and here nerves became visible on her face. "Just taking care of Lantana," she said.

Rainbow Dash began to accuse Fluttershy. "What's this I hear about you selling cocaine to ponies?"

Fluttershy immediately denied the accusation, "I don't even know where you would hear such a thing."

Rainbow Dash stuck her face inches in front of Fluttershy's, while staring straight into her eyes. "A friend told me—Derpy. She's in the hospital right now because she overdosed. I went to see her last night. She almost died! The doctors said she has permanent brain damage. Sure enough one thing she does remember is a yellow pegasus selling her drugs!"

Fluttershy guiltily looked away, but did her best to sound innocent. "I'm by no means the only yellow pegasus in Ponyville."

Rainbow Dash didn't believe Fluttershy's innocence at all. "She also said the pegasus had a couple of butterflies for a cutie-mark," Rainbow Dash added.

There are plenty of yellow pegasi in Equestria, but each cutie-mark is unique, and her butterfly cutie-mark was in plain view even at that very moment. Fluttershy knew she couldn't deny it any longer. "Well... so what if I sold it to her. She ordered it. I didn't force her to take the drugs. She wanted them. I didn't tell her how much to take. She choose to overdose on them. None of that is my fault!"

Rainbow Dash began to lecture her, "What do you mean it's not your fault? Had it not been for you, she would be with her family instead of in the hospital right now! What are you doing selling drugs anyway!"

"Well I didn't want to. I just really needed the money." Fluttershy felt some shame, but It bothered her how Rainbow Dash, a pony who never suffered a day in her life, was the one judging her right now.

"Fluttershy! What were you thinking? You know better than this. This isn't the right way to make money."

Something in Rainbow Dash's words struck a nerve on Fluttershy. It felt like something in her mind had snapped. Something that turned her guilt and shame into pure anger. She felt furious. Fluttershy was done being lectured by Rainbow Dash. She was ready to stand up for herself, and stared Rainbow Dash straight back in her eyes. She took in a big breath, and yelled louder than she ever had before,

"You don't know what I've been through! I wasn't born with wings four times as strong as any pony else. I payed attention during flying classes back in Cloudsdale flight academy—unlike you, and I put my best effort to be half as good a flyer as you, but I'm not even half as good a flyer as most fillies! I'm a pegasus who isn't a good enough flyer to get a job anywhere! I don't have the skills of an earth pony, or unicorn, and the only skills that make a pegasus employable—I suck at. My husband abandoned me while I was pregnant, and I fucked up every job I had because my useless wings quit on me! Sure enough, the weather ponies were understaffed, so it was a dry season. When I tried to apply for a job there, they told me I wasn't what they were looking for. Despite how understaffed they were, and because of the drought and my unemployment, I couldn't afford to keep my frickin' lawn watered, and sure enough an outdoor fire followed the dead grass straight to my house and took away everything from me! And you're judging me? I didn't get lucky with your genetics. I had to suck a ponies dick for a bag of no more than four apples, because I had no money to buy food for my daughter, and you know what: That pony was the closest thing to a hero in my life. You were nowhere to be found when my daughter was starving. The legal system let my husband leave me without paying any alimony. The fire fighters never saved my house from the fire. No disaster relief crew came to give me shelter after I've been homeless for days now. You haven't had to suffer for a single day in your life! Your parents paid for everything you ever needed. Every time you got into trouble, you had some pony that just made all your problems go away! I finally found a way to successfully keep my daughter, and myself alive, and you're going to tell me that its wrong, and that I should stop? FINE! Then tell me how to keep a roof over my head! Tell me how to feed my daughter the right way! Tell me how! FUCKING TELL ME HOW!"

Fluttershy was breathing heavily after her rant. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped completely open. Rainbow Dash never in her life heard Fluttershy yell. Fluttershy's voice was always soft and gentle. Rainbow Dash was stupefied. She backed away from Fluttershy, unblocking her path, while her mouth hung open. Rainbow Dash was left with nothing to say.

Fluttershy proceeded down the path. Even though she could assume her meeting with Rainbow Dash at the coffee shop had been canceled, she felt that the confident thing to do was to keep walking—leaving Rainbow Dash behind.

She had no business being in the Ponyville shopping center. She left her saddle bag with all her money at home, but she still had a lot of stress from her encounter with Rainbow Dash, and a walk around town could be just what she needed to calm down.

As the day grew older Fluttershy decided to head back home, just in case Lantana was done playing with her friends, and decided to come home. The sun only just reached mid-sky, and, Fluttershy started to think when would be the best time to finish her delivery that should have been done yesterday.

It was when Fluttershy was less than a block away from her house that a light rain began to take place. The rain wasn't enough to bother Fluttershy, but she was concerned about whether it would get much worse before she gets a roof to keep dry under.

I guess Lantana's not here, Fluttershy observed. The patch of yard next to the ruble of their home was empty. Too empty, Fluttershy thought. Fluttershy looked around for a moment knowing something in the air didn't feel quite right.

A spark inside her head went off. Her saddlebag was missing. The saddlebag with the drugs. Oh no! Fluttershy knew exactly where she left that bag on the ground, and all she knew is that wherever it was, it wasn't where she left it. Fluttershy worried what to do if she couldn't find it. How would she tell Flim, and Flam? How would they react? Would they be mad? Fluttershy walked around the property, looking under any loose rubble that Fluttershy had enough strength to lift. What if somepony took it? she thought.

Fluttershy's eye caught something laying beside the rubble of the far side of the house. She couldn't identify the object other than that it looked peculiar compared to the Rubble. She moved closer. It looks like... Lantana?Fluttershy was curious. What would she be doing over there? She moved closer. It was definitely Lantana. She was laying flat on her side, and facing in the opposite direction her mother approached from. "Lantana?" Fluttershy called out. "Lantana!"

The Filly didn't respond or move or anything. Fluttershy ran up to the filly and rocked her body side to side in attempt to wake her up. Fluttershy called out louder despite being closer. "Lantana!" The filly was completely unresponsive. With a closer look, Fluttershy noticed the filly wasn't breathing, and her body was cold to the touch.

Fluttershy lifted one of the filly's closed eyelids, and waved her hoof in front of the filly. It was motionless. Her eyelid itself was stiff, and the rest of her eye was completely dry. The ends of Lantana's legs were beginning to lose their color, and her legs were limply splayed. Fluttershy was no longer looking at a filly, but a corpse.

"No! No! Lantana! What did you do?" Fluttershy had tears pouring from her eyes. Her saddlebag and the box she was supposed to deliver both lied empty, and open next to the corpse. A fine white powder stained the young corpses lips. Fluttershy was smart enough to understand what happened, but not emotionally capable of believing such a thing could happen to her. "Don't worry Lantana. Don't worry. I'm here now. Don't worry." Fluttershy brushed the corpse's mane—the one part that was still soft.

The death of her daughter struck Fluttershy with immense fear, but Fluttershy couldn't accept the fact her daughter was dead. She was in denial, and even looking at her daughter's colorless corpse wasn't enough to convince her what she was seeing was real. It was her own guilt that repressed reality. "Its okay Lantana. It's probably a good thing to get some rest right now. You're just sick is all." Fluttershy put a hoof on her forehead to check for a fever. "Oh my, you're ice-cold. Just wait there I'll go get you a blanket."

A deeper part of Fluttershy's mind knew Lantana was dead, and it was the reason Fluttershy cried uncontrollably, but Fluttershy's consciousness simply couldn't process what was right in front of her, and so it didn't. Fluttershy returned with the blanket, and draped it over her daughter. "That should warm you up."

Fluttershy got under the blanket with the corpse. She put her hoof around the filly's shoulders and snuggled tightly with Lantana's body. Fluttershy nuzzled into Lantana's mane, and she continued to cry. Fluttershy fearfully, and quietly sang a lullaby to her dead daughter; sobbing between every few words.

"Hush now, quiet now, its time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now..."