Rainbow Dash dreamed.

She was alone in a void.

No, not alone. Something else was there with her.

Something terribly old, and unbearably evil.

Element ... it hissed. Alone .... threat ... prey?

Then she was with no transition galloping down a narrow stone corridor, so narrow that when she tried to spread her wings they brushed against the stone on both sides.

I can't fly! she realized in momentary panic. I have to run on my hooves!

The thing was behind her, she knew that. It was following her with slow, clumping steps, far outpaced by herself, and yet somehow it was gaining on her.

I can't escape! she realized in fear. It'll get me!

She knew that if it did it would do something terrible.

Then she realized something else.

Wait a moment, she asked herself. Why the buck am I running?

She whirled and faced the creature.

It was an amorphous mass of shadow, from which an unknown number of yellow-glowing eyes glared balefully at her, though she could not actually see them.

Ugly sucker, she thought and reared up on her hind legs, forelegs ready for action.

"I'm not scared of you!" she cried. "Come any closer and I'll put your lights out!"

The creature hissed. She caught some sort of foul exhalation from it, and it smelled like ... Nightmare Moon? No, not exactly the same, but similar, as if this were the Nightmare's cousin. It did not smell at all like Princess Luna.

She could catch its whispers.

No ... yet .... prey ... strong, the thing said. ... now ... wait ... later.

It retreated, but did not leave entirely.

She was in the void again. But it was somewhere out there.

She sensed a motion beside her. The dream partially faded, as she came closer to consciousness.

She could feel Fluttershy getting into her own sleeping bag, beside her.

'Shy, she thought happily as she smelled the familiar odor, so very different from that of the horror existing in her dream. She imagined that she could sense her mind, her dear heart. She felt warmth, love ...

Something shrieked in pain in the void, and fled in terror.

Then she passed into deeper slumber, and slept straight through till morning.

Of course, she forgot her dream.

Rainbow Dash awoke to the dawn light shining brightly on the tent, illuminating the narrow strip she could see through the front flap. Yawning, she crawled out of the tent, taking care not to disturb Fluttershy, who was still asleep.

Probably had trouble getting to sleep last night, Rainbow thought, after all those strange fantasies. Her parents really messed her up, between her dad blaming her for her mom cheating on him, and her mom telling her she was some kind of flutter-pony or nameless horror. I wish I could help her with that -- but if I tell her it's nonsense, I'll hurt her feelings. And if I pretend to believe it, I'll just be making things worse.

This was a deep psychological dilemma. Rainbow Dash did not do deep psychological dilemmas very well. She frowned, looking out at the tarn.

I could talk to someone who might understand this, she realized. Like Twilight! Twilight would know what to do!

But, she almost immediately realized, Fluttershy told me this in confidence. I don't know if she actually said "Don't go blabbing that I think I'm an inequine monster," but it's pretty obvious that when your foalhood friend tells you something like this, in her special place that she's never invited anyone else to see, that she means you to keep it a secret.

This was a deep moral dilemma. Rainbow Dash did not do deep moral dilemmas very well. She frowned some more.

Wait, I could talk to someone who's deeply moral! she realized. I could talk to Applejack!

No, wait. That runs into the same problem as telling Twilight. Except AJ would probably get mad at me for blabbing a friend's secret. That doesn't help.

Wow, I wish I could just fly really fast, or hit something. That's how I usually solve these kinds of problems. Something occurred to her. Oh yeah. I usually don't solve these kinds of problems.

She looked at the waterfall for inspiration. The waterfall burbled, but it didn't have any words of wisdom for her.

Or, I guess I could just keep on being Fluttershy's friend, and hope that whatever's making her think these crazy things just goes away. Like a cold. Ponies usually get over colds.

Yeah, that'll work! she thought happily. She looked up to the sky. Then she saw something.

She raced back toward the tent.

"Fluttershy!" she cried. "Come out! You've gotta get a look at this!"

The tent shook, as if a mare was scrambling out of a sleeping back and coming to her feet inside it, only then realizing that the tent wasn't tall enough to stand in. A moment or two later, two bleary blue eyes looked out through the tent flap, in a canary-yellow face framed by light pink hair.

"Whuzzat?" asked Fluttershy, with all the bright intelligence one would expect of a mare suddenly awoken from slumber.

Rainbow Dash pointed to the northeast, at the sky over the foothills.

"Look!" she said triumphantly. "Look!"

Fluttershy stumbled out of the tent. Then she looked at the sky.

At which point she came instantly awake.

"Oh, they're here!" she cried out in excitement. "They're here!" Her blue eyes shone with the reflected radiance of the rising Sun as she leaped into the sky in sheer joy, her wings beating happily as she rose to meet them.

Rainbow watched for a moment from the ground, utterly bewitched by her beauty and vitality. She passed before the rising Sun, and for a moment Rainbow almost thought she could see a radiant horn springing from her head, as if she were not Fluttershy but instead some new Alicorn. It was only a momentary illusion, but Rainbow remembered it, first in happiness. Much later she would have occasion to remember it in awe, and wonder just how fast she sometimes traveled.

But only for an instant, and then Rainbow leapt into the sky to join her, as the swarm of pink butterflies, their wings the same hue as Fluttershy's hair, as her Cutie Mark, rose above the hills, and a stream came down toward the tarn which was Fluttershy's own special place. The darkness of the night was banished, and the ecstasy of daylight surrounded the two Pegasi as they cavorted through the air, doing spirals in sheer exuberance around the descending butterfly stream.

Later that day, the two friends sat happily on the hillside, watching the swarm of butterflies flitting around the tarn, sampling the flowers with their long tongues, mating on the wing.

"They ... are ... awesome." said Rainbow Dash. "But listen ... you can't tell anyone that I'm being all mushy about this. Because I have to consider my reputation for absolute coolness. Understand?"

Fluttershy giggled.

"Your secret is safe with me," she promised. "None shall know that you liked the butterflies."

A thought struck her.

"Oh, and ..."

"Yes?" Rainbow asked.

"You don't need to tell anyone either about all that silly stuff I said last night about madness, and monsters," Fluttershy said. "I know I was just reacting to all the strange things my mother has said over her lifetime. I know that I'm me," she said, "Fluttershy, a pegasus -- not some sort of changeling demon out of horror tales. I'm who I want to be, and I'll always be your friend."

Rainbow smiled. Obviously the psychological cure by friendship technique had worked perfectly. And ponies paid good money to see psychiatrists! She felt very superior at that moment.

"Sure, 'Shy," promised Rainbow. She looked at Fluttershy, and grinned widely. "And I'll always be your friend, too. I'd love you just the way you were even if you were some kind of monster."

Fluttershy looked incredibly happy.

"That's wonderful, Rainbow," she said. She smiled warmly at her friend.

"After all," Fluttershy concluded. "I need love."

END.

Author's Notes:

The "imago" is the butterfly's adult form.

And how's that for a warm and fuzzy ending?

Till next time ...