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The Cutie-Marky Tales

by CrowMagnon

Chapter 1: Fluttershy's Fable

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The Cutie-Marky Tales
by CrowMagnon

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Scootaloo...? You're up really high!"

"Yeah, maybe you should try it after ya can fly a li'l better?"

Scootaloo looked down at her friends. Her hat and cape fluttered in the breeze as she balanced on a tree branch high above them. "But then I might not learn how to do it right! What if I get my wing busted by some bad guy and I have to swing away, but I never figured it out because I always cheated by flying around? That's why Mare-Do-Well always grapples around everywhere!"

"Ah thought it was 'cause she's an earth pony," Apple Bloom shouted back up. "She's got th' grip strength ta swing around lahk that!"

Sweetie Belle looked over at Apple Bloom and asked, "Really? I thought she was a unicorn. I know she was casting spells in a few of those extra-big comics Scootaloo makes me read."

Scootaloo called down, "Okay, first off, those are trade paperbacks, and I never made you read them!"

"You wouldn't tell me where you hid Lord Plushington unless I did!"

"No, I said I'd tell you where that silly bear was if you gave Mare-Do-Well a chance. And I didn't hide it, it just fell under the bed!"

"Ya have a toy bear named 'Lord Plushington?'"

Sweetie Belle's cheeks flushed as she muttered under her breath, "His Lordship doesn't like being called a toy..."

Not hearing this, Scootaloo continued on. "Second, Mare-Do-Well doesn't cast spells. She uses gadgets and mind-tricks to make it look like she's got unicorn magic to take her enemies by surprise! Then she swoops in and rocks 'em like Commander Hurricane!"

Sweetie Belle squeakily shouted up to her pegasus friend, "But what about when she teamed up with Saddle Rager and... ugh, no, that's not the point! Scootaloo, I just don't think this is a good idea!"

"You won't be saying that when I've got my superhero cutie mark! Besides, I'm being careful. That's why we took that mattress out of Apple Bloom's attic, isn't it?"

The two fillies on the ground looked down at the filthy cushion that they had brought with them. Broken springs poked jaggedly out of it at every angle.

"Honestly... lookin' at it now, ya might actually be safer without it," Apple Bloom mused.

Picking up the grappling hook she'd carried up the tree with her, Scootaloo grinned bravely. "See? Apple Bloom believes in me! I'm good enough, I won't even need padding."

"That's not what Ah... Scootaloo, wait!" The two fillies could do nothing but watch, however, when their comics-obsessed friend swung her grappling hook around over her head a few times, then cast it out toward the branch of another tall tree nearby.

Both of them followed the hook's arc, their eyes slowly swivelling to track it as it sailed through the air toward its target. Then they watched as it fell short of the branch and started arcing down toward a pair of pegasus mares who were walking toward them. Walking alongside her friend Rainbow Dash with a peppy bounce in her step, Fluttershy noticed the two fillies and stopped to greet them with a cheerful wave and a smile. "Oh, hi girls! What are you two doing out here?"

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, saw that the fillies had been looking upward and turned her eyes to the sky as well. Seeing the errant grappling hook coming toward Fluttershy, she immediately shoved the yellow pegasus out of harm's way, putting herself in its path instead.

Up in the branches above, Scootaloo winced when she heard the clonk of the hook hitting Rainbow Dash's skull. While she peeked one eye open to see the young shaman nursing a growing lump on her head, Rainbow looked back up at her and locked eyes with the caped filly.

With a nervous chuckle, Scootaloo asked, "Soooo... guess I should've yelled 'fore?'"

-----

My Little Pony, My Little Pony
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh・
(My Little Pony!)
I used to wonder what friendship could be
(My Little Pony!)
Until you all shared its magic with me
Rich opportunities
An honest phrase
A helping hoof
And courage guides the way
The confidence
To raise your voice and sing
The spark of magic in everything!

You have my little ponies
Do you know you're all my very best friends?

-----

Fluttershy finished carrying Scootaloo back down to the ground, where Rainbow Dash was coaching the other two Crusaders in how to apply an herbal ointment to the lump on her head. Sensing an opportunity to discover their special talents, they started arguing over which of them would get to do it, giving Rainbow even more of a headache. After getting nudged toward the injured pegasus, Scootaloo cleared her throat and said, "Sorry, Rainbow Dash... A hero shouldn't get innocent ponies hurt."

Rainbow looked down at the filly, and after hearing the contrition in Scootaloo's voice, she gave a forgiving grin and replied, "Well, teach always says I've got a thick head. If you want to make it up to me, why don't you put the medicine on, instead?" Taking the ointment from the other two Crusaders, she offered it to Scootaloo, who took the small jar in her hooves.

Letting out a dejected sigh at being left out, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up at the mares. "What're y'all doin' out here, Mrs. Fluttershy?"

Spotting some baskets hanging from Fluttershy's wings, Sweetie Belle asked, "Were you two having a picnic? ... Out in the middle of the woods?"

Fluttershy giggled and shook her head. "No, Sweetie, I was just helping Rainbow here pick herbs for her potions. What about you three? Were you playing superhero again?"

"No, I was training," Scootaloo firmly corrected while applying the ointment to Rainbow Dash's head. "If I don't get really good at being a superhero, I might get my cutie mark in something else! It could end up being something lame like accounting or... or making dresses for a living!"

Sweetie Belle cheerfully chimed in, "I wouldn't mind making dresses!"

Thinking about the last time they relied on their unicorn friend to make some costumes for them, (along with the wrath of Spot Light, Ponyville's resident fashionista who had offered Sweetie one of the Best Pony Boutique's back rooms to work in, only to have to call the fire department that very same day) Apple Bloom suppressed a shudder and replied, "Well... still, ya should keep yer options open, Sweetie!"

"Oh, that's true," Fluttershy replied. "I remember what I felt like before I got my cutie mark. I was so unsure about what I should do with my life, but the day it came in, it was magical. I'd finally found my destiny." Smiling wistfully at the memory, Fluttershy looked back at her flanks and the mark which adorned them: A pony's hoof held gently in a hand.

"Yeah, that's exactly how I feel about it," Sweetie Belle replied. Bouncing up and down on her dainty little hooves, she asked, "How did you get yours, Mrs. Fluttersy? Please tell us!"

"Hey, yeah! Maybe if we hear how ya got yours, it'll give us some ideas!"

Fluttershy replied, "Oh, I don't think it really works that way. Besides, you don't want to..." She slowly trailed off when she saw all three of the Crusaders were staring at her, each of them with wide, pleading eyes.

Sweetie Belle's lower lip quivered.

"Well, if you really want to hear the story..." Fluttershy replied, succumbing quickly to the adorableness. The Crusaders let out a cheer, prompting her to laugh and urge them to sit. "Okay, settle down. It all started when I was a filly around your age. It was my first and last year at Flight Camp..."

-----

Fluttershy's Story

You might find this hard to believe, but I used to be very, very shy. A lot of ponies liked to tease me about it... among other things...

Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut, shivering timidly while hoping that if she just curled up into as small a ball as possible, they might forget she was there. Or maybe she could make herself disappear altogether. That sounded like a better idea by the moment, but no matter how much she wished and prayed to the sun above, she wasn't anywhere but where she was; surrounded by fillies and colts all repeating the same chant over and over again.

"~Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!~"

It had seemed merely senselessly mean when it started. She wasn't a very good flier for her age... Whenever it came time to test her abilities, she would feel the eyes of everypony watching her... judging her... and her little wings would lock up against her sides. And even if she did manage to take off, she was so clumsy and slow that she usually ranked dead last in every exercise.

That had been enough to draw the attention of three colts who constantly made fun of her. Fluttershy would have been happy to avoid them, but there was nowhere she could go where they couldn't easily find her. And then it had gotten even worse.

"~Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!~"

One of them had started chanting that little rhyme. Over and over again. The others were quick to join in, and it was so catchy that a few of the other children had started to join in. Then a few more. Then it seemed like everywhere she went, whenever they had an opening, every filly and colt would start singing that same mocking line. Well, maybe there weren't so many who did it out loud, but everypony thought it. Because it was true. If she wasn't so timid and clumsy, ponies wouldn't be smirking and laughing at her all the time.

Reminding her that she just wasn't good enough, and she never would be.

"~Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can--~"

"Quiet! Shrike's coming!"

The fillies and colts quickly shut up. Moments later, Counselor Shrike approached the children. "Alright, everypony, flap over to the west fields! We're going to be doing some agility exercises today!" The others groaned in aquiescence and started taking off to fly to the designated area. Soon only Fluttershy was left, a tiny, trembling ball of yellow and pink so small that Shrike almost missed her.

Almost.

Glancing back over her shoulder, the camp counselor saw Fluttershy and turned back around. In a harsh tone, she asked, "Hey, did you hear me? I said the west field!"

Fluttershy squeaked in terror and tried to look up at the older mare. Out of all of the counselors, Shrike intimidated Fluttershy most of all. She always sounded so disappointed whenever she participated in activities, always telling Fluttershy that she should do better. The filly was sure that she, more than anyone else at the camp, knew what everypony else did... that Fluttershy was worthless and weak. But she was an adult, so Fluttershy had to at least try to do what she was told...

But she couldn't. She ended up shaking like a newborn foal who could barely open her wings. While she watched the shameful display, Shrike's expression shifted into what absolutely had to be disappointment. "Look... I, uh... I have to go keep the other kids in line," the mare told her. "You go ahead and take a few minutes. Head on over whenever you're ready." And with that, she spread her wings and took off to the west, leaving Fluttershy alone.

For several long minutes, Fluttershy sat alone on the cloud. She hung her head low in shame, the chant of the other children echoing in her head. It was true, she could hardly fly. She wasn't good for--

"Hold on!"

--anything? Fluttershy blinked and looked from side to side. She thought that she'd heard the voice of another filly, but she didn't see anypony nearby. Just cloud and sky.

"Don't give up! You can do it!"

There it was again! It wasn't a voice she recognized, but there was definitely somepony nearby. For a moment she flinched, thinking maybe one of the fillies had come back to tease her some more, but it didn't sound like that. It was a strong, encouraging voice.

When she realized that it was coming from somewhere above her, Fluttershy looked up, only to see a piece of paper flutter down toward her through a nearby cloud.

Fluttershy didn't really think about it. She simply opened her wings and pushed off, fluttering through the sky toward the lazily drifting paper. It was a strange thing to see, given that paper wasn't typically brought so high up. Maybe in the mountaintop offices, or places where they had to write records to be shared with ground-born ponies, but most sky-born pegasi didn't use the stuff, considering all of their architecture was built from water vapor. That made it rare, and it belonged to whoever was speaking, so Fluttershy caught up to the page and grabbed it in her mouth before flying up toward the cloud it had come from.

Just as she flew up high enough to see above the cloud, however, she heard a sound. A grating, grinding sound that immediately put images of terrifying monsters who hid in the skies and gobbled up naughty little fillies who didn't do as they were told. She couldn't stop herself immediately, so she simply clenched her eyes shut, but as she crested the edge of the cloud, the noise was already fading, as if moving farther away despite staying in the same place. When the noise was almost completely gone, Fluttershy dared to open her eyes again and saw...

Nothing. Not a trace of anypony. She thought she might have seen a faint shimmer in the air, like a mirage, but by the time her confused and frightened little mind realized it, it was already gone. There was absolutely nothing that shouldn't have been there, yet Fluttershy was certain that she had heard a voice. Not to mention the paper that was still in her mouth.

The paper! It was proof that she wasn't just imagining things, and also might hold some clue about who was there. She was nervous, not knowing where it had come from or why, but whoever had been speaking... well, they'd actually sounded nice. Telling her to hold on and not to give up... maybe it would be okay to find them and return what they'd dropped, so she landed on a patch of cloud and carefully held the page in her hooves so that she could read it.

There wasn't much to the paper. It looked torn and damaged to Fluttershy, like it had been ripped out of a book. The parts that were intact enough to read, however, made it look like a bullet list with the header, "l's Rules of Confidence"

"One: Don't be shy, look them in the eye," Fluttershy read out loud. Shaking her head, she told herself, "But if I do that, they'll just see that... I'm a little scaredy-pony. And they already tease me about that anyway." She swallowed nervously just thinking about it, but happy, confident ponies had no trouble looking each other in the eye, and they weren't the ones being made fun of. Maybe that was why she'd found it in the first place. Whoever had dropped it... maybe they were trying to help her?

Deciding that it was worth a try, Fluttershy continued reading. "Two: When somepony tries to block... show them... that you rock!"

-----

A little while later, Fluttershy was making her way to the west fields, where Counselor Shrike was guiding the other children in their exercises, making them fly through a series of rings. The three colts who always tormented her were off to the side, though, hanging out between Fluttershy and everypony else. Her first instinct was to try to creep around them without being noticed, but one of them caught sight of her and flew over toward her.

"Hey, Fluttershy! It took you this long to catch up? You really are a lousy flier! They're gonna kick you out and send you to live on the ground!"

Fluttershy reflexively cringed away from the bully, but whispered to herself, "Don't be shy, look them in the eye..." She then forced herself to look back up, her voice trembling slightly as she asserted, "I... I'm not going anywhere. I d-deserve to be here j-just as much as anypony else..."

With that, she tried to move around the colt, only to be stopped when he moved to get in her way. With a mocking laugh, he asked the others, "Hey, you hear that? Fluttershy says she belongs here! You wanna fly around with the other kids? Go ahead." Fluttershy tried to get around him again, only for him to match her movements. "Come on, I thought you wanted to play with your friends. Oh right, you don't have any!"

"When s-somepony tries to b-block..."

The colt tilted his ear toward Fluttershy and asked, "What was that? Heh, what, are you gonna do something about it?"

Fluttershy gulped and squeaked out, "Sh-show them that you rock!" Rearing up on her hind legs, Fluttershy whimpered and randomly flailed her forelegs around, then fell back down to all fours and hit the clouds hard enough to disrupt a small patch directly beneath the colt. His friends saw his eyes go wide with surprise for a moment before gravity took hold and he started tumbling down the hole.

Fluttershy yelped, fearful that she'd done something horrible and sent a fellow child plummeting to their death! The other two colts were too surprised to move as she threw herself to the edge of the hole she'd created and looked down...

... Only to find the colt hovering in place, struggling only to keep from busting out laughing. A battle he quickly lost when he saw her frightened face. "Oh, wow! The look on your face! What, you forgot I'm a pegasus?"

The other two immediately snorted and started falling over themselves laughing as well. "What'd you expect? She can hardly fly. She probably hoped you were as lame as her!"

As the laughter beat against Fluttershy's eardrums, the little yellow filly should have felt ashamed. She should have been afraid of what the bullies were going to do to her in retaliation, or of being teased more. Instead, she heard the teasing and saw her vision slowly consumed by red as she felt something else rise up inside her.

"I... I was concerned about you! Even after everything you've done... as miserable as you made me... I didn't want to hurt anypony. But you just... you just keep making fun of me!"

Her words didn't have any effect on the colts except possibly to make them cackle even louder and more obnoxiously at her. It seeped into her ears, pooling and shifting into a low, angry roar like a thunderstorm as she grit her teeth in anger. "You laugh at me... I WRATH AT YOOOOUUUU!"

This actually succeeded in stopping their laughter as the shriek of primal anger from the timid and meek little Fluttershy took them completely by surprise. The one in the hole suddenly found himself being tackled as Fluttershy launched herself at him, screaming a primal war cry from the pit of her stomach with her hooves battering against--

-----

"That was you?!"

Fluttershy trailed off, pulling herself out of her memory when Rainbow Dash suddenly interrupted. "Oh, um... yes. I guess you heard about it?" Fluttershy let out a chagrined chuckle of embarassment at how Rainbow's jaw was hanging open.

"Heard about it...? When I started flight camp, that blow-up was legendary. Geeze, you should've said something back when Gilda was in town. She'd have wanted your bucking autograph!"

Fluttershy coughed and replied, "Rainbow Dash, what I did could have gotten somepony seriously hurt, and I really don't deserve any praise for it," tilting her head toward the Crusaders, who were staring at Fluttershy in an awestruck mix of fear and, especially in Scootaloo's case, respect.

"Huh? Oh! Right, yeah. Violence is bad, and stuff," Dash lamely backpedaled.

Scootaloo asked excitedly, "But it was good there, right? I mean, that's how you got your cutie mark!"

Fluttershy shook her head. "Nope, I didn't get my mark until much, much later!"

Scootaloo deflated a little, leaving Apple Bloom to ask the obvious. "But then why in tarnation did ya tell us that story?" Then she eeped and quickly put a smile on her face, nervously adding, "If, uh... ya don't mind, Mrs. Fluttershy, ma'am...?"

"I really like your mane!" Sweetie Belle squeaked, not wanting to risk triggering the pegasus mare's wrath either.

Instead of being offended in the slightest, Fluttershy assured them, "It's okay, girls. That was a very long time ago, and I've learned much better ways of dealing with mean ponies since then. In fact, that's what this next part of the story is about.

-----

After attacking that colt, Counselor Shrike ended up having to catch us. I was so angry, I didn't even notice how close we were to hitting the ground. After that, my parents had to pull me out of camp. It was so embarassing for them, and I had to go to a special class every week instead...

Fluttershy hung her head, trying to hide her face behind her mane as she walked to her 'special class'. At least, that's what her parents called it. Young as she was, Fluttershy knew what it actually was. It was a place for bad ponies like her, to keep the rest of Equestria safe.

Well, not just ponies. There were some griffons, too, and even a young minotaur. Everyone had been a troublemaker, though, and Fluttershy was terrified. Not of them, as she might have been before, but of what she might do if one of them tried to pick on her. All because of that piece of paper...

Suddenly, her head bumped against something, or rather someone. A squeaky but boyish voice grunted in protest, and her saddlebags slipped off her back as she backed up a step to see that she'd walked right into the minotaur of all creatures. He was taller than her by a bit, thanks to standing up on his strangely tiny hind legs, but also outweighed her by a considerable margin, being quite pudgy. "Oh... sorry," she said in a dull tone. "I'll watch where I'm going next time..."

The young minotaur's acne-spotted face scowled for a moment, but it softened quickly when she apologized. "Uh... 'kay. Yeah," he awkwardly replied before turning away. Fluttershy supposed that he didn't want to say anything more than that, so she lowered her head again and continued down the hall.

"Hey! Stop!"

Fluttershy came to a stop and looked back over her shoulder to see the minotaur coming toward her. At first she thought maybe she'd done something wrong again, but then she saw the torn piece of paper in his hand. "You dropped this. What is it, anyway?" He held the page up in front of his face. "Never apologize when you can criticize? Huh... sounds like good advice."

To his surprise, Fluttershy immediately snatched it from his hand, practically pushing him over in the process. "It's not good advice! It's evil," Fluttershy exclaimed, cramming it deep into the bottom of her saddlebag. Her eyes began watering with bitter tears as she started to sniffle. "I thought... maybe whoever dropped it was trying to help me, but they weren't! It was all a lie..."

After a few seconds, the confused minotaur asked, "Okaaay... so if it's evil, why are you carrying it around?"

"So I don't forget..." Fluttershy replied. "So I don't forget why I'm here..."

There was another brief pause before the minotaur asked another question.

"Why are you here? I've seen you with the rest of the group and you really don't seem like you belong here. You're way too..."

"... Scared? Weak? Pathetic?" Fluttershy offered.

"I was gonna say 'nice.'"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No... no, I'm not." And with that, she started to tell him everything that had led to her expulsion from Flight Camp.

When she was finished, the filly realized that she had been recounting her story for several minutes without interruption. "Oh... sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to bother you with my problems..."

"What, are you kidding? You're the first pony who talks to me like a real person since my family moved here," the minotaur replied bitterly. "Everypony else either calls me 'tubbo' or 'spots'... but most of 'em just call me a 'monster.' That's why I'm here... Figured if they were gonna call me a monster, I might as well be tough like one... Then nopony'd push me around..."

Fluttershy blinked and looked up into the young minotaur's eyes as his voice trailed off. He had a determined look on his face, but Fluttershy saw something familiar behind it. A certain self-loathing that she knew well enough that she never wanted to see it in another creature. "You're not a monster," she said emphatically, flapping her wings to support herself as she reared up to bring herself to his eye level. "You really aren't. I am..."

"Now that's a big pile of cowchips," the minotaur replied before adding, "Pardon my Tauren. But there's no way you're a monster."

"But I could've gotten somepony killed!"

The minotaur crossed his arms across his chest and glanced around before looking back at Fluttershy. "And you feel lousy, don't you? Monsters don't feel bad about doing bad stuff. They just keep doing it. There are some bad ponies here, but I don't think you're one of 'em. You just... made a bad decision."

Fluttershy blinked a few times and brought a hoof to her chin. She had never even thought of it like that before. She just assumed that she was horrible, but the minotaur sounded so sure. In a soft little voice, she asked, "Do you... really think so?" When he nodded in affirmation, she then asked, "What about you? Do you... feel bad about what happened?"

This time, it was the young minotaur's turn to blink in surprise. He brought a hand to the back of his head and eventually replied, "Well... kinda... yeah. I mean, I didn't want to. Those jerks started it, but... in the moment, I thought I'd feel like I won if I pushed them around, ya know? And my dad said I was just standing up for myself, but... I dunno. I'm probably just not as nice as you," he said with a shrug, looking away from her.

Despite dredging up all of the painful events that had led to her current situation, Fluttershy found herself smiling a little at the awkward young bull. "Well, I think you're nice," she told him. "If you're a monster, then I want to be a monster like you." Without even thinking about it or really understanding why, she took a deep breath, then let out a loud, "RARRRRR!"

The minotaur stared at her, blank-faced and wide-eyed as she growled. Beyond that, he showed no reaction, and Fluttershy thought she might have gone too far and hit a nerve. At least, that's what she started to think until he snorted and started laughing. He tried to stifle it for a moment, but that didn't last long, and he soon had to lean against the nearest wall to stay upright. "Oh... oh Minos! That is just... That's just adorable," he exclaimed, his voice cracking.

Fluttershy found herself giggling easily along with him. It wasn't until later that she would realize there was anything weird about it, but it wasn't like being laughed at by the bullies. The young minotaur had been kind enough to listen to her and reassure her, and it felt good to see him laughing and feeling better.

As their shared giggle-fit slowly died down, he chuckled and grinned down at her. "Thanks... I needed that."

Fluttershy smiled demurely and nodded, but her head slowly tilted down as her thoughts turned inward. "Yeah... me too. Maybe if I could've laughed like that, I wouldn't have gotten so angry."

"Maybe you should," he replied. Then, more firmly, he asserted, "No... maybes are for babies! You should be the one laughing, not those jerks who were picking on you!"

Fluttershy perked up, her smile returning at the minotaur's words. "You really think so?"

"I know so!" He held out his hand toward her. "Hey... you want to be friends? I'm Iron Will."

Fluttershy smiled. "I know. You're the only minotaur here," she replied as she reached up to place her hoof in his hand. "And I'd love to be your friend. I'm Fluttershy."

-----

So we spent the next several months in our special class, but most of the best lessons we ever had were the ones we learned from each other, talking about our problems and supporting each other. Finally, the time came when we were asked to do a presentation in front of the others to show what we'd learned.

Fluttershy stumbled a bit as she tried to properly put on the tie that Will had given her for their routine. Doing so with hooves was awkward enough, but she'd started to go through a growth spurt, and her legs had gotten all long and gangly without giving the rest of her body a chance to catch up, making her feel like she was on stilts made of noodles every time she would walk around. Especially now that she was going to be out in front of everyone else. Everyone... staring at her...

Sweet sleepy Luna, she couldn't breathe! Her throat was closing up!

But then she felt a pair of arms reach around her from behind. Immediately, the worry started to fade as she leaned back against her friend while Iron Will loosened her tie and helped her get it on straight. "There ya go. You don't want to put it on so tight."

Fluttershy took a few deep breaths before she turned around to hug him. "My hero! Hope you aren't too nervous," she said, her own body trembling slightly.

Will just grinned back at her and replied, "Don't be silly. Of course I am! We could make fools of ourselves out there!"

Fluttershy's smile widened, and she nodded. "But even if we do, at least we can make spectacular fools of ourselves!"

Will snickered and took her hooves in his hands. "And either way, we'll have a good laugh when we're done."

Fluttershy nodded, and together they made their way to the stage where their lives would change. The counselor in charge of their 'special class', more honestly referred to as a therapy group, had rented out a small theater to give everyone in the group a venue to express themselves. Some of the meanest, angriest youths in Equestria were in the audience, but Fluttershy and Iron Will were as ready as they could possibly be. They stepped out into the middle of the stage to the forced applause of those in their seats, and a few heckling jeers before the counselors shushed them.

Less than a year ago, such a thing would have turned the young mare into a quivering, nervous wreck. Instead, she chose to giggle and lean against Will's side for strength before she began to sing.

One day I fell out of the sky, so far down I thought I'd die

I would splat and turn into an icky, splattered Flattershy

"Ew," Will interjected, sticking his tongue out at the image, which earned them a few snickers from the audience.

I thought I was a goner

And the light almost went out

But Iron Will here came and saved the day

With his patented shout

"Remember, this is trademarked!" Will told the audience.

Fluttershy flitted between him and the audience to assure them, "And just to be clear, that wasn't the important part."

Iron Will tugged Fluttershy back by her tail. "Whattaya mean? I want to get paid for this! What's more important than that?"

This got a few more laughs out of the audience, so Fluttershy made a silly, ditzy grin and replied, "Well, they're paying attention, at least!"

Iron will seemed to mull this over a bit before shrugging. "Eh, gotta start somewhere. But after this, I'm getting an agent! So this is what I told her:"

"Flutters, you can keep right on falling

For the rest of your days

But in three little syllables

Your troubles can all melt away!"

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Fluttershy got up on her hind legs and spread her wings and shrugged her shoulders in confusion. "That's it? Just... laugh?"

Iron Will responded by playfully tapping her on the top of her head. "Hey, all the bad stuff seems so big when you keep it all stuffed up in here. Push it out with a big laugh, and it'll look a lot smaller!"

"But what about the stuff that isn't just in my head?"

"Then at least you won't have all those little problems cluttering up your noggin while you fix the real ones!"

Fluttershy smiled widely at that, and the pony and minotaur started dancing and capering out the stage. Fluttershy even flew around a bit, pulling a few small flips and twists while they sang together.

So I'll laugh at my bad luck

Have a gas when you get stuck

Titter at my tumbles

Snicker at your stumbles

Belly laugh at my bullies

Have fun with your follies

And when it seems like nothing's going my way, I'll take a deep breath and throw my head back, and from the bottom of my soul, I'll say--WAAAAAGH!

As Fluttershy launched into the big finish, she pirhouetted up into the air and did a figure-eight loop over Iron Will's head. At least, that was the intention, but one of her awkwardly long legs accidentally clipped his horn, yanking him off to one side and throwing her off balance. Both of them let out a loud grunt as they tumbled to the floor. Hard.

Will groaned and rubbed his head while Fluttershy picked himself up. "Uuuugh. Hey, you okay, Flutters?"

The pegasus shook her head... and then started to giggle. "Are you kidding? That was awesome! We couldn't have planned that if we tried! We just made spectactular fools of ourselves!"

Will blinked, then joined her in snickering, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as their laughter built up. "You're right! Wow, totally made our point there!"

The audience, unsure if this was part of the act or not, could nevertheless enjoy a good bit of slapstick. Soon, every creature in the theater was laughing, with even the more jaded ponies stomping their hooves in applause. And while they laughed, brightening the mood of the entire building, Iron Will raised a hand and curled it up into a fist, holding it out toward Fluttershy. She looked back into his eyes and grinned so widely, she thought her face might split in half as she raised a hoof to bump against his fist.-----"In that moment, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to devote myself to helping ponies overcome their fears and worries, and I knew who I wanted by my side the whole way through. There was a flash of light, and my cutie mark appeared, symbolizing my passion for encouraging every creature to support each other through hard times, and to accept help in facing their problems."

"Neat! That was a nice story, Mrs. Fluttershy," Sweetie Belle cheerfully exclaimed.

Scootaloo protested, "But it took so long for her to realize what her special talent was." To Fluttershy, she asked, "Are you saying we're gonna have to do something for months before it'll get us our cutie marks?"

Fluttershy blinked and tilted her head. "Uh... no, that's not really what I..."

"Scootaloo's got a point there," Apple Bloom mused. "Most times, cutie marks show up all of a sudden, right? So Mrs. Fluttershy's story don't really help us much." Looking over to see Rainbow Dash gathering up some herbs from the surrounding area while Fluttershy was telling her story, she asked, "What about you, Rainbow Dash? Did you get your mark real slow, or was it from somethin' big an' fast?"

The Rainbow Witch of the Everfree raised her head with a mouthful of moss, and leaned over to place it in her saddlebags. "Who, me? Yeah... it was fast alright, but you don't want me to--"

Scootaloo perked up and interjected, "Yes we do! We need all the help we can get!" The other two nodded, neither of them feeling like arguing the point.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and replied, "Alright... I think I've got enough for today. Let's head back to town, and I'll tell you along the way. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

Next Chapter: Rainbow's Reminiscience Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 31 Minutes
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