---

It was a cool evening, and Rainbow Dash had completed soccer practice with her teammates down at Everfree University’s soccer field. It was just at the border of the Everfree Forest, the school’s namesake.

She exited the locker rooms feeling accomplished, with her skin smelling like citrus from her shower. Her nose flared as she headed off the concrete path and across the freshly watered field. There was something about the clean smell of wet soil and cut grass that made her feel more alive than she could adequately put into words.

Following close behind her was Sassaflash. She had pale blond hair pulled into a messy flip, and big amber eyes framed by long luscious eyelashes. Her peach lips were bow-shaped and usually sported a mischievous smile, revealing dimples in her cheeks. Sass was slightly shorter than Rainbow, and she liked to joke that if she could just get another inch, she’d be able to match Rainbow’s famed speed.

“Oh man,” Sass yawned out as she stretched. Her hands settled behind her head as she tilted it back and gazed up at the burgeoning night sky. “Is it just me, or was that practice a little more…boring than the last?”

Rainbow Dash slowed down so that they walked side by side, and glanced at her with an eyebrow raised. A grin appeared on her lips.

“Boring?” She shrugged as her grin widened. “Yeah a bit, I guess. It’s not like I have any real competition in our practice games.”

Sassaflash smirked and punched Rainbow’s arm, making the other girl snicker. “Hardy har har. You’re a real crack up, Dashie.”

With her fit body and shorter stature, Sass was very attractive. When they’d first met earlier in the school year, Rainbow Dash had briefly entertained the idea of asking her teammate out on a date. As it turned out, she was already taken… Though, one had to wonder just how thrilled she was about it. Her longtime boyfriend, Caramel, was apparently very forgetful, having one time forgotten Sassaflash’s birthday.

It was all just as well to Rainbow Dash. Her life was too busy for romance. Her father would have been displeased with her dating within the team anyway.

Sometimes, Rainbow struggled with just maintaining her pre-existing relationships. Which was partly what had her in such good spirits tonight. She was going to meet with her high school friends for dinner. They all attended the same university, but amazingly enough, they hardly saw each other. Sunset Shimmer was even Rainbow’s roommate at the sophomore dorms, but aside from brief conversations just before bed, they didn’t get to interact or hang out much. Having wildly different educational goals did that to friends, she supposed.

Rainbow Dash felt a touch of loss. She missed seeing everyone every day.

Which was what made Sassaflash such a great friend. There was hardly any effort needed in seeing her vice-captain, and the two had very compatible personalities. It made the days a little less stressful.

“Man, you were practically sleeping out there!” Rainbow teased.

“I think it was seeing the same victory dance for the millionth time. Seriously, Dashie? Can’t be bothered to look up some new moves? I hear they have this thing called the Internet. They break everything down nice and slow for you in videos and everything!”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Puh-lease. You dream you could break it down like me.”

Then just for good measure, she pumped both fists into the air and gave one good pelvic thrust. “Unf, baby!”

Sassaflash rolled her eyes with a suffering grin. “Yeah. I have feverish dreams about it, Rainbow Dash. That must’ve been why I felt like napping out on the field. I couldn’t wait to get back to them!”

“You're so full of crap.”

"At least I'm not a thundercunt."

There was a drawn-out pause. Rainbow Dash pursed her lips as Sassaflash gave her a sly smirk.

“Sassaflash, I'm not doing it,” she said flatly.

“But why?”

“I just won't!”

“'Douchecanoe.' You can say, 'douchecanoe', can't you?”

Rainbow grimaced. “You know I don't curse.”

“And in the year since I've known you, I still haven't got an explanation as to why. I mean, you aren't exactly a reverent person, Dashie.”

“Sass, it’s hard to explain.”

“Try me.”

Rainbow sighed. After a moment, she grumbled through tight lips, “I Pinkie Promised.”

Sassaflash grinned in amused confusion. “You what?”

“My friend Pinkie Pie. She made me and our other high school friends Pinkie Promise to never curse.”

The vice captain’s eyebrows rose high. “Never?”

“Never,” Rainbow said gravely.

“But… She isn’t here.”

“You don’t know Pinkie Pie. I had to negotiate just to be able to say the words ‘crap’ and ‘damn’.”

Sassaflash’s expression turned incredulous. “Rainbow Dash, you can’t be serious. How would she know you cursed when she’s not around?”

“I’m serious. Like dead serious. Pinkie Pie always knows when you break one of her promises.” She shuddered, a haunted expression coming over her face. “Always.”

Sass whistled. “Well, if she’s that bad, maybe we should get Griffonstone to promise her they’ll lose? Then nothing will stand between us and Everton at the championships.”

Rainbow nudged her. “Don’t be so negative! This upcoming game with Griffonstone is a done deal. They don’t stand a chance against us!”

“I guess,” Sassaflash murmured. Then she fell quiet, her smirk vanishing as she looked away.

Rainbow Dash, sensing something amiss, looked at her friend.

“Sassaflash?” She frowned. “Hey. Is something wrong?”

Sass took a moment before she turned and said, “Rainbow Dash, you’re the best player on the team. Any idiot with eyes can see that.”

Rainbow smirked and shrugged.

Why deny the truth? she thought.

It was when Sassaflash spoke again that the good feeling started to drain out of her.

“Rainbow, do you think… Do you think you could talk to the coach about giving some of the rest of the team a chance?”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and exhaled hard. Her eyes cast to the side as she scratched her head.

“Uhhh—Well—”

“Look, I know Blaze puts a lot of pressure on you and the coach,” Sassaflash said gently. She laid a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “But I’m vice-captain, and even I get passed over in our plays a lot. Strategically, it leaves us at a disadvantage, y’know? What if you get hurt, or the opposing team structures their entire defense to stopping just you?”

Rainbow scowled and shoved her hands into her pockets as the two started cutting through a portion of the Everfree Forest.

In the soft evening ambiance, the trees were both beautiful and unsettling. It wasn’t the kind of place she wanted to have this conversation. What was worse, this topic had the potential of bringing up—

“I mean, haven’t we been training together on our off days?” Sassaflash said, with just the smallest hint of guilt in her eyes.

Damn.

Rainbow Dash scowled, her colorful bangs shading her gaze. “About that.”

She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “Sass, I can’t train with you one-on-one anymore.”

There was a heavy silence following this, and Rainbow groaned on the inside. Opening one eye, she glanced at her friend to see her staring resolutely forward with a neutral expression.

“All right,” Sassaflash sighed, seemingly in defeat.

Rainbow Dash scratched her head again. “I mean, it’s—it’s not that I don’t like—”

“It’s all right, Dash,” Sass said firmly.

Rainbow looked at her in surprise.

Sassaflash wore a soft frown just as their makeshift path led them out of the forest and into a small park area next to the main campus. She shrugged, turning to walk in the direction of her dorms to the east.

“Just forget about it,” she muttered.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to call something out, but she thought better of it and snapped her mouth shut.

Still gazing after her friend, she started to head toward the parking lot, which was on the other side of the park to the west.

She only took a few steps when her legs tripped on something soft and squeaky, sending her crashing to the ground.

---

Fluttershy had just gotten off an afternoon shift at her job.

The animal hospital was like an entirely different world from the animal shelter she had once volunteered at back in high school. The shelter had its share of sad cases paraded through its doors, but the hospital felt like some kind of horror show to Fluttershy. It felt like every day some devastated animal was being brought in, either the victim of circumstance or the negligence of their owners.

Her employer was an intuitive veterinarian who felt like a potential mentor of sorts, and he had quickly figured out that Fluttershy was best kept away from the front desk as much as possible.

The first time the ordinarily shy pre-vet student had seen a clear victim of animal abuse (a pitiful cat that didn’t even have the energy to protest its strange surroundings) she had erupted into a verbal avalanche of scorn and horror. That had happened on the third day of the job.

“Fluttershy,” Doctor Heartclaw had sighed in the break room where he’d managed to drag her away. “I understand how you feel. But launching into tirades is not what we do here. You know what we do? We tend to the immediate needs of the animals, and if after we conduct a full examination we see something amiss, then we call animal services. Cutting a client down to size without having all the facts is just bad business.”

Business.

That was what haunted her, even now. Doctor Heartclaw hadn’t said mission or purpose, he’d said business. As if they weren’t handling living creatures that deserved every bit of dignity and respect as they did, but products on a conveyor belt.

How could she explain to him that when she’d seen that cat, shivering and huddled at the back of its carrier, with its eyes crusted heavily and its fur falling out in clumps, that something incommunicable had passed between them?

Fluttershy could see the pain and fear. With little conscious effort, she’d been able to establish a rapport with the cat. She’d handled it during its examination as it seemed to trust no one else to keep it safe. In the end, they did call animal services. The owner surrendered his cat, but Fluttershy felt a rare kind of rage at his lack of care.

“So does this mean I don’t have to pay?” the owner asked; he was a boxy-headed gorilla in a suit who was perhaps too rich to be bothered by the fines levied against him by animal services. The cat probably wasn’t even in his direct care. Maybe it was his wife’s, or his children’s.

Befitting her nature, Fluttershy didn’t like feeling animosity towards others. It literally made her nauseous. But for this man, and whoever else may have been involved in the pain of that cat… There were no words for the anger she had felt towards them.

Thankfully, this particular workday, there had been no obvious cases of abuse from any of the pets brought in. That didn’t make them any less depressing. One elderly woman, who clearly loved her poodle very much, was simply too old to care for her pet properly.

She had brought the dog in, and its fur was swarming with maggots and smeared with feces. Worse still, it had a cut on its hind leg that had become infected, with the insects festering in the wound.

Fluttershy had to excuse herself to cry in the bathroom after they’d done what they could.

Working at the animal hospital was like watching a tidal wave crest high and crash over her. In contrast, working at the animal shelter had been more like seeing the water and seafoam recede back to the sea. You only had to deal with the aftermath, and in that space, real healing could begin.

It was true that the shelter had to make hard decisions, but Fluttershy had always felt like by that point all that could honestly be done for the animal in question had been attempted. It helped that almost everyone who worked at the animal shelter was there purely for charity, not for a paycheck.

What am I doing? She thought miserably as she entered the park just west of the main campus.

She’d thought it would be nice and relaxing after an exhausting work shift to see the sunset from here. She couldn’t relax, though, if she was thinking such depressing thoughts.

Maybe it really is like Star Weld says? She thought with downcast eyes. I just need to give it more time.

The school was on a hill that overlooked the city, affording those on campus with the breathtaking view of the sun setting over Canterlot.

She found a spot to sit, close to the forest, and let Angel out of her backpack. The bunny stretched, happy for the moment of freedom, before he curled up in her lap.

She’d started to stroke him absently when her eyes grew heavy.

I’ll just close my eyes for a bit, she thought with a yawn.

Her mind sank into the dark ether of sleep, but it was not a settled and peaceful place. Her dreams were troubled with images of animals suffering, their lifeless bodies piling one over the other as she watched, horrified but unable to stop the endless pain—

The next thing Fluttershy knew, something had toppled over her, rousing her from her nightmare. Thankfully, it wasn’t painful so much as startling.

She squeaked out in alarm before slapping two hands over her mouth as she sat up to stare with wide eyes at the person who tripped on her legs. Angel scampered off into the nearby brush, chittering in a panic.

Her eyes fluttered as they took in a colorful head of hair.

Wait…is that?

She blushed and sputtered, “R-Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash groaned and dragged herself forward, removing her legs from over Fluttershy’s before she flipped over onto her back and squinted one rose pink eye at her.

“Shy? Geez, what’re you doing there?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Fluttershy hunched her shoulders around her ears as she drew her knees up. “I’m really sorry!” she squeaked.

Her next words came in a rush: “Normally people don’t walk this close to the forest, and I was just so tired that I closed my eyes for a few moments. I don’t know how long I fell asleep! Maybe I could’ve seen you before I drifted off? Oh, but that isn’t an excuse. I really shouldn’t have been in the way—”

Rainbow Dash sat up and held out her hands.

“Fluttershy, chillax, will ya? All I’m saying is I didn’t see you. I wasn’t looking where I was going, and that’s on me, all right?”

She frowned and gestured at Fluttershy’s legs. “You okay? I didn’t bruise you or something, did I?”

Fluttershy hugged her knees, ducking her face behind them. Rather than speak, Shy gave a small shake of her head. She could feel the tips of her ears burning as a fresh blush spread across her skin anew.

This is the worst! She thought with tears clouding her eyes. Of all the people I could have tripped it had to be her.

Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy wasn’t sure when it had started exactly, but she could only admit it to herself after high school graduation.

She was attracted to her friend.

She wanted her friend.

She yearned for her.

But because she was a coward, and because they seemed so different, she just never bothered to say how she felt. She’d hoped, vainly, that the years would take her attraction away. That she’d move on, or even be forced to move on due to circumstance, but nothing of the sort came about. Her desires still burned on, stubbornly so, like a torch in a raging storm.

I wish I could disappear.

Rainbow gave an exasperated smile at Fluttershy’s behavior. She stood to her feet and shouldered her duffel bag.

“Judging by the fact that you were out here sleeping, I’m going to go ahead and guess that you missed whatever bus you usually took to get to the restaurant, right?”

Fluttershy raised her head just enough to blink up at Rainbow Dash. Then her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet.

“Omigosh! Our monthly dinner!” She turned and patted her thighs. “Angel! Come on, silly bunny! We’re going to miss the next bus!”

Angel popped out from the forest underbrush, his furry face tight and his long ears pinned as he scampered back to her. Catching him in her arms, she turned to grab her backpack off the grass when Rainbow Dash’s look made her halt.

“Did I already miss dinner?” Fluttershy whimpered.

Rainbow palmed her face. “Fluttershy,” she sighed. She looked at her and smirked. “Do I own a car?”

Fluttershy shouldered her backpack and carefully placed Angel in it. As she did so, she frowned and said, “Yes?”

“And are we not going to the same exact dinner?”

“Yes, but—”

“So is there some particular reason I can’t just drive us both there?”

Fluttershy bit her lip as she hugged her backpack. “So…” She dared a nervous smile. “I didn’t miss dinner?”

Rainbow Dash just groaned and started walking away. When Shy didn’t follow, the athlete turned and hollered over her shoulder, “Fluttershy!”

Blushing hard, Fluttershy hurried to catch up. “C-coming!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 (2020 3rd Draft Edit) Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 6 Minutes