Fluttershy had lied. She didn’t have a way of getting home, at least, not one that was pre-arranged.

She supposed she could call Star Weld, but she was certain her brother was asleep. While she had enough money for a taxi, she wanted to reserve it for an actual emergency. This was not such an instance.

Still, that didn’t help comfort her much. At the moment, Fluttershy was not afraid—she was restless.

She would have liked to think her ability to repress her feelings was because of her strength of will—but she had obviously been deluding herself. The only reason she could stifle her attraction to her friend was because of deep insecurity. If Rainbow Dash was in front of her, it was likely her mind would go blank.

Certainly, the feelings were still there, but they were buried deep under anxiety and fear. Fluttershy had always needed a certain measure of distance to be able to fully appreciate her friend, even within the safety of her own mind.

But for some reason, as their session in the library had shown, Rainbow seemed determined to push her out of her comfort zone. Quite a coincidence that this started the same day her friend learned she had a life-determining project due at the end of the month.

Even more coincidence when you added her discovery that Fluttershy was doing the best in the class.

Willfully, Fluttershy refused to put the pieces together, turning away from the obvious reality that was otherwise staring her in the face.

Instead, she focused on hurrying down to the forest. There, she could find the solitude she so greatly desired at that moment.

The campus never did fully go quiet at dark. There was always someone sitting out on a bench, laying out in the grassy areas, or even just walking (or stumbling) back to their dorms.

Fluttershy kept her head down, though it wasn’t necessary. As the hour matured further, friendliness seemed to shrink.

Anyone out at this time of night was too deep in whatever personal business they had going on at that moment to bother waving. That suited the shy girl just fine. She wasn’t even sure she could manage to maintain a modicum of politeness should she be forced to interact with anyone. She so hated the thought of being rude.

Her concerns were for naught. Whether by luck or the favor of some unknown deity, Fluttershy found herself at Everfree Forest’s primary trailhead without encountering a single soul.

The forest was mostly unrestricted, except at night, when heavy yellow chains with signs that said, Trails Closed, were strung between wooden posts in an attempt to ward off any night hikers.

Fluttershy tried hard to respect clear rules and boundaries, but unlike Twilight Sparkle, she couldn’t help but find reasons to excuse herself now and again. She didn’t try to make this too frequent a habit, but under certain circumstances...

Piercing into the dark of the woods, the girl hurried along the shadowed trails with just the light of her cell phone to guide her, not really caring where she went so long as she thought she could find a good spot.

Night hikes. They were a fairly recent thing for her, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t still get a little nervous… But she’d come to know these woods very well.

Thanks to an experience she’d had with Applejack a few months ago, she’d been able to pierce the dark of the forest herself a few times. They started as short impulsive trips that steadily gained length. Her confidence grew.

Now Everfree Forest was a special haven to her...at all hours of the day.

It didn’t take nearly as much time as she thought it would to locate a small grassy clearing. Fluttershy slipped her backpack off her shoulders, a sigh of relief escaping her at finally being free from the excess weight. She quickly found a nice soft patch of ground and lay back on the grass.

Up above, the stars winked as an airplane crawled across the night sky. Moonlight shone from behind a misty cloud.

The summer night was tepid, making the breeze a gentle caress down the length of her taut body. Somewhere, a dove cooed softly.

Its call seemed filled with longing. The girl could relate. There were many things that Fluttershy wanted.

She wanted to make her brother proud. She wanted to see her old friends more often. She wanted to find a meaningful career. She wanted to feel like she could be independent.

Most of all, she wanted Rainbow Dash.

For some of these desires, the motivations were clear and understandable. For others, she found it harder to put it into words. It was true that her college studies had brought her into contact with nice people with similar interests, but her high school friends were still valued above them, despite more than a year of growing apart.

Why did she insist on neglecting the present to look over her shoulder at the past? Was she stuck in her memories? There was certainly nothing that could take away the bond they had created over their shared experiences, but it was normal to move on from such things. Instead, Fluttershy felt as though she were held hostage by them.

Meanwhile, everyone else was changing more and more with time.

Applejack was so much more serious now that she and her brother were practically running their family’s farm. Her smiles were reserved, and her eyes never quite seemed to meet anyone else's—like she was ashamed of something.

Sunset put on a brave face for everyone, but it was obvious she was stressed. Maybe even homesick. Why she didn’t return to her homeland, she never seemed willing to explain beyond, “I have a duty to this world,” but Fluttershy suspected there was more to it.

She also thought it odd that Sunset had two cell phones. She wasn’t sure if anyone else had noticed, but the way the redhead concealed her second device seemed to make it clear that it wasn’t something she wanted others to know about. Fluttershy didn’t know what to make of it, so she kept this to herself.

Twilight was making great strides in her scientific work, but she was rarely satisfied. Her efforts in studying the limits of the universe were almost manic. Though she didn’t talk about it much, it was plain to Fluttershy that this put a strain on her long-distance relationship with Timber Spruce. Twilight’s studies never seemed to line up with her boyfriend’s free time, and she was always working.

Then there was Rarity. Out of the group, they had been closest, but time and school had done the same to their friendship as everyone else’s.

Speaking with Rares required special energy that had once only been needed for Pinkie Pie. The fashionista, like Twilight, was consumed with her work, and she usually operated on little sleep and a lot of caffeine. This made her mercurial and even more dramatic than high school...if that was even possible.

On the other hand, Pinkie was really the only one who seemed the least affected by college life...at least on the surface. Much as she tried to hide it, Fluttershy could feel an emotional distance when speaking to her, as if the energetic girl was keeping her and everyone else at arm’s length.

And Rainbow Dash? The star athlete had become more entrenched in her facade, determined to make everyone at campus believe she was awesome and unstoppable. It bothered Fluttershy because she knew there was more to Rainbow than her massive ego.

She had no problem with her friend’s bravado—in fact, she loved it much of the time—but by Rainbow denying those aspects of herself that didn’t fit into her projected image…she was incomplete, turned almost into a caricature of herself.

Did she seem like a caricature at the library too? Fluttershy wondered.

Her mind’s eye became filled with the sight of Rainbow hovering over her, her multicolored hair curtaining around her grinning face as she held Fluttershy up from the floor by the back of her chair.

Different, the girl decided with a blush. She felt different.

The clearing whispered as the breeze played with the trees and the grass. A cricket sang somewhere over her head.

I want to live in the woods, she thought sleepily as she rolled onto her side and curled up. It’d be lovely if every night could be like this.

Fluttershy had once been deathly afraid of the forest. But the more familiar she became with the trails and the wildlife, the less anxious she felt. The forest at night was quiet but exciting, and very beautiful. She had even sprinkled throughout the woods various small caches filled with water and well-concealed snacks.

I should make a cache here. This spot is very nice.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a bat came bursting from the shadows, squeaking as it fluttered overhead. She gazed at the surprise visitor sidelong, fascinated by its strange flight paths. Was it after some prey she couldn’t see?

When she could hear it speak, she didn’t feel all that surprised.

What if Rainbow Dash’s interest in you was real? it whispered. She’d just need time to see that, wouldn’t she?

The bat landed just behind her shoulder, stirring her hair as its claws clung to her, sending a small shiver down her spine.

What if all you had to do was make sure your time together lasted?

What do you mean? She returned with a nervous bite of her lip. You want me to…pretend to help her?

Oh no! The bat chortled, fangs peeking from under its pale lips as it pulled itself up to better peer into her face. The nostrils on its puggish snout flared. You’d help her, of course. But she did say this project was due at the end of the month, did she not?

Well, yes…

The bat smiled, its eyes glowing red. Then I’m not sure I see the problem with a bit of mutual gratification.

That’s about when it reared its ugly head back and bit down on her neck.

When she opened her eyes, Fluttershy was not curled up and on her side. She was still on her back. She wiped at her brow with the back of her wrist and found she was covered in a sheen of cold sweat.

Just a dream, she thought with a little sigh.

Fluttershy shot upright, her eyes bugging. “Wait, I fell asleep!?”

She needed to get home, and fast. Star Weld didn’t like it when she failed to text him about being late. He said it was because he wanted her to focus on her schoolwork, not fool around, but she knew better: her brother was just afraid of losing her to some kind of accident or weirdo.

Their parents had passed during a nighttime errand. It had left her brother with an infinite mistrust of the world after sundown.

I really have no other alternative now, she thought with fresh anxiety. I have to pony-up and fly!

Fortunately, the forest offered her a perfect cover to do just that. If she flew low and stuck to the less active parts of the city, she could land relatively close to her home and run the remainder of the way.

For Shy and her friends, the mastery of their Equestrian magic had come after much experimentation and practice, all headed by Sunset Shimmer. Eventually, they had found a way to stop the unintentional pony-ups, and bring more control to their abilities.

“But,” Sunset had warned, “Your powers will always be tied to your defining virtues. So if you want to call on the magic, you have to embody that virtue, and feel the spirit of friendship in your heart.”

Easier said than done as it'd taken months of practice. Yet, with time and work, they were able to call on their abilities at will by finding that defining trait within themselves, usually via memory, and reliving it somehow. Naturally, this process was different for each of them.

Rarity’s process was very sensory-based. She needed an item—something for her to see and touch to help inspire her sense of generosity. Twilight and Sunset were capable of transforming purely through mental visualization. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were the most somatic, needing some kind of physical movement, like a pose or action. Applejack was verbal, like Fluttershy—they best conjured up their power through what they said or even sang.

This had upset Shy at first because the idea of having to speak made her self-conscious, but she quickly learned that she didn’t need to speak at full volume for it to work.

Fluttershy stood and took off her top. With a nervous shiver, she folded the item and placed it in her backpack. She had to remove her shirt, or her wings would rip through the fabric.

I think I’ll take Rarity up on her offer to make me some wing-friendly clothes next time I see her, she thought ruefully.

But now was not the time to be fussing over her wardrobe. Fluttershy needed to get up in the air.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus. She thought of the time she had first met human Twilight during the Friendship Games. After finding common ground in their animal smuggling, she congratulated her future friend on winning a round in the competition. After a short conversation, Twilight had asked why Fluttershy was being so nice to her.

“You looked like you needed it,” she whispered with a little smile.

The change took hold immediately. Fluttershy tilted her head back and felt the power course through her, the energy warm and electrifying as it coursed down her limbs in a wave emanating from her chest. The magic hummed a sweet and pleasant note, carrying her gently off the ground as her transformation commenced.

She could feel her wings erupting from her back, and she let out a little groan of pleasure as they unfurled to their fullest extent.

Her hair felt heavier from the long ponytail that had grown. On the sides of the top of her head wiggled pony ears, her human pair gone.

Her back flexed as she spread her wings wide and started to flap them, sending flurries of dust and leaves kicking up into the air.

Given their size and the nature of their wings, Twilight had fussed that flight would only be possible for Fluttershy and Rainbow after jumping from a high point, falling at a fast enough speed, then catching a wind current. Sunset just chuckled and joked that the magic was clearly indifferent to the rules of aerodynamics.

Fluttershy really didn’t care how it worked, only that it did and it got her home in time.

With one last look around the clearing, Fluttershy covered her chest with her backpack and took to the sky.

She flew as low and as fast as she could—nothing like Rainbow Dash could manage, but she was spurred by her fears of getting caught. When she came to the edges of her neighborhood, she touched down in an alley behind a closed bookstore and hastily put her shirt back on.

This part of town was upscale and fairly safe, so she felt no fear beyond making her brother upset. She still had to run three blocks, and that was even after daring to cut through a yard or two.

When she finally arrived home, it was past one in the morning, and Star Weld was asleep on the couch with his head tilted back and his mouth open. He had showered, judging by his damp blue hair and clean pajamas, yet his hands still showed the stubborn stains of engine grease at the fingertips.

The television lit up his haggard face with pale shifting colors. No doubt he’d stayed up to watch one of those horrible ultra-violent action movies he so enjoyed.

Angel Bunny was laying next to Star, his large dark eyes lidded and his long ears limp at either side of his little head. He perked up as Fluttershy came through the door, and she hastily put a finger to her lips. Angel bounded from the couch and hurried to her. She stooped to catch him in her hands and gave him a gentle hug.

“Hello, Angel. I’m so very sorry I’m late,” she whispered. Her brow wrinkled as she approached her brother. “Was he very upset?”

Angel looked at her and shook his head.

“Oh! He must have fallen asleep early. That would explain why he didn’t try to call…” She nuzzled her pet. “And you kept him company this entire time, didn’t you? What a good little bunny!”

The rabbit squirmed in her embrace, growling. She batted her eyes before her cheeks colored in a blush. “Goodness! Of course, you must be starving. Here, let me get you something.”

Fifteen minutes later, Angel was fed, and Fluttershy had changed clothes. Thankfully, Star Weld was still asleep on the couch and hadn’t moved since she’d gotten home.

Now clad in her pajamas, she approached her sleeping brother, trying to quell her guilt. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she also didn’t want to cause him any more stress if she could avoid it.

Wordlessly, she sat on the couch and gently shook Star’s shoulder. When he didn’t immediately rouse, she tried again, harder. This time, the man jerked awake, his eyes red and unfocused.

“Huh, wh-who—?” He stared around wildly, his bangs flopping into his eyes.

“Star Weld,” Fluttershy said, soft but firm. “Star, it’s me.”

He stared at her, his face showing he was still partially in his dreams.

She touched a hand to his cheek. “Star?”

Star Weld let out a rough exhale, comprehension finally settling onto his features.

“Flutters. Hey,” he murmured. He scowled and squinted his eyes at the television, which was now showing infomercials at low volume. “I was watching a movie.”

“I thought so.”

“What time is it? When did you get home?”

She fought to keep her face neutral as she lied. “I’ve been home for a while now."

“Really?” He scratched his head and dug his phone from his pocket. “I was waiting for you to call me in case you needed a ride. Did you text?”

She winced. “R-Rainbow drove me home. And no, I didn’t text.”

Star Weld scowled at her. “You should’ve texted me!” He unlocked his phone and glanced at the display. “Cripes, it’s half past one! Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

“I-I lost track of time after getting home! I know you hate it when I chase you off the couch just for being drowsy, so I went to my room and was studying on my bed. I, um…fell asleep. When I got up to feed Angel, I saw you were still here.”

Fluttershy lowered her gaze as the guilt squeezed her chest. “Please don’t be mad at me, Star. I just didn’t want to bother you…”

He sighed and softly ruffled her hair. “You never bother me, Fluttershy.”

She frowned at her lap. That’s not true.

“I guess we’ve both been pretty exhausted. I can’t hold it against you.” Star groaned as he stretched his arms over his head. He slumped back with a satisfied sigh. “Heck, I’m just glad you got home all right!”

“You should rest, Star.”

He nodded distractedly, his hands kneading the back of his neck. “Yeah.” He frowned. “Fluttershy, I dreamed of it again.”

She sighed inwardly. “You mean the car?”

He scrubbed at his eyes with his fingers. “I swear, it feels like I was close to fixing it this time…”

Fluttershy put her head on his shoulder. It felt hard and tight under her cheek. “It was just a dream.”

“I wish it would change. I wish I could figure out what went wrong—”

“Our parents would still be dead, and it still wouldn’t be your fault,” she whispered.

Silence.

Star Weld stood, displacing his sister. “It’s late. I’m going to bed,” he mumbled.

Fluttershy forced a smile. “Okay. Goodnight, Big Brother.”

He paused on his way past to look down at her.

“Hey, Sis. I…I want you to know that you’re the single most important thing in the world to me. I know you’re doing this extra thing to help Rainbow Dash out, but just don’t let yourself get carried away, all right? You have your own things to worry about. You matter too, Shy.”

Her smile turned more brittle as Star walked away. When she heard his door shut, she let go of the breath she had been holding.

With this latest obstacle overcome, Fluttershy could feel the weariness creep in. She knew she needed to rest, but there was one thing she very much wanted to do.

Returning to her room, she grabbed a small silver key from her dresser and put on her sneakers. She went down the hall and out the back door to the rear yard.

There, against the fence and under the shade of a jasmine tree was a small garden storage her parents had built for her on her twelfth birthday.

She unlocked the padlock and opened the slim wooden door.

Using her phone’s flashlight, she searched the cramped space. To her annoyance, she realized that it had been disturbed. Auto parts were on the small shelves, and her garden tools had been moved aside for unmarked cardboard boxes.

“Star Weld!” she hissed with an indignant glance over her shoulder. “I thought I asked him to stay out of my shed! He already has an entire room in the house for storing things!”

She crossed her arms and scowled. “I mean, I suppose it’s true that I haven’t been gardening as much since I started college, but that’s no excuse for invading my personal space!”

Putting her anger aside for the moment, she continued grumbling, even as she grabbed her shovel from the tool rack and shut the door.

Moving to the other side of the little yard, Fluttershy cast her phone’s light around what had once been a thriving flower bed. She froze when the spotlight caught a small green flag poking out of the dirt. All thoughts of Star’s latest trespass fled her mind as she jammed the blade of the shovel into the earth near the flag. Her heart sped up as she dug.

It’s here. It has to be here—!

On her third strike with the shovel, she felt the blade hit something. Casting the tool aside, Fluttershy dropped to her knees and began to dig with her hands. At her side, Angel Bunny appeared. A flap in the door allowed him to come in and out as he pleased, so she wasn’t surprised to see him outside.

He hopped right into the medium-sized hole she’d dug, his ears pinned back as he gazed up at her, one hind foot tapping.

She paused, dismayed, for she had just felt her fingers catch on the edge of a metal box.

“Oh Angel,” she breathed anxiously. “I know I said I’d leave it buried, but things have changed.”

Judging by the way the bunny’s eyes narrowed, he was unmoved.

Fluttershy sat back onto her shoes, her dirt-covered hands wringing.

“You’ve got to understand. I think I have a chance now!”

Angel’s head cocked to the side, one ear raising, confused and suspicious.

“I’ll be helping Rainbow Dash with a project! And… And—” she dropped her voice, “She’s flirting with me!”

A squeak. Both ears were raised now.

“That is, she’s sort of flirting with me. But that’s still something!”

Angel snorted, his ears pinning down again, clearly not sharing the sentiment.

Fluttershy glared at him. “Oh, enough! Be a good little bunny and shoo!”

With quick hands, she picked the little animal up, ignoring his squeals of protest, and plopped him to the side.

Before Angel could sit on her prize again, Fluttershy dug out the metal box she had been seeking.

It was black and rectangular, just a bit smaller than a shoebox. Brushing some of the dirt away, the girl hugged it to her chest and hurried back inside with her pet close behind.

She retreated to her bedroom and shut the door. Taking a small gray key from her dresser, Fluttershy turned on her bedside lamp and sat on her bed. There she unlocked the box. She paused to take a breath before she carefully lifted the lid.

Inside were photos and folded papers. All the photos were of Rainbow Dash—some featuring just her, others cropped like they’d been cut out of other pictures.

Fluttershy let a little sigh escape her as she picked out one picture of her friend with a surfboard at the beach, her wiry body tanned, her colorful hair flying with the wind as she smirked at the camera and made a peace sign. Another picture showed Rainbow staring blankly at the camera as the light of the setting sun flared behind her. She was sitting in tall grass, pulling petals off a daisy.

The one good candid shot I was able to get of Rainbow, Fluttershy thought with a smile. We were at Applejack’s farm, and she was sleepy from hard cider.

Fluttershy’s eyes softened as she traced Rainbow’s face in the picture. She had resolved to never look at these things again. They were the hot embers of her feelings, and she had feared that stoking them would lead to trouble and heartache.

She had thought—had hoped—that time would stifle the heat of her desires. But as Fluttershy gazed on the collected artifacts of her crush, she could see now that this had been a worthless effort. Her feelings could not be wished or willed away. She had to confront them, one way or another.

And now I have a chance to do something about it… she thought with a nervous grin.

As she sifted through the contents of the little black box, she gasped when she uncovered a necklace.

With trembling fingers, Fluttershy took hold of the slim silver chain and lifted it up. The small pendant was of a cloud with a wide, rainbow-streaked lightning bolt shooting from it. It glittered as she held it up in the lamplight.

Her birthday gift to me from senior year…

Fluttershy’s eyes burned as she slipped the necklace over her head. She examined it for a moment longer before returning her attention to the box.

Grabbing a piece of paper from it, she unfolded it and strained to read the handwriting in the soft light of her bedside lamp.

Stand up little you

Pick up little me

Smile and show them all

What love really means

Fluttershy’s heart wrenched. This was the last song she and Rainbow Dash had worked on together before their band had taken its indefinite hiatus. The first verses had been written in Rainbow’s characteristically large, sloppy handwriting. However, most eye-catching was a dramatic arrow next to them and a note she added on the side.

I can’t think of a refrain! Got any ideas, Shy?

Under, in much smaller and neater handwriting, Fluttershy had responded:

I can try!

This was how much of their collaborations had gone after the Battle of the Bands in their junior year of high school. One would write something, then pass it on to the other between classes. They had come up with several songs that the Sonic Rainbooms had gone on to perform, but this untitled project never made it to a practice session.

Under the first four verses of the song, Fluttershy had written:

Cuz we can shine like diamonds

Be strong like diamonds

We can shine like diamonds

And be strong

Rainbow Dash responded with another arrow.

Liking it! But I think it needs a twenty percent boost of coolness. Check this out—

She crossed out ‘Be strong like diamonds’ and replaced it with ‘We can cut like diamonds’.

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. When she read her old response, she nodded her agreement without thinking.

But Rainbow, she had written. That’s so very…aggressive, don’t you think?

We’re seniors now, Shy. We have to step it up! Our lyrics need more oomph if we’re gonna stand out.

Why does ‘oomph’ have to mean alluding to hurting other people?

Because sometimes people hurt each other instead of breaking into happy dance numbers. Duh!

Fluttershy’s eyes darkened. Senior year had also been when Rainbow met her first real girlfriend. At the time, no one could quite figure out what was having the ordinarily exuberant Rainbow Dash so moody and mercurial, but the truth had been revealed later when she admitted to having relationship problems.

The revelation of her stormy first love had put everything into perspective, particularly for Fluttershy, who had started to see a shift in her friend’s creativity. And who was Rainbow’s dark muse that year?

Lightning Dust.

The relationship had started through a rivalry, of all things, as Lightning had been a student at Crystal Prep at the time.

Twilight disliked her, citing her as one of the students that had picked on her the most. Rainbow assured her that she’d changed, but Twi remained skeptical. In the brief run-ins Fluttershy had with Rainbow’s ex in town, she could confirm without a doubt that Lightning had a nasty streak through her.

The way Twilight told it, Lightning was arrogant, selfish, and controlling. This just made Fluttershy question why in the world Rainbow liked her.

She never did get that answer. But as she stared at the song, which she had so unwittingly helped with, she couldn’t help but wonder what Rainbow was really trying to convey—and to whom.

I feel the magic in you

Come touch the magic in me

Let it go, let it come

We can shine like diamonds

We can cut like diamonds

We can shine like diamonds

We can cut

I dream of you

Please wake to me

Don’t leave me alone

In this sleepless sea

We can shine like diamonds

We can cut like diamonds

We can shine like diamonds

We can cut

We’re somewhere in the rough

Yeah, yeah

We’re somewhere hanging tough

We’re diamonds in the rough, yeah

Cuz we’re hard, and shine, and cut

Fluttershy dropped the paper back into the box, her face tensed as a swell of feelings surged through her. Her chest tightened, shortening her breath. Her nostrils flared as her heart beat hard against her ribcage.

Am I enough for Rainbow? She wondered with a bite of her lip. Would it ever work between us? Maybe I’m just kidding myself.

Then she remembered the bat in the forest. Her neck was still tingling where it had bitten her in the dream. Her mouth set in a firm line.

Standing, she went to her backpack on her desk and pulled out her journal and pen. Returning to sit on her bed, she began to write the first verses of a song.

Fluttershy didn’t stop until the early morning light had brought the familiar shadows back to her home, and the exhaustion dragged her down to a fitful sleep.

To hear Rainbow's song to Lightning Dust, click here. When I originally wrote the song, I imagined something closer to a rock ballad, but given that I only know how to play the ukulele I went for a more chill vibe.