mylittlejamjar | 05 Butterflies [Audio]

[Flare reaches out, placing a hoof lightly on Fluttershy's nose.]

Shh. You didn't do anything wrong. You cared for a friend. That's all you did. Is that a bad thing?

M-Mm...n-no, I guess...

You guess?

[Flare cracks a slight smile and shakes her head.]

Friendship is magic. Friendship will set us free.

[It's her own personal creed at this point - another point of introspection, she'd never been able to keep going without a mantra, a dogma of some sort. Not since the Everfree...]

It's not something to be unsure about. You make friends, and you care for them, and... yeah. It hurts when something happens that separates you from them. But that's why you have to keep going... so that you can see them again, on the other side of whatever hardship is keeping you apart.

[After a moment, she glanced up at Flare. How many times has she told others that when friends disappeared in the Digital World? Or even here?

How many times has she tried to tell herself that?

No matter how much it hurts if they leave...making those friends was always worth it.

Which is why, eventually she managed a small smile, as she tried to wipe the rest of her tears away.]

Mm...r-right...

[Flare lowers herself a little to reach over and help Fluttershy with wiping those tears away.]

I may not be the best with the whole "bein' social" thing, but... well, makin' new friends doesn't mean the friends you already have are less your friends.

[...It's at that point, and that point alone, that the mare's mind registers that she never really introduced herself to dragonfly Fluttershy, except that she thought the yellow pegasus made a cute couple with the younger Donatello but Cadence insisted her heart belonged to someone named 'Chris'.

Shipping probably wasn't the best way to say "hello".]

Uhm... sorry. About everything being sudden. Name's Flare Star if you'd never gotten it out of my big mouth before.

[She smiled shyly, nodding.] M-Mm...someone's heart...is big enough to hold all the friends they make...

[With her tears gone, she takes a deep breath to calm herself.]

I-I've...heard you around town, but...I-I think this is the first time we've ever...r-really talked...

I-It's...really nice to meet you...

[If only the circumstances could have been better.]

[Flare smiles, nodding her head. Bad circumstances made better, a cloud used for its silver lining.]

Don't be afraid to stand up to me; I like it when my friends call me out if and when I'm being a jerk.

[And again, it nags at the back of her head, so she can't help but ask.]

...speaking of being a jerk and getting called on it... I've already gotten three strikes, but if I've got a fourth swing at the plate, there's no harm in asking...

S'the name "Posey" mean anything t'you?

Edited 2014-11-09 11:11 (UTC)

O...O-Okay... [Admittedly, standing up to her friends isn't something she was quite good at yet, but she's getting better.

The odd request has her thinking a little, tilting her head curiously.]

M-Mm...n-no, I...I don't think so...

[With that, Flare sighs and hangs her head. The resemblance is just so uncanny, it really bugs her.]

She was... someone back from my Equestria. I guess you could call her a friend, though we had our differences. She looked a lot like you... same mane, same coat, even lived in about the same place, but it was a house built out of a tree, sort of like the Golden Oaks is. She was an earth pony, too, not a pegasus. Three pink tulips as a cutie mark.

[Proxy element of Kindness, though Flare manages to keep from blurting that out. No point in confusing poor Fluttershy.]

She was a little older than me... about your age when I was still a blank flank.

I have a lot t'thank her for. And a lot t'blame her for. A lot to say in general. S'been about twenty years since I saw her last, though, since I never got a chance t'go back to Ponyville after movin' to Fillydelphia.

O-Oh...I'm sorry...I-I...I wish I could help you...

[The timidness - and that blasted apology - catches Flare off guard. Despite herself, she chuckles and shakes her head.]

It's fine. In a way it helps t'get it off my chest, the same way sometimes a pony just has t'have a good cry.

[She's not trying to hold it against Fluttershy or anything, just stating facts.]

The fact you - all four of you, honestly - remind me so much of her, and you're all just about the right age to be her foal...

[Flare sits down and shakes her head again.]

It's not important. Even if the weird hunch was right, my Equestria isn't anything at all like most of 'em.

M-Mm...it's important to you, though...are you looking for her?

Maybe a little. Dunno what I'd do if I saw her again, though.

[Another headshake.]

I mean, on one hand, she saved my life... probably in more ways than one. On the other, she mired me a hell of a lot deeper in th'damn religious dogma that kept me hating myself most of my life.

[At that, Flare tilts her head, eyes going from that hairpin down to the rest of Fluttershy as she thinks about it.]

I guess part of the reason I keep wanting t'ask if you guys are related is... well. She was quiet, like you, but she wasn't really... timid. She knew what she wanted, she knew how to look out for herself, and even if it was a faith that didn't work with how I saw myself, she had faith, she had a reason to keep giving 100% each and every day.

Mm...she sounds like she was really important to you in a lot of ways...

Do we...remind you a lot of her?

[Flare nods her head again.]

Lose the wings, change the mark, [...grow a spine...] and you're a dead ringer for her.

O-Oh...

[Sure, knowing different versions of herself was perfectly normal. But a whole different pony that seemed so similar? That was strange.]

W-Well, I...I hope you, uh...I hope you find her someday...

I-If, uh...that's what you want, I mean...

[Flare shakes her head, giving a slight smile.]

Don't sweat it, Fluttershy. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't. I found something more important during my time in this Equestria anyway.

[Two somethings, actually - Harvey and her own Reason. And the latter, Cálice could never take away from her.]

And even if I said her way of thinking didn't work with me, there was still a nugget of truth that was in there, one that should be shared. Everything happens for a reason. It might not be part of some Celestial design, but things always happen for a reason, and it's our job - yours, mine, everypony else's - to find that reason.

[Fluttershy perks up a little at that. That's something she's told herself, as well...ever since being in the Digital World, she always believed that things happened for a reason.

And hearing someone else say so helped her believe that again.]

Right...

[Flare sees her perk up again, and smiles a bit wider herself. That was the kind of emotion she wanted to see in the other mare. Faith. Hope. Perseverance.]

Even painful moments can be teachable lessons, or... like in this case, a reminder that we need something to hold us up, keep us going. That we need to earn happiness, not just have it handed to us.

[She nodded.] Mm...a-and even if we forget that sometimes...that's why we need others...to help remind us...

Thank you.

[And with that, Flare scoops Fluttershy into another hug.]

It's fine. I just did what any pony would do.

[She smiles, returning the hug.] Still...I really do appreciate it.

05 Butterflies [Audio]

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