Fluttershy paces around her warm yellow cottage. She’s so nervoud that she almost stepped on Bosco the goose without noticing. Luckily, though, she did notice and overstepped him. The temporary relief of not stepping on the fowl does not relieve her worry for Rainbow and the animals. They’ve been gone way too long. She couldn’t help but look out the window for the fifth time in the past thirty-five minutes, as she is hoping to see Dash walking towards her the cottage. Alas, no sign of the pegasus or any of the animals. 
“Oh, gosh. What if they’re hurt?” She wants to go out and search for them, but there is absolutely no way she could force herself to trek outside in this kind of weather. She’s just too scared. It is now raining particularly hard and there is no amount of money in equestria that would make her walk more than eight feet from her doorstep. As guilty as she feels for it, there is just no way. 
At the same time, she just wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something terrible were to happen to them. After all, it is her fault that her best friend is out there in the first place. 
She feels a firm tug on her mane, bringing her back to reality. She looks down her shoulder to see who exactly was trying to get her attention. It just so happened to be her white bunny companion, Angel Bunny. 
“Oh, what is it, Angel?”
The bunny looks at her and gives his nose a wiggle.
“I hope you’re right,” she replies with worry in her voice. “If anything happens to them, I don’t even know what I would do. I might go crazy!”
Angel gives her hindquarters a comforting pat. Fluttershy puts her hoof on his head and gently ruffles his fur, causing the hare to nuzzle his head deeper into her cloves in order to solicit more petting.
“Thank you for trying to calm me down, Angel. I really need it.”
The fuzzy creature moves his head out of the way of her hooves and grabs onto her foreleg, trying to pull it down to him, gesturing her to lay down. 
“I don’t guess it’d hurt,” she gives in. Fluttershy picks a space on the floor and lays down, resting her chin on her forearm. Her pink mane and tail sprawls over the floor where she lays. She didn’t think she could possible fall asleep while worrying as much as she was. There was just no way. It must have been the rain’s natural metronome hitting against the windows. The constant clicking, or maybe it was the white noise made by the wind as it blew the leaves of the trees around, or quite possibly, it was the way Angel and the other critters in the house cuddled up to Fluttershy in an attempt to put her at ease. Whatever it was, it put her to sleep.
Fluttershy wakes up with a jump and brings her head up quickly. Some noise woke her up, though she isn’t sure what it could be. She cranes her head from left to right, scanning for the source of the disturbance. Nothing. 
The noise repeats itself, along with a muffled hollering of her own name, but this time she was able to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. It was a hasty tapping. Tapping at her chamber door. Her body shot up, realizing that Rainbow had finally made it back. 
“I’m coming,” her voice rang rushedly. She fast walked to the door in a tizzy, not unlike an uptight business man who is late for a very important business meeting. 
Fluttershy had pulled the door open to reveal a soggy, muddy Rainbow Dash, who had an ornery squirrel struggling to free the scruff of his neck from the her mouth and a snake wrapping itself uncomfortable around her body. The beaver at her side shook his body quickly, slinging any excess rain from his brown coat, then scurried into the warm, dry shelter. Rainbow jerked her head and let go of the squirrel, tossing him into the cottage. Fluttershy’s eyes followed Lugnut for a second before darting back to look at her friend. 
“Thank you so much. I hope they weren’t too much trouble.” 
Rainbow smirked, “Not at all. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
“Uhm, that’s not what I-”
Rainbow cut her off while haphazardly tugging the snake. “Do you think you could get this guy off for me?”
“Oh, of course,” she hummed as she moved closer. “Slinky Snake, would you come to me, please?” Her eyes look up to the snake, her mouth in a pleading smile. The green reptile slipped his forked tongue through his muzzle in a casual hiss before complying. He calmly brings his head to her outstretched hoof and seamlessly translates from his blue perch to his new yellow one. He wraps his way around Fluttershy’s neck and takes on the role as her new scarf.
“Thank you, Mr.S,” Fluttershy says as she smiles at him and rubs the side of her head against his tight cold body. “And thank you, Rainbow,” she says, just in case she hasn’t already thanked her. 
“Oh, don’t mention it,” replies the blue athlete confidently as she preens at some mud that is caked into her chest fur.
Fluttershy nods her head subtly in the direction of her cottage interior. “Would you like to come inside for some tea or something?” 
Rainbow Dash takes a quick glance behind her and back to her compadre before responding with, “I should actually probably get home soon and hop in the shower.”
“Oh, are you positive?”
Rainbow chuckles. “F. Have you seen me?” She gestures her arms down her body to present her her filthy coat to fluttershy. “I’m positive.”
“Okay then. I guess i’ll let you go.”
“See you later, Flut,” Rainbow says with a wave.”
“Goodbye,” Fluttershy responds as she begins shutting the door. Right before the door reaches the latch, there is a very loud bang, comparable to a group of ten soldiers firing off their rifles at the same time. At that very same moment, Fluttershy’s door flings open as Rainbow flies in at full speed, knocking Fluttershy to the floor. The snake attached to her neck disperses, uttering irritated hisses. 
After Fluttershy recovers, she gives Dash a bewildered stare. Rainbow stares back, her body stiff from embarrassment. She scratches the back of her head. “Uh, yeah, I think I will stay for a bit.”