It was getting pretty late and the sun had already set. As I reached town, Lassie had become tired, so I had dropped her off then decided to use Cadence to commute.

My diesel rig pulled up in front of the hospital and I spotted that carriage that I had rammed a while back. It had been refurbished, but I could still make out where I had smoked it.

A very fine looking stallion was getting into the driver side while, whom I presumed to be his daughter, got in the passenger side. His daughter… was Diamond Tiara.

“Oh boy…” I trailed off and looked away in subtle amusement, tipping the brim of my hat down to conceal my eyes from view. They drove off and I made sure they were far enough away before stepping out, that way Tiara wouldn’t recognize me, or hopefully not recognize me. I was the only person in Equestria, along with the fact that Cadence was also one of a kind.

I stepped towards the hospital before thinking to myself. She had been pretty scorned and I bet she was still bent about the whole ordeal. I grabbed some roses from the flower bed and the thorns stabbed into my palm.

“Ow… what the fuck,” I swore, and then remembered: roses have thorns. “Figures,” I muttered before entering the hospital with a handful of roses. Redheart gazed over to me, her head drooping as she let out a sigh.

As she trotted over, she readied a pen and clipboard. “Do I even want to know what happened?” she asked hesitantly. I just shrugged.

“I dunno. I’m here to see Rainbow Dash,” I replied. She raised an eyebrow while looking at the roses I had picked.

“She’s in room twelve,” Redheart replied and I nodded before proceeding down the hallways. Finally reaching the door marked ‘12,’ I entered without even knocking.

“And Daring Do used the stalactite lever she had made to bust open the cell doors, freeing herself from captivity!” Dash read aloud. Huh, I had no idea that she liked reading.

“Following the trail of destruction that the big ape creature had caused, she arrived in a secret cavern that…” She trailed off, looking away from her book and spotting me looking to her with raised eyebrows.

“I didn’t know you liked to read,” I said with a small chuckle. “You’re really good. You could put a foal to bed with that kind of voice.” I spoke truly and calmly to try and calm her down from whatever scornfulness she might have.

“Meh, I don’t take notice. Hey have you read the new issue of Daring Do yet?” she asked excitedly and I raised an eyebrow. ‘Daring Do had a story book franchise about her?’ I thought before shaking my head.

“Drat… well, I’m partly way through, so if you don’t want me to spoil it then you might want to leave pretty soon,” she told me before quickly delving back into the book.

“Nah… I don’t read Daring Do books,” I informed her honestly and her mouth went agape as she gasped.

“What do you mean: ‘you don’t read Daring Do books’?! They’re like… the best stories EVER!” she exclaimed and I just rolled my eyes as I teetered my hands like a weight scale.

“Meh, I already met her in real life. She wasn’t all that great,” I informed the mare, who now scrunched her nose in confusion.

“What do you mean: ‘met her in real life’? She’s a fictional story book character,” Dash told me and I was at a loss of words.

“Wait… what? Are we talking about a different Daring Do? I met the one who’s an adventurer and is at odd’s end with Rufus,” I asked.

“No, his name is Rucus. And yes, Daring is an adventurer, and she’s only like… the coolest character EVER!” she replied and I was still confused. I just shrugged the thought off before handing her the roses.

“Here, uhh… I picked these for you,” I told her and she looked at me bluntly. “Uhm… yeah…” I trailed off, not knowing how to approach this.

“Roses and flowers are a better approach for a mare like Rarity,” she told me, setting a note tab on the page she was on before setting the book aside. The title read ‘Daring Do, and Leggit’s treasure.’

I thought to myself briefly before things clicked together. “Uhm… in that story… is there like a pirate, err, dead pirate with lots of treasure and stuff?” I asked and Dash nodded.

“Yeah, he crashed his ship a long time ago and Daring just found the cave where she thinks it is,” she informed me. Things started piecing together even more.

“Did she meet a big guy and lock him in a cell thinking that he was working for Rufus?” I asked and she again scrunched her nose, then facehoofed.

“Rucus, not Rufus. And nooo, she didn’t lock away the bad guy. The bad guy locked away her and she was totally trapped then used a stalactite from the roof along with a stone to make a lever so she could break down the cell door in the cave,” Dash told me.

“WHAT?! Okay, for starters, Daring tricked me into going into that cell. Then SHE locked ME, in the cell and said she was going to leave me for dead,” I exclaimed and Dash raised her eyebrow.

“Uhm… What?” She was so lost in my outburst and I had been so steamed that they had portrayed Daring as the good guy that I had forgotten to explain things to Dash.

“Oh uhh… okay, so I met Daring in a cave-” I began, but Dash cut me off.

“You realize that Daring is just a fictional character right? She isn’t real,” Dash told me and I groaned as I tried explaining things to her.

“No, she’s really real! I met her in Ghastly Gorge and we found Peg-Leg’s gold-” But again, she cut me off.

“Okay, for starters, she isn’t real. And secondly: she didn’t have a sidekick. Thirdly: she was looking for Leggit’s gold. And fourthly: She wasn’t looking in Ghastly Gorge for Leggit’s gold,” she interrupted me and I let out an annoyed groan.

“No, really, she’s really real. I met her in the cave but she thought I was working for some guy named Rufus so she locked me in a cell and said she was going to leave me for dead-” But once again, Dash cut me off.

“Okay… let’s pretend Daring was real. She wouldn’t lock you in a cell and leave you for dead. You’re one of the good guys. And Daring would never do something like that unless it was to a really, really bad guy,” Dash replied and I became frustrated with the mare.

“She didn’t know I was a good guy, she thought I was the bad guy. SHE locked ME in the cell, not the other way around,” I said as I grabbed the book and skimmed to the part Dash was at.

“Hey! I was reading that!” Dash exclaimed and I simply waved my hand at her as I skimmed through the story.

Rather than depict what actually happened, they mostly just reversed what had happened with Daring and I. Except there was a few major differences. The character that was supposed to portray me was nothing like me. He was a big, grumbling ape that barely spoke anything intelligent and was just a dumb brute. Daring had tried to escape off the ledge of the cliff, but the thing tackled her and clung to her back, restricting her wings. Finally, the ape tried to steal the treasure from Daring’s saddlebags, but he slipped and fell to his death.

“Okay… that is a load of crap. I wasn’t THAT, insane. She had left me for dead after wrongly accusing me of stuff,” I stated and Dash was still dumbfounded.

“Uhm… are you feeling okay? Do you want me to call a nurse?” she asked. Finally accepting the fact that Dash wouldn’t accept the truth, I simply shook off the topic.

“Never mind about that. I came here to ask you something really important. It’s been bugging me for a while and…” I trailed off as I sat next to her. She gulped as her eyes went wide.

“Uhm… you’re not asking me out on a date… are you?” she asked hesitantly.

“What? No! Why the hell would you think that?” I asked and she wiped her brow with a ‘phew’.

“Well… the roses for starters, then add the fact that you were acting really mushy just before you… uhm… acted weird,” she informed me.

“No, I’m not asking you out on a date. It’s a little more important than that,” I told her. She connected eyes with me and I spoke my mind. “I need to ask you about Tristan-” but before I could finish, she simply looked away.

“I’ve got nothing to say about him… well, except that I hope he dies a painful death somewhere in the middle of nowhere with nopony to mourn or bury him,” she replied bluntly. Weird, her reply was probably the closest to the thoughts I had about him. Everypony else was a little skeptical about killing.

“Right… and what about me?” I asked, and she looked to me with a stunned look.

“What about you?” she asked and I repeated my question. “Uhm… I thought you weren’t asking me out.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, do you think less of me now because I didn’t kill him?” I asked and she shook her head.

“No way! What happened was a slip up. Just because a pony, or… human, can’t kill somepony, no matter how bad that pony is, I wouldn’t think any less of them,” she explained and I let out a relieved sigh.

“Anyway, enough about him. How are you?” I asked and she sighed while extending her wing to show me the bandages.

“Derpy got off lucky, just some bruises. I got a busted wing bone,” she informed me.

“Why not take a healing potion?” I asked back and she just sighed.

“Ha, I wish. Healing potions don’t heal broken bones unless its just a minor break. Mine’s fractured. Don’t worry, I’ll be good as new pretty soon.” She had a good set of enthusiasm, I’ll admit that.

We sat and conversed about useless things for a long while, mostly about the Wonderbolts. She was super thrilled about finally getting into the academy and becoming a captain of a flying team, along with several other things. Finally, as the clock struck 8:45 PM, I sighed.

“Well Dash, I should be going. I still have another pony to see before the night is up,” I informed her.

“Hey… psst,” she whispered then motioned me to lean in for a secret. I leaned forwards and she whispered into my ear. “If you want a chance for a date with me, next time you come in, bring some outside food,” she told me. I leaned back with a small smile.

“Well, no offence Dash, but I’m not really playing the field. But I’ll remember to bring you in some outside food next time I’m in, okay?” I told her and she hoof pumped the air.

“Come back soon then, the food here is terrible,” she stated and I snickered, only wondering how terrible it could really be. I gave her one final nod before turning to leave, but not before catching a glance at the storybook she was reading.

‘History doesn’t lie,’ I thought to myself as I left. Redheart watched me as I left and I tossed her a wave which she promptly returned.

The moon was bright, nearly enough light being emitted to the world that one wouldn’t need a lamp or flashlight. I briskly made my way over to my truck, looking to the beautiful stars as I did so.

I slipped into the driver seat and shuddered as I remembered the very disturbing fantasy I had of my truck. Regardless of the fantasy, I swiped the naughty key, then keyed the ignition before flicking the lights on.

Everything lit up and I revved the truck slightly before inserting one of my custom CDs into the radio. After Dash had explained to me that she didn’t feel scornful towards me, a feeling of comfort had been set upon me. I guess all along it was only her that I needed to talk to. She was the only one that I needed to know that she didn’t see me as a failure, because she had been the most resentful about the whole ordeal.

I was now in an upbeat mood and cranked the radio just as Bon Jovi’s ‘Have a Nice Day’ started.

I began to race towards Fluttershy’s cottage, figuring that I might as well reminisce with her as well before the night was done. My fingers tapped against the steering wheel in response to the beat of the song. Just as the lyrics started, I began to sing along,

I’d pound my index fingers against the steering wheel as if I was a drummer, my fingers were my drumsticks, and the steering wheel was my drums.

I continued to jam out like some 80s rocker as my truck threshed through the roads. I soon stopped singing the lyrics, but continued to rock like a punk metal junkie or something. As I continued on, I started going through open fields until finally I reached the forest, but still held a steady pace that was only about 40 km/h.

As I started to get closer to her cottage, I began to try and sing along to the tunes again.

“OH SHIT!” I swore as my truck careened towards a deer that was grazing. I slammed the brakes but it was too late. My truck wasn’t traveling at deadly speeds, but I still thumped the deer, sending it tumbling across the ground in a way that looked rather painful.

I quickly shifted my truck into park and got out. The deer screeched in pain as I rushed over. Its leg looked busted and it continued to bellow in pain. “Well... nothing I can do,” I stated bluntly.

For a brief moment, I thought about whether I could really kill it. ‘Am I really becoming this soft? It’s just a friggin deer. Christ if I left it, it would probably get eaten alive by a wolf or something,’ I hissed at myself for being so soft, and then grabbed my SVT-40, settling on the thought that this was simply a mercy kill. Plus I could get some good venison. God I haven’t had good meat in sooo long. The best I could get was sushi or eggs, and even that wasn’t good enough. for protein, I had to rely mostly on nuts and eggs, mostly revolving around soybeans, peanuts, walnuts, pistachios…

My stomach grumbled at the thought of some well-cooked venison meat. “Oh yeah, this is gonna be good,” I told myself as I slapped a magazine into my SVT-40 and racked the receiver.

I walked back, ready to slay the deer, when my heart lurched and my stomach twisted. A young fawn was nestling its head against the deer that I had smoked. “OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” I roared and the fawn stumbled back in fear, tripping over the mother.

I slung my rifle and facepalmed with a groan of failure. I had not only smoked a deer, I had smoked a mother deer with a fawn… no venison for me…

I attempted to walk forwards, but the mother deer screeched at me, attempted to stand, and then collapsing. The fawn deer tried painfully to help its mother up. ‘God… this is like something from a Disney movie and I’m the bad guy,’ I thought to myself as I continued my approach.

The doe kicked and thrashed while the fawn backpedaled. “Just chill the fuck out. I know a pony that can help you.” I tried to calm it down, but it would have no part of it. I figured that maybe, at tops, this doe would weigh about one hundred and thirty pounds, give or take, and at most a hundred and fifty, easily within my strength range. So in theory, I could just heft her up into the back of my truck with her fawn, drive her to Fluttershy’s, and then everything would be fine.

I stepped towards the doe and it started kicking at me. I paced around behind it, but it continued to kick. I tried picking it up in a similar fashion to how I picked up the stupider calves back home on the farm, namely the ones that wouldn’t willingly leave their calf pens. I reached my left arm in front of its front legs and my right arm supported its rear, resting just below its rump.

The doe screeched and bellowed while still kicking. I made it about five feet before it kicked itself out of my grip, falling to the ground and trying to erratically scamper away, but not going very far with her busted leg.

I rolled my eyes in frustration and tried again, but again didn’t make it too far before she kicked out of my arms. “Listen! If you didn’t have a stupid fawn, I’d have blown your fucking brains out! Now stay fucking still or I’ll leave you and you’re no good fawn to be dinner for the wolves!” I roared, but it didn’t help.

In my angered frustration, I grabbed her in a tight grip, hurried over to my truck, and heaved her into the back. I slammed the tailgate and looked to the fawn. “Come here buddy, come to your mom.” The fawn stayed at distance and I tried to approach it, but it darted to the side.

“Buddy, stop fucking around or I’ll break your leg,” I threatened, but still it refused. As I tried stressfully to catch the fawn, I wondered to myself why I didn’t just boot the doe out, leave them for dead, and then simply reminisce with Fluttershy.

After a moment’s wondering, I ended up figuring that would kill the purpose of talking about how I was a failure. How I came to the conclusion that leaving nature to do its thing made me bad would never make sense. In my mind, it made absolutely no sense whatsoever but for some god forsaken reason, I was still trying to be the good guy.

A nearby howl from a Timberwolf made the fawn stiffen, while making me me unsling my old Russian battle rifle. The doe bellowed to the fawn, which raced around to the opposite of my truck, then returned its sorrowful cries to the mother.

My senses struck full alert as the hairs on the back of my neck pricked up. “Time to go,” I whispered, then snuck around the truck. Spotting the fawn before it spotted me, I tackled it as gently as I could, which was still pretty rough. I gripped it tightly before tossing it into the box of my truck, it's body landing with a THUMP.

I raced as fast as I could to the driver side and hopped in, just as a Timberwolf raced at me. Before I had even closed the door, the truck was in drive and the tires were spinning. The first wolf tried to jump inside, but my boot heel explained to it why I wasn’t dinner.

“Stay,” I told it in a Schwarzenegger tone. The tires caught traction but not before another wolf leapt onto the back of my truck, scratching the new paint with its claws.

I slammed the brakes as my brows lowered in anger. My seat leaned back, I slid open the back sliding window, and then lined up a shot. I squeezed the trigger and the rifle jerked in my arms, while the receiver spat out a smoking brass casing that landed on the back floor.

The echo of my rifle from inside my vehicle nearly deafened me. My ears rang while I clenched my eyes to try and drive away the ear piercing ring.

The 7.62mm slug slammed the Timberwolf and sent it spiraling off the truck. “Dis is your stop,” I muttered, still in an undeniable Arnie accent. I leaned the seat back up, then slapped the transmission into drive before slamming the accelerator.

With the truck, I quickly lost the wolves, but now faced a new problem. The stupid fawn wouldn’t just lie down. It constantly tried to get up and out of the box. I quickly started swerving, making it fall down to the floor.

Finally I arrived at Fluttershy’s, whose cottage lights lit up as soon as my truck arrived. I stepped out just as her door opened. The shy pegasus greeted me with a small smile. “Oh, hello… I wasn’t expecting a visitor at this hour,” Fluttershy spoke in her regular, sheepish voice.

I killed the engine to my truck and motioned for her to come over. She slowly hovered over then gasped as she spotted the two deer, probably most frantic about the injured one.

“OH MY GOODNESS! What happened?!” she gasped and I replied honestly.

“I smacked it with my truck.” She gasped even louder.

“Why would you do that?!” she exclaimed and I tried to calm her down.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I just wasn’t paying attention. I kind of thought that you might be able to help her and her fawn,” I stated and Fluttershy became even more frantic.

“Oh dear… oh dear oh dearohdearohdear…” She continued to be frantic like she always was when an animal was hurt and I snickered out a pun.

“Yes, it’s a deer,” I stated in a thick Arnie accent. She shot me an annoyed look.

“THIS IS SERIOUS!” she stated in a very serious voice, though her serious voice was like a regular pony’s normal voice.

“Okay, sorry, bad joke. So what do we do?” I asked.

“Oh… uhm… we’ll have to call Twilight, and get her to perform a levitation spell so we can get her into the care shed,” she explained.

“Or I could just… you know… pick her up and carry her over?” I offered.

“Oh, we couldn’t do that, she’d be much too heavy to…” She trailed off as I picked up the now squirming deer.

“Lead the way,” I grunted as I tried to control the fidgeting animal. The fawn quickly followed as Fluttershy led me over to her rather large shed, but it looked more like a nice house. Hell, I don’t know why she didn’t live here rather than in her house-tree thingy.

She opened the door and I entered, but my mouth went agape as red liquid dripped from walls. My eyes went wide as I was stunned from the sight before me. “Oh-my-god…” I whispered under my breath. Everything had strange décor that literally screamed ‘Gay pride’ and every wall was painted with rainbow and stars and… other things…

“Oh, mind the paint. It hasn't dried yet,” she told me before ushering me over to a bed. I set the deer down on a high quality bed mattress that was fit for a queen, or Rarity... whichever arrived first I suppose.

Fluttershy continued to murmur quiet, frantic things to herself while she bandaged up the deer. “Okay, now you’ll have to stay off that leg, or it won’t get better,” Fluttershy ordered the deer, who seemed to acknowledge her and nodded before limping itself around with its fawn.

“Did you… just… talk to it?” I asked and she nodded in reply. “Okay, just making sure I’m not seeing things,” I replied to her nod with a casual voice.

We travelled back outside and into her yard, where the moonlight spread across the ground in a beautiful way. Her long, silky pink mane seemed to gleam in the night. I took a deep inhale through my nose as we stopped in the middle of the yard.

“Flutters?” I asked and she looked up to me. “Where do you think Tristan is right now?” I asked, looking to the moon, and she gulped before replying.

“Well… oh, I don’t know… hopefully in jail somewhere.” Her reply was so subtle and shy that it was almost cute, had the topic not been so serious. My duster coat flaps dangled about just as freely as her mane as we both stood alone in the empty yard. We gazed to the stars and I asked another serious question, though I was already settled and content about the subject, I just needed to know her thoughts because… well, just because.

“Do you think that I should’ve killed Tristan then and there?” I asked in a very deep, yet very dull and basic tone.

“Oh, well… I don’t know if killing him would’ve been the best answer,” she stammered due to the nature of the subject. “Maybe Dash wanted him dead, but I’m not sure if I’d wish death upon anypony, regardless of how bad they’ve been. Anypony can change, it just takes time and effort,” she informed me. Not quite the answer I was expecting, but it did put the subject completely to rest… well, almost; it would be at rest when Tristan was finally brought to justice, but for now, it was good enough.

Fluttershy laid down into the plush grass, holding her forehooves together at her chest as she looked to the night stars in the sky. “Do you ever just… wonder?” she asked curiously and I nodded.

“All the time,” I replied.

“I always wonder if I was put on Equestria for a reason, or if it was just luck that I ended up where I am,” she spoke her thoughts, still just as cute as ever. I laid down behind her, our heads nearly touching as we looked to the skies.

“Not sure kiddo… I kinda wonder why I’m me…” I trailed off and tried to think of an explanation. “Do you ever wonder why you see the world from your body? Why it is that somehow your… soul, or whatever it is, sees from your eyes. How it could’ve been any body in all the world, an insect, a bird, anything, but for whatever reason, you are you? Do you ever wonder why it is that… you know, like: Why do I ‘see’ like this? Why is it that I am me… you know?” I asked.

She didn’t reply, probably lost in confusion by my question. “You mean like… why it is that our soul watches through the eyes of our body?” she asked and I nodded.

“Yeah… something like that,” I whispered. We continued to just lie there, watching the stars and relishing in this seemingly calm moment.

“Evan… do you love anypony?” Fluttershy asked and I was confused by the question.

“Huh? You mean like…” I trailed off, hoping for her to be more specific.

“I mean, do you love and cherish somepony... well, if you don’t mind me asking,” she asked back.

“Well sure. I mean, I try to be as good as I can and love everyone, or everypony,” I informed her.

“Oh… I didn’t mean like that. I meant… do you ‘love’ love a pony?” she asked.

“Like… intimately?” I answered her question with a question and she nodded. “No,” I replied bluntly.

“Oh.” Was all she answered with. Just ‘oh’.

“Why, is something up?” I asked and she shook her head before becoming rather quiet. Things slowly puzzled themselves together, but it took a rather long time, which was no biggie because we were just lying around in her backyard with nothing to do.

“Are you… wondering because… you like me?” I asked wonderingly.

“Oh no… oh, I don’t mean that in a bad way!” she quickly apologized but I waved my hand in understanding. “I was just wondering because… I was kind of curious,” she informed me.

“It’s okay. Like I was asking, why do you ask?” I asked and she bit her lip.

“I can’t say.” she stammered out quickly.

“Why not?”

“Because I promised.”

I nodded. “Okay, I understand a promise and I won’t pry,” I told her and we both laid back down. “So Fluttershy… how is it that you became so… talkative with animals?” I asked, changing the subject.

She began her story and at first it sounded really corny but, because I had asked, I was willing to listen. In the end, it was still pretty corny,but… it was Fluttershy, so I wouldn’t think badly of it. She was loving and caring, so most things related to her were likely to end up ending with rainbows and love and all those sorts of things.

“Do you like animals?” she asked and my nose scrunched while I thought about it. I usually wouldn’t admit it to most ponies, but she… she was different. Fluttershy was shy, timid, and caring so she might be a little more understanding if I told her the truth.

“I loved my old dog, I love Lassie…” I trailed off and thought to my old home. “I talked to the cows at work. They, uhh… they usually just asked when they’d get more food.” I snickered and Fluttershy sat up and looked to me.

“You can talk with animals?” she asked in a somewhat hopeful voice. I brought my left hand up to my face, and rubbed my eyes with my thumb and index finger while letting out a sigh.

“Uhm… kind of. Only the ones that I get to know. Like Bear and Max. They were the dogs at the farm,” I informed her. “Max was a little goofy and it was as if he had some sort of attention disorder because he never stayed doing the same thing for more than a few seconds. Bear was… Bear was a little mooch. He always managed to somehow get my doughnuts or ice-cream.” I snickered as I remembered the countless adventures I had with the two dorky dogs.

A tear came to my eye and gleamed in the moonlight. “Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. I quickly brushed away the tear and nodded.

“Yeah, fine… just got something in my eye… guh,” I grunted and pretended to be rubbing something from my eyes.

“Some ponies think I’m weird because they think I spend too much time with animals,” she told me, then shifted and looked to me. “Do you think I’m weird?” she asked and I shook my head.

“Nah. You’re asking a guy who worked over twelve hours a day, six days a week, never taking a vacation. Add in the fact that I talked to animals… what you’ve got with animals is a gift. A beautiful one,” I replied and she smiled before returning her gaze to the stars.

“Oh, phew… I thought you might think I’m weird.” She was relieved, then she began talking about all her animal adventures. Mostly things about saving wounded animals, or exploring nature with nopony but herself.

After a while, there was a long silence that seemed to drag on and on. I waited a moment longer before turning to look at Fluttershy, only to see that she was asleep in the grass. Her mane almost fusing into the ground as she just laid there. Her chest constantly rose and fell as she breathed peacefully in her sleep.

She looked so peaceful and beautiful when she slept that I could barely bring myself to wake her. I gently nudged her, but all I got as a response was a murmur. “Psst… Fluttershy… hey...” I trailed off, then decided that I’d pick her up and put her to bed in her home rather than leave her out here for the night.

I scooped her up and walked towards the house. The night ambience was beautiful and, along with the night moonlight, things just seemed perfect. The pegasus in my arms snuggled up to my chest while still in my arms. Her flowing mane and tail felt like silk against my skin, giving my body a weird sensational feel.

I finally got her inside and to her bed. I still pondered the thought of why she didn’t sleep on that bed she had in the animal care shed. I tucked her in but she stirred in her sleep.

She still murmured incoherent things, but continued to sleep peacefully. God, there must be a rule or something that whatever she did had to be cute, because whatever she did was always adorable.

I quickly got my ass in gear, taking note of how I was acting like I was in a Disney flick. Before I got my heart set to stone, I leaned over and gave her a kiss to the forehead, then gently rubbed her forehead. “Goodnight Fluttershy, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite,” I whispered, then stood up and went to leave.

Just as I reached the stairs, a scream echoed in the house, making me jump in shock. “JEEZE!” I gasped as I turned with my hand over my thumping chest. Fluttershy had literally shot straight out of bed with a frantic look on her face, her wings thumping loudly as she hovered in the air.

“Where’s Angel Bunny?” she asked fearfully and I shrugged, having no clue as to where her annoying little cretin was. “Oh no! This is terrible. I was about to feed him before you showed up, then with everything that happened, I forgot to!” she gasped then whizzed by me.

I heard her frantic chatter as I casually descended the staircase of her home, which was a tight fit due to my size. “Oh dear… oh this is awful… oh this is not good… oh no…” She continued to rant on about how this was terrible.

I just shrugged. “Well… what are we going to do?” I asked and she looked to me, still with an absolutely petrified face. She was probably fearful for whatever had become of her rabbit.

“We have to find him!” she gasped while grabbing a saddlebag belt, a lantern, and her small medical kit. She quickly zoomed towards me and attempted to pull me out the door with her, but she was a little on the lesser side of strength.

I slowly turned around and calmly followed her outside, where she started to examine the ground to probably look for clues as to where her missing rabbit was. I paced over to my truck, retrieved my rifle and magazine, loaded the magazine to its capacity, and then pocketed the magazine.

Rifle in hand, I began following Fluttershy around her yard, and eventually to the back yard. There was an eerie presence just before her property merged with the Everfree, and a nasty looking wire fence.

“Oh no! Angel has run off into the Everfree!” Fluttershy gasped and I rolled my eyes. ‘Oh great, the alchemist has run off again,’ I thought sarcastically to myself. Fluttershy was looking intently at the fence as I paced up, following her gaze.

“What’s up?” I asked and she pointed to the fence.

“I put this up to keep animals like Timberwolves out… I’m just wondering if it’s working,” she told me and I shrugged before handing her my rifle.

“Hold dis,” I told her in an Austrian accent before calmly grabbing the fence wire. A moment past before I went to shrug. Just as I turned my head, I felt my body stiffen and everything flashed white.

Many months ago…

Our electric cattle livestock fence had been on the fritz again and the cows were getting out. Rain poured down almost as if we were in some monsoon… okay, that might be a bit exaggerated, but it was pissing rain, my line of sight hindered to all but a few feet in front of me.

I plugged the fence in and Scott waved me over. I briskly paced over to him and he pointed to the wire fence. “See if she’s got juice,” he told me and I mindlessly touched the wire.

Nothing happened. “Nothing,” I informed him and he muttered a quiet curse before looking to the milkhouse.

“Take the extension cord and hook it into the milk house,” he ordered and I nodded. Rushing over to the pool shack, or whatever the shack was, I unplugged the extension cord and rushed back to the milkhouse.

Rain leaked off me and I was drenched. Rain water seeped from my fingers and onto the plug end of the extension cord. Water had dampened ever part of my body and I was extremely uncomfortable.

My fingers were a little close to the end of the plug as I went to insert it into the outlet. I looked to Scotty and gave him the thumbs up and he nodded back. As I stuffed the plug into the outlet, things seemed to slow down. Just as the plug entered the outlet, a little flash of electricity sparked.

My body tensed up painfully and everything seemed to turn to a red shade while my vision blurred painfully. Everything in my chest seemed to contract painfully as I gasped in pain. My body shook a little and the only thought going through my head was: Oh... I’m dying.

Some of the milk monitors flickered while I stood, getting zapped. By some act of god, my fingers fell from the plug and I stumbled back, leaning against the milk cooler with a deep inhale.

My breathing was raspy as I coughed briefly. The milk house alarms began going off as everything reset, almost as if there was a brief power outage. “Wow…” I whispered so softly that I could barely hear myself.

My chest hurt a lot as I leaned over, grabbed the plug and rammed it into the outlet socket. I looked out to Scott, and gave him the thumbs up. He turned on the electric fence but shook his head.

As he returned, I leaned against the cooler once more, still breathing heavily. He entered and looked to the milk monitor. “Did the power go out?” he asked and I shook my head.

“I got zapped by the outlet,” I whispered loud enough so that he could hear me.

“Oh… well the fence still isn’t getting enough power. We’ll have to call Colin,” he told me. I smiled. I liked Colin, he was a funny guy. Some guy from Georgian College that would do electrical work for us for free, we just had to pay for the stuff needed to fix it.

My body felt exhausted as I started feeding the cows with the power cart. My chest hurt a little, but not as much as when I was getting zapped. After feeding the cows, I sat around, waiting for Colin to arrive. There wasn’t much we could do until he arrived.

After an hour passed, Colin arrived and started conversing with Scotty about what the problem might be. After a few minutes, he determined that perhaps the ground or terminal connection with the fence was no good.

“Hey Evan, you’re taller, wanna reach up and take down the terminal box?” he asked. I grabbed a screwdriver, unplugged the box from the extension cord, and detached the box from the wall before handing it to him.

He pissed around with the fence wires for a few moments before handing it back to me. I reattached it to the wall and then plugged it in. “Well,” Scotty said, “see if she works.”

I reached up and grabbed the electric fence, but the current probably wouldn’t even kill a fly. “Nothing,” I told him. He swore under his breath and Colin rubbed his chin.

“Try grabbing closer to the terminal box. Maybe the fence is faulty,” Colin offered. Knowing nothing about how electricity worked, I took his advice and grabbed the wire closer to the box, but still nothing. I shook my head. He scratched his chin then pointed to the box, which had a flashing yellow light, signalling that it was on.

“Try grabbing the ground and terminal at the same time, see if it’s giving juice,” he snickered. Scott closed his eyes and let out a quiet laugh. I shrugged then took his advice. Reaching forward with both hands, I grabbed both the terminal knob, and the ground knob.

Just as my hands touched both plugs, a jolt went through me while everything went white, jolting my body backwards.

Present time…

I shot up with a huge inhale. Fluttershy had a very worried look on her face. “Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” she asked and I nodded, briefly recalling the memory I just had.

“Fine… just fine,” I snickered. “How many amps are in that thing?” I asked and she thought to herself before answering.

“Well… it’s not many amps, but it is enough to nearly kill a pony,” she answered, though it wasn’t a very accurate answer.

“How many?” I asked as I tried to control my heavy breathing.

“Oh… about point zero four,” she informed me and I flumped my head back with a groan. “I tell my friends not to go near it and they all listen. It’s the only fence that keeps the Timberwolves out,” she informed me before I rolled over and stood up. I had no idea how electricity effected wolves made out of wood, but I wasn’t about to ask.

I rubbed my face contently as I continued to grumble to myself. “One of these days… I’m gonna run outta lives… either that or I’m just gonna let myself die,” I mused to myself and Fluttershy gasped.

“Oh please don’t die! That would be awful,” she pleaded and I stifled a snicker.

“I was joking,” I told her before taking my rifle back. “Alright kid, the fence is working. So let’s go find you rabbit,” I told her and she hummed into the air and over the fence.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot you don’t have wings. The generator box is over there,” she informed me. I walked over and turned it off before crawling under the fence and following her into the forest.

“So… why do you care so much about this bunny anyway? I know you love every animal, but I’ve noticed that you love Angel the most,” I asked and she immediately responded with an answer I wasn’t quite expecting.

“Oh, Dashie gave him to me as a birthday present when I was younger and I’ve cherished him ever since.” And the answer did make sense. I could see why she would cherish it so much, even if it was a little spoiled shit that ran off and put us through hell and back.

I gave her a playful nudge. “This time, let’s try not to end up in the hospital.” I laughed out a crude joke and she nodded seriously.

“I’ll try my best,” she said courageously and I just rolled my eyes. I put on my most serious face as I paced along with my rifle, Fluttershy leading the way. The gun, despite the weight, felt rather light in my hands. I guess all those months of working out have really paid off.

As we continued through the forest, a rather large mosquito looking thing began buzzing around my head. I tried constantly to swat it away, but it was very elusive and managed to easily outmaneuver my hand.

I spotted a nearby circular spider web that was quite large. I stopped just inches away from it and waited for the insect to land on me. Fluttershy, having not taken notice of my stopping, simply kept hovering forwards.

The giant mosquito buzzed around and finally landed on my neck. I quickly slapped it, but not hard enough to kill it. Instead, I held it against my neck, then grabbed it and placed it on the middle of the web.

The unique stickiness of the web kept the giant nuisance stuck. “Gah… help me!” it screeched in a very annoying tone. ‘Ech… it can talk,’ I thought to myself. “HELP ME! AHHHHH!” it screeched again, but I saw little vibrations in the web.

Before I could make a quipy comment about having him for dinner, a grotesquely large black spider crawled down the web. It had a giant purple triangle on its abdomen that took my immediate attention. “No! Please! Save me!” the bug screamed, but the spider’s face split open into giant mandibles just before it sunk its giant, jagged fangs into the mosquito’s rear. The bug gurgled as it started to get sucked up. It almost looked cartoony. The rear of the spider began to inflate as it sucked up the mosquito. After all the internal juices were sucked away, it left only a dried up carcass. The spider spat something green at the dried up skeleton and it started to dissolve, almost like its spit was corrosive acid.

The spider let out a creepy hiss that sent shivers down my spine. “FUCK YOU!” I yelled, raising up my SVT-40 and squeezing back the trigger.

The rifle rocked in my hands as the receiver was hammered back, ejecting the spent casing. The muzzle brake on the end of the rifle flashed as gases burst from the end of the barrel, along with the expelled 7.62mm slug.

The abdomen of the spider ruptured, splattering about in a gooey spectacle that looked more like it belonged in a '70s Sci-Fi flick. The smoking brass casing fell to the ground, but the front half of the spider was still active. It hissed at me then scurried away before I could finish the job.

I shook off the heebie-jeebies that the spider had caused but then realized that I had lost Fluttershy. “Fluttershy!” I yelled out, but I got no response. “Oh for fu…” I was cut off as I heard her call back.

“OVER HERE! HURRY!” she screamed… she was screaming like a normal pony screamed. My senses flared into overdrive as I rushed through the forest like a bat outta hell. My duster coat flapped and constantly got entangled with undergrowth, branches and small trees.

In moments, I burst into a clearing, where Fluttershy was with her bunny by her side. “What’s wro…” I stopped just as the hairs on the back of my neck prickled up. Time seemed to slow and I just knew something bad was about to happen. I lept to the left just as something whizzed by with tremendous velocity. I pulled myself into a roll, then shifted my feet and pivoted into a crouch as I spun around.

The creature I was facing was a rather large… somethingorother. It kind of looked like a really big coyote… or maybe a wolf. It had long, curved, pointy spines protruding from its back that ran along the trail of its spine.

The creature looked to have thick, powerful hindlegs, along with powerful, yet a little less bulky, front legs that had nasty claws on the tips of its toes. It had a muzzle full of razor sharp teeth with two nasty looking canine teeth.

Its eyes were yellow and catlike, while its fur seemed to resemble more along the lines of a canine: long and slicked back. It curled its lips, snarling like a wild beast. “Fluttershy… fly away!” I ordered, but she shook her head.

“I can’t,” she whimpered and I stole a glance at her as she showed me her back, which was scratched up pretty badly along with several bite marks in her left wing.

I looked to it and returned a snarl of primitive nature. “You hurt my friend… big mistake,” I told it, but it probably didn’t understand. The beast darted forwards at incredible speeds. I lifted my heavy rifle and popped off a shot.

The rifle shot echoed in the night as a bullet slammed into the beast’s shoulder, but its momentum kept it on track. The nightmarish animal lept at me while I brought my rifle up as if to cross block it.

The creature tackled me and snapped at my neck. I gripped my rifle tensely and grunted while I tried to push the thing off. Drool slobbered down at me as it snapped and growled, trying angrily to bite at my neck and finish the job. Its body thrashed around violently, the only thing separating us being my almost ancient Russian battle rifle.

I let my right elbow cock and the rifle’s balance tipped to that side. Just as the animal rearranged its attack strategy, I pushed up hard with my right, sending it flying off me.

I rolled to my belly and went to leap up, but the thing was fast as lightning. I screamed out in agonizing pain as something sharp and painful bit into my right side. The beast got a hold of me with its front paws and scratched away while it shook its head, trying to tear me apart.

I squirmed in its grip, managing to pull my bowie knife from the hip sheath. I didn’t have much coordination and would’ve liked to stab it through the skull, but only managed to hit it in the shoulder.

The beast fell back, hissing in pain as it gripped the knife handle with its teeth and ripped the blade from its shoulder. Flicking its head to the side, it tossed away my knife which fell several yards away from us. “Round two?” I asked and the beast pawed at the ground angrily.

The rifle jerked aggressively but I only managed two shots this time, each non-fatal wounds. The first struck near where I had hit with my knife, adding a third bleeding wound. The second shot merely skimmed off its opposite shoulder.

The beast pounced so fast I could barely react. I tried to bring my rifle across my body to protect myself, but the thing was unpredictably quick. It managed to break through my defense, tackling me to the ground with brutal force.
It lunged its face forwards to try and get my neck, but luckily I saw it coming and managed to shift my head to the side. As it went for a second bite, my left hand clenched and slammed a powerful swing across its nasty face, phasing it for a brief moment before it sunk its teeth into my forearm. Pressing down hard with its front paws to keep me pinned, it started to stare directly into my eyes with a petrifying gaze.

“GAH!” I roared as it began to bite harder and then… it started sucking. It felt as if my blood was being sucked out by something like a very large powerful needle. I tried to thrash, but its powerful jaws stayed locked on my arm.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Fluttershy screamed just as a large tree branch whacked it in the head. For a brief moment, the beast released its hold on my arm and I brought my feet up between our bodies, then kicked it away.

“Hurry, get up!” Fluttershy screamed. I was hoping that she would’ve run off already, but I guess I was lucky that she had stuck around. She may have just saved my life. HA! Just my luck, the shyest and most timid pony in all Equestria saves my ass, who would’ve thought?

I went to stand up but, just as I did, the nightmarish hell creature tackled Fluttershy and went for the kill. I lined up a sloppy yet quickly placed shot and fired. The round struck in the creature’s rear end, toppling it off Fluttershy.

I fired again, this time hitting its left chest. The beast screeched out a pained vocal note then darted for me, completely ignoring my nearly defenseless friend. As the beast lept, I jammed my rifle barrel forwards, stuffing it down the throat of the beast as both our bodies got pushed to the ground from the momentum force.

The beast squirmed as it tried to get my rifle barrel out from its throat. I took a brief moment to think up a pun, then stared at it with a serious look. “Eat dis,” I told it in a Schwarzenegger tone while I squeezed the trigger. The back side of its neck was blown out in a gush of blood as the rifle blasted out a jacketed soft point round, courtesy of Flim and Flam.

The animal immediately went limp just before I shoved it off. Blood littered my body, some from the beast, and some from my own wounds, which were looking pretty grim.
Fluttershy limped over, Angel by her side. “You…” I moaned out groggily, pointing at Angel. “You’re a little shit… you know that?” I asked with an exhausted tone.

“Oh dear, you’ve lost quite a bit of blood! Hurry, we have to get you back to my cottage so I can fix you up.” She had a very relaxing voice, and despite her worried tone, it set me at ease.

“On one condition…” I murmured and she looked to me in a frantic way. “No tetanus potions…” I trailed off with a painful snicker before standing up and retrieving my bowie knife.

Monday, April 8th, 2014, Ponyville hospital…

Well… Dash was happy, mostly because I had brought her in some Twinkies from my truck which she stated: tasted a billion times better than the hospital food.

I’d second that. The hospital food was pretty nasty, mostly some kinda broccoli soup that was mostly just water. Then there was the nasty salad and jello dessert. The salad, I will admit, didn’t taste bad, but it was just plain lettuce that tasted a little dry. The jello stuff… it had bits of soft vegetables in it, so it was pretty horrid.

Both Fluttershy and I had been administered healing potions just moments after we had entered the hospital, since we were in pretty bad shape.

Now… well right now, Fluttershy, Dash and I sat in the same hospital room, just waiting to get released.

Good news, Fluttershy and I were going to make a full recovery. Bad news, we had to wait a few days before we were allowed out, because apparently they wanted to make sure our tendons and stuff weren’t damaged. Add the fact that I was going to need a tetanus, again… well I suppose things could’ve been worse.

“And then Daring Do was like ‘I don’t think so you savage!’ and totally booted the blood thirsty ape through the captain’s cabin wall! And then she tried to fly away with Leggit’s treasure, but the ape was so blood crazed that it grabbed a cannon and actually carried it around, then tried to chase her down!” Dash exclaimed. I smiled from the last part. Even though they had made me the supposed bad guy in the book, at least they didn’t make me a slouch. In fact, it was as if the made my character super powerful.

“And then, just as Daring was about to fly off and get away, the ape lept through the air and tackled her over the edge of the cliff! But the ape was holding her wings so she couldn’t fly away. So they were struggling for a moment before the ape tried to steal the treasure from Daring’s saddlebags, then slipped and fell to his death!” Dash squealed, explaining to us what had happened in the story she had recently read.

I leaned back in my hospital bed with a sigh. I looked out the window to the sunny noon skies with a smile while Dash and Fluttershy continued to converse. My right hand reached over and grabbed a pen and paper from the nightstand and I began constructing a note to Twilight.

Dear Princess Sparky,
Sometimes, when things happen that are really bad, and you can’t stop them, you might think that others see you as a failure, making you fall into a state of depression. However, if you just ask them of their feelings, then you might be surprised with the results. I have learned to always ask others of their feelings before making assumptions of them.

Your faithful student,
Burdy.

Author's Notes:

Right, sorry for the wait, just been busy lately. So best regards from Burdy, and I hope you guys have a nice day, or night, whichever the case may be... eh. There, I said it.