I walked out of the bathroom, my mane and coat now fully cleaned. I was greeted with concerned looks from Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Rainbow walked up to me and put her hoof on my shoulder.

“You okay Fluttershy?” she asked me.

“Yes… I’m fine,” I answered.

“Who were you talking to in there? We heard you speaking to somepony,” Twilight jumped in.

“Oh, um, I was just talking to myself. I’m sorry if I scared you girls.”

“Oh it’s fine Fluttershy, you were just talking quite loudly for a moment,” Rarity said. I tried to hide myself behind my mane, but Rainbow pushed it aside and looked at me.

“Flutters, who were you talking to?” she asked me. I started to whimper a little bit.

“Was it Matthew?” Rarity asked. I nodded shyly, then found myself crying once again. Rainbow wrapped me in a warm hug, which I quickly returned. I cried like that for about one minute before I managed to calm down. Rainbow brought me over to the cough, where we sat down together.

“Why, or how rather, were you talking to him?” Twilight asked.

“I… I don’t know. I was looking at myself in my mirror, then all of a sudden, I saw him in his bathroom. There was glass all around him, and then he picked up one piece and held it to his throat. He was going to…” but I trailed off and started to cry again. Rainbow quickly wrapped her hooves around me in a hug once again. All of the comforting that Rainbow was doing for me was quite surprising. I guess that’s why she was probably my best friend. She’d always look out for me, no matter what.

“We understand Fluttershy. You needn’t speak another word of the matter,” Rarity said, trying to be as comforting as possible. I nodded my head and sniffled a few times. Rainbow used her wings to dry the tears from my eyes. I smiled at her and gave her a hug.

“Thanks Dashie,” I said, as she returned the hug.

“Hey, anything for my best friend,” she replied. Our little moment was interrupted when Applejack and Pinkie Pie reentered the room.

“Hey y’all, we got everythin ready for supper. You ponies hungry yit?” Applejack asked. Twilight and Rarity both nodded silently. Rainbow looked over to Applejack, and then back to me.

“I think dinner would be great,” I said. Both Applejack and Pinkie smiled at that. The six of us sat down around my dining table. Oh how I loved eating at this table, I had nearly forgotten. Well, actually, I had forgotten that hadn’t I?

As we all began to eat, we remained in silence. The girls all looked at me with looks of concern and worry. I tried to assure them that I was alright, but they kept looking at me with those worried looks.

“Girls, can you please stop looking at me that way?” I asked them shyly. They all looked to their plates. I didn’t want to make them feel guilty, but I couldn’t just let them keep staring at me that way. It made me feel as if I was acting a little out of the ordinary. Although, I guess I might have been acting as such anyway.

“So, uh, Fluttershy, what was it like living with Matthew?” Rarity asked. “That is, of course, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s alright Rarity. Living with him was… different, from living here. Most of the time we’d be inside. I couldn’t roam about freely in his world of course. He taught me a lot of things though. He’d take me out to places where nopony, or no one rather, would find us. He taught me how to fly, helped me regain my cutie mark, and a ton of other things. There was actually this one night that he… well, I shouldn’t say.”

“What happened? He didn’t violate you did he?!” Rarity asked with concern.

“Oh no, he would never do that. We actually both agreed that… um, doing it, would be weird. He’s a human, and I’m a Pegasus pony. It didn’t seem right to us, so we never did it. No, what I was saying was that… well… if I tell you, please don’t think of him as a bad person. He did it out of love, for me.” They all looked to each other, and then back to me, and nodded.

“Well, one night, these two men broke into this warehouse that I was living in. It became too dangerous for me to live with Matthew, with the risk of other people finding me, so he found me a nice place to live not far from him. But, like I said, two men broke into the warehouse. I pretended to be a ragdoll, but they wound up tossing me aside and hurting me. When Matthew found out, he decided to wait in the warehouse until the men returned. When they did… he killed them.” As I uttered those last words, the girls all looked at me in shock.

“He… killed two people?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, you think he’s terrible now don’t you?!” I said, lowering my head.

“No, no, of course not dear! We’re just surprised that he’d do that for you is all. Didn’t he think that it was a tad too much though?” Rarity asked.

“Well, after he did it, he started to cry, and he said he was no good for me. I reassured him that he was more than good for me. I loved him, and he loved me. That was all that mattered. But, aside from that, and a few other mistakes while we were together, Matthew was perfect. Even if we were from two different species, we loved each other. I just wish I didn’t have to leave him.” I held back the tears that were forming in my eyes. I had to get my mind off of him.

“Well, enough about all that. We’re glad yer back Fluttershy,” Applejack quickly jumped in. I nodded my head.

“Well, what did I miss while I was gone?” I asked.

“Well, not much. From the moment you were sent to Matthew’s world, we spent our time finding a way to bring you back,” Twilight answered. I nodded my head again.

“Yeah, but boy were those six days a bunch of fun. We rummaged through every book in the library that we could find to get a spell to bring you back! We even used the Canterlot library!” Pinkie added. And as she said that, I realized something, something that broke my heart. It brought me to tears.

“Oh Fluttershy darling, what is it?” Rarity asked me, walking over and putting a hoof on my shoulder.

“It’s just that… if the time difference between our worlds is true… then in a few hours, I would have spent one whole day without Matthew…”

“Hey, it’s just one day Fluttershy. Everything will be fine,” Rainbow said, trying to comfort me.

“And Matthew would have spent one whole year without me…” As I said those words, the girls went dead silent. They couldn’t think of anything to say. I quickly got up and ran to my room. I shut the door behind me and locked it. I fell on my bed and cried into my pillow.

“Fluttershy?” I heard Rainbow Dash call to me from behind the door. I didn’t answer. “Shy?” I remained silent. “Well… alright… we’ll stay here for tonight, if it makes you feel better. We won’t leave, we promise.” I still said nothing. I could make out her sighs as she walked away. I continued to cry until there was nothing left, and I was exhausted.

‘No… don’t fall asleep Fluttershy. You can’t… not now…’ I thought to myself. It didn’t help. I was coaxed into a state or relaxation, and I fell asleep just like that.

I found myself running in my dream. I wasn’t running from something though. I was running to find something. Matthew. I could hear his voice all around me, calling to me. I couldn’t find him anywhere though. Everything was black and dark, but his voice was still calling to me.

“Fluttershy, where are you?!” he called out.

“Matthew! I’m here!” I called back to him, but it’s as if he didn’t hear me.

“Fluttershy, please, where are you?!”

“Matthew!” I kept running as fast as I could in the direction his voice came from. But, that direction kept on changing, and I soon found myself running in circles. The voices started to just fill my ears, and I stopped running. I fell to the floor crying, trying to hide my face. But then, the voices stopped all together. I looked up and saw a blue light in the distance. I got back up and walked towards it. But, as I extended my hoof to touch it, it shot up high above me. All the darkness became the nighttime sky.

“Fear not child. I am here,” a voice said to me.

“Who’s there?” I called back. My answer came when Princess Luna appeared before me.

Author's Notes:

BANG BANG! Man, it's been a while since I was able to write consecutive chapters like this. So yeah, here's chapter four! I hope this doesn't seem rushed or anything like that. I think it's all good for the most part. But, of course, if you guys have any criticism to give, please give it.

Also, keep in mind that Matthew never called out to Fluttershy in his dream sequence. Just something to keep in mind. It's not necessarily important, I just felt like saying that.