Chapter 10

After about fifteen minutes of gathering themselves and asking a few more lingering questions, the girls finally trickled out the door one-by-one, leaving me alone with Fluttershy. She was sitting up on the couch now, still holding the now warm and mushy ice pack to her head.

I pointed to the ice pack. “Do you want another one of those?” I asked.

“Um, n-no. Thanks,” she said, timidly.

I put my hands in my pockets. “Are you OK? How do you feel?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I mean, my head is a bit better. But, I feel…weird…about you.”

My head drooped. “Damn.”

“It’s just,” she continued, “I feel like I’m just a little girl.”

I looked at her again, caught off-guard by the confession. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re…like, a god,” she continued, hanging her head and taking off the ice pack.

I couldn't help but feel empathetic for the shy girl after seeing such lack of self worth. She was a beautiful, sweet person. Why would she think of herself this way?

I shook my head. “I’m not a god,” I corrected her. “Do you...think you’re not good enough for me?” I asked.

She nodded, with her eyes starting to moisten.

"Why? That’s crazy."

Fluttershy didn't respond.

I shook my head in disagreement, rubbing the back of my neck as I thought about what to say to her. “Well, the way I see it,“ I began, “You might think you’re a little girl, but you have a ‘god’, as you call it, wrapped around your little finger."

Her expression changed to a confused one.

"Besides, you and your friends have these powers; so you’re all closer to being gods than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

After a few seconds of rumination, her beautiful teal eyes made contact with mine again.

I continued. “To be honest, I didn’t think you wanted anything to do with me anymore...you know, because I kept this whole thing a secret from you guys.”

She broke here eye contact with me again, her expression that of shy worriedness as she looked around the room, searching for a response. "Um...a-actually, I understand why you didn't say anything about it, I mean, it's kind of a crazy thing to just come out and...um, say to people you don't know. B-besides, look at how shy and silly I was acting around you already, and, um...imagine if I knew all this? I probably would have f-fainted or s-something."

I couldn't help but smile at her reasoning, and I found her self-awareness so adorable it almost hurt—that is, as close to hurting as I can get. "I guess," I replied. "But still, I should have been honest with you a little sooner than this. It wasn't my place to assume you would be OK with getting involved with someone like, uh...like me. You were obviously going to figure it out eventually anyway, but I shouldn't have waited to tell you about it until after kissing you, or...after some other stuff...that might have happened." I paused for a second, feeling a tad awkward for mentioning the activities that new lovers engage in, especially to someone so easily embarrassed. "Uh, well you know what I mean. Like, for all I knew, you might have thought it was creepy or weird kissing someone who's old enough to have seen the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and it might have upset you, which is the last thing I would want."

Fluttershy shook her head quickly, placing her slender fingertips to her chest, “Oh, no! I didn’t pay any attention to what Rainbow Dash said; you don’t seem like an old man. Not to me, anyway. Y-you have a young soul; I don’t want to go away,” she said, blushing. “I-I liked kissing you. A-and I still do...or I would, I mean, i-if it happened again.”

My heart leapt with excitement. “Really? You're sure?”

She nodded. “Are you sure about me?” she asked.

I snorted. “Are you kidding? I was hooked on you the very first time I saw you. That first night I was here for dinner, and I saw you come out of that hallway for the first time..." I paused, closing my eyes briefly as I replayed the image in my head over and over again. "I was smitten. Blown away. Honestly, I haven’t allowed myself to get close to anyone for a very long time, but when I met you, I just...couldn't help it.”

The shy girl turned red as a tomato. “D-Do you really mean that? You must have known a lot of people in your life and, um…you like me that much?”

“Absolutely! How could I resist you?” I asked. “I’ve had companions before -- all of them are long dead, obviously -- but I’ve had wives who grew old, some got sick and died, one was murdered in front of me, and I started to avoid being close to people to avoid the heartbreak of losing them. I’ve known so many people who are now gone, but I never got used to losing them so I started to avoid letting myself get close, but with you…I couldn’t let you pass me by. Something about it just felt right; like I knew getting to know you and your friends was going to be worth the heartache in the end. And I was right, you guys are obviously special, each in your own way.”

Worry suddenly entered her eyes. “What about when we're gone? What will you do? W-won’t you be sad?” She lowered her head, “And...I’m sorry that you’ve been through such awful things in the past. It must be so hard-”

I put my hand up to stop her. “Let’s not worry about that.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Um, OK,” she replied softly as a warm smile appeared on her lips. “And, um...th-thank you.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For saving my life,” she said, fidgeting bashfully with the hem of her shirt.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I had to. No way was I going to let you get hurt.”

Fluttershy smiled, and we gazed amorously at one another for a few minutes, until finally, she let out a quiet yawn. “It’s pretty late,” she said.

“You should go to sleep," I suggested. ”Everything’ll be fine. I’ll feed your animals in the morning so you can sleep in.”

“What are you going to do all night?” she asked, appearing concerned about how I was going to pass the time.

“I’ll manage. I’m used to being up all the time,” I said, reassuringly.

“Um, were you really awake for months until you were…with me?” Fluttershy asked, playing flirtatiously with her hair.

I nodded, making her blush, knowing that she was the one who had that affect on me, and she responded with a playful shrug, followed by a coy smirk.

“W-well, I’d better go to bed, I guess,” she said, brushing her hair over her shoulder with her fingertips.

“Sure,” I replied. “You sure you’re OK?”

She nodded, then looked up at me. “Would you come lay down with me? Um…in my bed?”

I felt a jolt go through me suddenly, unprepared for the brash invitation. “Uh, I can if you want,” I said, trying not to look stupid.

“Ok, um…lets go,” she replied.

I stood first and held her hand while she slowly rose from the couch. I put my hands on her shoulders once she was on her feet, unsure of how stable she might have been, but to my surprise, she seemed to be fairly steady. Maybe she hadn’t hit her head as hard as we had originally thought.

I released Fluttershy, and we walked together towards the hall to her room. I kept myself ready, remaining close to her in case she became light-headed or dizzy, but she was sure-footed and made her way down the hall with relative ease. When we got there I stood by the entrance, watching her take off her socks and sit on the bed before turning to face me.

“Could you, um…look away for a second?” she asked timidly.

“Oh, sure,” I said, turning my back to her. Standing there, I studied her room; the trees outside the window, the pictures of animals on her wall, the tambourine on her dresser, all the while I could hear clothing rustling behind me followed by the sound of the bed settling, and finally, her voice.

“OK.”

I turned to see her under the covers.

“C-come on in,” she invited in a friendly tone.

I went to the other side of the bed and laid down next to her. Not wanting to be too forward, I decided to lay on top of the covers. She laid for a few minutes on her side, facing away from me, visible to me only as a pile of pink hair on the pillow.

After a few minutes, she rolled halfway to look at me with one eye. "You don't have to lay above the covers like that."

I shook my head. "I'll be fine. I don't wanna be too, um...I don't know, provocative? Not sure if that's the word I'm looking for."

Fluttershy giggled. "But I invited you to come lay with me, silly."

"I know," I said, turning to look at the ceiling. "Just...uh, you know, you really should just get some sleep. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

“Ok...um, goodnight,” she said quietly.

"Night,” I said.

She was quiet for a while.

I listened to her breathing.

It was soft and rhythmic, hypnotizing me each time I heard the air flow into her, then back out again.

Then, suddenly I remembered something from earlier in the evening, and without thinking, I spoke out loud.

“FUCK.”

Fluttershy jumped, then turned over to look at me. “W-what’s wrong?” she asked.

I sighed. “Twilight has my keys,” I replied, looking over at her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

The shy girl giggled. “It’s ok, you can stay here as long as you want,” she said, rolling back over. "Goodnight, Goldie."

"Night," I said again.

"Um, if you want to, you're more than welcome to come under the covers with me," she offered. "Like, if you get cold...or...something."

"OK," I whispered.

She was asleep within minutes.

*****

I laid there, on top of the covers of Fluttershy's bed while she slept. Normally, I would use this time to do things around the shop when I’m at home, but tonight I was here, pondering on how I ended up lying in this bedroom with some young, beautiful girl instead of cutting something on my lathe or rebuilding yet another turbocharger while reminiscing about some long ago war I had fought in, or a voyage I had taken on some old galleon that had long since been sunk, and was now resting at the bottom of the ocean while I continued to live on centuries later.

I felt antsy; like I was wasting my time lying there, staring at the ceiling instead of getting things done that needed to be done...not that I had anything to do here anyway. Besides, she asked me to stay with her and that’s what I was going to do.

I laid perfectly still on my back, listening to the shy girl's soft snoring, breathing in the scent of her hair, her bedspread, and the room in which she slept. After staring at the ceiling for a while, I decided to close my eyes and wait. It was already after 4am; and I could easily lay here, staring into the darkness of my mind for a few more hours until it got light out.

At about 5:30am it was still dark.

I continued to wait, staring into the back of my eyelids, hoping that maybe I would fall asleep again, but it never happened. There was just too much on my mind.

“My new friends attacked me…they know what I am…what do they think of me? Do they even believe me? What is going to happen next?”

The girl next to me had begun to stir. I didn’t move, figuring she was just fidgeting in her sleep, but she kept moving more and more, and eventually her soft voice wafted into the dark room.

"Goldie?"

I opened my eyes, not expecting her to be awake already. "Yeah?"

My response was met with only silence.

I turned my head to look at her, but could only make out the shape of her hair on the pillow next to me. "Are you OK?" I asked.

"Um...why do you like me?"

The question blindsided me, and I wasn't sure how to respond. "What?"

"Like, what is it about me that you like so much?"

"Uh...jeez where do I start?" I said with a chuckle, expecting her to giggle in return.

Instead, she was silent.

I cleared my throat nervously, then continued. "Well, you're very caring, sweet, cute, shy...you love animals, which I think is great, you care about your friends, and you're one hell of a cook."

"Anything else?" she asked, catching me off guard.

"Uh, well y-you're very beautiful." I replied nervously. "Like, off-the-charts, stunningly beautiful."

She waited for a moment to respond, making me wonder if I had said something wrong.

Finally, she let out a long sigh. A disappointed sounding sigh.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"It's just..." she paused, sounding reluctant to continue. "That's what everyone says about me. Like that's all there is to me; quiet and meek, scared of everything, afraid to talk to people...'but it's OK because she loves animals and is really pretty.' "

I frowned, biting my lip in confusion. "I wasn't trying to say that's all there is to you," I replied, trying not to be too obvious about back-pedalling from what I said earlier.

"I know I'm pretty," Fluttershy continued, "I just wish people would see the other things about me too." She stopped for a moment to let out another sigh. "But it's my own fault that they don't."

"Why?" I asked.

Some time passed before she answered. "I...it's because I'm so quiet and shy. I wish I could be like Rainbow Dash sometimes, so I could say what I want to who I want, whenever I wanted to."

I stared at the ceiling, surprised that she was opening up to me the way she was. I could feel the frustration in her words, and I quickly noticed that she was stuttering less, and she seemed to speak more confidently as a result.

"Well," I replied. "Unfortunately, there's no real trick to not being shy, you just have to face it, and learn by speaking up and facing your fears that there's really nothing to be scared of."

"I know, but...it's hard," she complained softly. "Everyone thinks I'm just this childish, shy, innocent girl who loves animals, and no one knows what I'm really like. I think about things, things that I'd like to do or say, things that would surprise most people, but I'm always too scared to go for it. I think of something funny to say when I'm with people, but I don't say it cuz I'm scared...and I don't even know why. Maybe because I'm afraid they won't laugh, and I'll just end up embarrassed."

"Who cares if they don't laugh?" I said. "Look at some of the shit Rainbow Dash says, but it doesn't stop her, and the rest of you still like her, right?"

"I guess," she replied softly. "It's just that no one, except for maybe Rarity, really knows the real Fluttershy; the Fluttershy that lives in here," she said, pulling her hand from under the blankets to point to her head.

"I'm sorry if I didn't give you the answer you were looking for," I said, "but to be honest, I haven't really known you that long." I paused to rub my chin, then took a deep breath. "I really hope I get to know the real Fluttershy, though, if it makes you feel better."

"I'd like that," she replied. "And I think you would, too."

"Hm," I chuckled, staring at the ceiling.

We laid together in the dark, enjoying the sounds of each other's breathing, feeling a bit closer to one another after the surprisingly personal conversation we'd just had.

“Why don’t you come under the covers?” she asked.

Given that this was the third time she'd asked, I figured she probably wasn't going to stop until I did it, so I got up, lifted the covers up and slid into the bed next to her.

I had forgotten how nice a real bed could be; so warm, soft and secure. So much nicer than my old, worn couch with no blanket. Only seconds had passed before I felt the blanket stir around my shoulder, followed by a small gust of air on the side of my neck, air that was exhaled from the shy girl’s nostrils.

She was close.

Next, I felt her arm come to rest across my chest, and then I felt her nose press against the side of my neck, followed by the gentle caress of her lips. My eyelids fluttered uncontrollably as she continued to kiss my neck, leaving dabs of her saliva on my skin, creating a cluster of wet spots in the wake of her kisses that began to cool rapidly when she exhaled her sweet breath against me.

Fluttershy made herself at home against my side, sharing her warmth with me. Her head was resting on my shoulder, with one arm across my chest and one leg across my hips. I put my arm around her, pulling her close as she nuzzled her cheek against my shoulder.

She began to stroke my collarbone with her thumb, which immediately sent a tingle across my skin, resulting in goosebumps popping up all over my body.

"Am I...sexy?" she asked, after which I felt her face quickly heat up against my shoulder.

Her latest question surprised me. "Uh, I guess so, yeah."

"I know I'm pretty and cute and all that," she continued. "But I'm not a little girl. I'm a woman."

"Yeah..." I replied, unsure of what else to say.

"Did you like it when I kissed you outside, by your truck?"

"Um, Yeah."

Fluttershy giggled. "Was it...hot? Did it turn you on?"

My eyebrows went up in surprise upon hearing the question. "Yeah, it did. A bit."

Satisfied by my answer, she pulled herself tighter against me, letting out a content sigh. "Good," she whispered, placing her lips close to my ear. "That was just a small sample of the real Fluttershy."

"Hm...well, I like her already," I quipped, drawing a soft giggle from her. “So...aren't you tired?” I asked.

“I’m used to getting up this early anyway,” she said. “I’m not used to having a man in here with me though. Especially one like you; it's actually kind of exciting, and even a little scary because if you wanted to, you could kill me like it was nothing. But somehow, I know you'd never hurt me, so I actually feel really safe with you...if that makes any sense.”

"Well," I chuckled, "You hit your head pretty hard, so..."

As Fluttershy let out another sweet giggle, I reached down with my free hand to stroke her thigh, which was still sprawled across me, but I was surprised when my fingers touched hot, bare skin. After resting my hand there for a second, I eventually gave in to curiosity and slid my fingertips towards her hip, finding the edge of her panties. I realised at this point that she was only wearing her white tanktop and a pair of underwear.

I could hear her breath quiver a bit. I moved my hand up to her waist and pulled her against me, then I placed a gentle kiss on her temple. “I promise I’ll always take care of you,” I said.

She smiled in response, then looked up at me, reaching up to grasp the back of my neck and pulled me in to kiss me on the lips. Not an aroused sort of kiss, more like a show of commitment from her; like she was forming a bond between us with it, making us an official couple. When she broke her lips away from mine, she looked into my eyes again.

“Same with me,” she replied. ”Even someone like you needs to be taken care of. I could see it in you the first time I saw you, you looked like you needed something. I knew there was something different about you, something more, but also something missing.”

“She understands me,” I thought. “Amazing...”

We laid there for a while, sharing each other’s warmth. The sun was finally coming up, casting some warm-coloured light into her room.

She started to get up, stopping to speak. “I’ll be right back.” She peeled the covers off herself and got up to head toward her bathroom. She had apparently stopped caring about me seeing her dressed in so little, evidenced by how she seductively adjusted the back of her plain white panties as she walked, making me focus on her rear end, which was, needless to say, beautiful.

She went in and closed the door and was in there for about a minute before she re-emerged, followed by the sound of the toilet running. As she headed back towards me, it was obvious that she didn’t have a bra on under her white tanktop; her bust was a tad lower than it usually was and I could plainly see a hard point on each breast, signifying that getting out of bed had given her a slight chill.

She laid down on her stomach, letting her feet point into the air, swinging them playfully back and forth.

“Oh my god, I’m going to spend the week with this girl,” I thought to myself, feeling my heart skip a beat.

“Do you wanna feed the animals?” she asked playfully.

I smiled. “Sure,” I said, not really wanting to leave the bed just yet.

“Damn. Oh well, sometimes you’ve gotta play the game to get the girl,” I thought as I lifted the covers off and got up.

She slipped into the black yoga pants that she wore the other week, shimmying and bouncing herself to get them up over her hips, her unrestrained bust bouncing heavily inside her tanktop in the process, causing me to clench my fists at the sight of her, biting the inside of my cheek.

“Fuck…FUUUUCK!”

She put on a gray hooded sweater next, so that she wouldn’t be too cold outside in the morning air.

After Fluttershy decided to call and leave a message at the shelter, letting her partner know she wouldn’t be there this week, I figured I’d better send my boss a text as well, before I forgot about it. I had a great many distractions here in the shy girl's house, after all.

Next, she set to looking after her critters.

First, she filled the bowl in the living room that belonged to Angel Bunny, who I really didn’t see much of because he hid under the furniture most of the time. After that was done, we went outside.

Fluttershy was carrying a package that she’d gotten from her fridge. Taking me around to the back of the house, she showed me her vast array of animal friendly items; there were a whole lot of birdfeeders, bowls and other items to please the animals, as well as scratching posts, toys, and just about anything else you could think of. You name it, she had it.

She opened a small shed in the corner of the yard and got out some bags of different feed, handing me a couple and telling me which bowls to fill, and with which kind of feed. She proceeded to go fill some birdfeeders, and then went around checking the nectar level in the hummingbird feeders.

I watched in amazement as animals began to appear out of nowhere; birds, squirrels, rabbits, a couple deer, all kinds of wild creatures. I watched at her as she stood there, admiring her own handywork. She let her eyes close as a few of the birds circled around her, one finally landing on her shoulder and one on the top of her head, drawing a sweet giggle from her as she used her fingers to brush some pink hair out of her face.

“Good morning to you, too,” she said sweetly. I watched in awe, wondering how she didn’t think of herself as a goddess.

She still had the package from the fridge in her hand, and I wondered what it was for.

She spoke, “There’s someone coming to say sorry to you, Goldie.”

I glanced at her as she pointed to the right side of the yard, prompting me to look to where she was pointing. At first, I couldn't see anything, but then I locked eyes on a large brown cat that was squatting in the tall weeds. I recognised it immediately as the one that had attacked me the night before.

“Come on out,” Fluttershy coaxed.

Like it was nothing, the animal stood up and causally walked towards us. I got a little nervous, not for my own safety obviously, but for Fluttershy’s. Instinctively, I stood in front her to block the predator from potentially hurting her, only to have her put her hand on my arm and walk around in front of me again.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “He won’t hurt us. All these animals are under my control, and I know exactly what they’re all thinking.”

I paused for a moment, contemplating her statement. "Wait," I said, pointing around the yard at all the animals moving about. “You’re controlling all of them?” I asked. “Doesn’t that take a lot of concentration?”

“Oh…no, it’s not like I’m controlling everything they do. It’s hard to explain,” she said with a pause, before continuing. “I can hear them all talking at once. It took a long time for me to get used to it. Of all my friends, I probably use my magic the most, by far; especially since I moved out here in the woods. There’s never a time when I can’t hear them,” she explained.
“Wow,” I thought. “How does she deal with that? Most people would lose their minds.”
She squatted down and let the big cat nuzzle it’s snout into her chest. She giggled then said: “Now you go say sorry to Goldie.”

The cat came over to me as I squatted down, letting me put my hand on its head to give it a little scratch behind the ear. “No hard feelings?” I said, feeling a bit silly for talking to an animal. It backed up to sniff my hand, then proceeded to rub its cheek against my palm.

“Aww, that’s nice,” Fluttershy cooed. Then she opened the package. “I have a little treat for you.”

The big cat looked in the bag, which was filled with chunks of meat. It took the bag in its mouth and quickly pranced off into the woods again, disappearing from sight.

As Fluttershy and I stood again, she was looking around at all the creatures scampering back and forth, eating their generously served meals while I looked at Fluttershy. Something then crossed my mind from the girls’ attack on me the night before; it was the only thing that actually caught me off guard, other than them having special powers.

“How did you guys know I was coming last night?” I asked.

She turned to look at me. “Hm?”

“Last night,“ I continued, “When you guys ambushed me; I can’t figure out how you knew I was coming. I mean, Twilight took my keys so I couldn’t drive and surely you guys didn’t think I could get here on foot that quickly. And yet, you knew I was coming, and your cars were all here. I thought everyone went home?”

“Oh, Twilight texted us while she and Sunset were heading back, telling us to meet here so they could tell us what was going on. Pinkie Pie had already dropped Applejack off at her farm so she just came back in her truck, and the rest of them just turned around and came back. Sunset and Twilight were here first. They were really scared, especially when they knew you were coming back too.”

“Yeah, but…how did you know I was coming?” I asked again.

“Oh, well…the way you were crashing through the woods, you scared a lot of animals. I could hear them from the house. Some of them even came here for help,” she explained.

“The animals told you? ” I said, shaking my head. “Huh…bravo. That’s actually really smart. You basically used them like radar.”

She blushed. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, the actual attack was kind of… uh, shitty, but you guys have great abilities. If you learned to use them efficiently and actually work together…well, you would be almost unstoppable,” I explained.

She looked enthusiastic for a second, then her head dropped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing that something was obviously bothering her.

She sighed. “It just that…I mean, I love my magic; being able to connect with the animals is wonderful, but it doesn’t help much when it comes to fighting.”

“But you sent your cat friend to get me. If I was a normal person I would have been dinner,” I replied.

“Oh my! I wouldn’t have let him kill you,” she said, briefly covering her mouth. “Besides, he just happened to be around. There’s almost always something around out here in the woods, but what if I’m in the city and there’s no big animals there to help me?”

“I can teach you to fight,” I said. “I have a lot of experience in hand-to-hand combat.” I chuckled at my own understatement. “I've trained countless soldiers for many wars over the centuries, and I can teach all of you girls to defend yourselves effectively, especially if you can integrate your powers into your fighting style.”

She looked down at the ground beside her, rubbing her elbow. “But…I’m not very strong, and I get scared easily. I would probably just get hurt.”

“Well...” I started, but I got the sense that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so I remained silent. The way she was standing, I could see the wound on her head. “Can I look at that?” I asked, walking over to her.

“Sure.” She tilted her head so I could see it.

I gently pulled her hair back, some of which was still stuck to the crusty, dried blood. There was a fairly big bruise, with a little split in the skin at the center. Noticing it was a bit red and swollen, I touched it gently, to which she suddenly hissed through her teeth, pulling back and squeezing her eyes shut.

“We should get that cleaned up,” I said. “We should have done that last night, I didn’t even think about it. I wasn’t thinking properly at all.”

“It’s OK, no one was,” she said, “I should...um, have a shower anyway.”

She gave one last look at the animals, and after blowing a kiss to them, headed for the front of the house. I followed her inside, and we made our way to her bathroom. She took off the hooded sweater, quickly reminding me of the tanktop she had underneath.

“Wow.”

She turned on the water in the shower, waiting for it to get warm.

“You think you’ll be OK?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered, giving me a gracious smile. “Um, thank you.”

“OK, I’ll be out there then,” I said, returning her smile as I motioned to the front room.

She nodded and closed the bathroom door, making sure to smile at me first. I went out to the main room and sat down on her couch, pulling out my phone to check for messages. There were a few.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hey Golds, it's Sunset. Sorry again about everything. Also we accidently took your keys home with us. I should be back this weekend unless you need them sooner? Let me know.

I went ahead and added Sunset as a contact to my phone. The next two messages were from Rainbow Dash:

UNKNOWN NUMBER: OK, so I admit I thought the whole thing was bullshit, but Twilight did some research and she thinks she found u in some old WW2 pic. She sent it to all of us. It's awesome!

"Hm..."

UNKNOWN NUMBER: This is Rainbow Dash, BTW. Sorry I was a jerk last night. It's not that I think ur a liar, it was just too much to think about at once.

I decided to answer Dash.

ME: No worries. Like I said, no one ever takes it very well. U guys actually did pretty good, prob cuz u've had ur share of crazy shit too.

She had sent the picture with the text. I opened the picture, wondering if Twilight had actually found me. It was a black and white photo of about fifty World War II soldiers standing at attention, arranged in straight rows. There was a bright red circle that Twilight had added to the picture surrounding one of the soldier’s faces.

“Son of a bitch, she actually found me,” I thought.

I added Dash to my contacts.

I decided to text Sunset back about my keys, wondering if any of them had gotten any sleep that night.

ME: Hey, no hard feelings. I might try to come up there to get my keys sooner. I'll let you know when I see how Fluttershy is feeling.

I sat for a bit on the couch, then decided to send Sunset another text.

ME: Tell Twilight good job on finding the picture. Yeah, that's me in it.

I put my phone down and waited after hearing the shower turn off. After a few minutes, I heard the door open and Fluttershy came down the hall wearing a thick, white bathrobe that was decorated with pink stripes on the collar and belt, along with a white towel wrapped around her head.

Fluttershy came over and sat with me on the couch.

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Good,” she said. “Did you want to look at it now?”

“At what?” I asked, absentmindedly.

“My head, silly,” she giggled as she pulled the towel off and rubbed it around to dry her hair.

“Oh, yeah,” I replied, turning towards her and moving her hair away so I could see the wound. “It looks better now that it’s clean,” I said after studying it for a bit. “You’ll probably be able to see it for a couple weeks though. We should put something over it, do you have any of those big square band-aids?”

“Yeah,” she said, getting up. “In the bathroom cupboard. Follow me.”

We went to the bedroom again where she got one of the band-aids from the bathroom and came back, handing it to me before sitting on the edge of the bed. I sat next to her as I peeled the back off the Band-Aid, and after brushing her hair out of the way, I placed it over the wound, covering it completely.

I let her hair go and pulled her close to me, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

“Thank you, Goldie…um, you’re really sweet,” she said, blushing.

“No problem. If there's anything you need, just ask,” I said as I looked at her again, noticing her eyelids looked very heavy. “Hey, didn’t you only get like two hours of sleep last night? Aren’t you tired?”

Fluttershy looked up at me. “Oh, yeah…Kind of. I think I’ll just brush my hair and lay down for a bit.”

She got up and went to the bathroom to start brushing her long, pink hair.

“Would it be ok if I borrowed your car while you sleep?” I asked her, standing up from the bed.

“Sure, I guess. Why?” she responded.

“Well, I need to go to my place and get some clothes so I can get out of this huge-ass shirt,” I explained. “Plus, I’m going to get some things so I can clean up your yard.”

She looked out of the bathroom at me with a confused look on her face. “M-my yard?”

“You know,” I said, “cuz it looks like a battle ground.”

Her eyebrows went up when she realised what I was talking about. “Oh, yeah,” she replied softly, “that makes sense. Poor Pinkie Pie, she caused most of that. She always had the hardest time with her magic, trying not to make a big mess with it. She started out just being able to make sugary things explode, like sprinkles and marshmallows n' stuff, but after a few months, she started noticing she could charge up practically anything; as long as it was inanimate. As far as we know, she can't charge living things; like plants, animals, bugs or people.”

I cocked an eyebrow. "That's probably a good thing."

Giggling, Fluttershy set her brush down and walked out of the bathroom with her hair now straight, but still wet, so it hung down her back, flat and heavy looking. “I feel bad for Pinkie sometimes. She blew her parents’ house up right after high school graduation, so they moved out into the country, pretty close to the Apple Family farm, which is kind of nice for them, actually. The Apples and the Pies sometimes get together and spend the holidays with each other. It’s kind of cute.”

I shook my head and chuckled a little. “Crazy old Pinkie Pie.”

Fluttershy giggled about her friend as she plucked a pair of underwear from her dresser drawer and slipped them on in front of me, one leg at a time, pulling them up inside the robe. Then, with her back turned, she took robe off and let it drop to the floor, revealing her bare back to me. It surprised me to see her do this, especially since the newly placed panties were literally the only thing she was wearing. I was frozen in place, my eyes on her bare, yellow skin as she slipped a dark blue T-shirt over her head and pulled it down over herself.

She turned, and saw me staring, which caused her to blush a little as she walked towards me and wrapped her arms around the back of my neck, gently pressing her lips to mine. I kissed her back, enjoying the feel of her body against me, her breasts squeezing against my chest through that thin t-shirt. She then separated herself from me and slipped under the covers of her bed. “I’m so tired, Goldie” she said with a sigh. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” I said. “You need your rest. I’ll see you later. Text me when you wake up if I’m not in the house, K?”

“OK,” she said, settling down under her covers. Then she lifted her head up again, “Oh, my keys are hanging on the hook by the door.”

“OK, thanks. Sweet dreams,” I said as I walked out of the room.

“Bye,” she whispered, and she was asleep in seconds