Chapter 20

I followed AJ back inside, noticing everyone was gathered around the couch except for Fluttershy and Rarity. We went and stood with them, deciding what flavours of sauces we would get on the wings, as well as what sides we would get.

“Those two better get in here or I’m ordering them both extra hot!” Dash threatened, referring to Rarity and my girlfriend.

“I doubt that would bother them anyway…” I thought.

“Why don’t you go find them, Golds...see what they’re up to.” Sunset said.

I looked at her. She was giving me a look, implying that I should go see if Fluttershy had completed the hair cutting test.

“Uh, OK.” I said. Where are they?” I asked.

Pinkie spoke up. “Just go up those stairs over there and make a left. There’s a hall with a bathroom on the right, then the kitchen and dining room after that. If they’re not in there, Rarity’s room is at the end if you just keep going.”

I started toward the stairs at the right of the living room. “Ok, thanks Pinkie.” I said.

“Noooooo problem!” she squealed in her high-pitched voice as I started going up the steps. “Oh Goldie, wait!”

I stopped and looked back at her.

“If you smash through the big window and end up on the deck…you went too far.” She said, giggling.

I smiled and shook my head as I started going up the steps. “Window; deck; got it.” I said jokingly, looking back at her.

I wasn’t watching where I was going as I went up the stairs. As a result, I ran into something at the top of the short staircase. I could feel it bump against my chest. It was soft, and created a gust of scent as it hit me…a familiar scent. Vanilla and…mild spice?

When I turned look at what it was, I saw the indigo hair right in front of me followed by Rarity’s ghostly white, but beautiful face looking up at me. We locked eyes, her sapphire gems sparkling for a second, then shrinking down to small points as she realized it was me.

“Oh…hello dar – um, Golds.” She said with a small nervous giggle and a blush. She looked away immediately. “Sorry, about that. How clumsy of me.”

“It’s OK, I –“ I started, then I noticed Fluttershy was behind her, looking stressed. I looked at her to see what was wrong. She silently mouthed the word ‘help!’

I nodded to her, then turned back to Rarity. “They want to know what kind of wings you guys want.”

“Oh,” Rarity started. “Garlic parmesan for me, darlings!” she shouted down the stairs.

“Honey garlic…” Fluttershy said in her normal quiet tone.

Knowing they wouldn’t have heard her downstairs, Rarity repeated the order louder. “Honey garlic for Fluttershy!”

“OK!” we heard dash confirm.

Rarity looked back at me again, unsure of what to do next. She was quite obviously feeling awkward around me after what we did together the other night.

Fluttershy reached out and gently touched Rarity’s arm. “Rarity…” she said.

Rarity perked up, “Oh, yes…won’t you join us in my room, darling?”

“Uh…” I started. “What? Again?...Right now?” I thought.

“Just for a moment. To have a chat.” She finished.

“Oh…sure.” I said.

“This way!” she said, putting her finger in the air, spinning on her heel and walking down the hall toward the far end. Fluttershy followed her as I walked behind them both. As we walked down the hall, I watched the right side as we passed the bathroom that Pinkie had mentioned. After that, also on the right was the large, open concept kitchen and dining room. It was very nicely designed and modern looking, like a kitchen a professional chef would have. There was an island in the middle with a built-in stovetop with pots and pans hanging above it. The counter, sink, fridge and cupboards were on the left wall. There was a small flat screen TV on the right wall with some plants around it and the dining table and chairs were straight back, beyond all that.

When we passed the kitchen area, I looked back ahead at Rarity, noticing her hips swaying slightly as she walked, causing her purple skirt to swing along with it. I shifted my sights over to my girlfriend, who was walking a little closer to me as I watched her more graceful stride. I shook my head a bit, incredulous of the fact that I had slept with both of these women within the past week.

“If these two are going to be around for centuries with me, then this might not be so bad…” I thought to myself.

The hallway continued on for several feet past the dining area, followed by another small flight of stairs going downwards into a modestly sized, but fancy bedroom. The head of the bed was on the right wall, and the large window that looks onto the deck and the hot tub was on the opposite wall, straight ahead of us.

“Nice place…” I said.

“Oh, why thank you, darling.” She said. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

She gestured to the foot of the bed. I sat down and Rarity sat next to me, closer to the right corner of the bed.

“I’ll be right back.” Fluttershy said suddenly as she left the room, gliding back up the stairs. Rarity looked at her as she she left, appearing a bit flustered at the fact that’d she’d been left alone with me.

I decided to try to get her to start talking about whatever it was she wanted to chat about, which I was guessing was going to be about the other night. “So…what did you want to talk about?” I asked.

She turned back to me, blushing again a little bit. “Oh, well…it’s about the other night…”

I nodded and looked away from her, towards the wall in front of us. “Yeah…”

“I just…” she started. “I don’t know what came over me…” she said. “I never thought I’d do something like that.”

“Oh.” I said, unable to come up with anything else.

“I’ve always thought of myself as an upstanding and classy lady…” she continued. “To do that...in front of someone else…I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s OK.” I said. “Things just got a bit heated…we got a little ahead of ourselves. Plus we were kind of being instructed…you know.”

As I said this I could see Fluttershy coming back, she was keeping one hand close to her side, partially behind her back.

“Darling, I don’t want you to think of me as some kind of…hooker.” Rarity continued, covering her face in embarrassment. “...Some kind of low-class slut. I don’t want you to think this is something that will become the norm.” she said, looking back at me.

I shook my head. “Of course not. And I don’t think of you like that.” I said.

Fluttershy had sat on the right edge of the bed, positioning herself behind Rarity. I saw her take her hand from behind her back, holding a pair of scissors. She picked up a throw pillow off the bed and put it on her lap to hide the scissors underneath.

“Oh, Rarity,” Fluttershy said, rubbing her friend’s arm. “You know you’re not a slut.”

Rarity smiled at Fluttershy.

“I thought you were beautiful, not slutty or low-class.” I said. The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them…I didn’t mean to say it. My eyes widened as they both looked at me…I didn’t know what to expect next.

As Rarity looked at me, Fluttershy took the opportunity to take out the scissors and reach out to grasp a small lock of her friend’s indigo hair. I tried to keep my eyes on Rarity so she wouldn’t see me looking behind her and end up looking herself, wondering what I was looking at.

It was then that I knew why Fluttershy needed my help. When she was alone with Rarity, their attention was always on each other, not allowing Fluttershy to have a chance to try cutting Rarity’s hair. She needed me there as a distraction..

“Well darling, I appreciate the compliment,” Rarity started, “but it’s not just that…I also don’t want to come between you and Fluttershy.”

As Rarity said this, she turned her head unexpectedly to face my girlfriend with a smile to show her loyalty as the shy girl’s shaking fingers were just about to pick up a lock of the purple hair. Startled, Fluttershy jammed the scissors back under the pillow as she looked up at Rarity, trying to look inconspicuous.

My heart rate picked up after seeing my girlfriend almost get caught. I had to think of something to say to get Rarity to look back at me.

Fluttershy spoke before I could. “Oh no, Rarity.” She said, trying to come up with something to say. “I’m not jealous at all…it was amazing…the most fun I could have asked for.”

“Yeah…” I said. “I’m, uh…glad we could share something together like that…and uh, still be friends.”

Rarity turned back to me with a somewhat blank expression. I’m not sure if she knew what to think.

“Uh, and I respect you.” I said, unsure if Rarity was buying into the distraction…not that I didn’t actually respect her. I had grown to admire her need to please others, even if it was at her own expense.

Rarity smiled a bit at that, as Fluttershy quickly reached out with the scissors, grabbed a small lock of her friend’s hair and tried to cut it.

“Well…thank you darling. I appreciate that.” She said. “And…you think I was beautiful?”

“Oh…uh, yeah.” I said. “And, uh…I really like your hot tub.” I instantly cringed at what I said.

“What the fuck did I just say?” I thought to myself.

Even Fluttershy stopped what she was doing to give me a cock-eyed look.

“Oh…” Rarity said after a pause. “Well, thank you…for that.” She started to turn away.

“Uh, sorry…” I said, trying to bring her back. “I got sidetracked. Yeah…you were beautiful. Gorgeous, even.”

I could see a twinkle in her eye at my words. Her response to my compliment made me think she might actually have a slight crush on me like Fluttershy said…but I’m also bad for misjudging things like that sometimes.

Behind her, I could see Fluttershy out the corner of my eye suddenly cover her mouth as her eyes went big. Not knowing what else to do, or how she would react, I put my arm around Rarity and pulled her close to me. To my surprise, she actually rested her head on my shoulder.

Now that I knew Rarity wouldn’t turn around, I turned by head, passing my chin over the top of Rarity’s head to look back directly at Fluttershy…who slowly shook her head while holding up the scissors, signalling that they would not cut the fashionista’s hair. This was the final proof we needed to say 100% that Rarity was definitely immortal too. A tingle rose up my spine at the realization as she rested her purple head of hair on me, innocently unaware of her new condition.

Fluttershy quietly put the scissors on the floor and swept them under the bed with her foot. She then got up and walked around to the front of Rarity, kneeling down and taking Rarity’s hands in hers, resting them on her friend’s white thighs.

“We’re OK with what happened if you are.” Fluttershy said to her friend. “And of course you are beautiful…and classy. I hope you don’t think we took advantage of you in any way…”

"Heavens no, darling..." Rarity shook her head and smiled, releasing one of Fluttershy’s hands to reach up with her dainty white fingers, stroking her friend’s soft yellow cheek. The shy girl smiled and nuzzled against her friend’s caress, closing her eyes and letting out a soft sigh through her nose.

“Whoa, these two are close…” I thought. I knew Fluttershy must have been playing the part a little bit, hiding the fact that she just tried to cut her friend’s hair behind her back...but her reaction to her friend’s touch seemed very natural. Too natural…not that it was a bad thing.

“HEY!” Dash’s voice suddenly rang out from the other end of the hall, causing the girls both to jump to their feet. “You guys coming or what?”

“Oh…we were just about to set the dining table.” Rarity said.

“Oh OK, whatever then.” Dash replied. “We just found Harold and Kumar on TV…we’re gonna watch it. Come on out whenever you’re done.”

“I’ll help you.” Fluttershy said as Rarity went up the stairs leaving her room. My girlfriend looked back at me one more time with a stressed look on her face, now knowing that her friend had also unknowingly turned into an indestructible being and that we were going to have to tell her tonight. It was already enough of a shock that she’d just found out yesterday that she herself was now an immortal, and now she has this situation to deal with. I felt bad for her. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind.

Before I headed back to the front room to join the others, I took my phone out and sent Sunset a text.

******

Sunset was sitting on the right end of the long couch with her legs crossed. Her arms were folded across her chest.
They were all sitting and laughing at the movie on the TV, except for Sunset, who was nervously swinging her crossed leg.

Sunset felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She took it out, seeing a message from me on the screen. The red-head held the phone down low so no one else could see the screen as she opened the message.

ME: Immortal confirmed.

She squeezed her eyes shut, tipping her head back. “Shit.” She thought. “Now we’ve definitely gotta tell her.”

I entered the room, stepping off the bottom stair as I saw Sunset on the couch with her head back and her eyes shut.

She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at me as I approached the couch to sit at the opposite end, next to Pinkie…who was next to Dash, who was next to AJ, who was next to Twilight, who, finally, was next to Sunset.

We watched the movie for a bit, laughing at the funny parts. It was at the scene where the gross tow truck guy was driving Harold and Kumar back to his place to fix their tire. The characters were whispering back and forth in the truck cab about the leaking boil on the guy’s neck.

Twilight spoke up. “Jeez, imagine meeting some weird mechanic guy out in the woods like that…” she stopped as the other girls all looked at her. After thinking about it for a second, she remembered how I came into the picture. “Oh, uh…no offense, Golds.”

“None taken.” I said calmly, thinking nothing of it.

Dash threw her head back. “Oh god, not this again…”

The other girls chuckled. I didn’t know what was supposed to be so funny so I just shrugged it off.

About half an hour went by before the delivery guy showed up with the food. Dash answered the door, taking a credit card with her. The delivery guy was Asian and had a thick accent. He was trying to say something to Dash about her card and Dash was naturally talking back arrogantly as he raised his voice at her when she repeatedly failed to understand him. He finally got the point across that his card machine was down and could only accept cash.

“Aw fuck!” Dash yelled back at us. “Who has cash?”

“How much?” AJ asked.

“A hundred and twenty bucks.” Dash answered back.

“Whoa, that’sh a lotta shmack…” Pinkie said, in a 1940’s gangster voice.

They all rummaged through their pockets, purses or wallets…whatever they had, trying to scrounge up enough cash to pay the delivery guy. None of them were expecting to be paying cash and all they could come up with was forty-seven dollars. They were about to go ask Rarity and Fluttershy if they had any more, but I spoke up since I had enough in my wallet to cover the rest.

I took their cash and went to the door getting my own bills out of my wallet to add to the stack. The delivery guy looked annoyed, especially by Dash. As I handed him the wad of cash, I told him to keep the change.

He gave me a quick nod and handed us the food, which was in four separate bags. I took two and started carrying them down the hall, heading to the dining area as Dash took the other two bags and thanked the delivery guy.

I heard the delivery guy say in a mock friendly voice. “Bat po!” he said as he waved, trying to mask the true meaning of what he said.

I stopped suddenly and turned to give him a sharp look. Dash saw the look on my face as well and stopped, wondering why I was looking at him the way I was.

“Seung sei ah?” I asked him back.

His smile disappeared and his eyes got wide in shock. Then he quickly turned and walked away, heading down Rarity’s front path to his car.

“Fuck, man…close the door!” Dash cursed, carrying the bags back and pushing the door shut with her foot. She headed back, looking at me. “What was that all about?” she asked. “You understood him? What language was that?”

“Cantonese.” I said.

“You know Cantonese?” she replied with an impressed look on her face. “That’s so awesome!”

I nodded. “I spent a lot of time in that part of the world…many years ago.” I explained as we walked across the front room. The other girls got up to follow us to the dining room as we passed, they too were surprised by what I’d just done.

“So what did he say?” Dash asked.

“Nevermind.” I answered.

Dash was about to protest, but decided to let it go, realizing it was probably something mean about her and that I had defended her in some way. “Fine…” she said. Then she smiled again, saying: “Holy shit, dude…the look on your face was intense! I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side after seeing that…”

“That’s probably a good idea.” I said with a chuckle.

We got into the dining area where Rarity and Fluttershy had set up plates, glasses and silverware for us. It was a bit cramped at the table with eight of us sitting there so we unpacked everything on the counter and the island and loaded our plates, taking them to the table.

We sat, eating and talking about different things. I had expected them to ask me more things about myself, but they actually didn’t. It was kind of a relief, actually. There was a couple times when Dash asked me to pass something to her, calling me ‘old man’ as a nickname which earned her a dirty look from Fluttershy. The second time Dash called me that, Fluttershy pointed her sauce-covered finger at her rainbow-haired friend.

“Dashie!” Fluttershy said sternly. “Don’t call him that!”

“Whoa, easy Flutters…sorry!” dash said, putting her hands up, holding a wing in one of them. “If it bothers you that much, I won’t say it anymore.”

“Thank you.” Fluttershy said quietly, going back to nibbling on her food. She was sitting at the corner of the table, next to me. Rarity was across from her, who I saw looking at me quite a few times. She would quickly look away every time I caught her with her eyes on me.

Sunset was at the head of the table at the far end and Applejack was at the head of the table at our end, between my girlfriend and Rarity. Beside Rarity was Pinkie, then Dash was next to her. Twilight was on my other side.

The conversations continued after everyone got over the shock of Fluttershy putting Dash in her place, which had always been an extremely rare occurrence. I think that might be about to change as Fluttershy’s new life starts to sink in and she realizes that she is going to be a force to be reckoned with…especially after I teach her how to handle herself in a fight.

The conversation eventually evolved into telling embarrassing stories.

“Hey,” Sunset said, “Remember when you guys and the other Twilight tried to use the Elements of Harmony on the sirens in the gym and it didn’t work?” She laughed a bit as she finished the sentence.

Dash threw her head back, groaning loudly. “AW GOD! That was so fuckin embarrassing!” she said as she reached across the table to grab a handful of onion rings from the box.

“Yeah,” AJ said. “We looked like total assholes, standing there holding hands like that.”

Rarity waved a hand at the memory…”Ugh, don’t remind me, darling…”

Something Sunset said stuck in my mind. “OTHER Twilight?”

Sunset started laughing harder. “It is kind of funny now that I look back on it.”

“That’s cuz you weren’t up there with us!” Pinkie shouted. “I wasn’t actually embarrassing to me, I did stuff like that all the time…I was just mad that all the cool rainbow stuff didn’t happen!”

Sunset chuckled on for another minute or so before picking up another wing.

“Hey!” AJ perked up suddenly. “Remember when Pinkie Pie, Rainbow and Vinyl Scratch all rented that house together right after high school?”

Dash had her elbow rested on the table. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the back of her hand so she wouldn’t get sauce on her face. “Oh please AJ, not the mushroom story…”

The rest of the girls started laughing right away at the reminder of the story. AJ turned to me. “So…the three of them rented this house in town, you know, until they got on their feet. Well, this one day…Vinyl, out of nowhere offers Rainbow and Pinkie a bunch of magic mushrooms…” AJ started snickering before she could finish the sentence.

Pinkie stepped in for AJ, who was snorting now and couldn’t continue talking. “We had some, and I really didn’t see the difference…I honestly thought they helped me focus…”

We had a chuckle at Pinkie’s inability to be affected by the substance. “But anyway,” Pinkie continued, “Me and Scratchie were in the kitchen making supper and all-of-the-sudden we hear Dashie out in the hallway by the stairs yelling ‘GET THE FUCK OFF ME!’ so we ran out there and found her rolling around the floor, wrestling her coat!”

I shook my head in surprise. “Her coat?” I chuckled.

Pinkie was starting to laugh too hard to tell the story now as well. “Hehe, yeah…Dashie always hung her coat on the end of the railing at the bottom of the stairs…hehe she was coming down the stairs and claims the coat grabbed her…hehe!”

The rest of us started laughing more as Dash had her face pointed down at the table before she suddenly threw her hands out in front of her. “I swear to god! When I walked by my coat, the sleeve reached out and grabbed my arm and said ‘HEY!’” she shouted.

Everyone at the table burst with hysterical laughter.

“GUYS! I WAS FREAKING OUT!” Dash protested, her face starting to turn red for a few seconds before she finally started to laugh a bit at herself.

I looked at Fluttershy, who was laughing quietly at the story, her shoulders bouncing up and down. I looked at Rarity next, who was turned away from the table, hiding her face as she laughed along with the rest of us.

We continued to enjoy the meal as I listened to their stories. I finished eating first, wiping my fingers off with one of the few wet-naps that were provided with the food. I got up and went over to the island counter to throw the bones into one of the empty boxes. As I turned around, I bumped into Rarity, who was holding her sauce-covered hands up in front of her.

“Would you be so kind, darling?” she said, tipping her head towards the sink.

“Sure.” I said, reaching out for the faucet handle as another roar of laughter broke out at the table, causing Rarity to turn and look at them. I got an idea and decided to try something. I turned on just the hot water while she was looking away. She turned back, then started rubbing her hands together under the stream as I watched the water get hotter. Eventually there was steam starting to billow out of the sink.

Rarity didn’t react at all. She finished rinsing her hands off and reached for the taps to turn them off. I saw her try to turn the cold off, then when it wouldn’t move and she realized it wasn’t on, she frowned a bit in confusion. She reached for the hot water tap, turning it off, seeing the water stop…confirming that it was indeed hot water only.

I watched the wheels in her head start to turn as she grabbed the hand towel and dried her hands, keeping her eyes locked on the faucet.

I looked toward the table to see everyone still laughing, except for my girlfriend and Sunset, who were both looking over at me and Rarity with bewildered faces. It was obvious they had seen what I did.

Rarity hung the towel back up and spun around on her heel to go back to the table. The gust caused by her perfectly styled hair swinging by me sent a wave of her sweet vanilla scent into my nose, reminding me of the other night…causing me to shiver a bit, thinking of the pleasure we had together in the hot tub.

The other girls eventually came over to wash since there wasn’t enough of the wet-naps provided with the food. I turned the water on for them, both hot and cold this time and left it on as they each took their turn.

Sunset finished drying her hands as she came up to me. “Why did you do that?...With the hot water?” she asked quietly as Fluttershy joined us, taking the towel from Sunset to dry her own hands.

“Planting the seeds for our conversation with her later...hopefully it'll get her thinking. Denial can be a powerful thing, the more evidence we have to show her, the better.” I said.

Sunset blinked a couple of times before nodding a bit. “Good idea.”

We continued visiting in the front room for a couple hours until about 11pm. The others finally decided to head out. Pinkie, Dash, AJ and Twilight started to get ready to leave.

Twilight approached Sunset. “Hey, Rainbow Dash says we can crash at her place. You ready to go?”

“Not yet, Twi. I’ll catch up with you later.” Sunset answered. “I can get Flutters and Golds to drop me off. I just have to talk to them about something for a bit.”

“Oh…OK.” Twilight said, seeming like she wondered what was going on. She had noticed Sunset acting a bit different all night. “I’ll see you later then, Sunny.”

“Later.” Sunset said, watching Twilight disappear out the door with the other three girls as they all said their goodbyes.

Now, it was just the four of us. Fluttershy and I were sitting on the end of the couch closest to Rarity’s big purple chair where she was sitting, rocking gently in it with a content look on her face. Sunset was standing up in front of us with her arms crossed.

The three of us looked at each other for a moment…then at the same time, we all slowly turned towards Rarity.

She looked back at us with a nervousness growing on her face. “What?”