Chapter 21

The three of us were there, surrounding Rarity…trying to think of how to start the conversation off. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her. It felt wrong…her friends should be the ones to do it. She will be more likely to trust them.

Looking at Fluttershy, I could tell right away that she wasn’t going to do it. She was looking down at the floor now, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.

I looked up at Sunset, who seemed be aware that it was falling on her to start things off. “Uh…hey, Rare?” she started as she took a step towards the fashionista, who was still curled up in her big chair. Sunset knew it was going to be difficult to drop such a bomb on her after such a fun night.

“Yes, darling?” Rarity said, knowing something was going on now, but not knowing what.

Sunset drew in a breath, opening her mouth to say something…she paused for a moment, then closed her mouth and turned her head away from Rarity, letting her breath exhale through her nose in frustration. She didn’t know what to say.

“How do you tell someone something like this?” I wondered to myself.

A few awkward seconds went by, then suddenly Fluttershy perked up. “Hey Rarity…you wanna see who can hold their breath the longest?”

The rest of us looked at her with cocked eyebrows upon hearing her strange request. She started to blush and played with her hair under our watching eyes.

“What?” Rarity asked…”Darling, what kind of childish game is that to play?”

“I don’t know…” my girlfriend answered. “I thought it might be fun.” Then she looked at her indgo-haired friend. “I bet you can’t beat me…”

Rarity took the bait. “Oh really?” She said, sitting up straight in her chair. “Is that what you think?”

“Y-yeah.” Fluttershy replied. “I’ll take you to…um, school.”

“Take me to-“ Rarity started in an elevated tone before she stopped herself, then stuck her nose up. “We shall see, my dear lady. I accept your challenge. But just this once!” She turned to point a finger at Sunset. “Then you guys are going to tell me why you’ve been acting so strange all night!”

Sunset bowed her head slightly. “Fine.” She said.

The two challengers both drew in a deep breath…then closed their mouths, their cheeks puffed out, their lips puckered.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time, then I looked at Fluttershy, who gave me a thumbs-up.

I stood up and stepped over to Sunset, who was shaking her head at the scene. “Smart…” I said about Fluttershy’s idea under my breath.

Sunset looked at me, then smirked a bit.

“So…” I said to the red-head, knowing I needed to spend some time distracting Rarity. “I’ve been a little confused by something you said at the table.”

“What’s that?” Sunset asked.

“You were talking about going up against the sirens at school…in the gym.” I said. “Why did you refer to Twilight as ‘the other’?”

Sunset tilted her head up a bit, taking a breath as she realized I was probably confused by her choice of words. “Ahh…” She answered. “Well, in the world I’m from…there are people just like each of us, except they are different.”

“Different how?” I asked.

“They’re kind of…a different species…” Sunset answered slowly.

“Like what?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She said, shaking her head.

“Fair enough.” I said, looking back at the two competitors, who were still holding their breath as they listened to Sunset and me talking. Their colour hadn’t changed at all yet…they still looked fine.

“Anyway,” Sunset continued. “We fought the sirens before we met the Twilight you know…the Twilight who was there that day was the one from my world. She was the one who followed me back here after I stole her crown and tried to use it to take over this world.”

“Take over this world? Haha, not with me around.” I chuckled.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Whatever…so anyway, Twilight and the girls stopped me and they took me under their wings.”

I looked at the two girls again, who were looking back at me with a sense of pride as I learned their story while they continued to keep their breath held in.

“Then Twilight came back to help us against the sirens.” Sunset continued. “And that was her in the gym with us when the magic didn’t work.”

“Why didn’t it?” I asked.

“Not sure.” Sunset said. “Like I said, Equestrian magic doesn’t behave here the way it does in Equestria. We did pull it together later and beat them…actually, Vinyl Scratch helped us too…you remember, Pinkie and Rainbow’s roommate from the mushroom story?”

I nodded. “Is she magic too?” I asked.

“No,” Sunset answered. “But she had a killer sound system, plus she wasn’t under their control because she’s a DJ and has those big headphones on all the time…we needed to play our music loud to overpower their singing so we could take them down.”

“Hm…” I said, nodding.

Sunset pulled out her phone. “I have a picture of her…” She scrolled through her phone before she finally tapped her finger on the screen and held up the phone so I could see it.

They were all in the picture…they looked so much younger, especially AJ. I could see Twilight in the middle, but she looked different…no glasses on, her hair was a bit different, her clothes were different and she seemed to hold herself differently…like she had more confidence. I saw the extra blue-haired girl on the right side, wearing a white zip-up jacket and purple pants. She had big headphones on like Sunset described and a pair of large, round sunglasses with red lenses.

Then I noticed something in the picture that made me grab the phone from Sunset’s hand, pulling it closer so I could see. Twilight had…wings? Then I noticed that Rainbow was higher up, above everyone else…I had thought that she was standing on something when I first looked, but now I noticed her feet up behind her…like she was floating. Then I could see a couple blue-coloured blurs behind her back…

“Is Rainbow Dash flying? She had wings too?” I thought to myself as I scanned the picture for more abnormalities.

Then I noticed my future girlfriend, kneeling in the front, who also had a pair of yellow wings protruding from her back. I looked up at her suddenly, still sitting there holding her breath…

“You guys had…wings?” I asked.

Fluttershy shrugged innocently then nodded, still holding her breath.

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “Well, not all of us. That was something that happened when we used our magic back then…we would conform to the appearance of our counterparts from the other world…well actually, me and Princess Twilight actually ARE the counterparts from that world. We just turned human when we came here, but we changed too.”

“Whoa…Princess?” I asked.

“Yeah, Twilight is one of five princesses there. Her brother’s kid just became one too, but she’s only seven. They’re immortal as well, but they’re not indestructible like you.” Sunset explained.

I shook my head. “So, the Twilight who was here tonight is…from here?” I asked.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, she was born here.”

“What about you? Is there another one of you around?” I asked.

“I assume there’s a human-born version of me here somewhere. I don’t know where, though.” Sunset said. “I've never seen her.”

“So, what about these wings?” I asked, looking at Fluttershy again.

Sunset shook her head. “That doesn’t happen anymore…it hasn’t for years. Not since Camp Everfree when we got the powers we have now…they kind of became the norm. They seemed to take over permanently, whereas the wings and hair ‘n stuff only happened sometimes, usually when shit was going down.”

I gave Sunset her phone back. After a few seconds I said: “Wait a minute…so there’s another Fluttershy in that world?”

Sunset nodded, smiling.

“Holy shit, what are we waiting for? Call her up, get her over here!” I joked.

I looked at my girlfriend who was staring to smirk with her puffed up cheeks.

“A double Fluttershy three-way…could I handle it?”

“Nevermind that…” Sunset said with a chuckle.

I shook my head, smiling at my own joke as I looked at the two girls, still holding their breath.

“Oh…” I said, pulling my phone out again to re-check the time, then looking at Rarity. “Do you realize you’ve been holding your breath for seven minutes?”

Rarity’s eyes opened wide with surprise as the exhale exploded from her mouth. She jumped up from her chair. “Seven minutes??” she exclaimed in disbelief.

Fluttershy exhaled and stood up as well. Neither of them were breathing hard as one would expect after holding their breath for even a fraction of that time.

“That’s simply not possible!” Rarity continued.

“Have you noticed anything else strange in the past few days?” Sunset asked the indigo-haired girl.

“What ever do you mean, darling?...Like what?” the indgo-haired girl asked.

“Like the hot water tonight?” I asked.

Rarity looked at me. “Why yes, actually…did you do that?”

I nodded. “Did it burn you?” I asked her.

She shook her head, frowning. “No...”

Fluttershy spoke up. “I tried to cut your hair…earlier, in your room. I couldn’t cut it.”

“I…what are you getting at?” she asked, looking around at us, confused.

I decided to just come out with it. I put my hands on her shoulders. “You’ve become like me.” I said.

She looked at me, cocking an eyebrow.

“Fluttershy too.” I finished.

Rarity turned to look at her pink-haired friend, realizing she had also held her breath for seven minutes. She stood motionless for a moment, then she started laughing, batting my hands off her shoulders. “Oh ha-ha, very funny, darlings. You had me going for a minute there.”

“It’s no joke…” Fluttershy said quietly.

Rarity looked at her friend as the denial spread across her face. “Oh come now! Enough!” she shouted. “I will not be the victim of your little practical joke!” She started walking with her fists clenched at her sides toward the stairs to get away from us.

Sunset spoke up. “When’s the last time you slept, Rare?”

Rarity stopped suddenly. She stood there motionless as the realization set in that she hadn’t stayed up working the last two nights because of the adrenaline, but rather it was just another piece of evidence supporting our claim that she was indeed immortal now.

She slowly turned to Sunset. “Wednesday night…actually. I woke up early…about three o’clock that morning. I haven’t slept since…”

We all stood there, letting her process it.

Surprisingly, she stuck her nose up and continued walking away. “No. It’s simply not possible.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Oh for god’s sake Rarity!”

To mine and Sunset’s surprise, Fluttershy suddenly reached out, grabbing Rarity’s purple hair and yanked on it…causing the fashionista to stagger back with a high-pitched scream coming from her mouth. When my girlfriend had pulled Rarity back to face her, she wound up her right arm and swung her fist at her best friend’s face with a right hook.

It connected with Rarity’s dainty white cheek, causing her head to snap to the side. She slowly looked back at the shy girl with a look of shock on her face.

“That hurt?” Fluttershy asked, holding her hands outwards.

Rarity put her fingers on her cheek, feeling it…realizing there was no pain at all. Then she looked up at Fluttershy, who was now looking at her with a bit of remorse for hitting her. A scowl grew across Rarity’s face. “No, darling…it didn’t.” she said angrily She suddenly threw a straight jab at Fluttershy’s yellow face, planting her porcelain fist right between the shy girl’s eyes.

Fluttershy was knocked back, landing in a seated position on the couch. It was obvious that Rarity could punch a lot harder than her friend.

“Holy shit!” Sunset yelled.

“I’m fine, Sunset.” Fluttershy said, sitting up and giggling.

I looked at Sunset, shaking my head with a smirk on my face at the scene. Sunset stressfully rubbed her forehead with her fingers in response.

Rarity spun around to face me with fire in her eyes. “OK…so it let’s say this is true…WHY? Why did this happen??”

“Just relax…” I said, not realizing how dramatic Rarity could be.

“Relax?...RELAX?” she shouted, her voice becoming raspy as her volume increased.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen…Fluttershy just noticed it herself yesterday. She hadn’t slept in three days…” I explained.

Rarity looked at Sunset. “You too?”

Sunset shook her head. “No, not me. I never had s –“ the red-head stopped herself.

Rarity narrowed her eyes at Sunset. “Never what?...”

“Well,” Sunset started. “We think we know why it happened…we figured it out this morning at Fluttershy’s.”

Rarity put her hands on her hips. “Well, come out with it then!” she demanded.

Sunset cringed at the idea of telling her…it would mean that Rarity would then know that Sunset knew about the threesome. She reluctantly approached Rarity, putting her mouth next to the fashionista’s ear, cupping her hands over it and whispering something to her.

Fluttershy and I watched as Rarity suddenly gasped, her eyes becoming wide as saucers. “In my puss-…WHAT?” She turned to Sunset suddenly, making the red-head jump back a little. “How did you know about that?”

Rarity turned to me and Fluttershy, blushing darkly. “You told? Who else knows?” she shrieked.

“Just me, Rare.” Sunset said. “They had to tell me this morning because of this whole thing.”

“Oh Rarity,” Fluttershy said softly, ”I’m surprised you didn’t tell everyone already…”

Rarity shook her head, looking at the shy girl. “Oh darling! I would never have thrown myself under the bus like that…”

“Under the bus?” Fluttershy replied. “What does that mean?”

“Fluttershy, he’s the first boyfriend you’ve had in…what? Six Years?” Rarity explained. “I wasn’t about to brag to the others that I went and slept with him myself.”

“Oh…” the pink-haired girl said, looking down, rubbing her elbow with her other hand. “That makes sense.”

Sunset snapped her fingers at them. “Hey! Let’s stay on topic…” she said loudly. “Rarity, you’re immortal, remember?”

A look of shock returned to Rarity’s face. “Oh yes…that.” She said, sitting down in her purple chair. “So…why did him doing…that…make me like this?” she asked, then she looked at me. “I thought nothing ever happened when you slept with women?”

“That’s true…” I said, “but you and Fluttershy have something the others didn’t…”

Rarity stared at me for a moment as she tried to comprehend what I meant…then her expression changed suddenly as her head turned straight ahead and her eyes dropped to the floor. “…our magic.” she said flatly.

I looked down at the floor as well, letting out a sigh. “Yeah.”

Rarity and I looked at each other again.

“You didn’t mean to do it…” she said softly, now understanding that the whole thing came as a surprise to me as well.

I shook my head.

I could see the worry growing in her eyes, making me start to feel bad for her. “So…what do I do now?” she asked quietly.

“Nothing.” I said. “Just live your life. Go to work. Get groceries…you know…”

Her mouth opened slightly as she continued to stare at me.

“Don’t worry.” I reassured her. ”Just keep living your life one day at a time. It’ll be no different, except you won’t sleep. You’ll actually have a lot of extra time on your hands. You might like it…” I told her.

“How long am I going to live?” she suddenly asked with a shaky voice.

I shrugged and shook my head, meaning that I didn’t know.

“…Oh my…” she said, sitting back in the chair. She held out her hand and there was a flash of light that emitted suddenly from her palm which subsided after a couple seconds. She was now gripping what looked like an empty glass in her hand. It was clear and had a blue tint to it…then I realized it was the same diamond material that she had made her wall out of when she tried to keep me away from Fluttershy.

“Oh, excuse me!” Rarity called out, shaking the glass loosely in her fingers, “Could somebody be a dear and fill this with the strongest liquor they can find?”

“How’d you do that?” I asked her.

Rarity looked up at me, then down at the glass. “Oh darling, that’s my magic. You’ve seen it before…”

I nodded at the glass. “You can make different shapes out of that stuff??”

She paused for a second, looking at me, wondering why I had a sudden interest in her ability. She rolled her eyes a bit while shaking her head. “I suppose so…with practice.”

I rubbed my chin, thinking about what I had just learned about the indigo-haired beauty. Then I pointed at the glass. “You know booze won’t work on you anymore, right?”

Rarity sighed. “I know…I remember you saying that the other night…I was only kidding…” she said as another flash erupted from her hand and the glass vanished.

I raised one eyebrow. “That’s actually pretty neat…”

We stayed there with Rarity all night, keeping her calm and reassuring her that things were going to be OK. Sunset feel asleep on the couch at about 1am, so we moved to the dining room and sat at the table so we wouldn’t wake her up.

Rarity asked me many questions…some I knew the answers to, some I didn’t. She would get agitated at the idea of not knowing what was going to happen when I couldn’t answer her.

She would occasionally have attacks of denial as well. The first time, she tried cutting her hair again…the second time she found some nail clippers and tried cutting her nails. It obviously didn’t work either time and she would get wound-up, causing Fluttershy and I to have to settle her down all over again.

Eventually the sun came up. Sunset appeared at the entrance to the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and stretching her limbs. “How’s it going, guys?” she asked, walking over and sitting at the table with us.

“OK darling, I suppose.” Rarity said flatly.

Sunset nodded, then looked at me and Fluttershy. “Why don’t you guys head home? I’ll stay here with Rare.”

“Oh Sunset…are you sure?” my girlfriend asked.

“Yeah.” Sunset answered. “Don’t forget Flutters, you’ve only known about this yourself for a couple days. You should go home and take some time for yourself.”

Fluttershy looked at me.

“She’s right,” I said. “Tomorrow’s Monday. We’re probably both going back to work.”

The shy girl nodded. We got up from the table after deciding to get going. Rarity stood up and hugged Fluttershy tightly.

“I’m so sorry I hit you, darling.” Rarity said softly.

“Me too.” Fluttershy replied.

They separated, looking at each other. Rarity reached up and gently caressed my girlfriend’s forehead where the wound was. Fluttershy had taken the band-aid off a few hours ago to show her friend that the injury was gone.

They let their foreheads touch together, leaning against one another.

Rarity smirked. “BFF’s?”

Fluttershy giggled. “Yeah…I guess so.”

They separated and Rarity suddenly came to me, wrapping her arms around me, squeezing me in a tight hug. I hugged her back.

“Don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be fine.” I said.

She nodded her head against my shoulder. “I know, dear. Thank you.”

Fluttershy was hugging Sunset at the same time. After Rarity and I pulled ourselves apart, the other two girls separated and Sunset turned to me. She put her arms out, grinning.

“Aw come here, you!” she said with a chuckle as she approached me and wrapped her arms around me. I hesitated to hug her back at first…it was kind of unexpected, coming from her. Eventually I put my hands around the small of her back and hugged her gently. Her hair still smelled like the cigar smoke a bit, but there was another sweet scent under that…I couldn’t quite place it. Root beer maybe? It was kind of nice.

After we left, Fluttershy drove us back out into the woods. We were silent for most of the drive. We stopped at my place to get my truck like we had planned.

I hopped into the cab, turned the key and listened as the reliable old diesel fired up as though it had been running just a few minutes ago. I rubbed my hand on the steering wheel, watching as Fluttershy turned her vehicle around and drove out of the yard.

“I missed you, old girl.” I said to the inanimate machine as it rattled there, waiting to get on its way. “You wouldn’t believe what’s happened this week.” I said, chuckling.

I drove to her house, meeting her there and parking next to her little SUV. We went into the house and stood by the table, staring at each other, contemplating the night we just had.

I took a deep breath, as if it would reset the day. “Well, what now?” I asked.

She was standing there with her hands folded in front of her green skirt, her legs together, her hair covering her right eye…looking like the same old shy girl that I fell in love with. “I don’t know…”

“Well, what do two immortals do with their time?” I asked.

She looked at me with her one visible eye. “I don’t know, aren’t you the expert?”

“Well, yeah…but alone. This is new to me, too.” I confessed.

“Well,” she said in her soft voice as she reached up and brushed the hair out of her face with her slender fingers. She looked up at me with both of those shiny teal eyes. “You wanna get it on?”

I laughed at her line. “Sure…that’s one thing we could do.”

She giggled as she put her body against mine and kissed my cheek.

“You may not need sleep anymore, but it’s still important to spend some time on your back, I guess.” I joked.

“Oh, no…” she started. “I wanna be on top…I want this to be goooooood.”

“Whoa…” I thought. “Good? Does she think I can’t make it good?”

I admit, I was a little rusty at first when we started having sex, but after the week I’ve had, a few of my old tricks were starting to come back to me. I have been around the block a few times, after all. I know a thing or two about pleasing the ladies.

“You’re getting a bit cocky there, Flutters.” I said. “You think I don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve?”

She looked at me with her eyebrows cocked. “I don’t know…do you?”

I grabbed her by the arms, just below her shoulders and picked her up, holding her out in front of me…she looked down at her feet which were dangling a few inches above the floor. “Don’t forget,” I said. “You’re like me now…so I can be a little rougher on you.”

She looked at me with nervousness in her eyes for a few seconds. Then her expression softened. Her eyes narrowed as a smirk grew across her lips. Fluttershy leaned her face closer to mine and said:

“Do your worst, big boy.”