Chapter 24

Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Fluttershy and I decided to go out for breakfast at a little Mom-and-Pop restaurant close to Sunset’s new apartment. Rarity texted the other girls to see if they wanted to come, but only Rainbow Dash was able to make it. AJ was busy with some early morning farm duties and Pinkie didn’t respond…we made the assumption that she was still asleep.

We met Dash out front of the restaurant, after only a short wait. Sunset was happy to know that Dash actually lived only a couple blocks away. Inside, we found it to be a nice little place. It had an old-timey feel to it…not quite as gimmicky as the 50’s Diner that Fluttershy and I ate at, but it still had an atmosphere to it that made you feel like you were stepping back to a simpler time. There were old pictures on the walls of famous people, old record covers and a few different antique items mounted up here and there.

We sat at a booth next to a window together. The blinds were drawn since the morning sun was at the right angle to shine a little too harshly in our faces. There was a large, low hanging pot light right above the table. The space had a dark feel, but everyone’s faces had a warm glow once we were settled in…maybe it was just the time of day and some luck, but it seemed like the ambiance was very excellently crafted in this place.

Fluttershy slid into the right side of the booth, shifting herself all the way over to the wall. I sat next to her as Sunset sat on the other side, across from Fluttershy, then Dash sat down next to Sunset across from me. Rarity approached the table last, looking at the spot next to me first before looking over at Dash, who was sitting closer to the end of the bench than I was.

“Sunset needs a bit of room for her arm, Rare…” Dash said. “You should probably sit over there.” She finished, pointing at the empty spot beside me.

Rarity looked at me for half a second before sliding onto the bench next to me. Our side of the booth was pretty cramped, so the three of us were basically pressed arm-to-arm together.

“Pardon me, darling…” Rarity said, as she sat next to me. I could feel her hip and thigh pressing against mine as she shifted around a bit in a futile attempt to get comfortable. Almost half of her derriere was still hanging off the end of the bench. Fluttershy and I squeezed down toward the wall to make more room, letting Rarity have a full seat, but this resulted in having both of the girls pressing against either side of me. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it.

Dash snorted. “You guys look like sardines…”

“Sorry, guys.” Sunset said.

“Oh no, it’s quite alright.” Rarity replied. “We can’t be jamming ourselves in against you with that arm the way it is.”

“How is that, by the way?” Dash asked Sunset, nodding to her bandaged arm which was resting on the table.

Sunset gently wrapped her fingers around her wrist, looking down at it for a moment before she answered. “It still hurts pretty bad.” She sighed. “Sorry about last night, guys. I just wanted to do something fun to celebrate being done school.”

“Meh,” Dash waved her off. “It wasn’t your fault. That place was a dive.” She looked at me for a second as she ran her little blue fingers through her rainbow-coloured bangs, clearing them from her face. “At least we know who NOT to piss off now…”

I was looking down at the table, but I could see all their eyes land on me. I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just stayed still.

My girlfriend finally came to my rescue. “He was just upset when he saw what that guy did to Sunset…” she said in her sweet little voice.

I looked up at Sunset, who looked back at me with her big green eyes shining as she gave me a little smile of gratitude.

“Well if you ask me, that ruffian needed to be put in his place.” Rarity said as she turned and gave me a little nod of approval.

“Well,” Dash said, “he got put in his place, all right…I haven’t seen a beatdown like that since…well, ever!” She chuckled a bit then continued. “When you broke that 2x4 in half with your fist…WHAM! Holy shit, that was awesome…” she exclaimed, slamming her left fist into her right palm.

I nodded a bit at her compliment. “Sorry, I kind of lost my cool, guys. That hasn’t happened for a long time.”

“Think nothing of it, darling.” Rarity said. I felt her hand come down on my thigh and squeeze it gently as she spoke. I looked at her with a bit of surprise and she quickly withdrew her grip on me.

I felt kind of bad about making her pull back, but I didn’t know what to do. I felt the weight of Fluttershy’s head come to rest of my other shoulder just as the server came with the menus. We ordered our food and continued enjoying our time together at the place.

I liked it there. I enjoyed the mood created by the atmosphere in the place, not to mention being pressed between those two girls. I noticed Sunset was looking at the three of us a lot. Not in the way that she looked at us when she learned about the threesome…this was different. She seemed distant…

We ended up going back to Sunset’s place after breakfast and hung out there for the rest of the day. We mostly just spent time together chatting and what not, but also to give her a hand re-arranging some of her stuff, much to Rarity’s disappointment.

*****

We went back to work Monday, repeating our weeks much the same as the one before. This week, however, I was deep in thought about the incident at the bar…and I was thinking about the immortal lady-friends that I now knew.

It was about 10pm on Wednesday night when I texted Rarity.

ME: What r u doing tonight?

There was no answer for a few minutes. Then I finally got a response.

RARITY: Nothing really. I've caught up on my orders for this week so far. Why do you ask?

ME: Can u come out to Flutters'? I wanted to talk to u too about something.

RARITY: I Suppose I could. What time?

ME: Now would be fine.

RARITY: Alright, I suppose. I wasn't prepared to go anywhere right this minute, but I'll be there as soon as I can. What is this about?

ME: I’ll tell u when u get here.

RARITY: OK then. See you soon.

RARITY: Ta ta!

Fluttershy was curious about what I wanted as well. I didn’t say anything to her about it either other than I wanted to go for a walk out to the clearing in the middle of the woods, the place with the river that we went to the day after the hot tub incident with Rarity.

Rarity finally showed up about an hour later. I was surprised by her appearance when she came through the door after a light knock. She was wearing tight, dark purple pants and a form-fitting, long-sleeved black shirt. The neck opening in the shirt was very large and showed off her collarbones and part of her shoulders and chest. As mentioned, it was very form fitting…her ample, yet perky bust was perched atop that slender waist of hers and the dark colours of her clothes contrasted with her smooth white skin. Her face was striking…she had her usually well-styled hair tightly pulled back into a surprisingly long pony tail that hung down her back, almost to her rear end…which was also quite visible through the tight pants. Not one part of her outfit left much to the imagination…it may as well have been painted on.

I looked over at Fluttershy, who was leaning with her back against the counter with her arms folded across her chest. I could see her biting her bottom lip in the dim light as her teal eyes were darting up and down her friend’s flawless body. Rarity continued unknowingly teasing us as she bent down to take off her shoes.

“Sorry about my appearance, darlings…I wasn’t expecting to be seeing anyone tonight.” Rarity said, standing back up straight and walking over toward us.

“Um…I think w-we can live w-with it…” my girlfriend stuttered.

As Rarity walked over to us, I could see her eyes darting over to me…probably wondering why I had asked her here. I realized at that moment that I had never cleared up the text that Fluttershy had sent her from my phone.

When she got close I could see her face was free of her usual makeup, her eye lashes looked smaller, her blue eye shadow was gone and her powdery-smooth complexion was replaced by very light freckles that were perched high on her cheeks. You would never see them from a few feet away like Applejack’s, but up close they were hard to miss.

Rarity was cute. She could easily get away with not wearing makeup and still be quite attractive, but it was a different kind of attractiveness…with her make-up on and her hair styled, she was hot, but intimidatingly hot…and I think that’s the look she goes for. Her natural face was easily just as beautiful, just different. She looked like a cute, young girl. I liked it. The only thing that reminded you that it was Rarity was her sapphire eyes, which at that moment were sparkling like diamonds in the dim light of Fluttershy’s house.

“You two are so cute, living out here together…” Rarity finally said. “It must be nice to have someone to spend these long nights with.” She looked at me for a second before turning her head down, looking at Fluttershy’s feet, her long indigo pony-tail swinging around behind her.

Fluttershy covered her mouth, suddenly feeling bad that her friend had been spending her nights all alone. “Oh Rarity, I’m sorry…I never thought of that…” she said. “You can come out here anytime during the night. I want you to know that.”

“Aww, why thank you, darling…” Rarity said, touching her fingertips to her chest. “And that’s a two-way street, darlings. You are more than welcome to visit me anytime.”

The two girls smiled at each other as I watched. After a minute, Rarity sighed and turned in my direction. “Well…” she asked, deliberately avoiding eye contact with me. “What did you want to discuss?”

I looked at both girls, then drew in a breath. “Let’s take a walk.” I said.

We went outside in the backyard and I asked Fluttershy to take us to the field with the river in it. Rarity was incredulous that we were going to venture into the woods in the dark so I had to remind her that nothing can hurt her, as well as the fact that Fluttershy knows where every living creature was while we were out there.

It took us about an hour like last time to get to the clearing…not without a bit of whining from a certain purple-haired girl. As we entered the field, I heard Rarity draw in a breath as she took in the surroundings. Fluttershy and I joined hands as we let our friend get her fill of the place.

“Oh my…” Rarity said, gazing out across the field, listening to the river babbling away endlessly, taking in the scenery illuminated under the moonlight. “It is simply breathtaking…”

I was hoping the moon would be bright enough here at night for us to see what we were going to be doing.

I let go of my girlfriend’s hand and walked out into the field, stepping away from them. They followed me, staying about ten feet behind. I finally stopped and turned to face them.

They stood there, waiting to see what I was going to say.

Fluttershy finally spoke up. “Um, so…why did you want to come out here?” she asked timidly.

I took a deep breath, looking up at the stars. “Do you guys ever wonder what would have happened if I was an actual threat?”

They stared at me with worried looks on their faces.

“I’m not…so don’t worry.” I chuckled, putting my hand out towards them.

They relaxed a little, but still seemed disturbed at the thought of my question.

“The night we had our little fight in the yard…” I said. “What if I was really trying to harm you? Do you guys think it would have ended well?”

They looked at each other for a second, then back at me.

Fluttershy shook her head. “I would be dead right now.” She said. The sound of her saying that with her soft voice was somewhat haunting.

“We would probably have had no chance of winning…” Rarity said flatly.

“But does it have to be that way?” I asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, darling.” She replied.

I started walking around in the grass as I thought about what to say next. “You guys have a lot of potential.” I said. “If all of you, or even at least a couple of you learned how to work together as well as honed your individual skills, I see no reason that you could have all survived that night and driven me away...if I was actually trying to hurt you, that is.”

“Well darling, it had been a very long time since we saw any excitement…we were definitely out of practice.” Rarity stated.

“It was a mess.” I said, bluntly. “No plan, no communication, it was just every man for himself…and what happened? Fluttershy could have been killed.”

Rarity sighed, looking down at the grass. After a moment, she looked back up at me. “So what are you suggesting?”

“Well,” I said, “I wanted to train all of you to fight properly, but I was worried that might lead to some of you getting hurt.”

Fluttershy let her head droop when I said this.

“But now…you two are like me.” I said. “And I’m sorry that it happened without your permission, I didn’t mean for it to happen, but you guys are now the best candidates to be taught.”

“But why?” Fluttershy asked, looking back up at me. “Why is it so important to you?”

“When your fight with me happened…did you expect to be dealing with something like that when you woke up that morning?” I asked.

They shook their heads.

“Were you ready for it?” I asked.

“…No.” Fluttershy answered.

“When these things happen, they don’t wait for us to be ready. You have to BE ready.” I said, pointing at them.

“So, what are you going to teach us, darling? Karate?” Rarity said with a bit of a skeptical snicker.

“No.” I said. “I kind of have a fighting style of my own. It’s different than most others. It's very direct, nothing fancy. Very quick and efficient…the main difference is that I…and now you…don’t have to worry about defending yourself from harm. Your defence is more focused on others who can be killed. Not to mention a much more effective offense…we can execute attacks that would put a normal person’s own body at risk...like jumping into an attack from a fast-moving vehicle, for example.”

Rarity cocked her eyebrow. “Hm…”

“But, that’s not to say you can just stand there and get hit, you need to see everything that’s going on around you…which you can’t do if you’re getting knocked around.” I explained.

Fluttershy was nervously rubbing the back of her neck. “I don’t know…other people depending on me like that is…scary.”

“Well…at the end of the day, YOU will always be alive. Just remember that. You can’t save everyone, but you have to try.” I walked over to Fluttershy and put my finger under her chin, raising her face to look at me. “Where would you be if I didn’t try?”

Fluttershy looked at me, remembering that she wouldn’t be standing there if I hadn’t been able to save her from Pinkie's bomb that night. How could she refuse to learn to defend others after being in a position of helplessness herself?

“I still remember what you said on our first date…” I said to her. “You said you wanted to be like the heroes in those movies we were watching…well, now’s your chance.”

She paused for a moment, then smiled and nodded as she backed up a couple of steps. “OK. I’ll do it.”

Rarity looked at her shy friend with surprise. “Really Fluttershy? You?”

Fluttershy shrugged. “What have we got to lose? It’s not like we’re wasting our time…we literally have all the time in the world…”

Rarity thought for a second before crossing her arms on her chest. “Well, I’ve said it before…I have no interest in getting into any wars again. We had enough of that in high school and it was always murder on my wardrobe.” She said, sticking her nose up.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Rarity…you can’t be serious.”

I shook my head. “Think about what you’re saying…you can get new clo-“ I stopped, rubbing my fingertips on my temples . “That’s not even the point…if something bad comes here wanting to start a fight, they’re not going to stop just because you don’t want to mess up your clothes…they don’t give a shit about your clothes.”

Rarity rolled her eyes at me.

“Look,” I said. “If it happens, do you want to be able to do something about it or do you want be a victim?”

“A victim?” Rarity repeated. “Darling, I cannot die…”

“You think you can’t be taken away? Locked up? Buried? Have everyone you care about killed in front of you?” I said abruptly.

She blinked a few times, looking down at the grass.

“Come on, Rarity…" Fluttershy said to her friend. "You don’t want to be unable to help people when they need it…”

Rarity sighed, pinching the bridge of her hose with her thumb and forefinger. Then she put her hands on her hips. “Fine then. I’ll do it.”

Fluttershy ran over to her and gave her a hug.

“You’ll be glad you decided to do this. Trust me.” I said to her, as she smiled reluctantly at me with her lightly-freckled face. I couldn’t tell if the moon was lighting up her face at that moment…or if it was the other way around.

“OK OK, darling.” She said, patting Fluttershy’s back as she released her from the hug. “So,” she shrugged. “Where do we begin? Why did you bring us all the way out here to talk?”

I turned around with my arms in the air. “We have his place to train in… there’s plenty of space, but more importantly, it’s isolated. You can practice using your magic without anyone seeing. Speaking of which…” I said, turning back to Rarity.

“Speaking of what?” Rarity asked, tilting her head to the side, wondering what I was going to say.

“I wanted to ask you something…” I said, walking over to the indigo-haired girl. “You made a glass out of your diamonds…at your house, the night we told you about your new power.”

“Yes…and? You want me to serve drinks while you and Fluttershy fight?” she joked, getting a giggle out of the shy girl.

“Can you make other things?” I asked.

“Well, I can make a few different things, it just takes practice to learn to design and create them, then more practice to maintain them if they are more intricate…” she explained. “Why? What kind of things were you thinking?”

“Could you make blades?” I asked, watching to see her reaction.

Her eyebrows went up. “What do you mean?...Like a sword?”

I nodded. “Swords, knives…things like that.”

She stared at the ground…”Well, I don’t know…I suppose I could try…do you want me to try right now?”

I waved her off. “No, not right now. I can’t really help you with that since it’s your magic, so we can call that homework. Next time we’re out here, show me what you’ve come up with and we’ll go from there.”

“OK.” She said. “So what are we going to do tonight?”

I rubbed my hands together. “Well, first thing’s first…before I teach you any fighting techniques…we have to purge your self-preservation instincts.”

Both girls looked at me with confused faces.

I held my hands outwards. “You’ve spent your whole life learning to protect yourselves from harm…it’s programmed into your brains. But now you need to get it out if you want to be as effective as possible.”

“What sort of things do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Like flinching.” I said. “When you’re flinching, you’re not being fully aware of what’s going on around you. You lose valuable time and it could mean the difference between life and death for someone else.”

“Um, that’s going to be hard to stop myself from doing…” Fluttershy mumbled, ashamed of her own nature.

“Don’t worry.” I said. “Once you program your brain to know that you can’t be hurt…it’ll come.”

“So how do we train for this?” Rarity asked.

I smiled at them, then said: “Start hitting each other.”