Chapter 42

Everyone was standing around the TV in the Sweet Shoppe now.

I was standing with Rarity beside me, squeezing my arm tightly as we watched the screen, hoping to find out more about what was happening at the school. The anchorman’s voice droned over the footage, showing only the outside of the school with police cars and officers surrounding it.

I glanced around at the other girls, who were all watching intently with wide-eyes and hands over their mouths.

“She’ll be fine, guys.” I said. Some of them looked at me when I spoke, others kept their eyes glued on the TV.

“Yeah, I know…” Dash said. “But still…this is crazy…”

I looked back at the TV as the screen changed to show a middle-aged man in a suit being interviewed. The headline across the bottom revealed that he was the School Superintendant.

“I was supposed to meet the Principal here this afternoon for our usual beginning of the year visit, but when I pulled up just a few minutes ago the place was surrounded by cop cars…I’ve never seen anything like this happen in an area like this, it’s a very unusual thing in such a quiet town. Let’s hope this ends with as few lives lost as possible, and my prayers go out to everyone inside who are being held by these men.” he said with a solemn tone. Halfway through his talk, the screen changed back to the overhead view of the school again.

I could smell the sweetness of root beer lingering suddenly as I heard Sunset whisper in my ear. “We should go…the school’s close, we could run there.”

I looked at her. “We can’t just run in there…we don’t know where the shooters are, how many there are, where they’re holding the hostages...we’d be putting more lives in danger if we set them off and they start shooting.” I whispered back. “Flutters has eyes and ears on the inside, she has the best chance to do something about this.”

Sunset nodded. “Fine, but Flutters isn’t exactly known for her assertiveness…”

Rarity looked harshly at Sunset. “Fluttershy will do what she must…I know she will!”

“Well, maybe…” Sunset said, rubbing her chin.

“Should we try texting her?” Rarity asked.

I shook my head quickly.

Sunset agreed. “No Rare…we might give her away if her phone makes noise and she happens to be sneaking around or something. We have no idea where she is right now…it’s not worth the risk.”

“I’m afraid she’s on her own for now.” I said, putting my arm around Rarity to hold her close.

“Shouldn’t we still go?” Sunset asked. “So we’re close if shit hits the fan…”

I looked at Rarity to see her reaction.

“I’d rather be there than here, darling…” she said, with her blue eyes sparkling at me.

I couldn’t say no…besides Sunset had a point. “OK, lets go.” I said.

We turned and started walking out when we heard AJ behind us. “Hey wait, you guys! Somethin’s happenin…”

We stopped and turned to look at the TV. The camera was zooming in on the front doors, which were now opened and what appeared to be students were emerging from the building, led by a taller woman with blue hair. A few of the police officers ran up to help escort them down, one of them appeared to be asking the blue-haired woman questions as they made their way down the steps.

“That’s Vice Principal Luna!” Pinkie cried out.

“Good, she’s OK at least.” AJ replied.

“Do you guys see Flutters? Or Principal Celestia?” Dash asked as her eyes darted around the TV screen, looking for them.

“We’re going.” Sunset said suddenly. “You guys coming?”

The rest of them looked at us as we stood near the door, then they started heading out the door after us.

As we got outside onto the sidewalk, we broke in to a jog, following Sunset to the school. I looked around at the rest of them, then suddenly noticed one of them was missing.

“Where the hell did Rainbow Dash go?” I asked.

“Heh, where d’you think?” AJ asked. “She’s probably there already.”

“Oh…fuck, yeah I keep forgetting about that…” I replied.

We ran along the sidewalk for a few minutes. It didn’t take long at all to get to CHS, I could see now why they went to the Sweet Shoppe so much when they went to school since it was so close.

Dash was waiting on the sidewalk out front. “What took you guys so long?” she asked with a shrug.

“Nevermind, Dash.” Sunset barked. “What’s going on?”

“I dunno.” Dash replied. “I can’t see anything through all the students…I was trying to find Vice-Principal Luna.”

“Let’s find her.” Sunset ordered with a nod.

We walked along the sidewalk, trying to see past the crowd of police cars, students and ambulances as we searched for the blue haired woman.

Pinkie suddenly pointed to the back of an ambulance. “There she is! VICE-PRINCIPAL LUNA!” she screeched, waving her hand.

As the rest of us joined Pinkie, I could see the blue-haired woman sitting at the back of an ambulance, holding an ice pack to her cheek as the paramedic was doing some checks on her. She raised her head to face our direction at the sound of the shrill, but familiar voice, squinting her eyes, struggling to see us without her glasses.

“Vice Principal Luna, it’s us! The girls!” Dash yelled, waving her hand.

Luna could barely make out the familiar distinctive hair colours of her former students in the distance. Realizing who they were, she gasped and put her hand up to wave them over.

As we started to walk in between a pair of police cruisers, a police officer stepped in front of us. “You guys can’t come in here.”

“Aw come on!” Dash yelled, putting her hands up. “We know them! And our friend is still inside the school!”

The cop turned to look at another cop who was close to Luna. We could see the blue-haired woman talking quietly to the officer, who nodded softly, then finally looked back at the cop near us. “Let them in.”

The cop close to us looked back in our direction, then shook his head as he stepped aside to let us pass. We made our way over to the back of the ambulance and gathered around the VP, leaving enough space for the officials to do their work.

The girls all said their hellos to their former Vice Principal as she forced a smile back at them, still visibly shaken by the events of the day.

“Hello girls.” Luna greeted. “I didn’t expect to be seeing all of you today.”

“That’s how we roll, eh guys?” Dash said, elbowing Sunset in the side.

“What happened in there?” AJ asked. “Where’s Principal Celestia? And Fluttershy?”

Luna seemed to lock up at the sound of the shy girl’s name. She stared at us for a moment before she shook her head and looked down at the grass. “Your friend went to look for my sister…” she said flatly. Then she looked back up at us. “I just can’t believe what she did in there…”

“Who? Fluttershy?” Sunset asked.

Luna nodded. “Yes, Sunset Shimmer.” She replied. “There were three of them in the gym…everyone was in there because of the assembly…one of them was about to fire into the crowd, and out-of-nowhere, Fluttershy ran up and took him down and shot the other two with his gun…they didn’t even get a single shot off…”

I could feel Rarity squeezing my hand. I looked over at the fashionista, who was looking at me with wide eyes and a smirk of pride in the shy girl.

“I just couldn’t believe it…” Luna continued. “She saved everybody.”

“That’s my girl…” I thought to myself as I glanced over at Sunset, who was looking back at me with a smirk of her own, her eyes sparkling as she looked back into mine.

Dash had her fingertips pressed against her temples, blinking her eyes as she tried to process the news. “Wait…Fluttershy…shot people?”

Luna nodded. “It was like…she was a trained assassin or something…where would she have learned to do something like that?”

The girls all slowly turned and looked at me.

I felt a little ‘on the spot’ as the blue-haired woman locked her eyes on mine, focusing hard as she tried to see who I was without her glasses on.

“Uh…hi.” I said to her. “I’m Golden Arrow.”

She stared blankly at me. I was suddenly quite struck by how intimidating this woman was.

“Fluttershy is my, uh, girlfriend.” I explained.

Luna’s eyes widened at the realization of who I was. “Ah, it is nice to meet you, Golden Arrow. Fluttershy told me all about you.”

I chuckled awkwardly. “Well, hopefully not all about me…”

“Well, clearly not. I thought she said you were a mechanic...you taught her to fight like that?” Luna asked as she adjusted her icepack.

“Well…” I started, but was cut off by Sunset, who was trying to change the subject so I wouldn’t have to come up with an explanation.

“So who were these guys?” Sunset asked. “Why did they do this?”

Luna shifted her eyes over to the red-haired girl, then she shook her head. “They had masks on…but one of them seemed familiar…” She briefly held up her icepack. “The one who did this to me…”

“He hit you?” Dash asked sternly.

Luna nodded. “Yes. And he broke my glasses.” she said, looking back down at the grass. “They seemed disgruntled about something…like things weren’t going well for them, but rather than accepting responsibility for their choices in life, they just wanted to blame the system…” she looked back up at us and shrugged. “…Just from the things he said.”

“That’s too bad.” AJ said, shaking her head. “Such a waste of life…some people really are their own worst enemies.”

Luna sighed. “We’ll know more soon enough I’m sure, he may have been the only one who survived…but he won’t be walking for awhile.”

The girls exchanged glances for a moment before Dash shook her head. “Jeez, remind me not to piss Flutters off anymore.”

Luna let out a small chuckle. “No, I wouldn’t recommend it, Ms. Dash. Not after what I just saw.”

Just then we heard shouting and a bit of cheering from the crowd of students gathered all over the front yard. “There they are! They’re OK!” they were shouting. We turned to see what was going on and saw two women emerging from the front doors of the school.

I recognised one of them as Fluttershy right away. She was with a tall woman with short pastel-coloured hair, who was wearing a yellow jacket and purple pants. Fluttershy was holding the woman’s right hand with her own right hand and had her left arm around the shoulders of the taller lady, holding her steady as they made their way down the steps.

A couple officers jogged over to them, helping the taller woman to walk over to the ambulances near us. I could see one of them trying to help Fluttershy, who was waving him off and shaking her head.

As they made their way over towards us, Luna stood up, trying to see. “Is that my sister?” she asked frantically. When Celestia was about ten feet away, they locked eyes on one another. Luna dropped her ice pack to the ground and ran over to embrace her sister.

The two of them hugged tightly, sobbing as their tears ran down their cheeks at the relief of knowing they were both safe. The girls all stood and watched in awe, having never seen these two highly respected women showing such emotion before.

Rarity’s hand quickly released mine as she ran over to wrap her arms around Fluttershy in a tight hug. The shy girl looked at me over the shoulder of her friend, gazing at me with her teal eyes.

I could see a look in her eyes, which had a new darkness in them. I felt a tingle go up my spine when I recognised it...the look I’d seen hundreds of times before, the look someone has when they’ve taken a life for the first time. I knew right then that whatever happened in that school was serious business.

I smiled and gave her a comforting nod. She smiled back then closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Rarity in return.

One of the paramedics approached the sisters. “Sorry, ma’am. I have to check you out.”

Celestia released her sister to look at him. “I’m fine. Really.”

The medic shook his head. “Sorry ma’am. We have to do it.” He turned to Fluttershy next. “You too, miss.”

Fluttershy’s eyes popped open, looking at me with worry.

I waved my hand a bit to calm her down. “It’s OK, they’re just gonna look at you.”

Fluttershy and Rarity separated as she and Celestia went to the next closest ambulance to be checked over by the paramedics. All they really did was ask them a few questions, looked in their eyes with a light and checked them over quickly for visible injuries. They took a minute to wipe the small amounts of blood splatter from Celestia’s face and jacket the best they could before letting her get back to her sister.

Afterwards the two sister principals sat together at the back of the ambulance that Luna was sitting at when we arrived.

Fluttershy came over to me, wrapping her arms around me tightly as I ran my fingers through her hair for a few moments. Then she gasped suddenly and backed up to look at me.

“Oh my goodness!” she said in her soft voice.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as everyone else looked at her.

“Link!” she cried as she started to look around.

Luna gasped as she looked up at Fluttershy. “Oh! You left him in the gym...”

The officer who was close to us overheard the conversation. “Hold on, miss…you can’t go back in there. It’s a crime scene. What did you leave in there?”

“My cat…but he’s not in there. He’s out here.” She explained.

The cop cocked his eyebrows. “How do you know that?”

“I, uh…” she paused, obviously not wanting to tell him she had magical powers that let her talk to animals. “I thought I heard him…he must be close.”

Just then we heard a young female voice off to our left. “Um, M-Miss Fluttershy?”

We all turned to see a young freshman student standing there, holding the carrier with the Lynx kitten inside. Fluttershy quickly recognised her from the front row of the assembly.

“I saw that you left him in there when you went to look for the Principal…so I got him for you when we left.“ she explained timidly.

Fluttershy quickly walked over to the young girl, who gingerly handed over the carrier to her. She lifted it up to look inside at the animal to check that he was OK, then she held the carrier down at her side and looked back at the student. “Um, thank you so much f-for bringing him out to me.”

“Oh…you’re welcome…um, what his name?” the young girl asked timidly.

“Um, his name’s Link.” The shy girl answered. “Because…he’s a Lynx.”

The teenage girl awkwardly smiled and nodded, then paused for a moment before suddenly stepping forward and tightly wrapping her arms around Fluttershy's waist, pressing the side of her head into the shy girl’s chest. “Thank you for saving us…” she said quietly.

Fluttershy slowly wrapped her free arm around the little girl’s shoulders, then rested her cheek on top of her head. “You’re welcome.” she said softly, taking a deep breath as she turned towards us to see all of us smiling back at her, beaming with pride.

*****

We were all at the police station later on, waiting in the front for them to finish questioning Fluttershy about the school shooting. Some of us were sitting down in the chairs in the waiting area. I was sitting with Rarity leaning her head on my shoulder, checking her phone for messages. Sunset was sitting on the other side of me, playing with her fingernails, occasionally making small talk with me about the day.

Link was in the carrier on the floor at my feet.

AJ was sitting across from me with her feet stretched out, her arms folded on her chest and her hat pulled down over her face. Dash was pacing around the room impatiently and Pinkie was at the counter flirting with the male cop seated there. Evidently she was finding him quite attractive.

She was letting her breasts rest on the countertop, making sure they were pressing upward out of her shirt for him to see…no matter how many times he told her he was married and was expecting twins in the next couple of months.

“I’ve got a couple of twins for ya too…” she was saying, giggling like a school girl as Dash finally groaned and pulled her away by the arm.

“Jesus, Pinkie!” Dash growled. “He said he was married like ten times!”

Pinkie giggled, looking back at the cop as she walked away with Dash, letting her hips sway back and forth on purpose as she winked at him one more time.

“Sorry…” Dash said to the officer as they walked away.

The officer just forced a smile as he went back to his work.

I leaned over to Sunset with a smirk on my face. “Twins or not, that guy is totally gonna spank it to that ass in the shower tonight.”

Sunset put her hand in front of her mouth, laughing quietly. “Totally.”

“That’s enough, you two.” Rarity mumbled at my side. “However correct you may be…”

Sunset and I laughed a bit more at Rarity’s quip.

Just then we heard the front door open and a young lady cop walked in, carrying two big trays of coffees. She had light gray skin with blonde hair, and appeared to be about the same age as the girls.

“Here you go, Officer Perkins!” she said enthusiastically as she held one of the trays over the counter to the cop that Pinkie was just hitting on.

He smiled as he reached for the cup. “Thanks Derp.” He said as he took a coffee from the tray, letting a pistol fall out that had been wedged between the cups. The gun landed on the countertop with a loud clunk, causing the cop to recoil upon seeing the barrel aimed at himself as it landed.

“What the-??” Perkins shouted, looking at the gun, then the girl cop. “What’d we tell you about that, rookie? You keep your weapon in its holster at ALL TIMES!...unless you intend to fire it!”

“Sorry Officer Perkins, my bad!” she said. “It’s just, it pokes my leg when I’m riding my bicycle…”

Perkins pointed at her. “This is your second warning about that! Got it?”

She nodded. “Yes sir…”

Dash turned toward the counter with her eyes wide to look at the girl cop. “Derpy? You’re a cop??”

The gray skinned girl turned to look at who was talking to her as she slid the gun into her side holster. She smiled when she saw the girls there. “Oh, hi Rainbow Dash!” she said.

I immediately noticed her gold eyes, which were extremely crooked. One eye seemed to be looking directly at Dash, the other was looking for her. I cringed as soon as I saw her, wondering how they let her have a gun…

“Yeah,” Derpy continued. “I’m a police officer now, fresh out of the academy a month ago…”

“That’s awesome.” Dash replied. “I didn’t know you were interested in becoming a cop.”

“Yup, I wanna make the world a safer place!” Derpy said proudly.

I looked over at Sunset, who’s eyes went wide as she looked down at the floor and shook her head, unsure about what she had just heard.

“OK, Derp…” Perkins said. “Get the rest of those coffees handed out, then you can start cleaning the back rooms.”

“Sure thing, Officer Perkins!” she replied, heading through the swing door in the counter with the coffee trays.

Perkins had his head down for a second to return to his paperwork, then he suddenly turned back to the girl cop. “Hey!”

Derpy stopped and turned to look back. “Yes, Officer Perkins?”

“If you clean the evidence room again, don’t throw out anything that’s on the shelves his time, OK?” he said.

She paused for a second, then nodded. “Right! Sure thing, Officer Perkins.”

*****

Fluttershy was sitting across the desk from the officer who was in charge of the school shooting case. He was a middle-aged man who was slightly overweight, bald on top of his head, wore glasses and had a moustache. He was wearing black pants with a white shirt and dark blue tie. She was fidgeting nervously with her fingers as the cop quietly made notes in the case file.

The room was decorated with dark wood paneling on the walls, an off-white tile floor and a white drop-panel ceiling. There was a large plant in the corner, next to a small table with a Keurig coffee machine on it. His desk was black on the sides with skinny chrome legs and a fake wooden top.

He finally finished writing and set his pen down to look at her. “OK, so...five suspects...three dead and two still alive, one with a broken leg and a concussion, the other in critical condition with a smashed nose, a fractured skull and a lacerated hand…both in the hospital now. Charges will be laid, assuming they survive, of course…”

Fluttershy nodded silently, looking down at the floor.

The detective looked at her, dipping his head and tilting it to the side, wondering how this timid creature could have laid waste to five full grown, armed men the way she did. “If it wasn’t for almost a thousand eye witnesses, I would have a very hard time believing that you were able to defuse the situation they way you did.”

“Um, am I going to be in t-trouble for this?” she asked timidly.

He chuckled a bit and folded his hands on the desk. “Not likely, Miss. There is an outside chance that a family member of one of the perps might try to press charges for using excessive force or something like that, but it’ll get thrown out in court I’m sure, given the circumstances.”

“Oh OK, that’s good.” She said softly with a nod.

He leaned back in his chair, chewing on the end of his pen. “You have lots of eyewitnesses who will confirm that you acted in self-defense…as well as the defense of others. You had a shotgun pointed at your face, did you not?”

Her eyebrows went up. “Oh…yes, a Remington Model 31TC with pump ac-“ she stopped when she saw the detective looking at her with his eyebrows cocked. “I-I mean, yes.” She finished, clearing her throat.

He shook his head a bit, looking down at the desk. “Well,” he said, looking back at her. “In the meantime, I would recommend you get in contact with a lawyer, just as a precaution in case some legal action does come against you.”

Fluttershy nodded. “OK. That makes sense.” she said with a sigh.

He looked at her for a moment. “Are you feeling OK? We can provide you with a counsellor if you wanted…”

“Oh…” she shook her head quickly as she raised her eyebrows. “No, i-it’s OK.”

“You sure?” he confirmed.

“Mm-hm.” She replied. “It’s just…”

He dipped his head to look at her as she hung her head. “What is it?”

“I feel kind of bad.” She confessed.

He slowly raised his chin with his mouth open. “Ah. Well, that’s normal. You have to remember that you did what you had to do…”

Her eyes got wide when she realized he misunderstood her. “Oh, no…I meant I was supposed to do a presentation for a fundraiser at the school today. I’m worried that my partner’s going to be upset that I didn’t do it…”

The officer frowned in confusion. “Uh, I think he will understand…”

She looked at him for a moment. “M-maybe you’re right…”

He folded his arms. “What was the fundraiser for?”

“Um, for the animal shelter…I co-own it with my partner.” She replied.

His eyebrows went up. “You own the animal shelter?”

She nodded.

“Heh, my wife got a kitten from there for our niece about a year ago. He’s been a great cat…”

Fluttershy smiled. “That’s good to hear. It makes me happy to hear that the animals are finding happy homes.”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about the fundraiser though, Miss. I think you’ll have no problems meeting your goal after what you did today. In fact, I bet you’ll double it at the very least.”

She gave him a surprised look. “Really?”

He furrowed his brows a bit as he leaned forward, folding his hands on the desk. “Miss…you don’t seem to understand…” he said, shaking his head. “You’re a god-damn hero. We don’t usually encourage the type of thing that you did today because we don’t want to see people getting hurt, but what’s done is done… and you took out five armed men without them firing a single shot at anyone. Not a single innocent life was lost today.”

Fluttershy shrugged. “Well, some of it was just…um, luck.”

He nodded sternly. “Like how that pistol backfired?” he said, with a serious look on his face. “The Principal was the only one to witness that…she said it happened too quick for her to see exactly what happened, but you really got off lucky there. I had my firearms expert take a look at it and he can't see why it failed the way it did, but regardless, someone ‘upstairs’ must have been looking out for you today.”

Fluttershy looked at the floor, pretending to look as though she had barely escaped with her life, but she was secretly glad that no one saw her stop the bullet with her hand. “Well, and…” she said, “Those guys really didn’t know what they were doing…that was lucky too.”

“Well that may be,” he continued. “but from what the eyewitnesses were saying, I don’t even think most of the guys on the force here could pull off some of the moves you did today…it was nothing short of incredible.” He leaned forward towards her to speak quieter. “Between you and me, every cop at this station loves you after what you did.” he chuckled.

A smile appeared on Fluttershy’s face.

He smiled back for a moment, then took in a breath as he looked down at his paperwork, scanning it over quickly before closing the folder and looking back at her. “OK, well I think I’ve got all I need from you. You’re free to go for now, if I need anything more from you, I’ve got your number.”

Fluttershy looked up at him. “I can go home?”

He nodded. “Yup. I see no reason to hold you here. Go get some rest, you’ve had a big day. And if you need anything, someone to talk to, we can have a counsellor come and talk to you whenever you need. OK?” He said, getting up from his desk and heading to the door.

She nodded. “Sure. Thank you.” she said as she stood up and straightened her skirt.

He opened the door for her to leave the office. “No Miss…thank you.”

Fluttershy smiled one more time at him and walked out of the room. She made her way to the front area where the rest of us were waiting. Those of us who were seated stood up as she came out through the swing gate.

Rarity made her way over to her, wrapping her arms around her tightly. “There’s my brave hero…” the fashionista cooed. “I’m so proud of you!”

“Um, thanks Rare.” She replied quietly.

Dash looked at her watch. “Hey Flutters, the Sweet Shoppe is open for another twenty minutes…you still wanna go with us like you wanted? For old times...”

Fluttershy rubbed her arm with her other hand. “I, um…actually I’ve had enough for one day. I’ve been around a lot of people…thanks Dashie…for the offer, but no. Sorry.”

Dash put her hands out towards Fluttershy. “Nah, it’s cool, Flutters. I totally get it.”

“Go home and take some time to settle, sugarcube.” AJ said to Fluttershy. “It’ll do ya good.”

I nodded in agreement with AJ, then looked at Rarity. “Are you coming out to Fluttershy’s with us?”

She looked back at me. “Actually darling, I have a large number of orders to fill that just came in earlier today, so I was going to go to the boutique tonight to get started on them…I wish it didn’t have to be tonight, but business is business.”

Fluttershy looked surprised. “You’re not coming?”

Rarity shook her head. “I’m afraid not, darling. You go with Golds and have some alone time together. I trust you’ll have lots to talk about, hm?” the sapphire-eyed fashionista said, sneaking a wink in my direction.

Fluttershy nodded, looking down at the floor. “OK, Rare.”

“Don’t worry darling. I shall see you tomorrow at the Riverfield, OK?” she said, placing her fingertips on Fluttershy’s cheeks and giving her a soft kiss right there, in front of everyone.

They were a bit caught off guard at first, even though they already pretty much knew that something was going on with the two of them, this was their first time witnessing and an act of intimacy between the two firsthand. Dash looked at me with her eyebrows awkwardly raised.

I looked back at her and shrugged casually.

Rarity released Fluttershy and walked over to me as the rest of the girls each gave the shy girl a hug one-by-one. “And thank you, darling.” She said, giving me a tight hug.

“For what?” I asked. “I can’t take credit for what she did today…”

Rarity looked at me again. “No no, if we had never met you, Fluttershy might have been killed today…”

She was right. I felt a jolt go through my stomach at the thought of the shy girl being dead right at that moment without her immortality. She would be gone, her friends would have been devastated…and it would have meant nothing to me since I wouldn’t have known she existed. I couldn’t imagine how it would have been possible.

“You have ensured her safety, darling…as well as mine, for all time.” She said, then she put her lips against mine and kissed me firmly, holding her body close. After breaking the kiss, she went up on her tip toes and put her mouth close to my ear. “And I’ll love you for it forever.” she whispered.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard the indigo-haired beauty say she loved me for the first time. I left like I should say it back, but I hesitated with Fluttershy now standing there watching us. The other girls were heading out the front door, with Sunset taking up the rear, who stopped and looked back at us once more.

“See you guys tomorrow night?” the red-head confirmed.

We nodded.

“We’ll see you there.” I said.

Sunset smiled briefly and was about to leave, but stopped once more. “Good job today, Flutters. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks Sunset.” Fluttershy quietly said with a smile.

Rarity had separated from me by then, and I lost my chance to tell her I loved her back. She must not have been expecting it the way she left, however…it didn’t seem like it at least.

“OK darlings, I’m off.” Rarity said, spinning on her heel to head for the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Ta-ta!”

We each said our quiet goodbyes as the pale beauty left, then Fluttershy and I looked at each other for a moment before we both let out a long sigh. We gathered up our things, including the animal carrier and headed out to my truck.

Once we were driving, I asked her if she wanted to go back to the school to get her SUV.

“Um, no. Let’s come back for it later.” She replied.

“Won’t you need it to get to work tomorrow?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll probably stay home tomorrow. I mean, I could go, but for the sake of trying to look like…you know...a normal person, I should take the rest of this week off. Plus I just want to go home…and I want to be with you. I don’t want to drive alone.” she said as she shifted over to sit in the middle seat and rest her head on my shoulder.

“Fair enough.” I said, putting my arm around her.

The whole drive home was silent, until we were about ten minutes from her house, driving through the woods in the dark.

“I love this truck…” she said.

“Really?” I asked.

She nodded against my shoulder. “The way it sounds…and it reminds me of you…”

I smirked. “I know what you mean.”

We pulled in her driveway, parked and went inside the house. She didn’t turn on any lights, leaving the front room completely dark, other than the light from outside. I stood by the end of the table, near the hallway entrance to the bedroom.

I could just barely see her pink hair floating towards me in the dark, the top of her head being picked up in the dim light from the window. I put my arms out to hug her as she came against me, hugging me back.

“How are you feeling?” I asked quietly.

“OK.” She whispered against my shoulder.

“Rarity was right…you are amazing.” I said.

She squeezed me tighter.

“You wanna talk about it anymore?” I asked.

She shook her head against my shoulder.

I nodded. “OK.”

We stood there, holding each other in the dark for another moment.

I took a deep breath. “You wanna sit and watch some TV and relax?”

She shook her head again.

“You wanna eat something? Have a fire in the backyard?” I asked again.

She shook her head to both.

I cleared my throat. “OK…why don’t you pick then?”

Fluttershy lifted her head from my shoulder. I couldn’t see her at all in the dark. I waited there in the silence with her arms around me, feeling her body pressed against mine.

Finally, I could feel her warm breath against my face, followed by her tongue slowly licking the tip of my nose…then another hot breath hit me.

She finally spoke quietly: “I wanna FUCK.”