Chapter 6

We walked out onto the sand, heading towards the group. Dash had run off ahead to meet up with them, peeling her t-shirt off as she ran, revealing a black and white one-piece bathing suit underneath. As she met up and talked to the others, I noticed a few of them were sitting down under a sun umbrella.

Rarity was one of them, the other two I didn’t recognise. Pinkie and AJ were running around nearby, throwing a Frisbee back and forth. Dash stood for a few seconds talking to the ones under the umbrella, saying something that prompted them to turn and look back at us. Fluttershy was walking with me, keeping pace a few feet away. As I looked over at her, she was looking down, watching her feet sink into the sand with each step. She glanced up at me and smiled, then looked back at her feet. I smiled back, but I was unsure if she saw it.

When I looked ahead again, I noticed the two unfamiliar ones get up as Dash ran over to join the girls playing with the Frisbee. The new girls were walking towards me and Fluttershy, and as I got closer, I could see one was fairly tall; about the same as Fluttershy’s height. She had a skin tone similar to Applejack’s, but had a large head of wavy red hair with yellow strips zig-zagging all through it. She had sunglasses on and was wearing jean shorts and an aqua coloured t-shirt that was long enough to almost cover her shorts completely.

The other girl had lavender coloured skin and was wearing black, thick-framed glasses. Her hair was mostly a navy blue colour, with straight-cut bangs covering her forehead. There was a pink stripe in her hair, slightly offset to her left with a darker purple stripe alongside it. The hair was long and straight, hanging down her back in a pony-tail, almost to her black shorts. She was wearing a light blue golf shirt with the buttons undone so the collar was spread open, showing off her collar bones.

They stopped and smiled when they got about six feet from us. I stopped, looking back at Fluttershy as she joined me at my side.

“Hey Flutters,” the fiery-haired girl greeted. “So, this is the new guy?”

“Um, yeah,” the shy girl replied, “This is Golden Arrow. He helped Rarity with her car a few weeks ago and came to the Saturday dinner a couple times.”

“That’s great! It's nice to meet you,” the red-haired girl said. Both of the new girls gave me a small wave, so I gave a little wave back, trying not to look too nervous. That fire-haired girl looked like someone you wouldn’t want to cross, although she was quite beautiful.

Fluttershy gestured a hand at them, “This is Twilight Sparkle and that’s Sunset Shimmer.” The shy girl seemed distant during the introduction. Instead of looking at either of the girls she was introducing, or even me for that matter, she seemed to be looking past them towards the rest of the group.

Each of the new girls nodded and smiled as their names were said.

“It’s good to finally meet you guys,” I said. “I hear you go to school in the big city?”

Sunset opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Fluttershy.

“Um, sorry guys, I need to go talk to Pinkie Pie,” the shy girl said as she walked off towards the rest of the group. I watched her go, loving how she walked gracefully, but somewhat clumsily in the soft sand. I noticed then that she was wearing her usual white tank top and green skirt with the green boots I saw by her door a week earlier. I felt kind of bad seeing that she was unprepared for being at the beach after Dash had dragged her out of her house earlier.

“Well anyway,” Sunset continued, “Yeah, we’re actually almost done for this year. Then we’ll be back in town for the summer. Or at least I will be.”

“I’ll be going back for a summer course,” Twilight finally spoke up. “Plus I’m from the city originally, so my family is there, but I’ll be around as much as I can to hang out with my friends.”

Sunset pointed with her thumb at twilight. “Twi here is what you call a professional student. She’s taking every engineering course there is. She’s going back for more next fall, but I’ll be done this year so I won’t be going back.”

I nodded, trying my best to listen as I watched Fluttershy in the background. She had approached Pinkie, who'd stopped to watch the shy girl as she approached, as if she didn’t know what to expect from the situation.

Pinkie was wearing a light blue bikini that looked way too small for her body type. It appeared to be sinking into her curves, and her top looked like it was going to snap under the weight of her huge boobs, which honestly wouldn't have been a bad thing.

I snapped my attention back to Sunset and Twilight. “So you’re pretty much done school then?” I asked Sunset. “What did you take?”

“I majored in forensic science, and I took a bunch of other things too," she answered.

“Oh, that’s interesting. Good for you. What sort of work do you want to get into?” I asked, watching as Fluttershy and Pinkie talked in the distance, not really considering if my question made any sense.

“I’d like to be involved in helping solve crimes, being a part of investigations…you know, all that stuff. I don’t want to bore you with too many details right now, but I really just want to help make sure there’s justice in the world. You know?” Sunset said. Something about her seemed like she’d be good at a career like that; gathering information and putting the pieces together.

“And I’m just gonna keep going to school, haha…” Twilight sheepishly interjected. “I don’t have much desire to enter the work force and I keep getting scholarships because I’ve been doing so well, so as long as I can afford it I’m gonna keep going to school. I love learning and if I could do it forever, I would.”

I watched in the distance as Fluttershy and Pinkie talked a bit more, then suddenly they came together in a tight hug. When I knew that all was forgiven about the picture Pinkie had taken, I brought my attention back to the girls in front of me.

“Do you wanna head over to the group?” Sunset asked.

“Sure,” I replied. “So, what happens when you’ve taken all the courses and there’s no more to do?” I asked Twilight as we started walking.

“Well that’ll never happen, but at some point I was thinking I might become a professor myself and pass on whatever knowledge I can to others,” she answered.

“Yeah, that would be good,” I said.

“This girl is kind of a nerd, but she seems nice. Both of them do, actually,” I thought to myself as we walked together.

“So what do you do, Golden?” Sunset asked.

“Me? Oh, I’m just a mechanic,” I answered.

“Ah, hence you fixing Rarity’s car,” Sunset replied.

”What was wrong with her car?” Twilight asked.

“Her battery died because the alternator wasn’t working,” I answered, looking back at Fluttershy who was having a chat with AJ now.

“What was wrong with it? Did the diode bridge fail or were the brushes worn or…?” Twilight asked enthusiastically.

I looked at her with some surprise. “You sound like you know your way around cars. The bearings were actually shot and it was making a crap-ton of noise,” I said.

“Ah,” she said with a shrug. “Yeah, my first year at school I took electrical and automotive engineering, so I do know a bit about…well, everything.”

“Oh, good job,” I said. “Sounds like you aced them both.”

“Haha yeah,” she laughed with a small snort. “I always do.”

I smiled at her as we walked up to the umbrella. Rarity was sitting in a lounge chair wearing some big sunglasses and a wide-brimmed sun hat. She had on something that looked like a fancy poncho which more or less covered her upper body. I could see her legs stretched out in front of her. They were nice legs; slender, smooth and white as snow. She turned to look up at me and smiled.

“Oh hi there, darling. So glad you made it. Dreadfully sorry about earlier, but it looks like all is well with Fluttershy now?”

I nodded. “A little misunderstanding.”

She took a sip of the iced tea she was holding. “Well, these things tend to happen, darling. All’s well that ends well.”

Twilight and Sunset resumed their sitting places under the umbrella with Rarity. I stood where I was with my hands in my pockets, watching the others throw the Frisbee. I let out a sigh, brought on by a mix of boredom and relaxation. I was content as long as Fluttershy was in my sight, who I noticed was now walking over towards us.

She walked up and spoke softly to her friend. “Hey Rarity.”

“Hello hun,” Rarity replied, looking up at her with a smile.

“Um, could you do me a f-favour?” Fluttershy asked, bending down to Rarity’s level. “Can I borrow the-“ her voice got too quiet for me to hear.

I could hear Rarity though. “The red one? Are you sure, darling?”

Fluttershy whispered some more to her.

“Do you want the sandals, too?” Rarity said, reaching into a bag beside her, pulling out another smaller bag and a pair of white sandals. Fluttershy nodded as she took them and walked past me, giving me a little glance and a smile, along with a little blush. She walked off to a little building that looked like it had changing stalls in it.

I looked back towards the girls who were playing to see that Pinkie was running into the water, splashing up waves of water with her feet. She dove in then came back up a few seconds later with just her head above the water. I could hear her shrill voice: “GAAAH! IT’S COOOOLD!”

Dash was laughing throwing the Frisbee up a few feet into the air and catching it again.

Applejack was headed over to us. She was wearing tattered jean shorts over a yellow one-piece bathing suit, along with her signature brown hat. She walked up and stood by me.

“Hey there, partner,” she greeted.

“Hey. How’s the barn?” I asked.

She looked at me for a second before remembering what had happened the week before. “Oh, yeah. That. We got it all fixed up. What a mess. My poor sister, it wasn’t really her fault. Turns out the clutch rod broke on the tractor when she was backing it up and she couldn’t stop, so BAM she went, right into the damn barn.” She chuckled and shook her head, looking at the ground.

“How old is your sister?” I asked.

“Apple Bloom? She just turned twenty-three; been done high school a few years now. She can drive tractor just fine—that old thing’s just a piece a’ shit. I told my brother we should take it out back, if ya know what I mean, heh-heh,” she chuckled, pretending to fire a shotgun.

“Yeah,” I chuckled back, digging the toe of one of my boots in the sand.

“Granny says it ain’t the right time fer the expense of a new one though, so my brother welded it up for now. It’ll get us by fer a bit,” AJ continued, staring out at the water.

Susnet suddenly made a noise. “Woooooo! Check out Fluttershy!”

I looked over to see the shy girl walking back to us, wearing a small red bikini.

“Ho…lee…shit…”

My jaw fell open when I saw her. That smooth, custard coloured skin, flowing pink hair, and those breasts bouncing slightly in the small top as she stepped along gracefully. She had a very slight bit of tone on her midsection, but most of her body just was smooth and slender. She was nothing short of god-like.

“I don’t know how that girl keeps a body like that, “AJ said. “If I were you I’d be takin her into that little building there and givin her a little somethin somethin, heh-heh.”

Rarity looked at AJ for a second then turned back, shaking her head.

I smiled at the fashionista's response.

Fluttershy looked over at us, briefly locking eyes with me before blushing and looking towards Rainbow Dash.

Then I felt a light slap on my shoulder. “Hey, wipe yer chin, man!” AJ said sternly.

I looked at her and touched my stubble-covered chin with my fingertips. “Please tell me I’m not actually drooling…”

“Heh-heh-heh, just kiddin, sugarcube,” she laughed.

“Hey,” Dash shouted from the distance. “We lost in Pinkie Pie to the water. Who wants to play two-on-two?”

“I’m-a-comin!” AJ shouted in reply. She turned her head towards me as she started to run back. “See ya, Golds!”

I nodded back to her.

Dash turned to the shy girl who was headed her way. “You in, Flutters?”

Fluttershy nodded and broke into a graceful run into her playing position.

“We need one more! You in, Golds?” Dash shouted towards me.

I’m not big on things like that so I just shook my head.

“Aw, come on!” Dash yelled with a smile, showing she wasn’t going to insist, but was still going to bust my chops a little.

Sunset stood up. “I’ll play,” she said, running over.

“Alright!” Dash yelled, shaking her fists to psyche herself up.

Rarity looked up towards me. “Why don’t you have a seat in Sunset’s spot and get some shade, darling?”

I went over and sat down where Sunset had just gotten up from, right between Twilight and Rarity. We watched the girls play as I had a few conversations with the two seated with me under the umbrella. It was mostly Rarity who talked, Twilight was reading a book so she didn’t say nearly as much.

I continued watching the four girls play as I listened to the beautiful fashionista talk about the upcoming busy season; graduations, proms, summer weddings and so on. She was going to be a lot busier in the upcoming months as the demand for formal wear goes up.

I was stunned to see Dash’s athletic prowess in action. She was running and jumping all over the place, sometimes doing backflips in mid-air while throwing the Frisbee. When she ran, her feet kicked so much sand up behind her she reminded me of a dirt bike running around, flinging dirt from the rear wheel as it spun.

The other three girls were pretty average athletes, although it was obvious that Applejack was a lot stronger, even more so than Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was surprisingly agile, but she was more graceful, like a deer. Her feet seemed to barely touch the ground as her beautiful, slender legs carried her surprising distances with seemingly no effort. Sunset was a competent athlete, but had a strange, almost clumsy quality to her movements. It was almost like she hadn’t spent as much time on her own two legs as the others.

Rarity's voice slowly became white noise in the background of my mind as I watched the pink-haired girl run back and forth, catching and throwing the Frisbee with the bright sun shining down onto her butter-coloured skin, making me half-expect her to begin melting in the heat.

"...so what do you think of that, darling?"

"Huh?" I mumbled, turning to face the indigo-haired girl. I suddenly realised that I had no idea what she'd been talking about, but rather than just admit to it, I decided to take a shot in the dark and try to respond to her. "Oh...um, yeah. You should have told the waiter to take it back."

Rarity chuckled quietly and shook her head. "My goodness, were you paying attention to me?" she asked as she slid her sunglasses down her nose to look at me with her sparkling, sapphire eyes. "Or were you looking at Fluttershy?"

"Uh..." I responded dumbly. "Shit..."

"Because she's looking at you, darling," Rarity continued with a flirtatious smirk on her lips.

"Huh?" I looked out over the sand again to see the shy girl standing idle, her dreamy gaze locked directly on me as the Frisbee flew by, missing her shoulder by a few inches.

"FLUTTERSHY!" Dash's voice screeched from across the sand.

The sound of her name snapped the shy girl out of her trance, prompting her to look behind her to see where the Frisbee had landed. "Oh!" her cute, quiet voice carried across the beach towards us as she scampered towards the plastic disc to pick it up.

"Pay attention!" Dash scolded. "Quit staring at the cack!"

On my left, Twilight laughed out loud and let her head tip back from her book. On my right, Rarity took her sunglasses off to pinch the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "Oh my god, that Rainbow Dash can be so embarrassing!" she said flatly, shaking her head. "I am dreadfully sorry about that, darling."

I waved her off. "Nah. You should hear the shit mechanics say to each other."

The fashionista let out a tiny giggle, followed by a relaxed sigh. "You know," she said as she slipped her sunglasses back on, "It is quite unusual for Fluttershy to choose to wear such an outfit."

"Mm-hm," Twilight nodded in agreement, keeping her eyes locked onto the pages of her book.

I glanced at the lavender-skinned girl for a second, then returned my eyes to Rarity.

"I simply cannot imagine why she would have chosen today to wear it," the fashionista said inquisitively as she turned her head towards me with one of her thin, purple eyebrows rising above her sunglasses.

"Hm," I mumbled as I looked out over the beach once again, watching the shy girl play with her friends. "Did she really do that for me?" I wondered, gently rubbing my chin with my index finger as a warm twinge of excitement washed through me.

As it got later in the afternoon, the group decided to pack up and head back to Fluttershy’s. Her house seemed like the popular spot for them to gather, maybe because the isolation gave them the freedom to do what they felt like and make all the noise they wanted.

As I walked back to my truck, I saw the rest of them climbing into the other vehicles. I was just thinking about how I would be following one of them back when I heard footsteps running up behind me. I turned to see Fluttershy, now again wearing her usual white top, green skirt and boots. “Can I…um, come with you?” she asked, tucking some of her hair behind her ear to get it out of her face.

“Absolutely,” I said, with a smile. After seeing her in that bikini for the last few hours, I wanted nothing more than to be close to her.

I got in the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition as she opened the door on the other side. She climbed into the cab onto the passenger seat, but rather than putting on the seatbelt, she scooted over to the middle again, right next to me.

“Is someone else coming with us?” I asked.

“Um, no…I don’t think so,” she replied in her soft voice, looking at the other vehicles with everyone else piled in.

“Oh. OK.”

She put on her seatbelt while I started the engine. This time the shy girl was steady as the loud diesel barked to attention, ready for another trip. We waited for the other cars to pull onto the road, then we rolled out of the dirt parking lot and followed them.

Neither of us said anything. After a few minutes on the road, watching the car in front of us, I felt a soft weight pressing on my right shoulder. I looked down and saw that she had rested her head on me, letting out a relaxed sigh with her soft voice, instantly making me feel butterflies in my stomach.

I kept switching my gaze from the road to her while taking in the smell of her hair. Her hands were sitting idle, resting on her lap, and mustering some bravery I slowly moved my hand over to hers, letting our fingertips touch. She responded to me by opening her hand up a bit and letting our fingers lace together, finally ending with our hands in a tight grasp. I could feel her warm, soft palm against mine and her cheek press against my shoulder as she smiled in response.

We spent the remainder of the drive back to her place like this, neither of us wanting it to end.