Chapter 9

Fluttershy opened her eyes slowly, hearing the muffled sound of her friends’ voices surrounding her, their words becoming clearer and more vivid as her consciousness returned fully. She could only see a bright blur at first, then slowly her eyes started to focus, and she began to see the familiar shapes and colours of her friends all around her.

“She’s waking up!” Dash’s voice could be heard.

They gathered round her, checking to see if she was ok.

Fluttershy quickly realised she was laying with her head on a pillow, looking at the familiar ceiling directly above her couch. She started to sit up, feeling a dull pain in her head. Putting her palm to the left side of her forehead, she felt a sudden sharp pain when her hand touched her temple.

She hissed in response, squinting her eyes, realising her hair was stuck to her head, and was cakes with a hard, crusty substance. She looked at her hand and was shocked to see small flakes of dried blood stuck to her fingertips.

“Please take it easy, darling," Rarity’s voice sounded close by. Fluttershy turned to see the fashionista, kneeling on the floor next to the couch, her face close to Fluttershy’s. “You've taken a rather nasty hit on the head,” Rarity continued as she nuzzled her cheek against her best friend’s temple. “You poor thing!"

“Wha-what happened?” the shy girl asked.

“Oh, where to begin…”Rarity started.

“There was a bit of an accident,” Applejack cut in. “We almost lost ya, sugarcube,” she said, holding her hat to her chest with a concerned look on her face. “Are you feelin alright?”

“My head hurts,” Fluttershy replied, closing her eyes and placing her hand on her temple, next to the sore spot.

“Here, put this on it.” Sunset Shimmer appeared over the back of the couch, handing Fluttershy an ice pack.

The shy girl took the cold package wrapped in a towel, and gently held it to her head, groaning quietly as she felt the sting of the cold against her wound. “How long was I out? What happened? Where's Golden Arrow?” she asked.

“He’s here,” Sunset replied.

“What? Where?” Fluttershy asked with sudden urgency.

“At the table,” Sunset answered.

Fluttershy tried to sit up.

“Take it easy, darling,” Rarity said, putting her hands on Fluttershy’s shoulders.

“No! I want to see him,” the shy girl demanded.

Reluctantly, her friends allowed her to sit up more, using her free hand to grab the back of the couch to pull herself up enough so she could see me sitting with my hands folded on the table, staring down at the wooden top.

I didn’t move.

Fluttershy noticed right away that I was now wearing a plain red t-shirt that was too big for me.

She let herself lay back down with a flop, exhaling from the strain of sitting up.

“You were out for about half an hour,” AJ started.

“Why is he here?” Fluttershy cut in, “I thought he was…dangerous?”

Everyone looked at each other for moment, then Rarity held Fluttershy’s hand. “Well, actually…he saved you, darling. Like Applejack said: we almost lost you.” Rarity’s eyes started to tear up and she paused to wipe them and sniffle. “…and it was my fault!”

Fluttershy frowned in confusion.

“NO!” Pinkie Pie’s voice rang out from the end of the couch. “It was my fault! It was my bomb!”

The memory of what happened has slowly begun to return to the shy girl’s mind. She remembered standing by her vehicle, a few feet from the front door. Pinkie had been to the right of Fluttershy, near the corner of the house. She remembered seeing me ahead of her, about thirty feet away, starting to come towards her. She remembered Pinkie throwing one of her bombs at me while Rarity simultaneously erected a barrier of diamonds to keep me away, and the already airborne bomb bounced off the wall and headed towards Fluttershy, landing at her feet.

Confused, Fluttershy glanced up at her friends. “Th-there was a bomb…right next to me. H-how did I survive?”

“It was Golds,” AJ answered. “He saw that you were in danger, and he broke through Rarity’s wall, dove on top of the bomb, and took the blast.”

“He did?” Fluttershy said in a slight daze.

“Yeah, sugarcube. And he’s not dangerous…er, well, not to us, anyway,” AJ continued. “Even with everything going on, when he saw you in danger, making sure you were OK was all he cared about.”

Fluttershy put her free hand on her chest. “Really?”

Rarity added, “Unfortunately darling, when the bomb exploded, he was blown off and his body hit yours, which knocked you against your car, and your head hit the door rather forcefully, I'm afraid.”

Fluttershy stared at her feet for a minute. “Um, why do you and Pinkie think it’s your fault, Rarity?”

Rarity paused for a minute, then answered. “When I put up that wall to keep him from getting to you, I hadn’t realised that Pinkie Pie had thrown that explosive, an it bounced off of the wall and rolled back towards you.” Rarity rested her head on the shy girl’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, darling. I simply cannot imagine what I would have done if something had happened to you because of me.”

“No! I shouldn’t have been throwing those things around so much!” Pinkie confessed. “I know how dangerous they are, and it was a stupid idea when you guys were all so close.”

Sunset finally stepped in. “This whole thing is my fault.”

Everyone looked at the red-head.

“I may have…not…handled the situation very well, and I made the wrong judgement about him. I thought he was something, I don't know…different. But he obviously cares about you a lot, Flutters. He saved you from that explosion.” Sunset shook her head. “I still can’t believe he broke through Rarity’s wall.”

“What do you mean Sunset? Why did you think something was different with him?” the shy girl asked, adjusting her ice pack.

“Here at supper; I felt something in him. Something...not right,” Sunset explained.

“Well, we shouldn’t have done what we did,” AJ said, “Ya know, going on the offensive on him like that. We shoulda tried to approach him and talk about it first.”

“We did,” Sunset replied, trying to justify her actions.

This seemed to ruffle Applejack’s feathers a bit. “Now wait just a minute there, Sunset,” AJ said with her voice raised. She plopped her hat back on her head and pointed her finger at the fiery-haired girl. “You guys followed him to wherever it is that he went, restrained him with magic and demanded he answer a bunch of crazy questions, and you think that qualifies as ‘talking’? It’s no surprise he lashed out at you the way he did when you show up actin like that!”

Sunset hung her head, realising when she heard AJ put it this way that she really went about things the wrong way. “I just wanted to make sure we were safe,” she said quietly, folding her arms.

Fluttershy spoke up, unaware of these details until hearing them right then. She had only heard Sunset’s initial story when she returned to the house earlier, saying that I was dangerous, not human, and not to be trusted. “What did you think was wrong with him? W-why did you go after him?”

Sunset sighed. ”I accidentally brushed his arm with my hand when I went past him to put my glass on the counter. Usually I just get a few thoughts when I read someone, usually whatever they’re thinking at that moment, but this was different. It was like a flood of thoughts, memories, images; like a tidal wave, or an overload. I felt like my head was going to explode.”

This got my attention, and I looked at Sunset.

She noticed me looking at her suddenly, and decided she may as well explain herself.. “Oh, um…when I touch people with my hands I can…uh, read their thoughts. It’s like I instantly download what’s in their brain.”

“Of course,” I thought. “Why else would she want to be an investigator? Imagine having such an ability in that field. No need to interrogate, no need to worry if someone is lying; just use a fake flirtatious touch or something like that and you can have everything that person knows. It’s actually quite brilliant of her to choose such a field to work in.”

“When that happened,” Sunset continued, “I knew something wasn’t normal with you.”

“And Sunset was right,” Twilight said as she adjusted her glasses—which had been returned to her while Fluttershy was out cold. “We can see that you obviously have some…I guess you could say, abnormal abilities. Super strength like Applejack for one, and you don’t seem to be vulnerable to injuries of any kind.”

I looked around the room at everyone for a minute, watching silently as they awkwardly looked back at me. “We need to talk,” I finally said.

“Yeah, no shit!” Dash said.

I put my hand up to Dash, signalling her to stop. “Hey, I wouldn’t get too ahead of yourself there, little miss flash,” I said. “You guys have some explaining to do yourselves.”

“Oh, uh...yeah, I guess,” Dash said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.

I turned on my chair to face them, leaning an elbow on the table. “I might have an answer for Sunset; why she got overwhelmed when she touched me.”

Sunset looked at me with her arms folded.

“Tell me, Sunset,” I said, looking at the dirt under my fingernails. “How old are most people that you…uh, read?”

“Anywhere from 20 to 50 or 60. Really, it could be anyone from birth to death. Why would that matter?”

“Have you ever noticed any difference between a younger person and an older person when you read them?” I asked.

Sunset sighed as she thought, letting her eyes shift up to the ceiling. “Not really…well, maybe older people seem to have their thoughts a little more jumbled…like, they come at me a bit faster and it takes me a little more time to sort it out.”

I believed this confirmed my idea, but I decided to come back to it later. I took a deep breath, looked at them, and said: “Ok. Well, I’m just gonna come out and say it.” I folded my arms in front of my chest before continuing. “I can’t die. I can’t be cut, burned, drowned, crushed, poisoned; well, you get the idea. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, I don’t age…I just stay exactly like this. Forever.”

There was a long pause. None of them knew what to think.

“…Wow.” Twilight said, being the only one able to finally come up with something to say.

I reached up to rub my forehead with one hand while continuing to speak. “And I assume you know that means that I’m actually older than I look.”

“Uh, how old are we talkin?” AJ asked. “Like fifty, or seventy five?”

Without saying anything I put my thumb up in the air, signifying she needed go to higher.

“A hundred?” she guessed.

I kept pointing my thump upwards.

“One fifty?”

I started shaking my thumb up and down.

“Two hundred?”

I shook my head and kept pointing up.

“Oh come on!” Dash cut in. “Five hundred??”

I finally put my hand down. “No,” I said. “To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you how old I am because I really don’t know. I honestly can’t remember that far back. What I can tell you is that I definitely have some vague memories going back to about four fifty.”

“Four hundred and fifty years,” Dash snorted, shaking her head in disbelief.

“…BC,” I finished.

They stared at me blankly for what seemed like hours, to the point where I actually started to fidget in my seat.

"Did you guys hear me?" I finally asked.

Rarity was the first to finally speak. “Did...did you just mean to say four fifty…BC? As in ‘before Christ’? Darling, are you saying you are almost 2500 years old?”

“Yeah…well, at least that much,” I said, clapping my hands, then rubbing them together. “So, back to you Sunset, you say older people seem to give off more information when you read them, right?”

Sunset knew where I was going with this, so she finished the sentence for me. “Older people have more memories since they’ve been alive longer, and you say you’ve been alive for 2500 years, so…wow. That’s why I got overloaded. Makes sense, actually; that’s kind of what it felt like.”

Dash put her hands out in protest, shaking her head. “Sunset, you don’t really believe this bullshit, do you?”

“Why not?” Sunset answered. “The princesses from my world are over 1000 years old. And don’t you remember the sirens?”

“Don’t worry,“ I said, “This isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation with people and had them think I was full of shit…even after they see me fend off their best attacks without breaking a sweat.” I glanced at Dash as I said this, who cocked an eyebrow in return.

“Yeah, it makes perfect sense now,” Sunset continued, “You guys didn’t feel what I felt. All those memories; all that information trying to enter my brain all at once. Just…wow.” She trailed off, rubbing her forehead as her eyes dropped to the floor.

“Sorry about that, Sunset,” I said, adjusting the loose t-shirt I was wearing. "I never meant to cause you any harm."
Earlier, when I had thrown myself on the bomb to protect Fluttershy from the blast, my shirt ended up tattered and had a big hole blown in the front. AJ happened to have a pack of new t-shirts in her truck that she’d picked up for her brother so she gave me one to wear. He must have been a big boy, cuz this shirt was fucking huge.

“So if you’re that old, why don’t you seem old?” Pinkie asked. “Why don’t you talk and act like Shakespeare or something, like all Victorian?...I mean, you have a smartphone! You text people! It's so CRAZY!!”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t work like that,” I explained. ” Human society slowly changes overtime, and I’ve evolved along with it. It’s not like I was scatting the 1940s one day, then singing grunge music in the 90s the next. Things change so slowly and you change along with it without even noticing. It’s just human nature to adapt.”

“OK, say its true; doesn’t that make you…like, an old man? I like all wise n’ shit?” Dash asked, stopping again to think for a second. “Wait, isn’t it kind of creepy, you know…you and Fluttershy? She’s only like 26.”

“I didn’t think it was creepy,” Fluttershy said from the couch.

“You didn’t know though, Flutters!” Dash replied quickly, turning to the shy girl. “How about now that you know he’s supposedly a hundred times older than you?”

“I don’t know…” the shy girl said, lowering her face, unsure of what to think or feel.

AJ spoke up, turning to face Dash. “If you don’t believe him about his age anyway, then why do you care about him and Fluttershy being a thing?”

Dash folded her arms and shrugged. “Pfff…” was all she could come up with.

I understood where Dash was coming from, but she didn’t understand how things work with me. “Like I said,“ I explained, “I don't age. That doesn’t just include my body. My mind doesn’t age either.”

“That’s an interesting thought,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin. “So, for all intents and purposes, you are a young adult; but you just happen to have been around for 2500 years because your body and mind are basically…stuck on pause?”

“Yeah, basically. That’s one way of putting it,” I said. “So don’t expect to see me sitting on my front porch, bitching at all the young ‘whippersnappers’ running around. I’m not an old man." I looked at Dash next. "You mentioned wisdom. Well, you’re right. I do know a lot of things. I've certainly been around the block a few times, and I’ve had a very long time to learn and gain experience and skills in a great many things -- many of which are obsolete these days -- but anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing as age and maturity.”

Most of the girls nodded their heads, starting to grasp what kind of being they were dealing with.

"The things you must know, I...I don't even know what to ask you about," Twilight said, rubbing her forehead. "You must possess skills and historical knowledge that are thought to have been long gone."

"Was ist Sprache? Oder man könnte mich fragen, wo ich gelebt habe." I said, much to Twilight and the others' amazement. I enjoyed their reactions, so I kept going. "Ho viaggiato in lungo e in largo nel corso dei secoli..."

"Holy shit," AJ gasped as I continued to speak.

"J’ai combattu des centaines de guerres, prises et sauvé des milliers de vies," I said. "Я видел достопримечательностей, достаточно красиво, чтобы разбить мое сердце в два, но я никогда не видел ничего довольно как потрясающий, как это застенчивая девушка там."

When I finished what I was saying, I was met with nothing but wide eyes, staring at me with the vast array of colours that the girls possessed.

"My goodness," Rarity cooed. "That was simply marvelous, darling!"

“Why do you eat?” Pinkie asked out-of-nowhere, eliciting a groan from some of the other girls after hearing the question. “What?” Pinkie asked, shrugging.

“I don’t need to eat. I can’t starve to death, but I can eat and my body will process it the way yours does,” I replied.

“What’s the longest you’ve gone without food?” AJ asked.

“I don't know. Years, probably? I never really paid attention,” I answered.

“Don’t you get all skinny ‘n stuff?” Pinkie asked.

“No, I stay like this. I’ve looked exactly like this the entire time,” I said, starting to feel as though I was doing a Q&A at a fan expo of some kind.

“Wait a second,” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow as she spoke, “how do you shave and cut your hair if you’re indestructible?”

“My hair doesn’t grow,” I said, “it stays like this. I assume this is how I looked when I became this way; however and whenever it happened.”

“You don’t know how you came to be?” Sunset asked.

“No,” I answered. “but I think something or someone did it to me, whether it was aliens, or gods, or...something else. I don’t know, but trust me, I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”

“Is that why you always have that dashing five o’clock shadow, darling?” Rarity asked, going back to my answer to Twilight, her smooth, white cheeks flushing a little. The other girls, especially Fluttershy, promptly gave her a strange look.

“Yep,” I said, rubbing my chin as though I was making sure my stubble was still there. “We obviously had blades to shave with back then, but they clearly didn’t do that great of a job.”

I got up from the table and made my way across the room to sit on the floor at the end of the couch, wanting to see if Fluttershy was OK while the others intently watched my every step. She was frozen in place, staring back at me with wide eyes, most likely trying to wrap her mind around all the things I've seen throughout my life.

Sunset narrowed her eyes, suddenly changing the subject. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

“Well, I have been to war, actually; like dozens of times, so…yeah. I have,” I replied, trying not to dwell on the subject.

“How many?” Sunset asked.

I cringed, unsure of how they would react if I told them, not that I actually knew exactly how many lives had come to an end at my hands over the years. “I actually don’t really want to answer that.” I said, glancing at Fluttershy, knowing she was sensitive about things like that. She quickly looked away and began to fidget nervously.

“Damn,” I thought to myself. “Don’t hate me, Fluttershy.”

“OK, well that’s heavy,” Sunset said, feeling regretful that she’d brought it up. “OK then, how many children have you had through the years?” she asked, trying to lighten things up.

“Yeah,” Twilight perked up. “Were any of them important historical figures? Are they…like you? You know, immortal?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head as I continued, “as far as I know, I am the only one of my kind. And, no. I never had any offspring.”

“What??” Dash laughed, “What are you? Like, some 2000 year old virgin?”

“No,” I replied “I’m not a fuckin vir-“ I stopped myself for a second, then let out an exasperated sighed. “I can’t father children. I don’t know why. Everything is there, everything works, but no woman has ever conceived from me. I don’t know why. That’s just how it is and probably always will be.”

“Oh, that’s so sad,” Rarity said, giving a pouty lip.

“No it’s not!” Pinkie argued, “Not having to worry about birth control! How about that, eh Fluttershy?”

The shy girl covered her face with her free hand, feeling her face heat up as a dark blush spread across her cheeks, making a quiet 'eep' sound.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity scolded. “Don’t embarrass the poor thing!”

Pinkie put a hand over her mouth. “Oh strawberry shit-cakes! Sorry, Flutters!”

The rest of the girls rolled their eyes at Pinkie during the awkward silence that followed.

AJ spoke up next. “Why didn’t you just tell us all this at the beginning so we could’ve avoided this whole mess?”

I looked at the tall farm girl. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“You know, about your powers. You could have told us and we wouldn’t have had to have that little hoedown out in Fluttershy’s yard.”

I looked at the floor next to me. “This isn’t exactly something I go around advertising,” I said. “There are certain people in this world who want to…shall we say, make use of me.”

“What do you mean? Like who?” Twilight asked.

“Governments mostly," I explained. "I’ve actually been in hiding for about the last 60 years. They, the CIA especially, wanted me to work for them. Of course, they didn’t want me letting their secrets out, and since they knew they couldn’t kill me, they expected me to just stay in lockup and let me out whenever they needed my help, which obviously didn't go over too well with me."

I paused for a moment, ruminating about the calamity that my life had become in recent decades, caused by modern-day intelligence gathering, espionage, and war.

"They were out of line," I continued. "Things got out of hand and I 'let myself out', which I don’t think they liked very much. I might be a little different than most people, but at the end of the day, I'm still a human being, and I think deserve to have a normal life like everyone else. That’s why I moved out here; where it’s quiet, I found a job -- you know, to pay the bills -- and I just wanted to keep to myself.”

“Are they looking for you still?” Dash asked.

“Always,” I answered. “They want me back, but on the other hand, I’ve been gone for so long, I doubt they’ve got looking for me very high on their priority list, BUT," I paused, raising my finger, "if they caught wind that I was around, I’m sure they would come for me.”

The girls shifted in their spots, looking at each other, clearly feeling uneasy about what I just said.

Dash suddenly perked up, changing the subject yet again, “Hey, wait a minute!” she said, “You said you don’t sleep, but in the picture Pinkie Pie took, you were asleep! She saw you sleeping! Didn’t you, Pinkie?”

“Hey, yeah!” Pinkie said.

“I can sleep,” I said. “I just don’t. Usually. My body doesn’t require rest, but I can fall asleep. It’s just hard to do. You know what it’s like when you’re trying to go to sleep and you’re not tired? When Pinkie Pie took that picture, that was actually the first time I had fallen asleep in months.” I glanced at Fluttershy. “I felt...peaceful. For once.”

The shy girl blushed again, looking down at the couch, still holding the ice pack against the side of her head.

“What picture?” Sunset asked.

Pinkie quickly darted over to Sunset, pulling out her phone out to show the red-head the picture of Fluttershy and me sleeping.

“Ok,” I said. “How about you guys? What’s your story?”

“Ah fuck, where to start?” AJ lifted her hat to scratch her head. “Well first off, Sunset here is technically not human,” she explained, pointing towards Sunset with her thumb.

I looked at Sunset in surprise, who was looking at Pinkie’s phone with a smirk on her lips as I she looked at the picture. “Aww, that’s actually really cute,” she gushed, tilting the phone to show Twilight, who also smiled upon seeing the image.

“You’re not human?” I asked.

Sunset snapped her attention back to me. “Uh, well I am, here in this world, but I’m not actually from here.”

“Sunset came here when we were in high school,” Rarity explained, “and she brought with her some magic from the other world; bit of a disaster, if I do say so myself,” she said, waving her hand dismissively at the memory.

The girls proceeded to tell me all about Sunset coming to this world through the portal with plans of gaining power, and how they eventually stopped her and convinced her to change her ways. They also told me about the three sisters who came to the school, trying to get a hold of the magic, how they met Twilight, and about the incident at the camp where they got the powers that they still have today. I couldn't help but shake my head, chuckling at the realisation that the ‘urban legends’ I was thinking of a couple weeks ago were all true, and these seven young women were at the center of it.

"So," I was saying, rubbing my temple as I spoke. "You got your powers from these geode things in the cave?"

"Yeah," Dash explained, "And they became these pendant things that we could wear around our necks, and we got these totally awesome outfits to wear when we put them on!"

"Ah yes," Rarity cut in with a limp-wristed wave, "those little diddys were absolutely stunning! I do wish we could figure out how to get them to come back."

I took a moment to quickly glance at each of the girls to see the pendants they were describing, but something didn't quite add up. "None of you look like you're wearing your pendants though, so how were you doing these things tonight?"

"We're not wearing them," Sunset answered. "We figured out a couple years go that we didn't have to wear them to keep our powers."

"Oh?" I replied.

"I figured it out," Dash said, pointing smugly at herself with her thumb.

"Ugh," AJ groaned, shaking her head. "You didn't 'figure it out', Dash! You forgot to wear yours to work one day."

Dash's shoulders slouched after hearing AJ's comment. "Why do you gotta break balls, AJ? You couldn't let me have this one thing?"

"Hang on," I said, putting my hand up to stop them from getting into the argument that I knew was coming. "What does that mean, 'you forgot to wear it to work?'"

"Oh," the rainbow-haired girl replied, "Well like AJ said, I forgot it at home when I went to work that day, and I was zipping around super-fast and super-awesome, as always; obviously not even thinking about the pendant not being with me. It wasn't 'til I got home and saw it on my night stand that I realised I was using my powers without wearing it."

"That's correct," Twilight interjected. "Rainbow Dash told the rest of us about it, so we all tried going without them and Lo and Behold, we all kept our powers."

"To be fair, we already knew we didn't actually have to wear them to use our powers," Sunset continued. "Remember when we first got to camp and we started seeing our powers almost right away?"

The other girls nodded.

"That's true," AJ said with a nod. "Gloriosa still had the geodes, but that didn't seem to matter. Our powers still worked."

"Yeah, but when I left camp, mine went away when I got too far and I had to walk back at my normal speed. Remember that?" Dash said.

Sunset nodded. "Yeah I remember, but I think after wearing the pendants for so many years, the powers have become a permanent part of us. Besides, we come home to them every night. I mean, we all have them in our bedrooms, either in our nightstand, on our dresser, or wherever it is that we happen to keep it."

"What if you're away from it for weeks at a time?" I asked.

"Well, last summer I went with the family down to Florida, and I left my pendant at home," AJ explained.

"And?" I asked.

She gave me a nod. "I had my powers the whole time."

I took a deep breath, rubbing my chin as I thought about all the things I'd learned about the girls that night. "Hm," I mumbled. "Well, I guess it's a good thing, really."

"What is?" Sunset asked.

"That you can't lose your powers if you lost the pendant," I replied. "And no one can steal it from you."

The red-head nodded in agreement. "That's true, but some of us kinda wish we could turn it off once in a while, if you catch my drift."

I glanced at Sunset, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "What do you mean? Like, any time you touch someone, you read their mind? Whether you want to or not?"

She nodded. "Yup. I can't help it."

Her words struck me, and I couldn't help but take a moment to ponder what it must have been like to be stuck with such an ability, and then I realised that what had happened earlier that night when she read me was purely a mistake; a chance encounter between two people, who inadvertently revealed themselves to one another as extraordinary.

I gave my head a quick shake, bringing myself back to the conversation. “OK then,” I said, while putting my hands together, placing my fingertips against my chin as I reviewed their abilities, “Applejack has super strength like me, Rainbow Dash can move faster than fuck, Pinkie Pie can make things explode, Sunset reads minds, Rarity can create structures made of diamond, Twilight has telekinesis...” I felt like one was missing. Then I remembered something. “Wait, wasn’t there a big cat that jumped on me? Like a mountain lion or something. What was that all about?”

Everyone looked at Fluttershy, who quickly shrunk into herself, looking very nervous. She finally sighed, reluctantly forcing herself to answer. “Um, that was me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Um, I can…kind of…talk to…and control animals,” she said, looking regretful.

My heart sank as I realised what she was saying. “You made it attack me?”

Her eyes began to moisten slightly. ”I’m s-sorry,” she said, trying to keep her voice from quivering. “But I trust my friends. They said you w-were something bad. We’ve had to deal w-with bad things before...” she trailed off, realising that I was put off by her confession when she saw me staring blankly at the floor.

Susnet sighed, putting her hands on her forehead. “Look, this was all my fault. I got overwhelmed when I accidently read your mind, and I knew there was something different about you, so I made Twilight come with me to go after you so we could find out the truth. It’s been years since we’ve encountered anything like this, and I guess I got a bit too excited about it and maybe got a little ahead of myself.”

“I think we’re all a little rusty at this kind of thing,” AJ admitted, straightening her hat.

My thoughts were still on Fluttershy. “She attacked me? And now she knows what I really am. She must think I'm some kind of freak…or a liar."

“Um, guys?” Twlight said, cutting in. “I hate to break this up, but it’s two in the morning. Sunset and I still have to ride all the way back to the city. We were supposed to leave like five hours ago.”

“Aw dang,” AJ said, pulling her phone out to check the time. “She’s right. It’s damn late.”

“Yeah,“ Sunset agreed. “There is still way too much to discuss, but there's just not enough time in the day. We all really should go home and get some rest.”

“Yeah, this conversation has been all over the place.” Twilight said. “I have so many questions, but I guess they will have to wait until later.”

“What about the, um...tree in the driveway?” Fluttershy asked. “Isn’t it blocking your cars in?”

“Applejack and Golds moved it already, darling,“ Rarity answered. “Not to worry, it was looked after before you even woke up.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy replied, sweeping a lock of hair from her face.

“Fluttershy, you should stay home from work tomorrow,” Rarity said. “Your head looks dreadful.” She looked closer at the shy girl’s wound. “Actually, maybe you should just take the week off.”

“I’ll stay with her.” I offered, feeling obligated to let them get on with what they needed to do, and so I could have some time with Fluttershy to try to talk things over. I knew deep down that the events of the evening were partly my fault since I didn't tell them the truth about myself.

Everyone stopped when I made the suggestion.

I shook my head. “I’m not going to hurt her. I saved her tonight, remember?…from you guys, I might add.”

“What the hell are you talking about??” Dash spun around to face me as she headed towards the door to get her shoes.

AJ had one boot halfway on and stopped, looking at the ceiling while letting out a frustrated groan. “Really, Rainbow Dash? REALLY? We almost killed Fluttershy and you know it. We’ve been out of the game too long and Golds is right, we fucked up. ”

I was starting to have a great respect for AJ, she had such a level head and an amazing ability to be honest, even if it meant admitting she and her friends were in the wrong.

“That wasn’t my fault!” Dash yelled.

“Fuck off, Dashie!” Pinkie giggled, walking past Dash to head out the door.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Ugh! Whatever,” she said, putting her shoes on.

The rest of them were still standing there looking at me, trying to consider my offer to stay with their friend.

“Don’t worry, I’ll look after Fluttershy tonight. You can trust me,” I insisted.

Sunset looked at Fluttershy. “You ok with that, Flutters?”

The shy girl hesitated, looking at me for a few seconds, then back at Sunset before nodding her approval.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her response, even if she did hesitate.

“But don’t you have to work tomorrow too?” Rarity asked me.

“I can get time off work anytime I want. My boss is good like that,” I explained.

“Sounds pretty sweet,” Dash said sarcastically, “So, how did you, a 2500 year old immortal super-dude virgin score a dream job with a boss like that?”

“I saved his life,” I said.