Author’s Note: If you are interested in reading Past Sins, be prepared for spoilers. I will clear show you when the spoilers begin and end.

Chapter 11: The Reading of the Book

Dusk enters Fluttershy’s home, in high spirits and it shows. He has a smile plastered onto his face, and he has his head held high.  Fluttershy notices his good mood, and wants to know why he is so happy.

“Hi Dusk.”

“Hey Shy.”

“You seem happy today, what happened?” She asks.

“Rainbow gave me the weather job.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widen, “That’s great Dusk.” She happily responds.

“I know right, I didn’t think I would get the job, if I’m honest.”

“Congratulations Dusk. Also, I’ll need to go to the Carousel Boutique soon.”

"Why do you need to go?"

Her face starts to redden, "I need her help planning something."

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About 20 minutes later, Fluttershy left for Rarity’s, leaving Dusk alone in her house. He decides to get out the book that he borrowed from Twilight. He opens the book and looks at the contents, there are over 500 pages.

‘This is going to be a great read.’

(Spoilers end here)

-Ten Minutes Later-

“Ughh, the Prelude is important, but boring.” Dusk complains to no one in particular.

He finishes the Prelude rather quickly, luckily for him. He pretty much skimmed over the pages, so he could get to the better parts, much quicker. He will read the book, until Fluttershy gets back, so he decides to go into the cupboard to grab a few snacks, in case he gets hungry.

He grabs an apple, a carrot from Angel’s bag and a fruit box. He wonders why Fluttershy only has apple juice boxes but forgets about that when he starts reading the book again.

After reading the first four pages of Chapter 1, he realizes something.

‘The unicorn had left her saddlebags in the Everfree Forest after her little… incident. Sounds a lot like my encounter with the manticore, about 4 days ago. I have done a lot in a few days.’

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-Page 25 of 553 / 7 Minutes later-

“D’AAAAAAAWWWWW.” Is the only thing that Dusk could say.  He is reading the part where the unicorn meets the filly Nightmare Moon for the first time. He was thanking Celestia, that the story didn’t have any pictures, because if there were, than Dusk would have had a double heart-attack, caused by an ad’awwableness overload. (That is still a word, don’t think that I have forgotten.)

One thing that Dusk was happy about, is that Chapter 1 is a lot better than the Prelude.

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-Page 48 of 553 / 19 Minutes later-

“Nyx why? Why do you have to be so cute?!”

Dusk has finish reading the part where the librarian’s friend was trying to calm down Nyx, who had thought that the librarian had hated her. It was heart retching for Dusk, to say the least.

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-Page 76 of 553 / 23 Minutes later-

Dusk gets hit by a scrunched up piece of paper. He looks around to see what could have caused this, and sees Angel Bunny on the ground, who is frowning at Dusk.  He points toward the carrot, tapping his foot, but Dusk had other ideas.

“No, Angel, this carrot is for me, when I’m hungry. Wait until Fluttershy gets home.”

He would have none of that, so the bunny grabs the carrot and hops back to his room, much to Dusk’s dismay. So he heads back to his book and starts reading again.

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-Page 77 of 553 / 50 Seconds later-

“Golden Crown you mule, if you were a non-fiction character, than I would shove that crown, so far up your ass that you would be coughing up plastic.” Curses Dusk. “If someone ever did the same thing to Fluttershy… unforeseen consequences.”

Dusk hears a very small gulp coming from the direction of Angel’s room. He ignores that and continues reading.

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-180 of 553- / 1 Hour, 25 Minutes later-

“Like a boss…”

(Spoilers end here)

As soon as he finishes that particular page, Fluttershy enters the house with a saddlebag full of items, which grabs Dusk’s curiosity.

“Hey Shy.”

“Hi Dusk.”

“What do you have in those bags of yours?”

“Umm… not much, just some things.”

“Do you mind if I could take a look?”

“In a sec.”

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Fluttershy has only a few items in her bags. She has bought a few vegetables, a dress from Rarity’s and some more fruit boxes. (?!) Since it was night time, Fluttershy has started making vegetable soup for dinner. Dusk is wondering why she had bought the dress.

“Why did you buy the dress Shy?” asks Dusk.

She lightly blushes, “Uhh… it is part of what I’ve planned.”

“Oh really, what are you planning?”

“I t-tell you later.” Says the blushing Fluttershy.

“OK then. I won’t intrude anymore. Anyway, while I was reading, I had grabbed a carrot to eat later, but Angel just stole the carrot, even after I told him not to. What’s up with that?”

“Oh… um, sorry Dusk, but I told Angel Bunny that the carrots in the bag are all for him to eat. I must have forgotten to tell you about that.”

“That’s alright. I just thought that it would be alright to eat them.” Concedes Dusk.

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Fluttershy has finished making the soup, and is preparing the soup for the two to eat.  She gives Dusk and herself a bowl of soup, and a soup spoon. They are once again eating at the table, and Dusk is once again, struggling with the usage of the spoon. But for some reason, Fluttershy isn’t.

‘How the heck does Fluttershy use the spoon so easily?’

He looks over at Fluttershy, to see if there is a special trick to using a spoon, and nothing. He just decides to give up on the spoon.

“Fluttershy, do you mind if I could drink the soup? I have no idea how you are supposed to use these spoons.”

“Uhh, yeah, that’ll be alright.”

“Sweet.”

So Dusk picks up the bowl, making sure not to spill anything, and starts to drink the soup.  His eyes dilating after tasting the wonderful concoction.

“Shy, why do all of your meals taste freaking delicious? “

“I… I don’t know.”

Dusk has to resist the urge to wolf the soup down, like he had done with the salad. He slowly drinks the soup and doesn’t cause any mess on the table like he had done last time. When he finishes his meal, he sees that Fluttershy was staring at him with a humored look on her face.

“What is so funny Shy?”

She points at his nose, which has some soup on it. Dusk lightly chuckles, and wipes it off. He fills the bowl up with more soup and finishes it just as Fluttershy finishes her first bowl. Dusk already had  enough, as soup is a lot more filling than the salad from 2 nights ago.

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Dusk and Fluttershy have both gotten washed up, and went to their individual beds, with Dusk once again taking the couch, despite secretly wanting to ask if he could share the bed with her. So Dusk is lying down on the couch, thinking about his situation with Fluttershy.

‘I want to ask her out, but I just can’t say it. Maybe I could do something to set the mood, and then I could ask her for a date then. But how would I do that? I don’t know anything about that sort of thing. I would need to ask somepony who is a bit of a romantic sort. I wonder who could… Rarity.’ Next Chapter: Chapter 12: FOREVER! Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 27 Minutes