Chapter 6: Explanation and Realization

Dusk sits on the couch trying to think of a reason, to comprehend what had just happened. Sitting next to him is Fluttershy, who had calmed down considerably.

Dusk tries to explain the situation. “Shy, when I was on the ground, I think I was reliving a repressed memory of mine. I think that when you started crying, it acted as a trigger for that particular memory.”

Fluttershy soon began to feel guilty again. “But, why do you think t-that my crying triggered the memory?”

“I don’t really know. I think that when you cried, I reminded me of the look on Cloud’s face when she just stared at me.” Dusk then puts his hoof on his forehead. “I still remembered that, after five years.”

Fluttershy starts looking at Dusk inquisitively, not knowing what he was talking about. Dusk realizes this, and starts to tell her about the memory.

“Well, it started at the Cloudsdale Flight School, when my former best friend, Blizzard Burst and I were writing reports...”

----------

As he finishes explaining the story, he noticed how she was on the verge of crying again. He tries to lighten the mood before things became too bad.

“You don’t really need to worry about it Shy. My memory has already caused enough pain. No point of continuing that.” Dusk continues, “Also, weren’t you making dinner before?”

Fluttershy snaps out of her gloomy state when she remembers about her meal. “Oh, Dusk. Thanks for reminding me.” She walks back into the kitchen, and starts chopping up a carrot.

While she was distracted, Dusk could only think about something bothering him.

‘Whenever someone starts crying, I always have to somehow make them feel better for themselves. When Shy started crying, it caused the repressed memory to come back. What if there are other triggers, for other memories.’

----------

“Dinner’s ready~” says a cheerful Fluttershy.

“Sweet. I hope that its good, considering that I had a mental breakdown, when you didn’t tell me what it was before.”

Awkward silence. Fluttershy did not look impressed.

‘Maybe went a bit far with that.’

“Eh-heh-heh, that wasn’t supposed to be mean or anything, I just thought that it would be funny to- please don’t kill me.” Says a cowering Dusk.

She chuckles to herself, “I would never do anything like that to you Dusk. Anyway, lets forget about that, dinner’s ready.”

He sits himself on the on a chair, near the table, waiting for whatever Fluttershy has made. She serves up a salad, to the dismay of Dusk. It consisted of lettuce, baby tomatoes, chopped carrots and sliced cucumbers. It looked like it was topped of with a simple ranch dressing.

“Thanks for making this Shy.” Says a slightly disappointed Dusk.

“That’s OK. I hope you like it”

Dusk grabs a fork, and fails. ‘How the hay are you supposed to grab these things.’ He death-stares his hooves and tries again. He notices that Fluttershy appears to have no problem with the usage of forks. ‘She even makes eating a salad look graceful.’

He grabs the fork with two hooves and manages to pick up a baby tomato, and a lettuce leaf. He puts them into his mouth and eats it. He then looks up, with dilated pupils, which grabs the attention of Fluttershy.

“Oh no, did I make it badly, didn’t you like it. I’m sorry, I’m sor-”

“Shy, this is the best bucking salad that I have ever eaten! How the hay do you make it so good?”

“Um... well, you first need to get the vegetables then-”

Dusk ignores the answer and puts his head down, and starts eating the salad, ignoring the fork. (OM NOM NOM etc)

----------

At the end of dinner, Fluttershy only had one bowl of salad, but Dusk had four bowls and he finished them before Fluttershy even had half of hers. It showed too, Dusk’s side of the table was a mess, with various vegetables scattered all over the table. He cleaned it up, just as Fluttershy finished.

Luna’s moon high in the sky when they had finished. Because of today’s incident, time seemed to pass quickly. Both Dusk and Fluttershy needed to have a bath, especially Dusk.

“Hey Shy? Do you mind if I could have a bath, I don’t really want to smell like a salad for the rest of the night.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll probably have a bath after you, and then go to bed.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Dusk makes his way into the bathroom, now used to moving through doors, and starts filling up the bathtub. While he waits, he notices the amount of washing products this she owns. He had no idea what most of them were, he could see shampoos, conditioners, soaps but that is all he could recognise. Back when he used to live in his apartment in Manehatten, all he used was shampoo, and bar soap.

He stops filling the bath at about halfway. He uses his hoof to test the water temperature...

“Perfect temperature, every time.” He says to himself.

Dusk has an uncanny ability to get the water temperature of any bath, to his preferred heat, first time,every time. He doesn’t really know why this is important, but it’s convenient. He steps in the bath, slowly, as he doesn’t want to get his left wing cast wet. Dusk then quickly cleans himself up, so that Fluttershy doesn’t have to wait long for him to finish.

Three minutes later, Dusk gets out of the bath, and quickly dries himself with a towel. He tells Fluttershy that the bath is free and starts to search for a spare mattress. He searches all the usual spots, such as cupboards, closets, laundry room, but finds nothing. Then he realizes something.

‘She would of probably set up the spare in her own room.’

He climbs up the staircase to her room, (with difficulty, because his cast drastically removes any room for movement) and is surprised to see that there was no mattress in her room either. On her bed, he sees a book called A Mare’s Paradise. Upon further examination of the cover, he notices it is a romance novel.

‘Why would Shy be reading a romance novel?’

----------

Dusk is standing behind the closed door of the bathroom, where he presumed that Fluttershy was still washing herself. He needed to stand close to the door so she could hear him, but also still have her privacy.

“Err, Fluttershy, do you know...”

----------

Meanwhile, halfway across town, Pinkie started to uncontrollably twitch.

“Uh oh, ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch.” Warns the pink pony.

“Huh, what’s up Pinkie?” asks a cyan mare.

“The roof, silly. If there was no roof that was-”

The other mare silences Pinkie by putting her hoof in front of her. “Shouldn’t we finish what we started?” she asks in a seductive tone.

“Oh yeah, Dashie.”

----------

“...you know where the spare mattre- *crunch* OW!”

Dusk is interuppted when Fluttershy accidentally smashes the door onto his face.

“Oh dear,” worries Fluttershy. “I’m sorry Dusk, I didn’t know you were there.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, anyway, do you know where the spare mattress is?”

“Umm, I don’t have a spare mattress...” she starts to blush.

‘Damn it, I should of asked before’

“...b-but D-Dusk,” she starts to stutter and blush harder, “I d-do have e-enough room t-to s-s-share my-”

“Sorry Shy, but you have been hospitable enough for me already. I will sleep on the couch tonight because I have intruded into your life far too much already.”

“B-b-but you c-could-”

Dusk interrupts again, “I don’t want to hear it, you can sleep on your bed.”

Fluttershy, defeated, could only say “OK.” before walking up the stairs.

“Good night, Shy.”

“Night, Dusk. *sigh*” she says quietly.

‘Why was Shy so upset when I told her that she could sleep in her bed?’

----------

Dusk has been laying down on the couch for twenty minutes, without falling asleep. He has to sleep on his right side, because of his cast. He finds this to be a quite uncomfortable position. He starts to think.

‘Shy has been really kind to me in the past few days. First of all, she saves me from the manticore, then she helps me when I got out of hospital, and now she has been very homely towards me, even what I relived the memory. She reminds me of Cloud Charger, except a bit quieter. *blush* She is also very beautiful. She isn’t like Rarity, who strives to be a majestic beauty at all time, she is just naturally beautiful. *bigger blush* She is also quite cute a lot of the time. It is hard to believe that she stared down a manticore by herself. Even her little squeak is adorable. *massive blush*

I think have a crush on her.’ Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Learning to Applebuck Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 59 Minutes