The sun had long since set, and Fiery had just returned home from his trip on the other side of town. The entire time he was in deep thought, trying to figure out if what he heard was real or not. ‘She couldn’t have asked me out.’ He kept repeating in his head. ‘I mean, she’s a pony for god’s sake! There’s no way I could go out with a pony! Maybe I should tell her that I can’t make it next Friday. Will that work? Is she the type to let something like that not phase her? Shit! What the hell am I going to do?!’

As he walked through the door, his two roommate greeted him home. “Heya Fifi.” The white unicorn at the table eating her dinner said with a smile, still in a somewhat groggy mood from waking up.

“Welcome back Fiery.” Octavia said in a more polite manner as she was laying on her back on the sofa, reading her favorite book that she had immediately opened up after coming home before Fiery.

Fiery let out a low, incomprehensible grunt of a response back at the two mares as he closed the door behind him. He had continued to look at the ground, his face in a state of confusion. “Hey Octavia?” He said out loud as he looked up at her.

“Hmm?” She responded.

“Do you or Vinyl know anything about Fluttershy?”

Both Vinyl and Octavia stopped what they were doing and looked at Fiery with quizzical looks on their faces. “What in Equestria are you asking us that for Fifi?” Vinyl asked.

“I… I have no idea where the hell this came from, but for some odd reason… she asked me out on a date.”

The entire room became dead silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Both mares continued to look at Fiery, their faces of confusion turning to shock. “F-Fiery-“ Octavia began to mutter. “Are… Are you sure about that?”

Fiery nodded, looking over at the grey mare. “Believe me, I’m just as shocked as you two. It just came out of nowhere, and right as she got the answer that I was free next Friday, she ran right into her home before I had a chance to decipher what she meant and could reject.”

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Octavia shook her head. “What in the world are we going to do with you…?”

“Hey! It’s not like it was my idea in the first place! She just sprung up and surprised me with the invitation!”

“Alright, alright, I get it.” Octavia spoke up. With another sigh, she continued to speak. “So Fluttershy asked you out on a date-“ ‘Even though I would never see that happening from that mare.’ “You’re obviously going to want to know what you’re going to get yourself into, which is why you’re asking us if we know anything about her, right?” Fiery responded by nodding to her question. “Alright… Vinyl?”

Vinyl shook her head. “I got nothing. All I know is she’s shy and that she takes care of injured critters.”

“Great…”

“What? What’s the matter?” Fiery asked.

“I have no idea what she’s like either.” Octavia said. “We don’t exactly go over to her house and visit her on a weekly basis or anything like that.”

Now Fiery sighed, but in defeat. “Alright, I get the picture… Well, do you know of anybody-“

“Pony.”

“… Pardon?”

“You said anybody. If you’re talking about just us Equestrians, you say anypony, not anybody.” Octavia corrected.

“Who came up with that stupid rule?” Fiery asked in a not-so-pleased tone.

“Proper grammar came up with it.” She responded in a matter-of-fact manner. “But that’s not the issue at hoof. Right now we need to come up with an idea on what you’re going to do.”

“What if I just tell her that I can’t make it next Friday? That I’m busy or something?”

“You know ‘Tavi, that’s not such a bad idea.” Vinyl added in. “He just stays home for the entire day, but before that, we come up with a story to help him get out of it.”

“Before we do any of this though Vinyl, we have to remember, this is Fluttershy we’re talking about.” Octavia said. “Chances are, if she really did ask him out, having him say no might not end well.”

Putting a hoof to her chin, Vinyl began to go deep into thinking. “Hmm, I suppose you are right about that ‘Tavi… But what are we to do?”

“We find out as much as possible about our little yellow pegasus, and make sure she and Fiery have a wonderful time together.” Octavia finished with a smile.

“And if I say no to all of this?” Fiery asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Doesn’t matter to me if you say yes or no, but perhaps her friends will mind. After what you did to them at the party, I’m sure telling their friend no to a date wouldn’t help you in any way possible of having them think you’re a nice stallion after all.”

“Again, I care… why?”

“Because we don’t want to be associated with an a-hole. They’re just not the Elements of Harmony, and if you make them mad, chances are they’re going to come complaining to me and ‘Tavi and try to cause problems for you.” Vinyl answered. Both Fiery and Octavia looked at her with surprised looks. “What? I can tell the truth sometimes.”

With a loud groan, Fiery lowered his head in defeat. “Fine… I don’t want you guys to get hurt because of my actions since I’ll be living here for a while… I suppose I can go on the date…”

“Again, your choice Fiery. One question though.”

“Yeah?” Fiery said, looking back up at the grey mare.

“Have you ever gone out on a date?”

“Of course! Who do you think you’re talking to?!” He responded with confidence.

Rolling her eyes, Octavia turned to walk back to the couch to continue reading, when Vinyl came up with an idea of her own. “What about if you two go out on a practice date?”

Again, the two ponies turned their heads with speed with surprised and embarrassed looks. “W-W-What are you saying Vinyl?! How could you imply such a thing?!”

“What? I’m just saying, Joseph doesn’t know a whole lot about Equestria and how we do dates here, so having him go out on a date before Fluttershy could help him be more relaxed and such.” Vinyl answered her friend with a grin.

“How do you guys do dates then? Usually where I come from we just go out to eat, or go to a movie, or something of the sort.”

“Oh, we do the same type of things here.” Vinyl replied. “But still, having a refresher wouldn’t hurt, now would it?”

Thinking about it for a few seconds, Fiery seemed to have agreed with Vinyl. “I suppose having a practice date wouldn’t hurt… I mean, the last one I went on was back in high school, so having a refresher wouldn’t hurt at all. Okay Vinyl, I’ll do it.” He said with a smile. Octavia however, was not so pleased.

“W-Wait! Why am I the one who has to do the practice date?! Why can’t you do it Vinyl?! I mean, it is your idea after all!”

Vinyl crossed her legs, continuing to sit in the chair, and looked at her friend with a smug face. “Tell me ‘Tavi, when was the last time you were on a date?”

“W-What? What does-“

“You’ve never been on one, have you?”

“W-What?! Of course I have, I-I just-“

“Then who was it with?” Vinyl asked. “Was he somepony I knew? Or was it a she? Was he in the same school as us or was it-“

“You know who it was!” Octavia yelled, surprising both Vinyl and Fiery. She was huffing and her face was red in both embarrassment and frustration. “You know exactly who it was, but don’t you dare mention his name!”

“Whoa…” Fiery said to himself quietly, actually scared that Octavia was about to do something.

“Then why can’t you do a practice date with Fifi here? I mean, don’t you want to get rid of those nasty memories and replace them with happy ones?” Vinyl asked, having not lost her smug face for a second.

Octavia opened her mouth once more to reject, but could see that Vinyl wasn’t going to take ‘no’ as an answer. She looked over at Fiery out of the corner of her eyes, and then sighed for a final time. “Fine… I’ll do the stupid practice date…” She said, just loud enough for the two ponies to hear as she looked away from them, still bitter about how everything turned out.

“Great! So, when do you two want to do it?”

Fiery shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t really care I guess. I mean, it’s not like I have a lot going on since, well, you know.”

“True, true. I guess we should set up some events for you shouldn’t we?” Vinyl said, thinking out loud before turning bad to Fiery with another smile. “So how does Monday work for you? That gives you Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get ready for your practice date, and then another three days for the real thing.”

Looking over to Octavia, Fiery smiled. “I’m fine with that. Are you?”

Without looking at him, Octavia nodded to the question. “Yes-“ She barely said. “That’s fine…” She then turned her entire body in the direction of the stairs and began to climb them. As she got halfway up, she turned her head back to her roommates. “I think I’m going to go to bed a little bit earlier tonight. I have long day tomorrow.”

“Alright ‘Tavi, have a good night sleep!” Vinyl replied, waving her hoof. “And I promise, I’ll come in quietly tonight after work.” The entire time, Fiery had subconsciously been looking at Octavia’s flank, a question on his mind. Vinyl saw this and giggled some, thinking her plan was already taking effect. “See what you like?” She asked Fiery after Octavia had fully ascended the stairs.

Fiery, realizing that he was caught, snapped his head towards Vinyl. “W-What? What do you mean?” He said, trying to play it off.

“Oh come on Fifi, you were gawking at her backside like some dog in heat.”

“I did not!” He exclaimed, defending himself. “I was… I was just curious about something…”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what would that be?”

“W-Well, this… this is a little embarrassing to talk about, but… I’ve noticed about you ponies.”

“Yes…?”

“How… How do you exactly… you know…” He began to point towards his crotch.

“Do what?” Vinyl asked, curious as to what in the world Fiery could be asking about.

“How… How in the world do you keep your crotches hidden?” He asked with a straight face. “I mean, I didn’t see anything on Fluttershy earlier, and watching Octavia climb the stairs, not to mention all the ponies I saw outside…”

Vinyl was genuinely shocked by the question. Not knowing how to respond, Vinyl facehoofed before sighing. “Of course you would ask something like that.” Vinyl said, thinking out loud again.

“Hey! It’s not my fault for being curious. I mean, it’s obvious that you guys reproduce like normal horses, but-“

Vinyl put her hoof up, stopping Fiery midsentence. “Our fur covers it, okay? Normally during the special times with (normally) two or more ponies, that fur retracts to reveal ourselves. That or you have to go to the bathroom. Scientists believe it has something to do with how our body functions, while others believe it’s magic. I mean, you’ve had to have noticed by now, right? Haven’t you gone to the bathroom and all?”

Blushing a bit, Fiery nodded. “W-Well, yeah, of course. B-But i-it was out for me, to, you know…”

Ready to continue her expertise in the subject, Vinyl opened her mouth. She didn’t say what she wanted to next though, as she glanced over to the wall with the clock on it, and saw that she was now running late for work. “Oh crap!” She exclaimed, picking up all of the dirty dishes from the table and rushing into the kitchen. “Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap-“

“What’s the matter?” Fiery asked, confused as to what had just happened.

“I’m late! I’m running late for work!” Vinyl exclaimed as she threw the dishes into the sink and began to run for the door. On the way out, she turned to Fiery and smiled for a moment. “We can continue this conversation later.” She said with a wink, of course, Fiery didn’t see it. She then rushed out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

As Fiery watched Vinyl run out of the house, a look of confusion made its way onto his face. “It’s not what you think.” A voice behind him said. He turned to look and saw that Octavia had been sitting midway up the stairs.

“W-What? What do you-“

“She’s not like that.” Octavia said, a caring tone for her friend. “Sure, she might play around some, but she’s really a nice mare who just seemed to become interested in the pony body when she was younger.”

“I-Is that so…”

“It is. Fate though, seemed to have other plans for her.” Her gaze turning from Fiery to the door.

“Her Cutie Mark?” Fiery asked, and Octavia nodded.

“She loves both music and her other hobbies. That hasn’t stopped her though, trying to figure out how the pony body functions. Of course, nopony will take her seriously because of her erratic behavior and goofiness though.”

“Huh… I really wouldn’t have expected something like that from someone like Vinyl.”

Again, Octavia smiled and nodded. “Sometimes you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” She turned to go back upstairs, and looked behind her. “Well, I should really get going to bed now. Goodnight Fiery.”

“Goodnight Octavia, I’ll try to be quiet coming up.”

“Thank you, you do that.”

As Octavia finally reached the top of the stairs, Fiery went over to where he had left his guitar and picked it up. Strumming a few chords he began to think of a song that wouldn’t create too much noise, but in the end he couldn’t. He just sat in the chair, randomly playing the strings to different songs, never feeling the fuzziness. After a half an hour of playing random notes, Fiery put his guitar down and went to bed, feeling tired from the day’s events.

Meanwhile, back at Fluttershy’s house, Fluttershy had been pacing around the main room of her house for a few minutes after she slammed the door behind her, while the animals she had been caring of were watching her. She was shocked at what she had done, and beginning to panic over what she was going to do. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear-“ She kept repeating.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her front door, making her stop in her tracks. Fluttershy stared at the door, afraid to open it up, and too afraid to speak out to see who was there. Fortunately, a friendly voice called out for her. “Fluttershy?” The mare on the other side of the door called out. “Are you in there Fluttershy?”

Finding her voice, Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief and walked over to the door, opening it. She smiled at the two guests waiting at the front door. “Twilight, Moonlight, thank goodness it’s you two.”

“Fluttershy, what happened?” Twilight asked her yellow friend. “We saw that you were passed out on that stallion’s back when he came out, and when you got into his house you were still unconscious. He didn’t do anything, did he?!” Twilight asked in a worried voice.

Fluttershy shook her head and cleared the way so that the two mares could enter. “No, he didn’t. He, um, was very nice to me.” She said in a timid voice.

“Nice? Him?! That can’t be right…” Twilight said as she entered the house, Luna in her disguise right behind.

“Oh, but he was! He… He played a nice song for me, and everything. I-I…” But Fluttershy trailed off, too embarrassed about continuing the sentence.

“You also seemed to be extremely nervous about something when we followed you here and saw you wake up. You said something we couldn’t hear and then zipped right into your house after he said something back. He didn’t say anything obscene, did he?!” Fluttershy ‘eep’ed and shook her head. She began to whimper some, not sure how to proceed. “Then what? What happened Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, ignoring that her friend seemed to be distressed. It wasn’t until Luna put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, getting her attention. Luna proceeded to shake her head, indicating to Twilight to not push it any further. “B-But!”

“No buts Twilight, you’re friend doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.”

“What if he did something to her though?!”

Finding her voice, at least enough volume to let the two ponies barely hear, she squeaked an answer out. “I-I-I-I a-a-asked him o-out.”

Twilight turned her head back to Fluttershy, not quite catching what she had said. “What Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy gulped, still embarrassed, but was able to find the courage to say it again. This time, she said it a little louder. “I-I-I a-asked h-h-him out.”

“You what?!”

The weekend ended up passing by with no trouble at all. Fiery spent the entire time experimenting more with his guitar, not worrying about the practice date. It felt funny for him really. He said he wasn’t attracted to ponies, yet, he agreed to the practice date without any problem. ‘Who knows.’ He thought to himself. ‘Maybe I was just swept up in the moment and I allowed Vinyl to take advantage of me. Of course, I suppose I don’t mind it all that much. I mean, it’s not like anything’s going to happen during or after either dates, right…?’

For the past fifteen minutes, Fiery had been standing in front of the fountain in the park. He was told that he was to meet Octavia there by Vinyl, and needed to head there ahead of time. It made him also wonder what he was supposed to do on that Friday. ‘Am I suppose to go pick her up? Or am I suppose to meet her somewhere? God I hope I don’t mess it up. The last thing I need is those other five ponies on my ass about it.’

Fiery glanced in one direction and saw a grey earth pony mare walking up to him, a little pink bowtie around her neck. He smiled at the pony and waved to get her attention. The grey mare smiled back and began to approach him. “Wait long for me?” She asked as she got close to him.

Fiery shook his head. “No, not really… So, what took you so long?”

“Is that really how you’re going to start a date off?” Octavia asked with a smirk.

“W-What? N-No! I just meant… ah forget it. So what do you want to do? I mean, it’s not exactly like we decided what to do at home and all.”

Octavia brought a hoof up to her chin and began to think. “Well, it’s a nice day here in the park… How about we just walk around a bit until we can think of something else to do?”

Fiery nodded. “Sure, that sounds good.”

“Honestly darling, you shouldn’t be so worked up.” A white unicorn with a purple mane and tail told her friend as she continued to work on a dress that she was making for an order.

“You don’t understand though Rarity, this is Fluttershy we’re talking about! Fluttershy! How could she, out of all of us, ask somepony out on a date, let alone come up with the idea?!”

Rarity stopped her work for a moment and looked at the distressed librarian and smiled. “Well, perhaps she’s finally coming out of her little shell. Besides, didn’t you tell me that she said she’s only doing it to learn more about that stallion? I mean, I know I certainly wouldn’t want to get near him after what he did, but you have to admit, this is Fluttershy we’re talking about. If anypony is able to change him to be for the better, it’s her.”

With a sigh, Twilight began to rub her temples. “But I’m worried Rarity! I know Princess Celestia gave me this assignment, but I think he may have done something to her! I mean, each time I try to bring up anything about what happened at his house, she tells me the same thing about him playing a song about a squid’s garden or something and then if I try to ask anything more, she begins to become red in the face and becomes quiet! Just what happened after that?”

“Honestly Twilight, I’ve known Fluttershy for quite some time now. If he did do anything to her, we would’ve known about it by now. I think you may be worrying a bit too much. You should just be happy for her that she’s finally done something that all of us thought impossible.”

With another sigh, Twilight looked at the ground in defeat, knowing that her friend was right. “I suppose… So, are we still planning of watching over them this Friday?”

“Of course!” Rarity exclaimed, going back to her work. “If he tries doing anything to hurt her, he’ll regret the day that he was born!”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks Rarity, glad to hear it.” She said as she glanced over to the windows. She took a brief moment to look outside, and saw that the ponies outside were shopping as usual.

“So-“ Rarity said, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts. “Where’s this friend of yours from Canterlot?”

“O-Oh, um, s-she was a bit tired this morning, you know, being a pony who works mostly at night and all. She’s back at my house sleeping.”

“Really? That’s a shame, I’d really like to meet her some time.”

“I’ll make sure that happens Rarity.” Twilight said with another smile.