That awful whispering voice in her head woke Fluttershy slowly: No, no, it was saying. Don't open your eyes. It'll be better for you and everypony else if you just go right on sleeping. Forever, in fact...

Memories of the night before jabbed at her, and she tried to curl into a ball. But—

Movement all along her back, a warm, wonderful flexing of long, sinuous muscles, and her every nerve ending lit up like a sky full of shooting stars. "Morning, honeycomb," Applejack murmured into her ear, and Fluttershy realized she was spooned in her marefriend's embrace, Applejack's front and back legs wrapping around to squeeze Fluttershy gently between them.

Such an intense sensation of safety and security flooded her that she let out a happy little moan, her wiggler pulsing against the inside of her lacinia. Applejack's low, luscious chuckle got another pulse from it, and her hoof sliding along Fluttershy's side, across her stomach, and resting on her bulging flap just about set it to bursting.

"Well, now." Applejack's sweet breath tickled the nape of Fluttershy's neck, and that hoof began tickling her lacinia. "Anypony home?"

Fluttershy couldn't hold in a gasp as her lacinia sprang open, her wiggler popping out. "Oh, yeah," Applejack said from somewhere—either Applejack was moving or she was, Fluttershy finding it a little difficult to think when Applejack's caresses, so soft and coaxing but so firm and insistent, were setting her wiggler to stretching and stiffening.

The world rolled, and Fluttershy opened her eyes for the first time, saw that she was on her back, the light of a new spring morning splashed over the ceiling above her, all the warmth she'd felt from Applejack now concentrated around her hind legs. Panic stabbed her, and she bent her neck to look down along her chest.

Applejack lay stretched out on the lower part of their bed, her front hoofs resting on the insides of Fluttershy's thighs, her gaze fixed on Fluttershy's wiggler, tall and bulging, all red and pink and yellow. "Oh, yeah," Applejack said again. "That's what I'm talking about..." She licked her lips and left them open, started leaning forward, a sort of fire coming into her eyes, the panting of her breath stroking the tip of Fluttershy's—

"No!" Fluttershy managed to get it out as a strangled grunt rather than the scream she was hearing in her head.

Still, it made Applejack look up and blink. "Honeycomb?"

Ears folding, Fluttershy reached down, curled her hoofs around Applejack's, and pulled. Applejack didn't move, of course, but she anchored Fluttershy, let her slide herself along the bedclothes and slip her body underneath her marefriend's till they were nose to nose, chest to chest, stomach to stomach and flap to flap. "Please," she told Applejack's surprised face. "I want you where I can see you." She dug her hoofs into the golden glory of Applejack's unbound mane. "Where I can touch you." She was panting now, her wiggler pressing hungrily against Applejack's lacinia. "Where I can taste you..."

And pulling Applejack's head down, she pushed her lips into hers, poured out every ounce of the love and desire she felt for her strong, beautiful, marvelous friend. Half a heartbeat, and Applejack gave a wordless rumble deep in her throat, cradled Fluttershy in her front legs, and returned the kiss with such passion, it swirled Fluttershy away like a storm wind, wild and powerful and maybe just a little bit scary. It was a good kind of scary, though, an idea Fluttershy had never understood till that exact moment.

Lost in bliss, Fluttershy had no idea how long the kiss lasted before Applejack pulled away, but opening her eyes again, she smiled when Applejack said, "That's one mighty compelling argument." A lovely crinkling sound sent the sweet aroma of aroused mare drifting up. "Reckon we oughtta explore it more in depth..." Her hips shifted on top of Fluttershy, and Fluttershy pressed her snout into Applejack's neck to muffle her yelp as Applejack slid hot and tight and perfect around Fluttershy's wiggler.

She couldn't find the words for it, but then she didn't have to, clinging to Applejack's broad back and abandoning all thought, all reason, all control. Pinned between the soft comfort of the mattress and the fervid desire of her marefriend, Fluttershy just let go and dissolved in the pure liquid pleasure surging through her from Applejack's body. With each thrust of those powerful hindquarters, Fluttershy felt herself both plunging deeper and deeper into the hidden recesses of Applejack's core and stretching higher and higher toward the starburst pinnacle of sensation. Constrained by Applejack, she still expanded, still spiraled upward, infinite light and heat boiling up within her until—until—

She screamed, bellowed, everything within her pumping forth in sheer ecstasy, the universe shattering into confetti like all of Pinkie's party cannons going off at once. Minutes, hours, days it seemed to last, Applejack quaking above and around her, Fluttershy never wanting it to end, never wanting anything but this to happen to her ever, ever, ever again.

The torrent, though, became a rush at some point, became a stream, became a trickle, and she found herself floating along, still on her back, Applejack sprawled partly over her and partly over the blankets, her snout gently nuzzling Fluttershy's ear and murmuring in that extra husky voice: "Love, love, love, love, love..."

Fluttershy took a breath, relaxation like a warm bath around her, and immediately gasped in alarm. "Oh, dear! I hope my shrieking didn't wake your aunt and uncle."

"Shrieks?" Applejack's chuckles shook her. "You squeaked a mite into my shoulder, honeycomb, but other'n that..."

Blinking, Fluttershy looked over—

And saw tears in Applejack's shimmering eyes, something that wasn't quite a smile and wasn't quite a frown wavering on her face. "Applejack? Are you OK? I...I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Sniffling, Applejack reached out, stroked a hoof so softly through Fluttershy's mane that she could barely feel it. "I don't wanna say."

Alarm shocked her sideways, Fluttershy leaping into a hover. "Oh! I did! I'm so, so sorry! I'll get Cloves to call a doctor and—"

"No, honeycomb!" The smile part of Applejack's odd mixed expression got bigger, Applejack reaching up, taking Fluttershy's hoofs in her own, and pulling her back onto the bed. "It ain't nothing like that. It's just—"

The frown surged over her, and with a growl, Applejack rolled onto the floor, her anger spiking so sharply, Fluttershy could smell it. "Applejack?" she managed to ask.

"You're a miracle, d'you know that??" Applejack choked out, and her voice was another mixture, both sad and angry, Fluttershy thought. "I mean, I had the greatest life I could ever imagine, family and friends and work that I loved! And then you showed me your real self and...and ev'rything got better! Five hunderd thousand and fifty times better! More'n that! Just...a miracle! You! A miracle!"

Fluttershy couldn't breathe, her love for Applejack warring with a sudden fear for her. "And then!" Snorting, Applejack stomped a hoof and tossed her head, her loose hair puffing like a fireball. "Don't know as how I've ever rightly met a pony I'd call evil, but by thunder and mercy, that monster we met last night, she's all that and more! Thinking 'bout you growing up with that for your mother and still turning out who you are, I just—!"

Whirling, Applejack dropped kneeling to the floor beside the bed, her hoofs reaching up to clasp Fluttershy's. "I meant ev'ry word I said about keeping you away from her, and I swear to you on my life, my love, and my honor: if she so much as sets a hoof within ten miles of Ponyville, I will stomp her so hard, she ain't never getting up again! As long as I has breath in my body, that mare will not be coming near you!"

Sliding from the bed, Fluttershy threw her front legs around Applejack's neck, buried her face in that powerful chest, and drawing on her marefriend's strength, she said, "Don't let her do that to you, Applejack; please don't! It...it's one of her games, you see, the way she always pretends like she's the heroine of some overblown movie, or one of those novels where everypony's always shouting at everypony else." Moving her hoofs to Applejack's chest, she straightened so she could look directly into those wide green eyes. "Believe me: if you don't ignore her, she'll worm right into your brain and make you as crazy as she is. Just...let her go. That's all you can do. Let her go. Promise me."

Applejack blinked. "Honeycomb, I—"

"Promise." Fluttershy heard the hardness come into her voice, could feel that cold lump forming in the middle of her head, and while she couldn't really control the Stare, she knew the early warning signs of it all too well. And while most of her coping strategies involved running and hiding before the power could burst out of her, this time she couldn't turn away, had to make Applejack understand how important this was to her. Without, she hoped, zapping her with this other horrible legacy she'd inherited from her parents....

Forcing her breathing to slow, she tried to grasp for that pool of calm she'd felt lying in Applejack's embrace just a few minutes ago. "Please, Applejack. Promise me you'll never hit Mom or Silver Burr or my dad no matter what they do. Please."

A sort of shifty look came into Applejack's eyes, but Fluttershy was pretty sure she knew what that meant. "And no asking Big Macintosh or anypony else to hit them, either."

Lips pursing, Applejack puffed a breath through her nostrils. "Fine. No hitting, no kicking, no stomping their sorry faces, or nothing else like that."

The lump in her head melted away, and Fluttershy leaned into Applejack, rested her head on her shoulder. "I love you."

Applejack chuckled, the tension Fluttershy could feel in her muscles starting to smooth away. "And I love you. Even if you do got me wrapped around your pinfeathers..."

They took separate showers again—AJ was near to certain Aunt and Uncle didn't have a problem with her and Fluttershy being together, but after meeting Carnation and Silver Burr yesterday, she didn't mind at all keeping things a mite discreet. And it let her indulge in something she realized she'd never done before, the warm water running over her as she fantasized about what it'd be like when her and Fluttershy could finally be together in the big tub back home, soaping each other up and—

And she didn't have all morning. Humming the spell to keep her lacinia closed, she dried herself, waited for Fluttershy to finish combing her mane, then led the way downstairs.

They exchanged good mornings with Aunt Orange and Cousin Tangelo while Cloves set out two more bowls of oatmeal and a fresh plate of hash browns. "Cinnamon toast?" he asked.

Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically, so Applejack shrugged. "What the hay. We're on vacation, right?"

"Indeed?" Tangelo cocked his head. "Might one hope, then, that last night's meeting went better than expected?"

Judging by the way Tangelo's ears fell, Applejack figured the hot bubbles of anger that started boiling up inside her must've shown on her face. "Not so much, I take it?" he asked.

It still wasn't anything Applejack could talk about without wanting to break things, so she just shook her head. But— "Actually," Fluttershy murmured, surprising Applejack and making her look over, the pegasus sprinkling raisins on her oatmeal. "It was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. She doesn't ever want to see me again, and as terrible as it is to say, I...I think I'd be OK with that..."

"Oh, my dear." Aunt Orange reached a hoof across the table to touch Fluttershy's. "Well, now that you're with Jackie, you must think of us as your aunts and uncles and cousins; you simply must." She gave a quick nod, and Applejack's heart almost burst right through her ribs.

"I—" Fluttershy was blushing, but her smile shone like the first, sweet light of dawn. "I'd like that. Thank you."

Aunt Orange nodded again, and Cloves came in with their toast. Applejack dug in to her oatmeal, ev'rything so nice and warm and pleasant that she got another surprise when Fluttershy kept talking. "And, well, I don't want to be a bother, but Applejack thought that you or some of the others might be able to help me find my father."

AJ's oatmeal tried to go down the wrong pipe; she had to do some coughing while Tangelo arched an eyebrow at Fluttershy. "Did she, now?" He aimed the eyebrow at Applejack. "And why in Equestria would she think that?"

"Well, Dad's kind of famous. His name is Bolide, and he—"

"Bolide??" Tangelo did some coughing of his own. "The saucier?? He's your father??"

Finally able to breathe, Applejack asked, "You know him?"

"Who doesn't?" Dabbing his muzzle with a napkin, Tangelo looked genuinely distressed. "He was in the paper again not more than a week ago! A huge contretemps with Haute Cuisine when she wanted to put some new items on the menu at her restaurant; I mean, she had to call in the police! She fired him as she always does, but this time, she insists she'll never again let him into any of her kitchens." He shook his head. "Fluttershy, you have my sympathies."

Fluttershy gave about half a shrug, but it was all Applejack could do to keep from giving a stomp. "Then he's left town? You're sure?"

"Excuse me, but I don't recall saying he'd left town." Tangelo gave her a half-lidded glare. "He's been renting a suite for more than a year at the Carriage House on Park Avenue, and I've heard from several unimpeachable sources that he's taken up a permanent stool in their downstairs bar, muttering over and over about how it's just a matter of time before some other restaurant makes him an offer."

"It's true." Fluttershy sighed. "He was always getting fired when we were in Cloudsdale, but everypony was so convinced that he was the best saucier in town that, well, he just cycled from restaurant to restaurant." She blinked at Cousin Tangelo. "But a week, you said? That's a long time for him. I don't remember him ever being without a station for more than a couple days..."

Applejack tapped the table. "All right. We'll head over to the Carriage House, try to catch him before he gets too salted up, and—"

A crash from the hallway—the front door busting open, it sounded like. Hoofs clattered on the tile, Cloves appearing at the kitchen door with an alarmed look on his face, and a panicked voice shouted, "Cousin Jackie!" from the front room. AJ leaped to her hoofs just as her cousin Minneola pushed panting into the dining room. "Oh! Thank Celestia!"

Cloves cleared his throat. "Miss Minneola, madame, and her roommate Miss Silk Screen as well, I believe."

Sure enough, the light-gray unicorn with the mesh pattern cutie mark came tumbling in behind Minnie. "They're still here??" Silk Screen looked around with big amber eyes. "Yes!"

Fluttershy had gone all white around the eyes, so Applejack stepped over, reached up to adjust her hat only to discover she wasn't wearing it, then scowled and said in her best 'take charge' voice, "All right, now. Let's just simmer down, and you can tell us what'cha need from—"

"We need you guys!" Minnie was about a year younger than Applejack, her coat a lighter orange, her mane more honey colored, and her cutie mark a swoosh of red like she'd run smack into a paintbrush. She spun, planted a quick peck on Aunt Orange's cheek—"Morning, Auntie! Shut up, Tangelo!"—then whirled back to Applejack. "Today's our life drawing class at ManeArts, and our model had to cancel!" A blush darkened her face. "Silky kind of maybe blurted out completely by accident that Fluttershy was staying here, and Professor Vellum said—!"

"Extra credit!" Silk Screen pushed past Minneola and dropped to her knees on the dining room carpet, her gaze fixed on Fluttershy like a mare fresh off the desert eyeing a jug of cider. "Please! You gotta! 'Cause life drawing's just not my thing, but if I don't pass, I can't get into any of the classes I really want next semester!"

"Silky!" Minnie slid forward, shoving her shoulder so hard into Silk Screen's, the unicorn toppled right over. "Will you—!" She took a breath, and Applejack could just about smell the young mare trying to get herself under control. "I'm really sorry about this, Fluttershy. I know you don't like being in the spotlight, and I totally wouldn't blame you if you said 'no.'"

"What??" Silk Screen scrambled to her hoofs, but Minnie body-checked her back onto the floor.

"Thing is—" Minnie took another breath, and the glint that came into her eyes was something Applejack had only ever seen from Rarity. "It would be, like, such a privilege to be able to draw you, I just...I can't even tell you how much I'd—" She clapped a hoof over her mouth. "OK," she mumbled. "Gonna stop talking now."

Applejack blinked, looked back at Fluttershy, and met her wide-eyed gaze looking back. "Draw me? What...what does that mean?"

Silk Screen bounced up again. "It's so completely simple! You just stand there and—"

"No, no." Minneola still had that look in her eye. "You'd lie there all comfortable and relaxed like you're all on your own out in the woods somewhere, and we'd just sit there quietly with our easels or our pads or whatever and...and draw you. You wouldn't hafta look at us—I mean, it'd be even better if you didn't—and...and I can already see exactly the pattern of light and shadow I wanna do with your wings...." She shivered, stopped, and cleared her throat. "I mean, y'know, if you wouldn't mind."

AJ had to laugh, hearing somepony else use that phrase on Fluttershy, and she was glad when Fluttershy giggled, too. Wishing again that she had her hat on so she could push the brim back, she instead crossed one front hoof over the other and planted the tip in the carpet. "Reckon we can call on your dad later, but it's up to you, honeycomb."

"I..." Fluttershy smiled and rose gracefully to her hoofs. "I'll be happy to help."

"Yes!" Silk Screen leaped into the air with a hoof pump. "C+, here I come!"

Turned out, though, that the class didn't start till eleven o'clock, so Aunt Orange got the gals to settle down and have some breakfast while Cloves called for a cab. It gave AJ time to get her hat and bag from upstairs, but, well, it also gave Fluttershy time to get nervous, AJ inching close to stroke her side against Fluttershy's shivering wings. And when Cloves stepped in to announce the cab's arrival, Fluttershy startled so high, she near to smacked the ceiling. "But...what should I wear?" she squeaked.

"Nothing." Minneola smiled. "That's kinda what life drawing means, y'see..."

Tangelo sighed extravagantly and wished aloud that he didn't have an appointment with a client so he could attend—he did some sorta lawyering, AJ seemed to recall. Aunt Orange wished them well, and Silk Screen bounded down the steps, Minnie following a mite more sedately while Applejack gently prodded Fluttershy after them.

The cab ride went right through the heart of downtown, so Applejack started asking questions she already knew the answers to 'bout the fancy buildings they was passing. As she'd figured, Minnie and Silk Screen were natural-born tour guides, and the cabbie chimed in with some stories, too. So together, they managed to distract Fluttershy the whole way, even getting more'n a few smiles from her till the cab pulled up alongside the west side of Manehattan's Central Park, the Art Institute's buildings standing tall among the trees, a clock somewhere starting to strike eleven.

Applejack paid the cabbie and stuck with Fluttershy, the gals rushing ahead to a low building where an older unicorn with little square glasses, a pointy beard, and a tweed jacket was pacing, a sour look on his face. "Professor Vellum!" Minnie shouted, and he looked up.

"Miss Orange!" he snapped. "Eleven o'clock, I said!"

"Clock's still chiming, sir!" Silk Screen waved a hoof frantically. "So technically, we're on time!"

Squinting, the professor adjusted his glasses, and Applejack couldn't stop a grin at the change that came over his face when his gaze lit on the two of them coming along. "Miss Fluttershy!" he said, his voice suddenly as sweet as maple syrup. "I can't tell you what an honor it is to have you here!"

Fluttershy blushed, but Applejack could tell it was wunna her happy blushes. "Thank you. I'm sorry we're almost late."

"Oh, not at all, not at all!" His horn flared, and the door behind him swung open. "In fact, I may have mentioned to a few of my colleagues that we were expecting you to model for us, and, well, more than one of them asked me to stall the session till they could find somepony to cover their classes..."

They were moving down a hallway by then, and the professor's magic pushed another door open, quite a tangle of voices washing out. Minneola and Silk Screen scooted through, but Fluttershy froze, her tail frizzing out behind her. AJ leaned over, whispered as warm and soft as she could, "It'll be OK, honeycomb. We're just helping Cousin Minnie and her friend, remember?"

Blinking, Fluttershy gave one of her loud swallows. "Yes. Helping. That's...that's a good thing to do."

The professor stood by the door looking concerned, but Applejack showed him her biggest grin. "Where d'you want us, Teach?"

"Just in here." He gestured, and Applejack peered through the doorway into a large, low room, the walls, floor and ceiling painted black. To her left, black curtains hung down to frame a raised area with a pile of pillows, a few lights shining on them to make it look like a little stage. And to her right—

Ponies of ev'ry shape, size, and variety filled the room, some about Minnie's age, but some as old or older'n the professor, she guessed, all of 'em with easels or pads of paper, pencils or brushes gripped in mouths or pasterns or hovering in varyingly-colored clouds of magic.

There didn't seem to be quite enough space for 'em all, and Professor Vellum's scowl made her think he'd noticed, too. "Excuse me a moment," he murmured, then he stepped out in front of the little stage. "Good morning," he called, and the buzz of voices slowly dropped. "I'm glad so many of you could join us for this special occasion, but I must remind my colleagues that this is a session of Life Drawing 101. And as such, actual students enrolled in the class will be given priority when it comes to positioning themselves once our guest has taken her pose. Faculty members, I'll ask you to be kind and give way should a student ask." He turned and beckoned.

Fluttershy, of course, didn't move, so AJ sidled up beside her. "It'll be all right, honeycomb," she muttered.

"Yes." Fluttershy shook herself and advanced timidly toward the beaming Professor Vellum, Applejack sticking as close to her as she could.

"Miss Fluttershy," the professor was saying, "has taken time out of her busy schedule to assist us this morning, and ManeArts thanks her as well as Miss Orange and Miss Screen for making this wonderful opportunity possible." His gaze flicked over to AJ's, and he smiled. "Those of you who follow the news will also know Miss Applejack from the stalwart service the Elements of Harmony have provided to all of Equestria, and we thank her as well for her presence here today."

A smattering of applause rose from the assembled ponies, and Applejack felt her own face heat up to match the blush spreading across Fluttershy. Professor Vellum then motioned to the pillows. "If you would, Miss Fluttershy?"

"Thank you," Fluttershy said so softly, AJ was pretty sure nopony but her heard it. Fluttershy cleared her throat and asked just a mite louder, "How do I—? Or where—? Or what should I...do?"

The professor must've made out at least some of that. "In whatever way you're comfortable, my dear."

"Ummm..." Fluttershy touched a front hoof to the pillows like a cat touching a paw to wet grass. "I...I don't know." She glanced back over her shoulder at the room full of ponies, and Applejack was sure her pale yellow hide got even paler. "I...I—"

"Professor?" Minneola hopped onto the stage. "If I might?" She moved to AJ's side, started crowding her back behind one of the black curtains. "Jackie, let's put you...right here, OK?" She tapped a part of the floor. "You need a pillow or anything?"

AJ frowned at her cousin, then shrugged and sat. "Don't reckon so."

"Great!" Minnie grinned and moved back to the pile of pillows a couple yards away. "And Fluttershy, we'll put you right up here facing Applejack like you're...like you're out in one of her orchards, see? Just sitting in the sun and talking." Minnie was kicking the pillows around to form a little hill. "Up on top here."

Fluttershy blinked at Minnie, but when she climbed up and nestled in facing Applejack, her left side to the audience, a little murmur of what sounded to Applejack like appreciation rustled through the crowd. "Oh, yeah," Minnie more sighed than said. "And your wings, just...just open 'em out, relaxed and loose and gentle over the ground, OK?"

Not looking away from Applejack, Fluttershy flared her wings and let them drape down across her sides as delicate as dandelion fluff, and Applejack added a little murmur of her own to the one that gusted around the rest of the room. How in the wide, wide world of Equestria had she not gotten 'round to nuzzling them gorgeous feathers yet?

"Very nice," she heard the professor say quietly. "Full marks, Miss Orange." He raised his voice. "If you're quite comfortable, Miss Fluttershy?"

Applejack cocked her head at her marefriend, and Fluttershy nodded to her, a sweet little smile on her face. "I am, thank you," she said just loud enough, AJ reckoned, for the professor to hear.

"Thank you." Professor Vellum had moved to take a place among the other artists, a big pad of paper and some sorta really thick pencil hovering in the glow of his horn. "One hour, please, class. Shall we begin?"

What drifted over the room then wasn't quite silence, not with three or four dozen ponies breathing and shifting and scratching away on their papers or their canvases or whatever they were using. Applejack hadn't never heard nothing like it before, this concentrated and busy sort of quiet, ev'rypony working alone but in a group, too, the students leaning over to see what the professors were doing and the professors pointing to the student's pages with their own pencils and murmuring words too low for Applejack to hear from her place off to the side of the stage.

Another thing it wasn't was boring, strange to say. Sitting there, watching all these folks watch Fluttershy while Fluttershy kept her eyes firmly on her, Applejack had too many feelings running through her to be bored: proud of Fluttershy; glad to be helping her cousin; and weirdest of all, whatever the exact opposite of jealous was. 'Cause for all the looking them other ponies was doing, nunna them was going home with Fluttershy when this day was over.

The hour ticked by, and with ev'ry smile and wink she and Fluttershy traded across the gap separating them, Applejack got more and more amazed at the transformation she was seeing in her marefriend. Not that Fluttershy really changed on her pile of pillows under them big lights, but she somehow became airier, more like she was floating all on her own out there, and also more solid, the delicate curve of her neck strengthening without her moving a hair.

How a pony could get more ethereal and more like a statue at the same time, Applejack couldn't quite figure. "Regal" was the word that came to her, and as much as it made AJ grind her teeth, she couldn't help remembering what Carnation had said last night about Fluttershy being a feather shed from Celestia's wings. Like she came from a different place than ev'rything else around her...

A solitary sigh, and Professor Vellum's pad of paper folded closed, the light of his magic winking out. "As much as I hate to say it, class," he said, "that's the hour."

The whole group seemed to sigh, then, and Applejack rose, stretched, took the couple of steps that brought her to the pile of pillows, and nuzzled Fluttershy, still settled there as serene as a daisy in a field. "How you doing, honeycomb?"

"Oh, Applejack!" Fluttershy gave her an actual kiss, startling AJ almost as much as the joy in her voice. "It was wonderful!" She leaped up, spun in the air, and lit on the edge of the raised area facing the rest of the room, the artists all packing up their supplies. "Thank you all so, so much! Posing for those photographers was always so loud and hectic and horrible, but this! This was—" She shivered, her eyes rolling closed, her smile just plain radiant. "Exquisite," she finished, and AJ almost cheered to hear her usually tongue-tied friend come out with what was no doubt the exact word for what she was feeling.

The ponies filing out of the room were all smiling, more than a few looking a little dazed but most with that determined expression AJ knew from seeing Rarity about to jump into an all-night session. "OK," Applejack heard Silk Screen saying from among the several ponies gathering in front of Fluttershy. "I think maybe I see what the point of life drawing is now..."

That got a few chuckles from the group, and Applejack moved to Fluttershy's side as Professor Vellum came up. "Then I would say Miss Fluttershy has accomplished the impossible today." He gave Fluttershy a bow. "And any time you're in town, Miss Fluttershy, we'd be more than happy to have you visit again."

"Yes," said an older mare behind him, her graying red mane tied back in a bun. "I would love to have you pose for my graduate seminar if you've ever a mind to."

"Or to the better!" A pegasus pony with a fly-away mane, a sharp, waxed moustache, and some accent AJ didn't recognize slapped a torn piece of thick paper down on the lip of the stage. "Come sit for me, and I will make of you an artwork to last the ages! You!" The pegasus, ev'ry part of him some shade of brown, aimed a hoof at Applejack. "Make the arrangements, and Equestria will be thanking you!" He flung a pack over his back and stalked out of the room.

Scooping up the paper, AJ saw the words Burnt Umber and an address on Manehattan's Upper East Side scrawled there. She blinked at it, then looked up to see astonishment on the faces of the other ponies still in the room. "Whoa," Cousin Minneola said, staring after the pegasus. "That...that was Burnt Umber...." She whirled on Fluttershy. "Burnt Umber just asked you to pose for him!"

Silk Screen's magic tugged at Minnie's mane. "And we've gotta get lunch, then over to Art History."

"Eeep!" Minnie grabbed her own pack and slid into it. "See you later, guys! And thanks!"

The professors all said thanks and invited them both to lunch, an offer AJ wouldn't've minded taking up. But Fluttershy spoke quicker: "Oh, thank you all so much, but right now, I...that is, the business we're in town for, we...we've really got to be getting over to the Carriage House and...and maybe a few other stops..."

And with that, she was making for the door. AJ tucked Burnt Umber's card into her pack and followed. "Honeycomb?" she asked, catching up with Fluttershy in the hall. "We in that much of a hurry?"

"All those ponies." Fluttershy's gaze was fixed on the floor in front of her. "They...they wanted to spend an hour just...just being in the same room with me."

Pretty sure she wasn't following Fluttershy's train of thought, AJ bumped her with her shoulder. "Well, folks like that, stands to reason they'd wanna spend time with the most beautiful mare in Equestria, don't it?"

Fluttershy leaped forward, pushed open the door they'd come through earlier, and hovered in the spring noontime sunlight just outside the building. "But then...either they're right about me, or...or Mom is." Her wings faltered, and she dropped the couple inches to the little concrete pathway. "But if Mom was right, those ponies in there would've seen it! They're artists! It's their job to see! They would've known that I was cursed and monstrous, and they wouldn't've wanted anything to do with me!"

"So,..." Applejack tried to parse out Fluttershy's point. "Since they didn't see that?"

"It means Mom's been wrong all this time!" Elation burst over Fluttershy's face like the first apple blossom of spring, but it faded quickly to her more usual slightly worried look. "And it means I can't...just...let her go, can't forget about her and Burr and Dad. I...I've got to get them back!"

The revelation had come over Fluttershy slowly during that whole, wonderful hour. She'd started out so very, very nervous about the whole thing, but after Minneola had set everything up so she could just concentrate on Applejack, well, that made everything so much easier.

As the time had gone by, though, she'd come to realize that she wasn't feeling those dozens and dozens of eyes on her the way she always had during photo shoots or on the runway during her modeling days. Back then, it had been relentless: the photographers, the fashionistas, their assistants, everypony in the world, she'd sometimes thought. The only way she'd survived was by convincing herself they were just interested in what she was wearing, but she'd quickly come to see that the clothes got attention mostly because she was wearing them. She was horribly at the center; everything revolved around her.

But in that quiet room filled with strangers just now, while she could feel them looking, they weren't really looking at her. They were looking at the space around her, at the way light and shadow played over her, at the shapes that came together to form her. And it was incredible, like she was a rock or a tree or a bed of flowers, something to be contemplated instead of something to be gawked at, like—

Like the way Applejack looked at her. These artists, they were seeing her just as truly—maybe even more truly—than the pony who had finally shown her what love meant. And if they weren't recoiling in horror...

"All right, now," Applejack was saying, a little squint creasing her forehead in the sunlight. "I want'cha to stop and think about what you're saying."

But Fluttershy knew that would be a mistake, knew she could talk herself out of anything if she gave herself enough time. "There has to be a way, a way to—" Not 'win them over' or even 'get them back' like she'd said a minute ago. "A way so they'll see what those artists did, a way so..." Her voice faltered, but she had to get the words out, had to say them to make them real. "So they won't hate me anymore..."

"Oh, honeycomb." Applejack's sweet, strong flank touched hers, and Fluttershy leaned into her. "What was it you said about your ma? That she'll worm into your brain and make you crazy? Sometimes, there ain't nothing you can do."

"I—" And for all the times in her life that she'd gone back and forth on this point, Fluttershy felt that maybe she'd finally made up her mind. "I've got to try."

Applejack sighed. "Whatever you decide, I'll be right there beside you." She nudged Fluttershy with her shoulder, then stepped away. "Now, how 'bout we head over to the Carriage House, see whether we can't find your dad and maybe get us some lunch."

Glad to have a plan, Fluttershy strolled with Applejack through the park, amazed at how odd the place felt. She was used to the two sorts of landscape around Ponyville—the wild and the controlled—but here, the grass and trees seemed more like sculptures than anything else, not even as much wildness in them as the tomatoes she grew in her garden. It gave the place a lovely air of safety and security, but for once in her life, Fluttershy wasn't sure she liked that.

They followed a winding path around a lake she could tell was pony-made and came out on the south side of the park, a crosswalk here leading over to the Carriage House, the biggest, fanciest hotel Fluttershy had ever seen, outside and inside; the lobby had a lovely trickling fountain, the carpets so marvelous against her hoofs that she almost wished she could be Pinkie Pie for a moment and roll around in them without feeling embarrassed. The desk clerk pointed them to the other end of the lobby for the downstairs bar, and stepping in behind Applejack, she was pleased to see that it was much more a restaurant than the sort of rough-and-tumble bar she always thought of whenever she heard the word.

"Table for two?" the young mare at the kiosk inside the door asked.

Applejack shook her head. "We're looking for Bolide, actually."

The young mare's ears fell. "Are...are you sure?"

Fluttershy nodded, and the mare directed them to go straight through to the back wall, then follow it around to the actual bar, a curving counter of wood and brass, Fluttershy saw when she and Applejack made their way through the laughing, chattering lunchtime crowd at their tables and into a large dark alcove that seemed separate from the rest of the restaurant. The one pony in the place sat upright on the farthest stool, and even though he was heavier than she remembered—puffier, at any rate—that off-white hide, sandy-brown mane, and fireball cutie mark were unmistakable.

Swallowing, she started in, heard Applejack's muffled hoof falls behind her, and somehow managed not to stumble all the way along to where he sat, a bowl of pretzels at one elbow, a bowl of potato chips at the other, a glass of something amber-colored and foul-smelling on the countertop between them.

She wasn't sure he'd noticed them, but just as she reached him, he turned, gave a leer so greasy Fluttershy could almost hear it sliding across his face, and said in that rough voice, "Well, now. What can I do for you two fine young fillies?"

All she could think of to say was, "Hi, Dad."

His whole body flinched, his leer twisting into a grimace. He squinted at her a moment, then looked away to focus on his glass. "And that just makes it a perfect week, doesn't it?"

"Dad,—"

"Though I've gotta admit..." He stuck his head into the potato chip bowl, came up chewing, grabbed his glass, and took a swig of whatever it was. "That it's you coming to look up your ol' dad, Flutsy, insteada that mousey brother of yours just shows which wunna you got the balls, right?"

Struggling to hold onto the resolve she'd felt back at the Art Institute, Fluttershy tried to open her mouth, tried to say something—anything!—other than the I'm sorry that came immediately to the tip of her tongue.

But nothing at all came out, Dad's leer back. "Well? Am I right? Or am I right?"

A laugh burst out behind Fluttershy, and she couldn't help jumping, Applejack squeezing past her to settle on the stool next to Dad. "Well, now, Mr. Bolide! Flutsy didn't tell me you was such a jokester!" She stuck out a hoof, her regular accent thicker than Fluttershy had ever heard it. "Applejack's the name, and this here daughter of yours is my game!" She winked at him. "And I mean 'daughter,'"—she made air quotes with her hoofs—"if'n you know what I mean. And I reckon you do."

Fluttershy couldn't gasp because she couldn't get her lungs to suck in any air. Dad was staring at Applejack like she'd sprouted wings and a beak, but he said, "You've got ten seconds, hayseed, to tell me why I shouldn't kick you out into the—"

Applejack pounded the bar. "Hey, saloon keeper! Let's get a bottle of Bob Tail's out here! I'm meeting my feeancy's papa, ain't I?"

"Bob Tail's?" Dad's narrow eyes opened a bit. "They drink good stuff like that out in Hicksville?"

"Mr. Bolide?" Applejack pushed her hat back, and Fluttershy gaped. She somehow looked like a completely different pony! "Bob Tail hisself was my gran-pappy's second cousin on his mama's side." She nudged him with an elbow. "And the name they guv me, well, I reckon I got the stuff running through more'n half my veins."

A slightly-frowning unicorn came out from a door behind the bar with a bottle floating in front of him. "Mr. Bolide," he said, and the frown was in his voice, too. "The management has asked me once again to remind you that you have reached the credit limit for—"

"Credit??" Making a rude noise with her lips, Applejack reached into her bag and tossed more coins onto the bar than Fluttershy saw in a month. "Cash on the barrelhead if'n you know what I mean." She nudged Dad again. "And I reckon you do."

Dad grinned, pushed the pretzel bowl toward Applejack, and...and it just got worse from there. Dad and Applejack poured drink after drink from the bottle—they weren't even very big drinks, the glasses shorter than Fluttershy's front hoof, she was sure—and got to talking and laughing louder and louder. She wanted to fold up, wanted to hide, wanted to be anywhere in Equestria other than on this stool beside the two of them. Ponies from the restaurant were even turning glares and folded ears at them!

What was Applejack doing? This wasn't like her at all! It made Fluttershy remember those days when she was growing up and Dad would be between stations and he and Mom would both be home all day and she would dread coming home from school not knowing if she'd find them dancing or screaming or—

"Saloon keeper!" Applejack yelled, her voice as sloppy as Dad's. "'Nother bottle!"

"AJ?" Dad threw a front leg around Applejack's shoulders. "You're OK! Better'n this wimpy little daughter or son or whatever of mine deserves!"

Cold anger flashed in Applejack's eyes, but it was gone almost instantly, Applejack pounding the bar and laughing along with Dad. But Fluttershy knew she'd seen it, and she got less scared but more nervous. Was...was Applejack pretending?

The unicorn bartender came out, his frown even sharper than before. "Mr. Bolide, if you and your guests wish to continue your...luncheon, we will happily have whatever you require sent up to your room."

Dad blinked at the bartender, but Applejack's expression got just plain mean. "You kicking us out??" she demanded.

"Hey!" Dad leaned unsteadily forward. "I been paying for this place since I got to town! I got more invested in this hotel here'n you do, buster!"

"You tell 'im, Bo!" Applejack had slid off the stool, nothing even a little drunk about her suddenly.

"That's right!" Dad dug one front hoof into the front of the unicorn's fancy shirt and was cocking the other one back, his teeth all gritted and his voice as awful as it had ever been. "Maybe you needa reminder 'bout who's always right, huh??" He swung for the unicorn, Fluttershy gasping and trying to leap forward—

But Applejack had grabbed her, was holding her back, the unicorn's horn flaring, a ball of white light exploding across Dad's face. It spun him around and tumbled him to the floor; he bounced a little when he hit the carpet, then he lay there with his eyes closed and his mouth open, snores rattling up from him.

The unicorn turned his unhappy look to Fluttershy, sparks still popping from his horn. "You gonna need summa this, too?"

"No, sir," Applejack's Manehattan voice said behind her. "In fact, I'm obliged to you for smacking him down and letting me keep a promise I made to my marefriend here." Fluttershy turned, saw Applejack moving to Dad's side, one of Twilight's sticks gripped in her teeth.

"Hey," the unicorn said. "Whaddaya think you're—?"

"Now, now." Applejack knelt, swabbed around inside Dad's open mouth. "This little ruckus will get plenty of play in the papers already." She bit the stick, and the little spot of purple fire sprang up around the end. "Do you truly want to drag Fluttershy's name into it as well?"

"Fluttershy?" The confusion in the unicorn's voice made Fluttershy turn to look at him, and the way his eyes went wide with shock made her realize he'd just recognized her.

"Indeed." A light hoof touched Fluttershy's shoulder, and Applejack leaned past her to grin at the bartender. "For if she and I get dragged into this, that then involves the princesses and the Elements of Harmony and...well, I think you can see how it will all be so much simpler if it's just you having to pop a guest who's already well-known for being unruly." She cocked her head. "Agreed?"

The unicorn didn't look any happier, but he gave a tight little nod.

"Then, honeycomb?" Applejack's hoof gave Fluttershy's shoulder a gentle push; Fluttershy had just enough presence of mind to put her hoofs out and land on them as she settled to the floor, Applejack's real regular voice saying, "Let's get ourselves gone afore I can't stop giving that papa of yours a kick anyway."