Chapter 15: Killing Shyness

The best nights of sleep are when you performed something enormously strenuous or energy consuming the previous night/day… you know, the kind where once you get to bed, you're out before you even hit the pillow. That's how it was for the whole odd group of girls plus one guy. However, morning took the hold of sleep gracefully away from the Royal Guard against his will. Years in the military most likely altered his biological clock permanently. Helmuth slowly opened his eyes and rubbed the painful remnants of sleep from them, debating if he was beyond that point of being 'too comfortable' to get up.

Deciding he might as well get an early start on the day, he sat up and dragged his legs over the side of the bed; being careful of his movements as to not wake Luna up in the other bed. Although from his experience, she slept like a fucking rock. She slept through an invasion… bitch likes her sleep. Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he stood up gingerly and stretched his uncovered torso out, wincing in light pain as per the remnant bruises from last night's brawl. Getting that over with, he decided to go into the main room to see if anyone else was up at this odd hour of seven in the morning. Like he expected, there was no one to be seen and all the other doors leading to the bedrooms were closed. However, one thing that caught his eye was an out of place piece of paper on the coffee table. It was a handwritten note:

At the gym, in case someone wakes up and doesn't find me.

Will return when finished… if that's alright.

-Shy

He contemplated this note for a bit. He was still groggy, and there really wasn't much of a better substitute for an early morning workout. Maybe he'd be able to catch Fluttershy there. To be completely honest, Helm never took Fluttershy to be one to visit the gym often (and we know that she does), but then again he never took her for the type to completely lay out numerous full grown men as he witnessed the night before. He guessed that made her more attractive. No matter, he'd see if he could meet up with her and occupy his time before everyone inevitably woke up. He dressed himself appropriately and headed to the top floor.

He opened the door to the large and expansive gym that he had visited the day before, albeit with a certain prismatic haired-girl that time. Now, he was trying to search the expansive yet empty gym for the certain pink-haired beauty that he had little opportunity to talk to recently. He didn't expect to see many, if any people here this early. Few have the willpower to get up merely to exercise. At first, there was no sign of Fluttershy in any of the main gym areas, even the track. It didn't take long for Helm to look into one of the Training Zone rooms and find his target. He quietly entered as to not disturb her.

Fluttershy had all her focus on the heavy bag hanging in front of her as she was panting; her eyes showing an insurmountable amount of stoic determination and cool-headedness… aside from the sweating. She had donned a more modest but form fitting sports top with appropriate elastic pants, on top of the black padded, fingerless gloves which covered her hands. He also noticed that her golden-aura wings were splayed out from her back… he had never seen that before in a fighting flight-adept, especially those that were in the guard… after all, the wings could be a grave weak point in battle. Before Helmuth could even make his presence known, Fluttershy struck the bag with force that even surprised him. She continued the flurry of punches, knees, elbows, and several other combinations with not perfect, but good finesse, letting out a grunt of exertion after each strike. Helmuth was noting that when she rapidly switched her position, Fluttershy would beat her wings once or twice with great force, allowing her to dash to the side rather quickly on her legs.

He had to admit, she looked absolutely stunning. However, Helmuth was quite surprised at her technique, especially at the certain combinations of combative strikes.

These are 'Equus Regala' military target combinations… Luna has taught her well.

He thought to himself before he decided to introduce his presence, hoping not to frighten her too much. Helm felt that there would be little way out of that stipulation.

"Good morning!" he said cheerfully, but not overtly loud. Nevertheless, Fluttershy's body straightened out instantly with an audible 'eep!' followed by an adrenaline filled punch to the bag that shook it to its very stand. Fluttershy was panting heavily following the exertion and the startle when she turned around to meet her visitor.

"H-Helmuth?" She asked through her breaths, genuinely surprised to see him. She wiped the light layer of sweat off of her brow and eyes before turning to face him in full. He only nodded and smiled. He was quite awestricken with Fluttershy's unkempt form though. Seriously, there is something strangely attractive about girls working out. Especially one who sported natural definitive curves.

"I didn't expect anyone else to get up that early," she mused out loud.

"Well, years in the Guard has me waking up around this time whether I like it or not. The question is, how long have you been here?" he asked while walking towards her. Fluttershy thought for a moment.

"Well, I woke up at around six and came straight here."

"I guess you didn't have enough of the brawl last night," Helm playfully quipped. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at that comment and pushed him back playfully as well.

"Either way, I see you're pretty proficient in Equus Regala. Luna has been training you well, so it seems," he commented. Fluttershy colored a bit at the compliment to her technique.

"You-You really think so?" she asked for reassurance. She hadn't stammered in quite a long time with her speech.

Gettin' real tired of your shit, meekness.

"Indeed! Not perfect, but for one who has been learning for only a few months… well it seems you've got the gist of it," Helm replied. Fluttershy smiled once more before averting her gaze a bit. A silence evolved between the two of them, but he was quick to break it.

"So… umm, do you mind if I join you?"

"NO! *ahem* of course not! You can stay here if you want. I really don't mind," Fluttershy said, quickly correcting her overly excited response. He nodded in response with a smirk.

"Very well then. Wanna spar? I could also teach you a few things as well… that is if you want me to," he asked, letting his own shyness appear now.

"Umm, Sure!" Fluttershy responded, giving a smile back in return and more than happy to be able to spend time with him… alone nonetheless. With that, they moved to a more open area of the Training Zone, strapped some essential padding and mouth guards on, and got into a fighter stance.

"Alright then, Fluttershy… let's see what you've got!" Helm stated somewhat excitedly. Fluttershy nodded a bit nervously but held her stance nonetheless, both of them deciding on a 'submission' based game. He got closer to her and threw a punch, which Fluttershy diverted by pure instinct expertly. He then threw a combination of a jab, a cross, and an uppercut, which she deflected with three well placed inward defenses. Fluttershy then responded with a groin kick, but Helmuth deflected it by swiping his leg up and going for a counterattack with a reverse, her dodging that as well.

The two continued with their attacks, parries, and defenses nigh flawlessly for another two minutes. Then, Fluttershy caught his arm in a hold before manipulating his weight to flip him over. He let his body get flipped but landed on his feet perfectly, in perfect position directly adjacent to her. He extended his leg in a sweeping motion, expecting Fluttershy to either jump over his leg motion or retreat. Much to his surprise she launched herself to the side of him, beat her wings once, and found her position on his shoulders, her legs wrapped around his neck. She manipulated her weight and leaned backwards in between his legs, forcing his body to bend backwards very uncomfortably.

Well, well… she's better than I thought. Luna really has done well.

Helm would be damned if he went down that easily. He clenched his abdominal and back muscles as he was being forced backwards and stopped his descent with his hands. Utilizing the sudden stoppage, he flipped his body back on his feet and forced himself out of the vice of Fluttershy's legs.

Thought the day would never come when I had to free myself from between a girl's legs.

He oriented himself upright and threw a high stomping kick. Fluttershy merely stepped out of the way and countered with a roundhouse. Helm stepped back and deflected the kick, but Fluttershy anticipated this and used that momentum to launch her back leg into a reverse roundhouse. Helm narrowly missed being slugged in the side of the head with her heel and decided to go on the counter offensive. He grabbed her neck in a side choke-hold, along with restraining her left arm and her right leg; more attempting to see if she could defend against it. The moment she felt her neck being constricted against his forearm and bicep, Fluttershy panicked for the first time in a long while.

What do I do?!

Helmuth capitalized on her shock, realizing that she didn't know how to defend, and forced her (tenderly) to the ground on her stomach, pinning her with his palm on the side of her face, his other palm on her middle back on a pressure point by her wings, and his knee on her calves. He had to admit, he was a bit nervous from having the beautiful girl trapped under him. Fluttershy knew she was done, and she inwardly cursed herself again, tapping out.

Submission.

Helm released her from the pinning and helped her up like the gentleman he was trying to so be. Both of them had worked up quite a bit of a sweat from the sparring match and were panting quite profusely. Needless to say, Helm was very impressed. She had done well, and he had a blast. On Fluttershy's part, she looked back at him with a nice smile on her face, an open-mouthed one due to the fact that she was breathing pretty heavily.

"Nice work there! That… was a lot of fun!" he exclaimed, patting her shoulder a few times in a show of sportsmanship and friendship. Fluttershy giggled a bit as a response. She didn't know why she did that, to be completely honest.

"T-Thanks! You kinda caught me off guard with the choke hold," she admitted.

"Don't worry about it, Fluttershy. We can rectify that right now! Let's show you how to break and counter a choke hold," he exclaimed. Fluttershy beamed slightly. He motioned her closer to him and gave his instructions.

"Alright, from behind me to my left, grab me in the choke hold as I did you," he said. Fluttershy did as she was instructed, albeit she hesitated a bit, but nevertheless, she wrapped her right arm around his neck and clenched it between her forearm and bicep gingerly.

"You don't have to be delicate with me, Fluttershy. Go ahead and really put me in a choke hold!" he playfully ordered. Fluttershy smiled lightly and did as she was told. She felt him tense up more, so she knew that she was doing this right.

"Alright… that's good! Now when this is initiated…" he began through more labored speaking. Helm brought his right hand up to Fluttershy's thumb by her fist on his neck while readying his left hand.

"Pluck the hold with your right while simultaneously using your left hand to…" Helm plucked her fist from his neck rather easily (which surprised Fluttershy). He then brought his left hand down hard, but stopped right before he would have hit her in the crotch. He wouldn't dare touch her there.

"Bring the left hand down to your adversary's crotch, hard," he explained again. Fluttershy inwardly cringed at that thought.

"Then, wrap your left arm around their neck and put your hand over their head, ideally, insert your fingers into their eyes, like so… and pull back." He performed just that, albeit without the eye trick. Fluttershy found herself involuntarily being bent backwards toward his knee. He stopped and held her there. Their gazes met each other in the awkward position, but the two felt rather… compelled to hold each other's stare. Fluttershy couldn't help but smile at him, and he did the same to her. Damn, it was starting to get hot in the room again.

"Then, y-you'd counter attack their face all the way down to the floor…" he added somewhat nervously, but still never averting his gaze from hers. Eventually, all he could do is grin back at her. By instinct, Fluttershy repositioned her arms and hands behind his back and just held him there… thoroughly enjoying herself… especially since his knee was brushed up against a rather sensitive spot on her back by her wings (which sent tingles down her spine). She had never been this forward with anyone, but she had no qualms with tightening her grip on him in the questionable position. Right as she initiated pulling him closer to her… and him her…

*ahem*

The two of them gasped out audibly and fell to the floor, Helm falling on top of Fluttershy. The two looked at each other, blushed heavily, and quickly got off the floor, righting themselves, and turning to face their intruder: The Lunar Princess, clad in her own sports top and leggings. She had a brow raised and a shit eating grin on her face.

"Gee, I hope I was not… interrupting anything?" Luna asked innocently.

"Ummm… not really no," Helmuth replied. Fluttershy seemed in no position to speak, considering she was burning up from embarrassment. Luna held Helm's gaze for a while before she shrugged it off with a playful smirk.

"Very well then! Either way, I hope you two weren't planning on ending your training sessions so soon because…" Luna commented, dropping her speech off suspiciously at the end. She then cracked the knuckles on both of her hands before entering into her fighting stance in front of the two.

"… I need to brush up a bit myself. Let's practice: You two against me, full submission."

The two only gave each other a fearful gaze before gulping in anticipation. Reluctantly, the two got into their own unique fighting stances.

Luna threw the front door open into their suite, strolling in happily while cracking her knuckles again.

"I have to say, guys… that was pretty fun. We should do that again!" Luna exclaimed playfully, clearly happy right now. Fluttershy and Helm followed her inside, each grabbing onto parts of their bodies where they were extraordinarily sore. They had clearly lost to Luna.

"Shut up, Luna… you didn't have to kick our asses that hard," Helmuth quipped, earning a raspberry from Luna.

"Well, if you two are sore due to getting beaten up from last night, then that only means you're slacking. It is necessary to whip you back into shape!" Luna replied before strolling into her room. Fluttershy walked up besides Helmuth:

"I'm gonna go clean up and lie down… again," she stated softly, wincing in pain. In boldness that even surprised her, she leaned up and hugged him around his neck, pulling his cheek into hers and involuntarily putting smiles on both of their faces.

"Thanks again, Helm," she said once more before releasing him and walking into her own room. He couldn't help but let out a contented sigh. However, he felt that he wasn't alone in the room. He turned to his left and found Pinkie up and about baking something else. Granted it was about nine in the morning but he really didn't notice. What he did notice was the bubbly girl in a rather loose tank top and shorts, providing more than ample eye candy. Part of him told himself that this was really wrong, to switch immediately from eyeing one girl intensely to the next.

"Heya, Helmie! Wanna help me cook and bake? I've got a real treat for ya!" Pinkie shouted out playfully, giggling heartily too at her little pun. Helm felt that he didn't really have a choice in the matter, but nevertheless he really felt that he wouldn't be able to say no anyway. He nodded with a smile and walked to join her in the kitchen.

Okay, I can live with this. Sore from kicking ass and then getting my ass kicked… again. A little assistance with cooking is a nice break. I could sure use one.

However, ever the mischievous one, Pinkie always has something fun planned.