I landed back in the market place and made my way back to Fluttershy.

“So, are you ready, love? We still have much to do, and time waits for nopony!” My fiancé nodded vigorously, and I hugged her close with my wing, leading her towards the Service and Recreational District. Together we trotted to the movie theater, and along the way I saw a great many ponies I had never seen before, but recognized.

‘You remember them because you watched them die. You know them from the dream… nay, the nightmare.’

‘Quite. Now, if you lot don’t mind, I am trying to maintain lucidity. So stop talking to me.’ The voice stopped again, but I still heard whispers in the back of my mind, as usual. I simply ignored the maddening prattling, as I was already quite mad.

I watched as dozens of pairs of ponies pranced about, doing loving things, such as having picnics in the park area, nuzzling noses, and eating single strands of spaghetti so that they “accidentally” kiss. How so very cute. I then looked at my beloved, and examined her features. Her lovely blue eyes were glistening in the sunlight, and her pink mane blew lightly in the breeze. My gaze moved to her muzzle, and her adorable little mouth, and I gave her an affectionate peck on the cheek. She smiled lightly, and kissed me back. What I wouldn’t give to know what she is thinking.

“Wow, you two just look great together.” I jumped, but gathered myself just as fast when Whitewash spoke up from behind me. I looked at her, glaring, before saying:

“You know, you are almost as bad as Pinkie Pie at this poin-“

“Hiya Red Storm!” ‘Great plot-tearing-Celestia!’ I spun around, and there was Pinkie Pie. I was downwind of her, and didn’t smell her, let alone hear her arrival. How the devil does she do that?

“What?... Huh? What are you doing here? How did you both sneak up on me? Why may be a better question.”

“Aw, just to mess with you, hon!” Whitewash said, giggling.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie joined in, “Because that’s fun! And I’m all about fun!” They giggled again in unison before vanishing into thin air. I wondered briefly if it was Whitewash’s doing, or if it was Pinkie Pie’s. I decided the former was far more likely. Then again, with the Pink One, you can never truly know… I gave my fiancé a quick glance, and she just shrugged. We then continued on our way, as I constantly sniffed the air for magical residue.

Fluttershy and I arrived at the movie theater a few minutes later, and we looked at the movie list. Today was obviously “lovey-dovey” day, so all the showings were romances. Among them, we decided on a movie titled “50 Shades of Hay.” It sounded intriguing to us so we bought two tickets and headed in.

...1.5 extremely uncomfortable hours later…

We walked back outside, neither one of us looking at each other.

“That was… unexpected, to say the least.” I said, my “wingboner” still slightly apparent. I looked over to Fluttershy, who was red as a tomato with a full-blown wingboner. I recalled the contents of the movie with a slight shudder. ‘I didn’t even know about half of those things! I wonder what she thought…’

“It was a good movie,” the buttermilk mare finally said. Her wings folded back up and she gave a weak smile. I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, the fellow in the back of the theater certainly thought so. I heard him throughout the entire film.” We both chuckled, still blushing. Then, I regained my thoughts.

“Smutty movie or not, we have a schedule! We need to get back on track!” I paused for a moment, realizing that we were supposed to go to the spa, not watch a movie. Oh well, bumble-brained Red Storm strikes again! Though seriously, a spa treatment would have been far better than that “movie”… I swept up the love of my life onto my back and started for the hills.

“Time to hike! ONWARDS!”

“Hey, there they are!” The purple librarian’s voice set me alight, for unknown reasons. ‘Damn. Why the hell are we so popular today? WHY CAN’T WE JUST HAVE A DAY TO OURSELVES???’ My eye twitched involuntarily as the young unicorn approached with her coltfriend, a white stallion and a pink alicorn… ‘Huh… that’s odd.’ I set Fluttershy down and soothed myself. I realized that I usually keep Fluttershy away from her friends anyway, now that we are engaged, stealing her away for personal time together. Not that she has been complaining. It has, however, been rather selfish of me.

“This is him. This is Red Storm!” Twilight said, gesturing a hoof at me for her companions. Big Mac simply nodded at me, and I returned the gesture. The white stallion raised an eyebrow.

“So… you’re the one my little sis has been talking about? The one she nearly killed, right?” He gave her a wary look, before returning his gaze to me. Twilight blushed as he continued:

“I’m Twilight’s big brother, Shining Armor. This is my wife, Cadance.” My eyes bulged slightly, but noticeably.

“Hold the phone- This is Princess Cadance? Your wife is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?” The stallion nodded as the princess looked rather worried. “That’s… Amazing! Twilight,” I turned to the unicorn spastically, “you never said anything about having a brother, let alone him being royalty!” She looked nervous as she explained:

“Yeah, well, it never really came up.” I accepted this answer, and I turned to the princess.

“It is wonderful to meet you! Where I come from, we praise you as the Princess of Love, and may I add that it is a great honour to meet you!” The princess, however, looked fearful.

“Uh… yes… Red Storm, you said? I… I have heard of you. You are the son of Red Wing, no?” I was slightly surprised at this, but nodded.

“Your father has been threatening to invade us for months now, under the belief you were hiding there. The Crystal Empire and the Sanguine Kingdom have been strong business partners for decades, since Queen Scarlet Swift, and his sudden threats had worried me. Now, however, they worry me further, as the Empire has magic and harsh elements to protect it. Equestria, on the other hoof, does not.”

I swallowed as Cadance finished speaking. ‘Father has been threatening the Crystal Empire? He is surely mad…’ I shook away the feeling of dread.

“It has been nice meeting you; Princess, Prince; but Fluttershy and I have a schedule and must depart. I am sorry for my father’s aggressiveness, but his threats should stop now, as he knows I am here, not there. I will deal with him myself, so have no fear. Now, I bid you, adieu.” I then left, swinging Fluttershy onto my back and earning a few confused looks and a scowl from the princess.

A few minutes later, I had already reached the edge of town with Fluttershy on my back. I set her down, realizing that this was supposed to be a romantic hike, but when I flashed Fluttershy a smile, she was frowning.

“Red Storm, we need to talk.” I tried to feign innocence.

“Why? Now is the time to walk, and enjoy the beauty of nature.”

“I get to do that every day. I live next to the Everfree with animals, or had you forgotten?” Not working. “You need to tell me what is going on with your father, and how he knows where you are.” Damn. It was worth a shot.

“Ok, ok. I have not been telling you everything. As your fiancé I should, but I have been quite selfish as of late. This morning my sister had come by for a visit-”

“What? Scarlet Rain was here?” she squealed with fury.

“Yes, but not as an assassin. She is still my sister, mind you. Anyway, she came by, and during her visit Miss Doo delivered a letter from my father-”

“Your father mailed you? What else aren’t telling me?”

“Keep interrupting me and you will never know.” I said, giving her a dirty look. Today is not going according to plan. “My father mailed me asking for an invitation to our upcoming wedding, which I will obviously not do. I did know that he was searching the five continents for me, but I did not know he was threatening war. However, I will deal with that in my own time-”

“Red Storm… if we are going to get married, I can’t let you go and keep things from me, and I can’t let you go and leave to ‘deal with it’. We need to communicate. We need to stay together.” I thought for a moment.

‘She is correct. Marriage is a sacred bond of love and trust. One should not turn their back on their lover.’

‘Yes, true, very true. However, she wouldn’t understand. I cannot put her through my troubles.’

‘Isn’t that what love is? Standing by the one you love for everything? Thick and thin?’

‘… Yes…’ I blinked.

“Ok, Fluttershy. I promise not to keep any secrets from you from now on. I will include you in everything. For now, though, can we just enjoy our romantic hike?” She looked at me warily, and I quickly added; “If that’s… uh… ok with you…” She giggled and nudged me a little bit before smiling her loving smile again.

Together we walked for about forty-five minutes along the outskirts of the Everfree, heading up a hill, taking in the sights. I could tell Fluttershy was unfamiliar with this area from her wide eyes of wonder and curiosity. I remember the general area from my… skyfall on that fateful night. The very night I met Fluttershy…

I re-focused. There, nearby, was the area where I had landed. The quartet of craters had filled up from erosion and were much less apparent, but still just so. The once flat plain now looked more like a hilly one, but that is just mindless thinking. I turned to Fluttershy and pointed.

“This, my dear, is the very place where my final decent took place. You can tell from the scarring that I hit the ground rather hard, and from the distance from here to the cottage I had to drag myself a rather far way a ways to arrive at your doorstep.” I meant not to boast, but looking back on the distance, it occurred to me that I must have covered a mile during my trudge, which is rather impressive. Fluttershy just simply looked on, in awe. I nudged her forward.

“Come along now, love. We still have about another two miles or so to cover before we arrive at the rest place.” She nodded, but never broke her gaze from the craters. We continued on, and every now and then, when a bird would whistle, she would whistle a tune back. It was all very nice and peaceful. We also saw the occasional bunny or other small mammals. We began to plunge into the forest about another mile in, and hiked the rest of the way up a hill. Then, it came into view as we picked up the pace.

We soon arrived at the spot; a wonderfully lighted and open area; a meadow really. I stepped forward into the light, and beckoned to Fluttershy to join me in its warming caress. She sat down in the beautiful field as I made my way around the clearing patting down trees. Fluttershy gave me an odd look, and I couldn’t help but blush.

“Sorry dear, I am looking for a hollow tree that I had placed picnic supplies in earlier, but I can’t remember which it was…” I found the tree with an “Ah-ha!”, and pulled a basket and blanket out of a hole in the trunk. I spread the blanket and set up the picnic with the said supplies as Fluttershy bathed in the light of the meadow. ‘Damn, she is bucking gorgeous.’

I motioned for her to join me on the now-spread blanket. She lay down next to me, giving me a cute smile. ‘Ah, this is nice. And to think we were arguing minutes earlier…’ I sifted through the food quickly, and removed a grape vine, some apples, an edible bouquet of colorful flowers, and a bottle of wine. At this point, the sun had already begun to set, and the orange-yellow sky looked absolutely wonderful on her body. I fed her a few grapes and hugged her close. We munched on a shared apple, but overall kept rather quiet as we watched the sun crept towards the horizon. Suddenly, Fluttershy rose to her hooves.

“Red Storm, while laying here next to you is nice and all, I feel like we should take advantage of our lonesome…” I swallowed, and she continued, “To have some fun!” She began to frolic about the meadow with a look of glee on her face. I relaxed, realizing that I likely spend too much time with Whitewash and her innuendos. I sprung up, and cracked my neck.

“If you insist, my darling. However, ‘fun’ really isn’t my thing…” She bounced back to me and gave me a light tug.

“Oh, but it’s really not that hard, Red Storm. All you have to do is let yourself be happy, and your body will do the rest! Pinkie Pie taught me that.”

“Hmm… Well… I suppose I could try…” She bounded away and squealed behind her:

“Come on, Red Storm! Chase me!” I smiled a light smile and started after her.

…hours later…

We listened to the crickets begin to chirp as the sun slowly turned from yellow, to orange, to red, then purple, then finally dark blue. We had lost track of time as the hours had flew by, and now we lay by each other, holding each other in a loving caress. I then spoke up, once the sun was but a sliver on the horizon.

“Fluttershy, I love you. I cannot emphasize this more. This has been truly one of the most enjoyable days of my life, and I am slightly saddened it is over. I guess all good things do have to come to an end.” I gave her a kiss, and hugged her once more before I began to rise. She, however, put a hoof on my shoulder, and brought me back down to her eye level.

“Red Storm,” she began, her eyes sparkling, “I have had a wonderful time today. This was my first Hearts and Hooves day with a special somepony, and you made it memorable. But it doesn’t mean it needs to end.” A sly smile crept across her face, and I have to admit, in the moonlight, she looked almost sultry, if not downright devilish. I instantly got the message.

“Oh. OH! I-I can’t possibly do that, Fluttershy. I mean, what if…” She pulled me closer to her face, and lost all trace of flirtation and/or lust. Now, it was flat worry.

“Red Storm, you said it yourself before. We are living on borrowed time. Now, your father knows where we are. If his army is as powerful as you say it is-” I cut her off:

“Fluttershy, I can understand your worry. However, I can promise you, I will do everything in my power, call upon every alliance I have ever made, every deal I have ever struck up, and make sure my father does not hurt you nor anypony else. I don’t want you to be pressured into giving up yourself to me. We have plenty of tim-” She interrupted me with a kiss. When she pulled away, that look was back in her eyes.

“Honestly Red Storm, I really don’t care anymore.” Something clicked in my head that either Fluttershy has some serious issues she needs talked about, or I really have corrupted her. She has never been this assertive. “Yes, I can’t help but feel worried about how everything will turn out in the end, but quite honestly, I am just becoming impatient. So can we please have sex?” ‘Wow. WOW. I… just wow.’

“Ok. Sure. I will meet you back home, just let me pack everything up, ok?” She nodded vigorously before taking off. I swear, she was going at least 14 WP just then. I gathered up the blanket, the basket, and slung them around my neck. I then took off, headed home.

‘That could have been worse.’

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the sloppyness. It was a bit rushed, and I also did it through Writer's Block. On and off. It sucks, I know. I will try harder next time.