The Blacklit Tale of Fighter Shy

Chapters

Prologue: Boiling Point
Chapter one: standing up
Chapter Two: Not as it Seems
Chapter Four: Burning Bridges
Chapter Five: The End of Things
Chapter Three: Reality Hits Hard

Prologue: Boiling Point

Author's Note

I feel as though I should put a little note here. it's not something I usually do, but with the nature of this project it may be a kindness. Fluttershy is one of my favorite ponies, but this is a darker story, in fact it will cross into grim-dark at some points. Sorry to interrupt your immersion into the story, just wanted to give you a warning before you continue.

Prologue: Boiling Point

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTER SHY
Prologue: boiling point
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Rarity and Fluttershy finally got some girl time together after having spent the last week dealing with a mess of crazy in Ponyville caused. They decided that it would be just the two of them spending time in Manehattan. They had planned on buying some wonderful new dresses eating at a high end restaurant, and then going to see a musical. Today was going to be wonderful.

The two of them hit up the boutique first, Rarity looking at and talking about all the different styles of Dresses that had recently come out. Fluttershy was a little nervous around some of the more passionate shoppers. There loud behavior was upsetting to her, she really just wanted to go to the musical, and then to a nice quiet dinner. By the time Rarity had finished looking at the dresses she had decided against buying any of them for herself. Fluttershy had a suspicion that Rarity was just looking at the new trends, trying to find inspiration. Then again was there anything that didn’t somehow inspire the white unicorn to do creative things. Fluttershy found all dresses to fancy for her to wear casually, and she really didn’t have the bit’s to buy these dresses anyway.

The two of them went on to watch a musical entitled. “The Tale of Two Mares. The musical.” It was a musical adaptation of a famous romance novel, filled with drama, romance, comedy, and singing. Fluttershy was very pleased by the performance. When it was over Fluttershy felt energetic and happy that Rarity had decided to take her to Manehattan today.

On their way to the restaurant Fluttershy began to notice just how empty the street had become, and the three ponies that were fallowing them. Rarity seemed to notice as well as she took Fluttershy by the hoof and said. “Darling we should get out of their way.”

Rarity dragged Fluttershy into an ally, where she assumed the plan was to escape. Unfortunately two more ponies were right around the corner blocking their escape. The three ponies fallowing them blocked them from behind and slowly advanced. The two were now surrounded and stuck in that ally.

Rarity spoke first saying. “Excuse me dear, you seem to be blocking our way out.”

The mare in front of them was wearing a black bandanna and had a teal fur coat with a brown mane. She stepped up closer and said. “Well we could be persuaded to move, if I could only barrow that purse of yours.”

Rarirty instinctively grabbed at her purse pulling it closer to her and Fluttershy was terrified. The other ponies got closer and two of them grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her away from Rarity. Then two ponies grabbed Rarity and pulled her away to the side, the teal colored pony grabbed the purse from off her neck and began digging through it.

Rarity then stuttered with a fearful voice. “I-i-I don’t suppose y-y-y will let us go now?”

The brown stallion with blond hair looked at her and licked his lips saying. “Why don’t we have some fun first.” He then pulled out a knife and said. “I want to see what you’re pretty white fur looks like with red stains on it.”

The teal one said. “Whatever you do, just be quick about it. And no killing.”

He looked at his leader and brought the knife slowly to Rarity’s face and said. “Oh I’ll be quick alright.”

Rarity let out a sob as he rubbed the flat side of the knife against her cheek slowly. Fluttershy was shaking with fear, her friend was in danger and there wasn’t anything she could do. The stallion then said. “I’m gonna have so much fun with you.”

Rarity let out a scream as the blade was drawn along the side of her face causing a red line to appear across her fur. Fluttershy stared in horror as she realized that the stallion had just cut Rarity. An old emotion resurfaced inside of Fluttershy, one that had been dormant for a long time now. And like a volcano exploding Fluttershy felt anger and rage exploding throughout her small frame.

Fluttershy opened her eyes and noticed that the grip of the two stallions on her was very loose. Fluttershy took advantage of them being distracted by their frightening friend and head butted the pony on her right. As his grip was lost on her she turned around and punched the on the left in the face with enough force to knock him onto his back.

She then dashed towards the two on Rarity in a low flight and tackled the one holding the knife. She then proceeded to hit him in the face repeatedly until something hard slammed into the back of her head sending her sprawling on the ground.

Looking up Fluttershy saw that the teal colored mare was holding a lead pipe in her mouth. Fluttershy looked and saw that the knife had landed near her. As the teal colored mare charged, Fluttershy grabbed the knife in her mouth. She rolled over just in time as the lead pipe swung down. It landed hard against the ground next to her making a loud ringing sound. Fluttershy jumped up and used the knife to cut a large gash across the teal mares face crossing over her eye.

As the teal colored mare rolled around in pain, clutching her face and screaming, Fluttershy stood and charged at the one still holding Rarity. Fluttershy punched in so hard that he fell over onto the ground. She then turned and noticed the two that had been holding her now charging, she threw the knife at one of them.

The knife landed in his leg causing him to scream, Fluttershy then jumped into the air. Flapping her wings once she dashed upward, and then pirouetted and came back down at a terrifying speed. She slammed her hooves home onto the opposite ones head. She felt something break underneath her hooves and then he fell to the ground limp.

Fluttershy then flew into the one she had thrown the knife at and slammed both of her rear hooves into his side. She could feel his ribs break underneath her hooves. He fell to the ground coughing and shouting curses at her.

She looked and saw the brown stallion who had originally been using the knife come at her. He slammed his hooves into her face breaking her nose. Fluttershy then swung at him, smacking her hoof into his face. He then punched Fluttershy in the gut. All the air was knocked out of her, and she fell to her haunches trying to breath. Then he began to beat on her with his hooves.

Fluttershy blocked as best as she could until finally she was given a seconds respite and rolled back out of his reach. He stomped the ground hard where she had just been. She got up and backed out of his reach as he advanced. She felt her rear hoof touch something hard on the ground. Remembering the lead pipe was there she ducked her head as the stallion took another swing at her. She grabbed the pipe in her mouth and thrust it upwards and into the face of the brown stallion. He fell over clutching his face and she hit him again, and again, and again.

Rarity grabbed Fluttershy and shook her saying. “Snap out of it Fluttershy.” Fluttershy looked around and noticed that two of the stallions had ran away along with their mare leader. Fluttershy looked down at the blood soaked broken stallion in front of her, and then at the other one who was lying on the ground unmoving. His head was bleeding from where she had hit him.

Fluttershy dropped the pipe with a loud clanging sound and looked up at Rarity. She really hopped Rarity had a plan now. Rarity was wearing her purse again, so she must have gotten it back, but the cut on her face was bleeding. Rarity then said in stern tone. “We are going to the train station and going home right now. Twilight can fix this.”

Fluttershy and Rarity went to the train and got inside, after cleaning up at a bathroom along the way. While inside the train the pair sat quietly waiting for the train to take them back to Ponyville. Only after the train began moving again did Rarity finally ask Fluttershy. “What happened there. How did you do that? You just…you just started beating them up, and-and-and…”

Fluttershy still felt excited from the fight, although she hated that part of herself. She looked away from Rarity as the cut on her face only reminded Fluttershy of the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins during the fight. She was afraid that she might have just killed those two ponies, but even worse was the fact that she enjoyed crushing them. It was sick and wrong of her to enjoy fighting ponies like that, ponies should never fight. And yet she just did so, even if it was to save her dear friend, it was wrong…and she liked it.

When Fluttershy didn’t answer Rarity began to cry and say. “Please talk to me. I…I need to…please tell me everything will be okay.” Rarities tear’s were messing up her makeup.

Fluttershy took a slow deep breath and lied. “Everything is okay. I…We will go home, and everything will just fine.”

Rarity tried to smile, and gave up as she cringed and said. “But my face…they…they ruined…my.” She then broke out sobbing uncontrollably.

Fluttershy shook her head and said. “Twilight will fix this, and that little cut will heal just fine.”

Rarity began shaking and whimpered. “Am I still pretty?”

Fluttershy looked at the cut on Rarity’s face, it would heal, and hopefully not leave any scars either. So long at they took care of it soon. Fluttershy moved over and sat next to Rarity; she then embraced her friend and said. “You’re still the most beautiful pony in Equestria, Rarity. We will take care of that little nick. No pony will even know that it happened.”

Rarity shook underneath her legs. Rarity then said. “Are you okay, you got hurt bad. What will we tell everypony?”

Fluttershy looked out the window as the train car ran along the tracks. Fluttershy then grabbed her own little money purse. There was probably fifty bits inside it, it was hard for her to earn the money to go on this shopping trip, she had wanted so badly to spend it at the souvenir shop. Fluttershy closed her eyes and throw her money purse out the window. At Rarities shocked expression Fluttershy said. “I was robbed, and beaten. They cut you, but they left us after they got my money. That is what we will tell everyone. We can’t let them know what…I did.”

Rarity nodded in agreement, and together the two of them went back to ponyville, crying in each other’s embrace. With a new secret being added to a long list that Fluttershy already had she could feel something building inside of her, something dark. Maybe one Rarity could forgive her for not acting fast enough.

Fluttershy had to be the quiet, gentle, and outspoken pony. That was her place in life, and she would not trade it for the world, nor was she going to let anything take it away from her…ever.

Chapter one: standing up

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTER SHY
Chapter one: standing up
Written by TheCrimsonDM

A few weeks have passed since the mugging incident inside Manehattan. At first everypony was exceedingly worried about Fluttershy and Rarity. Though after a while things began approaching normal again. Something however was wrong inside of Fluttershy. She had become increasingly angry, she was also easily agitated now, but the worst thing for her was that no matter what she did, she couldn’t find any satisfaction.

After nearly yelling at Pinkie Pie over a silly mistake, Fluttershy finally decided that she needed help. She had asked Twilight Sparkle for help with her anger issues, and Twilight joyously accepted. That is why she now lay on her back, on Twilight’s couch. With Twilight at her side, Twilight wore her hair in a bun.

Twilight held a clipboard and a pen with her magic as she asked. “Tell me Fluttershy, what are you feeling right now?”

Fluttershy looked deep inside herself for the answer and said. “Unsettled. I feel like I need to be doing something, but I’m not sure what. And it makes me angry to…not know myself.”

Twilight wrote something on the clipboard and then asked. “Do you feel angry often because of this?”

Fluttershy closed her eyes and said. “I’m always angry anymore, I-I’m just so angry inside and I want to explode…”

She could hear Twilight writing something down, then Twilight asked. “What other things have been making you angry?”

Fluttershy didn’t know where to start, so many things made her angry. She took a deep breath and then let it all out in a single breath. “Rarity is prettier than me, Applejack still has a family, Pinkie Pie is happier than me, Rainbow Dash is better than me, and You’re a genius….and I’m nothing.”

Twilight sat the clipboard down and walked over to Fluttershy who was beginning to shake from all the inner torment. Twilight gave Fluttershy a hug and helped her calm down. Twilight then said. “You’re not nothing. You are the kindest pony I know, and you’re one of my best friends….I think you just need to do something to make yourself feel worthwhile again.”

Fluttershy would have loved to give Twilight a hug back, but right now all she could do was think about how being kind was the only thing she had. She pushed Twilight away gently and said. “Is that all I am? The kind pony? The gentle pony? The pushover?” with her anger rising she sat up and said. “What has kindness gotten me? A scar on the back of my head, and Rarity hurt? Is that all I can do?” She began flapping her wings and hovering in the air she said. “Screw that. I won’t be a pushover when all it does is get my friend’s hurt. I could take all the pain for everypony, but I can’t let them be hurt.”

Twilight looked a little shocked at Fluttershy’s actions. Twilight then said. “And what are you going to do?”

Fluttershy looked at Twilight and gave her a smile and said. “I’m going to be…assertive.” And with that Fluttershy was done here, she flew out the window much like Rainbow Dash would have, only she liked to think she added a touch of grace to her flying that Rainbow lacked. She then flew into the sky. Wind rushing by her she made a commitment to change herself into something better than she had been in the past. She could be assertive, and strong, and still be kind to her friends. It would just take balance…there was no time for self doubt, she had to do something.

***

Fluttershy met up with Rarity later that day at the boutique. Rarity had some new pop song by Sapphire Shores being played in the background, while she worked on a new dress for her winter line of clothing. It was near the end of fall and winter would be arriving soon. Fluttershy stood back watching her work and making small talk.

Fluttershy had a hard time looking at Rarity’s face anymore. It wasn’t that Rarity was ugly, far from it. It was the bandage that Rarity always wore over the scar she had gotten in Manehattan. Fluttershy felt so guilty over it, but Rarity still offered her friendship. The element of kindness would be better worn on Rarity then by Fluttershy.

Rarity gave a concerned look towards Fluttershy and asked. “How are you doing darling?”

Fluttershy gave her a false smile and said. “I’m okay.” She gave it a second and said more excitedly. “In fact I’m doing awesome.”

Rarity let out a small laugh and said. “Wow, it sounds like we’ve got a new contender for the next Rainbow Dash.”

Fluttershy replied. “Oh my no, I don’t want to be Rainbow Dash. I want to be better then Rainbow Dash.”

Rarity gave her a more serious expression and asked. “Oh do explain.”

Fluttershy happily explained. “Well, I’m usually a pushover. And I used to enjoy that, I really did. But ever since Manehattan I’ve been thinking that I need to be…something more. So I’m going to try and be more assertive.” At Rarities worried expression Fluttershy added. “Oh but nothing like last time, that was horrible of me to do those things to you girls. I’m only trying to be…important.”

Rarity stopped working on the dress and gave a caring smile to Fluttershy. She then said. “But you are important. To all of us…especially to me.”

Something felt off about how Rarity said that last sentence but Fluttershy couldn’t put her hoof on what it was. Fluttershy stood up and said. “I know that I’m important to you girls, but I want to be important to other ponies as well.”

Rarity pouted for a moment and then said. “But what are you going to do?”

Fluttershy had no clue as to what she was going to do, in fact she hadn’t even really considered it. She then admitted. “I don’t know…”

Rarity thought for a moment and said. “You could try doing something with your love for animals.”

Fluttershy thought about this idea for a few minutes, letting Rarity continue working in silence. She would have loved to do something with them, but unfortunately she had known something about herself for a while now. It was something that made this very hard for her. Fluttershy finally said. “Whatever I do, it can’t involve animals.”

Rarity looked over to Fluttershy with a shocked expression as she asked. “Why?”

Fluttershy closed her eyes and explained. “I…I don’t have the best intentions for taking care of my animals. I...I think it’s just a way for me to feel like I’m loved, because I…I’ve been so lonely before I met you girls.”

Rarity gave her a sad smile and said. “Darling, it’s okay. I was lonely before as well. I always wanted to join the upper class ponies, but…since becoming friends with you all, I’ve learned that true friendship beats all.” She then gave a nervous cough and said. “Especially…close friends like you…and me…”

Fluttershy began to get that awkward feeling from her again. Fluttershy had noticed that ever since the Manehattan incident whenever she spent time alone with Rarity, things ended up getting weird. Fluttershy looked away from Rarity who was now wearing a small blush, and then she said. “I know that we all had social problems before meeting Twilight, but I just feel like whatever I do to make myself important has to be…new, exciting, and from inside.”

Rarities blush turned deeper and she said. “I..uh…um…I guess if you really wanted…I could help you with that.”

Fluttershy ignored the awkwardness and rushed toward Rarity overjoyed to have such a good friend, Fluttershy embraced Rarity and said. “Thank you so much. I might need a lot of help. You really are a great friend.”

Rarity smiled but looked a little down after Fluttershy finished speaking. Rarity then said. “I’d do anything for you.”

The rest of their time together stayed between friendly small talk, and awkward moments. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what was wrong with Rarity, but she assumed it had something to do with the attack. Fluttershy hoped that it was nothing serious.

***

Later that day Fluttershy was spending time with Rainbow Dash and watching her perform acrobatic feats in the air. Fluttershy was always excited to watch Rainbow Dash performing, and she secretly wished that she could do the same kind of things. Unfortunately she was never a very good flier. Sure she could move fast in short bursts, but over the long haul it was hard for her to keep up. Endurance was a weak spot for her.

Rainbow Dash finally landed on the hillside that Fluttershy had been watching from. Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash walk over and sit next to her. Rainbow Dash then laid on the back, stretched her leg’s out and said. “Enjoy the show?”

Fluttershy felt her face warm up a little as she looked away and said. “Of course. I…um always enjoy…watching you.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at her with a grin on her face. Rainbow Dash then said. “Oh is that right? Then maybe I should let you watch me do something a little more entertaining.”

Fluttershy felt her face going red, Rainbow Dash always liked to tease her like this, it wasn’t very nice. Fluttershy decided that if she was going to change who she was, she needed to be more assertive. Fluttershy looked right at Rainbow Dash, and building up her courage she began to say. “Well if that’s what you really wa-,” she stopped suddenly and squeaked as all her courage suddenly dissipated.

Rainbow Dash blushed a little herself and said. “Well…that was…different.” She then smiled a little and said. “Tell you what, if you really want me, all you have to do is kiss me.” She closed her eyes pouted her lips and stuck her head out towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy gave out another squeak and jumped back. She was not that assertive, at least not yet. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and took one look at Fluttershy before breaking out into laughter. The thought occurred to Fluttershy that Rainbow Dash had been toying with her, Rainbow Dash had to know how Fluttershy felt about her. Fluttershy turned away from Rainbow Dash and feeling an odd mixture of pain and anger building inside her, she walked away.

Rainbow Dash only continued laughing as Fluttershy walked away. For some reason the fact that Rainbow Dash didn’t notice her leaving hurt her more. And the more hurt she felt, the more angry she got. She needed to find somewhere to calm down.

***

Fluttershy thought about how many times she had tried to tell Rainbow Dash about her feelings, and how many times she had failed. Rainbow Dash always teased her with pretend kisses, and with flirtatious behavior. Did Rainbow Dash even know how much it tormented Fluttershy’s sensitive hart? She was just lucky that Rainbow Dash was only teasing her like this in private.

Fluttershy continued thinking along these lines for a while before she finally looked around herself and realized she had been walking away from Ponyville. In fact she was a good ways away from Ponyville now. Looking around she fearfully realized just how far away she had wondered.

There was a sudden cry of pain from somepony somewhere in the woods near her, and Fluttershy jumped back out of fear. She stood very still listening to the sounds for a few seconds and she nearly screamed when she heard another cry from the distance. She needed to go get help, somepony in Ponyville could help out. Maybe Twilight, and then she could hide somewhere as everything was fixed.

Fluttershy instantly crushed those idea’s, she couldn’t let others do things for her. Not anymore, new Fluttershy had to go and be brave, whoever was in pain needed help. And she was the only pony who could help them. Maybe she could be a hero, just like Rainbow Dash?

Fluttershy took a deep breath and released it along with her fears. Then she walked into the woods looking for the injured pony. She was going to save them, because she was awesome.

She continued walking until she found a small clearing where she saw two mare’s fighting, a blue earth pony with black mane, and a yellow earth pony with a red mane.. The blue pony had the other one pinned down on their belly and held their leg in between her hooves. With a sudden twist the blue one broke the yellow pony’s leg, causing her to scream in pain and terror.

Fluttershy knew she couldn’t just sit and watch as the yellow mare was tortured like this. The blue pony made her way to the yellow mare’s other leg and picked it up. Fluttershy jumped into the air and charged towards the blue pony. The blue earth pony grinned madly as she tightened her grip on her victim’s leg. Fluttershy then punched the blue pony in the face. The blue pony went flying back a few feet and landed on her side.

Fluttershy looked at the yellow pony and noticed that two of her legs were bleeding terribly from being broken. Fluttershy turned her gaze to the blue one who was now standing and she looked very angry. The blue one then said angrily. “You stupid slut, what do you think you’re even doing?”

Fluttershy gave her response in the form of a hoof blow to the face. The blue mare rocked back from the blow. Fluttershy took another swing, and hit nothing but air. The blue one had ducked at the last second going underneath Fluttershy’s attack. Moving under Fluttershy the blue one wrapped both of her forelegs around Fluttershy’s waist. She then lifted Fluttershy into the air and then leaned back slamming Fluttershy’s head into the hard earth behind her.

Fluttershy lay there for a few seconds feeling numb. Her head didn’t hurt but then again she couldn’t feel much of anything. The blue mare walked around Fluttershy and said. “Now you’re gonna get the same treatment bitch.”

Fluttershy’s head began to clear, and pain came rushing into her entire body. She felt one of her rear leg’s being grabbed and lifted into the air. Fluttershy knew exactly what was going to happen, and she wasn’t going to allow it. Fluttershy began flapping her wings furiously and shot into the air. The blue mare held on for a few seconds before losing her grip and falling.

Fluttershy looped in the air and flew back to the ground towards her opponent. She gained speed and momentum before she punched the blue mare in the face. The force of her blow along with the gained momentum sent the blue mare down to the ground hard.

Fluttershy landed near her and felt a twinge of pain in her rear leg, the blue mare’s grip must have caused a sprain in her leg. She walked very carefully over to the blue mare that was lying on the ground curled into a ball. The blue mare was crying from the gash in her head. Fluttershy felt excitement coursing through her entire body as she looked at her defeated opponent.

Fluttershy realized then that she had been the one to do this, she had been the one to defeat a pony in battle. With no help from her friends she had finally done something by herself. No more pitty for Fluttershy, because she was now awesome. Fluttershy looked down at the blue pony and still running off the combat high she put a hoof over the defeated mare’s head. Fluttershy began pressing her hoof down and said. “If you ever try and do this crap again I’m going to break you. All of you. Do you understand me you…bitch.”

Fluttershy felt a little naughty and giddy from using the swear word. Her excitement only increased as the blue mare nodded in understanding. She was in a position of power over somepony, and if felt good. Fluttershy looked over to the where the yellow mare was and realized that she still needed help.

Walking over to her Fluttershy leaned down next to her. She could smell urine from where the mare had wet herself. After having two legs broken like that, anypony was bound to lose bladder control. Fluttershy noted that one foreleg, and one rear leg had been broken on the yellow mare. Fluttershy then asked softly. “How are you holding up?”

The yellow mare had a very soft voice almost like Fluttershy’s as she spoke. “Shitty,” sniff, “my legs…I can’t walk. I can’t fight.”

Fluttershy brushed the red hair out of her face and looked into the ponies red eyes. Fluttershy then asked. “I’m Fluttershy, what’s your name?”

She was crying as she said. “My names, Carmine Savant. I’m also known as the Crimson Fighter in the arena.”

Fluttershy looked back to where the blue mare was still lying; she was just out of ear shot of the two of them. Fluttershy then asked. “What’s the arena?”

Carmine Savant explained through her tears. “It’s where ponies go to fight each other, I’m pretty good at it…or at least I was. This stupid slut decided to ruin my chance in the competition, and without a replacement I’m screwed. Ten thousand bits, all gone now.”

Fluttershy was shocked to hear about that a fighting competition existed, and that the prize was so high. Fluttershy took a good look at Carmine Savant, and then at herself. They had the same color of fur, their manes were close in length, although it looked like Carmine’s was not as taken care of. Carmine’s cutie mark was a set of three moths. In a similar fashion to her own.

Fluttershy began thinking of a crazy plan, one that could be on the level of Rainbow Dash’s crazy. Fluttershy then asked. “So you need a replacement?”

Chapter Two: Not as it Seems

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTER SHY
Chapter Two: Not as it Seems
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Fluttershy had taken Carmine Savant to the local hospital, just outside of Ponyville. The doctors had taken care of Carmine and she was in an emergency room with Fluttershy sitting next to her. Fluttershy had been worried about Carmine’s wounds, but from the brave face Carmine worn she felt confident that this was not as serious as she had originally believed.

Carmine looked over to Fluttershy and asked, “so are you serious about this, I mean you sure can fight but these arena match’s can be brutal.”

Fluttershy was terrified but at the same time she now knew what excitement fighting had given her. The sense of power and self control, things she had been longing for, for years now were all given to her in a single fight. Now that she had calmed down from the initial adrenaline high she was beginning to second guess her original plan. Fluttershy knew however that if she didn’t’ at least try to go through with this, it would eat her up for the rest of her life. The worst case scenario she could imagine had her going crazy and hurting her friends…and she could never allow that to happen.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and forced every ounce of confidence she had into her words as she spoke, “I am sure, I need to do this…it’s important.”

Carmine seemed to relax a little after hearing that and to Fluttershy’s surprise Carmine actually smiled. Carmine then said, “good, the prize money should be enough split two ways to cover my bills, and get yourself something nice.”

Fluttershy then asked, “how does this work, Do I just go in and tell them you got injured?”

Carmine stayed quiet for a bit and then said, “yeah pretty much, just tell the administrators that you’re my back up fighter. They need a show for the ponies watching so back up fighters are a common thing. After that you just need to don my costume.”

Fluttershy was a little confused as she asked, “costume?”

Carmine smiled and said, “yep, dye your mane and tail red. Wear some red contact lenses and then you may want to color your cutie mark in. Make it look a little more like mine. It will make you look more like the Crimson Fighter.”

Fluttershy could do those things easily enough, she had plenty of red dye left over from one of Rarity’s experiments. The best news was it was all temporary dye, Fluttershy could wash it right out after the fights and go back to being herself. No pony would ever have to know what she was doing.

“There will be a series of three fights you need to win,” Carmine began to explain, “the first one should be easy enough, but the semi final and then final could be hard. There were some tough opponents in the ring this time around.”

Fluttershy didn’t mind, she had faced tough opponents when she learned how to defend herself a long time ago. Though she never actually planned on using any of her training. Fluttershy allowed herself to wonder for a moment about whether Rainbow Dash would be proud of her skills or angry that she was abusing them.

Fluttershy looked at Carmine and asked, “so when is the first fight?”

Carmine gave her a sly grin and said, “tonight.”

***

Fluttershy approached the domed building that Carmine had told her about. This was the place where these fights were taking place at. The place where Fluttershy’s first match would happen, and where she could finally prove to herself that she wasn’t completely helpless like everypony always said.

The inside of the dome was brightly lit and had a lot of ponies walking around and talking. Considering she expected to see a bunch of snarling mean ponies she was surprised to see that they all looked civil enough to Fluttershy. A lot of them had a piercing or a tattoo but Fluttershy had seen all of those things before on the covers of Rainbow Dash’s rock music. To be honest she was actually interested in learning more about these ponies.

Fluttershy quickly checked her mane and tail again to make sure she had dyed them properly. Her mane and tail were now red, and her cutie mark had the butterflies painted gray to look more like moths. She was a good replacement for The Crimson Fighter, or at-least appearance wise.

The inside of the building had a long hallway that rung around the outer most edge of the inside. There were numerous doors some of which were open allowing Fluttershy to see inside them. There were chairs lined all around the room as it dropped in height until the middle of the room flattened out into an arena which was surround by a high chain link fence. Fluttershy could only imagine how scary it was to be watched by all those ponies while in the middle of the ring.

There was a desk next to the largest set of double doors and a light pink mare with a yellow mane sitting behind it. She looked up at Fluttershy as she approached. Fluttershy felt nervous as the pony asked, “what do ya need?”

“I…um…I’m here for the fight. I’m replacing the Crimson Fighter…”

The mare studied Fluttershy curiously for a moment before saying, “right, well come this way.”

The mare then led Fluttershy to a locker room where she would be staying until the ‘show’ started. Fluttershy was going to be alone in the locker room, apparently they liked to keep the fighters separated before the fight. Fluttershy stayed there feeling more and more nervous and scared. She imagined running away and never coming back, but something inside her kept her there, something that wanted to see this through. Something that wanted to fight.

An hour passed by before the pink mare came back to the room. It was time for Fluttershy to go and fight. She was led out of the locker room and through a door where she continued walking down the stairs. There was a small crowd of ponies sitting in the chairs and watching Fluttershy excitedly. Fluttershy made her way down into the center of the room and walked through the open gate on the chain link fence. As it closed behind her she wanted nothing more then turn and flee at rainbow speeds.

The pony standing across from her however was the only thing keeping her routed in place. Standing across from her was a yellow stallion with green hair, scars covered a majority of his body. He gave a hard look at Fluttershy causing terror to begin rising in her heart.

A mare’s voice came over the loud speaker saying, “welcome fillies and gentle colts to the beginning of our this year’s Blood tournament. This time we have Lemon Crush, stallion from the east, and our new competitor The Crimson Fighter. Time to fight everypony, and remember, fight till you drop. Ten seconds and you’re out. Oh and one last thing, absolutely no killing.”

A loud bell was rung and the battle was on. Lemon Crush and Fluttershy walked around in a circle eyeing each other. Fluttershy didn’t like the looks of this pony, and something inside of her was beginning to break. She no longer wanted to do this, she didn’t want to fight this stallion. But she couldn’t leave now, even if she wanted too.

Lemon Crush made the first move. Advancing towards Fluttershy quickly and taking a swing at her with his foreleg. Fluttershy dodged underneath it and used her small size to move under his body. She quickly wrapped her hooves around his waste and using her wings to propel herself. She jumped into the air with the stallion above her. The stallion flailed his legs about and kicked Fluttershy in the face hard. She didn’t expect the blow to hurt that much and dropped the stallion letting him fall to the ground.

Lemon Crush landed on his side hard. And Fluttershy took the opportunity to fly in a circle increasing her speed. Fluttershy was usually not very fast, except for when she was saving animals. But right now her speed was faster then what she was used too, she felt like she could even challenge Rainbow Dash right now.

As Lemon Crush began to rise Fluttershy slammed her front hooves into his side. Her increased momentum added onto her natural strength. Lemon Crush was sent flying into the air and his body crashed into the chain link fence.

Fluttershy moved in for a quick finishing move and just as she approached watched in horror as the stallion moved at an incredible speed. Lemon Crush swung his hoof into Fluttershy’s face smashing her onto the ground. The cold cement hurt as she hit it.

Lemon Crush came down for a second blow and just in time Fluttershy rolled out of the way. He hit the cement with his hoof and Fluttershy quickly jumped back into the air. She began to fly away from him, and then quickly spun around kicking him in the face with her rear leg. As he moved back Fluttershy came at him again and continued to smack her hooves into him. Finally he fell over, and Fluttershy watched in glee as the loud speaker voice began to count.

“ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Looks like we have a winner. Everypony give it up for The Crimson Fighter!” just as the announcer finished speaking the crowd erupted into cheers. Fluttershy was scared at first, but something in the way they cheered made her feel special. Looking down at her unconscious opponent Fluttershy realized that she was powerful, she was special. She could do whatever she wanted too, and right now she was the most awesome pony.

***

A few hours later Fluttershy found herself relaxing inside of nice hot bubble bath. Washing the hair dye away was very important, and considering the fact that the next fight didn’t happen for a week she was glad to look normal again. She played with the bubbles for a few minutes trying to hold them in her hooves. A feeling that had long since been missing from her life began returning. Satisfaction, that was what Fluttershy had earned from her fight, and she was truly happy to have it back.

Something still felt a bit off though, and it bothered her that she couldn’t put her hoof on what it was. Fluttershy was satisfied, but uneasy. She could tell that there was something she was missing, but what was it. It bothered her deeply to not know what was missing. The fight had indeed satisfied her, and nothing about the fight itself seemed wrong. But something in her life was strange, it wasn’t something she could point out, but it was something that was deeply unsettling her. Fluttershy relaxed deeper into the tub and tried to forget her worries.

No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t shake this feeling of something being off. She began to wonder what it was. She had visited Twilight right after having nearly yelled at Pinkie Pie. Rarity was acting weird again, and then there was the way Rainbow Dash had teased her…she had almost been brave enough to kiss her, but failed. That had to be what was wrong. Fluttershy had wanted to be with Rainbow Dash so badly, but was too afraid to do anything about it.

Fluttershy swore to herself that she would win Rainbow Dash’s heart, no matter what. Tomorrow she was going to walk up to Rainbow Dash and ask her out. Fluttershy had won some money from the fight so she could afford to treat Rainbow Dash to a nice date. Now full of confidence she was sure she could do whatever she wanted to, and succeed.

Thought’s of Rainbow Dash found their way staying inside her head. Thoughts of what she would do with Rainbow Dash once they fell in love. Holding each other, kissing, intimacy. The last one was very appealing to Fluttershy and caused her to begin dreaming of wild fantasies involving each other. Fluttershy enjoyed the rest of her bath while playing out lustful fantasies of Rainbow Dash in her mind. After her bath she went to bed.

***

Fluttershy found herself running on a long stretch of dirt road. She didn’t know why, but she knew that if she stopped the monsters behind her would get her. They were chasing her, she could hear them slither. There bodies made horrible wet slapping sounds as she continued to run away.

After running for what felt like forever she finally looked behind herself. The monsters were no where to be seen, and the sounds stopped suddenly. Fluttershy stopped running and examined her surroundings carefully. She couldn’t see anything other than darkness all around her. The dirt road was her only sign of direction.

Fluttershy continued walking very slowly down the road and stopped as she heard the sound again. The sound sickened and horrified Fluttershy. Whatever the monster was it she knew she never wanted to see it. Fluttershy began to see a shape out in the darkness, she couldn’t make it out. Suddenly the shape lunged at her and her world went black.

***

Fluttershy sat up quickly. She was in bed and covered in sweat. “It was just a bad dream Fluttershy, just a bad dream,” she told herself trying to calm down.

Angle Bunny hopped onto her bed and looked at her with concerned eyes. She grabbed him in her hooves and held him for awhile until the morning sun began to rise, telling her it was time to wake up.

She usually had a routine set up for every single day, and when things happened outside of her routine it bothered her. But lately she had been lazy in following it. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do today except for telling Rainbow Dash how she really felt. Fluttershy was determined to do that much.

***

A few hours later Fluttershy was walking about Ponyville, she had decided to visit Rarity. Fluttershy had been worried earlier when she looked at herself in the mirror. There were wounds on her face from the fight. So she now walked around with a bandage on the top of her muzzle just above the nose, where she had gotten kicked.

No pony really seemed to notice that Fluttershy was injured, in fact they didn’t seem to notice that she existed in the first place. She continued walking along, secretly prideful of her victory. Although she wanted to tell somepony about how powerful she had become, she didn’t want anypony to know about her secret life.

Fluttershy stopped as she saw a familiar pink pony walking towards her. Pinkie Pie was walking slowly towards her, something was wrong with her though. Pinkie Pie had her head held low, and her hair was flat and dropped down. Pinkie Pie didn’t even notice Fluttershy was there.

“Oh hi Pinkie. Where are you going today?” asked Fluttershy hopping to get her attention.

Pinkie Pie looked up at her and Fluttershy realized exactly what was wrong with her. Pinkie Pie’s left eye had a black circle around it, and her nose had a bandage over it. Pinkie Pie’ pupils shrank as she looked at Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie began walking backwards very slowly and looking from left to right fearfully.

“Fluttershy…what...um what do you need?” Pinkie Pie asked, with a fear leaden voice.

Fluttershy wasn’t sure what had happened but she secretly swore to punish whoever had done this to her friend. Fluttershy decided that for now she would try her best to cheer her friend up. “I’m going to visit Rarity, do you wanna come with me?” Fluttershy offered in her soft sensitive voice.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened a little, and Fluttershy hoped she was going to see some excitement in her friend’s expression. But Pinkie Pie quickly closed her eyes and said, “I’m n-n-not feeling so well…can I leave?” Pinkie Pie was quiet for a second and then added in a voice that was just above a whisper, “please let me go.”

Fluttershy felt like her heart was shattered. Pinkie Pie was scared of her, but she couldn’t figure out why. Fluttershy walked to the side and said in the most gentle voice she could muster, “of course. We can hang out later…if that’s okay with you.”

Pinkie Pie heard that and opened her eyes. They were wet as though Pinkie was about to cry. Pinkie Pie noticed that Fluttershy had moved out of the way and then Pinkie took off in a full speed gallop. Fluttershy was extremely worried about her friend, and the fact that Pinkie Pie was scared of her was exceedingly disturbing.

***

Fluttershy made her way to the Carousal boutique and found a few more ponies inside then she had expected. Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were sitting there talking. Fluttershy was overjoyed to see Rainbow Dash, and wanted to walk up and tell her exactly how she felt. But there was something odd about the way everypony was acting there.

They looked worried, and nervous. Fluttershy wasn’t usually the one for spying on other ponies but right now she was too curious not too. Fluttershy quietly snuck into the boutique and hid behind some clothing racks. It would not have worked if not for the fact that Rarity was working on a dress, and every pony was staring at Rarity. Just as Fluttershy ducked behind the cloths she heard the bell tied to the door begin to ring.

Everypony at once looked toward the door, and stared at it for a few seconds. Rarity finally said, “sometimes it goes off like that. Ever since Sweetie Bell broke it I haven’t been able to rely on the door.”

Applejack offered, “ah could have my brother take a look at it fer ya.”

Rarity replied, “thank you Applejack, but I don’t think I’m ready for a…stallion…to come into my house. Too my shame I’m not entirely healed from our experience over at Manehattan…”

A dead silence fell over the entire room. It was like she had just said the world was ending. Fluttershy understood she was worried about stallions, but didn’t Fluttershy save her. Fluttershy couldn’t quite understand Rarity’s fear. That’s when the feeling that something was very off came over her again.

Rainbow Dash was the first one to break the silence. “So how about Pinkie, what are we gonna do. She was hurt pretty badly.”

Twilight then spoke saying, “I think what happened between them broke Pinkie’s heart.”

Rainbow Dash added, “it also broke her face.”

“That is not funny,” Rarity replied.

Everypony was quiet for a moment before Rainbow Dash said, “it wasn’t meant to be. I’m worried here. I know Pinkie Pie went a step too far again, but this was just…I can’t believe this happened.”

Everypony was quiet for another few moments before the door opened just behind Fluttershy. The bell rung and Fluttershy quickly turned around to see the young Sweetie Bell walk into the room. Her coat and mane were a perfect match for her big sister Rarity, but her attitude was very different.

Sweetie Bell stared right at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy put her hoof to her lips making a shushing motion. Fluttershy really hoped that Sweetie Bell would understand. After a silent moment Sweetie Bell gave her a wink and trotted off towards Rarity. The door closed deftly.

“Sweetie Bell, what are you doing here?” Rarity asked.

In her high pitched voice Sweetie Bell replied, “oh I’m just here for my cape. I left in the washing room.”

Sweetie Bell then trotted off towards the washing room. Right as she left she said, “oh and Fluttershy is spying on you from behind the clothing rack.”

Fluttershy’s heart stopped. The little filly had just ratted her out, why would she do that? Fluttershy wanted to scream and rage in protest but realized quickly that maybe Sweetie Bell was just trying to do what was right. Because spying on your friends despite one’s curiosity is wrong.

Fluttershy walked out from behind the clothing rack shamefully. She looked at her friends who stared at her with expressions ranging from shock, to disappointment. Except for Rainbow Dash who actually looked impressed.

Fluttershy knew she would have to explain why she was spying on them, and her reasons were not very good. She quietly approached them and waited for one of them to speak. Finally Rarity spoke in a gentle voice, “Fluttershy, darling. Why were you spying on us?”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to say, she had no words for what she was doing here. This wasn’t even part of her routine, so she didn’t know how to respond. But being caught was a new kind of excitement. Mostly because she had no idea what her friends would do. If it had been Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie they would simply look the other way. But with Fluttershy would they be more harsh?

No pony spoke for a little while until finally Twilight said, “Fluttershy she asked you a question.”

Fluttershy looked at Twilight and could feel the fear of her friends retribution breaking her on the inside. Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and lamented not being able to tell Rainbow Dash how she felt today. Twilight was going to lecture her and she would cry, there wouldn’t a chance for her and Rainbow Dash today.

Something inside Fluttershy decided that letting Twilight rule the show was a dumb idea. Why did Twilight always get to be in charge, why couldn’t Fluttershy be in control of the situation for once. Fluttershy grew a small grin as she knew exactly how to get out of this situation, and get what she wanted at the same time. Fluttershy took in a deep breath and prepared herself.

“I had a..um purpose for coming here today. I wanted to tell Rainbow Dash something, that’s why I came here,” Fluttershy said as she locked eyes with Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy stepped up to her rainbow colored friend and leaned in. Rainbow Dash looked a little confused, but not surprised. At least until Fluttershy kissed her on the lips. Rainbow Dash froze and Fluttershy pressed deeper, slipping her tongue in for extra effect.

Rainbow Dash returned the favor for a second before Fluttershy pulled away. She examined the utter shock on her friend’s faces, they wouldn’t be complaining about any spying now. Fluttershy turned around walked away swaying her tail back and forth. Fluttershy got to the door and stopped just long enough to say, “Rainbow Dash, my house, seven tonight.” Fluttershy then walked out the door, leaving her friends in shock and awesome.

***

Fluttershy had ran after getting a few feet away from Rarity’s front door. She finally stopped and hid behind some houses. Her heart was racing faster than ever before, and panic was rising inside her chest. There were so many ways that this plan of hers could’ve backfired but it seemed to work. Best of all was that if Rainbow Dash had fallen for her hook, then she would be having that date tonight.

Fluttershy couldn’t believe her own behavior but she enjoyed it. She wondered why she ever decided to let her friends talk her into becoming a pushover again. If only she had stayed assertive a little longer then maybe she could have won Rainbow Dash over much earlier. Fluttershy couldn’t stop grinning from how happy she was. Scared and excited Fluttershy began playing out fantasies of what the night was going to be like.

***

Night had settled over Ponyville and the town had fallen quiet. Fluttershy’s cottage was dark save for the candles lit in her living room, and the lantern out front casting light on the road. Fluttershy waited impatiently, and full of nervous fear. Finally she heard three timid knocks on the front door. Quickly Fluttershy flew to the door and opened it.

Just outside stood a nervous looking Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash had a rose in her teeth and looked a little embarrassed. Fluttershy however couldn’t be happier. She didn’t expect Rainbow Dash to bring a gift, but she accepted it lovingly. Fluttershy motioned for Rainbow Dash to come inside and sit down on the couch. She took the rose and gently set it down on the table.

The two of them simply stared nervously into each other’s eyes for a while before Rainbow Dash finally spoke, her voice on the verge of cracking, “Fluttershy…I…we’ve been friends for so long…I didn’t expect you to…you know.”

Rainbow Dash’s face was blushing heavily, and Fluttershy found this very attractive. Again there was something inside of Fluttershy pushing her into doing something she didn’t expect…but something that she wanted so very bad. Fluttershy leaned in towards Rainbow Dash and kissed her on the lips. “Shhh.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Fluttershy kissing her again, this time forcing her tongue into Rainbow Dash’s mouth. Fluttershy had no idea what she was doing at this point, she was acting on baser instincts. She felt a familiar warmth coming over her, and she knew that she wanted this now, more than ever before.

Rainbow Dash found herself forced onto her back on the couch. Fluttershy climbed on top of her and said, “it’s my turn to be assertive.”

As Fluttershy slid her hoof down Rainbow Dash’s belly she felt Rainbow Dash grab her hoof and stop it. Fluttershy looked into Rainbow Dash’s eyes and saw the uncertainty that was hidden in there. Fluttershy leaned in and kissed Rainbow Dash again and continued to slide her hoof down. Rainbow Dash continued trying to resist for only a few seconds as Fluttershy began gently rubbing Rainbow Dash’s sensitive spot, Rainbow Dash let out a loud moan Fluttershy felt her face heating up.

Rainbow Dash looked embarrassed, but she stopped trying to fight it and kissed Fluttershy back. The two of them continued progressing like this, and they made this night into a wonderful night of lustful romance. Finally Fluttershy had gotten exactly what she wanted, things were finally going just right for her. And yet in the back of her mind she knew that something was going to go wrong somehow.

Chapter Four: Burning Bridges

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTER SHY
Chapter Four: Burning Bridges
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Fluttershy stood fearfully in the back ally unable to move as the two thugs holding her forced her to watch. The brown Stallion used his knife to slowly draw a red line across Rarity’s cheek. Fluttershy screamed and tried to break away but the two stallions held her fast. One of the stallions then forced Fluttershy onto the cold hard ground. The brown stallion did the same to Rarity.

Fluttershy and Rarity stared at each other in terror for a moment. Rarity said, “Close your eyes darling, and don’t open them no matter what.”

The world began burning and her side screamed in agony, Fluttershy closed her eyes and everything turned into a world of hot burning pain.

***

Fluttershy sat up quickly panting heavily, and sweating profusely. Her entire side was burning but worse than that was the dream she just had. Fluttershy felt hot tears running down her face as she held herself and whispered, “it’s okay, it was just a dream.” She repeated this line to herself for the next few minutes.

Finally Fluttershy had calmed down just enough to analyze her surroundings and realized that she was lying in Sweetie Belle’s bedroom. This meant she had to be at Rarity’s. Fluttershy looked at her side, and found bandages had been wrapped around her ribs. She could also feel a few bandages on her face as well. She was in rough shape, but it looked like Rarity had taken good care of her.

Fluttershy finally pushed herself out of the bed and onto the ground. As she put her full weight onto her legs her side screamed in pain causing her to nearly shout, “Shit, damn it that hurts.” For a few agonizing moments she stood still waiting for the pain to subside. When the pain had dropped back to a tolerable level she realized exactly what she had just said. She looked around nervously praying that nopony had heard her utter those fowl words, and after feeling satisfied that she was indeed alone, she walked out of the room; each step bringing a new surge of pain through her side.

She made her way down the stairs slowly, and found Rarity sitting at the kitchen table. Rarity was enjoying a glass of orange juice, and a sandwich. On Fluttershy’s approach Rarity’s eyes grew wide and she asked, “Honey, how are you walking? You should be resting still.”

Fluttershy found a spot to sit next to Rarity and rested her head on Rarity’s shoulder. Fluttershy was quiet for a moment, attempting to recall exactly how she had gotten here last night. She gave up and asked, “How did I get here?”

“You came to me last night, you were injured…you told me that you had been in a fight,” Rarity explained in a very quiet voice.

Fluttershy was quiet for a moment before saying, “Did I tell you anything about the fight?”

“Not much I’m afraid…but you came here with a lot of money in your saddlebags…and your mane is dyed red…Fluttershy what happened?” Rarity asked, her voice was full of tension.

“Remember when I told you I needed to find something to make me important?” Fluttershy asked. Rarity nodded and Fluttershy continued, “Well, I’ve been fighting in this tournament thing. I’ve been winning too…but last night I guess my opponent hurt me pretty badly.”

“But…but that is so…this sounds so unlike you,” Rarity said nervously. Fluttershy was quiet, and Rarity then added, “This…this is scary Fluttershy. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

Fluttershy felt a growing sense of guilt for getting Rarity involved in this. She let out a sigh and wrapped a leg around Rarity giving her a hug. The motion hurt her ribs but she didn’t let go as she explained, “Rarity, this is important to me…and I only have one more match. After that I swear that I will quit these fights…for you.”

Rarity nuzzled into Fluttershy’s mane and asked, “You promise?”

“I Pinkie Pie Promise,” Fluttershy said.

“Thank you. But can you explain why your mane is dyed red?” Rarity asked.

“It’s my secret identity, I’m known as the Crimson Fighter in the ring. Now that you mention it though, I need to wash the dye out before anypony sees me like this,” Fluttershy said.

“Well…you can’t very well wash it out yourself, you are far too hurt for that,” Rarity stated.

Fluttershy felt her cheeks beginning to warm as she thought of the implications of what Rarity had said. Rarity then added, “Oh I can give you a wonderful make over.”

Fluttershy’s hopes of an intimate bath with Rarity were dashed in that instant. Oh well, she could wait for Rarity, after all she was determined to make this relationship work out. Fluttershy dropped her leg back to the floor and said, “I’ll also need your help with something else…if…um….you don’t mind.”

Rarity looked at Fluttershy and asked, “What do you need?”

***

Several hours later Fluttershy was laying on Rarity’s bed and watched the door open as Rarity entered the room. Rarity looked a little tired but she looked happy. Fluttershy’s mane was still a little damp after the bath, and her fur felt soft and clean. Fluttershy smiled at Rarity and asked, “So, how did it go?”

“You were right about Angel being very capable. He helped me feed all the little animals, and everything. It was hard work though, and I don’t mean to sound rude when I say that; I don’t envy your job,” Rarity explained.

Fluttershy knew that even if she was home, she would have been unable to help all her little animal friends today. Rarity was so kind to do this for her, but she still missed her animal friends. She wondered how long she was going to be hurt for. Hopefully she would be better by tomorrow.

Fluttershy felt something heavy on the bed next to her distracting her from her thoughts. Rarity had crawled on the bed and was now lying next to Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked over at Rarity and saw a smile across Rarity’s face. Fluttershy couldn’t help but study Rarity’s perfect body, her eyes being drawn ever downward and resting on Rarity’s flanks. Fluttershy felt her heartbeat increasing in speed as she studied the perfect curves of Rarity’s body. Rarity’s legs were closed though and Fluttershy stared longingly at them.

Rarity’s legs slowly spread apart revealing to Fluttershy the white pony’s most intimate area. Fluttershy stared as her heart began pumping ever faster, the area between Fluttershy’s legs began heating up immensely. Rarity said, “I’d like to try…this with you…if you’re interested.”

Fluttershy looked up at Rarity’s face and noticed the usually white unicorns face was now a shade a bright red. Fluttershy leaned her head forward and gently kissed Rarity. Pulling back a little bit Fluttershy said, “Alright.”

It was a little painful for Fluttershy to reach her hoof over but it was well worth it as she stroked the white unicorns soft chest lovingly. Rarity made some small noises at the sensation, and Fluttershy began sliding her hoof down across Rarity’s belly. Rarity continued making the sweet little noises as her breathing intensified. Fluttershy finally reached Rarity’s marehood, and stroked it gently. At first the white unicorn was making little moans, but then she started making another sound.

Fluttershy stopped and looked into Rarity’s face. Rarity had her eyes clenched tightly in what appeared to be fear. Fluttershy pulled her hoof back suddenly and asked, “Rarity, are you alright?”

Rarity closed her legs tightly and whimpered. A few tears began running down her face as she said, “I’m scared…I know that I shouldn’t be, but I’m so scared.”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to do, this was not how she expected this to turn out. She rolled over completely onto her side, thankfully it was the side that didn’t hurt and brought her clean hoof up to pet Rarity’s cheek. Fluttershy said, “Shhh…it’s okay…I can wait for you. How about we just cuddle right now?”

Rarity nodded and then scooted herself into Fluttershy’s chest. Fluttershy wrapped a leg around Rarity while whispering, “Shhh…I love you Rarity, and I always will.”

Fluttershy held Rarity tightly while letting the unicorn cry all of her pain and sorrow away. Even if this wasn’t how Fluttershy had wanted things to turn out, it was still nice to be able to be there for her dearest friend, and lover. The two of them simply lay together in that position for the longest time, Rarity softly crying into Fluttershy’s chest, and Fluttershy gently stroking Rarity’s mane. Fluttershy closed her eyes and began drifting off to someplace warm, and safe.

***

“What are you doing?” asked a strangely familiar voice.

Fluttershy felt the warm fur of Rarity against hers and she opened her eyes. The sunlight coming through the window cast an orange light across Rarity’s side. Rarity was asleep but Fluttershy could have sworn she heard somepony say something.

“I asked you what you were doing?” the voice asked again.

Fluttershy looked over and saw Rainbow Dash hovering at the edge of the bed. Rainbow Dash wore an expression somewhere between anger, and confusion. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to think of Rainbow Dash’s presence except that she didn’t want Rainbow Dash to question Fluttershy’s injuries.

“What are you two doing?” Rainbow Dash asked in a slightly more agitated tone.

Fluttershy didn’t want her special somepony to wake up so she looked at Rainbow Dash intensely and said, “I am cuddling with my very special somepony. Considering the fact you broke up with me, I can’t imagine you should have a problem with this.”

Rainbow Dash growled as she said, “How come nopony else knows about this?”

“We wanted to take things slowly and make sure that we are right for each other before telling anypony,” Fluttershy explained.

Rainbow Dash crossed her legs and huffed in anger before saying, “Whatever, just don’t hurt her…because if you do, I’ll be coming after you.”

Fluttershy should have felt afraid of Rainbow Dash, but right now her entire body was beginning to shake with a barely contained anger. Fluttershy looked Rainbow Dash dead in the eyes and said, “Fuck you.” Rainbow Dash’s mouth hit the floor as she hovered there in complete shock. Fluttershy then added, “You destroyed me, and now you threaten me like this. Do you really believe that I would dare hurt Rarity? You have no right to say anything about me and her, none at all.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to know how to process this at first, but after a few moments of confusion she settled on anger. Rainbow Dash put her hooves on the edge of the bed and leaned in saying, “She was raped, Fluttershy, and if you ever force yourself on her I will brake you. Frankly I have no idea how you could do what you did to me, not after you and Rarity were ra-“

“Shut the fuck up, if you ever threaten me again then you will need to watch your ass because I will beat it silly,” Fluttershy threatened in a near shouting volume.

Rarity began to stir next to Fluttershy and opened her eyes. After seeing Rainbow Dash she exclaimed, “What’s going on here?”

Fluttershy spoke first saying, “Rainbow Dash just broke into your house again, she was just leaving though…now weren’t you?”

Rainbow Dash had a murderous look in her eyes as she said, “Yeah…after a couple of years of peace…I guess it’s about time for me to leave.”

Rainbow Dash turned and left the room flying out the open the window, presumably the same way she had come in. Rarity then looked grave as she said, “Oh dear…were you two fighting just now?”

Fluttershy looked out towards the window. That arrogant, self absorbed, bitch had always outshined her, always taken the things that she wanted first, always treated her as being beneath her. Hell at one point Rainbow Dash had actually attempted to sale Fluttershy into slavery…over a stupid Daring Doo book. Fluttershy looked back at Rarity and said, “Yeah, we were. I’m never going to lie to you, Rarity, so I’ll just tell you now…a lot of pent up anger is going to come out between me and her at some point. When it does…please don’t intervene, I couldn’t handle it if you were hurt in the crossfire.”

Rarity looked sad, but she didn’t say anything, she only reached out and hugged Fluttershy. Fluttershy wrapped both of her forelegs around Rarity and began crying into Rarity’s neck. Her anger was gone, and replaced by a deep emotional pain. It felt like Fluttershy’s entire world was falling down around hr and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it. Not a damn thing.

***

Fluttershy had rested another night at Rarity’s before she was able to walk without pain and returned home. It was nice of Rarity to take care of her like that, but it didn’t feel right to have her special somepony doing all this for her. A few days later Fluttershy found herself wandering around looking for anything to make her forget about Rainbow Dash, who had been haunting her memories ever since their fight.

Fluttershy eventually made her way over to Applejacks farm where she hoped to find some advice from her oldest friend. Applejack was busy apple bucking a tree, Fluttershy watched as the apples all landed perfectly into the baskets set around the tree.

Fluttershy walked up and said, “hi Applejack…I…um how are you today?”

Applejack looked up at Fluttershy her eyes flashed with anger for a brief second as she asked flatly, “what do ya want?”

It was jarring to see such a reaction from Applejack and Fluttershy quickly said, “I had a fight with Rainbow…um…I wanted to know if you cou-“

Applejack cut her off by saying, “Ah heard all about what’cha did to Rainbow Dash, and about what yer doin with Rarity, and, Fluttershy, Ah’m not gonna lie; Ah’m disappointed in you.”

Fluttershy felt her ears fold back as she began walking backwards. Fluttershy felt her breathing begin to increase as she realized that Rainbow Dash had probably told her everything from her perspective. Feelings of fear and shame took hold of her heart and she began trying to explain, “I…I w-w-was j-j-just trying t-t-to-“

“Just trying to break the fillies heart?” Applejack accosted her.

Fluttershy’s knees felt week as they began to wobble and Fluttershy closed her eyes tightly as she said, “I loved her. She b-b-broke my heart.”

Applejack was quiet for a few seconds before asking, “So you didn’t tell her to buck off?”

Unable to handle this any longer Fluttershy turned to gallop away and felt somepony put there hooves on her shoulders and stop her. Fluttershy opened her eyes to see Twilight staring back at her. Tears began crawling down her face as she said, “I thought that she was crying because I wasn’t good enough for her. That’s why I tried to have sex with her a second time.”

Fluttershy’s knees then gave way and she fell into Twilight’s embrace. Applejack then said, “Darn it, sugarcube. Ah can’t really fault you for that…Ah just thought that maybe you were acting out after what happened to you, and that Rainbow Dash was just caught in the middle of it.”

Twilight said, “Fluttershy was attacked, Applejack. I don’t think she would do that…unless…no Fluttershy wouldn’t do that.”

“Ah’ve seen it happen to other mare’s Twilight. Heck Ah’ve seen it happen to stallions too. Sometimes after ponies get hurt they try to get the feeling of control and power back ya know. Most times they do like Rarity and hide from the world,” Applejack explained.

Twilight held Fluttershy closer and said, “Look I know all about the psychology of a vic-survivor. But…I mean Fluttershy isn’t the kind to do that to other ponies. Fluttershy is…too kind.”

“Twi, she has been preaching about getting more confidence, and not being a pushover for the past month. She attacked Pinkie Pie for telling her that she was raped, and then she bucked Rainbow…Dash…” Applejack said, her voice trailing off fearfully.

There was a stillness in Fluttershy’s heart as she played Applejack’s words in her head over, and over again. The word, rape, was all that her mind could focus on. Fluttershy wasn’t raped, these ponies knew that she had won the fight right? Fluttershy pulled away from Twilight’s embrace and saw the terrified look in her eyes.

Fluttershy nervously explained, “I wasn’t raped, look I told Rarity not to tell anypony but I beat up our attackers. I killed a few of them I think. I wasn’t hurt too badly, just a concussion…that’s all.”

Fluttershy didn’t remember being hurt, she has only had weird dreams right…dreams that was all. If she had been hurt like that, then she would surely know. And she definitely wouldn’t be okay with touching mares, nor would she be seeking out the intimate company of mares even more than normal…in fact she was almost obsessed with intimacy every time she was with Rarity so she was just fine.

Neither Twilight nor Applejack said anything, and the silence quickly became deafening. After a few long minutes of silence Fluttershy laid down at Twilight’s hooves and asked in a tiny whisper, “was I really r-r-r…hurt?”

Applejack placed a kind hoof on Fluttershy’s back and said, “Yes, sugarcube…you were hurt something aweful, you and Rarity. We’re trying our best to help you two, Ah promise.”

Fluttershy’s entire body should be shaking with fear, but instead it only went numb. Her heart became still, and a deep feeling of loss covered it. Fluttershy laid there not wanting to move, not wanting to eat, not wanting to do…anything. She just wanted to sleep, and never wake up. It felt like everything was over, nothing would ever be worthwhile or good again now would it?

Twilight used her magic to lift Fluttershy off the ground and said, “I’m bringing you somewhere to rest, okay?”

Fluttershy didn’t have the strength to respond anymore, instead she just grunted in compliance. Twilight then took her inside Applejack’s home and there she was laid on Applejacks bed. After a few minutes Fluttershy closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep, there was no point in staying awake any longer, in fact it was pointless to do anything…anything at all.

***

Fluttershy lay on the cold hard ground staring off into nothingness. Her body was in torturous pain, her head was screaming at her, her legs were stinging, her sides were throbbing, and her insides were burning. Her vision was still blurry from the blow they had struck her with at the end, but at least that was beginning to clear. Fluttershy was still facing Rarity, so when her vision finally returned to normal she could see Rarity lying in front of her.

Rarity’s mane was stained with blood, and her eyes were red and purple. Half of her face was covered in crimson as the cut on her face continued spilling over and out onto the ground. Fluttershy was only glad that she didn’t have to see what Rarity looked like from behind, not after what the stallions had done to them. But seeing the dead look in Rarity’s eyes was something that had destroyed Fluttershy, it was almost like nopony was home inside Rarity’s mind.

Fluttershy was still able to think, still able to feel, and still able to move. She pushed with what little strength she had left after the attack, and felt the cuts on her legs screaming in pain. When she finally stood all the way up she looked at Rarity and walked to her side. With great difficulty she lifted Rarity off the ground and onto her back.

Rarity’s blood, and other warm liquids began dripping onto Fluttershy’s back as she carried her. Fluttershy walked with very slow, and very cautious steps out of the back ally. It was getting dark outside, but Fluttershy knew the direction of the hospital and began heading towards it.

If only Fluttershy had been strong enough to fight them, if only she had tried to fight, if only she wasn’t such a pushover. She didn’t fight them though, instead she let them do whatever they wanted to her, by the time she had even realized just how bad this was going to end it was already too late to defend herself. The worst part of all was the way they made Fluttershy watch Rarity, and what they did to her.

The walk to the hospital was either very long with nothing happening, or very quick. It was hard to tell as she continued to black out on the way there. She would be walking, everything would go black, and when she opened her eyes again she was still walking and a little closer to the hospital. When she finally arrived she walked through the doors.

The ponies that were waiting to get in turned their heads and watched in morbid fascination as Fluttershy walked passed them. When Fluttershy arrived to the help desk she saw some nurses and a doctor come out to help her. She helped lay Rarity onto a stretcher and softly kissed her forehead. Fluttershy then looked at the doctor who was talking to her. Everything he said was muddled though, as though Fluttershy was underwater. Fluttershy then closed her eyes, only this time she collapsed into the darkness.

***

Fluttershy opened her eyes and found herself inside a small bed smelling faintly of apples and sweat. Fluttershy enjoyed the mixture of smells and was reminded of Applejack as she lay there in that unfamiliar bed. It took a few minutes before Fluttershy finally made the connection of her dream, and what her friends had said.

She was lying inside of Applejacks bed, or so she assumed. The numb feeling clawed its way through Fluttershy’s heart again taking away any enjoyment she had found in the bed’s scent. Fluttershy just lay there giving in to her depression, she finally knew why she had felt like everything was off, and everything was a lie.

Fluttershy never won that battle in Manehattan, she had lost it, and she had then been forced to watch every single despicable thing that was done to her, and to Rarity. Rarity was forced to watch as well, and even though Rarity had appeared stronger at first in the end it was Rarity who had been broken completely by the act.

Fluttershy knew now that her position was far worse than it had ever been before. She was now nothing but a broken, useless, piece of garbage. Rainbow Dash had deserved something, anything better than her. It was no wonder that Rarity was scared when Fluttershy had begun being intimate with her a few days before. Rarity might never be able to handle such activity again, and the fact that Fluttershy had craved such activities since then only told her one thing; she really was a disgusting piece of trash.

“Honey, how are you feeling?” Rarity asked from Fluttershy’s side.

Fluttershy looked up and saw her love standing before her. Fluttershy felt a small light turn on in her heart as she asked, “How did you get here?”

“The others came over to tell me what happened to you, do you remember?” Rarity asked cautiously.

Fluttershy did, even though she didn’t want too, she did remember. Fluttershy mumbled in response, “I remember everything.”

“Y-y-you know that…um…we still have each other, so it isn’t…life is still worth living if I have you,” Rarity admitted.

Fluttershy looked up into the unicorns gentle blue eyes, and found a sense of peace, and safety there. More so than anything else Fluttershy found a purpose there, her purpose was to take care of Rarity, and Rarity’s was to take care of her. Fluttershy actually found herself smiling a little as she stared into those eyes. After a few long moments of silence Fluttershy finally said, “I love you.”

“I love you too, honey,” Rarity replied, her eyes beginning to water.

Fluttershy forced herself to sit up, the simple motion took every ounce of strength she had plus some that she didn’t. Sitting upright Fluttershy said, “We’ve been destroyed…but…but we don’t have to give up, do we?”

Rarity shook her head and said, “Of course not, in fact my therapist says that I can recover my lost confidence with time. I’m sure the same goes for you too, but I think that maybe all this violent behavior might be-“

Fluttershy cut her off by saying, “I was looking for a way to get my anger out. I failed to keep you safe Rarity, when I was strong enough to stop it, to stop all of it. All I would’ve needed to do was act…and I didn’t. I’m so sorry, Rarity.”

Rarity reached over and gave Fluttershy a one legged hug before saying, “You do not need to apologize to me. In fact…I support everything you have done to try and help yourself. Maybe it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but that ‘thing’ you have been doing, has been helping you deal with your problems. You have even finally accepted the truth of what happened to us.”

“How many times did you all try to tell me what happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“A lot…it’s been over a month since the…attack. You had a terrible concussion for a few weeks though, and you were really weird…it was hard to take care of you but we all did our best,” Rarity explained.

“I don’t remember any concussion, or you girls taking care of me…it’s almost like a black spot in my memory,” Fluttershy explained.

“Well you did have minor brain damage, you seem to have recovered but you were in extreme denial until today,” Twilight said as she entered the bedroom.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight and asked, “How many times did you try to tell me about what happened?”

“Four times. We were being gentle about it, but Pinkie Pie actually sat you down at one point and forced you to hear her out. You broke when she finally made you understand, and then you attacked her. We decided it was best to leave you denial after that…at least until after you tried to date Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained.

Fluttershy looked away and said, “I’m so sorry for what I did to her…I just…I don’t know what I wanted…control maybe, but whatever I wanted I know that I hurt her…it was a mistake but I don’t think she can ever forgive me now.”

“You’re right, I don’t know if I can…but I’m still here for you,” Rainbow Dash said from behind Fluttershy.

Fluttershy turned quickly to face her and saw Rainbow Dash hovering outside the window with a small grin on her face. Rainbow Dash then added, “I’m the element of Loyalty, so of course I’ll still be here for you.”

Fluttershy looked away, and feeling guilty she closed her eyes and said, “I’m sorry…I just hope you don’t mind my relationship with Rarity…”

“Oh I mind…but whoever you want to be with is your business, just…please don’t make me watch you two kiss,” Rainbow Dash half joked. Fluttershy could tell that she really didn’t want to see Rarity and her kissing, and she couldn’t blame Rainbow Dash for that.

“Uh…did Ah miss something?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, did you just say that you two were in a relationship?” Twilight asked.

“Uh duh she just said that, but the real question now is, how far along are you two already? Are you special someponies, or are you engaged, or did you two run of to Los Pegasus and get married already?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Everypony looked over to the wall and on top of Applejack’s dresser sat a grinning Pinkie Pie. Twilight opened her mouth and asked, “How did you get there?”

“I climbed up here silly,” Pinkie Pie explained.

“I meant how did you get in here, you were not here just a second…you know what never mind. I’m better off not knowing how you broke the universe this time,” Twilight said.

Pinkie Pie simply smiled at them. Fluttershy was glad to have her friends around to accept her, to help her through her darkest times, and her recovery. Fluttershy was still depressed, but that feeling of numbness was disappearing by every second she spent in the company of her friends and the company of Rarity especially.

***

The rest of the week was a little uneventful, for some reason Ponyville seemed to have something crazy happen at least once a week, but it was quiet after that. Fluttershy had continued getting closer to Rarity, and Fluttershy somehow managed to make up with Rainbow Dash…sort of. There was still a lot of tension between the two of them, and that tension might never fully disappear but hopefully it would become better in the near future.

The day of the final fight had finally arrived, and Fluttershy had healed up nicely for the fight. Fluttershy now dressed as The Crimson Fighter once again stood in that familiar ring, the ground was hard, flat and covered in a layer of gravel. This match was going to be a true test of the fighters’ skills, and whoever she was going to fight had won just as many matches as she had. This fact alone guarantied her opponent was going to be a strong one indeed.

Fluttershy had considered not coming to the final match, but after much deliberation with herself she came to a conclusion. The fights had stabilized her anger, and helped her work through her pain. She promised Rarity that this would indeed be the final match, after this she would no longer fight for money. After getting all those bits though she could probably afford to treat Rarity like a princess, and that was exactly what she aimed to do.

The final fighter appeared walking down the ramp way leading to the center ring. Fluttershy watched in disbelief as her opponent stood before her. Fluttershy’s opponent was a pegasus with a blue fur coat, and a rainbow colored mane. Her cutie mark was a cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt coming out of it. Fluttershy was about to fight Rainbow Dash.

Chapter Five: The End of Things

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTERSHY
Chapter Five: The End of Things
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Fluttershy stared at Rainbow Dash for what felt like an eternity as questions continuously poured into her mind. Why was Rainbow Dash here? Wouldn’t Rainbow Dash be a better fighter then Fluttershy? Could Fluttershy actually fight Rainbow Dash? Was the money really all worth it?

The last question she at least had an answer for; yes, the money was worth it. Rainbow Dash grinned and asked proudly, “Oh are you an admirer of mine? Part of the Rainbow Dash fan club? That’s cool, I’ll be sure to go easy on you then.”

Fluttershy couldn’t move, she felt like somepony had strapped concrete to her hooves and thrown her off the deep end. This was the worst possible thing that could happen. Quickly Fluttershy began searching the audience and the arena, there had to be some way to get out of this; to her dismay she didn’t see anything giving her ideas as too how to escape.

She stopped searching and her heart stopped beating for a moment as she noticed three particular mare’s in the audience. Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were all seated in the back of the room. This was going to transform into a giant mess no matter what Fluttershy did, and the worst part was that there was no way they could not recognize Fluttershy. There was no possible way that this disguise could actually work on them, right?

The announcer spoke loudly over the audience saying, “Okay folks, this is it, this is the final match of our competition. We have the strong pony of the ring, The Crimson Fighter, who has won all her battles with a unique strength that none of us have seen here before. Her opponent this time is the one, the only, Rainbow Dash. Fastest pony that we have ever had in our competition to date. So get ready to see one of the best beat downs you have ever witnessed here. Three, two, one, FIGHT!”

Within a second of the bell being rung Fluttershy saw Rainbow Dash disappear, then she noticed a blue blur leaving a rainbow colored trail behind as it flew into the sky before it vanished all over again. Next Fluttershy felt a heavy weight slam into her cheek and felt her entire body lift up off the ground. Time stopped just long enough for Fluttershy to see Rainbow Dash hovering in the air with an outstretched foreleg. Fluttershy sailed through the air for one terrifying moment before hitting the hard gravel beneath her and sliding for a few feet.

Screaming burning pain covered Fluttershy’s right side as she lay still trying to comprehend exactly what just happened. Her face luckily felt numb but the burning pain from her side exploded as she tried to stand. For another moment she lay there and watched Rainbow Dash hovering in the air with a smirk worn on her face. Something warm and wet trailed down her left nostril and down to her lips, she tasted the copper flavor of blood.

The announcer took a moment but then began calling out, “Ten, nine, eight,”

Rainbow Dash just hovered there with that smirk before throwing her hooves up into the air. Fluttershy tried again to move and her side exploded into even more pain.

“Seven, six, five.”

Rainbow Dash turned around and bowed to the audience. Fluttershy came up with the only plan she could think of to win this fight, the only thing that she could do, and she hated herself for it.

“Four, three, two,”

Rainbow Dash set all four hooves onto the ground and bowed once more to the erratic cheers of the crowd all around her. Fluttershy leapt off the ground and charged towards Rainbow Dash. Pain exploded across her entire side, she could feel the gravel digging its way deeper into her exposed wounds but she pushed herself even more than ever before.

Rainbow Dash began to turn around but was far too late as Fluttershy tackled her onto the ground, grinding her friends torso and belly into the gravel beneath them. Rainbow Dash tried to struggle but Fluttershy quickly head butted Rainbow Dash in the back of the head, sending Rainbow Dash’s head forward and straight into the ground. Fluttershy then quickly moved over to Rainbow Dash’s exposed left wing and jumped on it!

Fluttershy heard a sickening crunch and for a moment a dead silence took hold of the arena, but only for a moment did the silence last as Rainbow Dash’s scream quickly filled the entire arena. Fluttershy had never heard Rainbow Dash scream like that before, and so she quickly stepped away only to see the blood trailing down the blue wing, and the bone sticking out. Rainbow Dash stopped screaming and her head fell hard against the ground. Fluttershy looked down at her own two hooves and felt something inside of her beginning to break.

She hadn’t meant to hurt Rainbow Dash like that, not like that. Oh Celestia, Rainbow Dash would never forgive Fluttershy if it was ever found out that it was her who did this. The worst part was that by the extent of the injury, this might have just ruined Rainbow Dash’s ability to fly properly for the rest of her life. Fluttershy continued backing away and a terrible shaking began taking hold of her.

Suddenly the announcer began counting again, “Ten, nine, eight, wait what the hell are you doing? Get the fuck off of me you stupid fucker. Guards it’s the royal guards, everypony run…”

Fluttershy looked up and saw a lone unicorn running with three guards on his tail, and the crowds stopped cheering. Guards began pouring in from every doorway and the crowds pushed and fought against them while trying to run away. Next Twilight and the others teleported in a flash of pink light down to the arena right next to their fallen friend. Fluttershy looked at them and saw the amount of hatred that Applejack held in her gaze, the fearful look in Twilight’s eyes as she tried to wake Rainbow Dash up, and the destroyed look in Pinkie’s as Pinkie stared straight at Fluttershy.

Applejack began trotting over angrily towards Fluttershy while saying, “How dare you hurt mah friend. Ah am gonna put you into a world of hurt for this, Crimson!”

Fluttershy looked up and saw the windows in the ceiling, she hadn’t noticed them before because they were so small, not to mention her attention was usually drawn to more important matters. Right now however she was one overjoyed pony to see those windows, and she jumped into the air, her side might be screaming in pain but she flapped her wings and took off as fast as she could. Her side stung with every flap of her wings but she pushed onward until she reached the window, but it was shut. Wasting no time she put her hooves up to cover her face and she flew through the window shattering the glass on impact and cutting herself all over her forelegs.

Once on the other side she stopped only long enough to examine her sides and saw the large patches of red across her body. Her legs, side, and flank were missing large patches of skin and blood was seeping out and over trailing down her sides. She nearly threw up at the sight of her own body, on top of what she had done to her best friend sinking in. She landed on the roof for a second and fought with the urge to vomit with every ounce of strength she had left in her.

“Freeze!” called out a strong stallion’s voice from behind.

Fluttershy turned to see a group of three pegasi guards flying towards her, and without hesitation she ran forward and leapt off the building into a nose dive. She gained speed as she fell towards the ground, and just before hitting the earth she spread her wings and caught herself. She continued flying off into the local forest at high speeds, but the guards were hot on her tail.

Fluttershy’s wing was stinging from the wind resistance as she flew, she just knew that there had to be some large scrapes on it as well. She continued flying and the guards began catching up as her speed died down. She knew that they would catch her soon and probably hurt her, just like those stallions from Manehattan. Tears began to stream down the sides of her face as she cursed herself for entering this competition.

Fluttershy felt herself slowing down more and she cringed as the pain increased. Suddenly she noticed a familiar flock of bats flying just above her, and another plan went through her mind. She looked up at them and shouted, “Please help me, Leo, I know you’re up there. Please help me!”

The bats flying above her stopped for a second and suddenly came flying down towards her at breakneck speeds. The guards were right on her tail at this point, and Fluttershy’s capture was imminent; or at least it would’ve been if not for Fluttershy’s bat friends. Fluttershy ducked her head as the bats flew right over her head and across her back before slamming themselves against her pursuers faces. The guards stopped practically dead in their tracks as they fought off the swarm of the fiercely loyal bats. Needless to say, Fluttershy managed to fly away and lose the guards.

Fluttershy only had one place to go to right now, with her wing, face, and side in this bad of shape. Rarity was going to be upset, but at the very least Fluttershy would be able to explain what happened to Rarity first, before the others arrived. It looked like getting the money was impossible at this point.

***

A couple of hours later Fluttershy laid on her uninjured side in Rarity’s bathtub while Rarity carefully took care of the wounds. Rarity levitated a pair of tweezers and carefully picked out each and every piece of gravel from Fluttershy’s side. Every single time, no matter how careful Rarity was trying to be, it would hurt when the tweezers picked the gravel out of her exposed flesh. Fluttershy cringed, followed by a whimper as she cried into the crimson stained tub.

“I can’t believe that they did this too you, honey. I just hope that the other pony got it just as bad,” Rarity said while working carefully.

Fluttershy hadn’t been able to speak any words other then, ‘I’m sorry’ ‘please make it better’, and ‘it hurts’ since she arrived. Now however after having chewed on several more pain killers then she was supposed to, and drinking some of Rarity’s secret stash of whisky, Fluttershy felt more like talking.

“I… my opponent was hurt bad,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m glad, they deserve it for hurting my special somepony like that,” Rarity replied.

“I broke their wing.”

“They can deal with it.”

“It was Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

Rarity’s eyes shot wide open and the tweezers fell onto her open wound causing Fluttershy to scream in pain. Rarity quickly grabbed them with her magic and lifted them away while saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please forgive me.”

After the pain subsided back into a dull throb Fluttershy laid her head down into the tub and said, “Don’t worry, after what I did, I deserve it.”

“Was it really Rainbow Dash? She did ‘this’ to you?” Rarity asked in disbelief.

Fluttershy thought about it for a moment and closed her eyes before saying, “Rainbow Dash was my opponent and I hurt her bad. The guards broke down the doors and began arresting ponies after that, and I fled. Rainbow Dash, and Twilight, and Applejack, and even Pinkie Pie were all there and none of them recognized me. Applejack was going to kill me if I didn’t run away like I did.”

“I… I had heard that Twilight was planning on doing something big, but I wasn’t able to join. It’s too hard to go outside the house still,” Rarity said quietly. “I just can’t believe that this was what they were up to. We should explain what happened as soon as possible.”

“NO!” Fluttershy shouted. Her breathing was rapid and her side surged with pain again. Fluttershy forced herself to calm down before saying, “We can’t tell them no matter what. I hurt Rainbow Dash, and I hurt her really, really, really badly. She might never fly straight again.”

Rarity was quiet for a long time after that as she did her best to clean out the gravel from Fluttershy’s wounds. Finally Rarity pulled out the alcohol and said, “This is going to hurt my dear, a lot.”

Fluttershy braced herself for the pain but still she screamed when Rarity began pouring the alcohol over the wounds. She felt the burning liquid and began crying softly afterwards. Too many things had happened today and she just wanted this day to be over. After it was over Rarity kissed Fluttershy gently on the forehead and said, “I love you with all my heart, and I’m so sorry that I have to be the one to do this to you.”

Fluttershy stopped crying long enough to say, “I love you too, thank you for taking care of a worthless pony like me.”

“You are not worthless, you mean everything to me… and I promise not to tell anypony about you’re secret identity, on one condition,” Rarity said. “Never do this again, no more fighting in these underground tournaments.”

“Okay, I promise not to ever enter one of these things again,” Fluttershy swore.

“Good,” Rarity said. “Now we can start on officially making a life together.”

Fluttershy sniffled and said, “That sounds good, I’d like that.”

Rarity smiled softly at Fluttershy and then beautiful white mare went to finishing her work on Fluttershy’s injuries. After that Rarity helped carefully take Fluttershy to the bed, but every single movement caused the pegasus grievous amounts of pain. After lying down in Rarity’s bed Fluttershy found herself falling fast asleep, her exhaustion simply caught up to her and she slipped off into the darkness without hesitation. In the morning she would deal with everything, but for now she surrendered herself to Princess Luna and the night.

***

That night was filled with nightmares of monsters, pain, and worst of all, dreams of Fluttershy finding new ways to torture Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy would wake up every couple of hours in pain only to find Rarity sleeping next to her, sometimes Rarity would wake up too and ask if Fluttershy was okay, Fluttershy found herself unable to say yes, but there wasn’t anything that Rarity could do to make the pain she felt in her heart feel any better. That pain was going to be there for a long time, maybe even for life.

When it finally came around to the next day Fluttershy found herself lying in the bed but this time without Rarity by her side. A deep sense of loneliness crept over Fluttershy’s heart but with how hollow she felt inside she just laid unmoving and silent. It felt like hours passed before a growing sensation inside of her finally forced Fluttershy to attempt moving, which was a bad idea. The second Fluttershy tried moving the pain from her now bandaged wounds shot through her and she gave a yelp.

Only a few moments passed by before she decided to call out for the only pony who could help her now, “RARITY!”

Fluttershy heard something heavy hit the floor and the sounds of somepony racing up the stairs and towards the bed room. The door swung open with dire speed and Rarity stood there asking in a desperate tone, “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Fluttershy was quiet for a moment before mumbling something in response.

Rarity walked closer and asked, “What’s wrong? Please tell me so I can help you.”

“I need…”

“Yes?’

“I need…”

“Anything you need I’ll get it for you,” Rarity begged.

“I need to pee,” Fluttershy answered shamefully.

Rarity stood still for a moment before shaking her head and saying, “Oh… okay, um alright. I’ll help you.”

“Thanks,” Fluttershy replied quietly. Fluttershy feared that there was going to be a lot more of these moments in the near future, and she would just have to resign herself to being taken care of by such a kind mare. Fluttershy began to question just how long she was going to be a burden on Rarity, and she was afraid that this could last for a long time. Hopefully though, she would get better soon.

***

The next few of days Rarity spent going to Fluttershy’s cottage to take care of the animals, going to the hospital to visit Rainbow Dash, and then finally doing her best to take care of Fluttershy. The injuries were healing, but they still hurt her every time she moved, and so walking anywhere by herself had become nearly impossible. Even with Rarity’s help it was difficult to actually get around the boutique.

Three days after the fight Fluttershy was sitting down inside of Rarity’s kitchen and slowly eating a bowl of cereal with the spoon held in her left hoof. Rarity was working on a dress in the main room and watching Fluttershy carefully. Rarity had been so nice to Fluttershy, but Fluttershy still felt badly for making her lover worry so much. Fluttershy vowed to make this up to her somehow.

Everything was quiet and peaceful, at least until the front door was kicked in suddenly and the blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane trotted through like she owned the place. Rarity suddenly jumped up and stammered, “B-b-but the building is closed. You can’t come barging in like that.”

“So what, you’re like not excited to see me strutting my stuff with a brand new and fully healed wing?” Rainbow Dash proclaimed while marching circles around the confused white unicorn.

Fluttershy would have hidden herself if moving away from the table from was at all possible. Unfortunately her entire body hurt too badly to move fast enough for Rainbow Dash not to notice her, and just like she feared Rainbow Dash did notice her.

“What the hay happened to you Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said while trotting up to injured yellow pegasus.

Fluttershy turned her head to the side and refusing to make eye contact said meekly, “I… um… fell.”

“It looks more like you were run over by a wagon. Those are some nasty looking injuries. You should ask Twilight to get you some help, Princess Cadence actually came down here to Ponyville to heal my wing. She’s awesome,” Rainbow Dash explained. After a moment Rainbow Dash added quietly, “Guess this is the reason that you didn’t come to visit me in the hospital. For a few days there I just thought that you still hated me… it made me think a lot about our friendship, and Fluttershy I just wanted to say that I value our friendship a whole lot. I don’t mind if you and Rarity are a thing now, in fact I’m happy for you. So please don’t stop being my friend just because I’m a total bitch sometimes.”

Fluttershy’s already fragile heart shattered at listening to Rainbow Dash and there was no stopping the tears from sliding down her face. Fluttershy nodded and said, “I don’t think I could live with myself if you stopped being my friend. Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, I... I hurt you just as badly when I broke up with you, so we’re even now,” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry,” Fluttershy repeated, this time her gaze trailed to Rainbow Dash’s healed wing. A small scar could still be seen from where the bone had broken through.

Rainbow Dash smiled and said, “Flutters, I told you that it was cool, seriously.”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said one last time, her voice cracking.

Rainbow Dash coked her head to the side and jumped into the air hovering for a moment before saying, “Dude, stop apologizing…” Rainbow Dash stared hard at Fluttershy for a moment before asking slowly, “How did you get hurt again.”

“I fell,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew serious and her expression darker as she said, “You’re lying. Now tell me, what happened.”

Fluttershy looked away and said, “I fell.”

“Who did this to you, Fluttershy? I swear I’ll kill them for this,” Rainbow Dash said while flying around so that she was in Fluttershy’s face.

Fluttershy leaned back and said, “Please don’t.”

Rainbow Dash backed off and crossed her forelegs while saying, “I’ll find them, and then I’ll beat them senseless for hurting you. I know that you refuse to use any of that martial arts training we did as kids, but you need to defend yourself, or at least try to.”

A sudden rage flared up in Fluttershy, how dare Rainbow Dash accuse her of being beaten because she refused to stand up for herself. Was that what Rainbow Dash believed happened in Manehattan too? Unable to contain her anger Fluttershy retorted with, “Yeah well I did defend myself this time. After they did this to me, I broke their wing!”

Rainbow Dash stared in silence for a moment, and then her eyes slowly grew wide with realization. Suddenly Rarity said, “You have to leave my house right now. All of you, I want to be alone with Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked over to the entrance of the kitchen to see Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack standing in the doorway. Rainbow Dash sat down onto the kitchen floor hard and began shaking violently. Pinkie Pie just stared at Fluttershy with those same sad eyes from the arena.

Pinkie Pie’s heart sounded utterly destroyed as she said, “I thought that it was you, I prayed that it was a mistake, but it really was… wasn’t it?”

Twilight Sparkle quietly said, “Those injuries… those look like they match with that pony.”

Applejack took a step forward and glaring at Fluttershy said, “You did that to Rainbow? What in tarnation made you do that to her?”

Fluttershy shot a glare back at Applejack and growled, to everyponies surprise Applejack actually took a step back away from Fluttershy. “She was going to kill me! I had to stop her from flying somehow, it’s not like I meant to break her wing, I mean look at what she had already did to me before I could make a move!”

Fluttershy jumped down from her chair to make her stand against Applejack, however she had forgotten that she was injured and the second her hooves touched the ground her entire right side exploded in pain. Fluttershy let out a terrible scream of agony and fell over onto her injured side which only made her scream louder. With tears streaming down her face Fluttershy began sobbing onto the floor and the only words she could mutter were, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Rarity quickly galloped to Fluttershy’s side and using her magic, and a foreleg, she picked up Fluttershy off the ground and laid her down on her opposite side. Everypony gasped when they saw her injuries, and when Fluttershy looked she could only sobbed louder. Almost all of the bandages were quickly turning red, her injuries had reopened and now Rarity was going to have to work all over again to patch Fluttershy up.

“Applejack, go get some hot water. Pinkie Pie get some towels from Rarity’s bathroom, make sure they are clean. Rainbow Dash get away from Fluttershy, and go get Doctor Horse, quickly before she bleeds out anymore,” Twilight demanded from the others. Without hesitation everypony went to work doing exactly as Twilight told them, Twilight walked up and said, “Rarity, get all the medical supplies that you have left. I’m going to see what I can do here.”

Rarity nodded and gave one last sad look to Fluttershy before trotting upstairs after Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy just laid there sobbing, her side burned with new pain. Her friends had just found out what a terrible pony she really was, and yet they were still choosing to help her. She had expected them to be angry, but their worry only made Fluttershy feel worse than before, now she just wanted to die, even if her friends could somehow forgive her, she could never forgive herself for what she’d done.

***

A few hours passed by and Fluttershy found herself with new bandages, and lying on Rarity’s bed all over again. This time Doctor Horse, and Nurse Red Heart had stayed outside the room talking to everypony for a very long time before finally leaving. Fluttershy finally decided that it was time to give up, and closed her eyes, if for any reason she died now she would be fine with that.

When the door opened up and three nervous ponies walked in Fluttershy wasn’t surprised when at first they stood around in complete silence. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity didn’t speak, instead they just stared and after a few minutes of the awkward silence Fluttershy finally spoke up saying quietly, “Go ahead and disown me now. I deserve it.”

“No you don’t,” Rainbow Dash explained, shocking Fluttershy. “I hurt you, and I hurt you badly. You were right, if you had tried to fight me normally then I could have killed you. That surprise attack was your only shot at beating me, and it worked. I… it hurts to know that you were the one who broke my wing, but at the same time what I was willing to do to you wasn’t any better.”

“I broke your wing, your wing, Rainbow Dash. I know that being a wonderbolt is your dream, and I was about to take that away from you!” Fluttershy responded angrily. She couldn’t accept Rainbow Dash’s pity, not like this. Fluttershy knew that she had to suffer for what she did to her friend, and she had to suffer badly before it would be okay.

“Fluttershy, I forgive you,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I refuse to accept that, you can’t just forgive me. I did the worst thing that could possibly happen to you, and now I need to be punished,” Fluttershy nearly screamed back at her.

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof hard into the floor and shouted, “YOU HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH ALREADY!”

A moment of silence passed by before Rainbow Dash added, “You have been raped, had your heart broken by me, and now you have been hurt so badly that you won’t heal properly. You have suffered enough, Fluttershy, now please just stop punishing yourself.”

“I couldn’t protect Rarity, how can I stop?” Fluttershy asked her tone becoming pleading.

“Because we both suffered from that,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy looked at her marefriend and met her eyes. She stared deeply into Rarity’s eyes and let out a whimper as she began shaking all over again. After a long moment Fluttershy began to think about Rainbow Dash’s words prompting her to ask quietly, “What do you mean I won’t heal properly?”

Twilight stepped forwards and explained, “Fluttershy, you’re going to have some major scaring across large sections of your body. One day your fur will grow long enough to cover most of it, but that will take a very long time. The worst part is that your cutie mark was damaged, and I swear that I’ll do everything in my power to fix it, but I don’t know if it will ever look normal again.”

A sudden sinking feeling hit Fluttershy and her heart shattered again, she could accept scars, she could accept being broken, but her cutie mark being damaged? That was beyond acceptable. Fluttershy began shaking violently, which only agitated her wounds and hurt her. Fluttershy’s breathing increased as well with no signs of stopping.

“Fluttershy, calm down. Please calm down,” Rarity begged.

Fluttershy tried but she couldn’t. “My, my, my cutie mark? I-I-I won’t, I can’t, why?”

Fluttershy’s destiny, her identity, everything that she was, was in that little magical mark on her flanks and if it was damaged. Fluttershy’s breathing became even more rapid and the world began spinning around her.

“Fluttershy, it’s only the right side that’s damaged. The left side is just fine. Please calm down,” Rarity begged, tears running down the unicorn’s cheeks.

The world suddenly became white and Fluttershy’s head fell against the pillow. The world drifted away and she felt herself slip away into unconsciousness.

***

The next few days were the most difficult on Fluttershy, even after receiving several healing treatments from Twilight Sparkle and Doctor Horse, Fluttershy’s scars were still fairly visible. Even Princess Cadence came down at some point to attempt healing Fluttershy’s scar tissue, but it still persisted. Rarity however bonded more with Fluttershy than ever before, and even after Fluttershy could walk on her own again, she continued sleeping with Rarity at the boutique.

Every single time that Fluttershy hung out with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy would notice Rainbow Dash wearing a sad expression as she stared at Fluttershy’s cutie mark. The scar tissue had distorted the cutie mark on her right flank, and although from a distance it wasn’t very noticeable, up close it was clear that it was damaged.

It took a long time but everypony started to act normally around Fluttershy again, or at least as normal as things were going to be. Finally Fluttershy was beginning to feel a little better about herself now that she had time to think about everything. She had fought tough battles, and won. She had found love, lost it, but found it again only stronger. Finally she had managed to by some miracle make up with her friends for all the rotten things she had done.

On one fateful night a week after the fight with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy was sitting inside of Rarity’s kitchen and sowing a tiny sweater for a mouse. The sweater was red with a little brown dog on the back, although because she had messed up it looked more like a wolf. Fluttershy heard the back door open and she quickly spun around only to see a strangely familiar face.

Fluttershy’s virtual doppelganger with a long red mane stared back at her while holding a sack in between her teeth. Carmine Savant dropped the bag on the floor and it made a loud jingle as it landed and said, “I had a hell of a time getting this from that cheating jerk who runs the competition, but I finally did it. Here’s your cut, ten thousand bits.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she stammered, “T-t-ten thousand?”

“Yep, I thought that because of the sting operation that he owed me a little more. Don’t worry I already got my cut of the profits stored somewhere safe,” Carmine replied.

“But what do I do with all that money?” Fluttershy asked in astonishment.

“I don’t know, go spend it on a house or something. Seriously, I’m not gonna tell ya what to do with it all. I’ll be going now though, and I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again so this is good bye I guess,” Carmine said while looking back towards the door.

Fluttershy sat down and looked at the bag with a hard expression, she then looked back up at Carmine and said, “Thank you, I don’t know what I’ll do with it all, but thank you.”

“No problem, I might be a brutal savage, but I’m no cheat. I promised you half the profits for taking my place, and so I delivered,” Carmine said before turning and walking towards the door.

“Wait,” Fluttershy called out. “Where are you going?”

Carmine smiled and said, “That would ruin the mystery. Maybe I’ll go north, to the Crystal Empire? Or maybe I’ll go south to Saddle Arabia? Or maybe I’ll do neither.” with that said Carmine Savant walked out the back door and disappeared from Fluttershy’s life. Fluttershy believed deep in her heart though that Carmine was going to be okay, but then again with ten thousand bits on hoof, why wouldn’t she be?

Fluttershy took the money and trotted up to Rarity’s bed room where the white unicorn was sleeping. Fluttershy carefully set the bag down against the inside of the room and closed the door before climbing into bed with Rarity. Fluttershy got herself all snug and comfy underneath the covers before facing Rarity and to her surprise she saw the unicorn staring at her with a slight blush.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“N-n-not exactly. I um… was busy,” Rarity explained. “And you interrupted me.”

Fluttershy felt a little confused but apologized anyway, “I’m sorry. I’ll be quieter next time.”

Rarity stretched out her right foreleg and brushed her hoof against Fluttershy’s flank and said, “Maybe you can help me, since you interrupted me after all.” Fluttershy felt something wet, warm, and sticky coating her fur from whatever was covering Rarity’s hoof. Fluttershy resisted the urge to push the hoof away as it slid down Fluttershy’s flank and rested on her belly button.

“What are you-“ Fluttershy began but never finished as Rarity slid her hoof down and across Fluttershy’s marehood.

Fluttershy laid still for a moment in disbelief as Rarity began gently rubbing the outside of Fluttershy’s sensitive vagina. Slowly Fluttershy’s leg’s spread apart seemingly by themselves allowing Rarity to more easily play with her. Rarity began parting Fluttershy’s lips and allowing the cool air to hit against the hot inside’s before closing them again and continuing to tease Fluttershy. Rarity gave Fluttershy a gentle kiss on the mouth, and then another much more deeper one, never once removing her hoof.

Rarity moved over and pushed Fluttershy onto her back before saying, “I’ve been far too scared, for far too long. Tonight, I’m going to treat you like a classy unicorn mare should treat her lover.”

Rarity slowly moved her head down in between Fluttershy’s legs and using her hooves she parted Fluttershy’s lips again, only this time she breathed hot, heavy breaths against Fluttershy’s sensitive marehood. Fluttershy began squirming impatiently as the need to be touched increased with every breath, and finally just when Fluttershy thought that she couldn’t take it anymore she felt a hot, wet tongue slid across her open marehood. Fluttershy moaned with pure pleasure before Rarity repeated the act and after several more licks, Fluttershy lost herself in the ecstasy of the moment.

They continued this way for the rest of the night, and eventually Fluttershy even got to give back to Rarity, which was a wonderful experience all in itself. After they were through Fluttershy and Rarity held each other and quickly fell asleep in one another’s loving embrace. Life had been hard on Fluttershy, but at long last it was looking like life would actually start picking up again. Now the only question that remained was; what would they do with all that money?

THE END

Chapter Three: Reality Hits Hard

THE BLACKLIT TALE OF FIGHTER SHY
Chapter Three: Reality Hits Hard
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Fluttershy lay on her back holding Rainbow Dash tightly. This wasn’t exactly how she imagined things would go after they made love for the first time, and it was starting to bother her deeply. Rainbow Dash had begun crying after they finished, and she didn’t stop crying until she fell asleep in Fluttershy’s legs. Still Fluttershy could hear Rainbow Dash crying in her sleep, as she held on tightly.

Fluttershy eventually got out of the bed and took a good whiff of her room. Something reeked in her room and after searching for a few seconds she found the scent belonged to her, and Rainbow Dash. They must have had done a lot if this was how strong their scent was afterwards. Fluttershy moved the window and cracked it open; after all they did, she needed to air out the room.

The next thing Fluttershy did was take a nice hot bath and clean herself thoroughly. After that she finally found herself able to get some sleep, but her dreams were filled with nothing but nightmares of pain, and monsters.

***

The next day Fluttershy woke up all alone, but then again Fluttershy woke up a little late. She moved on to her own agenda for the day, there were few things she needed to do around town. Fluttershy still couldn’t get the memory of Rainbow Dash crying like that out of her head. Why would Rainbow Dash act that way, did Fluttershy do something wrong, or was there something wrong with Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy couldn’t figure it out by herself, and she only knew one pony who had any more experience in this field then she did.

The walk to Rarity’s house was a rather quiet one, and it was pleasing to stand out in the cool wind. When Fluttershy entered Rarity’s shop she found the unicorn working on another dress. The bandage was still on her face, every time Fluttershy saw the bandage her heart began to hurt. She felt guilty over having not been able to help Rarity sooner.

“Fluttershy, darling…is there anything I could help you with,” Rarity asked.

“I…um…I uh…I have a personal question to ask you,” Fluttershy asked timidly.

“Anything for you my dear,” Rarity offered.

Fluttershy took a moment to collect herself before very asking, “is it normal to cry after sex?”

Rarity stopped working on the dress, her sewing needle fell to the floor and she turned around very slowly asking, “I’m sorry…but I believe I misheard you...did you just ask if it was normal to cry after…”

Fluttershy nodded vigorously hopping to avoid needed to answer any questions from Rarity. There was an awkward silence filling the air for a few long moments before Rarity finally said, “sometimes…but in order to answer your question, I would need to know more about the circumstance…but I don’t think I am the right pony for this con-“

“I had sex with Rainbow Dash last night, and she began crying afterwards and now I’m worried that I did something wrong,” Fluttershy admitted quickly; her face warming up from embarrassment.

Rarity’s bottom lip began to quiver for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and recomposed herself before saying, “okay…so Rainbow Dash was crying huh…well darling it’s pretty simple why she would be crying. Every relationship she has had so far has fallen apart in the worst ways. First it was Gilda, then it was Lightning Dust…so she is probably scared to death of ruining her friendship with you.” Rarity was quiet for a moment before asking, “so…you love Rainbow Dash, don’t you?”

Fluttershy nodded and explained, “I have…had feelings for her for a long time now…but last night wasn’t like how I imagined it would be.”

Rarity sighed and said, “and here I was still holding out some manner of hope that you were slightly interested in somepony else…”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to ask Rarity what she had meant when Rarity quickly added, “and how about you and Pinkie Pie, did you two make up yet?”

It took a few seconds for Fluttershy to adjust to the new question and realize what Rarity was asking. “Oh…yes, or I mean…we should be…I know that getting angry at her was…um…terrible of me…I shouldn’t have done that.”

“And what about punching her in the face? Did you apologize for that?” Rarity asked.

Fluttershy’s heart skipped a beat. There was no way that Fluttershy had hurt Pinkie Pie…not like that. All Fluttershy did was almost yell at her, and even that wasn’t too serious. Fluttershy tried to think back to the day Pinkie had made Fluttershy mad…and she was having a hard time recalling exactly what happened.

Fluttershy laid down and covered her head as a terrible fear crawled along her heart with sharp claws. Something was horribly wrong and she had no idea what it was, Fluttershy looked up at Rarity with pleading eyes and begged, “what happened between us?”

Rarity took a step forward and stopped. Rarity looked at Fluttershy with a careful expression before saying, “darling…what do you remember happening at Pinkie’s?”

“I was coming in to buy a piece of cake…and Pinkie Pie said something…um…maybe it was about animals being injured. And the next thing I remember I was leaving mad because she said something mean…I went to Twilight for help after that,” Fluttershy explained.

Rarity then asked, “and what do you remember of what happened to us in Manehattan?”

“We got mugged, almost. I stopped them all, and saved you…but I was too late to stop them from cutting your face…I’m so sorry,” Fluttershy said. She couldn’t tell why, but for some reason every word that had just come out of her mouth felt wrong, almost like a dirty lie.

“So you truly don’t remember the hospital? What about your concussion?” Rarity asked.

Fluttershy looked up into Rarity’s eyes and saw a lingering pain in them, something was wrong. Fluttershy didn’t remember any hospital, or a concussion but she did get hit pretty hard…so maybe she got one during the fight. Fluttershy shook her head and asked, “what happened at the hospital?”

Rarity laid down and looked on the verge of tears as she explained, “we have tried to explain it to you several times now…and each time you have had…poor reactions. When Pinkie Pie sat you down and forced you understand what had happened to us…well you attacked her.”

That couldn’t be true, it had to be a lie. Fluttershy would never hurt one of her friends. She stood up, a flash of anger overtook her and she screamed, “AND WHAT EXACTLY DID SHE TELL ME! WHAT COULD SHE SAY TO MAKE ME ATTACK HER!”

Rarity flinched back, her eyes grew wide in terror and Fluttershy stood there. The anger that was in her faded quickly, and was replaced by a deep fear, a fear of herself. Fluttershy took a few steps back and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell…oh Celestia I’m so sorry.”

Fluttershy turned and fled out the door, leaving Rarity behind. She couldn’t risk endangering one of her best and closest friends. Fluttershy wanted so badly to go home and cry, but she couldn’t do that just yet. She still had to make this up to Pinkie Pie in any way possible.

***

Pinkie Pie was working the Sugarcube Corner counter like usual, and she was looking in just as poor condition as the day before. Fluttershy walked towards her and said, “Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie Pie turned to face her, her eye grew wide, the other one didn’t open as wide. There was a new bandage on Pinkie’s nose. Pinkie’s ears flattened as she took a few nervous steps back and said, “Fluttershy…what…um…what can I do to help you?”

The fear was clearly etched into Pinkie’s face, she was scared of Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked away shamefully and said, “I’m sorry…I never meant to hurt you…I don’t know what happened, I don’t even remember attacking you…if there is anything I could ever do to make this up to you…please let me.”

Pinkie Pie’s ears stood up a little and her eyes softened as she asked, “do…do you really mean it?”

Fluttershy nodded. Pinkie Pie gave Fluttershy a tiny smile and explained, “I’ve never had anypony punch me before…I know that what I did was wrong now…I won’t ever do it again…but if you are serious about me forgiving you…well just follow me.”

Pinkie Pie turned and shouted towards the kitchen, “Misses Cake, I’m taking my break.”

After a second Misses Cake walked out and said, “okay, Pinkie Pie. Take as long as you need.”

Pinkie Pie then nodded for Fluttershy to follow her upstairs.

***

Pinkie Pie shut her bedroom door behind Fluttershy and said, “okay, I already forgive you, but if you are serious about making this up to me, then I want to show you something. Something that I discovered a long time ago thanks to Dash. It will calm you down when you are angry, cheer you up when you are depressed, and help you feel better when you are in pain. It’s a little herb that grows in the Everfree. Zecora sells it to adults sometimes, I order some to keep my depression from getting to me.”

“You’re depressed?” Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie walked over to her bed and pulled out a small shoe box. She then walked over and sat across from Fluttershy before setting the box down in between the two of them. Pinkie Pie then said, “yeah…I have some major depression, and…well you saw a little bit of it once. Thankfully I have this stuff to keep me from falling apart again. I think it will help you too.”

Pinkie Pie opened the box and revealed a small white pipe, and a plastic zip lock bag containing some ground up blue stuff, it reminded Trixie of tobacco. Pinkie Pie took the pipe and put some of the blue stuff in it and explained, “this is called a pipe, and you use it to smoke stuff with. Um, and this stuff is pretty good for you, it’s got some funky zebra name but I just call it Smokey Joke. I’ll show you how to use it properly and all…it should be fun.”

Fluttershy didn’t like the idea of smoking, even if it was one of Zecora’s medicinal brews. At this point though; she was willing to do anything to make it up too Pinkie Pie; even if it meant smoking some weird blue stuff with her. Fluttershy nodded and said, “I’ll give it a try…for you.”

***

About ten minutes later Fluttershy found herself leaning back against Pinkie’s bed frame and staring up at the ceiling. The pipe was in one hoof and she blew out another blue colored cloud of smoke. Fluttershy giggled at the blue colored smoke, it was silly. Her entire body and brain felt more relaxed than ever before, and she wished she would have known about this along time ago.

“So do you like it?” Pinkie asked next to her.

Fluttershy passed the pipe over to Pinkie and said, “Pinkie Pie…this is like…the most awesome thing ever.”

Pinkie took a puff of the smoke, held it in for a few seconds and the released her own cloud of blue smoke. Pinkie’s eyes had a fait blue glow to them, a side effect of smoking this stuff. Fluttershy giggled again, and Pinkie joined in. As Pinkie passed the pipe back over to Fluttershy she said, “I’ll bring you your own pipe and baggy of this stuff later. I’ll have Z write a label on it, cus I don’t remember its real name for crap.”

Fluttershy giggled a little and said, “crap,” she giggled again at how silly that word was. As Fluttershy sucked in another deep breath from the pipe she wondered in amazement at how, not any longer than ten minutes ago she was upset over all sorts of things. And now she was feeling happy, relaxed and peaceful.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie relaxed and continued smoking like this for awhile until they both got extremely hungry. Pinkie Pie decided it was time to go eat some cake with Fluttershy. There was no arguing with free cake.

***

A few days passed by uneventfully. Fluttershy had not seen Rainbow Dash since the night she had spent with her, and now it felt to Fluttershy like Rainbow Dash might’ve not been interested in her in the first place. Fluttershy was very thankful for Pinkie’s gift, as the Smoky Joke was the only thing keeping Fluttershy from having a total breakdown. But there was one problem; whatever Rainbow Dash had done to Fluttershy’s body had made her libido over active, and now all she wanted to do was find Rainbow Dash and be intimate with her all over again.

Fluttershy stood in her kitchen placing a small bowl of delicious greens, and carrots in front of Angel Bunny. Angel crossed his legs and gave Fluttershy an angry stare. Fluttershy lowered her head to be on eye level with the bunny as she explained, “I am not going to make you a special treat everyday Angel. I really don’t mind making one for you every once in a while, but right now I don’t feel up to it.”

Angel looked away and pushed the meal away with a foot. Fluttershy let out a sigh and pulled away saying, “fine, you don’t have to eat if you are not feeling hungry. But I refuse to make you anything else right now. If you really don’t want it, then you don’t have to eat.” Fluttershy then walked away and took notice as Angel Bunny reluctantly began eating the salad she had prepared for him.

Fluttershy heard somepony knocking at the door, and she imagined Rainbow Dash finally coming back to her. Fluttershy ran to the door and swung it open. She saw Rainbow Dash standing there. Fluttershy’s heart was soaring as she said, “Rainbow, I missed you so much. Where have you been?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t meet Fluttershy’s gaze as she explained, “Fluttershy…I…I think we made a…”

Fluttershy’s body was still craving Rainbow Dash’s touch, and now she knew that if she could only make their intimacy better then Rainbow Dash would feel better. Fluttershy turned around and wrapped her tail around Rainbow Dash’s neck, pulling her inside the house. Rainbow Dash didn’t follow at first as she said, “Fluttershy, no. We can’t…what is that smell?”

Rainbow Dash looked down at Fluttershy’s rump and her eyes widened, Fluttershy knew that she had been waiting impatiently for Rainbow Dash’s touch. Fluttershy’s hooves were no where as nice as Rainbow Dash’s, and pleasing herself had been unfulfilling these last few days.

Fluttershy’s face was warming up a little as Rainbow Dash continued to stare, but her lower region was heating up even more. Rainbow Dash leaned in a little and began smelling Fluttershy’s scent before saying, “mmm…I…”

Fluttershy lead Rainbow Dash into the house, and began bringing her up the stairs when Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped walking and said, “no we can’t do this. I have to fight it…Fluttershy we need to talk.”

Fluttershy took a few steps backwards and her rump bumped into Rainbow Dash’s muzzle. Fluttershy feigned clumsiness as she lied saying, “oh, no. I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to do that.”

Fluttershy turned around, releasing her tail from Rainbow Dash’s neck. Rainbow Dash’s muzzle was slightly damp now, and Rainbow looked dazed. Fluttershy walked up and said, “let me help you with that.” Fluttershy slowly began licking Rainbow Dash’s muzzle clean.

Rainbow Dash made a sudden move and jumped into the air saying, “no, not again. Fluttershy I won’t let you force me like that again.”

Fluttershy wasn’t sure what was going on, didn’t Rainbow Dash like having sex with her? “W-w-what are you talking about? I thought you enjoyed it?”

Rainbow Dash’s head lowered but she kept herself hovering in the air while saying, “I…I didn’t want to…I tried to push you away but…Fluttershy you’re too strong. I didn’t want to hurt you, or anything.”

“I’m too strong? But I can barely lift a few bunnies,” Fluttershy proclaimed.

“I have seen you drag injured Manticores back to their caves. It’s like you have this great reserve of strength that you can only tap into when it’s absolutely necessary,” Rainbow Dash explained.

Fluttershy sat down, her heart was beginning to hurt. “Did…did I really…force you?”

“That’s how it started…but after a few seconds…look I’m not that strong Fluttershy, you started making me horny and I couldn’t stop myself…I didn’t come here to have sex with you, I wanted to get to know you a little more…I can’t handle fast relationships,” Rainbow Dash explained.

“I know you had bad relationships in the past, but it won’t be like Gilda, or Lightning Dust. I promise, I won’t do anything bad,” Fluttershy pleaded.

Rainbow Dash turned and said, “we haven’t seen each other in three days…and the first thing you did was try to have sex with me again. I’m sorry Fluttershy, but if you can’t even take things slow for me…then we can’t be together.”

Rainbow Dash had tears running down her face as she flew out Fluttershy’s door. That was it, Fluttershy had ruined her relationship with Rainbow Dash. She had moved things to quickly, all she wanted was to have all of Rainbow Dash…and now she had none of her.

Fluttershy began crying as she ran into her bedroom. There was nothing she could do now that she was alone, she had hurt Rainbow Dash by wanting her too much. Fluttershy jumped onto the bed and began sobbing into her pillow, she had never meant to hurt Rainbow Dash. She looked over to her dresser and saw her green pipe sitting on top of it. She knew that if she smoked a little Smokey Joke that she would feel better, but it wouldn’t solve the problem…but maybe the problem was unsolvable.

***

A half hour later Fluttershy walked into Rarity’s boutique and said, “hey, Rarity.”

Rarity was still working on the same dress, it was beginning to look closer to completion. Rarity glanced at Fluttershy and nearly spit her bit as she exclaimed, “Fluttershy, what happened?”

Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy and quickly wrapped her up into a tight embrace saying, “Your eyes are red, were you crying?”

Fluttershy wrapped her legs around Rarity and said, “yeah…I messed things up with Rainbow Dash. I guess I should’ve taken things slower…”

Rarity began sniffing Fluttershy’s mane and pulled back she was cringing at something. Rarity then said, “um…well yes, sometimes things like that happen…but Rainbow Dash is also a special case. She doesn’t seem to mind being intimate with ponies, if it’s for fun. But what she looks for in a partner is a pony who doesn’t want her for her body…”

Fluttershy sniffled a little as she said, “I think I forced her to…move too fast…I didn’t mean to…but she said she that I was too strong.”

Rarity looked worried as she asked, “was she…fighting you?”

“No…and she acted like she enjoyed it after we started…I’m so confused,” Fluttershy explained.

Rarity looked a little less worried as she said, “I know it’s embarrassing, but tell me exactly what happened that night, please.”

***

After telling Rarity about all the events involving Rainbow Dash in the past few days Rarity seemed to get a better understanding of what was going on. Rarity let out a sigh and said, “I’m sorry darling, but I think Rainbow Dash is simply unable to handle a relationship of that magnitude with you…you had a wonderful first time with her, but I think she disappeared for a few days so that when she came back to you…well I believe she had already decided that she couldn’t be with you.

“I don’t think she expected you to try and have intimacy with her again so soon either. She might do lewd things with her friends, and sometimes strangers, but she wants something more from a special somepony. It’s also possible that she doesn’t really know what she wants…I think you might be better off just staying friends with her. If you continued to press her like this, it could damage your friendship.”

“But…is it really that wrong to want to be physical with her?” Fluttershy asked feeling confused.

Rarity shook her head and said, “it’s not wrong to be physical with the one you love, but Rainbow Dash…she remembers how bad of shape we were in. There are so many problems with this relationship right now, that it may not ever be possible between you two.”

Fluttershy whimpered and Rarity added, “but…there is somepony else who is still interested in you.”

Fluttershy looked at Rarity, and watched as Rarity nervously twirled one of her long purple curls around her hoof. Fluttershy then asked, “who?”

Rarity began blushing lightly as she said, “well…um…it’s…I am. I am in love with you Fluttershy.”

Rarity closed her eyes tightly and looked scared after saying that. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to think now. If Rarity truly had feelings for her, it could be so wonderful…after all they were such close friends. Fluttershy remembered hearing that the best of relationships started out as the best of friendships. Fluttershy wanted this to work, and was determined to not ruin this relationship like she did with Rainbow Dash.

“I love you too,” Fluttershy said at length. “I want this to work so badly, but I don’t want to ruin this for us…so…um…I’ll let you decided how far we should go. And I promise to wait until you are ready to move our relationship to each new level…and…stuff.”

Rarity looked relived and a little surprised as she said, “oh darling…no I mean…honey. I…thank you for not rejecting me. I was so sure that you only liked pegasi.”

Fluttershy leaned in a little closer to Rarity and said, “of course not, I like all kinds of mares.”

Rarity smiled and blushed a little harder. Fluttershy wanted so badly to kiss her, but she held still and waited for Rarity to decide what was acceptable. Rarity leaned in slowly and pressed her lips against Fluttershy’s. They kissed once, then twice, then on the third time Rarity moved her burning hot tongue into Fluttershy’s mouth.

They continued kissing this way until Fluttershy felt herself getting very warm someplace other than her mouth. She pulled away. “I…that was amazing. Maybe a little too amazing.” Fluttershy said as she looked down at her shamefully wet private place.

Rarity gasped and said, “but, but, but all we did was kiss. Was I really…um…that good?”

Fluttershy nodded and realized she needed to go home and take care of this warm little problem of hers. “I…um…I should go home and wash up…”

Rarity raised an eyebrow and said, “is that all your gonna do?”

Fluttershy’s face began burning up as she said, “well…I mean…its warm…and…I need to take care of it.”

Rarity let out a sigh and said, “I can’t have you running all the way home with your scent being carried to every stallion in town now can I. You may use my shower, to take care of your…problem…don’t forget to clean yourself thoroughly afterwards though. That scent is very powerful, and could be rather…embarrassing if you let it hang around town.”

Fluttershy felt embarrassed but smiled and said, “thanks…I…um…this is so embarrassing.”

“I know dar-…honey. But you need to take care of it…now. It smells really good and I don’t want to be tempted by your wonderful body any longer, please go clean up,” Rarity admitted.

Fluttershy nodded and began walking upstairs trying to use her tail to cover her marehood. She had to admit though, that it felt wonderful to hear Rarity say that she was tempting. Fluttershy had never felt truly attractive before, and now…she really liked Rarity.

***

The day of the next tournament finally arrived. And Fluttershy had once again become the Crimson Fighter. It was time for her to face her second challenger. The ring had been covered in a thick layer of sand for this battle; Fluttershy felt the uneasy ground beneath her hooves. This battle might be hard for her to win, if not for her ability to fly.

Her opponent entered the ring and Fluttershy stared at the familiar mare. The mare she faced had a teal coat, brown short cut hair, and she was wearing a black bandana. Fluttershy’s entire system had been shocked hard as she stared at the pony that was responsible for the attack over in Manehattan.

The announcer’s voice came over the loud speaker and said to the large crowd of ponies watching the ring. “Now entering, Frailty; the infamous leader of the Black Hoof gang.”

The mare’s cutie mark was that of a blue watery heart, three water drops were seen underneath the heart. The mare grinned as she looked at Fluttershy, Fluttershy scowled at her. This was going to be more than just a fight for money and power, it was a fight to reclaim her honor.

The sound of a bell ringing sounded the start of the fight. Fluttershy charged head first towards Frailty and going on her hind legs at the last second, swung her hoof downward catching Frailty in the face. Frailty reeled back, and Fluttershy pressed forward with the intent on striking again. Frailty suddenly jumped forward catching Fluttershy off guard and knocking her down onto the ground.

Frailty was now on top of Fluttershy and smacking her in the face repeatedly with her hooves. Fluttershy felt the blows hit her, but she didn’t feel pain, she only felt a numbness spreading over her face. Fluttershy reached out her hooves and caught Frailty in the neck. The mare rolled back off of Fluttershy and began rubbing her neck and breathing harsh shallow breaths.

Fluttershy stood up, and tasted something coppery, and gross in her mouth. Fluttershy spit it out of her mouth and saw blood. She put a hoof to her lip and discovered her mouth was bleeding. A blanket of rage covered Fluttershy’s heart as she turned to face Frailty and charged a second time.

This time Frailty tried to move out of the way but was too slow as Fluttershy began attacking. Standing on her hind legs Fluttershy began hitting Frailty repeatedly in the face. All Fluttershy could think of; was hitting Frailty’s face, over, and over, and over again. Frailty began blocking the blows and finally caught Fluttershy’s in a grapple and threw Fluttershy onto the ground hard.

Frailty kicked Fluttershy in the side. Fluttershy felt pain in her ribs and managed to roll out of the way just in time to avoid a second blow. Fluttershy flapped her wings hard and flew into the air. Fluttershy’s side hurt too badly to do anything fancy, so she just flew up higher and higher. Finally she turned and sky dived towards Frailty.

Frailty watched with careful eyes preparing to dodge at the last second. When she did, Fluttershy corrected her path and crashed head first into her. Fluttershy’s head collided with Frailty’s. Frailty was sent rolling away and Fluttershy collapsed.

A few seconds went by before Fluttershy’s head stopped swimming and she managed to pull herself up off the ground and stood unevenly on the sand. The crowd was cheering for her and she basked in there applause. The countdown began and Fluttershy waited until it reached zero. The announcer called out, “and The Crimson Fighter does it again. Now she will move on to the finals. Will she be able to beat her next opponent, come back next week to find out.”

***

Fluttershy was walking through the town, her side hurt, but at least she was able to breathe. She was having a hard time walking though, and flying was out of the question as the extra effort made her ribs scream in pain. The numb feeling in her face was giving way slowly to the pain as the adrenalin left her body. But she had a saddle bag with some more money in it, so that was something nice.

At some point Fluttershy’s rips began to hurt even more, and she realized that she needed to find a place to rest soon. She looked around herself on the dark road, and realized that the closest place to rest at, would be Rarity’s. Fluttershy forced herself to walk through the pain as she changed direction and walked towards Rarity’s.

When Fluttershy finally arrived at Rarity’s she had began limping, Fluttershy felt the door. It was usually locked at night, as a precaution against thieves but Fluttershy knew where Rarity hid the extra key. Fluttershy opened the door and limped in. When inside Fluttershy dropped the key on the floor and shut the door. She needed to get Rarity’s help.

Fluttershy opened her mouth to shout, but her insides hurt when she tried to make a loud noise. Fluttershy decided to continue limping towards the stairs. She took a few steps before her legs gave in and she fell against a mannequin knocking it over with a loud crash. Fluttershy lie still for a few moments, whimpering in pain.

After a few long dreaded moments Rarity made her way down the stairs, her horn was light up brightly and she looked both terrified, and determined. Rarity called out, “Sweetie Belle, is that you?...whoever is there come out now, or else you will get a laser blast to the face.”

Fluttershy called out weakly, “Rarity…help me.”

Rarity saw Fluttershy lying on the floor and her face became pale, or at least as pale as a white unicorn could be. Rarity ran over to Fluttershy and kneeled down by her side asking, “oh my Celestia, what happened honey?”

Fluttershy gave a little laugh before saying, “I got into a fight…I beat the crap out of that mare from Manehattan.”

Rarity looked worried and said, “what…what are you talking about. You can’t fight, why would you even do that?”

Fluttershy lie still and said, “I’ve been fighting in this tournament thing…I’ve been getting some money that way, and it feels good to let my anger out. But I’m hurt…I need help.”

Rarity’s lip was quivering as she said, “I-I-I’ll do the best I can…but…oh dear…we will have to talk about this.”

Fluttershy nodded and said quietly, “okay. But nopony can know about this, it’s our secret. And I’ll need to take another bath here tonight; I have to wash the dye out of my mane.”

Rarity began petting Fluttershy’s mane and said, “okay honey, we will get you cleaned up, and with my special touch, nopony will even know that you were hurt.”

Fluttershy really enjoyed Rarity’s company, even more so now that they were officially a couple. She really was lucky to have a special somepony like Rarity in her life. Even if it still hurt to know how she screwed up with Rainbow Dash, she had been given a second chance with Rarity, and there was no way she would screw it up this time.