Chapters In Ponyville, it's a sunny day. Fillies and colts laughing and playing. It was a normal day, but on this normal day, as every pony enjoyed the warm outside environment, a certain blue unicorn spends his time distracted by the technology he builds and creates.
Somewhere in Ponyville stands a huge blue condo where no one has seen any pony go in or out of. No one knows how or when it was built, but that is only because the certain blue unicorn lives there and rarely comes out.
This blue unicorn is named Band Sickle, oddly enough, and on this day he will see some pony in particular that will show him the fun and joy of nature and it's friends.
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Inside the condo, in Band's bedroom, Band sits at his computer desk tip-tapping on his keyboard while his loyal crystal dragon, Blue Ray, sits beside his right leg.
Blue Ray looked up to his master's face and saw a sense of determination. Obviously, Band was playing a game, but then the computer shut off all of a sudden and Band looked at the screen with subtle shock.
"What the heck?" He asked to no pony in particular. He then pushed his chair out from under him to stand up and crouched down under his desk to look at the wiring.
"No. No," He mumbled quietly, checking each wire and it's place for any possible issues, "No. That's fine, too."
While he did this under the desk, Blue Ray crawled over to Band's face and began to nudge his master's cheek with his snout.
"What is it, Blue Ray?" Band asked looking toward him now.
Blue Ray crawled away toward a door in the far corner of the room that led to the kitchen and began scratching at it with his forelegs. This allowed him to tell Band that he was hungry.
"Okay, Blue Ray," He said, "but after I feed you, I have to get back to the issue at hand. Okay?"
Blue Ray just looked back at Band and made a sound from his voice.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Band opened the door and the little dragon scurried across the tile floor to his food bowl and waited patiently.
Band opened his freezer and took out a handful of ice sickles. Ice sickles are the only thing Blue Ray will eat. Band wasn't sure why, but he was glad that he could made ice sickles with his cheap water and not have to buy expensive gemstones like normal dragons eat.
Before Band moved to Ponyville, back when he was just becoming a grown stallion, he was exploring The Crystal Mountains near the Crystal Empire. He went to the mountains as a daring adventure he had always wanted to take since he heard of the Crystal Mountains as a colt. He had already known that the exploration would take a span of weeks and on the second week, he had come across a cave and cautiously went in with his torch. The cave's ceiling was covered of ice sickles and some were broken in half, as if some pony chipped off a piece from almost each one. When he made it to the end of the cave, he saw something shine brightly from the ground in front of him in a blue-ish white glow. As he approached it, he saw a baby blue crystal dragon laying there, curled up, and freezing.
Band instantly realized that this dragon had been abandoned or left for dead, knowing how adult crystal dragons were hunted for their claws. He picked up the dragon and wrapped it in a blanket and named him Blue Ray because of Band's love for technology, and, of course, because the dragon was blue.
After all these fond memories floated to an end in his train of thought, Band was back down to Equestria, still staring at his little companion, who now was chomping and cracking his jaw on the ice and began to emit a cool misty fog around his body. This was because when Blue Ray ate ice, Band thinks that Blue Ray's stomach is lined with veins that when Blue Ray consumes cold material the blood within the veins is cooled and then moves throughout the rest of his body and, what would be sweat glands for ponies, Blue Ray's frost glands emit steam from out of him (not sure where the steam is stored though) and allows his body to become completely ice cold.
Band made sure to keep his little buddy full of ice at almost all times. Because blue crystal dragons' natural habitat was in the Crystal Mountains in a frosty temperature of -35 degrees Celsius, and his species hunted to extinction (other than Blue Ray, of course) Band felt it was his job to protect Blue Ray in Ponyville, but because Ponyville was so warm during most of the year Band has to make sure he feeds Blue Ray larger amounts ice in one feeding than his normal appetite amount. Band found it nice in a way to be depended on, to be trusted, and to-
Band realized that he had to check on the computer problem and left the kitchen to his room. He bent crouched down again, taking a final check on each and every painstakingly small detail in the jumble of wire. That was his whole life's passion. He enjoys and indulges in his intellect every time he remembers how uncommon it is to see a blue unicorn, no any unicorn in general, that takes great happiness and glee out of just rewiring a few misplaced jacks (for those who honestly don't know, the jack is the metal stem that sticks from one end of a headphone wire, for example).
As Band scanned his eyes across the vast wall of rubber wires drapped under his desk, he saw no misplaced wires and no damages to the the wires themselves. Band then felt a sense of dread and anxiety shiver up his spine as he hoped that, what was the last and most likely problem, wasn't the problem. He stepped out from under his desk table and stood up to face the computer system itself.
Band's face began to show a mood of complete and pure terror. "No," He thought as he saw the memory chip inside now melted and burned, "Not my baby. She was so beautiful!" Now the chip was covering every sensitive strand of copper wire within the computer with it's melted plastic.
"Blue Ray!" Band called to his dragon without looking away from, for Band, is a very mentally scarring sight, "We're going out!"
Band had left the house with Blue Ray following his lead. As Band was walking, he stuck his hand in his hoodie's right pocket and sifted out a MLP3 Player and a pair of blue earbuds. He stuck in the wire's jack into the the input of the device and pushed his right earbud in his right pony-like ear and laid the left earbud hanging over and behind his left perked ear. He switched on the device and turned up the volume to max, then began to play a song called Spin That Record that a certain close friend made, known on the stage as DJ PON-3 and he always loved how loud the buzzes were and how deep the bass was.
He began to start singing under his breath, "Spin that record, Vinyl Scratch, and never stop the music."
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Band and Blue Ray were walking passed Sugarcube Corner when Blue Ray heard what he swore was a tiny elegant gasp come from the open doors of the building. Blue Ray looked passed the doors to see who was inside while still maintaining his pace with Band who, Blue Ray examined, seemed oblivious of his surroundings and tuned in to his own world of techno bass music. Suddenly, Blue Ray heard the same doors of Sugercube Corner swing outward from inside as he turned his head to see a milky-yellow mare sprinting out in what seemed to be blind anxiety. Well, Blue Ray was right about the now more visible mare being blind. Her eyes were clenched shut as she kept in a quick pace that would take past Blue Ray and...
"Oh no," Blue Ray thought as he had followed the mare's predicted path ending at Band, who was now doing a little stupid dance where he looked like a robot sliding smoothly across the ground and then vibrating to the wubs from his earbuds. Blue Ray began to panic as he turned back to see that the mare was not planning on opening her eyes and stopping, but was now advancing even closer toward Band.
Blue Ray had to think of a plan, but first, he would try getting his master's attention. He began to stand on his hind legs waving his forelegs in the above him frantically, knowing that there was no way for him to speak. After a few seconds, he realized that this was hopeless. Then, out of the blue (no pun intended), he was hit in the side by a soft leg kicking him to his side on the ground as the mare trampled through and slammed into Band making her fall on him and leaving both ponies daze and confused of what just happened.
Band opened his eyes realizing that he can't see and, besides the fact that he had been practically tackled to the stone brick ground, quickly started moving hands across the ground around the two ponies looking for his glasses. He felt his glass frame and picked it up off the ground with the mare still laying on top of him with her head laying on his chest.
She sat up slowly, rubbing her forehead and groaned quietly, "Ah..." feeling a now tender spot on it.
"Huh?" Band questioned, wondering who ran into him and was now on top of him. He squinted at the blur of yellow and pink, and placed his glasses back on his face. He laid there, aw-struck by her beautiful mane laying so delicately behind her like silk, he then noticed her new wound on the top of her forehead. He quickly acted with care.
"Are you okay?" He asked holding the mare on her sides trying to help support her up so she didn't strain her possibly injured back. She opened her eyes and looked at Band with iris's Band believed to be as lovely as polished emeralds glistening in the hot summer sun. She winced her eyes closed again with pain and opened them back up.
"I-I'm sorry," She said to him.
Even in his amazed state, Band then said to her, "No. It's my fault. I wasn't paying attention." He slides out from under her and stands up, holding a hand down for her to hold as to assist her to stand as well. She looked up to his eyes and strangely began to feel warm and flustered for some reason. She hoped that if she was blushing, he wouldn't notice, or think that her cheeks were hurt as well.
She stretched her arm out and held Band's hand and he helped lift her to her feet.
"Come here," He said softly, while leaning toward her face which she reacted with placing her hand on his chest holding him away from her lips.
"W-Why?" She asked, feeling her cheeks heat up even more.
"To look at the wound there," Band said sincerely, but not catching on to what it had seemed, to her, he was doing.
She let out a deep sigh and brought back her hand to allow him to observe.
"I can take care of myself," She said looking away from, to her, his soft dark chocolate eyes.
"I just want to be sure that, if you're hurt, I can help you as a way of saying sorry," He looked at the wound that had some dirt in it and realized that it could become infected.
"You don't need to say sorry for anything," She said feeling her a strange warmth inside her heart. She had never felt it before, but it felt nice for some reason. She felt comforted.
"Hey," Band said caressing her cheeks with his hands and aiming her gaze back to his eyes, "Your wound is gonna get infected if I don't help. Can you trust me and come with me to my house. I have things there that'll fix it up and bandage it."
She looked at him in his eyes as she saw no sign of trickery, only a sign of pure sincerity. Her sad lips turned a warm smile, but then noticed that his right eyeglass was chipped and scratched slightly.
"Oh goodness," She said grabbing his hands and taking them off her face, "Your glasses are chipped."
Band focused his eyes away from her onto the glass that sat in front of his own. He focused in on the slight crack in the edge of the right glass and said with a smirk instead of a concerned look, "These didn't cost that much, plus I'm covered." He looked back to her eyes.
She giggled and they stared at each other for a moment until Band introduced himself first softly and casual, "My name's Band Sickle, but people just call me Band."
She looked away for a second trying to hide her flustered cheeks, but turned back to him and said gently, "I'm Fluttershy."
Band looked past the right side of her head and noticed his nearly forgotten friend laying on the ground unconscious on his back.
"Oh, buck!" He cursed and ran over to the sleeping dragon.
Fluttershy turned toward the dragon and her eyes widened by surprise. She was so ecstatic on the inside that she struggled to get words out and stuttered, "I-Is that a cr-crystal dr-dragon?"
Once Band had his loyal buddy in his arms and had heard some other pony actually know what this guy was, he walked over to Fluttershy with a face of disbelief, "How'd you guess?"
"Well," She began smiling softly, "I know everything about all the creatures of Equestria. Both alive and supposedly extinct. I take care of many animals at my cottage."
"That's amazing," Band said amazed.
"Why?"
"Must be hard to keep track of all of them."
She was flattered, "Not really, but we should get going if you want to help your dragon."
"Right."
Band, still holding Blue Ray with one arm, motioned his free hand toward Fluttershy's so she could hold his. Band then thought that this was probably to sudden for this kind of affection, but was surprised when his thoughts were interrupted by the warm and smooth sensation of the mare's hand grasping his. As the sun set, leaving the sky colored a beautiful and dreamy orange, they began to walk to Band's home so that he would help tend to every pony's wounds and injuries.
"Ah," Fluttershy winced almost silently as Band touched her wound lightly with a puff ball covered slightly in rubbing alcohol.
"Sorry, but that should help to clean the wound," Band grabbed Fluttershy's right hand and placed it under his hand holding the puff ball and she held the ball and he took his arm back.
"How old?" She asked.
Band saw that that was a strange question to ask him, but he answered still feeling a little weird about the question, "Um... I'm 21."
Fluttershy giggled because of Band's obvious discomfort and misunderstanding about the question, "No, not you. How old is your dragon?"
He had never noticed the issue that had emerged in his mind, but he found it a little shameful as well. He looked to the dragon laying on Band's bed and now snoring. Band took a deep breath and sighed, "I don't know."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, he's been my bud for about three and a half years now, but..." He stopped and glared at the sapphire carpeting at their feet.
Fluttershy then felt scared, but she wondered why. She was fine throughout the whole conversation, but once she heard Band's tone weaken from full confidence to complete self pity and despair, her shoulders tensed up a bit and she wondered why his emotions affected her and her thinking so greatly. As she pondered this question of why does she feel strange, she had realized she'd forgotten to comfort him. How could she have forgotten to comfort a pony in obvious need.
As Band focused on each strand of hairs on the carpet, he suddenly was covered in a blanket of warmth, then hearing Fluttershy assure him, "It's okay."
He didn't look to her, he only felt strange that she was comforting HIM. Even after he was the one who had brought her to his home so politely and helped her with her wound. "I'm being selfish," He thought. He gently pushed Fluttershy away and looked at her with a small smile on him.
"Sorry," He said.
"For what," She wondered.
"I shouldn't feel bad for myself. It's not very helpful either. I'm just... Sorry."
Fluttershy looked at him and his body language. She looked at him closely without moving. "Who is he?" She asked herself in her head, "I mean, I know WHO he is, but... What kind of person just gets ran into, apologizes to me, and takes me to his home, somewhere to him that is very personal, and helps me with my wound and injuries? It's just... Just so... Strange. Does he really TRUST me, a total stranger who had collided into him out my pure stupidity? But wait... I did trust HIM. Isn't that why I'm here in the first place?"
"What was that?" She heard Band ask with a confused look.
"Huh?" She said coming back from her thoughts.
"You said, 'It's just so strange.' What's so strange?"
Fluttershy's milky yellow tone turned red all over her face. Now she had to confront him with her questions, but she didn't want to! "This is so confusing! Him being nice to me after me slamming him to the ground. Him taking me to his home. Him helping me with my wounds. Giving that look on his face now. The look of pure comforting. The look that says, 'It's okay. You can tell me.' The look that..." She paused in her mind. She processed through the events in her mind again, but now she looked through every single detail of the situations. Did he even want tell her about himself, other than his name? "No. He didn't, but then what would we talk about? All my conversations with people always includes the needs of that certain pony. No pony really has ever cared about what she had to say about anything, other than her friends. Wait. Twilight was a lot like this, but, for some reason, this feels a bit more... Instance. What was this feeling in me?"
"Fluttershy?" Band said now looking worried and concerned.
Fluttershy lets out a shuddering breath and almost faints, falling forward toward the floor until Band quickly catches her.
"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Band asked anxiously, sitting her up again to look at his eyes.
"Those eyes..." She thought, "What did he see in me with them? Does he not understand that I can take care of myself?"
She began to tear up out of her own confusion.
Then she got out the most important questions she had for him, but in a sob, "Why do you care about me so much? Why do you trust me so much? Why don't you want me to just care for myself and you just walk away like nothing happen?"
"Fluttershy," Band said to let her stop. He held her quivering shoulders. She was now balling with her her head down. He moved his right hand under her chin and brought her head back up. She looked like she was in pain, but he had dealt with her injuries and her wound. She told him she was fine. Then he realized. She's not in physical pain. She's in mental pain. She looked at him with tears rolling down her face.
"Why?" She whispered through quivering lips.
Band couldn't think of anything to do to answer her, except one thing, but is that the right thing to do? Will she embrace it, or will she be frightened even more? He thought about the percentage of the two possibilities out of one hundred.
"Fifty, fifty."
"What?" She asked even more confused, but Band quickly pushed her head to his and pressed their lips together. She gasped through her nose with wide eyes from the sudden aggression. He held the kiss. Not daring to look at her expression, but soon he felt her hands, that he placed on his lap earlier, go limp and she began to lean into the kiss even more. Band opened his eyes and saw only bliss in the lovely mare's eyes. Her eyes were closed now, showing that she wanted to take in the sweet kiss.
Band sensed a sweet scent coming from her. It smelled like violet flowers he'd enjoyed while he was a little colt. He hadn't smelled the scent since he had left home, and now he reminded him of home which gave him a sense of comfort and felt like this was the right person to kiss.
Knowing, but regretting, that he was about to kiss her for a bit too long, he pulled away his face from Fluttershy's, making a little smack from the parting of their lips. He smiled at her, seeing that her face once full of sadness now was looking back at him with an expression of pure love. With his right hand, he moved his thumb over her left cheek wiping off her tears.
Fluttershy was at a loss of words. She had never experienced affection anywhere close to that. Mostly because that was her first kiss. She never really planned out how her first kiss would've gone, unlike her friend Rarity, but if she wouldn't change one thing about how it did go.
She then realized she had forgot to breathe and felt her lungs begin to burn. She let in a satisfied breathe.
Band looked back into her eyes with a face full of pure passion, "That's why I care so much about you. That's why I want care about you, but the reason I trust you is because when I first looked into those eyes I saw innocence."
She blushed and placed a palm on his lap, "Not to be rude, but..." She looked down to the black watch on his wrist, "I think I should be getting home."
Band kept on his soft smile, but Fluttershy noticed his ears lower just a bit out of disappointment.
"Yeah," He said. They both stand up and Fluttershy does what feels right, and grabs Band's hand. He doesn't resist and escorts Fluttershy out of the room, passed the kitchen, and to the door.
There, the two stop for a moment to look at each other. After a moment of awkward silence, Fluttershy daringly stood on the tips of toes and gave Band a peck on the lips and said, "Maybe... Um... We could... We could see each other again, sometime?"
It took Band a moment to realize she was asking, "Y-Yeah."
With that, Fluttershy slowly let go of Band's hand and turned to the now open door. As she walked out, Band asked, "Where do you live?"
She answered, "I live in a cottage near the Everfree Forest."
"Okay," Band said and slowly closed the door.
He walked back to his bedroom and saw Blue Ray still sleeping on his bed. His dear friend had no idea what had just happened, and neither of them knew what laid ahead in Band's future.
