The Guardian's Angel

Angel bunny knew he was onto something, and Fluttershy's expression was all the confirmation he needed. However, were Fluttershy's feelings for Archangel really that strong? That was a question that not even she could answer, yet. There was no denying it -- she had feelings for him. Feelings that only grew stronger every time she saw him in action, always playing a part in making sure she and her friends were out of harm's way. She admired him and loved spending time with him. Not to mention, she always felt a lot safer when he was by her side. Alas, she dared not reveal her true feelings for him just yet. She feared what it might lead to, so she chose to keep her emotions to herself... And frankly, she had nothing against remaining nothing more than just good friends with him.

As time went on, the couple began to enjoy keeping one another company even more, and the more they got to know one another better, the more meaningful these little meetings became. It wasn't long before Archangel's conscience stopped scolding him and he just got so swept away by these simple yet thoroughly enjoyable moments that he even forgot all about his immortality for some time.

A few months after their first tea time together, two of Fluttershy's other friends happened to be in need of her during one of her moments with Archangel.

"Is it just me or does Fluttershy seem a bit differently lately?" Twilight asked.

"Beats me." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I haven't noticed anything."

"Could just be me..." Twilight muttered.

As the two ponies approached the cottage, Twilight was just about ready to knock on the door.

"Woah!" Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed while gazing through one of the windows.

"What is it?" Twilight asked, her hoof still ready to knock on the door.

"Get a load of this," Rainbow Dash quietly called her over.

"You know, it's really impolite to intrude on other ponies' privacy," Twilight said in a reproachful tone as she got closer to the bush near the window where her friend was at. "Especially one of your best friends... What could possibly be so..." Without closing her mouth after the last word, Twilight gazed at the sight inside the cottage with her eyes wide open. "Who is that?"

"More tea, Arch?" Fluttershy kindly offered.

"Arch!?" the two ponies outside the window exclaimed and immediately lowered their heads for a moment after realizing they were getting a bit too loud.

"Yes, please," the creature next to Fluttershy replied.

"Did I hear that right?" Rainbow Dash quietly asked. "Did she just say, "Arch"?"

"I think so..." Twilight replied with uncertainty and peeked inside the cottage again.

"Think he uses this as a disguise or something? Maybe it's some sort of form he takes on when he isn't fighting crime."

"Hmm..." Twilight rubbed her chin. "Now that you mentioned it, he would be much too large to enter the cottage in his Archangel form..." She paused for a moment to think about the notion.

"Lets save that question for later. Right now, I wanna know what in Equestria is he doing in Fluttershy's cottage!"

"So do I." Twilight nodded. "He sent us all away the last time we tried to offer him our friendship... Has he secretly been visiting only Fluttershy this whole time?"

"What do you think it means?"

"You know about as much as I do at this point."

The two ponies decided to let their business with Fluttershy wait for a bit and simply gazed at the event with much curiosity. Their eyes widened up when they saw Fluttershy give Arch a hug after he stood up, ready to leave.

"Oh, I do so enjoy our little moments together so much!" Fluttershy disengaged from the hug and stared into Arch's eyes. "Not even my best friends come to my tea parties this often."

Arch chuckled. "Everyone's got their preferences... Just don't think that this makes me a better friend than any of them."

"Of course!" Fluttershy immediately replied. "That wasn't what I meant! I love all of my friends! I don't know where I'd be without them. It's just--"

"Shh." Archangel silenced her by placing his finger over her mouth and smiled at her. "I'm just toying with you."

"Oh, you." Fluttershy hugged him one last time before letting him leave.

"Fluttershy seems to be quite fond of him," Twilight whispered to Rainbow Dash.

"Can't say the same about him," Rainbow Dash added. "He can't even return the hug!"

"Shh!" Twilight hushed her. "Get down!" She ducked and also took Rainbow Dash with her. They peeked outside of the bush just in time to see Archangel transform and take off. "Guess that answers our first question," Twilight said after observing the sight and stepped outside of the bush.

"Whaddaya say we go hear the rest right from Archangel himself?" Rainbow Dash suggested.

"Agreed."

***

Not long after finding his favorite spot by the entrance to the forest, Archangel heard two sets of hoofsteps closing in on him. "More questions?" he asked without looking in their direction.

"Yep," Twilight and Rainbow Dash replied simultaneously. Their expressions made it seem like they weren't too keen on having idle chit chat.

"You could have saved us all some time and just joined us by the table, you know," he replied slyly, making the two ponies widen their eyes. "Even if I hadn't heard your whispering or noticed your manes hanging over the windowsill, would you honestly expect me to believe that you coming here in search of answers just minutes after that event was a mere coincidence?" he explained and turned towards them to watch as the two ponies started rubbing the back of their heads and losing their sudden confidence. "I thought as much." He looked away from them again. "Ask away. I have nothing to hide."

"Khe khem..." Twilight cleared her throat. "Okay... Lets start with a simple one, shall we? Why were you having a tea party with Fluttershy after you yourself had clearly stated that you do not wish to have any sort of relationships with any of us?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, no longer afraid to sound insincere towards Archangel. "You didn't lie to us, did you?"

"Nay," he immediately replied. "My little meetings with her are only something that started occurring very recently." He paused for a moment after answering part of the question. "As for why I was there..." He let out a loud sigh. "I happened to save her from a hungry pack of timberwolves and she just couldn't let it go and insisted on somehow repaying me, and so I ended up in one of her tea parties and just happened to actually enjoy myself... so, I went to another one... and then another... and another, and, well, a few dozen tea parties later, here I am," he explained as bluntly as he could.

"Huh..." Twilight uttered after a moment of silent pondering. "Leave it to Fluttershy and her knack for dealing with big and terrifying creatures... umm, no offence," she added.

"None taken," Archangel calmly replied and chuckled.

Silence claimed the air, and during it, Twilight realized that she had overreacted and decided to take her leave. "Well... If that's all there is to it, then I guess--"

"Wait a minute," Rainbow Dash interjected. "I get the feeling there's more to this than just that."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, unable to follow her notion.

"Didn't you see how they treated one another back there?" Rainbow Dash reminded her. "Something tells me Arch here isn't doing this just for the sake of having a cup of tea... I mean -- he doesn't even need to drink anything! We saw him last years without a single sip of anything!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled. "He's just trying to be polite! You know he's--"

"She's right," Archangel interrupted her, attracting all the attention towards himself.

"Huh?" Twilight seemed confused. "What do you mean?"

"She reminds me of someone," Archangel explained. "Someone that I used to care for... someone with whom I didn't get to spend nearly as much time together as I would have wanted," he said with a touch of sorrow in his tone.

"Waaait a moment..." Rainbow Dash said in a tone of uncertainty. "Are you saying that you have feelings for Fluttershy?"

"Of course I do," Archangel instantly replied. "She's very enjoyable company."

"No, uhh... I mean like..." Rainbow Dash put on a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of her head. Not knowing how else to put it, she just took a deep breath and said her mind with unaltered words, "Do you love her?"

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted at her even louder than before. "Don't be ridiculous! That isn't even possible! Fluttershy isn't even the same species as him, and he just clearly stated that she reminded him of someone he once knew, meaning that it was obviously someone of his own species..."

As Archangel began pondering on the question Rainbow Dash had just asked him, Twilight's words only grew quieter and quieter in his head. All he could hear now was his own inner voice. By the gods... No... No... No! This can't be true! All of a sudden, he jumped up on his feet and directed all of his fury at the tree he was just reclining against, punching a massive hole in it and afterwards screaming so loud that it not only startled the two ponies into jumping away from him and preparing their wings for flight, but also scaring all of the nearby birds into flying away, as well as giving a feeling of unrest to most of the townsfolk. He kept breathing heavily while his hand still remained in the shaft of the tree. Rainbow Dash and Twilight could only watch and wonder about what could this possibly mean... With the state he was currently in, they couldn't help but keep a good distance away from him.

Finally calming his breathing, Archangel pulled his fist out of the tree and collapsed on his knees in front of the two ponies. "This can't be happening..." he said through a painful whimper. "I can't lose her again..." He gave into his sadness and began crying his heart out. Witnessing the white tears falling from the darkness under his hood, Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked closer to him to offer some comfort.

"I don't understand..." Twilight whispered to him.

"I love her," the guardian turned his head towards her and replied. "I love her more than anything..."

"But... why are you crying?" Twilight asked, clueless of the reason behind Arch's sorrow. "It's not like it's a bad thing... you could still--"

"Don't you see!?" he interrupted her with a sharp tone. "It's only a matter of time before I lose her, just like all the others I've ever cared for!" After the harsh reply, he hung his head and whispered in a much calmer voice, "And there's no one I've ever cared for as much as I did for her... The first time I lost her, I barely held it together to not unleash my full wrath upon humanity, and even though I managed to restrain myself, I never made another friend for the remainder of my days on that planet... If I have to go through that kind of pain again..." he paused for a moment to add more meaning to his next words. "Well... lets just say you might want to reconsider your decision about having me destroyed." The statement he just made caused the two ponies to gulp loudly from a sudden feeling of uneasiness.

"Twilight," Rainbow Dash took a few steps away from Archangel and called her friend over to her. "Could I talk to you for a sec?"

Twilight decided to not keep her friend waiting and quickly walked over to her and whispered, "What is it?"

"I know it's still going to be a long time before Fluttershy... you know..." Rainbow Dash lowered her head a bit and simply continued on with a saddened expression in hopes that Twilight picked up on what she meant. "But I still can't help but think that we've got a problem on our hooves."

"Gee, genius. What gave you that idea?" Twilight replied sarcastically. "Got any bright ideas on how we might solve this problem?" she asked in a tone that had little signs of faith in it.

"You know..." Rainbow Dash replied while rubbing the back of her head. "I did have one thing in mind..."

"Name it."

Rainbow Dash hesitated to reply and began stretching her sentences. "You know how you were once Celestia's student and did all those things to impress her and then eventually became a princess yourself..." she stared at her conversation partner with the same sheepish grin as before. Twilight, on the other hoof, could only widen her eyes as a response. "Yeah, I think you know where I'm going with this."

"So let me get this straight..." Twilight seemed unconvinced. "You want me to ask Celestia to turn Fluttershy into an alicorn?"

Without losing her silly expression, Rainbow Dash replied with a slow nod. "I mean, we all know that alicorns are immortal, so..."

"Are you crazy!?" Twilight shouted. She quickly calmed her tone and continued whispering. "I can't just walk up to the ruler of Equestria and ask her to make one of my friends into an alicorn! It's not up to me to decide such things! She has to earn that blessing herself!"

"Are you saying that you don't consider one of your best friends to be worthy of the same rank as you?" Rainbow Dash leaned towards Twilight with her brows furrowed.

"What? No!" Twilight shook her head.

Not losing her unfriendly expression, the blue pegasus pressed her hoof against her friend's chest. "Are you saying that you're a better pony than Fluttershy, just because you know more about magic?"

"Of course not!" Twilight retorted. "It's just..."

"Then what's the problem!?" Rainbow glared at her with reproach.

Twilight sighed. "I didn't mean to say that Fluttershy hasn't earned the right to become an alicorn princess. It's just that... Well..."

"Well?" Rainbow Dash repeated in an insincere tone.

"Well, if Celestia did consider her worthy, don't you think she would have already done so?" Twilight asked, causing her friend to pause while pondering on the thought. "And even if she did, why would she just go and make one of you five into an alicorn while leaving the rest of you the way you are! What about Applejack? What about Rarity? What about you?" Twilight pointed her hoof at Rainbow Dash.

"Me?" she exclaimed with her eyebrow raised. "Pfft. Who said I even wanted to be an alicorn? Immortality is totally not my thing," she said while avoiding Twilight's eyes. "Besides... I'd look really dumb with a horn."

"No argument there."

"Hey!"

Twilight giggled. "Back to the matter at hoof, I just don't think it's right to just go and ask the ruler of Equestria to elect another princess just because circumstances require it."

"Not even if it means saving her land from a villain we couldn't possibly hope to defeat?"

"You've got a point there..." Twilight lowered her head and started rubbing her chin.

"The least you could do is just ask... I mean -- what's the worse that could happen? She says "no"? At least then we'll know that this isn't an option anymore."

"All right," Twilight agreed. "I'll do my best to convince her, but I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you." She moved into position for takeoff. "In the meantime, do what you can to keep Archangel occupied."

"Me!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed while holding her hoof on her own chest. "But what can I--" Before she could finish her sentence, Twilight flew off without looking back. "Doh!" She furiously kicked a small stone, after which she took a deep breath to help calm herself down. "Eh, how hard can it be?" she asked herself and walked up to the broken angel still sitting on his knees. Just as she did so, the sheepish grin returned to her face, this time also accompanied by a stream of sweat coming from her temples. "Piece of cake..."