Behind the Bleeding Veil

"And then there were eight," Adagio said amusedly as Rainbow and Fluttershy left. She had her left arm crossed over her chest with her right elbow resting on her left hand. In her right she had a small, half drunk, glass of bourbon.

"Yeah, the same ones who are always together," Pinkie added somewhat disappointedly. She had been looking forward to all of them being together for so long that she couldn't help but feel a little abandoned by Rainbow and Fluttershy going off on their own.

"Well I'm still here darlings," Rarity piped up both as a means to cheer the others up but also because she wanted to remind them she mattered too. "And I'm not going anywhere."

"Sorry Rarity," Twilight said both happily and yet apologetically. "We didn't mean to cut you out. Besides, we do talk all the time even if it's not in the same room or even country. Rainbow and Fluttershy have been friends the longest so it's only natural they'd want some alone time. We still have all week to do stuff together."

"And I guess you'll be seeing Fluttershy at least when you get home?" Sunset added. Fluttershy had eventually been adopted by Rarity's parents and as far as she knew, both ladies would staying at their parents house.

Rarity blushed slightly. "Well, tomorrow, yes, but I'm staying here tonight."

At this Pinkie and Sonata exchanged glances; each with a twisted, mischievous, yet knowing smile. They then turned back to Rarity. "Eeeeewwwww, do tell," Pinkie teased.

"Whaaat," Rarity answered back defensively. "Apple Jack is the one who picked me up, I knew it was going to be late by the time we were done here, I don't want to make her drive all the way to my parents' house late at night, and there is nooooo way I'm getting on the back of Fluttershy's motorcycle, Staying here is the only reasonable option."

"Sssuuurrrrrre it is," Pinkie said, her smile even broader now.

"Twilight and Flash live in a tiny apartment. You, Sunset, you all live in dorms. None of you would have the room I need to stay with. Apple Jack has this big house with multiple bedrooms. I see no reason as to why you feel the need to insinuate there is something more going on?" Rarity was now more than a little irritated. The teasing and insinuations of Pinkie were downright getting under her skin. It was fine if Pinkie was a lesbian but she didn't have to project that onto everyone else.

"Oh please Rarity," Pinkie responded dismissively, "Fluttershy spilled the beans years ago about you telling her you had a crush on Apple Jack.

"And no offense Rarity," Sunset added with a slight laugh, "our senior year, you two did act more like a couple than two friends."

"For realzies," Sonata chimed in as well. "That whole year, you like practically lived here."

"Uh!" Rarity groaned in sheer frustration. "Oh for goodness sake; we're friends, best friends. I don't see the reason for you all to constantly insist there's more to it than that. Now I know how Rainbow Dash must have felt all those years."

"Yeah and I said the same thing about Sonnie and I before I came out," Pinkie replied in her dismissive, teasing tone.

"Apple Jack, will you set them straight?" Rarity pretty much begged.

Apple looked down at her lap where she had her hands folded. She looked sullen and defeated. Finally she looked up and said, "Rarity and I had been kinda going out our senior year. She told me about, I don' know, a year later about havin' a crush on me back when was kids because she thought I was a boy an at first I just laughed it off. Then I didn't.

"Y'all see, I never got over losing Chip. Not now, certainly not then. I think about him all the time. I look at little Chippy an I see his face, looking back at me. My son, my greatest joy, is also my greatest heart break because I see so much of his dad in him. And I'm lonely, so, so lonely. But the idea of being with another man, romantically, physically, it feels like I'm killing Chip again. I know that aint right and the last thing he said to me before his spirit disappeared was to go on, live, be happy, but I can't. It feels too wrong.

"I guess I saw Rarity as a way to be less lonely yet still not disrespect the memory of Chip. Fer one, she's a girl, and, well I'm not really into girls so I didn't see any real chance of an actual relationship developing; but at the same time, having that extra closeness did fill some of that void. We made a couple times, I mean we never went full rodeo but we sure as hell got the saddles out a few times. After words, we just kinda kept it going and, well she's spendin' the night here just to see what happens.

"I aint proud of what I'm doing. I feel like I'm using Rarity. I'm confused about what I actually do want. I just know I don't want to be alone anymore but I can't bring myself to be with another man. It's the real reason I cut my hair so short. Guys like girls with long hair, I don't want guys to like me. I stopped shaving my legs and arm pits as well for the same reason. This morning was the first time I shaved in over a year. So, that's it." Apple Jack looked around the room to see what everyone's reaction was. Rarity looked shocked, some looked confused, others sad. She bared her soul and felt both relieved and naked all at the same.

Sunset came up behind Apple and gave her a hug. "I understand. I had similar emotions when I was first getting with Adagio. I loved Val. I did. I do, still. I broke up with him thinking I was saving him, you know, removing him as a target. I also knew Dag liked me as well. I wondered for a long time if breaking up with him was as easy as it was because I had a spare so to speak. So, yeah, I understand what you're going through and I'm here for you."

"You know," Adagio started speaking, "we never really talked about what happened, not really, not in depth. We've kept everything bottled up inside for all these years. Maybe it's time we all laid our very damaged cards out on the table." She knew everyone was hurt, broken. She also knew from her long centuries of experience that humans couldn't be forced to speak. They had to wait until the time was right for them. Tonight, after talking to Flash in the kitchen and now seeing Apple and Sunset open up, she thought that maybe they were all ready.

Rarity looked down and sighed then looked back at everyone. "Well, I guess I shall go next. During that whole time, I felt scared of course; but I also felt useless. I was The Healer. I stayed off to the side and healed you all while you did all the fighting. I knew intellectually I had a very important job and was helping out as much as anyone yet it didn't feel like that. I saw what you were going through, I literally felt your wounds. I was also glad in a way as well. I could sit back and go, 'well I'M not killing anybody'. Which, of course, made me feel guiltier.

"Now as for Apple Jack and I, well, that's a lot of things. It is true I did have a crush on her when we first met. At first it was because I thought she was a boy, then because I knew she wasn't. Men scare me. I flirt and act confident and all that and say I only want to focus on my career, WHICH IS TRUE, bye the way; but honestly, deep down, I've always been afraid of the male of the species. Then after seeing the pain and torment you had all gone through losing your significant others, I became doubly afraid of not just men but even being in a relationship. Apple Jack posed a half way point I supposed. She's still very boyish, although more so now than back then, yet being a girl I wasn't afraid of her nor was I afraid of becoming too committed it. We were already the best of friends so I would feel that pain regardless but not being a lesbian, the relationship could never progress to the level that your's had. I guess in that sense we used each other so we could both be in a relationship and not at the same time."

"Schrodinger's relation," Twilight piped in happily. She was pleased with her joke, but by everyone's else's expression, she was the only. She quickly shrunk down in her seat.

Yes, well, I guess that would be an apt metaphor," Rarity replied briskly. "As it were, things eventually got complicated far beyond what either of us had originally envisioned. I found the fact that I was now questioning my own sexuality to be rather disturbing."

"I know the feeling," Sunset added trying to help.

"As Apple Jack said, we, we, experimented. No full on intercourse, but, well, as she said in her own colloquial way, we tried everything else but. Some I liked, some I didn't but I always wanted to try for her. So, that is where we're at. We were hoping if I stayed, maybe it would help us figure things out."

"I feel like a fake, a fraud, a poser, worst yet, a Parasite," Flash said in a voice that was both weak and strong at the same time. "I told Adagio in the kitchen earlier that you all are so powerful. You either possessed magical abilities or in Twilight's and Sunset's case, still do. Heck, those two are literal goddesses. And here I am; just me. No magic, no nothing. Heck I'm even the only guy now. I couldn't protect Twilight, I couldn't even protect myself. Not then, not even now as the gas station experience today taught me. I couldn't even protect my own mind. Sometimes I think I can still feel her in there, waiting, laughing."

Twilight grabbed Flash's head with both hands and turned him toward her with such force and speed as to almost break his neck. Tears welled up in her eyes. "How, how could you have never told that to me before? I let you in to the most secret, sacred places of my being; I've laid before you all that I am, told you everything; and you keep this away from me? Couldn't you have done something less betraying like have an affair?"

"Twilight, I'm sorry. You shoulder so much, have so much responsibility, it seemed arrogant and selfish to trouble you with my problems."

"You let me be the judge of that! It was selfish of you to suppose how I would feel or think. You listen here - I'll tell you about your magical abilities. I gave up everything for you: my home, friends, family, status and never thought twice. You bring out in me the best which I am. You always have a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen. When I'm with you, I feel like I'm the only person in the world. I feel like I'm a hundred times better just by being in your company. I would sacrifice all that again and my life for you. And now, here, I find out you've been suffering all this time and never thought to let me help? - it breaks me in two."

Tears now rolled down Flash's face. Seeing Twilight so sad, knowing he was the cause, crushed him inside. "I'm sorry, I truly am. I just feel so unworthy of you at times."

"And when you say that you're basically saying I have no judgement."

Flash tried to look down in shame. "I know, I know," was he could say.

Slowly Twilight lifted his head until their eyes met. "I love you. I am going to be your wife and the mother of your children. You want to talk about magical abilities? Ok, sure. I might be a goddess but you're the one who got me so how much more does that say about you?"

The two touched foreheads and Flash quietly said, "I love."

"I like killing people," Pinkie said in her usual bubbly manner.

Every head immediately snapped around and looked at her. "WHAT?!" they all said in unison.

"The battle, after I saw all those dead bodies after they had turned back to people, yeah, I got off on it."

"It's true," Sonata added matter of factly. "We had the best sex ever that night."

"Wait, that night you stayed at my . . . aw. ew," Sunset said as she came to the full realization of what Sonata was saying.

"What? Like you and Dagi here didn't bow-chici-bow-wow that night?" Sonata responded defensively.

"No, no we didn't. We never even thought about it!" Sunset replied angrily.

"Honestly we didn't do that until last month," Adagio added dryly with just a hint of bitterness.

"Wait, what," Pinkie exclaimed in shock. "You're telling me you guys didn't take the bus to tuna town until last MONTH! Holy crap! That means Apple Jack and Rarity have more lezzie experience than you two."

"Well more than Sunset at least," Adagio quipped again, her tongue fully loosened by drink at this point.

"Pinkie! I had never been with a woman before, never even attracted to one. Dag was my first. That sort of thing takes a little while to get over," Sunset retorted.

"Amen sister," Rarity said under her breath.

"Hold on here," Apple now spoke up, shaking her head, "we're gettin' off point here. Pinkie Pie just said she liked killing people. Can we please focus on that?"

"I don't know," Pinkie shrugged. "Maud told me once she saw a darkness in me and she was right. I'm not saying I want to kill anybody, I'm just saying if I did, I'd have fun doing it."

"Sonata?" Sunset said, hoping Sonata might be able to shed some more light on the subject.

"I'm fine with," she said with a disinterested shrug. "Especially if I get another night like that one."

"Hey, wait," Rarity said in dawning horror. "We all spent the night at Sunset's that night. So that means you two were . . . ,"

"Fucking?" Pinkie said happily.

"Uh, well, um, yes; while we were there? How? You didn't do it while we were all sleeping on the floor - did you?"

"Nah, we fucked in the bathroom," Sonata added cheerfully.

"Makes sense," Adagio said.

"Dag!" Sunset reprimanded her lover.

"What? So she likes to kill people? So did I at one point. Never directly. I just used to ruin their lives until they killed themselves. More time consuming but far less incriminating." Adagio stopped at saw the shocked looks she was getting from Sunset, Apple Jack, Rarity, Twilight, and Flash. "Listen, I was a cunt. You knew that. I can't change the past so shrink away from it. For me it all worked out. I stopped being an evil cow, met the love of my life, and made some great friends. And considering I helped save the entire multiverse, I think my slate is fully wiped clean now.

"As for the ghoul sisters over there, eh. They haven't killed anyone since so that's a good sign. In fact their campus LGBT club helps a lot of people. And if the urges become overwhelming, they can just go the full Dexter." Adagio took another drink from her glass. "Aw baby this is the good shit. Sunset, take me home and fuck before I pass out."

Sunset's face turned an almost supernatural red with equal parts anger and embarrassment.

"I think it's best if all y'all went home," Apple said, trying to put the awkwardness to an end. "It's late, Rainbow and Fluttershy ain't here, and we've said a whole mess of something that I think it's best if we get some sleep on."

"Or fuck. I wanna fuck. Sunset, can we please fuck?" Adagio said fully drunk.

"I think you're right Apple Jack," Sunset said in a cold, restrained fury. She got up hurried over to Adagio, grabbed her arm and said through clenched teeth, "C'mon!"

"Whoops, gotta go everyone. See ya tomorrow after we fuck," Adagio waved with a big, drunken grin on her face.

Sunset cursed the whole way to the front door.

"Actually Adagio had a good idea there. You wanna go home and get it on?" Pinkie asked Sonata.

"I thought we were doing that regardless, but ok. See ya everyone." With that the two got up and left.

"Well that got weird quick," Flash said not knowing how to process the last part of the evening. "Dali paintings aren't as surreal as that was."

"But the idea is sound," Twilight said softly. "Come on. We should go too. We got a lot to talk about." Flash nodded, they both said there good-byes, and left.

"Well, so now what?" Rarity asked sounding and feeling really confused.

"I, I think, I think we should just do what we was planning on doing before the crazy started," Apple Jack said in a state somewhere between fear and anticipation.

Rarity nodded with an expression of fear coming across her face as well. "Ok. I'll put my teddy on in the bathroom and join you in bed."

The night would turn out great for the couples, miserable for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Regardless, it was the last all them would ever see each other again as a group.