Taco Platter

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 1
Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Flash Sentry was having a remarkably ‘meh’ kind of day. He was a bit tired from staying up late to do homework, and the chorus for his band’s latest song just wasn’t coming together, but it was Friday, and a beautiful spring day outside. So the good and bad all balanced out to meh.

That pretty much summed up his life lately.

There had been some shouting from the Rainbooms during lunch, but he hadn’t bothered to investigate. Sure, they were seven of the hottest girls to have ever lived, but things had been so awkward with them ever since … well, forever. First there was that stupidity about dating Sunset back when she was one twirly mustache away from being a cartoon villain. Then he’d fallen hard for a girl who wrote Sunset daily but had apparently forgotten he existed. Finally, another girl joined the group, one who looked identical to the one he was crushing on, but she didn’t even know his name. So yeah, hot or not, he did his best to avoid the Rainbooms.

At last, the final bell rang, and Flash rushed outside to enjoy the warm sunshine for a bit. Maybe a nice nap on the grass would upgrade the day from ‘meh’ to ‘good.’ Except he’d barely gotten outside when a vice-like hand grabbed him by the arm.

“Hey.”

Flash turned to find Applejack standing just behind him, her cheeks bright red as other students brushed past them. He’d read enough manga to immediately think of those scenes where a blushing schoolgirl confesses her feelings for senpai, and he wanted to slap himself for how incredibly wrongheaded that situation was when applied to Applejack.

She was about as opposite those petite, demure little girls as anyone could get, even if she was insanely sexy in her own way. Skin kissed golden brown from the sun, cheeks sprinkled with freckles that were just plain adorable, eyes so green and deep you could fall into them, all topped off by hair the color of spun gold. She’d be in the running for cutest girl in the school if she weren’t taller than a lot of guys, but all that did was switch her from cute to beautiful in a sort of melt-your-heart way.

And yeah, she had nice boobs. Flash did his best not to stare at them, but he was a guy, he noticed things.

Speaking of which, he noticed they’d been staring at each other for a few seconds without saying anything. “Um, hi?”

“Come with me,” Applejack said flatly and started walking around the edge of the school.

Flash got another vision of those romance mangas he’d never admit to liking. This golden-haired, statuesque goddess couldn’t be about to confess feelings for him or something?

He almost laughed at the thought. No way. At best, she wanted help with her math homework.

Applejack led him around to the track field at the back of the school, all without saying a word.

In fact, the silence was starting to make Flash uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. “Soooo, what’s going on?”

“I’m putting my money where my mouth was,” Applejack said without looking back, her voice terse to the point of anger.

“Um, okay.” Flash had absolutely no idea what she meant by that.

They reached the shed where the track team kept their equipment, and Applejack literally grabbed Flash and shoved him inside.

He stumbled in the darkness, smacking into the big mat they used as a landing pad for pole vaulters. Only a ton of wheeling his arms saved him from splattering out flat on it. Also, he may or may not have let out a girly shriek.

She stepped in after him and slammed the door shut, casting them both in darkness.

Flash put a hand to his chest, struggling to calm his raging heartbeat. This was starting to look less like a heartfelt confession and more like murder. “”Um … Applejack?”

“Sorry about this,” she said flatly as a soft rustling sound echoed from the darkness.

Yup, definitely like murder. “W-we can talk about this,” Flash said, dropping to his knees and fumbling in the darkness for a baseball bat, or a chunk of pipe, or anything, really. There was no way he’d be able to overpower a girl who could lift and throw buses, but at least he could go down fighting.

“There ain’t nothing to talk about,” Applejack said, her voice seeming to come from all directions. “This is happening whether you like it or not.”

Flash’s hands finally brushed against something solid, a baseball from the feel of it. It was better than nothing. He gripped it and stood up, ready face death on his feet.

Then the light clicked on, and Flash wasn’t facing death, but a very naked Applejack with bright red cheeks and hands on her hips, letting him see absolutely everything.

And boy, was there a lot to see ...

Finally, he flopped back, his whole body exhausted.

Applejack stayed there on top of him, running her hand up and down his side. “How you feeling, sugarcube?”

Flash’s mind was too busy drowning in endorphins to form a good response. All he could manage was a satisfied groan.

She chuckled and kissed the top of his head. “Yeah, I thought so.”

Author's Note

Chapter 4 Author's Note

No, I'm not going to stop!

Chapter 4

The rest of Saturday was one happy, silly blur. It turned out Pinkie actually had wanted help moving her drum set—about two feet to the side so the sun didn’t shine in her eyes. Then, with nothing else to do, Flash had played around on the guitar while Pinkie drummed along in her gym clothes.

Flash wasn’t playing any song in particular, just hitting notes as they came to him, but Pinkie seemed to enjoy making things up as they went. Flash enjoyed it too, and was genuinely sad when it came time for Pinkie to change back into her work clothes so he could take her home.

It was the first time he’d ever been sad to see that uniform.

“Where do you live?” Flash asked, opening the car door for her.

“Past Sweet Apple Acres,” Pinkie said, climbing in. “Head that-a-way and I’ll tell you where to go from there.”

“Okay.” Flash closed her door then walked around to the driver’s side. Sweet Apple Acres. Since he’d be in the area, he could visit-

Flash froze, hand on the driver’s side door. “Ooooooh crap.” He’d read more than enough romance mangas to know sleeping with two girls back-to-back was a terrible idea. He’d even mocked protagonists for doing exactly that, as if anyone could be stupid enough to make that mistake.

Well apparently at least one person was that stupid, and his face was reflecting back at Flash in the window.

“Come on, think,” he said urgently. “What are the biggest mistakes those idiots always make? Not keeping it in their pants, obviously.” He ran a hand down his face. “Too late for that. What else? Uh, trying to cover it up until it all explodes in their faces.” He looked into the car, where Pinkie sat, looking at him curiously.

She had to be wondering what was taking him so long to open the door.

Flash smiled back at her as best he could. He suddenly understood why those protagonists acted the way they did. His mind showed him Pinkie's loving smile vanishing, replaced by anger, betrayal, and disgust. He knew lying would make things worse in the end, but he wanted to do it anyway, just to preserve that smile a little longer.

“No,” Flash said to himself. “She deserves better.” He took a steadying breath and climbed into the car.

“What’s wrong, Flashy?” Pinkie asked, taking his hand. “You look like something bad just happened.”

“Not exactly,” Flash said slowly. “Uh, gosh, there’s no easy way to say this.” He ran a hand down his face. “Yesterday, Applejack came up to me, and we, uh … we wound up …”

“Having sex,” Pinkie said with a nod. “I know.”

Flash stared at her. “Y-you do?”

“Yes indeedy-do,” Pinkie said with a grin. “She told me all about it, and you really are just as good as she said.”

“What?” Flash couldn’t help but smile from the praise. “I-I mean, really?”

Pinkie nodded. “You should do Twilight soon.” She leaned close. “That girl really needs a good orgasm.”

“She does seem really-” Flash froze. “Wait, wait, wait!” He held up a hand. “What? You want me to sleep with Twilight—the new Twilight, I mean?”

“Of course,” Pinkie said with a casual smile. “Unless the pony Twilight stops by, then her too. I think she gets even more stressed out than our human Twilight.”

Flash’s jaw dropped, and he was pretty sure he heard something snap in his brain. “You want me to sleep with the new Twilight,” he said again, just to make sure he’d heard her correctly.

“Uh-huh,” Pinkie said. “Or maybe Sunset first. I know you two still have things to work out, and this might help.”

“I’m not going to have sex with Sunset,” Flash said, a little outraged by the very idea.

“Why not?” Pinkie asked, looking genuinely confused.

“Because, I …” Flash paused, struggling for an explanation. None came. “Why do you want me to have sex with her?” he asked at last.

“Because you’re nice,” Pinkie said, ruffling his hair, “and I know you’ll make her happy, and I bet she’ll make you happy too, and I want both of you to be happy.”

“But, uh,” Flash leaned back in his seat and pressed a hand over his eyes. “You seriously want me to sleep with those two?”

“And the rest of my friends, if they want it,” Pinkie said.

“You know that’s weird, right?” Flash asked, still covering his eyes.

Pinkie gently lifted his hand away from his face, letting him see her smiling face. “It’s okay, silly. We all agreed on this, and I don’t want you to feel guilty for making my friends happy.”

Now, any straight guy could see the appeal of what Pinkie was offering; permission—heck, practically an order—to sleep with seven beautiful girls. But talking with Pinkie was quickly reminding Flash just how confusing a single girl could be. Seven would make his head explode. “Can’t they find guys of their own?” he asked.

Pinkie leaned closer, giving him the puppy dog eyes. “Please? For me?”

He tried to resist, he really did, but nothing could’ve stood against those beautiful, pleading eyes. He sighed and lowered his head in defeat. “Fine, if they come on to me, I’ll try to be, uh, open to their advances.”

“Yay!” Pinkie pulled him into a hug across their seats. “Thank you, Flashy!”

“Um, you’re welcome?” Flash shook his head. “But I’m not going to drop my pants just because they tell me to.” Even though he’d done exactly that with Applejack yesterday. “They’ll have to actually seduce me.”

“Okay,” Pinkie said. “I’ll tell them they’ll have to work for their,” she looked at his crotch and wiggled her eyebrows, “meat.”

“And now this is getting awkward,” Flash said, putting a hand over his junk protectively.

Pinkie giggled. “I was going to say they’d have to pay to get a Flash bang.”

He groaned. “Terrible pun, Pinkie. Three out of ten.”

“Maybe we could call it Flash fu-”

“Anyway,” Flash said quickly, “let’s get you home.”

Pinkie just laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed for Sweet Apple Acres. She did give him directions to her house from there, if one counted ‘follow the road’ as directions.

Regardless, soon he was parking in front of a drab building that actually had those white plaster walls with wooden frames, like a medieval cottage. He swallowed. “H-hey, Pinkie?”

“Yes, Flashy?” Pinkie asked, smiling at him.

“Uh, would you want to go out sometime?” He fidgeted. “You know, like, on a date?”

Suddenly warm lips were pressed against his, and the scent of strawberries and chocolate filled his mind.

“Sounds good, Flashy,” Pinkie said with a wicked grin. “Just don’t schedule it on a day you’re banging my friends.” She bounced her eyebrows. “I’d hate to wear you out before they get a chance to have fun.” Then she opened the door and got out before he could even respond.

Flash watched her skip up to the door, wave at him, and disappear inside. It didn’t occur to him until afterwards that he should’ve waved back.

“Stupid,” Flash muttered, pulling back onto the road, “and is she really serious about me sleeping with her friends?” He shook his head. “Aw, who cares? I’ve got a date! Sort of. More like permission to set dates.” He frowned. “Does that still count?”

The next morning, Flash got out of bed and stretched before heading into the kitchen. He’d actually remembered to buy groceries last night, which seemed only fair after forgetting to set a date with Pinkie. He’d need to get her cell number on Monday so he could fix that. And maybe talk to Applejack too.

Maybe.

He wasn’t sure what he’d even say to her.

Breakfast wasn’t anything special, just cereal, then he headed back to his room to figure out what he’d do with the rest of the day.

His phone vibrated as soon as he walked in, almost like it had been waiting for him. Flash unplugged it from the charger and picked it up. “New text from-” He swallowed. “Sunset Shimmer.”

To be fair, things with Sunset had gotten better since their breakup. She no longer threatened him with bloody vengeance, and he no longer thought of her as a blood-sucking monster. In fact, mutual hatred wasn’t the problem at all anymore. Nope, it was something far more awkward.

Flash steeled himself and unlocked his phone, reading the text aloud. “Come over. We need to talk.”

Now there was an ominous text if he’d ever seen one. Flash seriously considered ignoring it, like she’d ignored him all those times, but she was Pinkie’s friend, and the last thing he wanted was to cause problems for her.

“Maybe she wants to yell at me for having sex with Pinkie and Applejack,” Flash said, tossing his pajama pants aside and grabbing a pair of jeans. “That would be the sensible thing to do.” As weird as it sounded, Flash was kind of hoping for it. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about banging two girls in a row, like he was cheating on both of them with the other, and getting chewed out for it might convince his conscience he’d been punished enough.

Soon Flash was in his car and driving a route he hadn’t taken in years. Strange that it was still so familiar to him. Get on Main Street, drive until he reached the dentist’s office, turn right, drive two blocks, turn left, find a parking spot.

He climbed out of his car and looked up at the worn old apartment building, complete with faded plaster walls and small piles of dirt and trash in the parking lot. There had been a lot of good times here, but there had also been plenty of bad ones, like when she’d screamed at him for an hour over something. He still didn’t understand what, exactly, just that it had involved an experiment that didn’t work out. That had been the day he finally snapped and broke up with her.

“Don’t hold it against her,” Flash said to himself, heading for the door. “She’s changed, and you were plenty stupid back then too.”

He took the stairs up to her apartment. Flash told himself it was because he needed the exercise, but he knew it was a lie. He stopped at her floor and shook his head, laughing at his own pathetic waffling back and forth. First he wanted her to yell at him, now he was delaying his arrival because he didn’t want to get yelled at. “Grow some balls,” Flash said to himself and marched down the hallway to Sunset’s door, avoiding mysterious dark stains on the plain gray carpet. He knocked firmly and stood there, awaiting his fate.

Except no one answered.

Flash waited for a solid minute, a frown slowly growing on his face. He knocked again.

No response.

Okay, this was getting ridiculous. Flash pulled out his phone and sent her a quick text, ‘I’m here.’

Silence.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Flash muttered, pulling out his phone for another message.

Then the door slowly creaked open, and Sunset peeked her head out, a slight blush on her cheeks and wearing the least convincing smile he’d ever seen. “Uh, h-hey, Flash.”

“Um, hi?” Flash didn’t know what else to say.

Silence fell over them, until Sunset swallowed. “Want to come in?”

“Sure.” Better to get yelled at in private, if that was even still happening. Sunset didn’t look like she was in much of a shouting mood.

Sunset stepped back and opened the door just enough for him to squeeze through.

“You said we needed to talk,” Flash said, sliding in past her. “What’s going on-” He froze, looking her up and down.

She wore what Flash could only assume was lingerie. It looked like a red shirt with orange accents had been sliced up the front, connected only by an inch of fabric between her considerable breasts, leaving the two halves to billow down on either side of her waist, revealing her smooth stomach. Beneath that, she wore the frilliest, fluffiest red panties he’d ever seen.

Flash facepalmed. “You too?”

Sunset’s already strained smile cracked a bit. She gave a forced laugh. “Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.”

“What reaction were you hoping for?” Flash asked, doing his best to look her in the eyes. At least she was fairly close to him in height, so he could keep his head level and avoid glimpsing her cleavage.

“I don’t know,” Sunset said awkwardly. “Something like what happened with Applejack.”

Flash didn’t know why he was surprised she knew about that. “How many people has she told?”

“Just the six of us,” Sunset said quickly.

“Good.” Flash’s eyes wandered down on their own, and he had to yank them back up. It was hard to concentrate with her dressed like that. “Uh, could you change so we can talk?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said quietly. “I’ll, I’ll be right back.” She practically ran across her small living room to the bathroom door, slamming it shut behind her.

Flash just stood there, looking at the door and feeling just a jerk for some reason. He sighed and walked closer. “You look great in that, by the way. It’s just hard for me to think with all my blood flow being diverted south.”

There was a long pause, then he heard Sunset sigh as well. “That’s what I was hoping for, actually, to skip past the awkward part where we talk about things and just … I don’t know, makeup sex.”

“I know how you feel,” Flash said, standing in front of the door. “I was kind of hoping you’d invited me over to scream at me for what happened with Applejack and Pinkie. That way we wouldn’t have to really talk either.”

He heard Sunset sit down inside the bathroom and lean against the door. “So neither of us wants to talk. I guess that means we need to.”

“Yeah,” Flash said, sitting down against the door as well, one leg pressed up to his chest and the other splayed out across the carpet.

“… So,” she said after a moment, “what should we talk about?”

He took a deep breath. “What happened between us, probably.”

“You mean why we broke up?” Sunset asked. “I thought that was obvious. I was a complete and total bitch, and you finally got sick of me.” She chuckled without humor.

Flash shook his head, then stopped when he realized she couldn’t see him. “No, I mean overall. How did we get from meeting each other in front of the school to … this? I still can’t figure out why you even started dating me.”

“It’s stupid,” Sunset said.

“So?” Flash asked. “Just tell me.”

She was silent for a moment. “I’d just come through the portal.” Her voice was low and heavy. “I didn’t know where I was or what was going on. I’d barely figured out how to walk, and suddenly you were there.”

Flash thought back on their first meeting, how unsteady she’d looked on her feet, how scared, and angry, and so many other emotions he couldn’t identify them all. He chuckled softly, remembering what she’d screamed when she saw him. “Did you really think I was a monster?”

“I’d never seen a human before,” Sunset said a little defensively. “At least I calmed down quickly.”

“After you fell and I helped you up,” Flash said, smiling faintly. “I was surprised you let me buy you something to eat.”

“I forgot to eat before I left Equestria.” Sunset groaned in frustration. “I was such an idiot back then. Leaving for an unknown dimension full of possible danger, and I didn’t even pack a sandwich.”

“Look on the bright side,” Flash said. “You got introduced to hamburgers.”

“True,” Sunset said, laughing softly. “So much better than hayburgers.”

Flash stuck out his tongue. He knew Sunset’s home dimension was weird, but who in their right mind would befoul a hamburger with hay?

“Anyway,” Sunset said, “after that, you did so much for me it’s not surprising I started to fall for you.”

“I didn’t do that much,” Flash said.

“You let me live in your house and hid me from your dad,” Sunset said. “For two weeks until I could find a place of my own.”

“I don’t think I deserve any credit for that,” Flash said. “A teenage boy letting a girl stay in his room with him. You’re lucky I didn’t take advantage of you.”

“I am lucky,” Sunset said quietly. “I knew it at the time, that’s why I asked you to be my boyfriend … I guess I just forgot at some point.”

Flash nodded silently, thinking back on how she’d changed. It had been a subtle thing at first, like the time she spent a week training for the school race only to come in tenth place. Flash didn’t blame her for being a bit moody and upset, and had spent the rest of the day talking and laughing with her until she cheered up. Then, before he knew it, two years had passed, and Sunset was outright blackmailing people into losing the race.

“Can we both agree I was a total bitch and move on?” Sunset asked.

“Sure,” Flash said. “I think we both want to forget as much of that as possible.”

“You have no idea,” Sunset said. “I didn’t even blame you for breaking up with me. I knew I deserved it.”

Flash could remember that day all too well. He’d showed up at her door with flowers and candy. Then the yelling started. “What were you so upset about anyway? Something about an experiment?”

She sighed. “I was trying to develop a way to use magic in a human body. I’d been trying since I got here, but that experiment was my last hope, so when it failed …”

“You were ticked,” Flash said.

“No,” Sunset said quietly. “I was scared. I didn’t know how to open the portal back home, and I thought without magic I might be stranded here forever. I know that doesn’t excuse the things I said, but … yeah.”

Flash tried to imagine what she must have been feeling, and he couldn’t. “I never really thought about it that way.” He chuckled morbidly at how dumb he’d been. “Trapped alone on an alien world, without a single friend or family member to fall back on if things went wrong. Only able to talk to some teenage idiot … who turned around and dumped you.” He shook his head. “I’d want to take over the town too, just to feel safe again.”

“It still doesn’t make it right,” Sunset said quietly.

“No, but,” Flash sighed, “I think I finally understand why you changed, and I’m sorry about the things I said in that last big fight.” The words lifted a weight off his chest. He smiled and added, “You do deserve to be loved.”

Silence, except for the faint sound of unsteady breathing.

“Sunset?” Flash asked.

“J-just give me a minute,” Sunset said, followed by the sound of her blowing her nose. “Sorry, I just-” She blew her nose again. “One second.”

The sound of fabric moving across skin came from inside the bathroom, and Flash stood up to wait.

Sunset opened the door a moment later, hanging her head and wearing an orange t-shirt with a sun symbol on it and purple pajama pants. “Do you want to sit on the couch? Or stay here?” She looked up enough for him to see her red eyes. “It’d just be nice to keep talking like this.”

Flash smiled reassuringly and nodded. “The couch sounds good.”

The apartment was basically one room with a raised loft for the bed. Not the best living quarters, sure, but it said a lot about Sunset that she managed to pay for any kind of apartment while also going to high school. Flash sat down on the worn, powder-blue sofa that divided her living room from her kitchen, shifting around until he found a position where loose springs didn’t poke into his back.

Sunset sat next to him, smiling apologetically. “Sorry, I know it’s a piece of crap.”

“You should see the one in my living room,” Flash said.

“I did,” Sunset said with a hint of amusement. “Remember?”

“Oh,” Flash cleared his throat, “yeah.”

“Yeah.” Sunset swallowed. “So, I feel like I screwed something up between us even after we broke up.”

Flash looked away.

“I did, didn’t I?” Sunset asked, even though her tone said she already knew the answer.

“It’s stupid,” Flash said.

“I used that excuse myself a few minutes ago,” Sunset said. “You didn’t buy it from me either.”

“Fine,” Flash said, “but I feel like a whiny baby even bringing it up.”

“Just tell me,” Sunset said gently.

He took a deep breath. “Remember how you pointed out I may as well give up on Twilight? Pony Twilight, I mean.”

“I know,” Sunset said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Was I too harsh about it?”

“No,” Flash said quickly. “I’d kind of gotten over her on my own and just needed someone to help me realize it, but then …” Flash paused. This was it. Best get it over with quickly. “I realized I still had feelings for you, so I started trying to flirt with you.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “You did?”

Flash made a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh. “Remember when I asked you to the Camp Everfree dance?”

Sunset sank back, looking guilty. “The girls and I were going as a group,” she said weakly.

“I know,” Flash said, looking at their reflections on the TV. Just two stupid, angsty teens on a couch. “Then there was the time I asked if you wanted to go to a movie, but you were going with the girls. I asked if you wanted to hang out, cram session with the girls. Study together? Nope, directing the school play, starring the girls.” He shook his head. “Around the seventh or eighth time, I gave up.”

“I didn’t even realize,” Sunset said, then she winced. “And that’s exactly the problem.” She facepalmed. “I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

“Maybe,” Flash said with a self-deprecating smile, “or maybe your subconscious was helping you avoid total losers.”

“You aren’t a loser,” Sunset said, lowering her hand.

“Really?” Flash asked. “Name one thing I’ve won.”

Sunset opened her mouth, paused, then closed it.

“Your honor,” Flash said dryly, “I believe the jury has reached a verdict.”

“Would it be cliché,” Sunset said slowly, a faint blush on her cheeks, “if I said you won my heart?”

They looked at each other for a moment, then both burst out laughing.

“Yes,” Flash said. “Very cliché.” But he couldn’t keep a smile off his lips.

Sunset’s laughter turned into a sad smile of her own. “You did, though, back when you first took me in.”

“What happened since then?” Flash asked quietly.

“I don’t know.” Sunset flopped back on the couch. “I guess things are just easier with the girls. Sure, I was a bitch to them, but I was a bitch to everyone. When I went after you, it was personal.”

“I figured when you uploaded naked pictures of me to the internet,” Flash said.

Sunset went quiet, curling her legs up to her chest and resting her arms on top of them. “Yeah,” she said softly, “stuff like that. Sometimes I look at you and remember those horrible things I did, and I just …” She made a fist and slammed it down into the couch. “I hate myself.”

“Don’t,” Flash said firmly. “That stuff still bugs me sometimes, sure, but I don’t want you to hate yourself over it.”

“Why not?” Sunset asked miserably.

He smirked. “Would it be cliché to say because you won my heart too?”

Sunset still looked miserable, but a hint of warmth lit up her eyes. “Jerk,” she said softly, hitting him in the shoulder.

“I guess I am,” Flash said, rubbing his shoulder. “That’s the second time you revealed something traumatizing you’ve gone through that I was totally clueless about.” He lowered his arm. “Why did you try to seduce me if being around me is so hard for you?”

Sunset looked away. “Do you think, ‘it’s stupid,’ would get me out of explaining?”

“It hasn’t worked so far,” Flash said.

Sunset stayed quiet for a long moment, then she sighed and lowered her head. “I thought maybe it would make up for some of the crap I did if I screwed you senseless.”

Flash didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt dirty. “Uh, Sunset, I’ll be the first to admit you’re gorgeous, but I’m not going to sleep with someone who doesn’t want it.”

Her cheeks lit up, and she looked even farther away. “I never said I didn’t want it.”

“Oh,” Flash said quietly.

An awkward silence settled over the two.

“A-anyway,” Sunset said at last, “I’m sorry. I should’ve realized you wouldn’t want to, uh, yeah, with me after everything.”

“I never said that either,” Flash said, shifting awkwardly in his seat.

Sunset turned back to him, hope and fear warring in her eyes. “R-really?”

“Well, yeah.” Flash blushed and focused on the TV again, though he did reach out and take her hand in his. Her fingers were rough and slightly cold, but beneath that, he could feel her warmth.

They sank back into silence for a time, then Sunset shifted closer to him, tentatively resting her head on his shoulder.

Flash gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Mind if I ask something?”

“Go ahead,” she said quietly.

“Why do you want this?” Flash smiled playfully. “Don’t tell me you’re just that desperate for an orgasm.”

She smiled and hit him in the shoulder, but there was no force behind it. “Still being a jerk.”

“It’s who I am,” Flash said, still smiling. “Seriously, though, why?”

Sunset buried her face in his shoulder. “It’s another cliché line.”

“Which one?” Flash asked.

She sighed. “I want to feel close to you again, close like we were before everything went so stupidly wrong between us.”

“Is that a cliché?” Flash asked, squeezing her hand again. “To me it just sounds heartfelt.”

“To me it sounds cliché,” Sunset said, lifting her head so they could look each other in the eyes. She was smiling nervously, her cheeks flushed. “Why do you want it, though?” She smirked. “Just that desperate to see boobs?”

He laughed and rested his forehead against her. “I tried for a long time to hate you, but I couldn’t. Even when you were ignoring me, I couldn’t feel angry, just sad.”

“Wuss,” she said in a loving, comforting tone.

Flash smiled. “I guess what I’m getting at is I can’t stop feeling the way I do about you. I tried, but … I don’t know, I want to feel close to you again too.” He leaned in slowly, giving her the chance to move, turn her head, push him away, or do anything else that would stop his lips from finding hers.

Instead, she met him halfway, her lips smooth and gentle, almost nervous, as they brushed against his.

Flash’s arms went around her, holding her close as he deepened the kiss, running his tongue playfully across her lips. He still didn’t know why that had always made her laugh, but it worked this time too, drawing softy, happy chuckles from her.

She pulled back, smiling at him with the faintest hint of moisture in her eyes. “Are you really sure you want this?”

In response, he pulled her to his chest again and fell backwards so they were lying side by side on the couch, their legs intertwined. Then he kissed her just as tenderly as before, running his hands up and down her back.

Sunset groaned appreciatively, pressing her entire body against his ...

She lay there, her head tilted to the side so he could see her closed eyes and a soft, contented smile on her face, with her hair splayed out around the bed in an unruly mess, and hints of sweat and goosebumps running along her back. She was, in a word, radiant.

Flash couldn’t help but smile, warmth filling his chest until he said the only words he knew to express what he was feeling, “I love you.”

Sunset smiled wider, nuzzling her face against the rumpled sheets. “I love you too.” And for a moment, everything was perfect.

Then her eyes snapped open and she looked up at him with an expression of pure fear. “Oh no, oh no, no, no. Pinkie’s going to kill me. I-I didn’t mean—well, I did, but …” She covered her face with her arms.

“Sunset, wait,” Flash said, wrestling her arms up above her head.

“You don’t understand,” Sunset said, her whole body shaking. “Pinkie went on and on about how amazing you are, and how she can’t wait to go on a date with you, and she sounded so happy to have you as a boyfriend, but then I had to go and-”

“Sunset!” Flash said loud enough to cut off her panicked rambling.

She swallowed and looked up at him. “Y-yes?”

He paused. “I, uh, I have no idea.” For some reason, admitting it brought a chuckle to his lips. “We’re, uh,” he laughed, “we’re screwed, aren’t we?”

She laughed too. “Yeah, we are.”

It took a few moments for their nervous laughter to burn itself out, and when it did, the two found themselves looking into each other’s eyes once more.

Sunset bit her lip and looked away. “You could, well, you could always … take back what you said.” Her voice was barely a whisper by the end.

“Do you want me to?” Flash asked softly, touching her cheek with his hand.

“Of course not,” Sunset said, leaning into his hand, though she still wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“You could always take back what you said instead,” Flash said. He didn’t want to admit it, but just saying the words filled his chest with leaden ice.

“No,” she said firmly, grabbing his hand protectively in both of her and closing her eyes. “No.”

Warmth filled his chest, even if it didn’t stop the guilt from bubbling up inside him when he thought of Pinkie. “So … we tell her?”

Sunset’s eyes snapped open again. “Are you crazy? I can’t tell one of my best friends I’m in love with her boyfriend.”

“It’s better than lying to her,” Flash said.

She stared up at him for a moment. “You’ve been spending too much time with Applejack.”

“Hey, we haven’t talked since we banged in the equipment shed.” Flash paused as the insanity of that statement clicked with him.

Even Sunset had to roll her eyes and laugh. “Why’d I have to fall for the guy with the world’s craziest sex life?”

“Ask your friends,” Flash said, chuckling helplessly. “They’re the ones who decided to share me. What on earth caused that anyway?”

“It’s a long story,” Sunset said, shifting out from underneath him. She smiled at him, expression slowly going from sad, to grateful, to determined. “One second.” She jumped out of the bed and rushed downstairs.

“Where are you going?” Flash asked.

But Sunset’s only response was to walk into the bathroom and come back with her phone in her hand, already ringing. “Hello?” she said after a moment. “Pinkie? I’m having sex with Flash right now.” She winced and pulled her head away from the phone.

Flash leaned over the edge of the loft. “Is she angry?”

Sunset shook her head, walking up the stairs to join him. “She’s raving about how great it is. Here, I’ll put it on speaker.” She pushed a button on her phone.

“… And whatever you do, make sure he uses his mouth on your woo-hoo! It’s the bestest feeling ever, trust me!”

“Pinkie!” Sunset said.

“Yes?”

Sunset took a deep breath. “Flash and I, w-we just …”

“We just admitted we love each other,” Flash said, waiting for her hurt, angry response.

What he got was Pinkie squealing with joy. “Really? That’s super fantastic! Congratulations, Sunset, you must’ve really rocked his world!”

Flash and Sunset shared a confused look.

“Um, not exactly.” Sunset blushed.

Pinkie gasped. “What?! Then get back there and finish the job.”

“Pinkie,” Flash said, a blush on his own cheeks, “aren’t you upset? I, I have feelings for Sunset. Like, really strong ones.” He looked at her and smiled sadly. “But neither of us wants to hurt you.”

“Why would I be hurt?” Pinkie asked. “Nothing’s better than love and friendship, right? Oh wait,” her voice turned sly, “were you two inviting me over for a threesome?”

“What?” Flash gasped. “No!”

“Aww,” Pinkie said. “Well, did Sunset need advice on how to get your rocket to launch?”

Sunset’s eye twitched. “No, Pinkie, we were calling because we wanted to make sure you were okay with Flash and I having feelings for each other.”

“Of course I’m okay with that,” Pinkie said. “How many times to I have to say it? Is it three? I bet it’s three.”

Sunset facepalmed. “Pinkie, I’m going to screw Flash senseless now.”

“Okay,” she said cheerfully, “have fun!”

Sunset hung up and turned to Flash, apparently waiting for him to say something.

Flash had no idea what to say. In fact, he was pretty sure Pinkie had damaged his capacity for rational thought beyond repair.

“So …” Sunset said at last, “back to sex?”

“Uh, maybe?” Even Flash had to admit the mood was well and truly ruined, even if his hormones were screaming at him to get back to business. “I understand if you’d rather grab a bite to eat or—whoa!”

Sunset shoved him backwards onto the bed and climbed on top.

Chapter 5

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6

Flash was late getting back home, not that anyone was there to worry about him. He’d always been jealous of kids whose parents actually cared enough to worry.

Then again, he couldn’t exactly explain to those hypothetical parents that he’d been late because he’d been having butt sex with one of the most beautiful women in his school and they’d had to clean up a lot of fluids afterwards.

So overall, Flash figured he broke about even on this.

He stumbled through the dark house and up to his room, collapsing into bed without even bothering to take his socks off. Massaging Rarity had taken more out of him than he’d expected. Maybe he should start working out or something. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea …

Something buzzed in his pocket, rousing Flash from his slumber. He blearily groped at it, struggling to remember how pockets worked.

Was his hand supposed to go in through that slit or just kind of phase through the worn denim?

Somehow, he got the buzzing object free, and muscle memory brought it up to his face. “Hello?”

More buzzing.

Right, he had to unlock the stupid thing first. He quickly scrawled his unlock pattern across the screen and tried again. “Hello?”

“Good morning, you fabulous cutie-patootie, you!” an energetic voice said.

Flash smiled. “Morning, Pinkie.” He yawned. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing right now,” Pinkie said cheerfully, “but today you’ll be doing the horizontal hula with Fluttershy!”

“Uhhhh,” Flash said slowly. “Good to know?”

“Oh, I bet it is!” Pinkie laughed. “Make sure to bring your hiking gear to school, okay? Oh, and be gentle with Fluttershy. It’s her first time.”

“I’ll do whatever she’s comfortable with doing,” Flash said, sitting up in his bed. “Just one question; why hiking gear?”

“For hiking, silly!” Pinkie said. “See you at school!” Then she hung up.

Flash stayed there for a moment, looking at his phone like it would give him the answers Pinkie hadn’t. “Okay,” he said at last. “I guess I should get up.”

It said a lot about his life lately that a phone call like that hadn’t even phased him.

His morning routine went quickly as he stumbled into his clothes, ate some toast for breakfast, and stepped outside into the gentle morning light.

Then he headed right back inside to change, muttering under his breath. “Stupid.”

He’d put on jeans and a his leather jacket out of habit.

A few minutes later, he stepped outside in a pair of green gym shorts, a white shirt, and a baseball cap. Hopefully that would work for whatever Fluttershy had planned.

If it was Fluttershy who’d planned this.

Flash hopped in his car and started it up, reflecting on his scheduled … uh, date, with Fluttershy.

Yeah, ‘date’ sounded a lot better than ‘sex appointment.’

Regardless, Fluttershy was so timid he honestly didn’t think she’d set up a ‘date’ by herself. Heck, just yesterday Rarity had said she’d likely have to get involved and get back to Flash with a plan. Which actually gave him an idea. Flash pulled out his phone and flipped to his contacts.

That’s also when he realized he didn’t have Rarity’s number.

“I’d better get that at school today,” Flash muttered, pulling up Sunset’s number instead.

“Hello?” Sunset said a few seconds later, followed by a yawn.

“Hey,” Flash said, starting up his car. “Any idea what’s going on with Fluttershy today?”

“Fluttershy?” Sunset yawned again. “I haven’t heard from her since she logged off last night.”

Flash paused. “Logged off of what?”

“Our chat group,” Sunset said. “We were talking while you were over at Rarity’s and …” She sighed, long, low, and sad. “A-anyway, how’d things go with Rarity?”

Something in her voice sounded alarm bells in Flash’s head. He pulled out of the driveway and started driving toward her apartment. “Sunset, what happened?”

“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly. “Nothing I didn’t deserve. I-I’m fine, really.”

Flash grit his teeth and decided to go for a cheap shot. “I thought we decided to be honest with each other from now on.”

He swore he could hear her wince.

“It’s okay,” he said gently, pausing at a stop sign. “Just tell me what happened.”

She was silent for a moment, then she sighed again. “I told them about everything I did to you back when I was the bitch queen. They, uh, they weren’t too happy with me.”

Flash didn’t speak for a moment either, torn between wanting to comfort her and feeling happy that the others were standing up for him. “Is everything alright between you girls?” he asked at last.

“Maybe in a few days,” she said quietly. “For now, it might be best if I gave them some space to cool off. Rainbow and Pinkie were seriously ticked.”

“Let me talk to them,” Flash said. “By the way, I’ll be at your place in five minutes. You might want to get ready.”

“What?!” Several loud thumps came through the speaker, probably Sunset falling out of bed. “Flash, wait. I’m not sure if I should even go to school today, let alone show up with the guy they’re all pissed at me for abusing.”

“Four minutes,” Flash said, then he hung up. He knew Sunset well enough to know she’d yell at the phone for a bit then get up and get ready, plus it gave him some time to think.

Pinkie was pissed at Sunset. It was another situation right out of a romance anime where two girls are fighting over a guy. He took a deep breath. “Okay, so what usually happens in those shows?”

Well, in harem animes, the characters might be upset for a few episodes, but then they’d get over it. Harem animes were also the ones Flash always thought were the least realistic. Most other shows with a love triangle usually used something like this to shatter the bond between one character and the other members of the triangle.

Flash swallowed. “So, worst case scenario, this ruins Sunset’s relationship with a few friends, possibly forcing me to choose between them.” He groaned. “Okay, Flash, you’ve got four minutes to come up with something. Think fast.”

Apparently his brain wasn’t a fan of thinking fast. Or thinking in general. Flash was still utterly clueless when he reached Sunset’s apartment and knocked.

She opened the door in her usual purple shirt and leather jacket, looking a crazy combination of annoyed, grateful, hopeful, and depressed. “H-hey.”

Flash easily slipped into his ‘Chill Dude’ smile. “Hey, ready to go?”

“I guess.” She brushed some of her still-wet hair out of her face. “Any idea what I should say to the girls? It doesn’t really feel like apologizing is going to cut it this time.”

“I’ve got some ideas,” Flash said confidently, leading her back toward his car.

He had no ideas.

At all.

“Okay,” Sunset said, looking slightly more cheerful as she followed. “So what’s the plan?”

He faked a sly smile. “Just leave that to me.”

Moments like these were why Flash firmly believed he was an idiot.

They reached the school far too quickly, and Flash could only accept that he’d dug his own grave. Still, he did his best to look calm and confident as he walked Sunset to the door. The usual crowd of students had already gathered around the front of the building. Flash was nearly at the steps when a voice called, “Hey!”

He and Sunset both whipped around to see Rainbow stalking out of the crowd towards them with a glare. The rest of their group was behind her. They must have been waiting next to the statue when Flash and Sunset walked by.

Rainbow jabbed a finger at Sunset. “You’ve got a lot of nerve making Flash give you a ride to school today after-”

Everyone froze when Flash grabbed Sunset and pulled her into the deepest, most passionate kiss he could manage. Like, deep enough he tasted her breakfast cereal, as his hands roamed up and down her body, pressing him against her. And yeah, he might have squeezed her butt too.

Eventually he came up for air, leaving a panting Sunset staring at him in shock. He winked before turning to Rainbow. “Heya, Rainbow. As you can see, Sunset and I have already kissed and made up.”

Flash didn’t know if that line was incredibly smooth or incredibly stupid, but he thanked his brain for it anyway.

Rainbow seemed about as confused as he was, just staring at him with her mouth open. Behind her, the other girls weren’t doing much better.

Except Pinkie, who grinned. “Wow, that was hot!”

The other kids around the school started cheering their agreement, a few calling out indecent suggestions.

Pinkie ran over to Sunset and pulled her into a hug, the top of her head resting comfortably under Sunset’s chin. “I’m super-duper-mega-extra sorry I yelled at you last night! Forgive me?” She looked up with weapon’s-grade puppy-dog eyes.

Sunset smiled and hugged her back. “Of course I do, Pinkie. I’m just sorry I did all those terrible things in the first place.”

“Don’t worry, I forgive you.” Pinkie turned to Flash with a sly grin. “Hey Flaaashie, want the two of us to kiss and make up too?”

If anything, the other kids cheered louder this time. Meanwhile, Flash was busy trying to wrestle a rogue ‘yes,’ from escaping his lips.

He was only human, after all.

Sunset just rolled her eyes and broke off the hug. “Sorry, but no. Just guys for me.”

“Aw well.” Pinkie smiled anyway and hugged her once more. “Let’s not fight again, okay?”

“Okay.” Sunset patted her head with a smile. She looked up at Rainbow; who was still staring at her, looking like her train of thought had been derailed. Then fallen off a cliff. Then exploded. “So,” Sunset said nervously, “we good?”

Rainbow looked at Flash. “Are you two good?”

Flash nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then yeah, we’re good.” She did one of those informal salutes with only two fingers before heading to the school door. “You should hurry. The bell’s gonna ring soon.”

“Somehow I doubt she cares,” Rarity said, walking up to Flash. She was in a simple white t-shirt today, with jeans that hugged her hips wonderfully. “I do apologize for that. It seems yesterday, while we were occupied, something of a tiff occurred between Sunset and the others.”

“Y-yeah,” Flash said, more than a little distracted with memories of the last time he’d seen her in a t-shirt. “I got the basics from Sunset.” He cleared his throat. “You look r-really nice, by the way.”

She smiled warmly and leaned forward. “Thank you for noticing.” Then she pecked him on the cheek, her hot breath tickling his skin. “Be sure to sit with us at lunch.” She smiled again before walking to the door as well, while the crowd stared at Flash in surprised awe.

Flash felt their eyes boring into him, but he didn’t mind too much, considering he had Rarity’s lovely, swaying backside to keep him occupied. He didn’t feel the least bit bad about looking either. In fact, he got the feeling she would’ve been upset with him if he hadn’t.

“Wow,” Pinkie said, watching as well. “Do you think she’d teach me to walk like that too?”

“M-maybe,” Flash said, his mouth feeling very dry all of the sudden. “But I kind of like the way you walk already. She’s got the sway, but you’ve got the bounce.”

“You charmer.” Pinkie jumped up, draping her arms around his neck, and kissed his cheek as well, drawing more gasps from the crowd.

Flash smiled at her for a moment, then a few brain cells kicked in. He’d just kissed Sunset and been kissed by Pinkie and Rarity, all in front of a fairly large crowd. A crowd that was still watching him and would definitely spread word of this through the entire school before the day was out. He cleared his throat. “U-uh, Pinkie, people are watching.”

She glanced over his shoulder. “They sure are.” She smiled and shrugged. “Oh well. We decided to not bother hiding things from the rest of the school. I mean, I’m sure not gonna give up all the kisses and cuddles we could have during school.” She paused, and her cheery grin faded to a nervous smile. “Is that okay with you? Please say that’s okay with you. Please?”

The stares pressing against his back suddenly felt much heavier. Images ran through his head of calls to his father, visits to the principal's office, getting expelled, or having the entire football team beat him to a pulp in a jealous rage. Yet somehow, Pinkie’s brilliant blue eyes made all that seem trivial. “Yeah,” he said at last, “that’s fine by me.”

“Yay!” She jumped into his arms, peppering his face with kisses while he laughed.

“H-hey, that tickles!” He pulled her closer anyway, pressing his cheek against hers as one hand slipped under her armpit.

“Wh-wha!” Pinkie flailed back, laughing enthusiastically, and Flash stumbled forwards, fighting to keep them both upright.

“Easy there, Pinkie,” Applejack said, grabbing Pinkie with one hand and Flash with the other. “Let the poor fella breathe.”

“Aw fine.” Pinkie kissed him on the tip of the nose. “See you at lunch, sexy!” Then she skipped off.

Flash’s eyes couldn’t help but notice the wonderful way her blue skirt bounced along with her, almost like it was teasing him with what lay beneath. “Definitely got the bounce,” Flash said quietly.

Applejack gave him a confused look. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “And, well, sorry.” He shook his head. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about what happened between us ever since, but, you know,” he gestured after Pinkie, “things keep happening.”

She looked at him for a few long seconds, expression unreadable, before nodding. “Yeah, I guess we do need to talk.” She took out her phone. “Give me your number.”

Flash did so.

“Thanks.” She put her phone away and took a deep breath. “I’ll call you tonight, or try my best.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

She nodded back. “You’re welcome.” Then she too headed for the school.

Flash was pretty sure he heard someone in the crowd mutter in disappointment that she hadn’t kissed him as well.

Twilight and Fluttershy both waved nervously before following Applejack inside, leaving Flash and Sunset standing next to each other.

Sunset let out a sigh. “That went a lot better than I thought it would.”

“How’d you think it was going to go?” Flash asked.

“I … I don’t know.” Sunset shook her head. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done something stupid and driven away people I care about.”

Flash hugged her. “Yet we keep coming back.”

She smiled gratefully. “Yeah, you do.” She looked over his shoulder at the crowd, and her smile faded. “Maybe we should head to class before they get brave enough to start asking questions.”

“Good idea,” Flash said quickly. He knew for a fact Brawly and Ringo were going to have a million questions for him, and he wasn’t sure where he’d even begin answering them.

The rumors spread faster than Flash had feared. People he barely knew were flooding his phone with texts before first period even finished.

‘Are you really dating Sunset’s whole friend group?’

‘You’re so lucky, man!’

‘How many of them have you banged?’

‘A hundred bucks if you hook me up for a threesome with Rarity.’

Flash deleted that last one and blocked the sender. Then he turned his phone off.

It felt like an eternity before lunch rolled around and he could retreat to the safety of his corner … Nope, never mind. Over a dozen guys were crowding around his usual table in the corner, all looking at him meaningfully. Flash had been debating if he actually should sit with the girls during lunch or not, but it looked like circumstances had chosen for him. He got his food as quickly as possible and made his way over to the table where Sunset, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were already waiting.

“Rough morning?” Sunset asked with a sympathetic smile.

“Rough morning.” Flash sat down between her and Rarity, across from Applejack and Fluttershy. “How about you girls?”

Rarity shuddered. “A number of ruffians tried to convince me to abandon you for a, quote, ‘real man.’” She shook her head. “I don’t suppose you’re secretly a master of karate and could forcefully convince them otherwise?”

Flash laughed. “Yeah, no. I’ve never taken a karate class in my life, or any other martial art. I’m not much use in a fight except as a punching bag.”

Fluttershy mumbled something too quiet for Flash to hear, but Applejack, who was sitting next to her, nodded.

“Those fellows over there look ready for a tussle.” Applejacked jammed a thumb in the direction of his old table.

“Yeah,” Flash said slowly. “I guess it’s a good thing I have a high pain tolerance.”

Sunset nudged his shoulder. “Please don’t tell me you want us to sit back and watch you get pummeled because of some nonsense about men needing to fight their own battles.”

Flash cleared his throat and looked down at his food, a chicken sandwich. “No, nothing like that. I just don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

Sunset facepalmed. “That’s sweet, but stupid. I mean, you do know we all have superpowers, right?”

“W-well, yes,” Flash said, blushing slightly.

Applejack gave him a flat look. “You forgot all about it, didn’t you?”

He focused on his food again. “Maybe, but it isn’t like mind reading will do much if those jerks turn violent.”

“He does have a point,” Rarity said. “Not all of our abilities are well suited to combat.”

Applejack smirked. “So leave the busting heads to me.”

“Maybe don’t,” Flash said, still staring at his meal. “I mean, yeah, you could kick those guys to the moon and back, but then I’d have a bunch of embarrassed jerks coming after me for revenge.” He swallowed, just imagining them cornering him in the locker room. “My odds of survival are better if you let them pound me once to get it out of their systems.”

Rarity took his hand. “That’s very noble of you, but there’s no need to develop a martyr complex. I sincerely doubt violence is inevitable.”

“I could read some of their minds,” Sunset said. “Talking them down would be easy if we know what they’re thinking.” She nudged Flash with a smirk. “Even if my power isn’t too useful in a fight.”

He smiled back. “Point taken. Okay, so let’s figure out a way for you to brush past them without it looking suspicious.”

A hand tapped his shoulder.

Flash turned around and saw Fluttershy standing behind him. He blinked in surprise. When had she even left her seat?

“Sorry,” she said quietly, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I talked to those boys, and I don’t think they’ll bother you from now on.”

“Huh?” Flash leaned over to look around her.

Every last guy at his old table was sobbing. Like, tears rolling down their faces, shoulders shaking, huddling against each other for comfort, sobbing.

Flash’s eye twitched. “W-wha? You? T-they?” He blinked a few times. “H-how?”

Fluttershy blushed and hid her eyes behind a lock of hair. “I told them being mean was the reason they had trouble finding girlfriends and asked them not to lash out at you just because you were nice.” She brightened a little. “I think I really got through to them.”

“Uhh …” Flash looked at the crowd of sobbing jocks again. “Thank you?” He shook his head. “I mean, thank you, Fluttershy. That was really nice of you.”

“Not to mention amazing,” Sunset said. “Great job!”

Applejack whistled. “Gotta say, I’m impressed.”

“As am I,” Rarity said, getting up and guiding Fluttershy, who’d gone completely red, back to her seat. “You really should have more confidence in yourself, dear. You resolved in minutes a conflict that would have taken us days.”

Fluttershy hid further behind her hair and mumbled something Flash couldn’t make out.

“Yes, it was,” Rarity said, returning to her own seat, “and I won’t hear you say otherwise.” She leaned over to Flash and whispered, “Is your phone off?”

“Yeah,” Flash said. “Why?”

“Add me as a contact,” she said before taking a bite of her meal. “Some things are best explained in silence.”

Flash pulled out his phone and turned it on. He quickly got Rarity’s number and added her, ignoring the countless texts that had built up since first period. Seconds later, he got a message from her.

‘I apologize for being late with this information, but I was finally able to discern the full nature of what happened yesterday.’

Flash blinked. Rarity was calmly eating her lunch right next to him with one hand under the table, yet she’d sent him that text so quickly, without a single error. Impressive.

‘It seems Sunset’s revelation and the fallout it caused led the others to elect Fluttershy as today’s, shall we say, date. The understanding being that her sweet, gentle nature would help any emotional scars remaining after your time with Sunset.’

He winced and quickly typed out a response. ‘So they forced her into this?’

‘They encouraged her, yes,’ Rarity sent back, ‘but private conversation with the poor dear has revealed that she truly does wish to be intimate with you. She simply needs gentle pushes in that direction.’

‘Are you sure?’ Flash glanced at Fluttershy, who was hunched over her food, not eating a thing.

Rarity smiled at him. ‘I spent all of first period confirming her desires. I was even able to procure a list of things she would like to attempt and gained permission to share it with you.’

Flash’s eyes widened. He never would’ve seen that coming.

‘Please use it with discretion. She would feel simply awful if she thought you were inconveniencing yourself by only doing things she had approved beforehand. That said, she does have a rather active imagination. Most anything you could imagine will be on her list somewhere.’ A link to something appeared on his phone.

Flash was about to press it when a hand covered his eyes, and an energetic voice called, “Guess who!”

He smiled. “Hi, Pinkie.”

“Right on the first try.” Pinkie pulled her hands back and disappeared.

Literally. Flash looked behind him and couldn’t see her anywhere.

Then something warm and soft settled on his lap. “Oooh, chicken. Want me to feed it to you?”

He whipped around, and somehow Pinkie had gotten onto his lap and made herself comfortable, sitting bridal style so her side pressed against his front, and her frizzy hair brushed against the bottom of his chin.

None of the other girls seemed too surprised by whatever had just happened, so Flash did his best to brush it off as well. “Thanks, Pinkie, but I can feed myself.”

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?” She held up a plate of pizza with a slight frown. “I was hoping they’d serve hotdogs. I bet I could’ve given you suuuch a huge boner eating one in front of you.”

Applejack and Sunset facepalmed.

Rarity cleared her throat, looking away.

Fluttershy blushed and sank farther beneath the table.

“Maybe don’t say things like that in public,” Flash said, feeling his own cheeks heat up.

“Fine, so long as I get to keep cuddling with you during lunch.” She nuzzled into his chest.

He smiled and hugged her. “Deal.”

The rest of lunch passed quickly thanks to Pinkie’s antics, but Flash never forgot about that link Rarity sent him. He got to his next class as quickly as possible and clicked on it.

A document opened with text at the top that read, ‘Here are some things I wouldn’t mind if Flash wanted to do, but it’s okay if he wants to do something else. I don’t want to be boring when he’s being so nice and doing this for me.’

“For me?” Flash mouthed. She made it sound like he was doing her a favor, and, well, he tried to make sex with him as good as possible for his partner, but he thought it was pretty obvious that he was the one who should be grateful to them for all the good times lately. Still, he scrolled down the document to the first entry.

‘Him going into my, um, front area.’

He laughed softly. She’d actually spelled out ‘um.’ Now that was just adorkable.

‘Him going into my back area.’

Huh, he never would’ve taken Fluttershy as the kind to try something like that. Flash crossed his legs and kept reading.

‘I could try using my mouth on him. I don’t think I’d be very good, but I practiced a bit last night with that toy Rainbow gave me, and I managed to get the whole thing in, even if the buzzing felt strange in my throat.’

He didn’t know why he was surprised that Rainbow would have a vibrator, but there it was. He also had a mental image of Fluttershy he didn’t think he’d ever be able to erase. Not that he minded.

‘I hope he holds me close. It would feel really nice to have him there, pressed against my heart. Maybe I’m being silly. It would be okay if he doesn’t want that.’

Note to self, hold her a lot.

Flash spent the rest of the class reading through her document, and the class after that, as the entries got more and more descriptive.

‘And it would be really nice if he was kind of dominant our first time. Not mean or violent or anything, but if he took charge, I wouldn’t have to wonder what to do. And it would feel really nice to have him firmly undress me, strong hands roaming all over my skin as he pulls away the last bits of fabric separating us. In a dark place, so there’s nothing but the feel of his skin against me and his powerful, loving voice breathless, like he just can’t wait to take me for his own. He could do anything he wanted to me, anything at all, and it would feel amazing because of the raw passion he shows. Just knowing that he wants me that badly, that fiercely, that powerfully. I … I really want him to do that.’

Maybe Fluttershy had a future as an erotic author, because he’d had one continuous erection since he started reading this. He moved to her next entry.

‘Maybe he wouldn’t want to be dominant though. He sounds very nice and gentle from what everyone else says, and he might feel bad taking charge. I don’t think I’d be very good as the dominant one, but I think it might be fun to pretend to be in charge. Only if he didn’t mind, of course. I’d stop as soon as he wanted me to, but even though I’d be acting dominant, I’d definitely do my best to make sure we only do things he’d want. I don’t know. It would be nice to feel in charge, but I need to ask him what he’d want. I don’t want to accidentally make it bad for him.’

That was the last entry. Flash checked the time and stared in shock. It was a few minutes until his last class of the day got out. He also had no idea what his last two classes had been about. Like, at all.

He shrugged and pulled up his text conversation with Rarity. ‘I finished reading through her notes. I won’t be walking straight for a while, but I think I know how to make this good for her. Where are we supposed to meet up?’

A response popped up almost immediately. ‘That’s wonderful to hear. Fluttershy worried you’d think her notes were silly or childish. In my estimation, it would be best not to acknowledge that you read through them yet. She won’t know how to respond, and it will just make things awkward. Instead, simply act as though those behaviors are coming naturally to you. I believe Fluttershy expects to meet you by the door to the parking lot. Allow me a moment to verify that.’

Flash waited the last few minutes until the bell rang, then he packed up his unused notebook and headed for the door. Part way there, his phone went off.

‘I just confirmed with Fluttershy. Meet her by the door, and as a personal suggestion, try to act calm but slightly nervous. Fluttershy is often a difficult mix between wanting to follow a confident leader and feeling useless if that leader is too confident. She also has rather low self-esteem. Compliments and reassurances will go a long way with her. Best of luck.’

He smiled and put his phone away. Rarity was easily the best wingman he’d ever heard of, and it was time to put her suggestions to use. He reached the door and stepped outside, soaking in the warm sun and gentle breeze. Yup, this was definitely good hiking weather. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, so he leaned against the brick wall and idly watched the stream of kids pour out.

Soon Fluttershy emerged, holding a stack of books as she looked around nervously. She locked eyes with him and froze, making the kids behind her stumble and bump into her. She jumped. “O-oh, sorry!” Blushing furiously, she hurried to his side. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you wait.”

“Don’t worry,” Flash said with what he hoped was a friendly smile. “I just got here too.”

“Oh, g-good.” She looked down, clutching a stack of books to her chest.

Flash kept up the smile as his mind scrambled for something to say. Should he suggest they head out? Tell her she looks nice? Wait patiently for her to say something? Rarity said she preferred following someone where possible, but she’d also said too much confidence could intimidate her. He cleared his throat, making Fluttershy jump again. “Sorry,” he said quickly, “should we, uh, head out?”

She smiled gratefully. “Y-yes, if you don’t mind, that is.”

“Not at all.” He started towards the parking lot with Fluttershy following behind. “By the way, where are we going? All I know is Pinkie said we’d be hiking.”

“There’s a trail I know,” Fluttershy said quietly. “Um, hiking is okay with you, right? You wouldn’t rather do something else?”

“Hiking sounds nice,” Flash said, turning back to her with a smile, “but what I care about most is spending time with you.”

She actually let out a small “Eep!” and hid behind her hair.

Flash felt an ache in his chest and a near-overpowering urge to hug her. He clenched both his hands, fighting to keep himself under control.

Fluttershy lifted the books she held to cover more of her blushing face, sliding past him. “Uh, th-the van is over h-here. We can r-ride together, i-if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” Flash said, following her. It occurred to him that he’d never consciously seen Fluttershy’s vehicle before. Apparently it was a van.

Sure enough, she led him to an old, gray van, the kind that looked like it had been made of real metal. Dents and scrapes covered it, with a sign on the side that read, ‘Canterlot Pet Sanctuary.’

Well, that explained a lot. She must have borrowed it from work. He walked around to the passenger’s side and got in, setting his backpack down on his lap.

Fluttershy put on her seatbelt and took a few deep breaths. “S-sorry,” she said at last, hands tightening on the steering wheel. “I … I hate that I get flustered so easily.”

“I don’t know if this helps,” Flash said gently, “but it’s really cute.”

She smiled, though her cheeks were flushed red. “Thank you.” She took another deep breath before starting the van. “We aren’t going far. There’s a little trail through the Whitetail Woods I like to walk sometimes, and no one except my mother and me ever uses it, so I thought …” She shrank behind her hair again and slowly backed out of the parking spot.

Flash stayed quiet as she navigated her way out to the road and towards the woods; partly because he worried about getting his driver too flustered. Still, her unfinished sentence hung in the air, taunting his imagination. Did she want to go at it out in the woods? That seemed like a very Fluttershy thing to do, but he hoped she’d at least packed a blanket. Nothing would kill the mood like rolling over a deer turd or getting a stick jammed up where the sun doesn’t shine. He glanced into the back of the van but only saw a thick black curtain a few inches behind their seats.

Soon Fluttershy pulled onto a dirt road leading into the woods. Flash wasn’t familiar with it, but then again, he didn’t come out to the woods very often. It was obvious no one had maintained the road in a long time; grass and other plants grew right up through the middle of it, tree branches scraped across the sides of the van, and potholes shook them every few feet, but Fluttershy kept driving calmly.

At last the trees opened up to a small area. Flash would’ve called it a meadow if not for the gravel covering the ground. Fluttershy pulled up to a log on the far side and parked, not looking over at him or doing much of anything.

Flash undid his seat belt and turned to her, unsure what to say or do next.

Fluttershy slowly undid her seat belt as well, though she kept her eyes on the steering wheel, hunched over so hair covered most of her face.

It was hard to believe this was the same girl who’d written all those pages of sexy stuff she wanted to do with him. Maybe she was fine imagining those things but couldn’t bring herself to do them in real life. Maybe she’d been imagining some other guy. Maybe this was all just stage fright, and she’d open up in a second.

Except she wasn’t opening up. And Flash couldn’t help this growing feeling that he’d done something to upset her.

At last a soft murmur caught his attention. He blinked. “What?”

Fluttershy tensed. She stayed that way for a few long seconds before slowly turning to him, face bright red as she chewed on her lip nervously. “I-I don’t know what to do next.”

Okay, maybe wanting to be the gallant knight meant Flash was secretly some kind of sexist pig, but he couldn’t have cared less at that moment. He slipped out of his seat, kneeling on the hard metal floor next to her, and took her hand as gently as he possibly could. “What do you want to do? We’ll do that, whatever it is or isn’t.”

She looked away, though her hand tightened around his. “S-sex,” she said in a quiet squeak. “In the back of the van. With you in charge. P-please.”

Huh, he’d been expecting a hike or something first. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Fluttershy shrank down in her seat a bit. “It’s okay if you don’t want to do anything. I’m sorry I bothered you with it.” Her hand went limp.

What? Flash had no idea where that had come from.

“We can just go for a hike instead.” Fluttershy took off her seat belt without looking at him.

“Wait,” Flash said quickly.

She paused, hand partway to the door.

Crap, crap, crap! He had no idea what to say next.

Let’s see … Rarity had warned him about her low self esteem. Fluttershy had said she wanted him to take charge their first time. Maybe she’d taken his hesitation as a sign that he didn’t want to sleep with her and was trying to be nice about turning her down.

Maybe? How could he convince her otherwise while still being romantic?

He took a deep breath. “Fluttershy, I …” This was the part where his brain was supposed to give him a great line that made her swoon. Except apparently his brain wasn’t in the mood. He gently but firmly tightened his grip on her hand. “I’ll stop if you want me to. Otherwise, I’ll do exactly what I want.” He brought his other hand up, gliding across her leg, then the green skirt she wore, and finally along her white shirt until it came to rest at her cheek.

Fluttershy didn’t move at all for a moment, then she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. “Thank you.”

Flash nodded, standing up as much as he could in the cramped van. He turned to the black curtains separating the front and back of the van, pulled them aside.

A thick black mattress sat on the floor inside, sandwiched between a raised area on either side. Or maybe ‘taco’d’ would be a better term, because it did kind of look like a big, black taco shell with just enough room on the bottom for two people to lie side by side. If they didn’t mind cuddling. The raised area held some straps and things he guessed were used to hold pet cages in place, but there weren’t any cages at present. Instead, a collection of candles, oils, lubricants, and sex toys filled box after box.

“R-rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie lent me everything,” Fluttershy said, swallowing. “I-I didn’t know what you’d want, s-so I-”

Flash cut her off with a firm kiss, holding her tight against him with one arm as the other roamed up and down her back. “I want you,” he said, kicking off his shoes. “Nothing more, and nothing less.” Then he went in for another kiss.

Fluttershy practically melted into his arms, kicking off her sandals as her arms wrapped around his shoulders tightly.

If he was being honest, Flash felt a little weird going from zero to sex so quickly, he’d at least gotten to know all the other girls before they went at it; well, except for Applejack; but he especially felt weird being so forward with Fluttershy of all people. Seriously, if there was any girl he might pressure into sex without meaning to, it was Fluttershy.

But then again, Rarity had assured him that she wanted this, and Fluttershy herself had written entire pages of things she wanted to do with him. Not to mention how hurt she’d been at just the hint of him not wanting to sleep with her.

And yeah, he did. Maybe that was just hormones talking, but Flash definitely did want this. He ran a hand up and down her back, savoring the feel of her.

Fluttershy hugged him tighter, moaning softly into his mouth.

The last of Flash’s worries evaporated at how eager she seemed. He tightened his grip, carried her into the back of the van, and closed the curtains behind him, leaving them both in utter darkness ...

At last it ended, and he went limp on top of Fluttershy, using the tiny fragments of his strength to hug her gently.

She hugged him back, sighing happily. “Thank you for the wonderful first time.”

“Thank you for letting me share it with you,” Flash said, weakly nuzzling her cheek.

They stayed that way for a few minutes, just breathing deeply with their bodies pressed together.

“Did you still want to go for a hike?” Flash asked softly.

“Yes,” she squeezed him to her. “Only if you don’t mind, that is.”

“I’d love to spend more time with you,” Flash said, nuzzling her cheek again. “A walk doesn’t sound bad either.”

Comfortable silence fell over them for a few more seconds.

“I suppose we should clean up,” Fluttershy said regretfully, giving him another squeeze.

Flash squeezed her back. “Yeah. I'm guessing you have baby wipes or something in here somewhere.”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said, “they’re in the box to the left- My left, I mean. It’s to your right.”

Flash smiled, groping blindly for the box. She sounded adorable even when flustered. “I’m not sure if I’m looking in the right area. Should I open the curtains?”

She made a quiet, anxious sound. “I, um, would it be okay if we cleaned up and got dressed first?”

Now, Flash knew he wasn’t the brightest person in the universe, but he wasn’t an idiot either. First she’d wanted to have sex in pitch blackness. Now she wanted to cover up before they let the light in. Conclusion, she was worried about him seeing her body.

Probably.

It was possible he had it all wrong and Fluttershy was actually terrified of a sunburn on her butt or something, but Flash didn’t want to pry. He seriously didn’t want her to clam up on him from embarrassment again. So he leaned down and kissed her again. “No worries, I’ll leave the curtains closed.”

She sighed in relief. “Thank you. I … I really enjoyed this, but …”

“But?” Flash asked, pulling on his shirt.

“Nothing,” Fluttershy said quietly. “Thank you.”

Now, if Sunset had said something like that, he would’ve pushed her to admit whatever the problem was, but he didn’t know Fluttershy nearly as well. He honestly had no clue whether pushing her would help or just made things worse, and so he just shrugged and said, “It was my pleasure.” Maybe that was cowardly of him; he didn’t know.

Silence fell over them as they finished getting dressed. Flash took her hand and helped her sit up, giving her a kiss on the tip of the nose. Like with Pinkie, it made her giggle, and the sound was just as heartwarming. “Are you ready?” Flash asked, parting the curtain just slightly. The light on the other side looked blazing after so long in darkness.

“Y-yes,” Fluttershy said, sounding almost sad.

Flash slowly pulled back the curtains, blinding them both with the sun’s rays. He clenched his eyes shut automatically and had to force himself to pry them open again. Agonizing seconds passed as his eyes adapted to the glaring light, but at last things returned to normal. He turned to Fluttershy and literally d’awww’ed at what he saw.

Her long pink hair had gone all frizzy, leaving it sticking out in random places; her clothes were rumpled and uneven; and her cheeks still held the rosy glow of what must have been an amazing blush. All those were adorable by themselves, but what truly made his chest ache was the look of sheer, nervous hope on her face, as though she desperately wanted him to like what he saw but didn’t think he would. In fact, Flash was pretty sure that’s exactly what she was feeling.

And so he did exactly what he wanted to do; sat next to her, pulled her into a tight squeeze, and kissed the top of her head. “Goodness, you’re adorable!”

She froze up with a gasp of surprise.

“Sorry,” Flash said quickly, letting go. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You just, you looked so beautiful I had to hug you.”

Fluttershy turned bright red, covering her cheeks with her hands and ducking beneath her hair. “I-I don’t …” She lowered her head even more. “I … don’t mind.”

Flash gently hugged her again. “I’m glad.” He got up. “So, which trail are we taking?”

She smiled through her blush. “L-let me show you.” She grabbed a backpack from one of the boxes and slipped into it before climbing into the driver’s seat and going out through the door, with Flash following behind her, shivering a little as the chilly air touched his bare arms. Maybe he’d been wearing his jacket too much lately. At least the birds singing in the distance took his mind off it.

Fluttershy led the way to a shady trail head marked only by an old, dead tree, it’s gray branches sticking out in all directions.

Flash nodded and slid a hand under one of the backpack straps. “Mind if I carry the pack?”

He’d half expected her to jump in surprise, but she just blushed and looked down. “T-that would be nice. Only if you don’t mind, of course.”

“Not at all.” Flash slipped the backpack off her shoulders and put it on, adjusting the straps so it fit right. “How long of a hike is it?”

“Not long,” Fluttershy said quietly, leading him down the path. “It’s only a few miles, and there’s the cutest little meadow at the end.” She looked back with a nervous smile. “I hope you like it.”

Flash smiled back. “I’m sure I will.”

They fell into silence, following the thin dirt trail as it wove through a forest of pine and oak trees. At least, Flash was pretty sure they were pine and oak. He wasn’t exactly an expert on trees.

Minutes passed in peaceful quiet as they walked, Flash regarding Fluttershy’s back the whole time. He’d always known she was shy--it was right there in her name--but something else seemed to be going on here. Something was eating her, but how on earth was he supposed to help when he had only the vaguest ideas about the problem?

He lined up all the evidence he had; she was probably nervous about him seeing her naked, she thought she was fat, and she basically panicked when he even hinted at not wanting sex with her.

Huh, the answer actually seemed pretty obvious once he lined it up like that; Fluttershy had terrible self esteem, exactly as Rarity had said. Now how to help her?

Sex stuff seemed to work last time. Maybe he should compliment her body-

“Um, Flash?” Fluttershy asked as they walked.

He paused. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.” She turned back to him and smiled weakly. “I’m okay, though. I promise.”

Flash could almost hear the squeal of metal as his train of thought derailed. “Huh?”

“You looked worried,” Fluttershy said, shrinking behind her hair, “and it’s probably because I’m acting strange. I’m sorry, but I promise I’ll be okay.” She smiled again, a little stronger this time. “I know I shouldn’t compare myself to my friends, but I can’t help thinking how amazing they all are.”

“I, uh, well, they are all pretty special,” Flash said slowly, stalling for time. This felt like a metaphorical minefield, and he didn’t have a clue what was and wasn’t a safe zone. “But, I mean, you’re pretty special too.”

She stared at him in shock. “Wh-what?” She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I-I just follow them. I’m not brave like Rainbow Dash, or smart like Twilight, or a leader like Sunset. I’m just …” She gestured down at herself like that was all the explanation needed.

“Just what?” Flash asked seriously. “Just Fluttershy?”

She nodded silently.

Flash put his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong with that? Even I know how hard you work taking care of animals at the shelter, and how you tutor anyone who asks you for help, and how you always reach out to people who look upset or like they need someone to cheer them up.” He tilted her head up to look at him. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

“But …” She lowered her head. “I’m not … sexy like they are.”

Flash arched an eyebrow. “You’re way sexy, Fluttershy.”

“I’m really not,” Fluttershy said quietly. “I weigh more than I should, my breasts are too small, and I’m so short.” She sighed and leaned against him, her head fitting in right under his chin. “See?”

Flash instinctively held her close, mind working furiously. “I don’t get it,” he said at last. “What’s wrong with being short? I think it makes you cuter. How are your breasts too small? They’ve gotta be on the high end of B-cup, at the very least. And what on earth makes you think you’re fat?” He shifted enough to let him run a hand up her leg, across her stomach, between her breasts, and up to cup her cheek. “You’re in great shape.”

Fluttershy leaned into his hand, looking conflicted. “Y-you haven’t …” She chewed on her lower lip. “J-just-” She took his hand and put it on her stomach, “-Just feel.”

He did so, gently tracing the curve of her stomach down to her crotch then up to her ribs. Her soft, warm skin felt amazing, even through her shirt, and he may have lingered longer than was strictly necessary. “I still don’t see the problem, unless you’re trying to get me turned on.” He smirked. “In which case, it’s working.”

She flushed and stepped back, staring at him like he was crazy. “B-but didn’t you feel how fat I am? My stomach is, it’s,” she made an exaggerated round motion with her arms, like how someone might pantomime being nine-months pregnant. “I didn’t want you to be disgusted by it, so that’s why …” She sighed. “You haven’t seen it.”

Now Flash was starting to get legit worried. “Fluttershy, I would never be disgusted by you or your body.” He did his best to smile casually. “I mean, I haven’t seen your stomach, but I felt it back in the van and again just now, and, well, it seriously turned me on both times.”

She blushed, slowly looking up at him. “R-really?”

He nodded. “Not to be gross or anything, but you're giving me a serious boner. I hope that counts for something.”

“Yes,” she said quickly. “I, I mean, it does.” She hid behind her hair again, though he could just make out a nervous smile between her pink locks. “W-we could go back to the van, if you want.”

Flash smiled and pulled her into a hug. “After the walk. I want to see more of you out here in the sunlight.”

She squeezed him back. “Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“O-okay.” She took a deep breath and stepped back. “I’ll try to stay out in the sunlight with you, but could you promise not to be disappointed if I’m not as nice to look at as you expected?”

“Deal,” Flash said confidently. He’d felt more than enough of her to know nothing about her looks would ever disappoint him.

“Okay,” Fluttershy said again, smiling weakly. “Then maybe we could walk side by side? I want to know more about you, if you don’t mind.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, unless you were walking behind because you wanted to look at my butt. I’m sorry. You can keep walking behind me.”

Flash didn’t know whether to blink, chuckle, shake his head, or smile, and wound up doing a mixture of all four. “I, uh, I’d love to walk next to you. I mean, your butt is amazing,” he added quickly, “but I didn’t want to be a pig and stare at it.”

She played with a lock of her hair. “I would kind of like it if you did.”

Huh, well it would be rude to say no, but Flash also wanted to talk with her. He hummed thoughtfully. “How about this? We walk together and talk, and I’ll look at your butt however much I can?”

She smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

Flash approached her and reached out. “Uh, do you want to hold hands as we walk?”

Fluttershy silently took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, walking down the trail with him in tow.

“You said you wanted to know more about me,” Flash said, falling into stride next to her. “What would you like to know?”

“Oh, um,” she looked away. “I … I wanted to know what kinds of things I could do to make you happy.”

Flash gave the question a few moments of serious thought. “Happy in what way?”

She hunched her shoulders. “I-It’s really selfish.”

He squinted in confusion. “Uh, how exactly does wanting to make me happy qualify as you being selfish?”

“Because,” she whispered, “I w-want to make you happy so you’ll want to do something like this again next Tuesday.”

His squint became a full blink. Several, in fact. “I’m still not seeing the connection there.”

“My friends are keeping you so busy,” Fluttershy said. “How could it not be selfish to take up more of your time?”

He actually laughed at that. “Fluttershy, before all this started, a normal day for me was sitting alone in my house, writing music for a band I stopped caring about years ago, waiting for something to come along and make me feel like I was actually living again.” He shuddered at the memory. “Trust me, I don’t want to go back to that.”

Fluttershy paused and looked at him in surprise. “B-but, how could you be alone? You’re the most popular boy in school. You must have had lots of girlfriends.”

He shook his head. “Just Sunset before last week.”

She stared at him. “B-but … You’re like Tuxedo Mask.” Her eyes widened and she looked away. “U-um, Tuxedo Mask i-is-”

“The guy from Sailor Moon,” Flash said with a smirk. “Should I give you a hard time for comparing me to the college guy who puts the moves on a fourteen-year-old?”

She flushed. “N-no, no, I didn’t mean it like that! A-and besides, I think that’s more culturally acceptable in Japan, so …”

Flash chuckled. “Don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean anything bad by it. I’m just surprised. I never knew you were into anime.”

“I mostly read manga,” Fluttershy said quietly, “but anime is fun too.”

Flash could practically hear a choir of angels singing hallelujah. Not only was this a much safer topic than letting Fluttershy dwell on her own fears, but he’d never been able to talk manga with anyone before. “What’s your favorite manga?” he asked, gently tugging on her hand as he started walking again.

She took the cue and matched his pace. “W-well, it’s kind of a strange one. Have you ever heard of One Punch Man?”

“Are you kidding?” Flash grinned. “I love that one!”

“Really?” Fluttershy’s face lit up in awe. “None of my friends will read it.”

“Seriously?” Flash shook his head. “Okay, that’s it. We’re holding a movie night sometime and showing them the first few episodes of the anime. I know Pinkie and Rainbow would love it if they just gave it a shot. Maybe Applejack too.”

“And Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “She says she likes smart stories, and One Punch Man is all about humorously deconstructing the overpowered protagonist trope.”

“Exactly,” Flash said, pulling her into a hug. “We’re gonna turn them into anime geeks for sure.”

Fluttershy giggled sweetly, hugging him back. “You’re so wonderful,” she said wistfully. “It’s like you walked out of the pages of a romance manga, the kind where the girl is just some ordinary person but the boy is almost perfect in every way.”

“Don’t put me on too high of a pedestal,” Flash said. “I screw things up like everyone else. I mean, my grades are just okay, I’m not that good at writing songs, and I sometimes have trouble seeing other people’s points of view.” He smiled sadly. “And I’m sure there are a bunch of other flaws I’m not even aware of.”

“M-maybe,” Fluttershy said slowly, continuing their hike, “b-but I’d still like to get to know you better.” She smiled. “What’s your family like?”

Flash winced. “Hooo boy, that’s a landmine right there.”

“Oh no.” Fluttershy’s expression fell. “Y-you don’t have to answer if you don’t want.”

“Nah,” Flash said with a smile that was only a little forced. “It’s not a secret or anything; I just don’t bring it up much; but anyway, my Mom was always a bit unstable. She’d be sweet one minute, then blowing a gasket the next, then back to sweet. I think they said it was Borderline Personality Disorder, but she started taking drugs to try and self-medicate, and that must have turned into dealing drugs too, because one day Dad got home from work and found her with over a hundred pounds of stuff, mostly meth.” Flash shrugged. “Dad’s a cop and had to turn her in. She’s been out of our lives and in and out of jail for about a decade now, and I don’t think Dad ever forgave himself for his part in everything. He’s been burying himself in his work for as long as I can remember.”

Fluttershy stopped, tears building in her turquoise eyes. “I-I’m so sorry, Flash.”

Flash shrugged again. “I do my best not to dwell on it.”

The first tears rolled down her cheek as she pulled him into a hug. “Is that why you work so hard to make us happy?”

He hugged her back, gently stroking her hair. “You’re really giving me too much credit here. I mean, a bunch of gorgeous women ask me for sex--basically demand it in Applejack’s case. I’m not doing anything incredible by saying yes.”

“But you aren’t just having sex,” Fluttershy said, hugging him tighter. “Pinkie told everyone how you took care of her after she fell at work, going so far out of your way to help her. Sunset told us how you took her in when she had nothing. You helped Rarity clean out her apartment then cooked her dinner and gave her a massage.” She pulled back enough to look up at him. Tears stained her cheeks, but there was something firm and unshakable in her eyes. “Flash, tell me honestly, when’s the last time someone has gone out of their way to do something nice just for you.”

He smirked. “Today. You planned out a nice nature hike and sexy fun times with me, even though we barely knew each other.” He tapped her on the tip of the nose. “And you can’t tell me it wasn’t something nice for me. The sex was incredible,” he smiled at her sudden blush, “and the hike has been a great chance to get to know you better.”

“B-but, I didn’t …” She leaned into him. “I did it because I wanted to feel loved, like how you made the other girls feel. I was selfish and not thinking about you at all.”

“Fluttershy,” Flash said gently but firmly. “How about you tell me honestly, when’s the last time a guy went out of his way to do something nice just for you?”

She blinked in surprise, then smiled warmly. “Today. You knew how nervous I was, and you did everything you could to make me feel more comfortable and reassured me when I felt bad.”

“I mean something special,” Flash said. “Today was just me trying to be … nice …” He shook his head. “Okay, so we each did something nice for the other today and neither of us think it was all that much.”

She hugged him. “Maybe next week we could plan something together to make sure we both enjoy it?”

“Sounds good,” Flash said, stroking her hair. “There’s always that anime night with your friends, but then again, maybe not. You know Pinkie would spend the whole night hitting on me, and this is supposed to be something for you and me to enjoy together.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Fluttershy said, smiling sweetly. “It makes me happy to see my friends happy, and I’ve always wanted to get them to watch anime with me.”

“Still,” Flash said, “I’ll ask Pinkie to tone it down. I want to spend that night cuddling with you.”

She squeezed him tight. “Thank you.” Then she let go and took his hand. “Let’s keep going.”

Flash squeezed her hand, walking beside her. “Just promise you’ll tell me if I ever say or do something that makes you uncomfortable.”

“O-okay.” She took a deep breath. “I promise, but promise me you’ll let me know what you do and don’t want.”

“Deal.”

She smiled. “Thank you.” They walked in comfortable silence for a few moments, then Fluttershy turned to him. “By the way, what’s your favorite manga?”

“Honestly? I’ve got like three.” He shook his head. “I never could pick just one to be my favorite.”

She giggled. “Would you tell me about them?”

“I’d love to,” he said with a smile.

“ … So yeah,” Flash said, “the whole show is basically those five wandering around, butting heads and dealing with the monster of the week while the bad guy sits around doing nothing of any importance.”

Fluttershy looked both amused and confused in equal measure. “And that’s one of your favorites?”

“Hey, Inuyasha’s a classic,” Flash said. “You’ve gotta appreciate it warts and all.”

“I think I understand,” Fluttershy said, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “Like how Sailor Moon always puts in those long transformation sequences for no reason.”

“Pretty much.” Flash let out a satisfied sigh. “Anyway, you have no idea how nice it is to finally have someone to talk to about manga and anime. My friends act like anyone who watches that stuff must be into crazy tentacle-sex hentai or something.”

Fluttershy blanched. “Rainbow thought the same thing when I told her. She even …” she looked down and blushed, “got me a tentacle-shaped dildo last year.”

Flash’s eye twitched and a laugh bubbled up his throat. “W-wait, seriously?”

She nodded. “I, um, only used it once to be polite.”

“You used it?” Now there was a mental image, and a disturbingly hot one too. “Uh, what was it like?”

“It was,” she cleared her throat, “strange. I really preferred, um, you.” She blushed harder.

“Flatterer.” Flash smirked. “Though in all seriousness, I’m more surprised Rainbow would do something like that.”

“Me too,” Fluttershy said. “I think she was even more uncomfortable than I was. She couldn’t stop looking at it and shuddering.” She looked ahead and smiled. “Oh, we’re here!”

Flash followed her gaze but only saw the same dirt path and endless trees. “We are?”

“Well, almost.” She squeezed his hand and walked a bit more quickly. “It’s right around this bend.”

They followed the trail in a half circle around a cluster of pine trees, and exactly as Fluttershy said, the woods rolled back to reveal a sunlit meadow full of tiny white flowers and long, flowing grass.

“Wow,” Flash said softly, looking around. “It’s beautiful.” He knelt next to a flower and stared at the delicate white petals leading to a yellow center. “How did you find this place?”

“I didn’t.” Fluttershy smiled fondly. “My mother loves to hike. We’ve come here at least once a month since I was little. We always eat lunch and talk.” She played with her hair nervously. “I-I hope it isn’t weird that I took you to the same place I go with my mother.”

He shook his head. “No, it isn’t weird. I’m glad I got to share something like this with you.”

Fluttershy smiled in relief. “W-well, there’s a meal in the backpack too, if you’re hungry.”

“I am a bit munchy.” Flash slipped off the backpack and opened it, pulling out a big gray blanket and spreading it on the grass. Beneath the blanket, he noticed several tupperware containers, which he put on the blanket.

Fluttershy knelt on the blanket next to him and started opening the containers, filling the air with all sorts of wonderful scents. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I brought mini pork pies, Japanese scotch eggs, vegetarian spring rolls, watermelon salad, lemon tarts, and brownies.” She chewed on her bottom lip, looking up at him through her pink hair. “I-I hope there’s at least one thing you like.”

Flash, who’d been nearly drooling since the first item, could only stare at her in shock. “All of those sound incredible.” He shook his head. “I mean, wow, it must have taken you forever to make all this.”

She shrugged, hiding behind her bangs. “It’s okay. I like to cook.”

“And it looks like you’re amazing at it.” Flash reached into a container and pulled out one of the mini pork pies. It was the size and shape of a muffin, but with a texture that reminded him of pizza crust and a glossy finish. The scent of sausage and bread filled his nose. “May I?”

She nodded, a shy smile on her lips.

Flash bit into the pie, and those scents exploded into glorious tastes, even adding new ones like basil and egg to the mix. He moaned appreciatively. “Okay, you absolutely have to teach me to bake these.” He took another bite.

Fluttershy grinned through flushed cheeks. “I’m really glad you like it. They were a new recipe, and I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out.”

“Perfectly,” Flash said between bites. “That’s how they turned out.” He shoved the last of the pie in his mouth and chewed happily. “Remind me to give you at least two orgasms for that alone.” He paused. “Sorry, was that too much?”

She giggled and shook her head. “It’s strange, but it makes me happy to hear you say things like that.”

“Oh, good.” Flash picked up the next item, what Fluttershy had called a Japanese scotch ball, and dug in with another happy moan. “Yeah, you’re definitely getting a lot of orgasms after this feast.”

The rest of the meal was quiet aside from moans of pleasure and promises of just payback, but at last Flash lay stuffed on the blanket, soaking in the warm sun. Their leftovers had already been put away, giving them plenty of room to stretch out, though Flash certainly didn’t mind that Fluttershy had curled up next to him instead, her head resting on his shoulder.

“This … this has been wonderful.” She sighed contentedly. “Thank you, Flash. This is everything I ever hoped for.”

“You hoped to have sex with some dork then feed him the best meal of his life?” Flash asked, idly running his fingers along her scalp. “Set your sights higher, because we both know you could do far better than me.”

She shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. Everyone else gets frustrated with me when I talk about how fat I feel, or tells me to grow up and stop being so shy.” She sighed again and shifted closer. “Flash, are you sure it’s okay if I spend my Tuesdays with you? I’ll be trying to make you fall for me the whole time.”

He wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “I’d love nothing more than to spend my Tuesdays with you, as long as you’re okay with me having feelings for Sunset and Pinkie, and kind of Rarity too.”

“I don’t mind,” Fluttershy said. She squeezed his arm then sat up next to him. “Um, Flash? Are you sure you want to see me naked in the sunlight? I’m not as beautiful as the other girls.”

Flash stopped and thought--not about her request, he very much did want to see her naked, but about whether he was up for some more sexy times right after a meal. One look at Fluttershy’s nervous yet brave face, generous curves, and form-fitting shirt was enough to make up his mind on that one. “Fluttershy, I would absolutely love to see you naked right now.”

Author's Note

Welp, if you're still around, I may as well let you in on a secret. I wrote this entire story for my dear, sweet wife.

It started as a joke and turned into a sort of dare. She didn't think I'd be able to go through and write an explicit sex scene. I proved her wrong, and let's just say reading through it got her in the mood for some fun times. So I wrote a second chapter, then a third, and now this.

But here's the thing, every single one of the Humane 7 in this story is actually some aspect of my wife. She's honest like Applejack, goofy like Pinkie, we've been through a ton just like Sunset and Flash, I was too nervous to talk to such a beautiful woman at first, like Flash and Rarity, and Fluttershy ... Well, my sweet, smart, beautiful wife suffers from low self esteem just like a certain yellow pegasus. This chapter, more than any of the others, is about the woman I love, and I sincerely hope you could feel how much she means to me.

Still no sex scenes for you, though. Those are for her only. In spite of that, I hope you enjoy what is essentially a guy writing MLP porn for his wife ... and she's somehow crazy enough to stick with me.

Chapter 7

It was safe to say Flash’s life had been interesting lately, if by ‘interesting’ you meant he’d had sex with five women in as many days and was probably well on his way to being murdered out of jealousy by half the guys at school. As such, he wasn’t exactly surprised when he got home from his date with Fluttershy to find a rather unusual email from Twilight.

“Sexual preferences survey,” he read aloud, giving his laptop a flat look. “Why am I surprised?” He shook his head and opened the email.

Flash,

I hope this message finds you well. Allow me to first thank you for your efforts with my friends. I’m told you made them all feel extremely loved and appreciated. Your future significant other will be fortunate to have such a caring boyfriend. Unfortunately, it seems I must take advantage of that same caring side of you. You see, I wish to experience almost everything related to sex, including my own preferences and talents. Unfortunately, I have no experience at present and so will have to build up from zero assuming the willingness of my partner.

Sorry, I’m slipping into technical terminology. I sometimes do that when I’m nervous. I’ll just say it as clearly as possible: I want to try nearly every form of sex there is to try, but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable or do anything you’d dislike, so here’s every sexual activity I could find in my research; at least, the ones that didn’t disgust me completely. Please respond as quickly as possible with the items on this list marked yes or no to indicate your willingness to try them.

Thank you, and I apologize again for the inconvenience!

-Twilight Sparkle.

Flash scrolled down the list … then scrolled down some more … and some more, staring in awe. He hadn’t even known there were this many ways to have sex. At least she’d been nice and clear, listing every item with a description of what it entailed. He shrugged and went back to the top of the list, dutifully reading through a long, detailed explanation of what was basically just vanilla sex. He marked that yes and moved on.

And on.

And on some more.

Flash blinked to clear his eyes and kept working …

*Bzzz!

Flash nuzzled deeper into his pillow, hoping whatever was making that noise would shut up.

*Bzzz!

Any time now.

*Bzzz!

… This wasn’t going to stop, was it?

*Bzzz!

“Fine, you win,” he mumbled, reaching for his phone. He didn’t recognize whoever was calling. “Hello?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Twilight said on the other end. “Did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine.” He yawned. “What’s up? Did I miss some answers on your survey or something?”

“No, no,” she said quickly. “In fact, I’m extremely grateful you got through it all last night. I thought it would take you much longer. So … Thank you.”

Flash shrugged as much as he could while lying down. “You’re welcome.” He yawned again and sat up, running a hand through his hair.

“Did you stay up late filling it out?” Twilight asked. “Your response was sent at one in the morning.”

“Well … yeah.” Flash shrugged again. “It seemed rude to just leave it halfway through.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe I should’ve, though. I can’t remember most of what was even on there.” He laughed nervously. “So, uh, sorry about that.”

“You don’t need to be sorry,” Twilight said. “It was sweet of you to try so hard. I mean, I’m not surprised you did. The way my friends are all talking, they make it seem like you give everything you have into helping people. Rarity says most guys would do the minimum effort and then brag to everyone at school about sleeping with so many women, but you’re doing the complete opposite without falling into the stereotypical ‘nice guy’ persona. I’m curious if it’s because you see yourself as some kind of beta male, and …” she cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I need to stop treating people like things to study, and if you do feel like a beta male sometimes, I hope you know that you aren’t. No such thing exists in human society, in spite of what you may think, and now I’m rambling again.” She sighed. “I’m really sorry. I talk excessively when I’m nervous.”

“It’s fine.” Flash smiled a little. “I feel nervous too, and so have all the other girls.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said softly. “Though … never mind. We can talk about things when you get here.”

Flash blinked. “Uh, get where?”

“You don’t know?” There was a sound he could only assume was Twilight facepalming. “Right, you must have been half asleep when you reached the end of the survey. I’m sorry again about forcing you to do that, but there was a note at the end saying for you to come over to my house first thing in the morning. Our experiments are going to take all day.”

Flash blinked again. “What about school?” His brain tried to come to terms with Twilight of all people skipping school, and it promptly exploded.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight said, sounding genuinely happy, “I gathered all lesson plans and materials from your classes for today. We can go over them together as a fun break between sex sessions.”

“I- Uh, okay.” She thought studying would be a ‘fun break’ from sex? Flash’s brain somehow exploded again. “B-but what about your parents? They can’t be okay with some strange guy showing up and boinking their daughter all day.” A daughter who also looked identical to an old crush, a fragment of his brain pointed out.

“You don’t have to worry,” Twilight said cheerfully. “They’re both out of town today, and Spike is at my brother’s place.”

“Spike?” Flash asked, getting out of bed.

“My dog,” Twilight said. “I don’t want him asking too many questions. He isn’t old enough to know what’s going on yet.”

“O-kay.” So apparently Twilight thought her dog could talk. Then again, maybe it could. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing Flash had seen in this town. He shrugged out of his pyjama pants and grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor. “You’ll have to text me your address.”

“Oh, I forgot, you don’t know where I live,” Twilight said. “I’ll send it right away. And Flash?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for being the kind of person I could trust with this.”

He paused, smiling as warmth built up in his chest. “Thank you, Twilight. I hope I’m worthy of that trust.”

“I’m sure you will be, and I’ll see you when you get here!”

“Okay, see you then.” Flash hung up and finished getting dressed. He scarfed down a bowl of cereal before checking his phone, typing in the address Twilight had sent him, and heading out.

Apparently she lived in the upper-class part of town, where the houses were all nearly twice the size of normal ones, and they all sat behind ornate fences that probably cost more than Flash’s car. He pulled up in front of a two-story white house with a sinking feeling in his gut.

“So her parents are rich.” Flash took a deep breath and got out of his car. “No problem. Just don’t get intimidated by the fact she could probably buy your entire house with her allowance.” He took another deep breath and walked up to the ornate metal fence, full of swirling patterns. He hesitated at the gate. Should he just walk in or what?

Well, he didn’t see any intercom or anything else to contact the people in the house, so it looked like walking up was his only option. He quickly crossed the walkway to her door and knocked.

Agonizingly long seconds passed before the door swung open, revealing Twilight in her usual shirt and skirt outfit, made all the more adorkable by a sweet smile and glasses. “Good morning, Flash. Thank you so much for coming!”

“N-no problem,” Flash said. “I, uh …” What was he supposed to say? ‘Thanks, I look forward to screwing you senseless?’

Yeah, nope.

Pinkie walked into view in the marble hallway behind Twilight, grinning. “Oooh, you’re here! Come in and take your clothes off!”

Flash froze, and he was pretty sure one of his eyes twitched. “Uh, Twilight, why is Pinkie here?”

Twilight fidgeted. “Oh, w-well, we’re going to try for a threesome. You marked it ‘Sure, why not?’ on the survey.”

“Uhhh.” He searched through his memories and found a faint hint of such a question. “I … I guess I did.”

“Yup,” Pinkie said, hurrying up to him. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in. “Now come on, let’s have sex!”

“W-whoa, Pinkie, hold on!” Flash struggled to regain his balance. “I mean …” He turned to Twilight. “A-are you, you know, sure?” Some part of his brain wanted to throttle him for even asking. What guy hadn’t idly dreamed about having sex with two beautiful women? It was one of those things that he’d always brushed aside because the odds of it happening were basically zero, and he definitely didn’t want to be the guy who tried to pressure his girlfriend into something she didn’t want.

But if these two were up for it, then it was a dream come true, right?

Twilight just stood there, smiling nervously.

“It’s okay if you aren’t comfortable with this,” Flash said gently.

“I-it’s fine,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I won’t know my limits until I’ve pushed them, and this is what every guy wants.” Some of her confidence returned. “If I can do this, I’ll definitely be an A+ girlfriend, and besides,” she took Pinkie’s hand, “I trust my friends.”

Pinkie nodded, giving Twilight a big hug. “And I’ve been wanting to try this forever! Or since Wednesday. One or the other.”

Flash couldn’t help but smile at Pinkie’s antics. “Well, okay.” He looked around. Only the entryway was marble. Past that, the floor turned into gray carpet with a set of stairs at the end. “So, uh, what would you like to do now? Do we, um, jump right in or what?”

Mini-Flash definitely liked that idea, pointing out how Pinkie’s light-blue shirt gently cupped her chest, hinting at the alluring curves he remembered so well.

Twilight gripped her hands in front of her. “M-maybe not right away. There are a few things I’d like to ask you about first, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Flash said. He didn’t know why he felt glad about the delay. Maybe it was just that he needed time to get used to the idea of doing that with these two.

“Okay, you can leave your shoes there,” Twilight said, pointing at a shoe rack next to the door. “We’ll talk in my room.”

Flash took his shoes off, following her up the stairs and through a door. He thought they’d gone into a study hall or something at first; the walls were covered in whiteboards and notes, with papers held on by magnets at least every square foot. There was even a cupboard next to the window, open to reveal beakers and test tubes. He noticed an entertainment center in one corner, complete with a huge flatscreen TV on the wall, and an absolutely massive bed in front of it. Seriously, it had to be a king at the very least, and it was covered in purple sheets the same color as Twilight’s hair. He had to pry his eyes away from the bed to focus on Twilight herself as she sat down at a writing desk and gestured for him to sit in a white loveseat across from her.

Pinkie flopped down across his lap as soon as he was seated, wiggling her butt across his crotch in a way that couldn’t have been accidental. He went to put an arm around her shoulders but hesitated, unsure if it would make Twilight uncomfortable to see him cuddling with another woman.

It was probably a good call, as Twilight blushed, looking at Pinkie’s butt against his groin, and clearing her throat. “W-well, I just want to start by thanking you both again for this. I’ve always believed the best way to learn about something is to study it, but this subject,” she frowned, “I keep getting conflicting points of data, meaningless statistics, and suggestions that have no basis in reality. The only solid advice I’ve found is to try everything out and see for myself what I like. I’d also like to see what I’m good at, regardless of my personal enjoyment. Having a list of skills I can use to impress a future significant other seems like a good idea.” She blushed and looked down. “At least, I hope it’s a good idea.”

“I think it’s great,” Flash said, fighting to ignore Pinkie’s firm, toned rear against him. “I mean, I never really thought about what things I’m good at. I just did my best at whatever my partner wanted and hoped it was good enough.”

“Aw, but you’re great at sex,” Pinkie kissed him on the tip of the nose, “and doing what your partner wants is really sweet too. That’s why all of us want to take another ride on the Flash train.”

Twilight flushed. “Y-yes, well, be that as it may, I still want to try as much as possible. H-hence why I invited you even though I’m … not interested in girls that way.” She clenched her hands in her lap. “Um, no offense intended.”

“None taken,” Pinkie said lightly. “What do you want to start with?”

Twilight self-consciously crossed her legs. “Well, maybe we could talk about foreplay. I understand the basic theory, but I’m not exactly certain how to put it into practice.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Pinkie said, turning to Flash with a sly smile. “It’s all about making the setting right, looking for the perfect moment, then jumping on it.” She turned back to Twilight. “That’s why I’m getting Flashy all ready to go. He’s super-duper nervous, just like you, so I’ve gotta get him worked up a bit before he’ll be in the mood to do much of anything. Otherwise he’ll just sit here feeling awkward all day.” She smiled and stroked Flash’s cheek. “Sexy surprises are nice too, but it’s a lot easier to feel comfortable if everyone knows what to expect.” She turned to Twilight. “Maybe you could go change into that sexy, fun-times outfit Rarity made for you.” Pinkie wiggled her eyebrows. “I bet he’ll be way turned on just seeing you in it.”

Twilight shrank back a bit. “I, um, are you sure?” She cleared her throat. “I-I mean, maybe you two should go ahead without me, and I’ll … gather data?” She finished in a whisper.

Flash paused, taking in the way she was gripping her own arms and the tension all over her body. “We really don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

“No,” Twilight shook her head, “I do want to do this.” Though nothing about her voice or her face backed that up.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Flash said simply.

“I appreciate that,” Twilight said. “I really do, and yes, I am uncomfortable, but I want to get over it. It’s just so … weird.” She swallowed. “Me being like this, I mean. I’m not, well, a very sexual person. Or I didn’t think I was, but reading through all those accounts of sex did have … an effect on me, and thinking about doing those things with you, likewise.” She tightened her grip on her arms, blushing heavily. “I didn’t expect myself to feel this way, and I don’t know how to act. I can’t be as casually sexual as Pinkie.” She gestured to her friend. “She’s so open in her enjoyment of it, and I really envy her for it, but I don’t …” She sighed. “I don’t know how to be like that without looking like a complete fool.”

“Oh, Twilight,” Pinkie said gently, getting up and pulling her into a hug. “I’m sorry!”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Twilight said, hugging her back. “In fact, you’re an inspiration to me. I just wish I could think of a way to be more like you while still remaining like, well, me.”

Pinkie broke off the hug and stared at Twilight, humming thoughtfully. “Oooh,” her face lit up. “I know! It’s the perfect thing!” She ran to the door. “You two need to have sex!”

Twilight flushed. “Um, yes. We were always planning on that.”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, no. You need time to figure out who you are without comparing yourself to me, and Flashy is great at letting people be happy no matter who they are. So you two have sex, and I’ll be back with cupcakes once you’re ready!” Then she rushed outside and slammed the door behind her.

Twilight froze, hands still reached out towards Pinkie. “I … Um …” She lowered her hands and slowly turned to Flash, looking like she was about to bolt.

Flash tried to look as non-threatening as possible. After Fluttershy, he didn’t want to keep offering to not have sex, it might just make her feel worse, but he couldn’t stay quiet either with her standing there like a deer in the headlights. “What would you like me to do,” he asked gently, “if anything?”

“I want …” She took a deep breath. “I want to go change into the outfit Rarity made me. We’ll have sex when I get back, though I’ll be relying on you to guide me through it.” She stiffly walked to another door and went through, revealing a bathroom before she shut and locked it.

Flash had a minor flashback to when Sunset had retreated to a bathroom to change. Was he supposed to go after her now too? Maybe not. Twi was obviously nervous, and he didn’t think cornering her in the bathroom was going to improve things. So he waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Eventually Flash cleared his throat. “Are you okay in there?”

“Y-yes,” Twilight answered quickly. “It’s just … weird.”

“What is?” Flash asked.

“This,” Twilight said. “Me, this outfit, everything. It’s really, really weird.”

What was he supposed to say to that? Maybe the truth? It was better than nothing. He cleared his throat. “W-well, you aren’t wrong.” He laughed softly. “I mean, we barely know each other, but I used to have a huge crush on your twin from another dimension. Now we’re supposed to have sex, which I’m definitely not against. I mean, you’re attractive, or hot, or sexy, or whatever your preferred description is, but it still feels so sudden and … well, weird.”

Twilight let out a shaky laugh. “Especially when you put it like that, yes.” She laughed again. “I’m sorry, the stress is making me laugh inappropriately.”

“I don’t think it’s inappropriate,” Flash said, laughing softly as well. He took a big breath. “So honestly, how do you want things to go from here?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “I have an entire checklist of things I want to try at some point, but I don’t know how to transition from item to item naturally.”

Flash hummed. “We could just go down the list, if you want. Try things long enough for you to decide what you think of them, then move on.”

“Would that be okay?” Twilight asked nervously. “I considered that, but it doesn’t seem very romantic, or like something you’d enjoy.”

He laughed again. “Can I be totally blunt for a bit?”

“Of course.”

“You’re sexy,” Flash said. “It turns me on to think about doing any kind of sexual thing with you. I guarantee I’ll enjoy whatever we do, so I’m more worried about making sure you get everything you’re hoping for out of this.”

Twilight was silent for a moment, then the door opened to reveal her blushing face, still covered in glasses, and a blue dress-like outfit so thin it was nearly see through. Her arms folded anxiously across her body, perking up the faint curves of her breasts against the fabric. “I don’t want to be selfish,” she said quietly. “I sometimes get caught up in experiments and forget the feelings of the people involved, but I don’t want to do that now.”

Flash struggled to pull his eyes away from her, admiring how the royal-blue outfit complemented her skin and hugged her body so invitingly, almost like it was daring him to remove it and press himself against her instead. “I-I’ll tell you if I want to do something or stop doing something, but, uh,” his eyes trailed down her wonderfully petite body again, “right now, it’s hard to think about anything other than how sexy you are. So just tell me what you want to do, and let’s do it.”

She smiled and hugged herself a bit tighter. “I want … I want to have sex. With you.”

They lay together for a few minutes, cooling off. Flash ran his hand along Twilight's cheek. "What would you like to try next?"

“How about a threesome?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight yelped in surprise, covering herself with her arms. “P-Pinkie! Where are you?”

“Outside, silly!” Pinkie opened the door and leaned in with a wave.

Luckily, Twilight was facing away from the door, but she still flushed. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Just a few seconds,” Pinkie said, walking in with a plate of cupcakes. “I finished making your cupcakes, but I didn’t want to interrupt while you were still,” she wiggled her eyebrows, “busy.”

Twilight somehow blushed even harder. “Th-thank you for your consideration, but could you look the other way while we get dressed?”

“I thought you wanted to try for a threesome,” Pinkie said, approaching the bed. “That means you’d have to get used to being naked in front of me sooner or later, right?”

Twilight swallowed. “W-well, I guess?”

“You don’t have to,” Pinkie said, handing Flash a strawberry cupcake, “but it will probably be harder to try again later.”

Flash awkwardly took the cupcake. “Uh, maybe, but I think you’re really freaking Twilight out right now.”

“Oh,” Pinkie deflated a little, “I’m sorry.” She turned around to the nearest wall. “I guess I got too excited and forgot how uncomfortable Twilight is about me. I would give you a hug, but I think that would just make things worse.”

Twilight sighed. “Thank you, Pinkie.” She carefully pushed herself up, sitting beside him. “I'm sorry I didn't give you a second orgasm.” She leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed a wet wipe, holding it out to him.

Flash shrugged, sitting up and taking the wipe. “It's fine.” He quickly cleaned himself off. “I'm not sure how many times I could go off in a day anyway, and you still have lots of things you want to try, right?”

“You're right,” Twilight said, taking a deep breath, “but Pinkie is also right. If we're going to attempt a threesome, it would be best to avoid putting it off until my nerves get the best of me.” She braced herself on the bed, clenching the sheets tight. “Pinkie, you can …” She swallowed. “You can look at me, i-if you want.”

Pinkie turned around quickly and froze, staring at her in awe. “Wow,” she said softly, “you're really, really, really beautiful, Twilight.”

Twilight blushed, fidgeting a little. “I, well, um … thank you, Pinkie.”

Flash scooted next to Twilight and put an arm around her shoulders. “She's right, you are beautiful.”

“Thank you too, Flash.” She took a deep breath. “This is still very weird for me. Is it at least sexy for you, Flash?”

“Very,” Flash said, fighting the urge to cover himself from Pinkie’s gaze, “even if it is a bit weird for me too.”

Pinkie gave them both a concerned look. “How can I make it less weird for you two?” She blinked. “Actually, I think I know!”

“Don’t take your clothes off,” Flash said quickly.

Pinkie laughed. “No, no, not that.” She put the cupcakes down, climbed into the bed, and held out a hand to him. “We should hold hands.” She extended her other hand to Twilight. “All of us. I’ll even look away from Twilight so she doesn’t get all scared”

Twilight looked at Pinkie’s hand for a moment before gingerly taking it. “Okay.” She gripped Flash’s hand on her shoulder. “I can … do that much.”

Flash squeezing her back while he reached out with his other hand and took Pinkie’s. They both felt so warm against his fingers, but also different in their own ways. Pinkie’s hand quivered with energy, almost like it would leap free if he didn’t hold her tight; while Twilight’s was steady but also tense, like she was clinging to him to keep herself from falling. Slowly, though, her grip relaxed.

“This is … nice,” Twilight said, sighing gently. “Weird, but … nice.”

“Yeah,” Flash said. “While we’re on the subject of weird, would you mind if I asked something?”

She laughed. “Go ahead. I’m curious what could be considered weird compared to this.”

“I guess that’s true.” Flash smiled. “Anyway, my question is do you like it when I look at your body like this, or does that make it weirder?” He very pointedly looked her up and down. “I mean, I can’t promise to stop looking completely, but I can at least try to do it less.”

Twilight lifted a hand like she was going to cover her breasts, but she paused. “It’s … weird, and I’m still adjusting, but it does feel nice to know you enjoy what you see.”

Flash smiled. “And I definitely do.”

Twilight smiled sweetly. “Thank you.”

“What about me?” Pinkie asked, fidgeting with her eyes down. “It would probably make you all uncomfy and weird feeling if I looked at you while we’re touching, right?”

“Well,” Twilight looked down too, “yes.” She gripped Flash’s hand tightly. “But, i-it’s okay if you want to look.”

“Really?” Pinkie asked, looking up hopefully.

Twilight opened and closed her mouth wordlessly for a moment, then she swallowed. “Yes.” It came out in a whisper.

“O-okay,” Pinkie said, grinning. “Thank you, Twilight! I know this is hard for you, but I really, really appreciate it!”

Twilight managed a small smile. “You’re welcome, Pinkie. I … hope you enjoy …” She hunched her shoulders. “Why is this so hard?”

Flash could only lean over, letting her rest against him.

Twilight did, eyes downcast.

Pinkie squeezed both of their hands then let go, crawling around to Twilight’s back. She slowly, carefully leaned forward until she rested against Twilight’s back. “Is this okay?”

Twilight nodded. “I'm sorry for making this so difficult.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Pinkie said, slowly wrapping her arms around Twilight’s shoulders. “I always wanted to share a special moment like this with Flash and someone else I really care about. You’re one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, and you’re pushing yourself super extra hard to let me have that special moment. I really …” She pulled one of her arms back and wiped her eyes, “I really appreciate it.” She lifted her eyes to Flash, smiling broadly in spite of the faint tears on her cheeks. “You’re both being so nice to me!”

Flash couldn’t help but wrap his arms around both her and Twilight, holding them tight. “Darn it, Pinkie, you’re gonna make me cry too.”

Twilight laughed softly, wiping her own eyes. “I … never imagined a threesome would be such a touching experience.” She hugged Pinkie’s arms, still around her shoulders. “Thank you, Pinkie.” She took a deep breath. “You … you can take off your clothes now.”

Pinkie gasped. “Really? You're sure?”

“Yes?” Twilight laughed softly. “I think it's now or never, at least.”

“Now! Now!” Pinkie practically ripped her shirt and bra off, wiggling out of her skirt and panties before tossing them away and hugging Twilight's back once more.

Twilight froze, even her breathing hissing to a stop.

“It's okay,” Flash whispered, stroking her hair. “We're both here for you.”

Pinkie nodded. “No matter what.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said weakly. “Both of you.” she let out an unsteady breath. “Whoooo, this is so weird.”

“A sexy kind of weird?” Pinkie asked.

“A weird kind of weird.”

“I bet it's sexy-weird for Flashy,” Pinkie said with a smirk.

Flash cleared his throat. “Uh, no comment.”

Both Pinkie and Twilight laughed. Surprisingly, Twilight laughed harder. “Thank you, Pinkie,” she said after a while, “I needed that.”

“Everyone needs to laugh sometimes,” Pinkie said with a smile. “I’m glad it helped.” She hugged Twilight’s shoulders.

Twilight leaned into the embrace, smiling faintly. “So … what do we do now?”

Pinkie shrugged and turned to Flash expectantly.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Flash said. “I’m just trying to help Twilight feel comfortable.”

“And Twilight is just trying to make you feel good,” Pinkie said, bouncing her eyebrows. “So what would you want to do now that you’ve got two sexy, naked girls in bed with you?” She paused and frowned. “You know, it’s a shame you don’t have two ding-a-lings.”

Flash facepalmed, even though he was laughing. “Thank you, Pinkie, very romantic.”

Twilight giggled too. “Tactless though it may have been, Pinkie was right about my wanting to make you feel good.” She looked down, hugging Pinkie’s arms around her shoulders. “This is still … very weird, but if you have anything you’d like to try, I’d like to at least attempt it.”

Flash’s heart burned warmly at the selfless offer. His brain, on the other hand, was it’s usual self.

Which was to say, useless.

“I have no idea,” Flash said. “I mean, what could we even do that would involve all three of us? Like Pinkie said, I only have one, uh, you know.”

Pinkie hummed thoughtfully. “Oooh, I know! We can all lie down like this. You hold Twi-pie from the front, and I hold her from the back. That way she doesn't have to see me naked."

Twilight swallowed. “That, actually, sounds okay for me, but what about you, Pinkie?” She turned just enough to look at her. “How would you get anything from that?”

Pinkie smiled and patted her head. “Silly Twi-pie, of course seeing you two happy will make me happy.”

“But- Ack!” Twilight gasped as Pinkie yanked them both down to the bed.

“How’s this?” Pinkie asked, spooning up to the other girl, arms around her shoulders.

It was kind of adorable to see the tender concern on Pinkie’s face and the trusting, but still anxious, look on Twilight’s. And yes, it was sexy.

Like, really sexy.

“I’m okay,” Twilight said, gripping Pinkie’s arms as she looked up at Flash nervously. “I hope this looks good.”

Pinkie smirked. “His thingy sure seems to think so.”

Flash covered himself, blushing heavily. “Sorry.”

“For what?” Twilight asked. “Arousing you is the point, after all.”

“Well … yeah, that’s true.” He carefully laid down next to them. “Sorry, I guess I’m still thinking it’s rude to stare.”

“Silly Flashy.” Pinkie tousled his hair. “Now start making Twi-pie feel good.”

That, at least, was an order he could get behind. He squeezed Pinkie’s hand before turning his attention to Twilight, gently squeezing her hand as well. “Let me know if you ever need us to stop, okay?”

Twilight smiled nervously. “I will ... Thank you.”

He didn’t even remember when it ended. One moment he was as deep in Twilight as was physically possible; the next, he’d collapsed back, lying on the bed in a haze of warmth.

“That was …” Twilight gasped. “That was wonderful.”

Flash moaned something that even he couldn’t understand.

Pinkie giggled. “I think you broke him.”

He nodded weakly.

A soft hand brushed his cheek, though he couldn’t tell whose it was.

“I have some energy drinks, if you want one,” Twilight said.

Flash wrangled together his thoughts enough to whisper, “Okay.”

“I’ll be right back.” Someone, he assumed it was Twilight, got off the bed and walked away.

Pinkie cuddled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Thank you, by the way. I always wanted this, to be with a boy and a girl I love, but I didn't think I could tell anyone about it until now.“

He wrapped an arm around her, his hand resting against her stomach. “You can tell me anything, you goofball. I hope you know that.“

Twilight slowly approached, a can of Rockstar in her hand. “Should I come back later?” She looked down, smiling weakly. “You two are certainly entitled to some alone time.”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nuh, uh. Today is for you, and cuddling after sex is almost as good as sex.” She pushed herself up. “You haven’t had a chance to see how great it is yet, so I can go if you’re too uncomfortable to cuddle with me around.”

“No,” Twilight said softly, wiping her eyes. “You’re doing it again, Pinkie.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Doing what?”

“Giving up what you want to make me happy.” Twilight wiped her eyes again. “I might not be sexually attracted to women, but I do love you, Pinkie, and I can’t stand seeing you do all this for me when I can’t even bring myself to reciprocate.” She crawled onto the bed and spooned up against Pinkie’s back, hugging her shoulders. “So, no. You’re not going anywhere.”

Pinkie didn’t move for a few seconds, then she hugged Twilight’s arms, tears welling up in her eyes. “Awww, Twilight, I love you too!” She sniffled. “Y-you don’t have to do sexy things with me to make me happy. Just being here with you and Flashy is enough.” She rubbed her cheeks against Twilight’s arms. “And seeing him make you happy made me happy too.” She paused for a moment then flipped around, gently pulling Twilight’s head down to her shoulder. “Sorry, this probably makes you uncomfortable, but hugging you from behind doesn’t feel as lovey.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said quietly, hugging her back. “I just … I want to feel like I’m doing as much for you as you’re always doing for me.”

“But you’re already doing even more for me than I’ve done for you,” Pinkie said. “You’re the one that’s super stressed and uncomfortable.”

Flash spooned up against Pinkie’s back, planting a kiss at the base of her neck. “Pinkie, stop arguing with her and just enjoy the fact that both of us love you and are here for you.”

Pinkie sniffled. “I-I love you too, Flashy.” She rolled onto her back, hugging Flash to one side of her and Twilight to the other. “Y-you two a-are so wonderful!”

Flash hugged her side as best he could and shared a smile with Twilight. “I’m not sure about me. Twilight’s definitely wonderful, though.” He looked up and down her naked back appreciatively. And yes, it turned him on a ton to see her half-lying on another incredibly sexy naked girl.

He was only human.

Twilight blushed, hunkering down against Pinkie. “I’m flattered you think so highly of me, and … I truly enjoy how you appreciate my body, but don’t discount everything you’ve said and done to make this special for me.”

Pinkie smiled. “Flashy always makes us feel special. It’s one of the most specialest things about him.”

Twilight nodded. “So that’s why I want you to have sex with her next.” She looked down at his crotch, which was still limp. “Um, as soon as you’re able, that is.”

Flash shifted uncomfortably, fighting the urge to cover himself. Two orgasms had taken a lot out of him. “Maybe in a few minutes. For now,” he cuddled up against Pinkie, “I just want to stay like this.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

When at last it ended, he collapsed, listlessly pulling Pinkie down next to him so they both lay on their sides.

Twilight lay flat on her back, covered in sweat and juices, panting softly. She smiled. “I … I hope that was enjoyable.”

“Mmmm hmmm,” Pinkie said, eyes closed and a dopey smile on her lips. She pulled Twilight into another embrace.

Surprisingly, Twilight let her, rolling so her back pressed against the other girl’s front. “Have you enjoyed yourself so far, Flash?”

He hugged Pinkie with one hand, reaching over her with the other to stroke Twilight’s stomach. “I really,” he yawned, “truly hope you already know the answer to that.”

Pinkie giggled. “It is kind of a silly question.” She squeezed Twilight. “Silly Twi-pie.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Twilight giggled, then sighed happily. “By the way, Pinkie, why do you keep calling me Twi-pie?”

“Oh, that.” She giggled nervously. “I gave Flashy a nickname the first time we made love, since it meant so much, and I wanted to call him something special to help remember it. Then you were pushing yourself extra super hard for me, and it I thought you deserved a nickname too. She shifted up a bit. “Would you rather I called you twily?”

“Um, no. Definitely not.” Twilight shuddered. “My brother is the only one who calls me that, and I’d really rather not think about him in the current context.”

“Are you sure you should give her a nickname at all?” Flash asked. “No offense, Twilight, but I’m not sure if you’d want to be reminded of, well, this every time Pinkie calls you by your nickname.”

“No offense taken.” Twilight hugged his hand against her stomach. “Pinkie is right, though.” She hugged Pinkie’s arms. “After everything the two of you have done for me, it would feel … wrong to act like this didn’t mean anything.”

“So,” Pinkie asked nervously, “Twi-pie?”

Twilight laughed, hugging them both. “Only for you, Pinkie, but yes, Twi-pie.”

Author's Note

And that's it from me for now!

I hope you enjoyed this ... uh, April Fools prank gone out of control.

I'll add future chapters as I write them. Until then, feel free to yell at me for cutting out all the good parts.

Chapter 1

“Checkmate,” Applejack said smugly, knocking Rainbow’s king over with one finger.

Rainbow Dash groaned and pressed her face into the table. “You must be cheating somehow.” She looked around the cafeteria table she shared with her friends. “All of you must have been cheating.”

Twilight, who sat next to her, rolled her eyes. “Everyone here followed the rules of chess exactly,” her eyes narrowed, “except for the six times I caught you cheating.”

“And we all beat you anyway,” Applejack said. “Just face it, Rainbow, you suck at chess.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, leaning against Applejack’s side as she laughed. “Like really, really suck.”

Rainbow’s cheeks lit up as she glared at her so-called friends. “I do not!”

“Dear,” Rarity said with a disapproving frown from Applejack’s other side, “you asked me to king your pawn.”

“So?” Rainbow asked.

Rarity sighed. “That’s from checkers.”

“Checkers, chess.” Rainbow waved a hand dismissively. “Those two are so alike I bet people mix them up all the time.”

“You called Uno when I got you down to one piece,” Sunset said from her spot next to Twilight.

“And Yahtzee with me,” Fluttershy whispered at Rainbow’s side.

“Give up already,” Applejack said. “You lost fair and square.”

Rainbow pulled together the tattered remains of her ego and shot Applejack one last defiant glare. “Screw you.”

Applejack laughed. “I reckon I’d be better than you at that too.”

Now, anyone who knew Rainbow Dash knew she didn’t handle losing very well. Even the word sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine. And losing six times in a row, then getting mocked for it … Well, let’s just say she wasn’t thinking very clearly.

Which was her only excuse for what she said next.

“Want to make a bet on it?”

Applejack leaned back, blinking in confusion. “Make a bet on what?”

An idea was forming in Rainbow’s mind. It wasn’t the best idea—in fact, it might have been the dumbest idea she’d ever had—but she was already committed. She looked Applejack in the face and smirked. “A bet on who’s better at screwing.”

The whole table fell silent, so silent even the cafeteria noise around them seemed to grow dim. Students walked by, or ate lunch at nearby tables, all blissfully unaware of the monumental stupidity taking form just a few feet away.

Of course, stupidity is weak by itself. Much like a lie grows stronger when mixed with truth, stupidity can only achieve greatness when combined with fragments of brilliance. And Rainbow’s mind was suddenly lit up with brilliant ways to coerce her friends into a competition that would forever erase the sting of her losses at chess.

She grinned and turned her attention to Applejack. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid to admit all that bragging was a lie?”

And like that, Applejack’s fate was sealed. She hemmed and hawed, shifted and shrugged, but it was her pride and her honesty on the line. Absolutely no one was surprised when she finally gave up with a sigh. “Fine.” She glared at Rainbow. “Pick a boy, and I’ll rock his world so hard he won’t even remember you.”

“Not so fast,” Rainbow said, still grinning. “All of you were poking fun of me.” She looked around the table. “I deserve the chance to break even.”

Sunset Shimmer facepalmed. “Rainbow, you can’t expect us all to bang some random guy just because you stink at chess.”

Rainbow did her best to look hurt. “Really? So it’s fine for you all to gang up on me like that, talking about how dumb I am? I guess you meant no offense.”

“None taken,” Sunset said automatically, then she froze. One could almost see her brain grinding to a halt as the dreaded phrase was turned against her.

“I guess I just deserved a chance to redeem myself,” Rainbow said, struggling to hide a grin. “But if my friends don’t want to reach out to me, I’ll just wander off and let them forget me.”

Sunset had to lean on the table as the onslaught of memories pounded her reservations to dust. “That’s,” she muttered, “that’s fighting dirty.”

“So you’ll do it?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset let out a primal scream, making students all over the cafeteria reflexively duck for cover, then she slammed her head into the table and left it there. “Fine, but you owe me big.”

Rainbow just smirked. Another one down.

“I, for one, won’t be participating,” Rarity said, putting a hand to her chest, “and nothing you say will make me.”

Rainbow gave her a long, steady look. “You can design the lingerie I wear.”

Rarity paused, eyes widening.

“Imagine how great it would be to make customized outfits for me, you, and anyone else who wants to make a big impression,” Rainbow said, bouncing her eyebrows. “Imagine your best work getting burned into a guy’s mind so strongly he won’t ever be able to forget that amazing sight.”

Rarity’s whole body quivered. “I-I am only doing this for the sake of fashion.”

That made four.

Rainbow turned to Pinkie, who grinned back. “I’m in. It sounds fun.”

Five.

“Well, I’m not,” Twilight said, blushing furiously. “I’ve never had intercourse with anyone, and I don’t want my first time to be because of some stupid bet.”

“Really?” Rainbow asked. “Do you also turn first drafts into your teachers?”

Twilight gasped. “Rainbow, how could you even suggest such a thing! I would never turn a paper in unless I’d gone over it at least five times to make sure it was perfect.”

“Oh, but you’ll turn in a rough draft of sex to your first boyfriend?” Rainbow did her best to imitate Principal Celestia’s posture and voice. “You get a C plus, for obvious lack of experience with the subject matter.”

“C plus?” Twilight whispered. “That’s barely a passing grade!” Her hair somehow started to curl up into an untamed mess. “I can’t be a barely passing girlfriend!”

“Then join our study group,” Rainbow said, openly grinning. “We can compare notes to make sure you ace your first test.”

“Yes,” Twilight said firmly. “Deal. For the sake of good grades.”

Six down.

The entire group turned to Fluttershy, who was doing her best to hide behind both Rainbow Dash and her own hair, shaking like a leaf the whole time.

“C’mon, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, propping her up so everyone could see her. “It won’t be a real victory if you don’t join in.”

“Do I have to?” Fluttershy said with a whimper. “Can’t I just cheer everyone on from the sidelines?”

Rainbow put her hands on Fluttershy’s shoulders and looked her right in the face. “Fluttershy, I know you don’t think you can do this, I know you’re scared, but all of us will be there for you. We’ll help you take this step in life, and when you do, we’ll be the ones cheering for you, because we all knew deep down you had the potential to be incredible, and you’ll finally be letting that potential show.” She pulled her into a tight hug. “I believe in you, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy let out a soft cry of happiness. “Okay. With you all to help me, I can do anything.”

Pinkie sniffed and wiped her eyes. “That was such a touching speech, Rainbow.”

“For a thinly veiled attempt to guilt her into sleeping with some random guy just so Rainbow can feel better about herself,” Sunset said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, real moving.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Um, speaking of which, for the experiment to be accurate, the test subject would have to be unaware that he’s being tested, and so unable to form pre-existing biases that would skew the results.”

“So we don’t tell whoever it is,” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.

“Fine,” Sunset said, “but who are we supposed to be banging?”

Rainbow blinked at her. Even a flash of brilliance as powerful as the one she’d just experienced wasn’t enough to cover everything. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “Some loser, I guess.”

Meanwhile, Flash Sentry sat at the far side of the cafeteria, eating a plate of fish tacos, unaware of how truly ironic his choice of lunch was about to be.

Chapter 3

Flash had never been more confused in his life, and that was counting the time his date for the Fall Formal randomly grew wings. Applejack had gotten dressed and rushed out the door long before he was coherent enough to question what had just happened, and it was the weekend, so he wouldn’t even see her again until Monday.

Unless he called or visited her.

Should he call or visit her?

What on earth was the proper follow up to a girl you barely knew dragging you into a shed and banging you senseless?

Flash wondered about that the whole drive home.

Did this mean they were dating now? He hoped so if that meant another wild ride was in their future.

Mini Flash definitely wanted another go.

Eventually he pulled up in front of his house, a humble little blue building, and went inside. “Hello?”

Silence.

Flash shrugged and closed the door behind him, venturing into the kitchen. The battered old fridge had a yellow sticky note on it with the words, ‘Working late again. Put money on your card for pizza.’ He wasn’t surprised. His dad had been working late ever since the divorce ten years ago. In his defense, not many cops had to bust their own wives for selling drugs. Working late probably helped keep his mind off stuff.

Even though Flash was sick of pizza.

He shrugged off his backpack and pulled out a few textbooks and a binder, setting them all on the marble counter. Maybe stumbling through his Trig homework would give him an idea of how to deal with Applejack. After all, how different could calculating the angles of a triangle be from figuring out how to talk to the gorgeous blonde who just rocked his world for no apparent reason?

Yeah, he was in trouble.

Hours passed, and the sun slowly disappeared behind the trees outside, but no answers jumped out at him. Eventually, he put the last of his homework away, gathered some pots and pans, and set about making dinner. Real dinner. Not pizza.

There wasn’t a lot in the fridge, so Flash slapped together rice, a packet of country gravy, and some ground beef, before sprinkling a few spices on top and calling it good enough.

And it was. Good enough, like most everything else in his life.

Except for what had happened with Applejack …

Wait, they hadn’t even kissed.

He reviewed the whole incident, much to Mini Flash’s delight, and confirmed their lips hadn’t ever touched. “Seriously?” Flash ate another bite of his dinner. “I had sex with a girl before I even kissed her?”

And got an erection from thinking about it too, apparently.

Needless to say, Flash took a cold shower that night before bed. Maybe he’d have a better idea what to do in the morning.

Nope, he was still clueless. Flash rolled out of his bed with a sigh, yawning widely. He’d heard somewhere that taking your mind off a problem would let your subconscious figure it out for you. Apparently his subconscious was a pervert, because all it had managed was constant reruns of what happened with Applejack.

Not that he minded.

He got dressed and headed downstairs, noting a line of cop clothes going from the front door to his father’s room. This was standard after a double shift. Flash gathered them up and put them in the laundry before heading into the kitchen for breakfast.

Unsurprisingly, the fridge hadn’t generated any new food overnight, and they were all out of milk, so he was left with the question of reheating the cheap pizza his dad had brought home or pouring water on his cereal.

He chose option three, head to the mall.

Flash had always liked the food court at the mall. He didn’t have to know what he wanted before heading in, because anything he could possibly want was there somewhere. It was especially useful on days like this, when his mind was occupied by other thoughts.

He stepped outside and locked the door behind him, stretching his arms as he soaked in another beautiful spring day. A breeze carried the scent of flowers and grass to his nose, compliments of his neighbor’s perfectly maintained yard. Flash’s own yard was shoddy by comparison. Oh well, it’s not like anyone cared.

Back to the matter at hand. Flash hopped into his car and revved up the engine, enjoying the wild feeling it always awakened in his gut, like he could go anywhere and do anything as long as he had this car and money for gas. He knew the feeling was a lie, but sometimes even the illusion of freedom was enough to help.

Soon Flash was cruising down the familiar streets to the mall, listening to an old Journey song on the radio and feeling more optimistic about the day. He’d find something to eat, head over to Sweet Apple Acres, and ask Applejack directly if she wanted to start dating. Flash didn’t like to brag, but he was sure she’d enjoyed herself enough to want to fool around more in the future.

The parking lot was nearly empty, so Flash pulled into a spot right outside the food court and headed inside. The scents of Chinese food, Mexican food, burgers, and more filled his lungs, and his stomach growled its agreement that something in here would fill it up.

Flash paused to look around. “Let’s see, sushi?” His friends made fun of him for liking raw fish, but he knew they’d change their tune if they ever tried it.

Except Sunset worked there.

Yeah, Flash didn’t think he could handle bumping into her right then without having a class-A freak out. Moving on.

“Sandwiches?” he muttered, then shook his head. Today wasn’t an eating-healthy kind of day.

“Burger?” His stomach growled again, and Flash smiled. “Burger it is.”

The best burger joint in the mall was definitely this fifties-style diner. It also had amazing shakes. Flash jogged there, pushing open the door to reveal the cutest retro eatery in town, and speaking of cute …

“Hi there!” Pinkie Pie called, skipping over to him in an outfit that always made his inner anime geek squee; a sky-blue dress, puffy shoulders, white apron with black frills, and a brightly colored bow tied around her waist. It was adorable in all the right ways, even if it was responsible for some less than pure thoughts. “Table for two?”

Flash shook his head, blushing as his memories from yesterday pointed out that if Pinkie looked so good in her work clothes, she probably looked even better out of them. “Table for one, like usual.”

“Aw.” Pinkie led him to the counter and handed him a menu, skipping around to stand across from him. “I was really hoping today would be the day you finally came in with a friend.”

“Sorry,” Flash said, looking around as he took a seat. The diner was empty except for the two of them and an older waitress named Erma, who’d already overheard enough of their conversations that Flash didn’t feel awkward talking in front of her. “You know how my friends are, always expecting me to pay for their meals.”

“Sounds to me like you need better friends,” Pinkie said, ruffling his hair. “You know you can always hang out with me and the girls, right?”

Flash scratched the back of his neck. “Uh …”

Pinkie smiled sympathetically. “So you still feel awkward around the new Twilight?”

“And Sunset,” Flash said, doing his best to smile back. “I guess that makes me a jerk for not putting everything behind me, huh?”

“Nah, it just makes you a sensitive little cutie.” Pinkie tapped him on the nose.

Flash laughed. “I’m the little one?” He gestured up and down at her short, slender frame.

“Hey,” Pinkie said with fake outrage, “at least I’ve got big,” she held up both hands in front of her chest, “hands.”

Flash laughed again.

“I wouldn’t go calling a molehill a mountain,” Erma said with a smirk. “You’re a B-cup at best.”

Pinkie posed dramatically with her fist in the air. “B-cup is best cup!”

Flash wisely decided not to comment.

“So,” Pinkie said, tapping the menu she’d handed him, “what can I do ya for?”

“Right, sorry.” Flash looked down at his menu and quickly decided. “The All-American Burger and a drink.”

“No fries?” Pinkie asked with an adorable pout.

Flash chuckled. “Only if you want to eat them, because I won’t.”

“Fries it is!” She skipped into the kitchen, and a flurry of noise followed.

“You really should ask her out,” Erma said.

Flash jumped in his seat. “What?”

She turned to him, leaning forwards across the counter. “You come in here at least once a week to talk with Pinkie, sometimes for hours, and anyone with eyes can see the way you blush when you see her.”

Speaking of blushing, Flash’s cheeks decided to do just that. “I-I don’t.”

Erma gave him a flat look. “She’s a cutie. You’re a sweetheart. Just take her out sometime.” She smirked. “Or have your way with her in the back room. I won’t tell.”

Flash was sure his cheeks were about to ignite. “What?!”

Erma just laughed and went back to wiping down the counters.

Pinkie reappeared a minute later with a burger, fries, and a large Coke. “Food time!”

“Uh, thanks.” Flash dug into his food, carefully avoiding looking at Erma. In fact, talking to or looking at anyone sounded like a recipe for disaster at the moment, so he just focused on getting through his burger as quickly as possible.

“Wow,” Pinkie said, shoveling fries in her mouth, “you must be hungry.”

“Yeah,” Flash said, chuckling awkwardly. He accidentally looked at Pinkie just as she ran her tongue up the whole length of a fry before popping it in her mouth. He looked away, crossing his legs. Erma’s suggestion was affecting him more than he wanted to admit.

Soon the burger was finished, and Flash honestly couldn’t remember what it had even tasted like. His mind kept imagining what Pinkie would taste like instead.

Stupid mind.

His situation wasn’t helped when Pinkie finished the fries and began to carefully, almost sensually lick the salt off her fingers.

Welp, that settled that. Flash wouldn’t be standing up for at least ten minutes. He awkwardly looked away and drank some of his Coke.

Pinkie, miraculously, didn’t notice. “Oh, Erma, we’re almost out of buns. I’m gonna grab some from the storage room.”

Erma nodded. “Okay, but be careful. Some of those boxes are heavy.”

“Do you want some hel-” Flash noticed Erma smirking at him and froze. Nope, he was definitely not going into the back room alone with Pinkie while Erma was giving him that knowing smile. “Uh, I mean, do you want Erma to help you?” he said quickly. “I can watch the front for a few minutes.”

“Nah,” Pinkie said. “I can handle it. Be right back!” She skipped into the back and disappeared from sight.

“Wuss,” Erma said.

Flash’s cheeks went red again, but there wasn’t anything he could say. He just cleared his throat and looked down at his empty plate.

A high-pitched squeal came from the back of the diner followed by a crash.

Flash was on his feet and over the counter before he could even think about what he was doing. He pushed his way into the kitchen and quickly spotted a large wooden door that was partially open. “Pinkie, you okay?” He rushed to it and pulled it open.

Pinkie lay on the floor inside, with a pile of boxes covering her and more boxes lining the walls. “Ow, ow, owie.” She winced, pulling a hand free of the mess. “Sorry, I guess I wasn’t careful enough.”

Flash hurried to her side and started moving the boxes off her. “Don’t worry about that. Just stay still. You might’ve hurt something.”

The door banged open and Erma stepped in, panting. “Wow, looks like we’ve got a real-life superhero on our hands.”

Pinkie grinned. “It was really heroic how he rushed to save me from the dreaded boxes. I guess that makes me the damsel in distress.”

Flash just rolled his eyes and kept clearing everything off Pinkie. She didn’t have any obvious cuts or bruises, but a bunch of food items had fallen out of their boxes and scattered around. A tub of chocolate syrup sat between Pinkie’s legs, hot dog and hamburger buns covered her stomach, and a packet of sprinkles had somehow landed underneath her head like a pillow. “I think you’re fine,” he said at last, “but be careful. You could still have strained or cracked something.”

“Okay.” Pinkie gingerly sat up and shook her head. “I think everything’s okay.”

Erma sighed in relief. “Thank goodness, but just to be safe, Pinkie, take the rest of the day off.”

Pinkie shook her head. “I can’t leave you all alone on a Saturday.”

“I insist,” Erma said. “We won’t get busy for at least another few hours, and I’m sure I can find someone to come in before then.”

Pinkie stuck out her lower lip. “I know you said you’re sure, but are you sure you’re sure?”

Erma laughed. “Yes, Pinkie. We can get along without you for one day.”

“I can drive you home,” Flash said. “If you need a ride, that is.”

Pinkie nodded slowly, and reached out a hand to him. “Thanks, that’d be extra super nice.”

“No problem.” Flash looked at the mess still covering the supply room. “Uh, I’ll clean this up while you go change.”

“Oh, I don’t have a change of clothes here,” Pinkie said, “but I can help you clean up.” She shot Erma a challenging look. “I’m definitely okay enough for that.”

“Fine,” Erma said, smiling gently. “You two clean up, then make sure Pinkie gets home. I’ve gotta get back to the front.” She stepped outside, closing the door after her.

And now Flash was alone in a secluded room with Pinkie. He was uncomfortably reminded of events with Applejack the day before. “Well, uh, let’s get to work.” He picked up a box full of buns. “Where does this go?”

“On that stack over there,” Pinkie said, taking a smaller box and putting it on a shelf.

The work wasn’t hard, and miraculously, nothing was broken other than a few boxes. Soon the room was clean, and Flash was standing there next to Pinkie. He awkwardly cleared his throat. “Um, I’ll be out front.”

“And I’ll go clock out,” Pinkie said with a smile, walking closer. Then she stood on her toes and pecked him on the lips. “Thanks again for rushing to save me, Mr. Hero.”

Flash could only stare at her in shock as she giggled and skipped out. He shook his head. Okay, maybe Erma was on to something about taking her on a date sometime. He could still feel the ghost of her soft, warm lips against his. They’d tasted like strawberries.

“There you are,” Erma said when Flash made it back to the front. She took one look at his dazed face and smirked. “So you two went at it after all. And here I doubted you had the guts to pull it off.”

“We didn’t do anything,” Flash said a bit too quickly.

Erma’s smirk just grew. “Suuuure. Don’t worry, kid, I won’t tell anyone.”

Pinkie arrived just then. “Won’t tell anyone what?”

“Nothing,” Erma said with a knowing grin. “You kids have a good day.”

“We will,” Pinkie said brightly, taking Flash’s hand. “Where are you parked?”

Flash blushed, but he couldn’t help but smile. Her warm fingers against his just felt right. “This way.” He ignored Erma’s laughter and led Pinkie outside to his car. “You’ll have to tell me where to go,” Flash said, opening the door for her. “I’ve never been to your place.”

Pinkie waited until he’d walked around and climbed into the car himself before she said, “Actually, can we go by the school?”

He turned to look at her. “Uh, sure, why?”

Pinkie took a deep breath. “Well, my mom and dad are sweet, but they can also be really protective, and Marble and Maud are so sensitive too, and I know Limestone acts tough, but she’d be worried if she knew I got hurt, just like the rest of my family would be, so I thought I could spend the day doing something else and go home after my shift would’ve ended, but I only have this outfit, and even though it’s really, really cute, it would be weird to wear all day, but I have a pair of keys to the school Principal Celestia gave me for band practice, and I thought I could get to my locker in the gym and change, because even though gym clothes are kind of weird to wear all day, it’s still better than work clothes, and I can just change back before I head home.” She smiled at him. “Does that answer your question?”

Flash had to wait for his brain to catch up with her mouth before he could answer. “Um, yes, I think.”

“Super duper,” Pinkie said. “To the school!”

Flash smiled at her enthusiasm and started driving. “So, Principal Celestia gave you keys to the school?”

Pinkie nodded. “After we saved everyone from the sirens, she said the entire town’s future might depend on us staying in practice, so she gave us keys so we could use the band room whenever we wanted.”

“Lucky,” Flash said, thinking of all the times his garage band had been forced to practice in a literal garage, or worse, in someone’s backyard. Then again, he hadn’t saved the school from rampaging monsters. “Never mind,” he added. “You aren’t lucky; you earned it.”

Pinkie reached over and ruffled his hair. “Aw, that’s sweet of you to say.”

Flash smiled, soaking in the warmth of her hand. It reminded him of the days when he and Sunset used to drive around town just for the fun of driving. Of course, that was back before everything went to crap between them. He shook his head and turned to Pinkie. “Anyway, what do you think you’ll do for the rest of the day?”

“I don’t know,” she said brightly, “but I’ll come up with something.”

“Maybe you can call some of your friends,” Flash said. Someone should keep an eye on her after that fall, just in case.

“Or maybe I’ll just hang out with you,” Pinkie said, looking oddly nervous. “Only if you don’t mind, that is.”

Flash’s heart chose that moment to start pounding; she just looked so cute! “No, no, I, uh,” he looked away before he could start blushing, “I’d really like to spend time together, and I don’t have anything going on today either, so …” He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

They reached the school, and Flash pulled into the student parking lot. “Should I stay here while you go change?”

“Nope, come in,” Pinkie said. “There are some things I’d like your help with.”

“Like band equipment or something?” Flash asked, getting out of the car.

“Well, I could use help moving my drum set.” Pinkie skipped to the door and fished a key chain from her pocket.

“Okay, sure.” Flash looked back at his car, trying to figure out if the backseat would hold a whole drum set. “We can try, at least.”

Pinkie unlocked the door and led him into the dim corridor inside. “Follow me, Mr. Hero!”

“Ha, ha,” Flash said, looking around at the endless row of lockers. It was weird to be in the school when it was so dark and quiet. Hundreds of students had been reduced to just him and Pinkie, their steps echoing in the emptiness. “By the way, how are you feeling? Any aches or pains?”

She shook her head. “Just a bit sore from falling on my tush,” she shook her hips for emphasis, “but the rest of me is fine.”

Flash cleared his throat and fixed his gaze anywhere other than Pinkie’s tush. It didn’t help that the bow on her lower back kept shaking with each step, drawing his eyes right to where he both did and didn’t want to look. Come on, he ordered his mind, think about something else!

Luckily, something else came up when Pinkie turned right at the next hallway.

“Uh, Pinkie,” Flash said, “the band room is back the other way.”

“I know,” Pinkie said with a smile. “We’re going to the gym first.”

“Why?” Flash asked. “I could start hauling your drum set out while you change.”

Pinkie whirled around and firmly planted her lips over his, filling his mouth with the taste of strawberries. A few glorious seconds passed before Pinkie pulled back with a smile. “Just trust me. I have a surprise for you.”

At that moment, Flash would’ve gladly followed her anywhere. He nodded dreamily, still lost in a haze of strawberries and warmth. “Okay, whatever you want.”

Pinkie giggled and started walking again.

They reached the gym, but Flash paused when Pinkie led him to the girl’s locker room and opened the door. “Uh, should I wait here?”

“Why?” Pinkie asked, still in the doorway. “It’s empty just like the rest of the school.”

“Well, yeah,” Flash said, scratching the back of his neck, “but it’s just one of those places guys don’t belong, you know?”

Pinkie laughed and pulled him across the threshold. “Now come here,” she skipped deeper in, passing down a row of pink lockers with wooden bench set midway between them, “I’ve been waiting to show you something.”

“You have?” Flash asked, following her. “What?”

“You’ll see,” Pinkie said cheerfully. She opened a locker and pulled out one bottle of chocolate syrup and another of whipping cream. “Hold these.”

Flash took them and was confused to realize the whipping cream was somehow still cold. Maybe she had a tiny fridge in her locker. If anyone could pull that off, it was Pinkie Pie.

“Do you like strawberry or raspberry more?” Pinkie asked, still looking in her locker.

Flash licked his lips. “S-strawberry.”

“Good choice.” Pinkie pulled out a jar of strawberry-flavored pie filling. She put it on the wooden bench between the rows of lockers, then she casually undid the bow on her back. Her frilly apron came off next.

“Uh,” Flash said, taking a step back, “I’ll just wait just wait by the door.”

“Flaaash,” Pinkie said with a grin and half-lidded eyes, “it’s mean to walk away when I’m trying to put on a show for you.” Then she pulled off her dress in one smooth motion.

“Wow.” Flash wasn’t certain if he said the word or if it manifested from the air, but it really was the only way to describe what he was seeing.

Pinkie wore white panties and a bra, both lined with black frills, and they looked amazing on her, complementing her slender frame but drawing attention to her curves in all the right ways. “Do you like them?” Pinkie asked, putting one hand up behind her head and the other on her hip. “I had Rarity make them like my apron, since I know you like that so much.”

Flash blushed. “Well, yeah, but, I mean, just …” He swallowed. “Wow.”

Pinkie giggled. “You flatterer.” She smiled, but it quickly gained a nervous edge. “Um, Flashy, could you do me a favor?”

Flash’s mind immediately went to some rather dirty places, but he forced those thoughts away. He was staring at an insanely cute girl in frilly underwear. His mind was going to twist anything she said into something dirty. “Sure,” he said, reminding himself whatever she was about to say was probably as sweet and innocent as Pinkie herself, “what is it?”

“Could you cover me in chocolate syrup, strawberry pie filling, and whipped cream?”

The words didn’t make Flash freeze so much as they dumped his mind in liquid nitrogen, preserving it for future generations to point at and laugh. “Guh?”

Eventually the electricity calmed, and Flash sagged onto Pinkie, his lips still gently locked with her.

Pinkie was the one who broke off the kiss, tilting so their foreheads were touching. “Thanks, Flashy. You made my first time a treat.”

“Literally,” Flash said, licking a bit of strawberry filling off his lips. He let out a long sigh of pleasure. “Still, cleaning off is going to be interesting.”

“They have showers in here,” Pinkie said, smiling up at him. “I’ll wash your front if you wash mine.”

Flash laughed and kissed her on the tip of the nose. “Deal.”