Fluttershy's New Friend

by Theblindrat

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Sad, Other, Romance, Original Character, Fluttershy, Slice of Life
Length: 24709

Fluttershy really does not like to meet strangers... but this seems promising.

Fluttershy awakes one morning to find a letter that she has received from Twilight discerning a certain visitor who she needs help understanding. Fluttershy isn't entirely sure how she would like to meet this visitor, as she does not like strangers. She later finds this visitor to be one of the kindest ponies that she has ever met, and starts to wonder how she ever got by without him. But this visitor has a major disability, but is greatly made up for by his special talent. And most importantly there is one major problem that catches up with him.

Published 2012-11-06 05:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-18 22:47:31 UTC

A New Colt in Town

AN: I would like you all to know that I this is my first fanfic… ever… I do enjoy writing stories, and drawing, and playing my guitar, but that's not important, what is important however, is that you leave positive feedback or constructive criticism on how I could make myself a better writer. Please don't be a dick in the comments.

Chapter 1: A New Colt In Town

It was quite the morning in Ponyville, everypony and all the animals were quite content with the fine weather all the Pegasi had put together. Most ponies were already out of bed, except for a certain pale yellow Pegasus, who had slept in much later than she usually wakes up in the morning, or at least until a small irritated looking rabbit that started to thump his foot against the top of the Pegasus' head.

All she heard was pounding when she opened her eyes to see a large blur of everything that resembled her room, until she looked over at the bedside clock that she received from Rarity on her birthday a few months ago. Seeing the time she immediately snapped out of bed and flew downstairs to see a multitude of hungry animals, followed by faces of delight as she filled their food bowls. She looked over at the rabbit that had awoken her "Thank you Angel… I'm sorry I slept in so long." She blushed "tomorrow I'll make it up to you by getting you an extra snack at the market, sound fair?" She then realized her apology and offer were both ignored by angel's full mouth. This made the Pegasus let out a small giggle.

When she stepped out onto her porch, she smelled the cool, crisp air of springtime, and the sweet aroma of her flowerbed. She looked around at the sky was as clear and blue as it could ever be. And the trees that sat so perfectly arranged around the cottage. Then she looked down at the scroll which sat on her doorstep. She held it in hoof and opened it with her wing, it read, "Fluttershy, I need you to come to the library as soon as you can. I have a certain…" the pause almost made Fluttershy feel the writer thinking… hard. "…visitor, which requires a bit of help…, understanding. I know you are quite busy most of the day, but if you could stop by sometime in the next few hours that would be marvelous, I'm trying to keep my visitor here until you arrive. ~Twilight."

Fluttershy looked back through the window of the door on her cottage and saw several happy, full, animals lying on their backs on a nice, clean, floor. 'I can take a few hours off my schedule to help Twilight,' she thought. Fluttershy then flew up to where her hooves were just about 2 feet off the ground, and headed for Twilight's house. She saw several other ponies seeming to have an exceptionally good time that day, she didn't know quite what the feeling could be described as other than exceeding happiness, as if it was shed onto her as an aura. Their smiles all seemed as if they would stretch on forever if they could, not in a forced way, in a legitimately happy way.

She arrived at Twilight's house when she almost hesitated to knock, but when she did, it was so soft you probably wouldn't have been able to notice if you hadn't been sitting by the door reading as Twilight was. She opened the door with a warm smile almost as much as Fluttershy's. Twilight wanted to greet her rather than getting straight to business, but this was quite strange, Twilight's dilemma, but she still needed to greet her shy friend. "Hey Fluttershy, glad you could make it over." Twilight couldn't have been more sincere. "Hi Twilight, I'm really glad that you invited me over." She had a look of warmth and thankfulness in her eyes, as if she couldn't thank Twilight enough for being her friend.

Twilight said "Come on in, I think it's time you met him." Fluttershy's eyes widened at the word 'him'. Fluttershy didn't like talking to strangers, let alone strangers who were colts. Animals were fine because they didn't have looks of judgment in their eyes when Fluttershy talked to them. "Who is this 'he'?" asked Fluttershy. Twilight pointed at her couch, which was accompanied by a gray Pegasus, resting with his eyes closed. 'Is this a relative of Derpy, because he sure looks a lot like her?' That he did. He was a pale gray with light blonde hair, it was even brushed the way Derpy had hers, actually it looked more the way Rainbow Dash kept hers, almost untended-to looking, but not in a bad way. He had a cutie mark that was an acoustic guitar, the same guitar that he was holding the neck by in one hand, the bottom of the body next to he hid leg against the floor. He then opened his eyes lightly and slowly, which revealed the palest of blue eyes Fluttershy had ever seen in her life. 'I guess he's not related to her.' She turned her head, almost hypnotized by his eyes. Fluttershy snapped back to reality, "Oh… hi… um… w-what's your name." That was when she got the strangest response to a question she had heard a pony give her… he whistled, not in a rude way, or in an awkward way, but in a sweet tune that she had never heard, it was a short melody, that almost whisked Fluttershy away the way his eyes did.

When he finished his very short melodic whistle, Twilight came over to ask Fluttershy what was up, because she had been researching all morning for a way to translate what it was that he was doing, but she was stopped by what Fluttershy said. "He said his name is Roadie." Twilight's face went from confused to blank. "How did you know that? I've been trying to communicate with him all morning!" Fluttershy turned to look at her friend. "Didn't you ever think to give him some paper and a quill or something? I'm sure he can write." She didn't say this rudely, it was more like constructive criticism, but softer, Twilight almost facehoofed. She looked over at Roadie and asked him, "So… Roadie, where are you from, Pinkie said she's never seen you around and she knows just about everypony here in Ponyville." Roadie looked over at Fluttershy and whistled yet again, but whistled a much longer, different tune, sounded a little jazzier than the last one. And it seemed to change tune and music style as he continued from blues, to ska, and back to jazz. He held different emotions in his face as he continued, most of the emotions he showed were not happy, sometimes they even looked melancholic. But near the end of the tune, he sat up proud with a smile on his face. Twilight realized, he was going to briefly give her his life story, and she was eager to hear it.

Fluttershy felt the perfect-pitched whistling in her ears as it translated into words, he had a soft, deep voice when it was translated, she couldn't really describe the softness and kindness of his inner voice other than just pure pleasantry, it was not too deep, and more like a tenor than a baritone. When he finished Twilight looked at Fluttershy with a 'go ahead' kind of look. Fluttershy said, "He said he isn't really from anywhere, he grew up alone and wandered from location to location with a guitar he bought from a music store when he was a a very small child, he earned the money from doing small time deliveries for people he met from town to town, but they were always Pegasi, because he soon came to realize that he couldn't talk, only whistle, and only Pegasus ponies can translate his whistling into words, like I am now." Fluttershy found herself welling up in tears as she continued telling Roadie's life story. "He learned how to write for the sole purpose of writing guitar music. When he purchased his guitar the owner of the store said 'See ya later little Roadie' on his way out. He left that store with his guitar slung over his shoulder knowing that he would be a great musician, with dreams of becoming as good as or not better than Eric Clapton or Bob Dylan themselves." Fluttershy was literally about to burst into tears if it wasn't for Roadie standing up and giving Fluttershy a comforting rub on the shoulder and a kind smile. Fluttershy turned and hugged Roadie as if to say 'I'm sorry for the life you had to live through'. They stood there hugging, and Roadie realized, for the first time in his life, he actually had a close friend.

Now I would like to tell you fine folks here at FimFiction that I have already completed and published nine chapters on fanfiction.net, but I would like to upload one chapter a day here because I feel as if that would be more fair to you guys. Thank you and I hope you enjoy what is to come.

A Day To Remember

Chapter 2: A Day To Remember

When Fluttershy finally let go of Roadie, She had soaked half of Roadie's and her own mane in tears, and Twilight was sitting back in her chair reading the same book she was when Fluttershy came to the door, only, by now, she had almost finished it. Roadie had never been more appreciative of somepony else's concern. Roadie went to go retrieve his guitar, which he then slung over his shoulder with the strap. Fluttershy was confused, "Where are you going?" she asked. Roadie pointed over to the music store not too far down the street, considering that he could point at it from the window of Twilight's house. Roadie looked at Fluttershy, "Would you like to come with me?" Roadie whistled. Fluttershy's face lit up like the sun. "I would love to!" Fluttershy said. Twilight was unaware of them walking out the door as she closed her book and said "Finished! … Guys…. Guys? "

As Fluttershy and Roadie walked in through the front door of the music store, the small store chime went off behind them, and there was just row, after row, after row, of guitars and other string instruments lining the walls. There was about a quarter of the store devoted to wind instruments and another quarter for percussion instruments and such. Roadie kept walking along, but Fluttershy looked about inside of the music store, just in awe with all of the instruments as if she stepped into a new world that she had been missing out on her entire life. Roadie went and picked up 2 small bags with 6 Nylon guitar strings in each. He walked up to the counter and handed the cashier, (who looked like she could have been related to Vinyl Scratch,) 4 bits. Roadie then walked over to Fluttershy, who was hypnotized near one of the guitar racks. When Roadie patted Fluttershy on the back to make sure everything was alright, she snapped her eyes wide as if startled, when she realized that it was Roadie, she turned back, smiled, and said, "Isn't it beautiful?" She then pointed at a cherry burst Les Paul hanging almost in front of all the other guitars on the specific rack. Roadie walked over to it, picked it up, and walked over to the counter, Fluttershy was confused in all of this.

Roadie set the Les Paul down on the counter and pulled the acoustic guitar off of his back, and turned it so that the strings were facing the ground and shook it. A large bag of bits fell out onto the strings, which he then pulled out and handed to the cashier. Then Roadie turned around and pointed at Fluttershy, the cashier shrugged. Roadie sighed and walked over to her and pointed at her cutiemark. Then Roadie came back and pointed and the white plate on the Les Paul. Fluttershy still wasn't completely sure what was happening, but if it was she was thinking, she might cry from sheer happiness. The Cashier took a good look at the cutiemark and then pulled out what looked like… a Tattoo needle? But it had a different body shape. The cashier spent about 3 minutes buzzing the tool against the plate on the guitar. Roadie then retrieved a guitar hard case, amp, and cord that came with the purchase of the guitar. Roadie placed the guitar in the case, slung his acoustic over his shoulder, picked up the case with the guitar in it, and set it down in front of Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was about to hug him again, but the amp he was carrying in his mouth would've surely cause them some pain from how hard she would've hugged him. Fluttershy picked up the guitar case with tears of joy welling in her eyes, and walked out with Roadie. "Why can't someone do that for me?" asked the cashier as soon as they were out the door.

They had a very peaceful glide on the way to Fluttershy's cottage, she would occasionally look over at him just out of amazement that someone had been so kind to her. When they arrived, Fluttershy invited Roadie in. Roadie set down the equipment next to the couch, and Fluttershy set the guitar case down next to all the equipment. They looked up at each other and Fluttershy just could not get over the fact that this pony, that she had met just a couple of hours ago, bought her something, let alone a guitar. Roadie and Fluttershy sat down on the couch and roadie put his favorite mix tape in her stereo system. They sat and listened to music until they saw the light outside fade. Fluttershy looked over at Roadie, "Oh, well I guess you have to go now, back to your home." She said it with an almost depressed tone. Roadie matched the depressed tone with his face and his whistling when he said "I don't have a home, remember? I just got here yesterday, but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to sleep." Fluttershy looked horrified. "You don't have to sleep out there in the cold of night; you should really stay the night here." Roadie whistled back "I couldn't do that, I would surely get in the way of you or your animals." Fluttershy looked at him with the most pleading eyes he had ever seen. He agreed to stay. Fluttershy couldn't have been happier; she went upstairs to put the guitar and equipment away, like she should've done when she got home. When she came back down, she only saw Roadie's guitar against the wall where he was standing when she went upstairs. She looked worriedly around the house for him only to find him in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Roadie was making breakfast for dinner, because that's all he knew how to cook, other than the occasional snack he would put together from whatever he could find. Fluttershy was going to stop him, but he was already halfway into making pancakes and grits. He took about 2 pancakes and placed them on a plate, he covered them with syrup, then added the grits and put a nice lump of butter on top and set it down in front of Fluttershy at the table. He then made his own plate with about the same serving size and sat down across the table from her. They talked about their favorite musicians and past times. They also talked about hobbies and stories of things that happened between them and their friends, until both of their plates were clean. Roadie came over and picked up Fluttershy's plate and continued towards the sink, he rinsed off the plates and placed them on the counter next to the sink.

Now stood the question of the night, 'Where was Roadie sleeping?' Roadie had insisted that he slept on the couch, but Fluttershy argued that he would be harassed by animals during the night. As she said that, she turned to see several animals run off, she blushed. Roadie eventually gave in, and she decided he would sleep in Fluttershy's room. Fluttershy went upstairs and told him that he should go to bed by at most 10:00, because it helps you get up in the morning, and when you take a shower you won't get head rushed as easily. Roadie agreed and sat down on the couch, promising himself that he wouldn't fall asleep there. He picked up his guitar and began playing 'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix. By the time he was finished, he was surrounded by just about every kind of animal that he could fit around him was sitting, watching, and listening to him play, a few applauded. He decided that it was time to go to bed. The clock read 9:30, so Roadie was keeping his promise. He carefully opened the bedroom door to see Fluttershy sleeping, facing the window across from the door. There was a large, inviting looking space in the bed, and Roadie took it, he had never fallen asleep so quickly.

When morning came, Roadie could only think about what a great day yesterday was, and how he wanted to make today even better. He looked over to see Fluttershy, lying in bed, awake, with a smile on her face. It wasn't an overdone smile, but it was pretty well put. She said, "So what do you want to do today?" Roadie looked at her, and thought, because he didn't know. Then he thought of something great, something fantastic, and something that would make this day nice, relaxed, and fun. He was going to teach her how to play her new guitar. When he whistled that to Fluttershy, she got excited she flew out of bed to go get it, she hooked it up to a power out let in the wall. Roadie set it so that the distortion was almost completely off, turned the reverb up, and the volume to about loud enough to where Roadie can still hear his acoustic clearly over the electric he had purchased her. He flew downstairs to grab his acoustic and came back up to find Fluttershy staring at the white plate on the Les Paul. He got the cashier at the music store to etch her cutiemark, color and all, into the white plate. She was quite happy that not only did he pay for the guitar and the equipment, but that he paid extra to get it personalized. He came over with his acoustic guitar, Identical to his cutiemark, and slung it around in front of him, ready to play. She spent all morning with him learning the basics.

The Bench

Chapter 3: The Bench

Roadie was enjoying himself as he taught Fluttershy chords to songs he played every other day to lift his spirits, they both got so emotionally deep into their playing, they got lost as they continued to play songs like '40 oz. to Freedom' and 'Everything I'm looking For'. The two had played so perfectly together that it could have been marked off as an official recording. Fluttershy was an amazing Rhythm guitarist, and Roadie only just realized that she was so good, not from the fast learning or the quick action, but just how she put it together made it sound absolutely perfect, it was as if she could make an out of tune string sound in-tune just from touching the guitar. They just finished 'Spread Too Thin' when Fluttershy waved a hoof in front of Roadie's face to snap him out of the zone he was lost in. He looked over at Fluttershy and flushed, almost ashamed of zoning out on her the way he did. Fluttershy could only giggle at this.

Fluttershy checked the time; 11:30 is what the clock read, which meant that they had played for almost four hours, which didn't surprise Fluttershy as she wanted it to last forever. The animals were already fed, as angel came to bother them during their jam session about 2 hours in. Roadie knew that they should grab breakfast, he didn't make more grits and pancakes than they could eat for the simple fact of wasting food, they were going to have some leftovers. Roadie left his guitar on the bed, Fluttershy placed hers next to it, they both flew downstairs to grab some breakfast, which didn't take very long to eat, considering that they had waited until just before lunch to eat anything. Roadie rinsed the plates again, but this time he made sure to be more thorough with them by scrubbing hard with the organic dish soap that Fluttershy used.

Then Roadie went upstairs alone to grab his guitar and to put Fluttershy's away, and then he looked out the window. The light was pouring in almost heaven-like when he stepped into the beam. The birds were wide awake flying about with the other fruity-colored birds that were with them. He had just now only noticed how beautifully perfect the trees around the cottage were, he wanted to sit there forever, but he didn't want to sit there forever, alone. But just as he turns around to walk back downstairs, he is stopped by his closest friend who lightly pushed him back to the window with her wing. They sat there, quietly to enjoy the breeze and sunlight from the open window. Until Fluttershy leaned against his shoulder and sighed. Roadie didn't want to leave that window to save his life. But eventually Fluttershy tugged at his wing and gestured towards the door, which made him feel inclined as ever to walk out of the house with her. "This morning was really fun; do you think that we can play again soon?" Roadie whistled in a generous tone that said, "Why not tonight?" Fluttershy had plans with Rarity that night and when she told him he got a little sad, but he realized they could get together soon enough another time. Fluttershy said "I'll find you the first chance I get to spend time with you again, ok?" Roadie nodded, and took off towards a local park. Fluttershy then continued her daily duties, had Roadie known that she was going to clean and arrange, he gladly would have stayed and helped, but he was unaware.

Roadie was lost in thought while flying through Ponyville, he was thinking about Fluttershy, and the fact, that he actually had a friend, he couldn't get over it. But while he was flying he bumped into a certain sky-blue Pegasus mare that didn't even budge when they collided. Roadie raised his head to see a pair of almost angry looking light purple eyes, he was lost in them until he felt hooves shaking his shoulders, "You alright? How many feathers am I holding up?" Kind of an odd question as they were both flying. Roadie snapped back into reality when the mare reached her hoof back in an attempt to smack him awake, but Roadie caught it before it had hit him in the face, which caught the mare off guard. "I thought you were about to pass out or something" said the mare with an apologetic voice. Then Roadie whistled in a tone that matched the tone of the apology, it sounded like smooth jazz and it was kind of slow. As the tune translated into words inside of the mare's head, her mouth opened wider and wider in awe. The tune translated into "It wasn't your fault, it was mine, and I was lost in thought and not looking where I was going, my sincerest apologies." But the mare was staring blankly past Roadie, still in amazement how the Gray Pegasus had apologized. "Awesome…" She whispered.

Roadie now found himself in the same situation the mare was in when they collided, Roadie was about to lightly smack her awake, but all he could really think of was to shake her head back and forth. It hadn't worked really effectively, but it worked in the end. When she got hold of her bearings, she said "That was really bodacious, what's your name new guy?" The Gray Pegasus couldn't help but flush a bit, because she was the only one who actually thought the way he was cursed with to communicate was bodacious'. However he replied with a whistle that he had seemed to use a lot lately, the melody that stated his name, "My name is Roadie." The mare almost seemed to admire the name, but if she did, she did a good job of hiding it. "The name is Rainbow Dash." She seemed to say it in a way that was boastful, and proud, but she said it stably to not look bad. Roadie smiled at the introduction, and reached out to shake hooves, Rainbow almost competitively shook his hoof. "So, Roadie," Roadie looked her in the eye to hear what she had to say, "Are you by any chance a relative a Derpy?" Roadie had a confused look on and whistled in a similar tone, "No, but I would surely like to meet this 'Derpy', to see if we really do look so similar." Rainbow pointed over to a Pegasus who actually looked like mare version of himself, but her eyes were yellow... and in different directions? Roadie thought she looked like a very kind-hearted mare. She had an envelope in her mouth, she flew down to a mailbox and then went INTO it, through the entrance, and her head broke out of the other end. She then dropped the envelope out of the other side onto the ground, smiled, and she pulled herself out to fly away. Roadie couldn't help but to let out a light giggle at how the mare behaved.

Rainbow Dash then said "You don't act like her at all, and your eyes are… ", She tilted her head, as if lost in them, "… blue." Roadie reached out to tilt Rainbow's head back into place. "Thanks," She said, slightly embarrassed. Rainbow pointed at the guitar on Roadie's back. "So, tell me about that there guitar, you going to perform somewhere?" Roadie looked at her and shook his head. Rainbow looked almost disappointed. "Well that's a shame, because I would actually like to hear you play it, we don't have a lot of musicians here in Ponyville." Roadie pointed down at a bench in the middle of town square, they both landed and sat on the nearby bench as Roadie slung his guitar around to his front, fully revealing his cutiemark to Dashie, who just realized the mark and the guitar were identical, which made her think 'awesome' to herself. Roadie started slowly, and began playing 'So Tired' by Eric Clapton. Dashie found this quite relaxing, she realized she needed more music in her life when she heard the notes pour into her ears. Roadie closed his eyes, and thought of the lyrics while subdividing drum beats in his head. He could almost feel ponies turn and look at him and Rainbow sitting on the bench playing the fine song. He strummed his heart out, getting into it as he played; he wished Fluttershy was there with him, playing the solos that sounded much better on an electric. He didn't want here there as much for the purpose of her helping, but more so just for her to be there. He played the last few notes and held that last one for a good, long time. Then he opened his eyes, to see a familiar sight that also occurred in Fluttershy's cottage, when the animals all surrounded him. But this time, it wasn't animals, it was just about everypony from town, they formed a large crowd in the shape of a circle around the bench, there was a multitude of Pegasi flying above the crowd, just to get a better view of Roadie playing his guitar straight from the heart. Roadie saw all of the smiling faces, and couldn't help but to let out a big smile, with quite a large blush as well. He had strummed his guitar so loudly that most of the town actually had come to hear him play, and he was in the center of town. The loud strumming didn't sound bad, it was actually perfect pitched, just amplified by Roadie's willpower. Then he looked over and saw Rainbow, smiling in a different way than all the other ponies, it was a thankful smile. She then said, "Now THAT, was pretty bodacious." A lot of the crowd chuckled, Roadie was still flushed, until he saw someone special in the crowd, it was Fluttershy, she heard the playing, and knew who it was, so she glided to the source. They met halfway in the air hugging as tightly as they were when they were at Twilight's but that hug didn't last as long. There was a soft collection of D'aaawwww's from the crowd, but they both ignored the crowd as they went down to collect Rainbow Dash from the bench.

They all headed for sugar cube corner, as Roadie was quite hungry, he hadn't actually eaten lunch, and it was four in the afternoon. Fluttershy didn't want anything; Rainbow Dash got a single Cupcake. Roadie got three. They sat and talked about the scene in town square, Roadie said that it was quite awkward and embarrassing for him, but it was also flattering. Fluttershy and Rainbow said they both loved it. Rainbow eventually asked, "So what made you play so hard?" Roadie blushed, he seemed to be doing that a lot today, and whistled shyly, "I imagined that Fluttershy was there playing with me." Fluttershy's face could not have lit up any brighter. Rainbow was actually touched, she just realized how close the two of them were, and they had only met the day before. Then Roadie thought to himself, 'I have two friends now, this gets better all the time.' Roadie leaned over to whistle a question into her ear, Rainbow was slightly confused by the question,"Why would you need that?" he leaned back over and gave her a reason; it was a lot longer than the question. "That seems legit, in fact that sounds like an awesome idea!" Rainbow's face turned expressions from questionable to excitement. "In fact, I could get you hooked up sometime in the next three days if you want to." Roadie nodded with a smile. Fluttershy was a little nervous about what he was referring to. And it only made her more uneasy when Rainbow gave her a grin that could come close to over-excited. But then Roadie saw the uneasiness and wrapped his arm around her in an n attempt to comfort her, it did work; she was a lot less uneasy now. She was leaning against him, relaxing. In fact, if there was one word that Fluttershy could use to describe Roadie as, it would be comforting, if not kind. Roadie saw that Dash was about to fall asleep and realized it was getting dark out again.'Oh no,' Roadie thought to himself, 'Didn't Fluttershy say that she had plans with friend, what was it... Rarity, tonight? Well there's not much I can do about it other than try to wake them up.' Roadie sighed at the two sleeping mares sitting there inside of a restaurant getting ready to close. He tried his best to wake them both up without being harsh, he shook them by the shoulders, but they were out. He grabbed the guitar strap in his teeth, and did his best to throw them both over his back, they were out cold, as if did not know where Rainbow Dash lived, he assumed in Cloudsdale, but he couldn't fly them both up there, he would hurt himself and possibly them. So he walked down to Fluttershy's, and set Rainbow down first on the couch, then carried Fluttershy upstairs to bed, Roadie was breathing quite heavily, as it was a long walk, and he was carrying two ponies over his back nonstop. He wrapped Fluttershy up in her covers. He then brought down a nice, thick, woolen comforter and tucked Rainbow Dash into it while she was snoozing on the couch. 'I'm going to have to find this 'Rarity' and give her an apology first thing in the morning'. He then noticed that he was sweating about as heavily as he was breathing, Roadie wanted to wipe the sweat off of his face, so he headed to the bathroom, and pulled out a wash cloth. He passed out from the sleepiness before he could wet the rag.

How It Began

Chapter 4: How it began

Roadie was flying alone looking for a place to sleep through the night, and the sun was going down fast, but Roadie was acting faster. He did not like the creatures of the night, nor did he like the dark, which only boosted his determination to find somewhere to stay. Roadie shuddered when he saw the moon start to rise; it wasn't from the night, but from the cold, which was quite odd considering that it was early spring. He was searching rather frantically at this point, he did not care where, and it could be a cave for all the flying feathers he gave, as long as it was safe. He was looking as far as he could see, but all he saw was trees and a dirt road beneath him as he followed looking for civilization. He was following the road when he saw a white mare Pegasus walking slowly by herself. He did not waste any time to fly down and ask directions, the cold air stinging his eyes and burning his throat at the speed he was moving.

He came to a dead halt as he reached the Pegasus, she had turned around to face Roadie in a defensive stance, as if she knew he was coming the whole time, she looked ready to strike at any given moment. Roadie was startled and even more alarmed, because he had never seen a pony like her before. She had a white coat (which wasn't uncommon) and a black mane and tail with a thick red stripe heading straight through the middle of both, it was perfectly balanced out with the black on both sides. She wore a gray leather jacket with a short collar, along with an expensive-looking pair of aviators, which was odd because it is still night time. But altogether this Pegasus was a bit shady looking.

Roadie looked horror-struck, he was squinting and biting his lower lip, hooves straight up in the air, still flying. He was not scared of her appearance, but was scared instead of whether or not she was going to decide on an attack. She saw the terrified expression Roadie had on and stood straight, saying, "I'm sorry, I thought with the speed you were moving, that you were going to attack me." Her voice was soft, but it sounded a LOT like Vinyl Scratch's, but more serious. Roadie's expression changed to comfort as he realized this mare was not hostile, he sighed as his ears flopped down. The mare saw his guard go down, and took this chance to ask his name. "So, you got a name buddy?" Roadie's ears went back up. The word buddy made him feel a lot more comfortable around her, as it signaled a friendship forming. Roadie licked his freezing-cold lips, and whistled his signature melody to another stranger once again. The mare really enjoyed the short melody, and then realized what he was actually doing, he was communicating. That didn't stop her from enjoying the music. She opened her eyes, "Roadie, huh? That's quite the name." She smiled, revealing to Roadie a very sharp set of teeth, as if belonged to a carnivore, although he was unmoved by them. Roadie was actually shivering violently from the cold, the sun was completely down now, and the moon was up just over the tree line. The mare quickly stated, "You can call me Anonymous." She saw the shivering and flew over to Roadie, gently putting her hooves on his shoulders and they both landed. She placed a wing over his shoulder; she was unnaturally warm, as if controlled by a mental thermometer. Roadie was very thankful for this kindness, and he returned the kindness with a 'thank you'. Anonymous shrugged, "It's nothing, anything I can do to help somepony in need and it looked to me like you were in need my friend." Roadie's heart was warmed at the word 'friend', more so than when she said buddy.

Roadie really wanted to get out of the darkness of the woods and the cold, so he couldn't help but whistle in an asking tone, "Do you know somewhere we can get out of here? I really don't enjoy the cold" He was still so un-nerved about the weather that was in the wrong time of year. Anonymous looked back up at the dirt road in the direction they were heading, and said, "Well we're maybe a quarter mile to a city called 'Manehatten' in that direction." She tilts her head towards the road, and Roadie can almost see lights. 'It sure must be a vivid city to be seen at a quarter mile through the dark of night.' Roadie nodded and smiled. So they walked towards Manehatten and talked about what they liked to do in their spare time and what their favorite hobbies were, stuff like that. Then Anonymous hit a sore subject, "So, where you from Roadie?" Roadie's ears went down, and that made Anonymous tighten her grip around him with her wing, she looked almost as sad as he did, because she knew what he was going to say. "I'm not from anywhere…" he whistled sadly, "I've wandered around Equestria my whole life, helping other ponies with small-hand tasks and trying to find somewhere to sleep every night."

Anonymous almost started crying, feeling extremely sympathetic for this colt she had just met. She said, "I can't relate to not knowing where you're from, I'm from the forest. But I grew up alone, learning how to survive on my own, not knowing how to cook or build a shelter. I lived in a small hole in a tree until I grew too large to fit in it." Roadie felt his spirits being lifted by this mare's understanding. A lot of ponies didn't care much for Roadie, even though he only wanted to help everypony he possibly could. They both smiled at each other and knew they were going to be good friends. "Thanks for not freaking out by the way." Anonymous said with a slight shame. Roadie was confused, and whistled a long, bluesy harmony, "Why would I freak out, because you're different? I'm different too, and I got made fun of growing up and sometimes still do for my inability to speak. I was once getting made fun of by a colt a lot older than I was, and I realized that he wouldn't have been making fun of me, if he could only realize that I wanted to help other ponies. So I gave him about 12 bits and pointed him the direction of the candy shop. I slung my guitar around my shoulder and left town. When I came back about a year later, he didn't bother me a single bit, because he realized that just because somepony is different, doesn't mean they should be treated differently, and I believe the same."

Anonymous was touched, "I'm glad to have met you, someone who cares and understands, and that's rare to find in a pony." They looked back up to realize they were walking on concrete, and they had just walked into the gates of Manehatten. Anonymous still had her wing around Roadie, and he was comfortable. They walked into a motel to rent a room for the night. Anonymous said "Just for one pony." Roadie didn't understand, and then she looked at him and said, "I don't sleep, it's not in my… nature." Roadie was about to insist that she stayed to keep him company when the cashier for the motel looked up and saw Anonymous. The cashier was almost thrown into a panic, and they could tell. "Gimme just one second…" She forced a smile onto her face as she picked up the phone. Roadie wasn't fazed, looked like an innocent phone call to him, but Anonymous was nervous… REALLY nervous. "Yes police, I have a bit of a problem here." Roadie's eyes grew wide as he realized what was happening. She was being treated differently, as a monster, an outsider, an abomination. Anonymous grabbed Roadie and flew out the front door. Roadie just continued with her, they were both flying down the sidewalk as they heard shouting behind them, "Stop!" "Police, stop where you are and throw your hooves up!" Roadie was tempted to stop, he didn't want to break the law, and this was resisting arrest, but then he would leave his friend to fend for herself. Roadie turned around and noticed that the policemen had swords drawn, clenched tight in their teeth on the faces filled with determination and loyalty to their oath.

Anonymous leaned over and said loudly, "You have to go! I don't want you involved in this!" Roadie shook his head, he wasn't about to leave her in her time of need. She saw the stubbornness, "No really! I don't want you to get hurt, this isn't your life! It's mine! Your job is to spread happiness to the world! Mine is to get the world to accept m-" She was cut off as one of the policemen nearly caught up with her and took a swing at her with his sword, he shaved some of her coat off. "Go, now!" Roadie's leg was slashed on the inside of his haunch just above his knee, he didn't feel it. Roadie's eyes filled with tears as he was forced to flee the city, faster than any of the policemen that were there, faster than they could dream of being. He didn't care which direction he was heading, as long as he was away like Anonymous said.

Roadie was crying, hard, not from the fact that he had a large gash on the inside of his leg, but because he had to just leave someone he was getting to know as a friend. Roadie landed in a park, there were quite a lot of bushes around him, so he grabbed a large leaf from one and used it to wipe the nearly frozen tears off of his face. He looked around for some helpful plants. He saw some Thyme, which he grabbed a small hoof full of, and hung on to it. There were telltale signs of a ginger root he saw on the ground, he pulled it up and ate it to relieve the dizziness from blood loss and to prevent the blood from clotting too soon. He also saw some Witch Hazel and some Mint. He crushed the Thyme, Witch Hazel and Mint together as his special natural remedy which he had whipped up on the spot. The Thyme and the Witch Hazel both were to help ease the pain, but the Witch Hazel was mainly to reduce the swelling that was sure to come. And the Mint was just a muscle relaxant, so that it wouldn't get so tense and cause his leg muscles to get pulled. He got another large leaf and spread the powder across it, left it there while he got another leaf to wipe off the wound. He looked at the wound, and it was a lot deeper and bleeding a lot more than he had expected, the fern he grabbed was already slightly wet, so he didn't have to lick it. He used it to wipe off the excess blood coming off of his thigh, and quickly before it could bleed any more, he placed the leaf with his remedy powder on it onto his wound, and held it there as he reached to grab a few flax plants that were nearby, he gently removed the flowers as if he didn't want to hurt the plant, and braided the stalks together to form a small rope. He used his makeshift rope to tie the makeshift Bandage into place. It was a lot healthier and probably even safer than using basic hospital dressing, but the people who ran medical centers much rather use cotton bandages for whatever reason. Roadie stood up, stumbled a bit, but stood up. And shook his gashed right leg to make sure the cast was tight enough. 'I didn't spend that much time of my life in the wilderness to learn nothing'. He made sure his guitar was still on his shoulder, thankfully it still was. He pulled it out and spent the night away playing songs by Bob Dylan. He played 'Don't Think Twice' as the sun rose; Roadie told himself that he WOULD see Anonymous again. Eventually he became so tired that he was out fast asleep right there in the park.

He woke up, dazed and confused, because he wasn't in the park anymore; he was in a tree, with shelves, and books in those shelves. There was a lot of nice décor in the tree, but Roadie was too confused about where he was and how he got there to acknowledge it. He was greeted by a light purple Unicorn. "Oh, you're finally awake; I knew you weren't dead out there! Spike! He's up!" A small, purple and green baby dragon came hobbling down the steps from a nearby overlook of the room. "Really?" The dragon looks over to the colt lying on his back on the sofa against the wall. "Oh man you should have seen it, we went out there to gather some plants to help Zecora collect some hers for her potions, and we see you there, all… unconscious and whatnot, so Twilight here picked you and your guitar up with her magic and we got you all the way back here to help fix you up!" Twilight smiled quite ecstatically at her work. Roadie threw off the blanket to make sure his leg wasn't bleeding all over her sofa. In fact, he wasn't bleeding at all, and the wound was completely closed up into a large scar, it wasn't pretty, but it wasn't ugly either. But then again it didn't really matter how it looked, because it was somewhere where he didn't need to show it off or anything, and he wasn't one for showing off in the first place.

Roadie pointed at the scar and raised a brow at Twilight. She was just as confused, "I didn't fix it if that's what you're wondering, when we pulled that leaf off from around your leg, we did have to scrape a lot of bloody plant bits off, but the wound was completely healed. Don't worry, it'll be our secret." Roadie smiled, proud of his work as well." So tell me, what's your name, are you a relative of Derpy's?" Roadie didn't know who this 'Derpy' was, but he was eager to find out. So Roadie whistled his signature introductory melody "My name's Roadie." Twilight was dumbfounded; she didn't understand what just happened. "Come again?" Roadie whistled his melody again. Twilight was uneasy now, she was thinking of what to do. 'Did I hurt him? Did I mess up his head? Oh no what happened?' Roadie looked at Twilight, then realized, 'Oh yeah… she's a unicorn.'

Roadie wanted to face hoof for not being so observant. Twilight dug into her books for about an hour while Roadie strummed his guitar, waiting on her to find what she needed, he didn't want to get in her way. Twilight couldn't find anything helpful, so she said aloud, "Ok, I'll just send a letter to Fluttershy; she'll probably know what to do." Spike take a letter!" The dragon got a scroll and a quill pen, 'Guess they know what to do to help translate my words, probably getting someone like they did last time, some earth pony named 'Cesar Milan' or something like that to come over and try to understand what I was saying.' Roadie sighed at the memory and closed his eyes, setting the body of his guitar against the floor, still holding the neck, and fell back to sleep. He opened his eyes to see a pale yellow Pegasus with a pink mane almost as pale. She stepped back a little, as if startled and mildly hypnotized by him waking up. Then the room started to blur and shake, and the Pegasus did the same, until the room was completely black and the Pegasus turned into a blue mare with a rainbow mane with a worried face, "Roadie, Roadie! Get up man, c'mon dude!"

The blackness that was the inside of the tree snapped back as Fluttershy's bathroom interior and the Rainbow Dash was trying to wake up Roadie. "Oh man, glad you woke up, you were making some weird noises dude, I got a bit worried." Rainbow Dash and Roadie both smiled at each other. Roadie whistled, "Thanks for that, wasn't exactly a good dream, but, the end was nice." He let on a weak smile. Rainbow grinned and helped him to his feet, but while he brushes himself off she notices a large scar on the inside of his right haunch. At first Roadie thought that she was checking him out, and was about to tell her that it was making him uncomfortable, but realized that her expression was more concerned than anything else. She asked in a very worried tone of voice, "Roadie, how did that happen? Does Fluttershy know?" Roadie had a tear well up at the memory of how he obtained the scar, and whistled meekly, "I'll tell you later, but you have to promise me that you won't tell Fluttershy, I don't want her to worry too much, and it hurts me to see her upset." Roadie wiped the tear off before it had the chance to fall. Rainbow saw the sincerity in his face, and pinkie promised him, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She placed a hoof on her closed eye. Roadie smiled thankfully, and hugged her the same; he really appreciated her agreeing to help her keep his friend. They both let go and walked out of the bathroom, Roadie reached over to turn off the bathroom light, and as the light switched off and he shut the bathroom door behind him, he left the discovery of his scar in there along with the single teardrop on the floor, it wasn't Roadie's… it was Rainbow's.

AN: Sorry if this chapter seemed a little dark to any of you, it was meant to be a follow-up, cause a lot of you seemed to really want one, so I tried my best. Anonymous is not my OC it actually belongs to someone who is actually Anonymous to me, I didn't know who they were, they told me about their OC and we talked for a bit, I was going to give them contact information so I would know who to credit if I put her into a fanfic chapter, but my internet went out on me while we were talking. If you are the person who I as with on Omegle, please pm me some information of some sort so I know who to credit, because it drives me mad that my internet cut off. Thanks for reading by the way. The next chapter is sure to be a much happier one. I promise.

Roadie's New Look

Chapter 5: Roadie's New Look

Rainbow Dash stepped out of the bathroom, Roadie following short behind her. They were both greeted by the morning light pouring in from all sides, which made Roadie nervous about the time because he had to find Fluttershy's friend Rarity to do some explaining. Roadie whistled in a worried sounding tone, "What time is it?" Rainbow Dash took an educated guess from the position of the sun, as she didn't see any nearby clocks, "I'd say it was about six, maybe quarter past six." She was still looking out the window when Roadie walked over to the bookshelf beside the couch, and began looking for a notepad, or something similar to write on. He whistled lightly, "I've got to go find a pony named Rarity and apologize." Rainbow turned around to face him, "What for?" Roadie's ears went down; he still wasn't facing her, "For keeping Fluttershy when they had plans, I had forgotten about them as much as she had." Rainbow realized that this was actually important to him to apologize. Rainbow said, "Well if you're stopping by her boutique, then make sure you compliment her 'skills', she'll really appreciate that." Roadie took a mental note of that. He felt like he was going through Fluttershy's belongings, and he felt horrible about it, but he desperately needed something that he could use to communicate with ponies who were not Pegasi.

He found a pack of medium-sized notepads. The pack had already been opened so he took the orange-covered notepad that was patiently waiting next in line, followed by a lime-green notepad, but it wasn't time for that one to be used yet, so he placed the pack back in the drawer of the bookshelf. Roadie grabbed a blue pen that looked almost brand new, and scribbled a bit on the inside of the notepad to make sure it could write. He scribbled for a bit, eventually he was all out sketching. Rainbow noticed and said, "Hey don't you have an apology to make?" Roadie looked up and blushed. He ripped out the sheet and handed it to Dash and continued out the door with his guitar, notepad, and pen. Rainbow Dash looked at the piece of paper that he had been sketching on and said "That's actually really cool."

Roadie quickly wrote down, 'Where is Rarity's Boutique?' It only took him showing it to two ponies or so to get directions, which made him feel as if Rarity were a very famous pony of some sort. He didn't know much about famous people in the world of fashion, only music. He arrived at what looked like a one-tower white, pink, and purple castle. He took a deep breath preparing how he was going to handle this inside of his mind. He knocked on the door, and before he had time to knock so much as a third time, a white unicorn mare with a purple mane answered the door, "Yes, how can I help you?" She seemed quite happy about him showing up at the door, considering that they had never met. Roadie quickly scribbled down some words on his notepad, 'Are you Rarity?' The mare smiled and nodded, "Yes I am, why, have you heard of me? Are you here to ask for an interview? Or are you here how about a show offer?" Roadie was confused in what she was talking about, he wrote down carefully, 'No my name's Roadie. And I am actually here to apologize.' Rarity's head tilted, confused, trying to think of what the name Roadie meant, and what he would be apologizing for. Rarity said" Well, why didn't you just say so Darling, Instead of using that there notepad?" Roadie let out a sigh and wrote down, 'Because I can't speak, I can only whistle, if it's ok with you, I would like to continue to use this notepad.' Rarity was more understanding of the situation now, she nodded. "Well why don't you come inside instead of standing out here scribbling?"

Rarity extended a hoof behind her as she opened the door further. Roadie hesitated to step in, but Rarity gave him a light, playful, push to get him completely in through the doorway as she shut the door gently behind him. Rarity insisted for him to sit at a nearby table, and Roadie couldn't turn down the offer, as she had made tea, and Roadie didn't get anything for breakfast before he left Fluttershy's. He sat carefully, like he didn't want to damage the furniture. Rarity sat down across from him and sipped on her tea, "So, what did you want to 'apologize' for, Roadie?" Roadie felt really bad about what he had mistakenly done to ruin her plans with Fluttershy, but he had to apologize for his mistake. Roadie wrote sincerely onto his notepad. 'I accidentally messed up your plans with Fluttershy last night.' Rarity was confused, "Darling, at about two in the afternoon yesterday, I called her over here so that I could tell her that the plans had to be cancelled; I had to watch over a certain three little fillies." Her eyes rolled, and then she noticed what Roadie assumed she was talking about, there were three sets of small eyes that bolted back around the corner when they both looked over. Rarity was about to go give them a piece of her mind until Roadie reached over and placed a hoof on her shoulder, trying to get her to sit back down, she felt a wave of comfort come over her as she sat back down.

Roadie was very glad that he didn't actually mess up anything, because the incident at the park happened at about half past three yesterday. Rarity said "It took a lot of moxie to come over here and apologize for such a thing." She stared at him with eyes filled with admiration. Roadie wrote another note down onto his paper, 'I merely did what I had to do to make things right, and that only takes common courtesy.' Roadie smiled as he showed her what it said. Rarity was appalled, "I still can't believe you would actually take the time to come over here and apologize to somepony you didn't know, for something you were unaware that you did." Roadie just re-showed her the note he just previously showed her, which made her laugh. Roadie wrote down another note, remembering what Rainbow Dash had told him, 'These are some nice pieces of art you have around here.' Rarity looked around, confused about the compliment, and then was hit with realization that he had meant towards the dresses and other pieces of clothing on display around the store. Rarity was flattered at the word 'art''

"You really like it? I didn't think somepony of such a, rock star-like status such as you would appreciate fine-wear." She trotted over to her work, to show Roadie what she had to offer. But Roadie soon realized that she was only showing him dresses, he liked how they all looked and all, but he was curious to see what she had to offer for a colt such as himself. So he wrote 'What do you have for somepony like me?' She had a face of pride and gusto on. Roadie was really anticipating what she had in store as she led him up the stairs.

Roadie's mouth dropped as Rarity opened a walking closet full of colt business-wear to casual street-wear. Rarity got him to try on several outfits that included dozens of suits and tuxedos, none of which he actually really liked, as he wouldn't wear it often, it wasn't casual enough for him. Roadie had asked if he could try something more casual, so rarity agreed. He tried on every good looking style on him from 50's to the 90's; he was put in full outfits that would match reggae singers and metal bassists. He looked like a greaser at one point, and then straight to a hippie wearing flower covered bell-bottoms with a pink collared shirt with a fur vest on top. But then there was one outfit that Roadie actually liked. It was a light blue T-shirt that said peace, love, and music on it, with a peace sign above the word peace, a heart above the word love, and a guitar above the word music. He had a white and blue plaid flannel over the shirt, it was un-buttoned to wear you could still see what the shirt said, and the blue part of the plaid was the same color as the shirt, and the aviators hanging out of the left shirt pocket. He was wearing a wristband that said 'Rock On' and a pair of slightly torn light washed jeans that were rolled up just below his knees. The belt was red, green, and gold. His black wallet with a white peace sign had a chain that complimented the belt nicely.

Rarity loved it on him as well; she didn't see anything wrong with the outfit on him, she loved it all, it was perfect. Rarity spoke with cheer, "The hipster look really suits you." The word 'hipster' made Roadie's brow raise, but he liked it, although he wasn't completely sure that's how he would describe himself, or the outfit. Roadie was really comfortable in his new clothing, he calculated the cost in his mind and pulled out a small bag of bits, but was rejected by rarity pushing back down towards his pocket. "This outfit's on me darling, anything for a friend of Fluttershy's." Roadie insisted, but Rarity meant what she had said. Roadie threw his guitar back over his shoulder and wrote, 'Thank you.' on his notepad. Rarity said with a sheepish smile, "It only took a bit of common courtesy." She and Roadie both smiled as he walked out of the boutique, he waved on his way out, and she did the same. Roadie felt revitalized. 'I just made another friend.' He thought to himself. As he walked back over to Fluttershy's to see what they would do that day, he was actually stopped by Rainbow Dash, who had some news and a question, but Roadie was dazed at how fast she came out of literally nowhere.

"Dude, how did you come up with this design?" She flashed the paper that he had sketched on in Roadie's face. Roadie whistled with content, "I thought you would like to play an instrument as well, because everyone could always use a bit more music in their lives, so I designed you a bass guitar." That he did, it was black, very heavy rock looking. It had a jagged V-shape on the bottom that went out and down on both sides, it then continued its zigzag out, and then went back in to meet where the 'active site' of the bass in the center. The curves went up and curved back down to form two small downward points, that then curved back up and straight, past the third octave fret to form two upward points, then curved back down to meet each other at the body. It had her cutie mark printed on the head of the guitar, which looked a lot like the body; only it didn't have the bottom half of the body shape. The edges of the guitar were colored in a rainbow that started red at the top and changed through every color of the spectrum to the bottom where it was purple. It was very much Dash's style, and she loved it.

"So would you possibly get this made? I've never seen a bass like this before." Asked rainbow, she had a very confused face on. Roadie looked up at her flying just above him and whistled with enjoyment, "I'm going to make it for you." Rainbow's mouth dropped, she couldn't believe what he had just said, or… whistled. "How in the world are you going to do that?" She didn't believe him. Roadie smiled, "I made acoustics out of logs I found in the woods and sold them to music stores growing up, and eventually I tried electrics when I found a smashed on in a bag inside of a dumpster, I took apart and put it back together until I had all the components memorized and where to put them." Rainbow was overjoyed; she couldn't do much other than hug the generous Pegasus. "By the way, love the new outfit, the hipster look really suits you." Roadie shrugged and whistled, "Thank you." Rainbow just remembered what else she had to say, "Oh yeah, I got you hooked up for this coming Friday night." Roadie was surprised at how fast Rainbow Dash had put together what he had asked her of last night.

He was astounded and thankful, "Thank you again, I owe you one." Roadie whistled. Rainbow smiled and winked while holding up the paper, "You don't owe me anything." She said while pointing to the design. Roadie smiled and waved goodbye as he flew back towards Fluttershy's place. He couldn't wait to tell her what Rainbow Dash had just told him. When he arrived he was still smiling, he didn't even have time to knock because Fluttershy flung the door open, causing Roadie to swing his hoof at nothing.

She was smiling, it was a worried smile, but it said glad to Roadie. "All you had to do was ask about the plans." Flutershy said with a grin on her face. Roadie blushed; realizing that he messed up, and should have actually just asked her, but he felt the other way was more… sincere. She took a good look at his new clothing. "The hipster look really does look good on you; you should get more clothes like that." Roadie loved the compliments he was getting, but he didn't come to talk about himself, which he didn't like doing anyway, he came to tell Fluttershy about the good news he had just received. He whistled quite giddily, "Rainbow Dash did me a kindness like I asked her last night." Fluttershy was nervous again, because she still didn't know what they were talking about last night at sugar cube corner. "What would that be?" She asked. Roadie finished off his melody, "She got us both a gig for Friday night!" Roadie was ecstatic, but Fluttershy was nervous, because she did NOT like being in the spotlight, but Roadie didn't know. But he saw the nervousness in her face and asked, "What's wrong?" She looked up in his eyes when he placed a hoof on her shoulder, "I really don't like being in the spotlight, let alone performing something I have only just learned.

Roadie understood that she really didn't like his plan, but he re-assured her that people won't judge when you go up there knowing what you're doing. Fluttershy jumped out and hugged him; they were still in her doorway. "I'll do it." Fluttershy whispered. Roadie suddenly felt like he was forcing her to do this, and it didn't feel right. His ears flopped down and he had a very sorry expression on, "You don't have to do it if you don't want to." He whistled. Fluttershy lifted her head up from his shoulder and looked him in the eye, "I'm doing it because you'll be up there with me." She smiled up at him, they were both very happy about their plans for Friday, and Fluttershy was quite comfortable with Roadie coming on stage with her. They had plenty of time to practice, because it was Tuesday, now all they had to do to start was pick the songs they wanted to perform.

They were still very close to each other, they were leaning their foreheads on one another with their eyes shut. it was very peaceful. But there was a loud thump as a carrot nailed Roadie in the head. He rubbed the spot gingerly where the carrot had hit to look down at Angel, who wasn't very pleased. Fluttershy looked almost mad, but she had to giggle at the little rabbit's antics. They went inside to listen to music to pick., while Roadie and Angel were exchanging dirty looks.

Ok so I got a bit of helpful feedback and quite a few PMs with a lot of the same questions, so I would like to answer them here so that I may receive a few less PMs with the same questions, here we go. If you would like to skip to the reading and do so first, go straight ahead below the horizontal line and come back after you're done perhaps.

Q: What made you want to write?
A: It's fun and I was told that I should try writing a fanfic by a friend who thought my short story about how I loved surfing was 'radical'

Q: How long have you been writing?
A: About two years, but I liked to keep those stories to myself.

Q: Would you like to read my fanfic over for me?
A: I would actually love to, and it's a great compliment to me that you would ask me to help you with your story, but I'm not going to completely re-write it for you, I still love you.

Q: Would you accept an OC submission? [Insert description here]
A: If I knew you better maybe.

Q: Mind considering this for your story? [Insert random idea here]
A: Actually I wouldn't mind as long as it was something too darkfic or clopfic like, and it isn't some crazy, random idea you pulled out of your ass.

Q: What made you decide to write a story like this one, why not a darkfic? You seem like you would be good at that kind of thing.
A: I really don't like reading darkfics, or clopfics, because I like stories like this one that have a story that has kind of a 'What if?' feel to it. Instead of writing stories that make people crap themselves or jerk it while reading my hard work. I don't hate on clopfic or darkfic writers or readers, I actually have a lot of respect for the writers, because they work quite hard on their stories as well.

And Please don't hesitate to PM me, I love to read what you have to say

Oh and if anyone wants to know, When I write, I listen to reggae, alternative rock, music like that by artists like Bob Marley, Matisyahu, and The Dirty Heads. I highly recommend listening to music while you write, music that you like, not just any music.

As always, I love you all. ☮ ❤﻿ ♪

Questions

Chapter 6: Questions

Roadie and Fluttershy were sitting inside her cottage listening to Roadie's favorite mix tapes, deciding on what music to pick for Friday night. They would listen to a song all the way through, and then look at each other to decide if they would play it or not. They listened to countless songs by Sublime, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Dirty Heads, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Matisyuha, and a little bit of Noel Gallagher for good measure.

Sadly, out of all of the artists they were enjoying, they would only have time for five songs. Roadie already knew the parts for all of the music they were listening to; all he had to do was teach Fluttershy her part, which she would get done in no time. Fluttershy was sitting next Roadie on the couch while they relaxed to the music. Angel was pretty chill too, which was odd for the easily irritated rabbit. Roadie didn't want to bother the rabbit, and he didn't want to lean over to change to the next mix tape, because this was all he wanted, peace, and happiness. He was very happy with how he was living at the moment; it was perfect in his eyes. Roadie felt something soft, it was Fluttershy. She had her eyes closed, her head buried into his chest. As if on cue, the song 'Love don't love nobody' by Eric Clapton came on.

Roadie didn't want the moment they were sharing to end, the song was slightly lengthy, but 7 minutes of grace wasn't enough for him. He opened his eyes to catch another flying carrot, and to see Angel no longer relaxing, due to Fluttershy getting close to Roadie again. Roadie noticed that Angel's face wasn't showing jealousy, it was filled with uneasiness disguised as slight anger and irritation. Angel didn't trust Roadie around Fluttershy, because he didn't want him to hurt her feelings, but Roadie understood how sensitive she was.

Angel was surprised by how quick Roadie reacted, but was more touched by his understanding when Roadie extended a hoof with his carrot in it, offering a truce. Angel accepted the treaty, realizing that Roadie isn't a bad guy. He took the carrot and hopped back over to where he was previously relaxing and Roadie wrapped his arm around Fluttershy, who was oblivious to the scene that just occurred between Roadie and Angel. The song continued into the electric guitar solo, it was slow, and fitting of the current moment. Roadie found himself bobbing his head along with the solo, which almost seemed to describe his emotions. He was deeply lost in the music, almost to where he didn't feel Fluttershy nudge his arm, "Can we play this song?" Fluttershy had asked her question with the most pleading eyes she could use. Roadie nodded with a warm smile, because he was about to ask her the same thing. They both shut their eyes and enjoyed the music; it was the happiest Roadie had been since he befriended Fluttershy. They almost fell asleep listening to the peaceful song fade out during the last minute, and they would have if not for the loud knocking on the door.

Neither of them wanted to answer it, because they looked at each other and realized that if they did, then they would interrupt the moment they were sharing. Roadie saw that this would have been disrespectful to whoever was knocking and decided he would go answer it. He gently let Fluttershy down onto the couch and stretched his legs, as they had been sitting for at least an hour. He opened the door, and was surprised first off that it was still daytime. But he didn't have time to dwell on it, as there was a large brown earth pony colt with a thick, dark handlebar moustache. He was a police officer… from Manehatten. He was the officer that had nearly cut Anonymous. He held up a poster of Anonymous on it, it said WANTED in big bold letters at the top, there was not a reward on it though, Roadie assumed that they were still deciding on one. "Have you seen this Pegasus?" The earth pony said with a rather bold voice, it was gruff, and stone-like. Roadie put on a forced smile and shook his head. He was about to close the door, but the officer's partner stepped out from behind him, he was the blue Unicorn with the white mane and yellow eyes that had slashed Roadie's leg. "Wait… I know you…" Roadie was in a cold sweat, he knew that if the officer recognized him, he would be sent to prison for resisting arrest, or worse… assisting a fugitive.

The Unicorn squinted at Roadie with thinking eyes, who was smiling rather nervously at this point. "Oh, aren't you a relative of Derpy? She's a close friend of the force; she delivers our mail down at Manehatten." Roadie sighed, rather relieved. He shook his head again. The unicorn almost seemed disappointed. "Oh well, you sure look like her, nice outfit by the way, peace, brother." They were about to turn around and leave, but Roadie had made the mistake of turning around first. The unicorn had a flashback of Roadie flying away from him, and cutting Roadie pretty deep with his sword, he was almost sure that he had bled out after he turned and flew off. Then he saw the familiar guitar sitting in the corner, which looked very familiar around the gray Pegasus standing in front of him. "Wait… now I know who you are, and you should come with us back to the station." Roadie was tempted to fly off, but instead he leaned in through the doorway and whistled to Fluttershy, "I'll be back soon, I have some… business to take care of." Roadie was welling with tears, and Fluttershy noticed, "What's wrong? Something's not right." She was really concerned. Roadie tried his best not to cry, and succeeded. But he whistled with a melancholic tone, "Let's just say that a mistake I made has caught up with me." She didn't completely understand, but what she did understand is that he really needed to do this. "Hurry back, we're not done here." She was disappointed about him having to go, but she tried her best to cover it up.

Roadie smiled as comfortably as he could and shut the door, reaching out his hooves to the police officers waiting patiently for him. They didn't put cuffs on him, they trusted him enough this time, his face was too honest. They ran all the way to Manehatten, they even trusted Roadie enough to let him fly, so the trip was rather short. They reached the station in 20 minutes, which was pretty good. They put Roadie in a questioning room, which was almost completely white, with a single rectangular light in the center of the ceiling, perfectly above a table, that was the same shape as the light, just larger. There were only two breaks in the whiteness of the square room, which was the one way mirror on the wall that they would use to see him answer questions, and the door to enter the room.

A white colt unicorn with a white coat and a gray mane stepped in, he had green eyes and his cutiemark was a magnifying glass. He had a smile on his face with a pair of glasses accompanying it. He sat down, and pulled out a clipboard. "So, you appear to be involved in a case related to finding a white mare Pegasus…" Roadie knew what he was going to say before he even entered the room. "Is that true?" The unicorn had a brow raised. Roadie nodded, and gestured like he was writing on something, and the unicorn guessed in his game of charades. "You want me to write something? You want to draw?" Roadie smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh, you have a headache!" Roadie shook his head and repeated the gesture of him writing on his invisible paper with his invisible pen, but much more exaggerated, and then pointed at himself.

The white unicorn finally got the message. "Oh, you need something to write with." Roadie sighed, relieved that he finally understood him. The unicorn leaned his head through the door and asked another colt for something to write with, he returned with a blank notebook and a black pen, he opened the notebook and set it down in front of Roadie, then returned to his seat across from him. Roadie clicked the pen and jotted down, 'Thanks, I can't speak, that's why I didn't answer your question.' He showed the colt the paper and smiled. "Well I'm glad we have that straight, and now you'll be able to answer my questions no problem." Roadie's smile slightly faded, knowing that he wouldn't like the questions that were to be asked.

The unicorn held up a paper with a picture of Anonymous on it, it didn't say wanted like the last one, it looked like an important document, he checked where it said name, and it said 'Unknown'. "Are you involved with this Pegasus?" Roadie nodded, he wasn't going to lie, as that would only get him into deeper trouble, as he had already helped what they called a fugitive, and resisted arrest. The colt scribbled something down onto his clipboard, and asked his next question, "How do you know her?" The colt leaned in slightly closer, as if curious to hear what Roadie was going to write about the mare. Roadie didn't change facial expressions, because he knew they would misjudge it and possibly call him a liar. He looked down at the notebook and scribbled, 'I was lost in the woods on the verge of freezing to death when she found me and helped me.'

The colt scribbled into his clipboard again, this time his eyes were wide and his face looked fearful, which threw Roadie off. The colt sighed and removed his glasses for an effect of added seriousness, and asked another question, "Are you aware of what this mare actually is?" Roadie was now extremely puzzled and thrown off by this question; he raised a brow and wrote in his notebook, 'She's a kindhearted mare who is clearly misunderstood.' The colt looked really worriedly at Roadie and stated with a serious and concerned voice, "She's no pony, she isn't what you think she is, we have no idea what she is, but we know what she isn't and what she does." Roadie was hurt, he thought the colt was joking with him, but this was really not funny in the slightest.

Roadie quickly wrote again, 'Then tell me, what does she do?' Roadie looked at him with a face that said 'I dare you to lie to me', but the colt didn't see it. The colt took a deep breath, "… She's an omnivore, but she eats more meat than she does plants, and not just any meat, ponies and animals. But she still eats food that you and I enjoy every day." Roadie was on the verge of a blind rage, he wanted to rip the table out of the floor by the bolts and slam it over this colt for lying about his friend. Roadie didn't even move his head, he was still looking the colt in the eye when he wrote, 'you're lying she isn't like that, she's too kind.' The colt shook his head, "It's true, and it's important you answer my questions truthfully, so that we can help you." Roadie thought for a second about the word 'help', as he didn't need it, or at least didn't know what he needed help from.

Roadie was a very kind and helpful soul who's passion was to help others and play his guitar to spread happiness, and most ponies were almost sure that he didn't have a bad bone in his body, but this colt lying about Anonymous gave him enough rage-induced strength to buck a tree right out of the ground and straight into orbit. The colt placed the glasses back on his head, looked at Roadie, and asked, "Where was she taking you?" Roadie grasped the pen and wrote, 'She was taking me to a motel so I could get out of the cold.' Roadie looked back at the colt's face, which had the same worried expression he had before, who said, "She was probably taking you there to eat you where there were no witnesses." Roadie resisted the urge to stab the colt with his pen by writing, 'If she was going to eat me, then why did she help me in the woods, instead of eating me there?' Roadie raised his brow, as did the colt. The colt was beaten, it was a fair answer, but he ignored Roadie's question and changed the subject with a final question, "Do you know her name?" Roadie knew what he was doing, he was trying to squeeze her name out of him so that they could track her easier, and Roadie didn't want that. Roadie shook his head and the other colt didn't actually write anything in his clipboard this time, he only did what looked like a checkmark. "You're free to go…" he stopped, as if busted because he didn't know Roadie's name. So Roadie wrote quickly, 'Roadie' and showed it to the other colt, "…Roadie. But we will come to re-collect you if you are needed further." The colt smiled and showed Roadie to the door, but on the way he was stopped by the blue unicorn that had slashed his leg.

His face was apologetic, and his tone of voice was quite the same. "Look, I want to apologize for the nasty gash I gave you back a few days ago, we thought you were a perpetrator, turns out you were a victim." Roadie was hit with realization when he said 'victim'. That's what the other colt had meant by 'so that we can help you…' they thought he was a victim, of Anonymous'. But they had it all wrong; she was just a mare that had been misunderstood just because she looked different. Roadie smiled at the unicorn, and extended a hoof in an offer for a shake. The unicorn took the offer with a smile. Roadie took his leave, and exited the building, more confused than ever.

It was still day, the time he spent in the building only amounted to about an hour. He thought to himself, 'Am I really a victim? What if they're right?' He then smacked himself for thinking in such a way about his friend. He wanted to scream, laugh, and cry all at the same time, because he was annoyed at how the world looked at Anonymous, and he wanted to laugh about how she was still alive, which he was really happy about. But most of all, he wanted to cry, because he didn't know where she was, and he just wanted to see her again.

Roadie wanted to play his guitar, but he had left it at Fluttershy's, which gave him another reason to add to the list of reasons he wanted to go back to her house. He wanted to go back just to see her as well; she made him happy, and inspired him more than ever to make others happy. Roadie then took flight, and headed back for Ponyville.

A Confession to Make

Chapter 7: A Confession to Make

Fluttershy was sitting outside in the afternoon sun on her porch with her guitar, strumming along with 'Sunshine' by Matisyahu. She was waiting rather patiently for Roadie to come back, but she had been waiting for an hour, and she was getting worried. She sighed and turned to angel, who was sitting on the ground next to her, "Angel, when do you think he'll get back?" Angel had a look of annoyance on his face, because she would ask this every time she finished a song.

Angel reached over and patted Fluttershy's leg, trying to reassure her that he was coming back soon. Fluttershy smiled, "You're right, I should really stop worrying." She stood up, and went inside to put her guitar away, with Angel following close behind her. As she entered the living room, she noticed Roadie's guitar sitting in the corner, next to the couch. Fluttershy stopped and looked at the guitar; it looked like it was expressing its feelings of sadness, as if it had no one to turn to. It was a very sad looking scene. Fluttershy knew that its owner would be home to reclaim it soon enough. She continued upstairs to see her guitar case lying open on her freshly made bed. She placed her guitar in the case, and as she closed it, she heard a loud ruffling noise from outside.

Fluttershy looked out of her open window to see a white mare Pegasus with a black and red mane emerge from the Everfree forest. She was extremely hurt; her face was covered with sweat, dirt, and a lot of dry blood from the gash on her forehead. Her right foreleg and her left hind leg were wounded quite badly, they had dry blood almost all the way down to her hooves, and the wounds looked old. Her gray leather jacket had some blood on it as well, but the aviators she had on were untouched by whatever had happened to her. Fluttershy had no idea what to do then to panic about this mare being so injured. All in one motion, she flew downstairs, opened, exited, and closed the door. She flew around her house and towards the mare. The white mare saw the yellow Pegasus flying towards her; she talked with a tired and coarse voice, as if she just had a mouthful of salt, "Stay… away…" she fell over unconscious. Fluttershy saw her fall over, which only boosted her speed with determination towards the mare.

Roadie had just reached Ponyville, he was flying overhead when he got his head lodged into a cloud, and the cloud was occupied by a laughing Rainbow Dash. "I got you good, dude!" She had pushed the cloud right in front of Roadie's flight path. He pulled his head out of the fluffy cloud; there was a beard on his face made out of the cloud, which made Dash laugh harder. Roadie thought the prank was quite funny as well, so he shook off the cloud beard, and bucked the cloud Rainbow was sitting on. The flash of lighting startled ponies below, but the clap of thunder sent Rainbow flying up into the cloud above them, leaving a Rainbow Dash-shaped hole on the bottom of it. Roadie laughed and whistled, "Good to see you too, Dash, but I really have to get going." Rainbow stuck her head out of the bottom of the cloud laughing at the prank, "That's fine, we can hang out later." Rainbow knew that he was going to Fluttershy's, not because she was told, but because she knew how close they were. Roadie turned to fly off, waving, Rainbow was still sticking out of the cloud, waving and smiling, when Roadie flew off.

He reached Fluttershy's front porch, and took a deep breath, relieved that he was finally back to a place where he was welcome. He knocked, and waited for a little bit. Fluttershy answered the door, hugged Roadie, but it was short lived, because she said, "I need your help with this." Roadie didn't know what she meant. They walked into her living room, and Fluttershy pointed over to the couch. Roadie wanted to cry, he was looking at an extremely injured Anonymous sitting on Fluttershy's couch. She was sprawled out across her couch with her eyes closed, she was breathing really heavily, leaving sweat and dry blood on her couch. Fluttershy looked over at Roadie, and saw him welling with tears, "What's wrong?" She looked at him with eyes that said 'please, I only want to help'. Roadie looked up at Fluttershy and whistled meekly, "This is someone I know; I was getting close to, before… this, happened." He gestured to Anonymous. Fluttershy wanted to help him through this, "How do you know her?"

Roadie took a deep breath, and began telling Fluttershy the story of how they met and Anonymous had helped him in the woods a few days ago. He went into extreme detail from words they spoke to things they saw on the way to Manehatten. He told the WHOLE story, like when the person at the desk of the motel called the police, and they flew away from them down the street. He took off all of his clothes to show her the scar that the blue unicorn had left on his leg. Fluttershy was horrified at the sight of the scar. He continued and told her about how Anonymous told him to fly away, and how he said no because he wanted to help her through the situation, and she said no. Roadie whistled, "This is why I wanted to help her… so THIS wouldn't happen." He gestured at Anonymous again. He then told her about how he fixed the incredibly deep wound in his leg, and how he fell asleep in the park and how Twilight came to help him. Then how they met shortly after when she couldn't translate him.

He then told her about how when he had to leave her earlier because they were police officers that took him in for questioning. He also told her about what the colt asking the questions had said about Anonymous, but he didn't say how he felt about it. He noticed Fluttershy was about to start crying, she was looking him in the eye, and Roadie prepared himself for what she had to say about his bad time with the police officers. She didn't say anything; she just grabbed him and pulled him really close, not in a hug, but in an embrace that was completely sincere and loving. He wrapped his arms around her, glad that she didn't hate him for the mistakes he had made.

Fluttershy whispered, "I can't believe you did that, for somepony you had just met." Roadie found himself thinking about what he said back at Rarity's, he merely repeated it, "I merely did what I had to do to make things right, and all that takes is some common courtesy." She squeezed him tighter, he continued, "She needed my help, but didn't want it, and that's why she's so injured." He leaned back slightly to look Fluttershy in her eyes, they were filled with tears and care, and he whistled a tune that was extremely sweet, "So when you need help, with anything… please come to me… I don't want anything to happen to you." She kissed him on the cheek, and returned back to her position she was in with her head on his shoulder, and her arms wrapped around his neck.

Roadie was confused about what he had done to deserve such a prize from her, he meant what he said, he only did what he had to do, but he was not going to complain about what just happened. He put his head on top of hers, feeling her mane on his cheek, she didn't want to let go of him. Roadie was barely able to move his head she was wrapped around him so tight, but he didn't want it any other way. They eventually heard moaning, and movement. Roadie looked up to see Anonymous waking up, she wasn't wearing her jacket or her aviators, and she was just her. He noticed when she opened her eyes, they were red, deep red, and then they looked at Roadie. "… Roadie?" Fluttershy let go of him, leaving them both feeling surprisingly cold. Roadie nodded, but Anonymous was confused about what was happening. "Where am I? She sat up, and cringed, she was obviously in a tremendous amount of pain.

Roadie walked over and laid her back down against the couch, and she didn't resist. Fluttershy reached down and grabbed another pillow, then placed it under Anonymous' head. "So… how long have I been out?" Fluttershy looked over and answered, "About half an hour." Roadie was actually surprised that it wasn't longer. He looked at all the cuts on her body, he was really worried about the two cuts on her legs, and they looked really serious, as if the bone had been cut. Roadie looked at Anonymous and whistled worriedly, "Is this what happened after I left?" His eyes were very caring, she nodded, "It wasn't just the police officers; let's just say that I ran into some problems while I was limping my way through the woods." Fluttershy looked at all of the dry blood caked on her body, and said, "Would you mind if we could clean you off a bit?" Roadie noticed the word 'we' on top of the word 'clean'. Anonymous smiled, "I would be very grateful." Roadie lifted Anonymous off of the couch in his arms and carried her into the bathroom.

He set her down inside of the tub, she was leaving bits a dried blood everywhere, but Roadie would clean that up later. Fluttershy turned on the water, filling it up to Anonymous' stomach. Roadie was about to walk out, thinking that it would be wrong of him to bathe a mare, but he was stopped by Fluttershy, who handed him a sponge. Anonymous saw that he was going to help, and she smiled, but Roadie blushed. 'This might get awkward quick' He thought to himself. Anonymous was thinking the exact opposite, 'I can't believe that he's so bold as to help bathe me, that's really brave, especially for him' she was still smiling at him when he came over with his sponge and soaked it. Fluttershy was already helping; she was scrubbing off the dirt caked on her right hind leg. Roadie decided to start scrubbing off her right foreleg where the major cut was, he scrubbed around the cut so that he didn't hurt her. He gently scrubbed the blood off of the wound, she flinched a bit from the sting, the cut was deep, but not as deep as Roadie's leg wound was. He soaked the sponge and ran it over her foreleg one more time to make sure everything was cleaned off in that area.

Anonymous was rinsing the blood and dirt off of her face while Roadie transitioned to her other foreleg, there was not nearly as much blood on that leg, but there was just as much dirt. When he finished with that leg, Fluttershy was washing out Anonymous' mane, which left Roadie with her left hind leg, where the other major cut was. The hot water had rinsed a good bit of the dry blood off, but there was still a lot left over for Roadie to finish the job. He gently scrubbed what was left off, he did it slowly so he didn't hurt her, this cut wasn't very deep, it was just wide, it was just below her knee and it went halfway around her leg. He scrubbed it off completely and rinsed it. Roadie had cleaned her good, most of her; the rest was handled by Fluttershy, or adorned by bruises. Roadie looked up to see Anonymous and Fluttershy both looking at him, smiling, almost adoringly. Roadie actually just cleaned this mare. He saw them smiling and flushed, 'I knew that his would get awkward' He thought to himself. He set down the sponge.

Lending a Hoof

Chapter 8: Lending a Hoof

Roadie set down the sponge, and looked up at the two smiling mares that looked at him with admiring eyes, 'What do I do now?' Roadie thought. He was trying to think of something to say, until a blushing Anonymous spoke first, "Thank you, thank you both." She looked at Roadie then turned to Fluttershy who spoke, "No need to thank us, we only did what we could to help." She giggled, "Besides, Roadie did a lot more than I did." They both looked back up at Roadie and smirked. Roadie was in a really awkward position, he was flattered and all, but he didn't like getting pointed out for something that made him so uncomfortable. He whistled meekly, "Ok, I did a lot, but that's only because I was worried about her well-being."

He had a really warm smile on, and they both saw that he was completely honest in what he had said. He didn't do it for his own self-enjoyment; he actually did it to help her. Fluttershy went to go get a towel, and Roadie reached down to the bottom of the tub to drain the water. When he reached back up he was greeted by a hug, from Anonymous. She reached around his neck, as he was bent over. "Thank you; I really cannot stress how thankful I am for how kind you and your marefriend are." She talked with a soft tone. Roadie was stuck at the word 'marefriend'. 'How did she get that idea?' Roadie understood that he and Fluttershy close, but they weren't dating. 'Do we really look like a couple?' There were a lot of thoughts going through his head, and that added quite a few more. He whistled back, "You're welcome, but we aren't dating." He smiled at her, and she smiled back, "Sorry to be so quick to judge, but you two were REALLY close when I woke up." Roadie blushed, because they were actually very close to each other before they noticed Anonymous waking up.

Fluttershy flew back in with the softest towel she had, the tub was completely empty now, except for the dirt and small amounts of filthy water sitting at the bottom. Roadie turned around and whistled to her, "Hey, can you lie that out on the couch?" She nodded and flew out of the bathroom, and Roadie, reached down and picked up Anonymous with one arm under her hind legs and the other behind her back. She still had her arms around his neck, and she was dripping water on the floor and more on Roadie on their way out of the bathroom. He set her down very carefully on the couch that had a nice, soft towel spread across it. Roadie noticed that her cuts were a lot worse than he thought, they were really deep, but they weren't bleeding very much, which worried him. Fluttershy flew in blowing on a hot cup of herbal tea. She set it down on the table next to the couch right next to the radio, and said, "Feel free to drink that whenever you feel up for it, it should help ease the pain, but be careful, it's pretty hot." She smiled, as did Anonymous, "Thank you, it looks wonderful." Roadie figured out what he was going to do about the wounds that were all over Anonymous' body. He whistled over at Fluttershy, "Hey, do you have some kind of bag or satchel I can use to store plants in?" She nodded and quickly retrieved a small apothecary satchel, which seemed to fit perfectly for what he needed it for. Roadie thanked her and slung the satchel over his shoulder and across his chest. He did the same with his guitar, but with the other shoulder. Fluttershy looked over at him, "Where are you going?" She looked slightly concerned, but he gave her an answer that she really wanted to hear.

"I'm going to gather some plants that I can use to help her wounds heal." Anonymous raised a brow, 'How can a plant help me heal?' She didn't say anything though, because she would sound rude. Fluttershy said, "You want me to do anything with the wounds before you get back?" Roadie nodded, "Put some gauze around the major ones until I get back, I should have a more 'natural' fix." Fluttershy nodded again, smiling. Roadie then opened the door and flew off after gently closing it behind him.

Fluttershy looked over at Anonymous, who took a sip of her tea. "You need a blanket or anything?" Anonymous set down the tea, "No thank you, I'm quite fine." She dripped a bit of water off of her arm as she placed the cup back on the table. Fluttershy saw that Anonymous was straining as she leaned down to rest her head against the pillow, she was covered in bruises, and her muscles were probably extremely sore, maybe even burning. And the cuts sure didn't help. Fluttershy flew up, "I'll be right back." She left the room and came back with some cotton gauze, about five rolls, just in case. "This might sting a bit, from the friction on your cuts." Fluttershy smiled weakly, and Anonymous nodded. Fluttershy carefully wrapped the gauze around the two major cuts on her right foreleg and left hind leg first. She wrapped the third around her forehead where the gash was, but she didn't really need any more than that. Anonymous looked over at the bookshelf across the room, and saw her aviators sitting next to a pile of folded clothes; they had a pair of silver rimmed aviators with blue lenses sitting on top. They were Roadie's, but she didn't know. Anonymous thanked Fluttershy for the gauze, and closed her eyes.

Roadie was about done with collecting all of the herbs he required to heal Anonymous, but he only needed one more ginger root for good measure, he found one and ripped it out of the ground. He then placed it into the satchel in a separate pocket than the other ingredients he gathered. They were the same plants he used to heal himself, he even grabbed a few of the leaves and flax stalks that he used to cover his wound. He had all of the Thyme, Mint, and Witch Hazel he needed. He saw that the sun was nearing the point of sunset, so he figured he would hurry back to help Anonymous as soon as he could. He flew towards Fluttershy's cottage; he didn't want to go too fast, as he might drop the important satchel. He saw the sunset and felt inspired to play his guitar, but Anonymous was his main worry at the moment.

He reached the doorstep and knocked lightly, Fluttershy answered the door carefully, and she saw Roadie and opened it wider, to welcome him in. He took the offer and stepped in, with Fluttershy closing the door as gently as she opened it. He set the guitar down next to the couch where he usually leaves it, leaning against the wall. He turned back around to see Fluttershy whispering something into Anonymous' ear, and they both had grins on their faces. They noticed he turned around and they both stopped whatever they were talking about and giggled lightly. Roadie rolled his eyes with a smile and walked over to Anonymous with a smile, "Would you mind if we could use these to help heal your wounds?" He lifted the satchel and opened it to show her the plants that were inside. Fluttershy raised a brow with a smile, trying not to laugh, "What do you mean 'we'?" She almost laughed, but held it in, "I wouldn't know what to do with those plants, and I would just get in the way." Roadie was confused, this wasn't like her at all, and he knew something was up, but he would ask her about that later, he had to deal with the wounds straight away.

Roadie looked back at Anonymous, and put on an asking smile, raising the satchel again. Anonymous giggled again, "That would be nice." Roadie just realized what was up, what they were whispering about, they were trying to make him feel a little uncomfortable by putting him really close to Anonymous, by himself. He knew it was just a little girl prank, and they were jokingly testing him, and Roadie was going to show them what's up. He remained in a serious but caring expression that surprised Anonymous. 'Is he really going to do this alone? Man I cannot believe this fearlessness.' Roadie was actually filled with fear, about what she was going to think about him for doing this alone, but more worried if it would get as awkward as what had happened that afternoon in Fluttershy's bathroom. Roadie was almost in a cold sweat, 'Please don't let me do anything stupid' he thought to himself.
Fluttershy was beaming with a smile, 'He is just such a nice colt, and I've NEVER met someone so kind to everypony, why couldn't I have met him sooner?'

Roadie knelt down in front of Anonymous and began removing the gauze on her left hind leg first, as it was closest to him, it was only slightly bloody, and he didn't mind, he set it down on the floor and began unraveling the next roll of gauze on her right foreleg. He left the gauze on her forehead alone as it might bleed more before he could patch it up. He reached into the satchel and pulled out a few large leaves and some already braided flax stalks, and a single ginger root. He handed the ginger root to Anonymous, "Eat this; it'll help you while I fix you up." She smiled and took it, chewing on the ginger root slowly, He took out a small hoof full of the Witch Hazel, Thyme, and Mint, and then mashed it all together into the powder that he had previously, it wasn't very fine powder, but it wasn't last time either. He placed it on one of the large leaves and quickly placed it against her hind leg where the wound was. It only stung for the quick second that he pressed it against the wound, but then she couldn't feel any pain whatsoever from that area of her leg. Roadie then continued, tying it into place with the flax braid. It went all the way around her leg, which was good. He then did the same with her right foreleg, and the leaf was large enough to go around twice, so he made it do so. Anonymous and Fluttershy were in awe about how professionally he was taking this; he was just about stone-faced the entire time. He then looked Anonymous dead in the eye while he removed the gauze on her forehead, and repeated the whole process. Anonymous regretted questioning his methods before; she felt no pain at all from her cuts, the only parts that were still in pain was the places where she had all of the bruises.

Roadie was finished, and he had won the little game of 'make Roadie uncomfortable'. Anonymous said, "That's amazing, how did you know what to use?" Roadie smiled, "I used it on myself to fix the gash on my leg, I knew how the ingredients worked, but I didn't realize how well they worked together." Fluttershy pitched in, "Do you have anything with you that could help relieve the muscle tension and soreness?" Roadie was fear-stricken for a single moment, because he didn't have anything with him to do so; he only knew one thing… a massage. Roadie shook his head, and whistled in an unreadable tone, "I do not have anything with me that I can use to help do that, but I do know something, and that's a nice, relaxing, massage." Anonymous' face lit up, as did Fluttershy's, they could just not believe how well he handled the situations that were thrown at him.

Roadie turned back to Anonymous, who was already waiting front side down on the couch, waiting patiently for what she had coming to her. He placed his hooves on her shoulders first, and began rubbing in a circular motion, making sure to get the muscles as relaxed as possible. She was enjoying what she was receiving, and Roadie was not sure about how he felt giving it. Fluttershy was sipping on her own cup of tea, waiting to ask for her own turn, as this looked quite enjoyable. He continued down to her back, and did the same motion, but more towards her front sides, working above her hips. He then worked her forelegs, making sure that they were not tense in the slightest. Anonymous was in heaven, this was the most relaxed she had been in a long time, and she was loving it. He then got her hind legs, avoiding the leaf that he used as gauze. He then got just below her flank on both legs, but then realized how dangerously close he was to making this awkward, which he did NOT want. So he finished out with her neck, rubbing forward and backward, in long, smooth, strokes. When he finished, she was almost asleep she was so relaxed.

Roadie got worried, he thought that he had damaged a nerve in her neck and paralyzed her, but then realized that this wasn't the case when she sat up. "That was… amazing… thank you. I can't feel any pain at all anymore." Roadie smiled; proud that he did what he could to help. Fluttershy tapped Roadie on the shoulder, "Can I have one too?" Roadie could not say no, even if he wanted to. He nodded, and she smiled so wide that Roadie thought it was going to rip in half. Anonymous stumbled up off of the couch, feeling refreshed to let Fluttershy have her turn. Fluttershy laid down front side first and Roadie thought to himself, 'Here we go again' Then Fluttershy sat her head up and looked at Roadie to say something made him blush a bright red, "Please don't hold back, give me one that's just as good as she got." Roadie was still blushing when he reached down to her shoulders and began; Anonymous was passed out across the room in a rocking chair with a smile on her face. Roadie began rubbing in circles again.

Nightmares

Chapter 9: Nightmares

Roadie had just given Fluttershy the greatest massage she had received in possibly years, she didn't really need it, she just wanted it, but she deserved it. Roadie looked up from Fluttershy over at Anonymous, who was still sleeping peacefully on the rocking chair on the other side of the room. It was completely night time now, the moonlight came in through the window at an angle that shone off of his guitar, as if to try to make it appear white. His clothes were still folded neatly and stacked on top of the bookshelf, accessories on top. Then he looked back at Anonymous, and realized something, 'Didn't she say that she doesn't sleep?' She had said so. She said that, telling him as they were getting him a room at a motel in Manehatten. Now Roadie was wondering what she had meant by 'It's not in her nature'. He chose to ignore it and ask in the morning, maybe never, as it was her business, not his. He looked back down at Fluttershy, who was rolled over on her back now, looking back up at him. "Thank you, that was wonderful." Her eyes were half shut, fighting to stay awake, but she was smiling. Roadie matched her smile and whistled with a warm tone, "You really don't have to thank me." She was now really struggling for consciousness, and Roadie noticed. "Hey, do you want to head up to bed?" She shook her head, "No, I'll be fine right here on the couch, if…" Her eyes opened a little wider, and Roadie was curious as to what she was going to say. "…If you keep me company." She blushed a little from her own audacity of asking the question, well at least it was audacious to her; Roadie didn't see a problem with it, he nodded.

Fluttershy leaned more towards the edge of the couch, inviting him into the space between her and the back of the couch. He climbed over the arm and settled himself down in between her and the couch. Roadie sat front side up, with his legs over the arm of the couch, he was really comfortable. Fluttershy rolled over onto her side with her front side against him; she placed her arm over Roadie's chest, and curled in close to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her slightly closer as if to let her know not to be afraid to come close. He could feel her softly breathing against his neck, but it didn't bother him. Roadie looked over at Fluttershy, who looked up at him from his chest and said, "Goodnight, Roadie." They both smiled, "Goodnight, Fluttershy." She put her head back down into his chest, and Roadie looked up at the ceiling. He heard what sounded like a fire crackling as his eyes closed.

Roadie opened his eyes to see himself sitting on a cloud, playing along with 'Everything I'm Looking For' by The Dirty Heads. The sun was at a perfect feeling of warmth against his face, and the cool breeze evened it out to where he felt as if he was in heaven. He was just at the end of the song when he heard a cry for help, it wasn't distant, so he had decided to go to the source. He looked over the edge of the cloud to see Ponyville, just below him; he heard the cry again, so he bolted into action towards the vague direction it came from. With his guitar slung firmly around his shoulder and over his back, he avoided buildings and startled pedestrians, dashing through alleyways and occasionally through an open window. He went in between tow fruit carts in a successful attempt to dodge them both and not crash into a foal carriage being pushed by a very frightened looking mare. He heard the cry a third time and that boosted his determination, because the cry for help came from a familiar voice, it was Fluttershy's. He saw her sitting alone by a tree with her head down, and left Roadie wondering why she was crying for help. She was sobbing quietly to herself when he reached her; he placed a hoof on her shoulder, making her jump. She looked up with teary, frightened eyes that looked to beg for help. He whistled worriedly, "What's wrong?" She stopped crying and started chuckling, then eventually rose into a full psychotic laughter. Roadie was terrified at what he was seeing.

Roadie was now about 10 feet away from Fluttershy, she was laughing crazily with a look of hunger in her eyes with one constantly twitching nervously, and cravingly. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her skin began to fall of her as if it was thick paint. Her eyes rolled back to show two blood red Irises, and after all the paint-skin fell off, it revealed Anonymous. She had blood in her teeth dripping down her chin and neck; she was smiling with a very evil expression that said 'I have you right where I want you'. She began stepping towards Roadie; slowly, but at a pace where she would still reach him in seconds. Roadie was backing away, trying to fly, but his wings were frozen in fear. She leapt at him, opening her mouth and grabbing his neck.

His eyes flung open at the split second her teeth made contact with his throat. He was shaking, horrified at what he had just witnessed. Fluttershy awoke from the sudden convulsing of Roadie waking up, and she realized that he had just had a nightmare. It was still dark out, but it was about two in the morning. She then tightened her grip around him with her arm and curled in more, trying to comfort him. He noticed this, and calmed down, he was breathing really quickly, but he managed to slow it back down to a normal pace. He then took his other arm and wrapped it around Fluttershy with his other arm, into a hug. Fluttershy didn't expect this, 'It must have been really bad' she thought. Roadie didn't take too long to fall back to sleep and Fluttershy was more than comfortable in Roadie's arms, but she didn't fall asleep so quickly. She rolled over to face the edge of the couch, still in Roadie's grasp. She closed her eyes thinking to herself that Roadie was fine, and she didn't need to worry so much, and fell back to sleep.

Roadie woke back up with blurred vision, blinded by the light. His eyesight eventually recovered, and he found that he was spooning with Fluttershy, which made him nervous in a way. 'What happened after that nightmare last night?' He was trying to remember the chain of events that took place, but his train of thought was interrupted by a soft yawn. Fluttershy turned her head around and half-faced him, as she was one her side, "Good morning." She giggled. Roadie blushed, embarrassed about the position they were in, but he whistled, "Good morning, sleep well?" Roadie put on a comforting smile. Fluttershy smiled back, "Very much so…" her smile turned into worry as she sat up to face Roadie. "Do you want to talk about what happened last night?" Roadie was still lying down, and he realized she was talking about the nightmare he had. Roadie shook his head, he really didn't want to talk about it, and just the thought about what had happened made him shudder.

Fluttershy slightly felt like he was pushing her away, but she realized that he was just afraid of what she would think of him if he had told her what had happened. She reached her hoof out and placed it on his shoulder, and rubbed it gently, "Please don't be afraid to talk to me…" Roadie was touched by her caring, he sat up, taking her hoof in his, and began telling her about what had happened. She was really surprised by the beginning; she didn't understand how that scared him, because it sounded perfect. Then she started getting more and more scared as his story continued. When he finished, she was extremely concerned about his well-being. She asked him tenderly, "Is this because of what the investigator from Manehatten said about Anonymous?" Roadie nodded, looking at the floor, almost ashamed at what he had told her. Fluttershy leaned in towards him, "You know they were lying to you, trying to throw you off, so why do you let it get to you? That's what they want." Roadie looked up, she was right, he shouldn't let it get to him, and it was all a lie, everything they had said about Anonymous was a lie. Roadie looked over at her, "You're right, I need to let it go." She smiled, and leaned back up, "So, you want some breakfast?" Roadie nodded, he was pretty hungry.

He looked around for Anonymous, because she wasn't in the rocking chair anymore. He also realized that since Anonymous arrived, that he hadn't seen a single animal inside of the house, not even Angel. He heard a flush, and Anonymous stepped out of the bathroom, "Did I hear breakfast?" They all laughed for a bit and walked into the kitchen with smiled on their faces to make some breakfast together.

Breakfast

Chapter 10: Breakfast

Roadie, Fluttershy, and Anonymous were in the kitchen, deciding on what to do for breakfast. Roadie whistled, "Do either of you want something specific?" Anonymous looked at Fluttershy, and she looked back at Anonymous, but it was Anonymous who spoke, "Well it's not my house, so I don't think I should decide." She smiled, and then Fluttershy said, "Well… surely… you could decide what you would like to eat." Fluttershy noticed Anonymous' stubbornness, "No, really, I insist." Roadie sat patiently as the two debated who should decide to eat. He was a very patient colt, but it looked like arguing to him, and he did not like arguing, as it led to fighting, or hate. So he whistled, "How about some fruit salad?" The two mares both turned to face him, and then Roadie suddenly felt like he had interrupted something important. Fluttershy spoke happily, "That sounds wonderful." Anonymous agreed with a nod. Roadie stood up out of the kitchen chair, as he was the only one sitting.

Roadie went to collect an assortment of fruits sitting out inside large glass bowls. Fluttershy and Anonymous walked over to help him, but he turned to face them, "Why don't you two take a seat while I fix this up?" Fluttershy wanted to help, so she kept walking, Anonymous almost stopped because of how warm the tone of whistle he used was, but she kept going. They stood on both sides of him, and grabbed some of their own fruit to slice. Roadie was touched by how much they wanted to help him, but was more surprised when they both didn't reply. Fluttershy had some oranges, which she was peeling quickly, but carefully. Anonymous had some peaches, which she was slicing carefully with a small knife. Roadie had quite a stack of citrus fruits and other assortments, including kiwi. But Roadie noticed that he was missing something, something that really seemed to take the cake, "Um… Fluttershy…" She looked up from her oranges to see Roadie, "Yes?" She was smiling lightly. Roadie was suddenly nervous to ask his question at the sight of her face.

"Do you have any green apples?" He simpered, and Fluttershy didn't understand the sudden shyness from him, but she answered anyway, "I don't think so, actually I ran out a while ago. But I do know somewhere you can get some quickly, if you're willing to go." Roadie nodded, and Fluttershy continued, "Do you know where a farm called Sweet Apple Acres is?" Roadie knew where a farm in town was, but he wasn't quite sure if that was the one she was talking about, so he shook his head. Fluttershy went and got a notepad, it was the same lime green notepad that was the next in the pack where Roadie got the orange one before. She was writing something as she walked back into the kitchen. When she handed Roadie the notepad, it read an address, and Roadie recognized the street name, and the farm he knew was in fact Sweet Apple Acres. The only problem is that Sweet Apple Acres is on the other side of town from Fluttershy's cottage. "So you know where this is?" Fluttershy pointed at the notepad. Roadie nodded again, and Fluttershy spoke again, "Make sure you ask for Applejack, she'll get you some apples real quick."

Roadie whistled and closed the notepad, "I'll get back as soon as I can." Fluttershy suddenly felt that same feeling she had been feeling every time Roadie isn't there, it was a mix of worry and loneliness. She had an urge to jump out and grab him as he began walking towards the door, so she did. When Roadie stopped in front of the door to open it, he felt Fluttershy hug Roadie around his neck from behind, she had him gently, but she was not about to let go. Roadie turned around inside of the hug and wrapped his hooves around her back. "I'm not going to be gone long, I'm coming right back, I'm certainly not going to stop anywhere, that would only delay my return, and I don't want that." Roadie rubbed her back reassuringly, and Fluttershy was suddenly voided of every worry and negative emotion that was in any corner of her being. They let go of each other, as much as they didn't want to, but Roadie really had to go get the apples he needed to finish their breakfast.

Roadie left his guitar next to the couch where it sat overnight, and Fluttershy walked back into the kitchen with Anonymous. Roadie flew out the door, closing it gently behind him. When Fluttershy arrived next to Anonymous and returned to peeling her oranges, Anonymous looked over at her and smiled, "He is just too kind for his own good." Fluttershy looked back up at her, "What do you mean?" Fluttershy let on a coy smile and Anonymous spoke, "He left first thing in the morning, to go all the way to some farm he's never been to and to talk to somepony he's never met, for you." Fluttershy understood that she was talking about the apples for the fruit salad, and Anonymous thought that he was doing it for Fluttershy, Fluttershy said, "Well I'm sure he's doing it just as much for you as he is me…" Her voice trailed off, and Anonymous raised a brow and placed a hoof on her shoulder, "I think that you two really have something special." Fluttershy flushed, "I-I think you m-may be right." They both giggled a bit, and worked on their fruit, but that didn't stop their conversation.

Roadie was flying quickly towards the dirt road specified in his notepad, when he saw the farm known as Sweet Apple Acres. It was a large place, with a field that spread a large way around the house that seemed to be in the very center of the field. On the porch of that house was an elderly pale green mare who had a gray mane tied up into a bun, she was resting on a rocking chair, and Roadie decided not to bother her. Outside of the field was the largest apple orchard he had ever seen in his life, it seemed to go on for miles. But as he gazed at the orchard, he noticed that the treetops were shaking, one by one, apples falling. Roadie flew over the gate and straight for the shaking, he was not stopped by anypony on the way there, as there was nopony that he could see.

As Roadie approached the source of the shaking, he noticed a young orange earth pony, bucking the trees and catching the apples in large wooden buckets. Roadie was writing in his notepad as he flew over to her. The mare looked up to see Roadie gliding his way over, she smiled. The mare was orange with a light blonde mane and tail; both were tied at the end. Her eyes were green and she had a few freckles adorning her face along with a nice looking brown hat. Her cutie mark was three apples. Roadie looked up out of his notepad to see the mare smiling; he noticed that she was actually quite an attractive mare. He showed her his notepad, it read, 'Are you Applejack?' The mare spoke with content, "I sure am, how can I help you this fine mornin'?" She spoke with a thick southern drawl that only made her look that much more attractive. Roadie scribbled in his notepad again, "Nice to meet you Applejack, My name's Roadie, and I would like to buy some green apples." He smiled, and Applejack's eyes twinkled at reading his name.

She asked a question, "I do have one question for ya hun'." She was still smiling, she continued, "What brought you to Sweet Apple Acres?" She knew that he came for the apples, but she wanted to know who sent him. Roadie flipped the page in his notepad and wrote something else, "Fluttershy sent me here." Applejack's smile could not have gotten any wider, "I knew it!" She jumped a bit from excitement, but Roadie was really confused. He was writing in her notepad when he was interrupted by Applejack, "You match her description and everything." Roadie could not help but to raise a brow in thought, 'Wait What? When did she…? Why did…? What happened?' Applejack looked up at him very seriously, "You best not hurt her feelings now, ya hear?" Roadie wrote quickly, desperate to let her know, "Why would I ever want to hurt her? She's the only pony who willingly gave me somewhere to sleep. She's the only pony who's ever been so kind to me as to give me a place that I can call home and look forward to seeing every day. I would never hurt her, I would never think about hurting her." Applejack saw his face, and noticed the wholehearted expression on his face, and realized what she said had actually hurt him. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that." Roadie forgave her and Applejack continued business, "So how many apples would ya like Roadie?"

Roadie only needed four, but he asked for five, just in case. "Coming right up sugar cube." Roadie liked the little nickname she used, it made him feel welcome. She walked over to a tree and turned around towards Roadie. She removed her hat and held it bottom side-up next to her as she bucked the tree with one leg. She was smiling at him as exactly five apples fell out of the tree and landed in her hat. She walked over to Roadie and tossed the apples up to him, as he was flying. One by one he caught the apples. He pulled out a small bag of bits and tossed it down to Applejack, but she turned and lightly bucked it, making it perform a rainbow shot right onto the top of Roadie's head, where it sat still. "I can't take your money when you are such a close friend of Fluttershy's." She winked at him and he blushed as he put away the bag. He wrote down in his notepad with the apples in one arm, 'Thank you Applejack.' She smiled, "Anytime hun…" She dropped the smile and her face turned to worry, "… Oh, would you happen to know a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle by any chance?" Roadie recognized the name at once; she was the unicorn who helped Roadie when he was unconscious in the park. Roadie nodded with a smile, but Applejack still looked worried, "Well if you see her anywhere, can you get her to come home? She has been missing for a few days now, and we're getting worried about her." Roadie's smile turned into a concerned one as he wrote again, 'I'll keep an eye out, if that means anything.' He really he could help more at the moment, but he had to get back to Fluttershy. Applejack said, "Thank you, well I'll see ya around Roadie." She waved as he flew off.

Roadie was flying high above Ponyville, high enough so that he wouldn't run into anyone, and if he dropped an apple he would have time to catch it. He reached Fluttershy's cottage a lot faster than he reached the farm, and walked in, as he didn't want to interrupt whatever Fluttershy and Anonymous were talking about, as he could hear them from the window. Fluttershy was quiet, but her cottage wasn't very sound-proof. He walked in quietly and closed the door just as quietly. He heard Anonymous talking, "… So that's what happened after Roadie flew off, I really wish I let him help me." He set down the apples on the living room table as Fluttershy spoke, "Well you're okay now, and I'm sure that he's willing to do whatever he can to help you whenever you need it..." Roadie was heading towards the bathroom because he really had to go.

Anonymous looked up at Fluttershy and said, "Did you hear something?" Fluttershy shook her head, "No… I'm sure it was just a squirrel." But there were still no animals inside of the house, it was really strange. Fluttershy asked, "Do you really think that Roadie and I have something special?" Anonymous nodded, "I don't think someone with such a nomadic nature would stick around here for any other reason." They got to know a bit about each other while Roadie was gone, and Anonymous got Fluttershy's name, but Fluttershy pretended to not know Anonymous', because she already knew from Roadie's story, so she asked again. Fluttershy spoke, "I really wish I could have met him sooner." Anonymous looked at her, "I wish the same." They both heard a flush, and turned to the entrance of the kitchen, and Roadie came around the corner, and Anonymous asked, "When did you get back?" Roadie smiled and answered, "I just got back, hang on…" He left and came back with the apples he left on the living room table, and then set them all down on the counter.

Anonymous asked another question, "What did you hear?" She would have been a bit embarrassed if he had heard their conversation about him. Roadie smiled, "What do you mean, I just got back." Anonymous was relieved, as was Fluttershy. The two mares had sliced kiwi, pineapple, oranges, honeydew, grapes, and some lemon; they could not have made that salad any better than he wanted it. He took one of the apples that he set down and began slicing it; he worked quickly, and enjoyed himself while doing so. Fluttershy couldn't help but ask, "So how'd it go with Applejack?" He smiled as he finished the first apple, "It went well, let's just say she 'recognized' me." He looked up at Fluttershy with a grin, and she lightly blushed, because she knew what he was talking about. When Roadie left Fluttershy the morning they played their guitars together, she worked for a bit, then went to tell her friends about him She met Applejack and Rarity, but she couldn't find Twilight or Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie was probably busy doing… whatever she does during her free time.

Fluttershy spoke, "Well I'm glad that it worked out…" She was still blushing, but she started smiling. Roadie finished two apples, and they were quite large, so he wasn't really sure that he needed any more, so he took the slices and put them in a large bowl with all of the other fruit slices in it. He took the large bowl and spread the salad evenly among three smaller bowls. He set the large bowl in the sink and set the smaller bowls down on the table, where Anonymous and Fluttershy sat down. The table was round, so they sat in the shape of a triangle. Roadie did not talk much while they ate, but Anonymous and Fluttershy were talking most of the time, Anonymous was talking more than Fluttershy, as she was a pony of many words. Roadie and Fluttershy were not very big on talking. Roadie finished and was sitting quite patiently for the two mares to finish, and Fluttershy noticed. "Roadie…" He looked up, and Fluttershy continued, "… How about you go set up your mix tapes so we can finish what we started yesterday?" She was smiling, and Roadie beamed back. He stood up and set his bowl down in the sink inside of the larger bowl.

Roadie glided into the living room and the two mares carried on their conversation. They both jumped as the song 'Voodoo Child' by Jimi Hendrix Blasted halfway through the song out of the living room. The volume dropped as quickly as it started, "Sorry!" Roadie whistled. They both got a good laugh out of that. Then they heard 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd start playing, and they finished eating.

The two mares entered the living room just as Roadie began playing the acoustic solo, he knew the part exactly, note for note, and every rhythm. Fluttershy and Anonymous sat down on the couch on both sides of him as they did when they were at the kitchen counter. Fluttershy was leaning against the arm of the couch, facing Roadie, but her eyes were closed, relaxing. Anonymous was leaning against the back of the couch, watching him play. Roadie was just sitting up playing his guitar with one of his favorite Pink Floyd songs. The solo finished and the vocals came in. He played the chords with perfect timing and perfect pitch. The two mares were singing along with the vocals, but Roadie could not sing, even though he knew all of the lyrics. Fluttershy was singing as softly as she spoke, and Anonymous was singing just as softly.

At the police station in Manehatten, the blue unicorn that cut Roadie was walking down the hallway with an envelope in his teeth. He opened the door to an office and walked in. At the desk was the same white unicorn who had questioned Roadie, the blue unicorn spoke, "Detective Holmes, we have a report that involves the unknown mare case." Detective Holmes' green eyes looked up at the blue unicorn standing in his doorway. "Let's see it, Sergeant Starstruck." The sergeant stepped over to the desk and set down the envelope on Holmes' desk. "Thank you." Starstruck stepped out and closed the door behind him. Holmes' looked at the envelope, it was labeled 'important: Unknown Mare Report.' He opened the envelope and read a whole report about sightings of a mare that matched Anonymous' case file. They were all about sightings in the Everfree forest, near the cottage where they found Roadie. Holmes looked out the window to see Derpy flying away with a mail satchel, then at the mailbox. The mailbox had a large hole in the back; he couldn't help but chuckle at this. But then he got back to business and got on his phone. "Can you send up Sergeant Starstruck and Captain Dredd? Thank you, Barbara." He hung up and waited for about a minute. When that minute was up, Sergeant Starstruck re-entered the room with a large red earth pony wearing a red helmet that had a black visor that covered his eyes. The visor had a red x going from his forehead and crossed in between his eyes. His cutiemark was a gold shield that said 'DREDD' in the middle. The helmet was mostly black but the edges had a thick red outline. Holmes spoke, "Sergeant, I would like for you to return to where you previously found Roadie, and ask him if he has seen the unknown mare again. If he says no, then I would like for you to search the place, if he says yes, ask him where. Just follow standard procedures." Starstruck looked a bit terrified, as he was bringing Captain Dredd with him, and they only used Captain Dredd for the big and extremely serious operations. Starstruck nodded, "Alright, I'll come back with a full report sir." Holmes nodded at Starstruck and looked up at Dredd, "You get that Captain?" Captain Dredd didn't move an inch except to speak, "Affirmative." His voice was extremely gruff and serious. Holmes gestured towards the door and the two officers stepped out. Detective Holmes returned to his work.

Roadie, Fluttershy, and Anonymous had just finished their song when Fluttershy looked up at Roadie and said, "We have to play that one." All three of them were smiling, and Roadie nodded. The song 'Santeria' by Sublime came on as there was an extremely loud rapping on the door. Roadie looked at Anonymous, "If I give you a signal, you go hide." Anonymous nodded, and Roadie stepped over to the door. He looked through the small window to see a blue unicorn and a large red earth pony with a terrifying helmet on. Roadie turned around to Anonymous and gestured upstairs. She wasted no time and flew up the stairs into Fluttershy's room, where there was an open window that she could use to make a quick escape. Roadie opened the door and smiled at the two officers at the doorstep. The blue unicorn was happy to see Roadie. "How are you doing Roadie? Well, I hope." Roadie looked around him without moving for something to write on, and the unicorn noticed, "Oh I'm sorry, I forgot that you cannot speak, do you have someone in there that can translate for you?" Roadie nodded, and whistled to Fluttershy, who was still sitting on the couch, "Can you come help me?" Fluttershy nodded and walked over to the door.

The unicorn said, "Where are my manners, I never properly introduced myself, Roadie. My name is Sergeant Starstruck, and this is Captain Dredd." Dredd just grunted. Fluttershy reached the door, "Nice to meet you both." She noticed Dredd and was panic-stricken by his face, it was completely devoid of any emotion, or at least the parts you could see. "M-my name is F-Fluttershy…" The sergeant saw that she was afraid of Dredd, most ponies were, but she was terrified. Starstruck got straight to business, as he didn't want to be there long with Dredd, "Have you seen this mare lately?" He held up another picture of Anonymous, Roadie knew it would be about her, he shook his head. Starstruck continued, "Would you mind if we took a look around?" Roadie knew that if they were heading upstairs, then Anonymous would go out the window and hide outside. Fluttershy didn't mind, neither did Roadie, they looked at each other and nodded. Starstruck and Dredd both stepped in, Dredd had to duck his entire head and neck under the doorway. They were just kind of looking around, not really picking through anything, which was nice. Dredd looked like he was scanning the area more than actually searching.

Starstruck looked at Fluttershy, "You don't mind if we head upstairs do you?" Fluttershy shook her head. Dredd went first, making loud footsteps on his way up, after about three seconds of the sound, Roadie looked out of the window to see Anonymous running into the chicken coop that Fluttershy had outside. Roadie was extremely relieved, not just from her being safe, but from her being recovered enough to be able to run. The two officers came back down after about five minutes, and Starstruck spoke, "Okay, well we're done, but if you see anything strange happening in the forest, then you call us, okay?" Roadie and Fluttershy both nodded in agreement. And the two officers stepped out of the cottage and walked slowly back towards Manehatten. Roadie took Fluttershy in his arms and she hugged back, it was a close call, and they could not afford to take a risk like that again.

Anonymous came in through the front door, as well as ever, "Close call, huh?" They all laughed but then Roadie noticed that Anonymous still had the leaf gauze on her legs and forehead. "Do you want me to take off the gauze, Anonymous?" Anonymous thought it was too soon, but then she realized that she felt completely fine, so she nodded. Roadie sat her down on the couch. He began unraveling the leaf around her left hind leg first, as it was closest to him. He was on his knees, catching the powder inside of the leaf, preventing any from getting onto the floor. Anonymous noticed that the wound was completely sealed, and there was a faint scar, much fainter than Roadie's. He removed the leaf on her right foreleg next, with the same outcome. The scar on her forehead looked very faint, and was naturally hidden behind her mane. Anonymous stood up, as healthy as she's ever been.

"That's amazing…" She felt like she could move a lot more freely now without the gauze on. Roadie smiled at her, "I only did what I could to help." He looked over at Fluttershy, "Would you guys like to go somewhere?" He looked back at Anonymous before he finished the sentence, Anonymous spoke while Fluttershy thought on it, "Well I don't know where anything is in this town." She was still stretching when Fluttershy said, "Do you want to go ask Rainbow Dash where we're performing Friday?" Roadie was just hit with realization because he was never actually told where they were going to perform, only when. It was Thursday, so they had to perform tomorrow, they should probably know where.

Roadie nodded, and then looked at Anonymous, "Would you like to come with us?" Fluttershy was a little confused, because she had almost been caught by the police, and he wanted to take her out into public. Anonymous shrugged, "Yeah, sure." Fluttershy flew out of the room and came back with Anonymous' jacket, it was freshly clean. "I washed this last night, it was covered in blood." Anonymous thanked her and put it on, placing her arms and wings through the holes they needed to get through. Roadie grabbed her aviators off of the bookshelf and handed them to her. She thanked him as well and put them on. Roadie just realized that he never saw her cutie mark, but he wasn't about to ask, what he did ask was, "You guys ready to go?" The two mares nodded and Roadie held the door open for them, when the y all left, Angel stuck his head out from under the couch, and hopped out to the center of the room. He saw the coast was clear, and thumped his foot on the floor a few times, and the stillness was ended by a multitude of small animals suddenly thriving around inside of Fluttershy's cottage.