Rewriting the stories

Chapters

Truth be told
Fitting in
Getting acquainted
Howls
Disharmony
Of hearts and apples
Night out
New start
Not the same way
Not worth it (?)
Wailing, distant, silent cries
Progress for nothing
To Equestria, and back again.
Humans and ponies
Déjà vu?
Rewriting the story
Burden

Truth be told

I woke up in a rush, startled, nervous, and more.

I looked at the middle of my room, they were still there. The equines that revolutionized America, and (why not?) the whole world. I kept staring at them a few minutes, and I suddenly fell back to reality, I watched the clock of my phone, but I don't remember what time it was then.

My brother woke up too, and when he saw them, he yelled in fright. He looked at me quickly, "So, this wasn't a dream at all? We actually...?"

"Yeah, so it seems," I said, and then I pointed, "hey you missed school."

He looked his clock, "I did? Well, I can't say that's surprising, I wasn't able to sleep well after this."

"I'm sorry."

"Why for? You weren't planning on making them appear, were you?"

Dad entered the room, it was another surprise since he should have left hours ago.

"What happened, you missed work?" I asked him.

"Yes, but it wasn't a big deal, most assemblies were already done so I would have gotten back very early. I called my co-workers and said I wouldn't go. I deserved a day off anyway," he answered.

"Well, you wouldn't be able to do much there. After this..." my brother said.

"That's exactly why I called them."

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"What, do you think I'm stupid?" he asked back. " 'Hello guys, I won't go to work today because six horses appeared in my yard out of nowhere!'." he mocked.

"I was just asking, relax."

"As if I were to tell them," he continued "I only told them that 'something happened', nothing else," he explained, and left the room "Geez."

I looked at him leave. Dad never had a bubbly personality, he was a bit more harsh and serious (but of course he had his moments of laughter). To me, he was just built in the old school style.

"Hey look, they are waking up!" my brother called me, so I quickly changed thoughts, "Do you think they know spanish?" he asked, he was fluent in english too.

"I don't know, let's see," I ventured.

After we checked that they were fully awake (and after dressing up), my brother tried talking in our mother tongue. But they looked confused.

"Seems like they talk english. Let me try," I said. I approached them, kneeled, and asked them, "Hello, do you know who you are?"

They looked each other, a bit more confident, but still feeling strange of the question; as suspected, Twilight was the first to talk, "Good morning mister, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm sorry of how cutting this could sound Twilight. But we already know about you all," I said.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked.

Suddenly Rarity gasped, and pointed to Twilight something in the room. My pillow with Fluttershy's image.

"I guess I should have hid that better," I whispered to my brother.

"No crap, Sherlock."

They both showed the pillow to the other four, and all were surprised at the sight, Fluttershy herself looked like she turned into stone. Then, Rainbow found more things I had that were Fluttershy-related, pins, and a drawing made by a fan (that I won in an auction). She also found a poster where all six of them were in it.

"What in the wide world of Equestria is this?!" Twilight asked.

"As I already said, we already know about you," I intervened.

"How is that?" she asked.

"Leon, turn on the TV."

He did, and he searched for the channel having the show, but the channel greeted us with something else:

"This is Jelly Jamm, this is...♪" made the TV before I turned it off in a rush.

"Did we miss again the show?!" I asked my brother.

"Hey don't blame me! We have overslept for helping them," he suggested.

"Excuse me, but what are you both talking about?" Rarity asked.

I looked at my brother eye to eye, "I guess we have to use the computer," I said.

Just as we finished watching the first episode, the girls were in shock at what they saw.

"It's like we've been spied this whole time," Twilight said perplexed.

Rainbow, for her part, was angry, "Who did this?! I'm going to get that dude!"

"How much of this have you got?" Rarity asked my brother.

"I think a better question is, how much have you seen?" Twilight added.

"Well, so far, the last of these showed Trixie coming back to Ponyville," my brother said.

"So far?"

"Yes, there are more upcoming episodes the next weeks," I added.

They all looked at each other again.

Applejack then asked in her particular accent, "Something ah want tah know is how do ya have stuff that we are in. Mor' so, whah do ya have so much stuff with Fluttershy's face?" the pegasus in question hid behind her mane.

"Well, that will take a while to explain, but I guess you have the right to know," I said.

And with the help of my brother, I explained them the show and it's follower phenomena: the bronies, events, jokes, and the message they send with every episode.

"So basically, you are all famous for the show," I finished after a while.

"This is so not the way I wanted to be famous," Rainbow said.

"Cheer up, a lot of people become famous for getting ridiculed, and they both enjoy it and hate it," I added.

"Oh yeah? Show me one famous video about it," she challenged.

I swiftly turned back to the computer and loaded a video from Youtube.

Once it finished, almost all of the girls laughed, Twilight stayed serious though.

"How can you all laugh at this kid's misery?!" she scolded her friends.

"Look on the bright side Twilight," I said "The kid was famous for some months, and he was even invited to some TV programs!"

"I don't care, that's no subject of laugh," she insisted.

"Oh yeah totally, laughing to a stranger getting ridiculed is bad, but it's right to laugh when your friends faint like a goat?"

"Hey that's different!"

"I'm just saying."

"Whatever, we better leave girls," she turned around.

"Whoa whoa hold on there! You can't leave!" I stopped her.

"Why not? Are we prisoners or something?"

How could I explain her? I couldn't let them leave the house, what if the government found out? What would they do to them? But it was hard for me to let them confined either.

"Ugh, believe me, you don't want to know what things are out there," I said.

"And you know about them?" she asked.

"Well, yeah, and if I told you, you'd just be more scared."

"Like what?"

"Please trust me, I'll tell you everything later. But for now, just believe me, please," I hoped that the fact that they had to still swallow their show, would stop Twilight from asking.

After some pondering, she finally spoke again, "Let me talk to my friends and we'll decide what to do."

"Sure, take your time."

They left the room heading for the garage, and started talking. I hoped they didn't try to escape.

"Do you think they'll try to run away?" I asked my brother.

"I don't know. I mostly think Rainbow will try, or at least wish to," he answered.

"That's true, she's the most active of the six, we can't keep her away from the sky, it's not right."

"This whole ordeal isn't right."

"Tell me about it. Besides, Fluttershy must be in shock after seeing all the stuff I have of her! You better hide your pins with creepy art of them too," I suggested.

"Yeah you're right. We also have to be careful in what we do from now on."

"You mean like: where we go in internet, what games we play, what shows we watch, and stuff?"

"Yes, after all, I don't think they'll take well that a hooded guy kills archers."

"FYI, those are crossbowmen," I corrected "and I don't think they'll like a black guy making a killing spree out of a city."

I once thought that having these kind of ponies in our life would be really cool. when you deeply think about it, turns out that maybe not.

Author's Note

I think I overdid Applejack's accent, if you believe I did, please do tell me.

Fitting in

The girls decided to stay, and, while living with us, find a solution.

We set up a few things to keep in mind, as to not rise any unwanted attention. First, whenever the house had a visit, the six would have to reclude to the laundry room, which was the furthest room in the house, and the less important to ever visit.
Second, if they wanted to be outside, they could as long as they wished, but only in the backyard. We also had to apply an extra rule for the two pegasi: they could only fly as high as the walls were, so no neighbor could see them. Rainbow protested for that, but I managed to make her reason.

We also had to find a house, away from society, so that they could have a bit more freedom, I asked my father if he could find one. He said he would, but we'd have to wait until his vacation to move safely. He was also going to bring the trailer (which we used to bring our Go Karts) to transport the girls, once we did.

I hated to confine them to a single house, taking away their freedom, but we had to.

I didn't go to college the next day either, I was so overwhelmed by this recent event, that if I didn't understand anything by not paying attention, it would be better not to go at all after this. I could be on time anyway, because my mom was making lunch at 2:30 PM, as always.

I remembered that equines are not used to every kind of food, seeing that my mom was roasting some meat. I went to her, explained the situation, and asked for some money to go buy carrots for the girls. It took me less than ten minutes to go to the greengrocery, and come back home.

Dad had said that we'd have to put six more chairs to the table. But I told him that they wouldn't like seeing us eating meat, explaining him the situation too. So we instead put a tablecloth on the floor of my room. As that day he arrived early from work, we were able to discuss the subject on lunch:

"How did this happen?" my mother asked while we were eating.

"You already asked that before, and I'm telling you, despite all the theories that I have, none of them seems believable," I insisted.

"Well, you could help if you tell us what they are, despite how illogical they can be," my father suggested. "How much logic does it have that six ponies appear in your yard in a thunderstorm anyway?"

"That's true." I said.

So I gave them my opinions, all based in fanfics, or ideas:

First: The Mane Six were caught in a thunderstorm in their world, all of them together, and Twilight casted a teleporting spell to escape to safety, but a thunder struck her at that same moment, and sent her here along her friends.
Second: Maybe Twilight found out that there were more dimensions out there, and while trying to find them, something happened and sent her here (since the six are all connected to each other because of the Elements of Harmony, it could happen that the rift caught just Twilight, but she also dragged her friends).

That, and a few more similar suggestions, were my theories. I had to explain my parents who was who and what the Elements of Harmony were.

"Those elements sound like a girly version of Power Rangers," my dad said.

"And now you're telling us?" my brother asked.

After lunch, I tried to help the girls find something to do while they were stranded here.

Since we had pets (four dogs and a cat), I suggested Fluttershy she could spend time with them. She liked the idea, but I warned her that if the cat leaves the house, she mustn't follow him beyond the limits we set up before. Same went for the dogs when they greeted somebody (a visitor, or someone that comes back home, like when dad comes back from work).

Twilight was already looking for a book to read, but they were all in spanish, I searched through my shelves and handed her a few books in english (which were for educational purposes, but they all contained stories or comics), and a compilation of well known tales.

I suggested my mom that Pinkie Pie and Applejack could help in the kitchen (whenever meat was not in the menu), they were both great bakers and cooks, though they would have to get used in not using so much stuff like they do in the show, inflation was striking our country.

Rarity would spend the nights with my mom, both sewing. We'd have to ask our grandmothers to supply us with more material for it to last.

Rainbow was the hardest to deal with, I couldn't find anything she'd like to do. So I tried my best at teaching her how to use a Playstation controller (the only thing as fast as she can be, are the cars that make up the roster for Gran Turismo). Though it was not real life, it was similar, and she found it entertaining. Maybe not as much as flying on her own, but it did the job.

I taught all of them to use the computer, I showed them some stuff they could do: read fanfics, and look some fan art of them. I warned them about not going everywhere on the net, and to be careful. Though they barely ever used the computer, which it was a bit of a relief.

Looks like reading really helped me to sort out this kind of things, back then I thought we had troubles.

Getting acquainted

Three days have passed since the incident, now it was Saturday, the girls still find it difficult to adapt, but it got better with time.

I barely talked to them since they arrived, they weren't very open to us yet, but I tried everyday to find something to talk about, even the most mundane of things.

This day, I went to Twilight first, who was searching our library.

"Looking for something?" I innocently asked.

"Have you got any other books I can read?" she asked back.

"Besides the ones I already gave you, almost all of them are in spanish, you wouldn't understand them."

"Any of those aren't?"

"Some are learning books but in portuguese, we got them back when my brother and I went to primary school."

"Anything else?"

I thought a little.

"Oh wait! I still have another story you can read! I think you'll like it, my brother did," I said and went to one of my bags. "I can't believe I forgot about it!"

I picked a bunch of papers together with a pin, which all were printed, telling a story.

"Here, it's not much, but it could do," I apologized.

"What is this?" she asked.

"It's the sum up of a book, called 'The client', I had to study that for an english exam, so I'm not reading it now. It's short, but maybe you'll like it."

"Well thanks, I appreciate it," she said.

"You're welcome, I think I just remembered of more english books I could give you, whenever I do find one, I'll be sure to give it to you."

"Really?"

"Of course! I want to make sure that everything is fine for you while you stay," I told her with a smile.

"Thanks." she said again.

I went outside and I found Applejack, looking around the yard.

"Howdy," I greeted.

"Oh howdy to ya' too pardner, how's it goin'?" she asked, she was the most open of the six as of then.

"I'm good how about you?"

"A bit bored 'ere but ah'm not complainin'."

"I figured you were, there's not much here you can do," I said feeling empathy for her.

"Ah even haven' got mah rope! Ah could use it to kill time," she mourned.

"You know? Maybe I can get you some rope, I can go buy it if you wish."

"Would ya' do that for me?" she asked.

"It's no big deal," I said.

"Well, ah'm mighty thankful for that."

"Hardware stores are closed right now though, I'd have to wait for a few hours, you don't mind?"

"Not in the least," she smiled.

I went to Rainbow next, in the living room using the PS3, she started a new game of her own.

"Hey how's it going?" I said.

"Pretty good, but this game is a little slow for me," she said.

"How? Most cars in it are incredibly fast!"

"Yeah but.. I mean, why do I have to take all those licenses for? If I'm already a great racer, why take them?"

"Think of it as a restriction, if you want to enjoy the game at it's fullest, you have to take all of them," I explained. "Which license do you have now?"

"National A. Lame."

"I know I know, been there done that," I laughed.

"How about you? Which license do you got?"

"I got the Superlicense,"

She almost dropped the remote, and paused her game.

"WHAT?!"

"Hey don't get startled, I started the game before you."

"Yeah but your dad only has an International A, how come you got the Superlicense before him?!"

"He started before me, that's true, but I use the game the most time, so it was bound to happen," I shrugged, and then added, "though I don't deserve it that much."

"Huh? Why is that?" she asked curious.

"I bumped and collided in almost every car in all the tests of the last license, out of anger, and the licenses require precision. But I guess the creators forgot to add the 'crash disqualification' in those."

"Is that so?" she grinned.

"At least in this Update, yeah, the Super is actually much easier than the other ones."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"Didn't tell you for nothing," I joked.

I went to my room, and found Pinkie Pie watching television, much to my surprise and nervousness.

"Oh hi! I was just some silly cartoons, and ocassionally our show if it appears," she greeted.

"Oh yeah? How about it, do you like your own show?"

"Oh I love it! It's a lot funnier when you are seeing it in another perspective."

"Is it on now?"

"Nah, it was a few minutes ago though."

"I see. So Pinks, let me ask you something," I grew a little more serious.

"What's up?"

"Well, maybe I shouldn't ask, but it bugs me a little," I scratched my head.

"Don't worry, you can tell me, you want me to keep it a secret?" she asked.

"No it's fine, it's mundane what I'm going to ask you."

"Mun- what?"

"Nevermind," I dismissed the word, and continued "so anyway, how do you feel that all of you have been recorded all this time, and that you are a hit for the world now?"

"We hit the world?!"

"Not in that way Pinkie!" I cleared up "I meant 'famous' and such."

She brought a hoof to her chin.

"Oh! Well, it is strange that we've been filmed without our permission, and without us knowing. But I still have to admit that the show is actually good!"

"Really? Well I'm glad you- hold on, you never knew anything?" I asked, a little suspicious.

"Well I... actually suspected something," she shyly smiled, playing with her hooves.

"Huh, that would explain why do you always break the fourth wall."

"I broke a wall? Quickly! Let's get some repairing stuff to...!"

"Pinkie!" I stopped her before she could go on, she was getting on my nerves sometimes "What I meant is: that's why you always look at the camera."

"Oh, that." she giggled "Silly me."

I found Rarity at the laundry room, helping my mother put clothes on the washer.

"Hey there Rarity, hey mom," I greeted.

"Ah thank Celestia you're here," Rarity said.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't seem to get a chat with your mother, we can't understand each other."

Just to remind you fellow reader, it haven't crossed to my mind the idea of teaching the girls to speak our language, or teach my mother to speak English.

"Oh yeah, so the only thing you can do with her is help her in silence, right?"

"It's so despising! I'd love to tell your mother how I love her sewing!"

"Really? Why didn't you say so? I could translate what you think and tell her."

"Ohh, I don't want to be a nuisance and call you everytime I want to tell her something," Rarity said.

"If not me, you can ask my brother, or my father, they are both fluent with English too."

"What are you two talking about?" my mother then intervened. So I explained the situation "Well, I guess I could use some teaching sometime."

"Yes but you are never willing to learn anything, it was too much already when I wanted to explain you what can happen on December 21st," I pointed.

"Don't talk to me like that," she pointed a finger at me.

"But it's the truth isn't it? Man, you adults DO get mad at a smart remark," I said before leaving the room.

The hardest one to talk to was Fluttershy, she was more shy than I pictured her in my fanfics. She would barely speak to me these few days.

I couldn't blame her, maybe she was still overwhelmed about the stuff I had with her image, besides the show. The only things I could get out of her was just how she was and how she was doing with our pets. I couldn't ask her more, first: because I couldn't find any other topic. And second: whenever I talked to her, my head went blank.

Something I developed when writing my fanfics, was a crush on her, but only as an admirer. I knew that she was fictional. But that was before, now that she's real, I don't know if it still applies the same.

And to top it off, my feelings grew stronger every day.

Author's Note

Just so you know, I can't picture Pinkie Pie the way most people do, so I apologize in advance for not picturing her a bit more active or silly (or insane for others, haha)

Howls

That same day, night came a bit windy, and it kept like that for a few more days.

I was in my bed, hugging my Fluttershy pillow, the wind against the windows sent me shivers despite the warmth of the room. I fidgeted in my bed for a while, I couldn't sleep, I had all these thoughts overwhelming my head.

And a discussion with myself ensued:

"What's the problem with having a crush on her?" my emotional self asked, which was the usual me.

"You're kidding right? You've got to be," the logical self responded.

"Why would I? After all, she's not just a cartoon anymore."

"Can't you see anything else besides that? C'mon! You both are different species, you're a human, she's a pony, nuff' said."

"But we are not very different, I mean, we both can talk and communicate with each other."

"That applies too for your pets but you don't go confessing you got a crush on them, do you?"

"That's different, and besides... what's all the fuss about? It's just a crush."

"Yeah right, you say it's 'just a crush' but you know deeper inside that that's not how you really feel about her."

"..."

"You know you want to do something else with her, not just a mere kiss."

"Shut up," I ordered.

"I would, but you're the one making me talk."

"..."

"You want to have something more intimate with her, and yet you're scared because you know it's wrong. But of course, that doesn't stop you from enjoying a little sneak peek," I could feel I was being teased by my own thoughts.

"Stop it."

"And here you are, wondering when will the day come that such an event happens? Let me tell you something, there is no way in hell that this will come up right."

"What do you know?"

"Well I'm the side of your consciousness that prevents you from doing anything stupid, if I didn't exist, you would have left the six of them to leave the house."

"Why would I ever do that?"

"Because that's what you want to do. But we have to see the big picture here, and prevent that, you don't know what the goverment would be up to just to protect it's people from knowing anything."

"I guess reading fanfics and too much movies have affected me."

"But they've opened your eyes, you can't believe in any idiot leading a country."

"You got a point there. Man, having the mane six in your house isn't as fun as one could imagine," I repeated.

I tried to sleep again, but to no avail, trying to get comfortable I shifted in my bed for several minutes, and the gusts of wind kept sending me shivers.

Around an hour, I felt something poking my hip. I simply brushed the area regarding it unimportant. Another poke, it started to tickle, so I sat on my bed and spoke with the most groggy voice I could make up.

"Leonard? Is that you?"

"No... it's me," a meek voice answered.

Leaving behind any false groggyness, I turned on my bedtable light, and my eyes met with those whose owner stars my fanfics beside my OC.

"Fluttershy? W-what's the matter?" I asked.

She took some time to think what she wanted to say.

"Um, well, you see... I..."

"Yes?" I insisted, though she stammered for a while.

"Y-you know? Nevermind, sorry I disturbed you," she said, and would have turned away if I didn't stop her.

"Wait, now you have to tell me; please, if there's anything I can do to make you feel comfortable, tell me."

She was indeed hesitating in telling me, or not, what was troubling her.

"Well, I... get a little scared... when... wind rises at night," she said, followed by another howl of the window which made her squeak.

"Is that so? Then, what can I do about it?" I asked again.

"I... I just wanted to ask, if you are okay with it, if you don't mind doing this..." I waited for her to finish "Could it be... that I could sleep with you... tonight? If you don't mind to, that is."

Despite how happy I felt when she asked, this was the last thing that I needed. If I wanted to forget any kind of crush I had of her, I had to keep my distance, and try not to think of her at all. But on the other hand, I really wished to make her stay as fine as she could be.

So I asked her, "Why don't you ask my brother?"

"Um, he scares me a little. He reminds me of Discord," she said.

I looked over at where Leonard was sleeping, and then at his usual clothes: black thorn jeans with chains hanging from the hip, and his signature jacket, full of weird patches and studs and some more metallic stuff.

"You make a point," I said, and patted the side of my bed. "Well, come on up."

"Really? Can I stay with you?"

"Of course, as long as you're comfortable."

She smiled at me and hopped in, I covered her with the blanket and quilt, and she quickly made herself comfortable on the right side of my bed while I turned off the light, I stayed in the left facing my back to her.

I was a little nervous, and my heart started racing again, so I thought of something to calm myself down.

Play a song in my mind:

It worked for a while, it was completely unfitting, it was perfect.

"Are you asleep?" Fluttershy called a few minutes later.

"That's kind of an obvious question, don't you think?" I joked while turning around.

"Oh, I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry, what's up?"

"Well, this is something I wanted to ask a while ago, but couldn't find the courage to..."

"Yes?"

She swallowed, and with a knot in her throat, she asked me:

"Why is it that... you have so much things... that have my face on?"

One of the answers I thought for that, should involve telling her my feelings, but this was not the time, she knows me for just a few days, that would scare her, so then I thought of something else.

"Remember when I told you and your friends about your show?"

"Y-yes?"

"Well, you're my favorite character."

She went silent some seconds.

"Am I... your favorite character?" she repeated.

"Yes, and I have a bunch of reasons for that."

"W-well, this is kind of strange, but why?"

I started then to name her a few attributes that made me like her the best among the six, like her shyness, her personality...

"...but do you know why I mostly like you more than them?"

I felt her shuffling her head. So I turned around to face her.

"It's because to me, you're the prettiest."

"Oh... my..." she stammered

"That's... pretty much it."

"I-I don't know what to say..." she confessed.

"Maybe you don't need to say anything."

It was dark in the room, but I believe she smiled at me.

"Say, are you holding that pillow with my face?" she suddenly asked.

"Oh, er..." she caught me off guard "yes, sorry."

"Why do you apologize?"

"I don't know, I guess it's my nature." I replied, she giggled at that.

"Can I ask you to...?"

"What?" I asked.

"...to, hold me instead?"

Okay, there was something wrong, that pony couldn't be Fluttershy, the most shy pony would ask me to hold her? Not that I didn't want to! But it was hard to believe.

I pinched my arm to see if I was asleep or not, it hurt, it was reality alright. But it was strange nonetheless.

"You think it's a good idea?" I accidentally asked.

"Well, I was only saying because I'm scared of this kind of night," she said, and another wave assaulted the walls again.

"Oh... that! Ah hahahaha! Sure, what would you mean if it wasn't that?" I nervously laughed "Just let me put this aside," and I tossed the pillow to the other end of the bed.

Then, I proceeded to (cautiously) hug her, and held her close to my chest. As I sunk my head in her mane, I wished she wouldn't notice my heart beat above normal.

I was at lack of words, I couldn't even tell her "goodnight", but it seemed like there wasn't need of that. So I just hugged her stronger, and finally fell asleep.

Disharmony

I woke up the next day, groggy as anyone. One of the dogs was sleeping next to me, so I carefully tossed him out of the bed.

"Whoa!" I heard followed by a thud.

I rubbed my eyes to regain sight, fully awake, and I saw that Fluttershy slammed to the ground.

"Oh shoot! Are you alright?" I asked her.

She muttered something but I couldn't make it out, she had her eyes derping in circles.

"I guess I have to get used to the idea of you being around," I tried to joke.

My dad then entered the room, completely dressed.

"Get up guys, we're leaving," he said.

"Huh? Where?" I asked.

"We're visiting some friends."

"Who?"

"You don't know them, they are old friends of mine and your mother."

"What's going on?" my brother asked just waking up.

"We're visiting some friends of dad and mom," I answered.

"We can't leave, what about them?" he protested pointing the ponies.

"They can take care of themselves with no problem, let's go already!" my dad insisted.

"Hey give us a sec will ya'? Gosh," I said.

After telling the girls what we were going to do (and some protests from Rainbow), we left the house. But we weren't heading to any friends' house. Dad was taking us somewhere else.

"Um, dad, didn't you say we were visiting some friends?" Leon asked.

"I'll tell you later, wait a few minutes," he simply replied. He was taking us to the mall, "okay, we're good," he said after a few minutes of being inside.

"Good? Since when have we been bad?" I asked.

"Let's just go to the food court, I'll explain you there," he sighed

Once we had our plates and everything ready to lunch, my dad started to talk:

"Okay, now that we have settled down, I have to tell you something," he said to all.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, the truth is, I won't be able to maintain the family for long if those six ponies stay in our house for too long," he said.

"I imagined that it would be hard, but believe me, they are trying to get back to their home," I explained.

"Oh yeah? Tell me how are they trying to do so if one of them is playing videogames, another plays with animals, and so on?"

"The purple one is trying to find a way back, she's probably the main reason they got here, she can do it," my brother said.

"But how long will it take her? Our income can't deal with the hunger of that pink thing," my mother said. "I thought horses only eat hay."

"Normal equines do, but these aren't the case, they eat what other humans eat, with the exception of meat," I pointed.

"And that's a plus, considering how expensive is meat nowadays," Leonard added.

"I'll give you that, but still, we can't afford so much loss," dad said.

"Are you saying that we're on red numbers?" I asked.

"No we're not, but the family upkeep has raised too much, that our cash flow is nearly at zero. And if the inflation keeps striking, we'll eventually be," he explained.

"Wait, it's been just a few days since they got here, how can you know that the income is that low?" my brother asked.

"You don't need to be a genius to know when the food you bought to last for a week, it's devoured in days," my mom said.

"So you don't really know if the cash flow really went down, you just assume it," I said.

"Name it as you like it, I don't care, but believe me when I say that we have a trouble," dad repeated.

"Oh right! And here I thought we were slacking our asses off since the girls showed up!" I mocked.

"Don't you talk to me like that son," he menaced.

"And don't you take me for a 5-year-old dad," I replied.

"Calm yourselves! The last thing we need is to be angry with each other," my mom jumped.

"Ugh whatever, are you at least looking for a secluded place for all of us to stay?" I asked dad.

"As a matter of fact I found one place, I have it booked for when my holidays start."

"Well good then, how much until then?" Leonard asked.

"Several weeks, a month at least," dad answered.

"So maybe we'll be going around the start of January. Is that correct?" I asked.

"If my holidays don't fall on December, then yes."

"Well, let's just hope the ponies don't get mad to wait that much," my mom said.

"They will understand, maybe not now, but eventually," I said.

At home, I explained the problem to the girls:

"So let me get this straight, ever since we showed up, your family is having money difficulties?" Twilight asked.

"Not really, but it will have if the economy keeps going on this track," I pointed.

"But what do you want me to do then?" she asked.

"If it were for me, I'd just ask you to keep looking for your home. But since I'm coming on behalf of my dad, I'll ask you to search faster."

"Do you think I'm not trying hard enough on fixing this?"

"Must I repeat myself? I'm the one telling you instead of my dad. I trust you, but he doesn't care in who I trust."

"I'm detecting disharmony in this place?" she asked.

"Believe me, I would be scared if you didn't find disharmony in the whole world."

"Why?"

"Let me show you why," I said and went to the living room, the ponies following suit.

I don't know if I did the right thing, or messed up, but I showed Twilight and her friends the state that our world has come to; just a few minutes watching the headers of the news on TV would be enough for anyone to say that the world has no solution.

"This is the world, or what's left of it, that my family lives in," I said.

"Why is there so much anger in this world?" Fluttershy asked.

"There are many theories, one of them being the mother of all of them by standard," I answered.

"Which is...?" Twilight said.

"I can't tell you, I don't feel it's right to do so. The truth is, I don't know if it's even true."

"How come?"

"Twilight, have you ever been told to believe something, and not having substantial proof to do so?"

"Where are you exactly going with this?"

I shut up for a few seconds.

"Nevermind, forget what I said, I tend to say things I don't even understand myself."

"Well... okay?" Twilight said unsure.

"Trust me. It's better if you don't know."

The girls then left the living room in silence, only Twilight stayed.

"Why won't you tell us the reason all of this is happening?" she asked.

"Didn't you hear me? I don't know if it's actually true," I said.

"But you didn't know that Equestria was real either. What if the same applies to this?"

"Even so, I just can't."

"Why not?"

"Because... I, uh... I don't know how to put it that doesn't sound insulting."

"Well, say it as you can. I won't take any offense."

"You promise?"

"I Pinkie-promise if you want to," she offered, but I declined. "So then, why you won't tell me why this world of yours is in such state?"

I took a deep breath, and released it at once.

"I don't want you to doubt your beliefs with Celestia."

She was astonished, "Well, that is insulting alright," she said. "But why would I ever doubt her?"

"You consider her as a deity, right?" I said, "People like me worship another deities, depending on their descent."

"But then again, how does a deity factor in the problems of this world?"

Seeing as I was unable to explain her properly, I brought her an ilustrated bible.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A shortened version of a book, which was supposedly written by the deity of the religion I follow. Does that word sound familiar to you?"

"Which one? 'Religion'? It does, and I have an idea of what it means," she flipped some pages of the book, which was half as tall as her. "But this book is in sponish..."

"Spanish." I corrected.

"Right, sorry. But how am I supposed to read this if I don't know what it says?"

"I can translate it for you, I have no problem with that."

"Well good! This might be interesting to investigate. But not right now, we need to process this new stuff you showed us."

"Tell me whenever you want to read it ok?"

"Will do," she said and left the living room.

I stayed in the same place for some time before thinking to myself.

"This is bad, incredibly bad. Let's just hope she doesn't take too seriously this," I sighed. "Ignorance is bliss indeed."

Author's Note

I'm sorry this episode was pure dialogue and no narrative, but I couldn't find a way to make it better.

Of hearts and apples

Monday came, time to go to college.

The routine went like always, I got up, watched My Little Pony, had lunch, and left. When I arrived at the college, the guys were waiting for me just like always. We entered our class which was Semiotics again, very strange subject if you ask me.

Two hours later, we left the class, it was still very bright outside, so we decided to take a stroll around a nearby park.

"Hey man what's up? You seem worried," Jenny asked me after a while.

"Me? Nothing's wrong," I lied.

"You sure? You know you can tell me."

"I'm more than fine, but thanks for worrying anyway."

"Well, okay."

We all kept talking a little, talking about recent events in our lifes and stuff, nothing too important. Then we started talking about cartoons and anime.

"You know?" I started when we got to the subject "I always envied animes."

"Oh yeah? Why?" Andy asked.

"Well have you seen the girls that appear in those shows? They are all hot!" I said.

"Are you saying we aren't?" Jessica said.

"I never said that. But I'll just shut up before I mess up even more."

"He actually makes a point," said Paul. "The girls in anime are all of them very pretty. Specially those ecchi ovas."

"No argument here," Emmanuel said. "I'd actually like to know one of those kind of girls in real life, at least be a friend."

That last comment made a question pop up in my head.

"Hey that makes up a good question," I said. "What would you do if you met a fictional character in real life? Any character, for that matter."

Everyone stopped to think.

"Well... if that happened, I would thank Goku for saving the Earth so many times," Nicholas said.

"Who wouldn't?" Andy pointed.

"Do videogame characters count?" Paul asked. "Because I would have Ezio teach me his skills."

And so on, we kept talking. Of course, I didn't take part of the conversation, I didn't want to accidentally reveal that six multicolored ponies were in my house. They wouldn't even believe me anyway, but I still did not say a word.

Back in the house, Twilight was waiting for me to read her this short bible.

"Shall we begin?" she asked.

"Let me tell you something first, I will only read you the first part, so then I can explain you everything else."

"Oh, well okay," she said disappointed "I was kinda hoping you'd read me the whole book because I wanted to investigate about this 'deity' of yours."

"Okay, since you really want to."

I read her then (in spite of my discomfort) the shortened bible. Starting with the Creation, then to the Apple and Eden, and I explained her that the last one was the one I called the "mother reason" for what happens in my world.

"Applejack would be so mad if she knew this," Twilight said.

"That's a good one!" I laughed with her.

"So explain to me, why exactly?" she asked, returning to the subject.

"Knowledge. As far as this book explains, my race was created to be oblivious, or so I believe," I explained.

"But what kind of deity would make his creation like that?"

"The one that would want us to live in perfect harmony."

Then she realised something.

"Is that why your world is not?"

"This book says so, apparently knowledge is the downfall of our race," I said.

"But knowledge isn't bad, I have knowledge of many things."

"Not that kind of knowledge Twi, but the greed and one's own good knowledge."

"Ohh, so that's why everyone is against one another."

"Pretty much, but there are people who try to make the world a better place."

"Well, I doubted that there were only bad people here."

"Do you want to read more?" I asked.

"Of course! I want to see how this affects the next events," she said.

In a few days, we finished the Old Testament:

"I still can't believe a man can kill his son just to prove his love to his god!" she said.

"Let me tell you again, everything this book says, it could actually be wrong, it has passed a few thousand years since those events happened, so the story could have deformed over time," I said.

"Are you saying you don't believe in the book of your god?"

"I'm saying that I have an open mind about everything, I don't believe in anything just because I read it the first time, I keep looking for information until I make up my mind."

"Well okay, I want to read more sometime."

"Sure, but in a few days okay? I grew a little tired of reading this thing." I said.

"As you wish, in the meantime, I'll keep trying on finding our home." Twilight said, and left.

"You shouldn't have done that," my brother said.

"What do you want me to do huh? Tell her she can't learn something because it's too dangerous? Believe me when I say that I tried, Leonard!" I replied.

"You should have tried harder."

"I'm weak! Okay? I can't give a 'no' for an answer sometimes!"

"And now you're telling me?"

"You asked."

"Whatever," he said and left the room.

When he left, I started to think: he was right, I should have tried harder, but then Twilight would resent me, I didn't want that either.

Night out

Two weeks have passed since the Mane Six appeared in my family's yard. The cash flow was still at the edge, but with a little cooperation, we managed to make it last for longer.

The girls got a little more used to our lifestyle, and they started to learn our customs, things started to get a little more along. All of them felt pretty comfortable, except for one.

Rainbow still found it hard to adapt, and rightly so. Staying in the same place for two weeks was like a nightmare for her, limited to only fly just a few meters from the ground, and there wasn't enough space for her to go full speed. It was like a prison to her.

And it hurt me too, but I couldn't do anything; even after seeing movies about extraterrestrial beings arriving on Earth and seeing what the government does to them, I still can't imagine what they could do to them if they were spotted.
I told her that sometime soon, we would go to a place, away from civilization, where she would be able to soar up high as much as she'd like.

She waited anxious for that, but it still wasn't enough.

One night, a calm one, I was about to fall asleep when I felt a poke in my hip, I turned around and asked to the air: "Who's there? Fluttershy?"

"No, it's me." a different voice answered.

I turned on my lamp and saw that Rainbow was awake.

"Hey, what's the problem?"

"I'm bored," she said like anything normal.

"Okay, but what do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Help me," she said.

"With what?"

"Sneaking out."

I rubbed my eyes in surprise.

"What?" I said.

"It will be quick, I just go outside, stretch my wings, and we'll come back in less than an hour," she said.

"Wait-wait-wait, us?"

"Yeah! You'll come with me, and enjoy a trip through your neighborhood, how's that?" she said excited.

"No way, I never sneaked out of my house, and I'm not planing on doing it now. Go to sleep," I told her while laying down again, turned away.

She grunted silently, and the next thing she did, was kick me in my butt. I had to cover my mouth to not yell.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted silently.

"I will keep going if you don't help me," she threatened.

"I can't sleep now, but I won't do it anyway," I said.

"If you don't help me, I'll tell Fluttershy everything!"

I stared at Rainbow for a while, how did she find out?! But I had to keep calm, maybe she was just teasing me in case I actually had something to hide.

"You'll tell her what?"

"You know what."

"You don't know nothing," I said in a derogatory tone.

"Maybe I don't, but would you take the risk?" she said.

I scrutinized her, trying to see if she was lying. Clearly, just watching the first episode of "Lie to Me" doesn't make you a face reader. So I desisted and agreed to help her:

"Fine, but you have to be unseen, hold on," I told her.

I checked my wardrobe, and grabbed some clothes: black joggin shorts (her tail was vital for her to keep balance, so I made a hole in the shorts, they were very small for me to use again anyway), a t-shirt (the torso rolled up so she could move her wings), dark socks in her four legs, and a hood (to cover her face).
I grabbed some dark clothes for myself, and a second hood, my keys for the house, and got outside.

"Does this hinder you somehow?" I asked her once outside, in the yard.

She tested her fly a bit.

"Not much, I can handle it," she said.

"Good, think you can hold me?" I asked.

"Let's see," she said as I hanged from her, with my hands on her hip.

She slowly rose her flight and hovered over my house, then dropped me in the street.

"Don't stay far from me Rainbow, we'll just have a stroll until the main street of this neighborhood, and we'll return."

"Okay, whatever you say."

I walked through the empty streets, Rainbow following me, flying a bit, going through some roofs another.

"Be careful Rainbow, there are wires in these streets, I don't want a roasted pony when I get back home," I told her when she was near enough.

"Relax, nothing could happen to me," she replied.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, but it wasn't Fluttershy the one that broke her wing while showing off."

"HEY!"

We arrived to a park in the (usually) most crowded street in the vicinity, about ten blocks away from my house.

"What a cool place it must be at noon," Rainbow said.

"Kind of, most times when I came here I ran into friends of mine," I said.

We sat in a bench, Rainbow looked around the whole time.

"Hey I gotta ask, what would you have told Fluttershy if I refused to help you?" I asked.

"Oh nothing actually, I never knew anything related to you that would bother Fluttershy," she said.

"So I could have said 'no' without a problem?!"

"Yes, but now I know you have something to hide," she grinned.

I sighed.

"Mind telling me what is it?" she asked.

"Yeah, like I would tell you," I said.

"Either way I could tell Fluttershy that you hide something from her, and I know you can't lie."

"We know each other for two weeks."

"And that's more than I need to figure your nature," she mocked, I wanted to retort something, but didn't.

We kept silent for 15 minutes, more or less, until I confessed, "I have a little crush on her."

Rainbow stared at me.

"What?"

"What I said, I like Fluttershy."

"You say it like it's wrong," she pointed.

"And it is."

"Why?"

"Oh come on Rainbow look at me!" I stood up and pointed my body "I'm not a pony!"

"How does that factor in anything? You're both mentally alike."

"Tell me how," I said.

"Well, uh..."

"See? That's what's wrong."

"You didn't let me finish! You... you... both can think and have feelings like everypony!"

"And so do the dogs, owls, cats of this planet, but you don't see me giving them a kiss in the mouth," I said.

"That was uncalled for," she pointed.

"But it's the truth Rainbow, I'm a human, she's a pony, and humans that have feelings like love for animals are
considered sick people."

"So? Are you going to let the opinion of others affect you?" she asked.

"Let's go back okay? I don't want to discuss it now."

"No no no, let's keep talking!" it was her turn to stand up, and she was now floating in the air. "Are you the kind of guy that feels affected by the opinion of other people?" she asked again a little angry.

"No I'm not."

"Then why do you care?"

"BECAUSE OF REASONS YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" I yelled at her, and she flinched.

"Is it because of your religion or something?" she asked.

After Twilight read the Bible with me, she told her friends too, and while getting used to our customs, they too started learning of our beliefs. I just hoped Celestia wouldn't harm them or anything.

"Even if I was agnostic, having these kind of feelings for animals are wrong," I said, calmer.

We kept quiet again.

"Hey, if it is of any help, we don't consider ourselves like animals," she said.

"But in essence, you are."

"Yeah that's true, but then, aren't humans too?"

I stared at her, incredulous at that last sentence she made, she was right. I still wanted to retort something, but couldn't make out anything.

"I guess you're right," I said "But let's just go back now, okay? I gotta think what I'm going to do with her."

"Yeah, okay."

New start

Two months later:

My head ached as I got up from my bed.

"I must have overslept" I thought. I sat with my legs crossed, and slowly got down. Way down. Five feet later, I landed face first, "Owwwww, I gotta get used to this new bed." I said while rubbing my face.

I grabbed some shorts and walked out of the room, entering the living, greeting (and explaining what happened after seeing my red face) everyone on the way to the main door.

But the scenery that received me, wasn't the old urban one:

Now a lake extended at my view, nature surrounding us. It was an splendid sight, one that not all get to see.

I entered again in the house, it was one built with logs, like those that normally are in snowy places. It had electricity too, but not as much as the house we have back in the suburbs, which was being taken care of by my mom's parents in the meantime.

Everyone was here, my family, the ponies, and the dogs too (we couldn't leave them there); we were living a bit more relaxed now.

We arrived the day before, we brought the girls in the trailer we had for our Go Karts.

I couldn't wait to explore the place. Mom was making lunch, and almost everyone else was on a couch in front of a TV.

"Hey, anyone up for a walk through this land?" I suggested to the group.

"Can't you wait a little?" my mom overheard me "Lunch is almost ready, and you just smashed yourself in the face."

I just nodded along.

A while later, the ponies got to walk outside, but so far, they could only walk through the woods, so if some stranger passed nearby, they could hide.

"Ugh it felt like an eternity! Having to stay in a house just so nopony else could see us!" Rainbow said.

"Shut up Rainbow, we overdid it that time we sneaked out, remember?" I scolded while showing her my cut on the left side of my torso.

"Ups. I think I forgot." she excused.

"You've got a big hole in your leg, how can you ever forget that?" I pointed.

"I don't spend my whole day looking at my hoof y'know? And it's not a hole anyway." she said.

"Guys stop, the last thing we need is to get mad at each other for a single statement." Twilight intervened.

We split up in groups, I ended with Rainbow and Fluttershy. Not very pleasant for me: Rainbow knew about my feelings for Fluttershy, and having the latter nearby wasn't helping me in forgetting her either. I tried to maintain a conversation anyway.

"So Fluttershy, how do you like the place?"

"It's amazing." she said "I too really missed being outside."

"Oh come on. You spend all the day locked inside your house back in Equestria." Rainbow pointed.

"That's not true!" the meek pony defended.

"It's not? Everytime I go around Ponyville you're nowhere to be seen Flutters."

"Well, maybe she actually goes outside, but does it when you're napping?" I suggested.

"Yes Rainbow, I believe your naps last longer than a night of slumber."

"Come on, how could it be?"

"I don't know, you tell us." I said.

"But I-" Rainbow started "how could I take a nap that lasts longer than my sleep? That's ridiculous!"

"As much as saying that Fluttershy never leaves her house." I said "Am I right?"

"Please don't tell me you're taking it THAT seriously." Rainbow said a bit worried.

"I'm not, I'm just messing with you." I joked.

"Darn you can be a pain in the flank sometimes too."

We talked for quite a time, until Rainbow decided to take a nap in the clouds. I told her that maybe the clouds in my world don't behave the same way in Equestria, but she wanted to try at least.

"I'm off, see ya'!" and she took off.

"Wait Rainbow!" I stopped her, and as she came back, I took her away to talk to her personally. "What are you doing?" I whispered, far from Fluttershy's hear.

"I'm going to take a nap silly." she innocently said.

"Well duh, I wasn't asking about that." I pointed "You're leaving me alone with her!"

"Yeah, what abou-... ohh I get it. But what's the problem?"

"Did you really forget what I told you that time?"

"I remember every word, but let me tell you this." she defied "If you still think it's wrong because your society says so, I can't help but think you are truly pathetic."

"Hey!"

"If you don't like that, then make up your mind. Besides, there's no society around here." Rainbow said.

"That's... true." I said with a little of hope.

"So then, make the most of it. Or you will regret it when we leave."

I sighed, it was very strange that Rainbow could give such advice; but then again, this whole thing was strange to begin with, so...

"I guess I can give it a try." I said.

"If you do, please don't ruin it." Rainbow then bumped me in the shoulder, in a sign of her friendship, and took off to the sky.

I approached Fluttershy once Rainbow left.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yeah yeah, everything's good." I said.

"Well, can we continue the trip? If... you don't mind."

I stared at her and agreed, thinking about we could do to spend some quality time.

"Have you ever done stoneskipping?" I asked when we got near a shore, where stones marked the border of the land.

"What's that?" she asked back.

"So I guess you didn't, let me show you."

I grabbed a stone as big and round as a nut, and yanked my arm like a whip, throwing the stone making it skip on the water.

"That's amazing! How do you do that?" she exclaimed.

"You have to throw the stone as parallel to the water surface as you can, and then the stone does the job. Wanna try?" I said while playing with a few other stones in my hand. She grabbed one from the ground, and weakly threw one the regular way, which came down making one single splash.

"Sorry, I'm not very talented." she apologized.

"Don't worry, I couldn't do it the first time either." I cheered her up "Here, let me help you. Maybe if you stand up you'll do it better."

So when she stood up, I held her from behind, and motioning her arms, I helped throw another stone, this one was able to skip a few times before sinking.

"I did it, I did it!" she exclaimed joyfully.

"Congratulations Fluttershy. Want to try it on your own now?" I offered.

She nodded, and threw some other rocks, some got to skip, some others sank in the first try.

"This is fun! How come I never heard of this?"

"Well, can't say that I know."

We kept throwing rocks at the lake for a while, once my arm started aching I stopped and sat at the base of a tree to rest. Fluttershy did the same later, and sat next to me.

"This sight rivals Ponyville's, you know?" she said.

"That much? Well I'm flattered."

"I mean it. Well sure, Ponyville is pretty and all, but this is different."

"How different?"

"Um, well, Ponyville looks like this place. But I like it more here because..." I looked at her right as she paused "...maybe because it's not the same place."

"Just for that?" I asked.

"It's more than what you think," she said. "You see, I love the sights of Equestria, but there comes a time that you are so familiar with it, you don't think there is more to see."

"Huh, I think I understand now."

"You do?"

"Yeah, it's like you get bored of the same place, simple as that."

"Yes, kind of, but I don't get bored of Ponyville anyway." Fluttershy pointed.

"But you'd still like to go somewhere different, like for some vacations, right?" I asked.

"Oh yes, absolutely. But I'm having a good time now, so I guess this counts as vacation."

"Truth be told, this is a period of vacation in my country."

"I know, you already told me." she pointed, and quickly changed subject "How is your body?" she asked getting up.

"Look." I said lifting my t-shirt "It's just a scar now."

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

"Not at all, but I should exercise a little to compensate for the time you bound me to repose." I said.

"Do you want to exercise now?" Fluttershy suggested

"Um, shouldn't we get Rainbow Dash for that matter?"

"What is it? You don't think I'm a good partner?" she whimpered.

"What? No no I didn't say that!"

"Well let's get going!" she cheered up, it was like she looked sad on purpose just to make me fall for it. I couldn't do anything but oblige.

We did a little routine before I called it quits with the training out of boredom.

"I don't like this kind of exercise you know?" I said.

"I don't like it either but I still did it to help Rainbow once." she replied.

"What? When did you- oh wait I remember now! Back when you had to raise your wingpower!" I said, and she nodded. "But I still don't like doing push-ups and stuff." I concluded "Call me a wuss or a quitter, but I won't do it anyway."

"I wasn't going to." she said surprised to what I said "I was just going to suggest something else."

"Like what?"

I can't explain very well what happened next, because... well, I couldn't believe it either! So I'll just say that me and Fluttershy started playing around the forest like fillies, running, laughing, and all that. It sounds stupid for a reason, maybe. But as old as it sounds, this whole thing is out of reason!

Nevermind that, I admit I had a more than great time with her, all my worries vanished from my head for a few hours. I felt like a child again, feeling really warm and fuzzy inside.

Not the same way

The next day:
It was useless, every time I tried to forget any feelings for Fluttershy, an event would make me change my mind.
It's all my fault, I am very weak-minded, I can never find a reason to do the things I should, and that goes for my studies too.

She's all I want, even if we are too different, I don't picture my life without her. It's completely useless, I can't fight it anymore.

I'm in love with her, too damn much.

I want her to know it too, but what would happen if she did? Maybe her shyness comes to the point of not being able to love somepony (or someone) else just out of fear. But I wanted to tell her so bad, that the phrase itself was making a knot in my throat, and I felt that if I don't tell her now, I wouldn't be able to do it never.

There had to be a way to tell her, but I couldn't find it, until then...

I woke up in the morning, way earlier than ever, the sun was about to show up in the horizon. I had trouble sleeping that night, nervous and worried for something, but I didn't catch what. I looked at my cellphone to check the hour.

Then an idea occured to me. I put on some clothes and was about to leave the bed, but I remembered what happened the day before. So I descended slowly, to prevent any noise.

"Gotta remember this is a bunk bed." I thought.

I went to the living room. Where the girls were sleeping. I approached them with caution, and tried to wake Fluttershy up without bothering the others. A few minutes passed but she was still asleep, so I boldly kissed her on the cheek that made the trick.

With Fluttershy awake, I had to keep going with my plan, when she asked me what was happening I just told her to follow me. Then I went to the door, waited there for her to get up, and left the house, making sure that she was following me.

I went to the shore of the lake, meters ahead from the pegasus.

"I'm sorry I brought you here at this time. But there's something you have to know." I told her once she catched up to me.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked groggily and worried.

"No no, everything's fine." I answered.

"Then what's up?"

"Well, I..." I couldn't make up the rest of the phrase, I was blocked. Some seconds passed, so I tried to take a way around, while doing some stoneskipping to keep my mind from over thinking. "How do you feel about love, Fluttershy?" I asked innocently.

"W-what? Why all of a sudden...?" She gasped.

"I'm just asking, if you don't want to reply, then don't worry." I said.

"U-u-um, I uh..." she stammered.

"Have you experienced it?"

"Well, I-I don't think so..."

"Did you like somepony once?" I was asking too much, making her uncomfortable.

"W-what's with all the questions?" she finally asked worried "Why can't you tell me what's happening?"

I rubbed my forehead to think and stopped with the stoneskipping.

"You're right, there's no point in delaying it anymore." I said throwing away the remaining stones.

"What are you talking about?"

I looked at her, completely serious, stretching the confession would be harder, so I simply said:

"I think I'm in love with you."

Her eyes opened as double as wide, her mouth went agape too; this mere instants were critical to know how she would react. But I wasn't able to figure out what would she do.

"Y-you are?" she asked.

"I believe so." I said "Everytime I'm around you, I feel great, and I just wished you'd never leave. But that's impossible. You have to return to Equestria."

"Well, that's true." she said.

"Besides, something between us would be strange."

"Why do you think that?"

"And you ask too? Look at us! I'm a human!" I pointed a finger to my chest, then pointed at her "And you are a pegasus pony! We're completely different! This isn't right!" I felt stupid just repeating the same thing over and over.

She looked bashfully.

"But I can't help it anymore, despite how much wrong it can be, I can't deny it. I don't care about anything else now." I said.

"You know, there's something I have to tell you too." Fluttershy said.

"I'm listening." my heart was racing, I was imagining what she would say.

She took a breath before speaking:

"I had noticed something in you about me, for the time I was... stuck here... no offense!" she apologized.

"None taken." I dismissed with a wave of my hand.

"I figured out that if you were such a fan of me, there would come a time in which your feelings would grow stronger."

"You're right." I said "First I thought it would be impossible, because until then, you weren't real."

"Exactly. But now that you know that I am, you made up your mind that something could happen." she explained. Something was odd, this event was not taking the way I planned it to go.

"Something could happen? Are you implying something?" I asked.

"There is no easy way to tell you this, but..." She took another breath.

"But what?"

She sighed.

"I don't feel the same way about you."

At this point, I felt my heart giving one last beat before going mute, it was like it broke itself.

I couldn't believe it, how could I be so blind? Why would she look at me the same way I do about her? There was nothing about me that was remarkable, nothing! NOTHING! And yet, I entered into this game like a fool, I didn't pay attention to my brain, like I should have. How could I be so stupid?!

"HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID!?" I screamed "IT WAS SO CLEAR ALL THE TIME! AND I FELL FOR IT ANYWAY!"

"Calm down! It's not your fault!" she tried to calm me.

"Is it not Fluttershy!? I'm always trying to play the game of love, but there are times where I don't even qualificate for it!"

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I try to say, is that all the time I make myself ideas over nothing, and all my feelings get shattered because they will never become real!"

"I'm sorry, but I was just hoping that it wasn't true." she said.

"It's okay, it's not YOUR fault, it's mine."

"It's not yours either!"

"Oh yeah? Tell me how." I asked angry "Tell me how!"

"Because we don't choose who we fall in love with!"

"W-w-what?" I asked in surprise, and I remembered something:

"WE CAN'T CHOOSE WHO WE FALL IN LOVE WITH." That exact phrase was the one I wrote in my last (to date) fanfiction about MLP, I don't remember where did I get the inspiration for writing it. And maybe it's an overused sentence anyway, but despite the fanfic not being popular, it was still the deepest thing I've written.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine." I guessed that in the process of remembering, my mind left my body for a while "I just remembered something."

"What?"

"Nothing important."

"Nothing important at this point?" she asked strangely.

"Don't ask, I already feel bad as of now."

"Okay then. I'm sorry it had to play out like this." she said.

"No no, it's fine. If you didn't stop me who would?" I said with an empty smile.

"Will you be okay?" she asked unsure.

"In time, I will. Don't worry." I assured her "And thanks for taking me out of this fantasy before I did something stupid. Let's just hope she doesn't remember the kiss on the cheek." I thought.

"It's fine." she said with a worried expression.

She turned around and walked to the house, I stayed still watching her go, until a question occured to me.

"Fluttershy wait!" I ran to her midway to the house.

"What's the matter now?" she asked.

"I have to know, why is it that you don't feel the way I feel about you?"

She was taken aback by the question, and started fidgeting in her place.

"Is it because of a stallion? Do you like somepony else?" I asked, she was getting more and more nervous "It's that, is it? You already like somepony." I insisted.

"Oh please don't make me say it!" she squeaked.

"It's Big Mac isn't he?" I grabbed her front leg with force, I was out of myself, the mere mention of that guy made me angry.

"Please Flare don't make this harder for us!" she gasped after finishing her sentence.

"What?" I released her in surprise. "What did you just call me?"

She had her hooves on her mouth, keeping it shut, but it was too late, the name slipped from her lips.

I walked back and forth a while before asking her.

"Since when did you know about my stories?"

"Since you started reading to Twilight that 'bible'. I remembered that you mentioned to us that you wrote some stories like that, so I wanted to check them." she explained.

"And here I thought none of you saw them." I said defeated, and kicked the ground, lifting dirt.

"I'm sorry but...!"

"Please leave me alone for a while. I need to think."

She did so, and entered the house, while I headed back to the lake.

I was angry, mad, and what's more, Fluttershy called me by my OC's name. But calling me by another name wasn't what made me angry, it was that I couldn't be the one she called.

If I was Flaring, this would be much simpler, she'd lie eyes upon me for good. But that would mean that she has feelings for me, and she just told me she didn't. Was it because I was a human? What if I was a pony?

No, I'm delirious, one thing won't remove the other. I have to make up my mind, that my relationship with her will never come true.

I'd have to live with the wish. So once I reached the shore, I grabbed a handful of stones and threw them in the lake in a rant, and fell to the floor crying.

Not worth it (?)

I avoided every contact with Fluttershy that same day, and the next ones too.

Even a blind guy could see that things couldn't go further, it wasn't possible. It wasn't worth a try either. But yet I tried, and look where it brought me.

It wasn't worth it.

I knew I should have heard my brain and not my heart. One can process things coldly, accurately; the other, however, follows a hunch, some kind of hope. And now I was paying the price.

It's not that I was mad or anything, not at her at least, but at myself. If I had shut up from the beginning... or if I was like her.

She called me by my OC's name (we both are very similar anyway, except from our parents), and I thought that the only way to share feelings, would be to be a pony like her. The problem was: how?

No, it wasn't worth either, I already have a life in my world, it's hard to let go something you are very accustomed to. If I'm not willing to let go my life just for her, it must be that I don't really care. But I DID care, a lot. Who said that you have to leave everything just for love? But then it wouldn't be "unconditional love", how it must be.

It was a lost cause, no matter how did I look into it, I was just getting even more entangled in the problem. It was hopeless. I didn't know love could be that hard, that painful.

It's not worth it... is it?

One night, just like any other, I was at my bed, trying to get some sleep. My mouth was dry so I headed to the bathroom for a sip of water. But it wasn't until I got to my bedroom's door until I heard something from the other side.

Dismissing my thirst unimportant, I paid closer attention, and I realized that the girls were talking between each other, far away from my door. Curious as I was, I rested my ear on my side of the door, trying to understand something they were talking about. I could only hear some muffled talk, but it was clear enough to understand.

"I don't get it," Rainbow said "I thought that it would turn out differently."

"C'mon, after what she jus' told us, how could things be any different?" Applejack said.

"Well yeah, but I was expecting he'd take it better." Rainbow said.

"Let me put it this way Rainbow," Twilight started. "If someone you love tells you they don't feel the same way, how would you feel?"

"I'd feel sad, but that wouldn't make me ignore the guy."

"But the difference is that you don't see that guy everyday, but he on the other hoof does see her," Rarity said. "It is better to not have contact for a while, but how can he do that if we are all living here?"

"Please don't tell me it has something to do with me." I thought, imagining where this talk was going to.

"Why did you do it? Why did you tell him that? Because I can't figure it out on my own." Rainbow asked.

There was a silence. Maybe all the 6 of them were awake, strangely enough Pinkie hasn't talked at all.

"I... thought it was for the best." Fluttershy finally said.

I was sure that this talk was actually related to me, but I hated to jump on conclusions, even if things could be so bluntly obvious. I decided to hear more:

"How could you have thought that?" Rainbow asked.

"If ya' think it thru' Rainbow, it's not that strange," Applejack explained. "He did say that somethin' between them would be wrong, with him bein' a human, and she a pony."

"Yup, I have everything to do here."

"But he also said that despite how wrong it could be, he was willing to take the risk, right?" Rainbow protested.

"That's true, but can you see somepony like him and Fluttershy together? Even I can't see that!" Pinkie said.

"Oh come on Pinkie, Gilda once tried to hit on me, so it's nothing from the other world liking another species." Rainbow pointed.

"She actually did?"

"Ugh, think more practical, will ya' Rainbow?" Applejack said "It's not normal ta' like somepony completely different from you, specially when the species are."

"I know that, but why is it so wrong?" Rainbow asked.

"It's not wrong per se, it's frowned upon." Twilight said.

"And what about Spike? We know how he feels about Rarity."

"But he's just a baby, he'll come to his senses in time," Rarity assured. "Every little kid does."

"Besides, why are you insisting on this topic Rainbow?" Twilight asked.

"Well... I was kinda happy at the fact that somepo- er, somebody likes Fluttershy." she answered, a little sad.

"Happy?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah. I mean, you're always lonely, and I thought that you could use a coltfriend sometime. But nopony ever paid you attention besides us. I'm sorry I'm pushing the topic further, but I don't think you actually meant what you said, right?" Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy wasn't responding, was she thinking what she was going to say?

"I know you since we were fillies Fluttershy, and I believe you didn't tell him the truth." Rainbow insisted.

"You're right. I didn't." she said.

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!" all but Fluttershy and Rainbow exclaimed.

"The thing is... I do feel the same way about him." she assured.

"But why did you do it?" Rarity asked.

"As if I had a choice!" Fluttershy protested "Didn't you hear me when I told what he said? I can't do that! Besides we all don't belong to this world, we belong to Equestria. If I did reply to his feelings, what would happen once we go back?"

"She's right, we have our lifes there, he has his' here. It's not possible." Twilight said.

"But what about now? You could be with him for the time we have left here." Rainbow insisted.

"Ya' still don't git it do ya'," Applejack jumped. "Ya' can't force two ponies to be together."

"I'm not forcing it! I'm just...!"

"It's okay Rainbow. This is a lost cause anyway," Fluttershy said. "At least I'll spare him the moment of bidding me goodbye, knowing we will not come back." she finished sadly.

There was nothing else to be said.

*THUD*

They jumped out scared at the sudden noise, and looked where it came from. Right at me, speechless like me. The door wasn't closed, it was ajar, so when I pushed my head closer to it, it unexpectedly opened and I fell to the floor.

Fluttershy seemed like collapsing, and in a surge, she ran for the front door.

"Fluttershy wait!" we all shouted.

But it was too late, she opened the door, and escaped into the night.

We searched from the porch of the house, Rainbow was scoping the nearby forest.

"Any sight of her?" Twilight asked a few minutes later.

"None. I can't find her in the dark," Rainbow returned. "I need light, we'll have to enter to find her."

"Okay, I'll go with you Rainbow," Twilight said. "AJ, can you take Pinkie and Rarity and search on the other side of the forest?"

"Sure thing sugarcube."

"Thank goodness it's not the Everfree," Rarity muttered while moving out. "I'd despise to enter there again."

"Twilight, let me go with you." I said.

"No, someone has to stay here in case Fluttershy returns." the unicorn replied.

"Oh right. So will you two be okay?"

"Of course, it's not like there are strange creatures in the dark right?" she joked.

"Um, yea, I guess not..." I said, faking ease.

"Okay, we'll be right back. C'mon Rainbow!"

The pegasus then followed Twilight into the dark. and I just stood there in the porch, worried. There was no moon, and the stars didn't give enough light.

It would be the perfect time for a peculiar tall someone to appear just like nothing.

Wailing, distant, silent cries

Ten minutes passed and there wasn't any sign of her, let alone the girls for that fact.

I sat down against the outside wall of the house, at the porch. I was falling asleep, so I stood up again and walked over the border of the forest, in case Fluttershy was actually coming back or something.

Nothing. I couldn't even hear if the girls were near, they must have gone very deep. Could Fluttershy flee that fast? It was strange, but it wasn't the time to think about that, I had to pay attention if she sneaked around me while I was looking for her.

Still nothing.

I went back to the porch, and stood against a column, still looking around. I started to think that it was pointless, and insisted on asking myself how could she disappear so fast?
I rounded the house in case Fluttershy was just hiding, but she wasn't nowhere to be seen, and the lack of a moon in the sky was making it worse.

And then I heard something, something like a sob, but I felt that the sound was coming from far away. I stood in the porch, and looked directly to the house, the sobs were coming from ahead, so I rounded it again. But once I got to the other side, there was nothing.

There was the sob again, and I heard it was coming from the porch, but there was nothing to see. So I started to think, maybe it didn't come from the sides, maybe from above?

I saw a pile of logs to my left, so I entered the house, grabbed my sneakers, returned outside and using the logs as support, reached the top, and climbed up. I saw a black figure against the sky, it took me a while to even notice it. The sound was coming from there. So I ventured to call.

"Fluttershy?"

The figure moved, like a pet does when called in it's slumber, and looked (or so I thought) at me.

"What are you doing? Your friends are looking for you in the forest." I said.

The pegasus in question stood up, and ran a foreleg through her face. She stayed silent, except for an occasional sob.

"Why did you run?" I asked, regaining her composture she took a breath.

"Can you blame me? After what I told you that day, you should hate me for not telling the truth." she said.

"Well, what I said that day is true." I reminded, she dropped her head, in failure "But I also said that I don't care." I added.

She quickly looked up again.

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but one thing doesn't remove the other. It can be weird and strange as might be, but it can also be unimportant if they wish to."

"I called you by another's name!" she insisted.

"I don't care you calling me by my original character's name, I wasn't angry that day because of that." I explained.

"Then.. why were you?"

I sighed.

"Because I am not him. And I thought that if I was, things wouldn't be as strange."

After that sentence, the wind blew, and I continued:

"I know I shouldn't wish to be someone else, it's like admitting one's uselessness; so one must keep trying, though no one can't help it."

Fluttershy was paying full attention to my words, I could tell because I was looking at her, I didn't even care that the air chilled up.

"I love you Fluttershy, I don't care at all if anyone is against it, and I don't care if we are too different from each other, you want to know why? Because we are both conscious, that's the only thing that matters."

She just nodded, afraid but decided, there was nothing left to say now.

"Let's get down from here, your friends must be dead worried about you." I pointed.

The girls literally jumped out in joy when they found out that Fluttershy was at the house all this time; once they returned, they ran to meet her, and among hugs they told her to not do something like that again.

Rainbow separated from the group and approached me.

"Is everything alright?" she asked me.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry." I said with a smile "I've settled everything with her just before you arrived."

"So... are you...?"

"What, going to be his boyfriend? I don't think so."

"Huh?" Rainbow was confused.

"Let's face it Rainbow, even though she feels the same way I do, I believe she's not ready to be in any kind of relationship. I think she's a bit afraid at the idea."

"You think so?"

"And you don't? Besides, it's okay, I don't mind at all."

Rainbow looked at the group behind her, still hugging and talking to Fluttershy.

"I think she actually wants to." she said.

"We don't know that, only time will tell." I finished.

We all entered the house, and I continued to my room to continue my slumber.

Once in my bed I processed everything that just happened, and I came to the conclusion that maybe I was right; Fluttershy was afraid of a relationship, so she lied. I can't blame her, but it still annoyed me.

But it was okay, at least our feelings are mutual. Even if we can't achieve to be anything, it was okay.

The door of my room then opened, so I pretended to be asleep in case it was my mother or father; it was neither. There was a flapping, and something poked my hip.

When I opened my eyes, I saw something I wasn't expecting at all.

"It's windy outside." Fluttershy said.

And right then, the wind blew against a nearby window, just to prove her point.

Author's Note

For those who find the name of this chapter familiar, yes, it's the same as Xaztein's drawing of a crying Fluttershy (he was called "Crenair" by then, and the image is not on his DeviantArt anymore, or maybe I just can't find it, good thing I saved a copy in my computer).
http://xaztein.deviantart.com/gallery/ <-----FIND HIM THERE

Progress for nothing

"Why are you so far away?"

I turned around and looked at her, I could barely see her with so little light.

"I... I didn't want to bother you." I told her.

"But, you don't bother me." she said.

"No I know that, but I don't want to bother you in your sleep. That's different."

"Oh..."

I kept the distance between the two of us, even though we love each other, it didn't mean we actually have to be together all the time. I knew how she was (or so I thought), and she would want things to go slowly, not rushing anything. I just hoped she wasn't feeling forced to do something. Besides, she'd have to leave for Equestria sooner or later.

"But why would you do that?" she asked again.

I ran a hand through her cheek, it felt like caressing a teddy bear's. I lowered my hand and grabbed her hoof, and directed it to my chest.

"Tell me, what do you feel here?" I asked. She gave a little gasp when she touched.

"U-um... e-eerm..."

"See what I mean? That guy is so nervous, it's like it's shaking the whole bed with every beat." I pointed regarding my increase of heartbeat. Then I removed her hoof from my chest. "I don't want you to stay awake because my heart can't make you sleep."

She didn't say anything, instead, her breath had grown heavier.

"Fluttershy?"

"C-can I...? If you don't mind." she just asked, and I felt her hooves approaching me.

"Huh?" I was a little confused, and it hit me "Oh you want to... um, hear it?" I asked, to what she confirmed with a mumble. "S-sure, go ahead."

She then wrapped her hooves on my back, pulled closer and rested her head. Only a few millimeters of fabric separated my skin from her face. I felt my heart beating even faster.

"Don't tell me this makes you sleepy." I joked.

"Huh? Oh no, it's not that, I... just wanted to hear." she said.

She nuzzled my chest, looking for a better position to rest, once she stopped, I brought her even closer to me, making her go "eep". I had my hands right below the birth of her wings, and I could hear her own heart beating against my stomach.

"You know? I could be like this forever." I said, to which she responded with a comfortable sigh.

I released from her grasp and pulled her to meet my gaze, never taking my hand from her side; we kept silent except for the heavy breathing of both. I really wanted to kiss her right there, but there was something a bit strange that was troubling me.

How would it feel, to kiss a pony?

So I grabbed Fluttershy's neck and pulled her even closer to my face, to the point that our noses were touching, feeling each other's breath escape through our nostrils. So I moved forward and softly pecked her lips. She didn't resist at all, so I kissed her again for longer. Then I lowered my hand, grabbed her back and embraced her, her legs folded against my body.

The kiss was, well... strange; not that I haven't kissed anyone before, but it's different when your partner has a snout instead of a normal mouth. But taking that aside, it was also different, maybe because it's the way she kissed? I mean, many girls put passion in their kisses to make them feel good, but Fluttershy just didn't give any kind of emphasis on it, she just did it.

I believed that now it would be a good time to (maybe) slowly spice things up. So I moved my hand to her chest, and softly scratching where her own heart is. Then I moved my hand to her wings, caressing them softly, I had an idea that pegasi were specially sensitive there, so I had much caution on doing it. Later, I took my hand to her flank rubbing it in circles, she wiggled her leg at that, and it was kinda soft too.

Things turned around when I started making way to her inner thigh; she suddenly broke from the kiss and with a hoof stopped me from going further.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have!" I apologized.

Now this was a contradictory situation, because I was more than aware of Fluttershy not wanting to rush anything, and yet I was making such moves on her.

I knew she had her hooves on her face out of embarrassment, like many other shy people would do, so I tried to uncover it while apologizing again.

"It won't happen again, I promise." I said.

"It's okay... i-it's not like I don't want it to happen..." she mumbled.

"Huh?"

"...but, not right now, maybe... some time later." she continued.

I couldn't help but hug her again, I think we made much progress that very night. So I thought it would be best to call it off and go to sleep.

It was very, very late, and even though I've slept so little time, I rested like I've never had before.

Like a week or so later, Twilight eventually found the portal that would lead them all back to Equestria. She, her friends, and my family were mighty happy about this. Now we could all return to our normal lives, for the best. But behind this happiness, there was sadness too.

We all grew so accustomed each other, that it was like a half of the family divided, even my dad had enjoyed their company too! Despite that it would be a big relief for his pockets. We'd miss them dearly, but then the ponies came up with an idea to make something worth, so that we properly said goodbye to each other.

They decided to make a picnic.

Twilight said that the spell can wait, as long as she remembers which portal brought them here. My family agreed, and the next day we left for the forest, searching for a clearing where we could put all our stuff.

During the walk, once I found my family completely distracted, I pulled Fluttershy to a nearby tree and hid from sight.

"W-what are you doing?!" she whispered "Your family is here, they will see us!"

"I don't care if they do, you're leaving anyway, so you won't have to bear with them anymore." I replied and kissed her. She insisted some seconds later.

"But you will. I don't want you to be in any trouble because of me!"

"And don't you think I'm in a trouble already after this last week?" I pointed "I don't care if I get into any trouble because of this. In fact, I think it might be worth it."

"T-that's silly..." she said before I interrupted her again with a kiss, slightly pressing her against the tree. I broke the kiss and hugged her tightly.

"I wished you didn't have to leave..." I whispered, to what she replied something muffled against my t-shirt.

"Um... guys?" a strange voice called.

Videogame race cars would feel impotent if they saw how fast Fluttershy pushed me away (with a surprising quantity of strength), she almost made me fall. When I looked at the source of the voice, I was relieved it was just Rainbow.

"I really hate to interrupt you both, honest. But we can't keep your parents busy forever." she said addresing me "Come already, or they might suspect something."

"Yeah yeah, right behind you." I said, making sure that Fluttershy was following.

"... and then she tried to persuade that dragon with laughter!" Rainbow said.

"And what happened next?" my mom asked between laughs.

"As soon as she said 'hi!', BOOM!" she finished while slapping one hoof over another, in a falling tree fashion. Laughter then took over the picnic.

"Even I don't know what happened, but I can't help but laugh at how fast it was!" Pinkie laughed.

The rest of the picnic went like it started, telling each other our adventures, and misfortunes, but mostly the girls'. And the return to the house was exactly the same, Twilight always talking about studies (which my parents always pointed out to me), Applejack about hard work, Rainbow about racing (which made her the favorite of my dad), and so on.

Then Twilight decided that it was no use on delaying it anymore, and made the preparations for departing. But she said that it might happen that they come back someday, whether by accident, or on purpose. This gave my mom a little joy, she'd love if they could visit us some other time.

"Okay, this is it." the unicorn said once a portal appeared in front of all. "Hop on girls."

Everypony entered the portal, each one casting a last glance back at us before entering, Twilight being the last.

"I will report about this to Princess Celestia. She'd love to know we aren't the only ones in the universe." she said before leaving, and when she did, the portal closed shut as soon as her tail passed.

And now we are again alone, just the four of us.

We entered the house in silence, now it looked empty without the girls. So I asked to my dad:

"Hey, how much will we stay here?"

"Not much, a couple of days and the booking will be finished." he said.

"These next days are gonna get boring aren't they?" Leonard asked.

"Yeah, totally..." I confirmed.

To Equestria, and back again.

Two days later, early in the morning, we packed our stuff, left the house, and headed for the road back home.

My family was still unaware of my relationship with Fluttershy, I wished I could have gave her a better goodbye, we had to keep things down in order to keep it a secret. If it was for me, I'd tell my family, there was nothing wrong at all. I just kept the appereance for her.

Now she was gone, and I would never see her again, the chapter was closed, done, finished; I had to move on.

But not just right now, first, I'd have my period of mourning a lost love, and then move on. It was supposed to be easy, I've done it many times before. But I just wished there wasn't the need to.

Life lost so much colors after their departing.

"You okay son?" my dad asked in the car during the trip.

"Hm?" I innocently replied, but it was obvious that I was crying. "Yeah, I just need some time, like everyone does." I said while rubbing my tears off my face.

We stopped at a gas station to refuel both the car and our stomachs. There was no speaking in all the trip, and the silence between us felt so very tense. I guess it's what happens when you are the kind of family that has lunch and dinner while watching television.

The next part of the trip was a little more easygoing, dad finally turned on the radio and tuned in his favorite talk program. It wasn't long until they reached a topic which piked the interest in all four of us.

"There have been reports about strange activity in a massive thunderstorm around two months ago, scientifics believed that one particular lighting fell somewhere near a residential area in Buenos Aires. It is believed that this particular lighting had a different energy emitting from it," We all looked at each other worried, dad turned up the volume to hear better. "The path of the lighting has been traced and it was revealed that it actually fell in a house's yard, there are however no complaints about it by the residents of the house," the host continued.

"Pardon me, but I believe one can not make any complaint against mother nature." a second voice in the radio said, which unleashed a laugh in the studio.

"You're right man, but it is still kinda strange that the people living there didn't say a word." the host added, and continued. "We hace sent a reporter to investigate..."

Dad turned off the radio before the host could finish the sentence.

"I just hope those guys don't do any exhaustive investigation." I said "Otherwise we're screwed."

"But why are they giving the information right now? Shouldn't they have done it earlier? Bunch of ninnies." dad said.

"Change to a music station dear." my mom finished.

30 minutes before arriving, my mom called home. Since my grandmother was taking care of the house, she should answer, but there was no response. So then mom called to grandma's instead, grandpa should be there by then, but when he answered, he just said that grandma was in ours.

"She might be taking a nap, don't fret mom." my brother said.

"Maybe, but even while on a nap she answers the phone." mom pointed.

"I'm with her on this one, everytime I call grandma during her nap, she still answers." I said.

"Well, we'll see it soon." dad finished.

When we arrived, we were glad that there was no reporter on sight yet. The pets quickly jumped off the car and into the house, and were deperately trying to open the door from the garage to get to the kitchen. Once dad turned off the car, mom proceeded to open the door and let all the animals inside.

"Momma, we're home!" she said.

There was no response, and as she entered, I did so too just behind her.

"Look, she's on the sofa in the dining room." I pointed. We approached her, and tried to wake her up, but she was deeply asleep.

"It's like she fainted or something." my mom said.

"Nothing too far from reality..." a serene voice came from behind us, making us jump with fright.

"What the hell was that?!" mom shouted without turning.

When I turned around, I saw the last thing I thought would be even possible, just like when the girls showed up in our yard the very first time.

"Mom, you're not going to believe this..." I said.

"What happened?! We heard you... WAAH!" dad just came in, Leonard following close by, and got interrupted after seeing what I was seeing.

The girls have appeared again in our house, but there was something else accompanying them, or somepony. It was taller than them, white, and looked a bit more "royal" than the other six.

"Will this ever end?!" my dad exclaimed.

By a reflex action, I bowed to the new being in my house.

"What the hell are you doing?" my dad asked.

"Can't you see that I'm bowing to her?" I answered without rising myself.

"But dude, I'm not doing it , and I still know her." my brother said.

"Wait-wait-wait. Care to tell me who the hell is she?" mom asked.

"I think I'll reply to this one." the incomer said addressing me "My name is Princess Celestia, governor of Equestria, pleased to meet you all." she said.

"Hang on a second, care to tell me how a princess is a governor?" dad insisted.

"It's from a kid's show, queens are taken for tyrants." I replied.

"And thus they put princesses instead." Leonard added "Didn't it cross your mind the reason that Disney's female protagonists are tagged as 'princess'?"

"Well... no."

"Figured as much."

"W-what brings you here princess?" I asked, getting up.

"Well, I thought that it would be impolite to not thank you for taking care of my subjects for the time they were here."

"Okay, you're welcome, you may leave now." mom said hurriedly.

"Mom show some respect can you?" I said.

"But what do you want me to do?!" she answered "I had to put up for more than a month with these... these..."

"Ponies?" Applejack helped.

"Yea let's go with that. Anyway, I finally hoped that we weren't going to go through this again, and look! We are being invaded again!" she shouted.

"Please, we don't mean any intrusion." Twilight stepped in "She just wanted to thank you all, just like we did before we left. It's her custom."

"Actually, I haven't gone here just to thank them Twilight." Celestia added.

"Oh great, what now?" my dad said.

Celestia turned around, and ushered one of her subjects to approach us. She didn't move at first out of fright, but in the end she moved forward.

"Fluttershy!" I thought "Please, not that, anything but that!"

"Now Fluttershy, point him out for me." Celestia whispered near her, and Fluttershy pointed a hoof at me "Please, come." the princess said.

Worried and nervous as I was, I approached the two of them, sweating like a false witness (as they say in Buenos Aires).

"I want to specially thank you for taking care of my little ponies. For making their stay much more bearable." Celestia said.

"Specially thank him!? For crying out loud, I WAS the one providing the food, and my husband providing the money for it!" my mom shouted angry, she had her reasons.

"Princess, she is correct, she was the one responsible for the survival of your subjects. If there's someone you should thank, it's her and my dad." I said.

"I am already aware of that, do not worry, I have a gift for them too." the alicorn pointed "But there is another matter more important here." She stopped for some seconds, making sure everyone was paying her attention "I believe you two deserve a proper goodbye." she told me while pointing Fluttershy.

"Erm, why those two? Can you explain me son?" dad asked to the princess, and to me respectively.

"Erm, well... I kinda... had a crush on Fluttershy while I believed she was just a cartoon." I confessed.

All my family had their eyes wide open in surprise, and bewilderment.

"Oh my god, man don't tell me..." my brother guessed.

"Yes Leon, I'm in love with her now. And guess what, it's mutual." I replied.

My mom then fell to the floor, unconscious. I couldn't blame her, it was still something beyond belief. Leonard probably wanted to puke or something, because he went to the bathroom holding his mouth shut. As for my dad, he looked at me with something one could call "dissapointment".

"I knew you had strange tastes son, but THIS?" he said.

"Dad, it's okay. I'm not doing anything wrong." I tried to convince him.

"Nothing wrong? Tell me something, are you sure you haven't got shit for brains?" he asked angry, as a reply he received a gasp from all the ponies except the princess, "What is it with you now, don't you know what swearing is?"

"We do know sir." Rarity intervened "But it is such a foul chatter, that we prefer to stay in a language suitable for everypony."

My father could not believe what he just heard, he started to laugh nervously at the sentence Rarity made.

"Oh this is freaking fan-tastic! So swearing isn't allowed, but getting turned on by other species is way too acceptable, right? Right?" he scoffed. "COME ON, AM I THE ONLY ONE WITH HIS SENSES ON PLACE?!"

"Dad! Calm yourself down, you're not thinking clearly!" I said.

"Ohh yeah look who's talking!" my brother jumped when he returned.

I was offended, but I couldn't blame them, they had their points, but I had mine's too. What to do? As I was thinking this, Rainbow approached me and Fluttershy from behind.

"Umm, you guys can go somewhere else." she whispered "I'm sure the princess can handle this."

"Do you think it's a good idea Rainbow?" Fluttershy finally spoke.

"You got a better one?"

"Let's go Fluttershy, we'll deal with this in a while." I said.

Humans and ponies

"I knew that you would have problems with your family, I just knew!" Fluttershy cried as we entered my room.

"Fluttershy easy! Don't worry about them now. We are alone, don't think about them." I said.

She then jumped and hugged me, crying, muttering "I'm sorry, I'm so... so sorry!" while I caressed her mane. I sat on my bed and kept like that for some minutes, until she stopped crying. "I'm sorry," she insisted.

"Stop it. It's okay now, just don't think about it." I replied, then I grabbed her face and forced her to look into my eyes.

"Okay." she simply said.

I took her hooves and caressed them a little while looking at her, should I ask her about... it? This was our last time together, and I thought that we should make it worth somehow.

"I know you have to leave, and even though I want to, I won't persuade you to stay. Just wanted to make that clear." I said.

"Mmhm." she agreed while I put my hand on her cheek.

"You know I love you, and your happiness and well being are the most important for me. But there's something I have to ask you now, and you are in all your right to decline."

"O-okay, what is it?" I sensed sadness in her as a whimper almost escaped from her.

"Well, if you aren't going to feel uncomfortable, maybe we could... um..." I doubted while expecting her reaction "Even though you're shy as you are, and just if you feel okay with it, but I thought we could... erm..."

She was uncertain as to what I was going to ask her, though I'm sure she had an idea, since she started to blush just like usual.

"... get physical?"

She yanked her head back and raised one brow in confusion.

"Oh gosh I can't believe I actually said that!" I bursted out laughing nervously, falling on my side "I don't really know if it means what I meant but.."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Sorry, maybe you don't actually know that term, but whatever, I'll try another approach." I sat up again "I meant that if you're okay, we could... maybe be intimate with each other." I whispered in her ear

"H-how much i-intimate?" she asked blushing even more.

"As much as you're comfortable. But I was kinda hoping we could go as far as... I dunno, that?"

Slightly slower than a blink, her wings flared up at the sentence, with a red-faced (and I mean, RED) Fluttershy to get along. She just stayed there, processing the offer, or not, it was hard to tell if she was. It wasn't until I waved a hand in front of her to catch my attention.

"You alright there Flutters?"

"Y-y-yes, j-just... you got me a little off guard..."

"Off guard? If I wanted to catch you off guard I'd simply do this..."

I grabbed the meek pegasus from her armpits. And, resembling a judo grapple, spun around to softly launch her against the bed, with me on top.

"Too much?" I teased, but she wasn't able to speak from the surprise. It felt nice to be a little more assertive for a change, instead of going as slow as her.

Then the foreplay started, just like that night the week before, making my way from top to bottom, and she didn't give any resistance. I had caution in moving further than last time, but after making her resolve, she was decided to do it.

As was I.

Something like half an hour later, we left my room. It was like everything paused in the living-room because everyone was exactly where we last left them. The girls approached to receive Fluttershy, but Celestia just stood in her place as I walked towards my family, her gaze not leaving mine.

"I assume everything is in order?" she asked.

"Yes Princess." I replied with a slight bow "There's no more reason in delaying your departure now, I hope my family hasn't given you a hard time here."

"Since when do you behave so respectful?" my brother asked.

"Hey you know I love medieval stuff, regents talk pretty much like that. I took the chance now that I have it."

Celestia smiled, and bowed in response.

"I am touched by your respect, even though I'm no ruler of yours. And I want to thank you all for watching over my subjects."

"I just want my normal life back..." my mother said.

"That can be arranged." the Princess said "I will make it like you've never seen us at all."

Panic struck me, if watching movies and reading books have taught me something, is to find secret meanings behind certain sentences.

"Hang on. Are you saying you'll clean all our memories from all of you?" I asked.

Celestia nodded, her smile gone. Twilight spoke to emphasize her ruler's point:

"We've been thinking that we can't put our existence at risk if your world knows about us. I told the Princess of the hostility and greed this world has, and that in no time, they could reach us anytime."

"But don't you have like... magic to protect you?" my dad inquired.

"Our magic is powerful, that is true." Celestia affirmed "But as my student told me, your methods can throw destruction at us with ease. And we are a peaceful race, we never intend to kill."

"I guess it's... fair enough." I said. "You do make a point."

And here I thought I would remember everything that happened once it was over. But it was true, our race is very destructive, greedy, and our leaders don't seem to be better than that. If this happened a decade or so ago, everyone and everypony would have gotten along just fine.

"But Celestia..." my brother started "there are some people in this world that aren't like that! There really are very good people, just like the folks of Equestria."

"He has a point." Rainbow Dash said "Without going any further, they treated us well! Sure, we had our troubles, but thanks to them we didn't starve, or feel like we were imprisoned."

Applejack cheered in her usual accent, Rarity just gave a simple "I agree". Pinkie in turn blew a party hooter, tipical Pinkie. Twilight seemed more bound to support her friends in their opinion after Rainbow spoke, she was speaking the truth. But she couldn't persuade the Princess in that, the decision was already made.

The unicorn approached Fluttershy, who had her head down in distress, and laid a hoof on her shoulder, trying to give comfort. The pegasus looked at her, and then at me, so I approached and knelt to have my face at her height.

"Everything's going to be fine." I said, putting a hand in her other shoulder.

She smiled, and came closer for a hug, thought she had to break it up a few moments later:

"Okay then, since we won't remember what happened up to this point, I'll exploit this fact," my dad said out loud, looking at everyone in the room. And then looked at me, and just me. "You disgust me." Everypony but Celestia gasped at that.

"Um, care to elaborate?" I innocently asked.

"Like I said before, I knew you had strange tastes, but I let it go because they would never affect you on the long term. But having a relationship with a horse? That's another level, and I don't want to let it slip this time."

"Okay. But what are you going to do about it? I mean, we won't remember any of this in a few minutes."

"We won't, you're right. They will." he had a menacing tone, there was something really off about him, I have never seen my father behave like that. He cleared his throat, and addressed the ponies "You aren't any saints either, how come that you haven't stopped your friend, when you knew it was impossible for them to be together?"

Everypony looked at each other in confusion.

"Well..." Rainbow started "It was just that, nopony ever noticed her, so we thought we could let her try."

"Besides, our world is very much open minded about that matter." Twilight added.

"Should I dare to ask?" he turned his head and asked the family.

"Why would you bo..."

"You shut up! I wasn't talking to you!" dad interrupted me.

"That's no way to talk to your son." Celestia intervened.

"HE'S NO SON OF MINE!"

Another gasp, this time came from everyone's mouth.

"The hell are you saying dad?" my brother asked.

"After what he did, can you judge me for saying that? C'mon! He has an affair with an animal for crying out loud! That's unhuman!"

I looked at the ponies, in search for a response to make, so when I looked at Twilight, she gave me a nod, and I instantly understood. That last sentence was the opening I was looking for against my dad.

"Let me exploit this too dad, so let's go back a little dad, shall we?" I said. He stayed silent so I kept on. "I have just a way to respond to that, but I need you to remember something. What is your favorite movie again?"

Everyone in the room looked puzzled, I could understand it, this was the most strange thing I have ever done.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" dad asked.

"Can you just reply?"

"No, 'cause it's irrelevant to the current topic."

"Hey I want to defend myself, can't you just let me try at least?"

"Fine." he sighed "It's the first Matrix movie. Dude, I don't know where are you going at, aren't you high from watching too much ponies?"

"I would ask the same to you dad." I joked, and kept on "So anyway, remember a character named Mouse, yeah? It's not too hard, the poor guy had little screen time."

"What's your point?"

"Remember the scene where everyone is having a meal, before Neo visited the Oracle? What was the last thing that Mouse told him?"

Dad then pictured the scene on his head, I knew this would work, after what he said, I knew that I could refute his sentence. And then it hit him and looked surprised at me.

"Just found out huh?" I said "How can you dare to tell me that I did something 'unhuman', when 'denying our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human'? "

Silence was on the room, I could feel the support of the girls, but I wasn't done, I had to keep going.

"And to show you, and prevent this to backfire, let me tell you: Fluttershy had the SAME impulse, just like I did. Don't you see it dad? We may look very different from each other, bipedal or quadrupedal, but the only things that matter are here" I pointed my head "and here." I pointed my heart "They are humans just like us. And in turn, we are ponies just like them."

He was very surprised, he had always heard me, and many times I messed up when I had to tell him something. But now I had such control and eloquence, that it would be impossible for this fact to not have effect on him. There was no way that using his favorite movie against him could fail. He finally spoke after seconds of thinking.

"I still don't support you." he said, and added "But you do make a point."

A little cheer came from the ponies, I actually managed to convince him!

"You're damn right I do."

"Don't overdo it."

"Yeah, fine."

"So I believe everything is okay now?" Celestia asked.

I looked at my father, and he just gave a faint smile, seemed enough for me.

"Yes Princess, everything is okay." I said.

"Um, Princess?" Twilight came forward "Can we speak to you a second, in private?"

The ponies then left for the garage, what now? I just wanted to this misery already, if I wasn't going to remember Fluttershy again, why delay it? They came back half a minute later.

"I don't wanna sound repetitive, but what's wrong now?" I asked.

"Nothing, don't worry." Twilight said "We'll leave now, there's no reason in staying anymore."

It was time, as Celestia's horn lighted up, sadness fell over me like cold water, I didn't want to forget her, nor them, but their safety was more important.

Then suddenly I thought, why if they want us to forget everything so that they can have the surprise factor, and do the same to us?

Everything was going white now, I could barely give Twilight a look as she winked at me. Then I looked at Fluttershy, whom was in tears but smiling.

If she was smiling, there was nothing to worry about.

Author's Note

Yeah, I am a Mary-Sue, I realized it when I was making the last edits on this chapter. But I can defend my position here:

While I was writing this chapter, I ran across a status on Facebook from the Matrix fan page, and it contained Mouse's line which I used here, and I thought "It's the perfect thing to chain the story!", so I had to use it.

Maybe my character (for those that haven't figured out, it's the real me, but I haven't met the Mane 6, just clearing that up (I do have a crush on Fluttershy though)) develops in the story very fluidly for a normal guy. But I insist, that's how I would act if it wasn't for the shock leaving me petrified.

Déjà vu?

I woke up in front of my computer, tired, must've passed out. I looked at the screen and I saw I finished my last fanfic, after checking it was all okay, I proceeded to upload it.

"And done! Let's hope this goes well," I said. Then I addressed my brother "Dude, are you going to read my fanfics or not? You're falling behind on my stories." I told my brother who was a few meters from me, working on his patches.

"I will, eventually." he said.

"You always say that, it was quite a miracle to even make you read I Met Kindness."

"Whatever."

I turned off the computer and walked around the house, trying to find something to do before sleeping. It was 1 AM so I went to the fridge and grabbed some juice. My mom was in the living room watching the news on the TV. I glimpsed at some headers:

"There is only a feeling of insecurity." I read one "Yeah right, stay out of your home for 10 minutes and before you know, you end up naked." I told the president at the other side of the screen.

After taking care of my hygiene for the night, I headed back to my room, but I had a sudden realization there.

"Huh, another déjà vu. Honestly, it's like I'm always reliving things." I said to myself.

I prepared my stuff to go to college the next day. Having finished, I jumped into my bed, but didn't sleep until I had my favourite pillow to hug. It had the image of my favourite pony.

"Let's go to sleep shall we, Flutters?" I said and turned off the lights.

But I couldn't, there was something different. I turned on the lights again and looked around, the stuff in my room wasn't in the same place as they were half an hour ago. I looked at my bed and the sheets were also different. I must be seeing things, I thought. So I looked at my cellphone's clock.

"Just 1:10 AM, February, nothing important." I said. "Wait, February?!" I looked closely, it said February alright. I checked other cellphones around the house and all said it was correct. "Did I pass out for 3 months? And why did I prepare for college anyway?"

I looked the pillow with my favourite pony, and then I remembered, it was also different, instead of looking forward (which would be to the left of the picture), she was looking straight at the camera, or at me for that fact, and her expression changed from neutral happy to joyous. And then I remembered...

The storm, the thunder, six ponies, everything from that moment up to now, I remembered in a flash.

While touching the backside of the pillow, I noticed something inside it's cover, I opened and a letter and a yellow feather came out. I proceeded to read the letter:

"I wrote this letter to prove you that everything that happened was real. Celestia agreed to keep your and your brother's memories intact, she trusts you both.
I hope that sometime we meet each other again, even for a little time.

I know you gave me something of yours, and I gave you something in turn, but I hoped that you would like to have a feather, just to have something to remember me by (don't worry, Rarity helped me get a lock of your hair without affecting your hairstyle, hehe).

Thanks for everything,
Fluttershy."

I was more concerned about when did they get to cut off my hair, should it been that time in which she first slept in my bed? Regardless, it was a pretty gesture.

"Hold on, my brother remembers too?"

I went back to his workplace, and asked him about something happening this last three months, but he said no at first. But when I showed the pillow that changed, his expression quickly changed.

"So you... actually...?" he asked.

"Yeah, me and her. It was wonderful, I tell you."

"Please tell me you used protection..."

"What?! Of course! Do you imagine what would happen if I didn't? Gross." I shivered.

Author's Note

I just realized here that my character always has the last word, I believe I can't change that custom in me.

Rewriting the story

NOVEMBER 2012:

"And done! Let's hope this goes well," I said after uploading my last fanfic.

Writing these stories became like a hobby for me, I admit my creativity is not very high, but I did my best everytime.

"Dude, are you going to read my fanfics or not? You're falling behind on my stories," I addressed my brother who was in the same room, working on his patches.

"I will, eventually," he said.

"You always say that, it was quite a miracle to even make you read I Met Kindness."

"Whatever."

I turned off the computer and walked around the house, trying to find something to do before going to sleep. It was 1 AM so I went to the fridge and grabbed some juice. My mom was in the living room watching the news on the TV. I glimpsed at some headers:

I read one, "There is only a feeling of insecurity. Yeah right, stay out of your home for 10 minutes and before you know, you end up naked." I told the president at the other side of the screen.

After taking care of my hygiene for the night, I went to my room and prepared my stuff to go to college the next day. Having finished, I jumped into my bed, but didn't sleep until I had my favourite pillow to hug. It had the image of my favourite pony.

"Let's go to sleep shall we, Flutters?"

My brother usually comes back from school after noon, he can catch at least one episode of My Little Pony on television when he comes. I wake up because he watches the show in the room that we share, and the squeaky voices usually wake me up.

"I wished they dubbed more chapters, we are stuck in season 1," I mentioned to my brother.

"I think they are doing it on purpose, just to make us desire it," he said.

"Oh come on, you think that Hasbro actually does that?"

"Yup."

I got up and partially dressed up, and when Discovery Kids finished airing the two episodes for noon, my brother went to use the computer. I stayed to watch another program I like, and then we went to the dining/living room for lunch around 1:30 PM, right when Friends was on.

"I'm tired of these guys each passing day," my mom said.

"You just hate them because they are english and you have to read the subtitles," I said.

"But they are just stupid! Don't you look at them and think so?"

"Of course I do! But that's a standard for a sitcom."

I finished my meal, grabbed my stuff, and took the bus to go to college.

There, I met with my group of friends. We were many, and though none of them was following the same career as me, they were cool people in the end. We were all in the first cycle of college, and we had to pass its exams to be able to enter the university. They were Ariel, Barbara, Jenny, Andy, Mary, Jessica, Nicholas, Emmanuel and Paul.

Ariel was the cool guy in the group, pretty much in the "swag" character. Barbara was just a regular girl, smart just above average. Jenny was a very pretty girl, who I had a little crush on, pretty shorter than most, and had a very adorable face. Andy was just a guy like me, but his face faintly resembled Mick Jagger's. Mary was pretty much like Barbara, except that she had heavier likings. Jessica was an attractive girl too, but she was sexy instead of adorable. Nicholas was the bookworm of the group, kinda shy though, but he was good looking. Emmanuel was taller than all of us. And Paul had a little foreign accent despite being born in the country, just like me.

"Took ya' long enough," greeted Ariel when I arrived.

"Look who's talking," I said.

"Yeah, I am!" he mocked.

"C'mon let's go inside already," I suggested.

"Where are you going so soon? We have 5 minutes left," Jessica warned.

I looked at my phone, "We do? I guess my cell phone's clock gone wrong again."

"You worry if your phone has a five-minute difference? That's pretty silly," Jennifer implied.

"Maybe, but I really like my clock on time," I explained.

We entered the classroom right when the teacher did, we had Semiotics that day. I never really paid any attention in classes though, I did give presence, but I was always in my imaginary world, just to be entertained for a while. We finally left after one and a half hour later.

"Blah blah blah, I don't get a word of what these guys say," I joked while leaving the classroom.

"You should really pay attention," Jennifer said.

"I know, but if you fall behind one class, you're doomed," I explained.

"Then why don't you ask the teacher to explain the topics again?" she asked.

"Why for? If I asked now, I'd have to tell him to explain me stuff from two months ago."

"That ain't right man, midterms are coming," Ariel said.

"I don't care, I'll try next year."

"With that attitude, you'll say that again the next year, and the next, and the next," Barbara said.

"I don't plan to stay on this cycle forever guys! I'll just take my time."

"He has a point," Jessica intervened to the group, and then she directed at me "But that doesn't mean you have to abuse of that."

"I know that already, I'm no kid."

"We are just warning you partner. Don't take it personal," Paul said.

"I know guys, and thanks for that, but I'll just restrict myself to gather all the info on the topics and then trying again the next year," I explained.

"I don't know about that, they change subjects every year, you might be doing it in vain," Jennifer added.

"WelI I just hope you do manage to finish this cycle the next year," Ariel said.

"I think I will," I said confident.

I took the bus to my house around 5:30 PM, arriving home around 6:15 PM, right on time, rain was predicted that day.

"It's been raining quite a lot lately," I said when I entered.

My mom was nearby so she replied, "Totally, at this rate, mosquitos will take over the country," I approached to give her a kiss.

I threw my stuff on my bed and laid down a little, it was thursday, and I had judo at 8:00PM, but I didn't go that day.
The month recently started, and the year was almost gone, and there was still a bit of cold even though it was spring already. Dad came home an hour later, and as always, I helped my mom to open the front gate to let him in with the car.

In my house, we were four, leaving aside the pets. My dad's name is Claude, he is something like a chief assembler in a factory. My mom is Beatrice, currently unemployed. And my brother's Leonard, he's 2 years younger than me. I had 18, and my birthday was a few months later.

At dinner, we usually watched the TV, but sometimes we engaged in conversations.

Mom asked me, "So, how are your studies going?"

"They aren't," I simply replied.

"What does that mean?" dad asked "You are not studying at all?"

"Yes and no," I said.

"Yes and no?" she repeated "What the heck are you doing in college then?"

"I'm not studying, but I'm taking notes and I'm searching all needed info and stuff for the subjects," I explained.

"Why not study in the first place? That's a waste of time," my dad pointed.

"Maybe, but what I'm doing is testing how hard the subjects are, and the next year prepare myself as much as I need it."

"You know? You can ask Lorraine to help you," my mom suggested, Lorraine is a tutor.

"I know, but's it a little late at this time of year, I think I better start from square one the next."

"Okay, I don't totally approve that, but as long as you pass the next year, I don't see anything wrong," my dad said. "But at least do it."

I tried to sleep for quite a long time, but I couldn't, I looked at my cell phone's clock, 4:23 AM, and I laid down around 2 hours ago.

The rain got harder, the wind was howling at the windows, punishing the trees, making them shake. Through the window of my room I saw the sky lit up an instant.

"Darn, there's lighting too," I said, and a thunder followed. "That was a hard one."

Minute by minute, thunders roared, and I suspected that they (somehow) were getting closer. But maybe I was just raving a little, I tried to convince myself of that.

Then, another thunder hit the earth, and I felt the ground shake for a split second. I exclaimed but I couldn't hear myself, the sound must have gotten me deaf.

I rushed into my parents' room and woke my mom up, I tried to speak but if I couldn't even hear myself, she couldn't hear me either, as much awake as she was.

I tried a few more times again, and over time I was starting to hear again, lucky me it was just temporal deafness.

I called to her, "Can you hear me?!"

"What?!" she asked. She was just a meter away from me, but I found it hard to hear her through that stinging hum.

"Didn't you hear the thunder?! It shook the ground!" I said.

"I don't understand!" she insisted.

I waited until the hum in my ears stopped dead, to talk properly.

"Did you feel a thunder?" I asked again.

"No, not really; why were you speaking so low?" she asked back.

"Was there a noise in your ear?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Yeah you were deaf too, the sound of the thunder must have done it."

I looked at the window, at the neverending rain.

"I'm going out, I want to see if that thunder struck our yard," I resolved.

"Are you nuts?! You're staying inside! What if another thunder strikes nearby?"

"C'mon, thunders don't fall in the same place twice, do they?"

Since our house was a one story, it wasn't hard to cross it and reach the yard. I just had to be careful not to step in any water puddle in the garage. When I arrived outside, I found a massive hole in the ground.

"Holy--!" I exclaimed.

I stood below a protruding roof, but the water filled the floor. Approaching the hole, I saw something inside it.

"There's something inside that. I'm going to look," I said to my mom who just reached me.

"Are you crazy? You are staying here!" she insisted, but I didn't pay attention.

I rushed inside, grabbed an umbrella, and quickly went outside again to the hole. There were no words to what I saw.

"Mom! We have to wake the other two up, I'm going to need help!" I exclaimed.

"What the hell is wrong with you now!?"

"Why don't you look what's inside that hole?!" I said impatient, and ran inside again.

In my room and then my parent's, I woke up my brother and my dad, explaining the situation (as strange as it was) I got them to help me bring inside what was in the soil wreckage. We had to use towels, each one making two trips inside and outside to finish the task.

"Can any of you explain me what the hell is this?" dad asked my brother and me, after staring at the stuff for a long time.

"We don't know dad, I can't even describe what I'm seeing right now," Leon didn't take his sight away from it.

"I've got some theories, but they are all impossible, or not plausible at best," I said.

"Does this have something to do with...?" my mother started.

"With what?"

"Uh, nevermind, it's just stupid anyway."

I looked again at the floor, pretty scared of the sight. I had assured myself, this was impossible. And yet it was there. Right at our feet, we had six unconscious ponies.

Burden

We set out the way back to my house, Rainbow didn't want to fly for some reason, so she walked instead, filling the silence of the streets with her clopping.

"Is there something bothering you?" I asked.

"It's just what happened earlier," she said.

"Why does it bother you? It's not like it's your fault or something."

"I know I know, it's just..."

"What?"

"Well, I don't think you know this, but..."

"Speak Rainbow, don't stretch it," I said impatient.

She took a breath, and continued.

"Nopony ever had felt any attraction to her."

"Huh? You mean that nopony was ever interested in Fluttershy?" I asked "Well, it makes sense, she never was an attention lover or something."

"Yeah. That's why it surprised me."

"Well, believe me when I say..." I stopped at the middle of the sentence.

"What?"

"I shouldn't tell her, if one guy is surprising, a hundred would be shocking." I thought "Uh nothing, let's just keep going okay?" I said.

She shrugged and we kept walking.

A few blocks separated us from my house, and I hoped we wouldn't run into any trouble. Streets were very dangerous at this time. But if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.

I suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Rainbow asked.

I slowly walked again, with more caution.

"Is there a problem?" she asked, but I shushed her.

"Don't speak!" I whispered "There's trouble ahead."

Rainbow looked at the street, and she saw a little group of gangsters (or their south-american counterpart) loitering around.

"Let's just pass by them, do not stop or anything." I instructed Rainbow, to which she nodded.

We kept walking on the road (because in the street we currently were, cars rarely are spotted), my heart racing by the step, and I glimpsed at the group. One of them returned the look, so I quickly looked ahead again, I noticed they were three.

"Ya' lost somethin'?" the guy who looked at me said. I kept walking, a bit faster now. "Hey, I'm talkin' to ya' dude!" he called again. I hurried my pace, Rainbow started to get worried.

And then, a stone passed in front of us, missing by a little.

"When somebody talks to ya', you gotta turn around brotha'." he said.

"I'm in a hurry, please let me be." I said still with my back facing them.

"Seems ya' can't git it through ya'r skull. Fair 'nuff, we'll make it for ya'." he menaced.

Right when a hand grabbed my shoulder, I swiftly turned around and punched the guy across his mouth, making him lose his balance, and as fast as I could, flee from the group.

I ran for a square, and stopped to catch my breath. Big mistake, these guys run away from cops as a sport, and they do it everyday, they may not be faster than me, but they can last longer.

As one of them catched up to me, he quickly threw a punch taking advantage of the momentum. I blocked as I could, but I fell to the ground anyway. He then tried to pin me down, but I quickly moved away, kicking him in the process. The other two had already joined him. I tried to run but I was out of stamina, I could barely walk without wheezing.

"Wassamatta', ya' tired?" he mocked.

And as the three were about to hit me all at once, a blur between them and me threw them away. And then I saw.

"Rainbow!" I exclaimed.

She stood beside me on the ground, I was confused at why wasn't she flying, maybe she didn't want to raise suspicions.

"I could use some action." she whispered to me.

The gangsters stood up again.

"That lil' doggie packs a punch, it will be fun ta' punish an animal." one of them said.

But one of them was fidgeting in his place.

"Uhh, dudes? That thing launched us back, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Are ya' scared of a puppy? Such a wuss." the third one mocked, but to no use, the other guy has already fled.

"I guess we'll go one on one then guys." I said to the duo.

"I'll tie your tongue to my boot and shove it up yo' ass playa'." the first one menaced.

"Aren't you able to say something else?" I mocked.

That was when the dude got out of control. He lunged at me with a kick, he managed to hit me in the stomach. But I grabbed his leg, lifted it up, and while the guy was begging for me to let go, I kicked him in his weak parts. And while he was trying to recover, I wound up an uppercut which made him lift his feet from the ground, falling on his back.

"One down, one more to go." I said satisfied, I never had fought a guy before, besides my brother.

Rainbow was dealing with the other guy, she was just staying out of his reach, and whenever she found a chance, she'd kick him in the face.

"Son of a... this dog kicks hard!" he said once.

I wanted to end the conflict right there, so when the guy was facing away from me, I snook behind him and elbowed him in the head, he quickly fell, and wouldn't move again for a while.

"Ouch, hitting with elbows actually hurts." I said.

I heard Rainbow snicker, and we moved away a little.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, please help me get this hood off, I want to breathe." she said.

And so I did, I pulled her hood back, and she could feel the breeze after a while.

"It was quite the time since I last felt breeze in my head." she pointed.

"I want to apologize for that." I said.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault, you're just taking care of us."

Then she stretched her wings, and flapped them a bit.

"These guys can't stand a beating." she mocked.

-BANG-

We both flinched, that was a shot from a gun, no doubt about it, and it was heard nearby. I looked around and the guy who I knocked down before was holding a pistol at us, still on the ground.

"W-w-w-what the hell is that thing?!" he yelled looking next to me.

I did so too, and the sight I had, was the last I would have ever wanted. Rainbow Dash was shot.

She was still conscious, but she was sitting on her haunches, looking at one of her front legs, stained with red. She was crying in pain.

"OH YOU PIECE OF-" I yelled, and launched myself against the guy, he shot two more times against me but missed.

When I had him grappled, I hit him time after time with any punch I could make out, grabbing his armed arm to point away.

One, two, three, I lost count of how many times I punched him, but I made sure to spill his blood on the concrete of the road with every single one of them. Eventually, I stopped, not because I wanted, but because someone stopped me.

Rainbow was at my side now, and with her sane leg she stopped me from being a possible killer.

"He had enough, let him be now." she said.

"This guy shot you, he wanted to kill you!" I replied, not taking my eyes away from the gangster.

"But you don't want that for him, do you?" she pointed "You wouldn't bear with the burden of a murder." she was right, but she also added "She wouldn't want that either."

At that sentence, I stared at Rainbow, she was more than just right.

I was about to lift myself from the ground, but the guy gave a weak groan. Without thinking twice, I finished him with one last punch, rendering him unconscious.

"You could have killed him." Rainbow scolded.

"Be glad that I didn't stomp his face, that way he'd be truly dead." I replied, and added "We have to strap up that wound, hold on."

So I tore a piece of the t-shirt the second guy had, then I tore a smaller piece from it, and put it over the wound, fastening it with the larger piece.

"Let's go, can you fly?" I asked.

"I think." she tried to lift from the ground, but couldn't mantain herself for long.

"I'll carry you, we're not far, hang on."

Thanks that I brought the keys with me, we managed to enter my house. But we couldn't keep quiet, as the dogs barked once we got in, and the doors aren't too silent either.

I ran to my room, where Rainbow's friends slept, and waked them up. I called at them telling that Rainbow was hurt, catching the attention of Fluttershy, and she quickly looked at her friend's leg.

"I'm fine, don't wo- OW!" Rainbow was saying as Fluttershy inspected her.

"How did this happen?" Twilight asked.

"Let him explain later, for now let's just take care of Rainbow." Fluttershy ordered (which was strange coming from her), and she took Rainbow to the bathroom.

I noticed a pain in my side, but after the strenous event, who wouldn't have his insides aching for not breathing properly?

As quick as she left, Fluttershy returned with Rainbow, who had her leg wrapped up.

"She's okay, her leg has just received a cut. I cleaned the wound and put the gauze over it."

"Are ya' sure she didn't drain off?" Applejack asked "Because ah don't like that trail of blood on tha' floor." she pointed downwards, drops of red making a path.

"Well, most of it isn't hers." Fluttershy said, and sniffed the floor "It doesn't have the same odor."

"Wait, if if isn't Rainbow's, then-" Twilight stopped in mid-sentence.

Then it came to me, the pain wasn't only because of being out of breath! I rolled up my t-shirt and looked, my left side was completely stained with blood.

"Oh." I managed to say before fainting.