The Elegance of Nature

Everypony couldn’t believe it when they heard the news. All of their jaws dropped. Rainbow Dash seemed overly infuriated.

“Where is he?!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Where is he?!” She grabbed Twilight’s shoulders. “You said they found him last night, where is he?! I’m going to kill him!”

Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash off of her. “I said they have a suspect in custody. They don’t know if it’s him yet.”

“Gals,” Applejack said firmly. “Ah think ya’ll are missing the more important thing here: Fluttershy just tried to kill herself! We can’t ignore something like that!”

We all looked to Fluttershy, who was sitting on my sofa looking forlorn. Nopony knew what she was thinking, or how she felt. Everypony knew that she dreamt of raising a family someday; but now she’s had a child forced upon her. And she doesn’t even have somepony to help her with it. We all knew that Fluttershy wouldn’t even think about an abortion; and I don’t think she’d even have the heart to give the foal up for adoption. And Fluttershy’s feelings about herself; thinking herself a slut, afraid of her own shadow, and even the want of her own death…everything was HIS fault. That putrid, vile, despicable, low-life stallion! I was beginning to share Rainbow Dash’s feelings.

We joined Fluttershy on the sofa, each of us giving her a warm embrace. We’re always going to be there for her. She needs her friends now more than anything.

“Fluttershy,” I said, “I want you to know this: your life is not over. And it especially isn’t worth ending. Your friends are going to be there for you, and we’ll never abandon you. Not now, not ever. And this unwanted pregnancy, we’re going to help you through it as well. And look on the bright side: in eleven months you’re going have a wonderful child. I don’t care who its father is, think about who the mother is! I honestly think this foal couldn’t have been given a better mother.” We felt Fluttershy return the embrace. She smiled a bit as she cried.

“And also,” Twilight said, “if you need anything, ANYTHING, you come to us. A foal sitter, financial support, emotional support, you don’t even waste a second before coming to us.”

“Ok…” Fluttershy said.

“No, I want you to promise me. You’re always shy about asking other ponies for things, Fluttershy; but this you can’t be shy about. I want you to promise me that you’ll come to us if you need anything.”

“Pinkie promise,” Pinkie suggested.

“Yes, Pinkie promise us that you’re going to come to us.”

“If I even need anything I’ll come to you girls. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Fluttershy said this as she mimicked the gestures for the Pinkie promise.

We all smiled. “Now, I guess all that’s left to do is help you prepare for your new foal.”

“Oh, no thank you girls,” Fluttershy said softly, “I can do that on my own.”

We all frowned at her. “Fluttershy, what did we just say?”

“No, really girls. I’m more than capable of preparing for a foal. I’ve helped with dozens of my animals’ babies.”

“But animal babies and foals are two different things, darling. You’ll be the mother, Fluttershy; you’ll have to take care of it full time. You’ll need plenty of essentials like formula and diapers.”

“And you’ll need a crib for it to sleep in, too.” Twilight added.

“And flour!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Lots of flour! You better get some while you can, because flour prices are unpredictable!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Is preparing for a foal really a lot of work?”

Pinkie nodded. “You should have seen Mr. and Mrs. Cake when they were preparing for Pumpkin and Pound! They had to go to like, a gazillion classes on how to take care of foals.”

Twilight nodded as well. “She’s right, Fluttershy. I actually have to go to one next week. You can come with me if you’d like.”

“Thanks, Twilight, I’d like that very much.”

“And remember darling, you’ll never be alone. We’ll be right here whenever…” I was cut short when my phone rang. “Pardon me for a second.” I answered it. “Carousel Boutique, would you like to place an order? Yes, this is Rarity, to whom am I presently speaking? You have? Y-yes she’s right here in the room with me. Of course, I’ll bring her right over.” I hung up the phone and turned to the mares.

“Who was it?” Twilight asked.

“It was the police. They said they’re almost entirely sure they’ve caught the right stallion, but they just need Fluttershy to go over there and conform it.”

Fluttershy gasped. “No!” She shouted. “Please don’t make me go there! Not if they have him!”

Applejack put her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Fluttershy, look at me. Ah know ya’ll don’t want ta see him again; but they’ll never be able to put that varmint away if ya’ll don’t go down there and make sure they’ve got the right stallion.”

“And I’ll be there, too.” Rainbow Dash said. “If he even looks at you funny I’m going to punch his head clean off his shoulders.”

“We’ll all be there.” Twilight said, “and the police will be there, too, Fluttershy. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Ok…” We accompanied Fluttershy as we made our way to the police station. When we got there a guard recognized Fluttershy immediately.

“Ms. Fluttershy, the detectives are waiting for you in interrogation room two. Right down the hall to your left.”

“Thank you.” We followed the guard’s instructions and found two police stallions waiting in the room. They both looked to Fluttershy.

“You must be Fluttershy.” They pulled out a pen and notepad. “Alright, so we have the suspect in the interrogation room right now. We’ve traced the magic signature back to him, but he’s refusing to admit that it was him. We just need you to look in there and tell us if that’s your rapist.” They looked at Fluttershy and saw that she was shaking. One of the detectives comfortingly put his hoof on her shoulder. “Fluttershy, don’t worry. It’s a one way mirror; meaning that you can see him but he can’t see you. If it is him, I won’t even say that you confirmed it.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath of courage and looked through the window. She nearly screamed before ducking down. “It’s him!” She said. “That’s him!”

We all ran to the window to get a good look at this stallion. He was a tall, strong looking yellow unicorn with a spiked brown mane. We couldn’t see his Cutie mark, though I dreaded what it may be. He was looking around the room with a mixture of anger and disgust.

The same detective that had encouraged Fluttershy smiled and patted her on the head. “That’s all we needed to hear.” He went into the interrogation room and slammed the door shut. He took on a completely new persona than the one he had had seconds before. The detectives banged his hooves on the table and yelled at the bastard. “I knew you were lying to me!”

“What?!” The stallion shouted. “I told you, I don’t even know this girl.”

“Don’t try to play dumber than you already are, Tinker. We have enough evidence to put you away for the rest of your life! You’ll make it a lot easier on yourself if you just admit that you did it!”

The stallion whose name was apparently Tinker looked at the detective with a look of confusion, then suddenly looked as if he had realized something. He looked at the mirror and scowled. “Fine,” He said. “Yeah, I did it. But you know what, she bucking deserved it!” I could hear Rainbow Dash’s breathing rate increase dramatically. “I’d been trying to get that bitch in bed with me for two freaking weeks! But she kept refusing me! Nopony refuses to sleep with me! She kept saying some bullshit about saving herself for that one special somepony and crap.”

That was all she could take. In less than the passing of a second, Rainbow Dash jolted off the ground and towards the one-way mirror. Me, Applejack, and Twilight were quick to grab her and hold her back.

“GAH!” She shouted still trying to fly at Tinker. “I’M GOING TO KILL HIM! I’M GOING TO BUCKING KILL HIM! NOPONY SAYS THAT ABOUT FLUTTERSHY! NOPONY!” We all looked at each other, contemplating whether or not we should let her go.

The other detective in the room tried her best to calm Rainbow down. “Ma’am!” He shouted. “Calm down!” But I could tell he was equally disgusted. “It’s illegal to kill a suspect in custody.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and landed on the ground. “Fine…”

We all looked to Fluttershy, who was in the corner crying. As quick as a flash we all ran to her and held her in a tight embrace.

“Don’t tell me you actually believe that jackass!” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow is right, darling. I envy you for attempting to keep yourself pure. It is the very essence of romance.”

“And when your first night with your special stallion comes,” Twilight added, “it makes it all the more magical.”

Fluttershy didn’t say a word. She just sat there, wrapped in our embraces. We eventually let go and she still didn’t move. She just sat there looking as forlorn as a pony could.

I turned to Twilight. “Twilight, we need to get her to the doctor.”

“I already scheduled an emergency meeting earlier today after…you know.” She turned to the detective. “I hope you don’t mind, but we have to leave.”

“Of course not.” The detective said. He put his hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Thanks to you, Fluttershy, we can lock him away now.” But still Fluttershy was silent. We all helped her up and escorted her to the doctor’s office. The receptionist obviously knew why we were here because she told Fluttershy to go on back immediately. We all sat in the lobby and waited patiently. But as time went on we all had other matters we needed to attend to urgently; all save for me. I was the only pony left when the doctor opened the door.

“Ms. Rarity,” He said. “We need to have a talk.”