Fluttershy walked along the streets of Canterlot, still not believing what had happed the night before. She couldn’t believe it, Luna wanted her, she actually truly wanted her, not just for comfort or as a simple friend, but as a pony to love and be loved by in return.

“Don’t jump ahead of yourself,” said an all too familiar voice inside her head, “She still doesn’t know about “him”, she still doesn’t know about what happened with you back before she met you, you should break it off with her now before you hurt her to.”

“No,” she thought, trying to counter the voice that had plagued her ever since that fateful day. “He would want me to find happiness again, he even said it when he…”

“That doesn’t matter, you are the reason he is gone, and it’s because of you he was taken away from us. You’re a cursed mare Fluttershy, how long do you think it will take before you hurt Luna as well?”

“You’re wrong,” Fluttershy thought, and then she shook her head, denying the voice another chance to speak. She looked around, noting that her hooves had carried her to her destination while she had her little internal conflict, and she quickly made her way over to the shop, walking inside before letting out a surprised gasp at who she found inside.

“Twilight?”

Twilight jumped, nearly dropping the toy she had been examining she turned to look at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, wha…what are you doing here, I thought you were studying the tattoo arts with Princess Luna?”

“Oh I am; but Luna needs to take a break after each piece of the tattoo is applied, and I thought I would take a day to myself to pick up some um…“Supplies” for myself while I was here.”

Twilight nodded, knowing due to her own history studies the intricacies of applying the tattoos for this branch of magic. When she had first gotten the letter from Fluttershy about what branch of magic she was studying she had initially panicked, for tattoo magic was an extremely dangerous branch of magic, due to the fact that it was an entirely emotion based branch magic, thus it was completely unpredictable and wild. However after thinking about it, she had realized that Fluttershy was a good candidate for tattoo magic, because in regards to emotional control, Fluttershy was definitely a master.

“So,” said Fluttershy, breaking Twilight out of her thoughts. “What are you doing here; I didn’t think these kinds of shops were your kind of thing.”

Twilight blushed; putting down the dildo she had been examining and giving a little chuckle. “I actually came into Canterlot to see my marefriend, and we may have broken one of our toys while we were messing around, so I have to buy a new one.”

Fluttershy was about to comment when Death Petal walked out of the room, her eyes spotting the yellow mare and widening in shock. “M…mistress, I…I didn’t expect to see you here, um…is there something you needed?”

“Could you get your father for me please, I need to speak with him regarding some business transactions ok?”

Death Petal nodded, running into the back of the shop as Twilight turned to Fluttershy in surprise. “What the buck was that about.”

“Sorry about that Twilight, I…”

She was interrupted as Fuedra came walking out of that back, grinning broadly as he walked right up to her and kissed her on the lips, causing her to blush as Twilight watched in disbelief. Finally he backed away, smiling at Fluttershy as he spoke. “I didn’t know you were in Canterlot, this is a very pleasant surprise. So do you want to talk business now or…?”

“Fuedra…company,” said Fluttershy, nodding her head towards Twilight and causing the stallion to blush in embarrassment.

“Oh, sorry Twilight, I didn’t see you there, um…I…I should go and…uh…restock those shelves.”

He made his way to the back shelves, leaving Fluttershy to turn to Twilight with a sheepish grin. “I guess I got some things to tell you, come on, we’ll go talk about it at Pony Joe’s.”

“So in other words, you’re a glorified whorse?”

Fluttershy groaned, shaking her head for the fifth time as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. “No no no, I am not a glorified whorse. I don’t just sell sex Twilight; I provide many other services, like massages, or accompanying ponies to social events as an escort. Haven’t you ever heard of a Companion before?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, and I had access to the entire royal library, I’m sure they would have something on it.”

Fluttershy laughed at that, “then that’s why you don’t know much about us, sadly the royals have taken a rather bad shine to us, and have made it their mission to wipe out every historical mention of us, even going so far as to burn a few books.”

“That’s barbaric,” said Twilight, fuming at the idea of somepony burning a book.

“Well luckily not all the books were destroyed, and I have copies in my own personal collection about the companions, which I would be happy to loan you.”

Twilight clapped her hooves in delight, and then she gasped, her eyes widening as she stood up and squealed. “SUNBEAM!”

Fluttershy watched as Twilight launched herself at the door to Pony Joe’s, watching as she wrapped her forelegs around a pure white unicorn, burying her face in the mares pink mane and causing her to giggle. Twilight then dragged the unicorn over, smiling as she turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, this is my marefriend Sunbeam, the kindest and most beautiful mare I have ever met. And Sunbeam, this is Fluttershy, one of my greatest friends in the whole wide world.”

“Hello,” said Fluttershy.

“Hello Fluttershy dear,” said Sunbeam with a smile, “It’s nice to meet you after hearing so much about you from Twilight’s letters, she speaks very highly of you.”

Fluttershy blushed, while Twilight rolled her eyes, pulling the other mare close to her and smiling, “Well I we should get going eh dear, me and you have some new toys we need to break in.”

“Oh you naughty mare, well let’s get going then, and again it was nice meeting you Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy nodded as they left, and then turned to Pony Joe with a questioning glace. “Are they always like that?”

“You have no idea,” said Joe with a smile.

Fluttershy entered Luna’s room, spotting the rather drowsy looking mare as she peered out from her tangled looking mane, for it was still daylight outside. “Dear Fluttershy, why doth thou enter my chambers at this hour, thou knowest I sleep during the day.”

Fluttershy giggled at Luna’s slip back into her old way of speaking, but then sat down next to her on the bed, looking serious. “Luna, I know last night I said I would allow you to court me, but before you do that I need you to know something about me, something that happened in my past that made me…say the things I said last night.”

Luna’s eyes widened, and she quickly sat up strait, “I am listening my dear Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy blushed at that, but nodded all the same, taking a deep breath before speaking. “A long time ago I used to live in Cloudsdale with Rainbow dash, we shared a room together in flight camp, and it was during that time I…well I fell in love with someone.”

“Don’t you mean somepony?”

“No, because he wasn’t a pony, he was a griffin.”

Luna stared at Fluttershy in shock, not really believing what she had just heard. “A…a griffin, you can’t be serious?”

“I am serious, now be quite Luna, I’m not finished. Anyway, we had met during my last years in flight camp, and we hit if off really well, even though a lot of ponies disapproved of me being with a griffin. We didn’t care though, though I wish his sister had been a little less of a jerk to the ponies who called us names.”

“Does this griffin have a name?”

Fluttershy looked saddened for a moment, but spoke all the same. “His name was Talon.”

The way Fluttershy used the past tense was very un-nerving to Luna, leaving her with a foreboding feeling she knew where this story was heading. “And the sister?”

“Gilda, we used to be good friends before he…before I lost him.”

“What happened?”

Fluttershy hesitated, but she knew she would have to speak eventually. “He died protecting me from Timber Wolves, I had been searching for one of my animals at the time and they attacked me, but he came out of nowhere to hold them off. By the time I managed to find somepony to help and come back it was already too late…he…he died in my forelegs.”

She leaned herself against Luna, crying as she continued to speak. “He…he told me not to cry, and told me I should try and find some pony else, but I never could…I just couldn’t get over the grief of losing him. It…it was one of the reasons I accepted the job with the companions guild, it was the only way I thought I would ever be close to somepony after losing him.”

Luna hugged her close, kissing her forehead as she whispered softly to her. “It will be alright my dear Fluttershy; I understand your pain better than most would, and know how much it hurts. But they would not want us to lock away our hearts, they would want us to try and find love again.” She then pulled back a little, giving Fluttershy a smile before speaking again. “Now come, we have your final tattoo to apply, and then we shall be ready to awaken thee to new magic.”

Fluttershy nodded and then got up, following Luna out to the balcony and then into the sky, heading toward the mountain top to finish the tattoo that would unlock her magic.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay guys, I have been busy writing for my other stories but I finally managed to finish this chapter up. Next chapter will be the start of Fluttershy's adventures into the realm of Tattoo magic, as well as Luna learning about the modern day version of courting. As always I hope you guys have enjoyed the chapter, and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them on by, I always love hearing from you guys.