> Scars of Suppression
>  by Harold Chaplin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Spreading Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
"Well Twilight or, Princess Twilight Sparkle, what will be your first decree now that not only do you rule over Ponyville, but also do it all from a crystal tree shadowing over the town?" Discord asks inside the sovereign crystal meeting room of Twilight's new castle.

"It doesn't shadow over the town... but, I'm still not sure. Everything's fine until the next villain comes around. I guess we can just go to more parades and wave until then." Twilight says slumped back in her crystal throne.

"Come on sugarcube there's plenty of things a great team of friends like us could do to improve on Ponyville!" Hovering above her throne on the other side of the crystal chamber Rainbow questions "Oh yeah, like what?"

"Uh..." Rarity chimes in "I think your first decree should be to redesign this room. I like crystals and all but some of these walls seem to be more like diamonds in the rough!"

Rarity continues on when a few ideas seem to pop into her head. "And I know just what to do with this place, I'll just add some more tapestries, file down some of the crystals randomly sticking out of the floor, chip away some designs into the pillars (we'll probably have to hire somepony for that), add more lights..."

As Rarity trails off turning and twisting in her chair trying to get a better look at the window behind her Pinkie Pie exclaims "Oooh! I've got the perfect idea! How about... we end world hunger."

"How would we do that?" Twilight wonders. "Well first we'd take all the apples from Sweet Apple Acres... and make the world's biggest pie! And then, feed it to all the hungry little zebras I keep hearing about in the paper. Actually I'm not to sure where zebras even come from? And is all the apples in Sweet Apple Acres REALLY enough to feed all those skinny zebras?"

"I don't know, but that is a good idea! Let's figure out a way to feed the zebras!" Twilight straightens up in her chair and gets ready to get started when Discord asks "Are you sure there isn't something smaller you could do in the meantime?"

"Like maybe, you and 'Our' friends could try to spread the magic of friendship throughout Ponyville and so on?" Twilight perks up further at the thought "That's a good idea too! Well, I am definitely going to play my part as a princess now!"

Twilight hops up from her slumped position and announces to everypony "Alright I've got a plan! Me and Discord will stay here and work on the starving zebras situation..." Discord lets out an annoyed sigh from the thought of this. "And the rest of you are all in charge of finding ponies in town that need help learning the lessons of friendship. I suppose we can all start now because its early..." Rainbow interjects "Wait a minute, where would we even start?"

"You can all start with anypony you know that doesn't seem to truly understand the lessons of friendship." Pinkie jumps after hearing this and shouts "I'm on it!" as she bursts out the door.

"You can count on us Twi." AppleJack affirms as her, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy start to leave the room. "Rarity, aren't you coming?"

"Yes, but I mean... there are crystals protruding out of places that crystal should never Ever protrude. And I've seen more crystal tripping hazards than one could even count on my way in here." Twilight blankly looks at Rarity as she asks "Do you want to stay and spruce up the place?"

"Please?" Rarity pleads, pouting her bottom lip and blinking her sad blue eyes. After a long pause Twilight finally caves in, "Fine." As most ponies do in Rarity's pouting gaze.

"Oh thank you! Your castle will be rivaling Celestia's in grandioseness in no time!" Rarity then prances off to brainstorm ideas in another room where she isn't to be distracted.

While walking to the exit through the long crystal halls and spiraling staircases littered throughout Twilight's castle, Fluttershy admits to her friends "I don't like this plan."

"Why not?" asks Rainbow from above. "Well, I do like it, its just that... I don't know anypony that has friendship troubles. The only ponies I ever really talk to are all of you." 

"Well why don'tcha ask around , I'm sure there's somepony in town that's having friend problems. Like my neighbors, I've been hearing talk that the've got a relative that has terrible luck with make'n friends. I figure I'd go over an ask 'em if they'd like my help." AppleJack states. 

"I've got the perfect stallion to work with!" Rainbow declares in a challenging way towards AppleJack. "Oh yeah, how so?"

"Well, not only did he have an abusive foalhood but he can't keep a friend for more than a week because of... anger issues, or something?" Fluttershy is shocked by this news, "Oh my, that sounds terrible!"

"Yeah, but I'm up to the challenge. I'll teach him the lessons of friendship, even if I have to buck the lessons into him!"

"Rainbow Dash, No!" Fluttershy quietly yells out as Rainbow giggles like a scheming little school filly.

They both finally make it to the exit and walk out into the embrace of the cool air and bright sun that covers Equestria in the morning. They all say goodbye and go their seperate ways. AppleJack trots towards the farm, Rainbow Dash flies off and over a hill in the distance and Fluttershy nervously walks down the dirt path to Ponyville.

"Ooh. I don't like this idea... not one bit." Fluttershy thinks to herself. "At least it's bright and sunny out and... aw, the mocking birds must be back in town. And with new stories to tell!" The singing of her bird friends and wonderful fragrances of flowers calms her down and takes her mind off of talking to strange ponies for most of the trip. 

But the market is especially busy today, and Fluttershy... is shy.

> Chapter One: Razor Sharp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After around an hour from leaving Twilight's castle, Fluttershy has finally arrived in the heart of Ponyville at around twelve o'clock. The town square was a bustling place today, with crowds of ponies gathered around shops and crowding the dirt streets all around the center of town. Fluttershy doesn't much care for crowds, but Twilight had sent her and her friends on a mission to spread the lessons of friendship throughout Ponyville. And she wasn't about to let her down, so she mustered up her confidence and set out to ask the townsponies if anyone needed help.

She walks up behind the nearest mare that wasn't hurrying around with the crowd and asks "Um, hello... I was wondering if you've had any trouble with..." Fluttershy stops as the back of the mare she was talking to walks away into the sea of ponies oblivious she was ever being spoken too. "Never mind then."

"Um... maybe she could use some lessons?" Fluttershy thinks as she slowly walks over to another mare admiring some fudge at a shop nearby.

"I'll make sure she knows I'm here this time." Fluttershy reaches out a hoof and taps on the mare's shoulder. The mare looks behind her and notices that, it's Fluttershy! She quickly spins around as her face lights up and brightly exclaims "Well what do ya know! It's Fluttershy, one of  the heroes of Equestria!"

Fluttershy blushes with pride and turns away "Oh I don't know about that."

"Oh, you are just the cutest thing! So what can I do for you ta-day?"

Fluttershy blushed a bit more "You don't have to do anything for me. I was just wondering if..." in the distance a stallion can be heard screaming to someone.

"What!?" Fluttershy jumps back from the mare's yell and nervously repeats herself, "Um... I was just wondering..."

The mare looks up and focuses in on the direction of a stallion jumping up and down trying to get the attention of the mare over the sea of ponies. He seems to be shouting about some item at a shop.

"No! I don't want that!" The mare answers back as he shouts back something else. "What!?... WHAT!?!?"

Finally the most audible words of the stallion's in the whole conversation are heard. He clearly manages to scream across the busy market street "GET OVER HERE!"

"AH' RIGHT! Sweet Celestia that man has no patience. Anyways I'm sorry Fluttershy for leaving so soon, but it was nice talking to you." the mare then quickly disappears into the crowd after whoever she was yelling back and forth too.

"It was nice talking to you too!" Fluttershy quietly yells into the crowd hoping the mare would hear. She lets out a short sigh in the thought of how ponies never listen to her. "Don't feel bad, you've only asked two ponies and there are hundreds more to ask here. Like him over there." Fluttershy looks over to see a green unicorn with a light grey mane and tail. He looks just as lost as her, trapped in the crowd of ponies. As Fluttershy makes her way over to him through the crowd the green stallion sees her and smiles trotting closer.

"Hey there Fluttershy!" he says overly excited. Although he seems nice enough, something about him gives out an aura of creepyness. Perhaps it's the unwavering smile he holds as Fluttershy asks "Um... hi there. I've been sent on a mission from Twilight to..." Fluttershy pauses and looks away slightly to gain back a bit more courage, that was quickly being drained by his gaze. The stallion seems to realize this, his smile slowly dissipates as he tries to hold back the excitement he's feeling talking to the real Fluttershy!

She continues "... to spread the, the lessons of friendship to the, ponies of Ponyville." Fluttershy looks back to see the stallion in a much more timid demeanor. He answers "Oh well that's cool, I take it you want to help me improve on my friendship habits?"

"Yes... if you think you need any."

"Um..." the stallion pauses for a long time in thought but quickly answers back "Nope."

"Oh, well ok. It was nice talking to you."

"You too. Oh Wait! I know somepony that could use some assistance with friendship."

"Oh... Who's that?"

The stallion looks into the sky and scratches his chin to reassure his memory. "Well I don't exactly know her, but I hear talk about a really weird mare that moved into town recently named, Razor Sharp."

"What's weird about her?"

"I dunno? But I know she hardly ever leaves her house and doesn't have any friends. Perfect for what your looking for!" proclaims the stallion with a grin.

"Oh, well... Do you know where she lives?"

"I think she lives in a house near the road toward Cloudsdale?" he points a hoof in the direction he believes to be correct, though neither of them could tell which direction anything was in the crowd.

"Well, thank you for your help."

"Anytime!" announced the stallion as Fluttershy begins to walk away.

"Goodbye!" She calls back waving at him.

"Seeya later!" "Well he was nice." The stallion then resumes looking around lost, like a foal forgotten by his parents. "I wonder if he's looking for somepony, maybe I should ask?" Fluttershy looks back but the crowd of ponies had swallowed another victim. "I'll ask if I ever see him again."

Around half an hour later she finally squeezes through the crowd of ponies and walks down a few streets to arrive on the road toward Cloudsdale. It's a lot less crowded here but the noise of the market can still be heard around the bend. "Maybe I should have asked him to be more specific on which house she lives in?" There are several houses around and anyone of them could be Razor Sharp's. So she trots up to a nearby pony hauling items he had gotten from the market into his home. "Sir, do you know which one of these homes could be Razor Sharp's?"

The pony lets out a disgusted shutter as he points his hoof at the two story, lightly dilapidated house furthest down the road towards Cloudsdale. "There." he intones and continues carrying his heavy saddlebags into his home.

"Thank you." Fluttershy obliges and heads off in the direction of Razor's house.

She draws nearer to the house all by itself at the end of the empty road. She notices that it's paint is chipping fairly bad, vines have nearly encased all of one side all the way up the second story to the sagging roof on top. Even stranger, all the shutters look as though they have never once been open to let in the sunlight. The whole house gives off an aura of loneliness that would tell most ponies to steer clear of it. "It seems abandoned, but this was exactly where he pointed so... I might as well knock." Fluttershy slowly approaches the decaying pink front door and looks in through the cracks in the window shutters nearby. Not a single light is on, not a single move is made and not a single noise is heard besides the wind blowing through the forest nearby.

Fluttershy doesn't feel safe in the presence of such a haunting place but proceeds anyways. Knock knock knock... even Fluttershy's almost inaudibly soft tapping still chips paint from the door onto her hooves. She wipes off the chips "Hello?" Knock knock knock... "Is anybody home?" The only response that comes is a cold wind from under the door sending chills up her spine. 

"This must be the wrong house... I'll just ask around for the real one and leave." Fluttershy squeaks out and quickly turns around to trot away.

Crreeeeeeaak... Fluttershy freezes in place and feels more of the cold air from the house rushing past her. The creaking of the door subsides as she hears it come to a halt and an eerie silence fills the gap between her and the house. She slowly looks over her shoulder, into the dark entryway that now looms behind her. Suddenly, the sweet smell of spaghetti hits her nose as an angelic voice calls out "Hello, who are you?"

Fluttershy stands, frozen in place as she tries to think of what to do. Suddenly like exiting from a pond of black water, out from the darkness comes the head of mare. A deep ocean blue colored mare, with a long wavy violet and maroon streaked mane. Her bright yellow eyes squint from the sun as they stare at her, waiting for a response.

Fluttershy, still shaken from the mysterious door opening, answers back "Um... my name is Fluttershy." she turns around to face the mare and continues "Are you Razor Sharp?"

Fluttershy receives a sad but lovely "Yes... unfortunately." Razor walks a little further into the sunlight and squints even harder trying to adjust her eyes to the outside.

"Why is it unfortunate?" Fluttershy asks trying to get a look at Razor's forelegs a little more closely. Something about them seems off, like the fur grows darker in strips all over them.

"It's a long story." Razor mutters out.

"I'd like to stick around and hear it, if that's ok with you?" "And your voice sounds wonderful!"

Razor looks at Fluttershy confused, thinking "Why would somepony want to hear my story?" Although she doesn't fully understand why Fluttershy is here, she's thankful to know that not everypony out there wants to avoid her. Her confused disposition turns into a happy one at the thought and offers heavenly "Would it be alright with you if we talked inside? My eyes hurt from all this sun."

"Ok..." Razor slips back into the darkness smiling and rubbing her eyes. Fluttershy follows behind her into the doorway, she pauses once the darkness envelopes her and looks around waiting for her eyes to adjust. SLAM! Fluttershy jumps from the sound of the door quickly closing behind her. 

"Sorry the wind must have caught it, I didn't mean to startle you." Razor's voice whispers from the darkness eerily close behind Fluttershy. She frantically looks around trying to figure just where she was "Uh... It's fine... But, is there any lights around you can turn on!?" 

From in front of Fluttershy now some distance away, Razor embarrassingly answers back "Oh yeah, sure." The darkness slowly disappears as a very dim dome light in the middle of the hallway they both are standing in flickers to life. Fluttershy looks all around the entryway that appears around her. The inside is in much better condition than the outside, the carpet she is on feels very clean and looks to be an orange color. The walls surrounding them are a bright grey with large dark openings on both sides and at the back, leading into other rooms. Across the entryway on the other side next to a staircase stands Razor Sharp with her hoof on a light switch. Fluttershy can see she is an Earth pony clearly now, but still can't make out her cutie mark.

"Sorry about the smell, I had spaghetti earlier." Razor says with the embarrassment now obvious on her cheeks. She quickly trots off into the dark opening to the left of Fluttershy and opens up a drawer, pulling out with her mouth a box of matches. She pulls one out and strikes it on the drawer and lights a floor candlestick that Fluttershy couldn't make out in the darkness before. Razor continues to walk all around the living room that slowly lights up as she lights all the different types of candles scattered throughout the tables in the room.

"Wow, this is a wonderful collection of candles you have!" compliments Fluttershy stepping into the red carpeted and pink with gold trim walled living room. 

"Thank you! But its not really a collection, more of a necessity." Razor walks out of the room and through the dark opening of another. In the dark she turns on a wall light over a sink and throws the smoking match into it.

"Well it definitely smells lovely in here!" Fluttershy sniffs taking in the smell of lavender scented candles.

"Thank you, you can have a seat if you'd like." Razor calls out from the kitchen as she rummages through some cabinets.

"Ok" Fluttershy walks over and sits down on the couch against the back wall underneath a few closed windows. Razor walks in holding two plates with cookies on them in her mouth and sets them down on the coffee table. She then jumps up onto the couch on the opposite side of the table and smiles asking "So... my life story. Oh wait! Do you like milk?"

"Yes."

"I'll be right back." she hops off and goes back into the kitchen to grab a few glasses. When she leaves Fluttershy gets a clear look at her cutiemark. "A cooking knife? What special talent does that represent?" Razor walks back in balancing two glasses of milk on a tray and places them down on the table.

"Thank you." says Fluttershy reaching down to hold a cookie between her hooves.

Razor smiles back at her and jumps up on to the couch again. Razor takes in a deep breath and prepares to tell her story when a thought comes to her "Why is... uh... Fluttershy, yeah that's her name, here?"

Feeling like a rude host Razor decides to ask about it anyways. "Sorry for asking this Fluttershy but, why are you here?"

"I'm here because, I heard you didn't have any friends... So I'm here to help."

"Oh, I'm surprised anypony even cares..." Razor looks at Fluttershy with sad yellow eyes and pleads "What can I do to make ponies like me? I haven't had a conversation like this for months and it's killing me." 

"Months? But I thought you just moved here?"

"I did... but even back where I used to live, nopony ever talked to me."

Fluttershy can't bear to hear her talk. Her voice is like a fallen angels singing her sad tale of how she fell, but Fluttershy has to know more "Why didn't they talk to you at your old town?"

Razor reaches down and grabs a cookie, Fluttershy gets a good look at her legs when she moves. "What's wrong with her fur?" She thinks staring at the dark lines all over them. She looks up and sees Razor watching her.

"Oh! Sorry I was just..."

Razor takes a bite from her cookie "It's fine, I'll tell you about those once I've... explained about my old town."

Fluttershy relaxes and nibbles on her cookie as Razor clears her throat and begins...

"It was a backwards rundown swamp! I don't even know how it qualified as a town, but it had a name... Dense Lilly."

Fluttershy has never heard a town name like that, and it shows.

"I thought it was a stupid name too, but I loved it... used to love it. I was born there and raised by my mommy Water Lilly and daddy Jocund Provenance. I should have had a sister but she died on her way out..." 

Razor sets down her cookie and whispers "Sometimes when I'm reading a book in here, I think I can hear her."

Fluttershy's eyes go wide as she looks around the room for the little ghost foal waiting in the darkness.

"Don't worry she's not real... and I know that... but when you've been in the dark so long, I guess your mind plays tricks on you."

This didn't calm Fluttershy's nerves one bit! But the milk was helping, so she continues listening to Razor.

"Anyways, so I used to go flower picking on the boat with my parents or play with my dolls out on the jetty... and things were great! Until school started... I made a few friends there, but once I was old enough my dad taught me how to hunt."

"Hunt?" Fluttershy asks.

"Yes, we killed animals and... ate them."

"OH!" Screams Fluttershy, eyes wider than ever before as terrible thoughts pass through her head "Why would you ever eat another animal!?" Fluttershy begins to sob at the sickening thoughts of Razor eating... meat.

"Fluttershy, please don't be sad." Razor pleads getting up off of the couch. She walks over to Fluttershy who now has her hooves over her teary eyes.

"Fluttershy?" She hears how close Razor is and quickly backs away into the opposite side of the couch in fear. Razor backs away as well, "I'm sorry Fluttershy... this is the reason why nopony would ever talk to me though. Because of me a rumor got out when I was seven that my family and I went into the woods and brought home animals to cook. Everypony since then either beat me up or completely ignored me."

Fluttershy calms down a bit but still sobs on the far end of the couch. "My parents still got along with the other adults because... none of them would believe a rumor started in a school. So for the longest time the only people I ever talked to were my parents... until one day."

Razor climbs back on to her couch, her eyes glistening as she tells her story.

"One day... About a year later, my mom found out about all the kids at school hating me... since then she just kept getting sadder and sadder... A few more years later our neighbor saw us eating and told the whole town about us. We became the freaks of the town after that. Dad chased off vandals every week and mom cried herself to sleep every night."

Razor pauses letting out a long breath as her body begins to quiver. "The worst time of my life happened in the middle of all this, when I finally got my... cutiemark." It pains Razor to say the word.

"One night I was sitting on the jetty playing with my old dolls I used to have back when I was a filly. I thought about my life and what it was going to be for me in the future... the thought made me so sad I couldn't stop the tears. I quietly laid on the pier looking at the ripples I was causing in the water, when I saw a loose nail sticking out of a board beside me. I looked at it thinking about how much of a freak I was, how ugly my eyes were, and how because of one little mistake all this started... I was the one that started all of this."

"So I took my leg and hit it against the nail, as hard as I could." Razor bangs her leg against the couch replicating her action. "Again and again... I didn't feel as sad after that, I still thought I needed more punishment though. So I walked inside, grabbed a knife in my kitchen and... cut myself... all over my legs."

Fluttershy is now terrified realizing what the dark lines on her legs are. She was considering leaving, but she had come there to help Razor and that's what she would do.

"After I was done the tears stopped and I almost felt a little better about myself. Then from behind me a flash of light shined. When I turned around there it was... my horrible morbid knife, cutiemark. I absolutely hate it now, but when I got it I rushed upstairs and... showed my parents."

Razor becomes angry as she recalls the events that unfolded. "I will never forgive myself for what I did. When I woke up my parents to show them..." Razor points to her flank "...This. They screamed! They screamed at the sight of their thirteen year old filly covered in blood, with a knife on her flank. 'What happened to you?' mom shouted jumping out of bed to hold me tight." Razor holds her violet hair in her hooves staring at the dark red streaks in it.

"Dad ran downstairs to kill whoever had broken in and done this to me, he didn't even notice my... cutiemark. 'Are you ok? Are you hurting? Let's get you cleaned off!' she said and rushed me to the sink downstairs. I told her I was fine and how I did it... to myself, and that's when my cutiemark appeared."

Fluttershy is scared of Razor but also deeply sorry for her, she isn't sobbing anymore and now looks at her with concern. She wants to get up and hug her, but her fear is to overpowering.

Razor's body begins to shake and her breathing becomes heavy as she looks away from her hair and into the darkness of the kitchen. "My mom was already so sad... and I guess, she reached her limit... She left us after that." Razor's eyes begin to tear up and her breathing becomes really hard.

"She didn't leave us for long though... one day, when I was..." Razor pauses and quickly jumps off the couch and runs into the kitchen.

"Wha... what are you doing?" Fluttershy whispers from her couch. From here she can't see the sink that Razor is at, but can here the sound of a knife unsheathing. A small squeak of pain can be heard from in the kitchen and the sound of paper towels being unraveled. Fluttershy knows what's happening but is to afraid to leave her couch. Razor walks back in with fresh red cuts on her blue legs. Tiny amounts of blood still trickle out of them as she asks "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Nothing... you were about to tell when your mother came back?" Razor jumps back onto the couch.

"Oh..." Razor looks at her wounds and sighs. "One day when I was looking off the jetty into the water, I thought I saw her... in the water." Razor starts to quiver again but holds it back. "Then I got my dad and he also saw her... in the water. So he jumped in and pulled her out of... the water."

"She was buried on top of a hill by the swamp... we had her grave face away from it, since that's where she wanted to be. Away from the swamp."

Razor lays her head down on the couch, letting out a long sigh as she stares at her scars.

"When me and my dad finally got enough money he decided to move to Manehattan. He insisted I come, but I wanted to start my own life... he understood and lent me enough money to move here."

"I'm sorry Fluttershy... You can leave if you want to."

Fluttershy sits up and contemplates the idea "She is a terrible pony! But, she has had such a sad life because of it." She sits sadly watching Razor from across the room. Her brain conflicting with thoughts "She eats animals! Deer, ducks, maybe even bunnies!"

"But she is a nice host, and seems to tidy up regularly."

"What if one day Angel ends up in her freezer?"

"She is a nice pony with a lovely voice, I'm sure if I asked her not to eat Angel she wouldn't."

Razor looks up at Fluttershy staring at her "Will you stay?"

"She is an evil pony, you can tell by her eyes!"

"Everypony deserves a friend, even her." Fluttershy looks almost angry from the thoughts battling in her brain.

She slides off her couch and walks over to Razor, staring at her the whole way. Razor stares back at her and becomes worried not knowing what she will do. "Fluttershy, what are you doing? she sits up and turns to face Fluttershy, now standing in front of her.

"Everypony deserves a friend, especially you." Fluttershy stands up and wraps her forelegs around Razor. Razor returns the hug, thoughts race back of how her mom used to hold her when she was sad. Those thoughts coupled with the actually feeling brings back a happiness Razor forgot existed. A smile runs across her face and tears begin to form in her yellow eyes. 

"Thank you..." Razor sniffs.

"See, she's just like any other pony."

Fluttershy leans back to look at Razor. Her hair was wavy and frayed, her mouth was happily grinning, and her watery eyes could barely contain there excitement. She smiles back at her knowing she did the right thing to stay.

"Oh, Thank you! Thank you so much!" Razor pulls Fluttershy back in for a big hug.

She can barely speak from Razor's constricting hold "Well it was... Oof!... my pleasure." 

Razor quickly lets go and leans back "Oh no! I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you."

Fluttershy laughs "Don't worry, it's fine."

"Oh, ok!" Razor sits back on her haunches smiling. Fluttershy smiles back and hops up next to her on the couch. 

"This might sound stupid..." Razor asks hesitantly "...but, are we friends now?"

Fluttershy looks at her "Yes."

Squee! Razor jumps up and down with excitement squealing like a school filly. Fluttershy watches and can't help but laugh at how silly she looks. Razor stops bouncing and asks "So what's first? Wanna play tag? Or maybe hide and seek?"

"Um..." Fluttershy looks down at her legs.

"I think I might have a board game or two?" Razor looks up the stairs in the dim entryway behind her.

"What if we talked about those?" Fluttershy points at the wounds on Razor's legs.

"Right now? But, I'm happy now." Razor's smile turns to a frown looking at Fluttershy beggingly.

"We can play a game... but right now, I want to talk about your legs."

"Don't screw this up Razor! You haven't had a friend this good in your entire life!" Razor berates herself in her mind.

"Ok, we can talk about my scars if you want to."

"Ok..." Fluttershy pauses thinking of how rude she must be. "Wait, if you don't want to right now... we can play a game."

"She wants to talk about them!"

"No, we probably should... what do you want to know about them?"

Fluttershy leans down to look closer at them. The old scars look deep and damaging, while her fresh cuts don't look as bad. Both look incredibly painful though and Fluttershy is puzzled as to why Razor would do this to herself?

So she asks "Why did you do this to yourself?"

Razor crosses her legs and looks away "Well, whenever I get sad... pain stops the sadness."

Fluttershy looks confused "How?"

"I'm not sure how? But whenever I feel really sad, like I'm about to cry... the pain felt from cutting stops my tears and calms myself down. It can make me almost happy if I do it enough, or hard enough." Fluttershy's face fills with dread as she thinks of Razor cutting herself.

"No..." Razor whimpers "Don't be scared again, please?" she hugs Fluttershy again "Please don't hate me."

Fluttershy's terrible thoughts flee her in Razor's embrace "I don't hate you, don't worry."

Razor relaxes a bit "Do we have to talk about my legs now?"

"Fluttershy your tormenting her, let's talk about it some other time."

"There are still a few more things I want to know... but we can talk about them some other time."

Razor sighs with relief, relaxing herself "I have a board game upstairs I've never played. Would you like to try it out with me?"

"Sure!"

Razor perks up again "I'll go get it!" She jumps up and over the back of the couch and races upstairs. Fluttershy is surprised she doesn't fall practically galloping up the dark staircase. When she reaches the top she runs into the darkness to look for her game.

"Couldn't she find the board game easier if the lights were on?" Fluttershy wonders. "Oh, she probably knows this place inside out by now, if she can walk around without the lights on."

Fluttershy sits quietly, listening to Razor's hooves rushing about upstairs to find her board game. She looks down at the half eaten cookie on Razor's plate. She is reminded of the taste of cookie in her mouth from this and hops off the couch. She walks around the coffee table to her glass of milk and picks it up with her snout, but is disappointed when only a single drop runs down.

"I'm sure Razor wouldn't mind if I got just a little more."

Fluttershy holds the glass in her mouth and walks into the dark kitchen. Only half of the kitchen is visible from the white light overtop of the sink, and luckily the fridge is in the visible half. Fluttershy sets down her glass on the counter and walks over to the fridge. She opens it up and the bright light inside flicks on, hurting her eyes. She pulls back rubbing her eyes with a hoof, a peculiar smell hits her nose.

"What is that smell?"

Her eyes adjust after a brief moment and witness a gruesome slab of animal, skinned and soaked in it's own red juices. It sat dead center in the fridge headless and limbless, covered in a tight compressing cellophane. It's body had a familiar shape to it... like a bunny's.

Fluttershy closes her eyes backing away screaming in horror "Aaaaaaaaahh! Uh!" Fluttershy's watery eyes look back at the oven she ran into. The oven Razor cooks in.

"Fluttershy what's wrong, I heard a scream or something?"

Fluttershy shutters hearing Razor and the sound of evil hooves clomping on the floor above her. With her vision blurred from the tears beginning to form, she sees her escape. Through the dimly lit entryway is the front door, if she can make it out she'll be safe. She takes a wobbly step forward, then another and another. 

Her eyes look back to the fridge, to the hideous cut of meat inside. She quickly closes them ,whimpering trying to feel her way to the dim entryway. Tears stream down her face as she feels the couch brush by her.

"Just a little further..."

Fluttershy presses on slowly walking through the darkness, thoughts roll through her mind of Razor torturing all of her animal friends. She feels her side brush against the railing of the staircase.

"No! The door is on the other side of the room."

"Oh... ya..." Fluttershy quivers out in response to her own thoughts. With her eyes closed and cheeks soaking, she slowly starts walking the opposite direction to the door.

"Fluttershy?" She looks behind her, up to the top of the stairs where two soulless eyes loom over her. Two yellow poisonous eyes.

She shoots off, opening the creaky wooden door and bursting out into the sunset sky. She feels safe again in the cooling afternoon air, but bloody thoughts linger in her mind. She can't stop running until she's home, until she knows all of her animal friends are safe. Meanwhile Razor stands in her doorway calling out...

"Wait! Fluttershy! Why are you going?"

"Why was she crying so much?"

Razor looks back into her home, into the kitchen. 

"Oh no... I ate that yesterday didn't I?"

Razor runs into her kitchen and looks inside the fridge "No, I had ... spaghetti." Razor feels her eyes fill and closes the fridge. She grabs the still bloody knife she used earlier out of its rack and walks back to the door.

She stabs the knife in the wall and stares out the doorway. Regret in her eyes she whispers "I'm so sorry Fluttershy... this is for you."

> Chapter Two: She Returns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
Racing home through the empty streets of Ponyville in the late afternoon Fluttershy gallops. Wind streaking through her hair and tears streaming across her face as ponies watch out there windows wondering, what could have happened to their beloved hero?

"What happened Fluttershy?" asks a familiar mint green unicorn looking out his front door.

Fluttershy sprints by him, her words choking in her mouth from the continuing thoughts that plague her mind. She would have stopped to apologize and explain but all she can think about now is getting home.

"What if that was Angel I saw!"

Up and over the bridge she goes crossing the stream between her home and Ponyville. After a few bends in the road she arrives at her home, through the window Angel sits angrily watching her approach.

"Angel your Ok!" her sadness subsides and she slows down wiping the watery tracks off her face. She quickly opens the door and scoops Angel up in a big hug. She hovers in the air squeezing him tight. 

"Oh Angel I'm so glad to see you! I thought you were dead!" Fluttershy continues to nuzzle him in her arms.

Angel looks at Fluttershy confused and begins squirming around in frustration.

"What's wrong?" she sets him down. Angel glares at Fluttershy, confused as to what he's mad about. He opens his mouth and points in it.

"Oh... Oh! I've been gone all day."

Angel nods his head bitterly and points into the house behind him. In each of her bird houses sad hungry eyes look back at Fluttershy. Along the ground other rabbits look up to her beside mice, ferrets, squirrels and other animals. All of them have the same helpless, starving expressions.

"I'm sorry, time must have slipped away from me! I... I'll get of you your food don't worry." she quickly glides over her animals friends to her pantry pulling out several bags of feed and bird seed and throws them into a pile on the floor. She floats up to the bird houses and begins filling the bowls, but stops when a paw smacks her hoof. She looks down and sees Angel still mad pointing in his mouth, more sternly this time.

"Oh... sorry Angel, I'll get right on it."

Fluttershy floats over to the fireplace, gracefully landing in front of her big recipe book. It's Monday so she flips to the page containing Angel's favorite today, carrot soufflé. She gathers her items: a pot, a tablespoon, salt, carrots...

She hears the sound of grain spilling out on the floor behind her. She turns around to see her bags ripped open by all of her animals.

She gasps "No! wait... Oh who cares, at least you get fed." The recipe book quickly slides in front of her with Angel impatiently tapping at the section for his dish.

"Sorry, let's see vanilla, eggs... Oh the chickens! I never fed them this morning!" Fluttershy puts a hoof to her mouth thinking of the poor starving chickens. She shutters thinking of what would happen if Razor owned her chickens.

Angel slaps the back of her head getting her attention "Oh, hmm... I guess they can wait."


*****


Nearly forty-five closely watched minutes later, Fluttershy tastes the souffle to see if it's done.  She looks back into her now empty house, happy to see her other animal friends settled their ravenous hunger on there own. The bags now lay empty around the floor with fragments of their contents littered about.

She pours the soufflé into a bowl and lays it on the ground for Angel. "There ya go!" He examines it thoroughly... he gives it a taste. Angel looks at Fluttershy, disapointed.

"But... It's exactly how I always make it?"

Fluttershy reaches down to take it away but is halted by Angel's dismissing paw. He gives her a look stating it's tolerable, and picks up the bowl hopping off with it. On his way out the door, Fluttershy hears  the cluck of the chickens. "Don't worry! I'm coming!" and runs out the door, into the night. 

Outside she grabs the grain bags and feeds all the hungry chickens that shortly after doze off afterwards. 

"Well you must have been tired! Goodnight my little chickens." Fluttershy smiles and turns out their light. As soon as it clicks off she is thrown into the dark of night. She looks around, her eyes still not adjusted to the dark. Luckily the lights of her cottage stand out so she makes her way towards them.

She stumbles finding her way to the fence gate "Ouch!" A sharp pain spreads at the top of her leg. She rubs the spot "Ooooh... Ow!.. what did I walk into?" she feels in front of her with her hoof. 

"Oh... the fence. Must have been a lose nail, I guess?" 

She feels around some more as her eyes adjust and finds the gate. She opens it and makes her way around to the entrance. Once inside she hesitantly looks at her wound, "Phew, I thought it was a lot worse." She continues to her closet and grabs a broom and dustpan to clean up the mess her friends left her.


*****


An hour later after Fluttershy had cleaned up the mess and made herself a snack. She says "Goodnight" to all her bird friends and makes her way upstairs to a long awaited rest. She reaches the top of the stairs and hops under the sheets into her soft, comfy bed. Laying with her fluffy pillow behind her Fluttershy pulls the covers up to her chin and snuggles in, relieved her busy day is over.

Fluttershy stares at the ceiling, thoughts rolling through her head of what happened today. She remembers arriving at Razor's house and being scared, along with what she saw in her fridge. "That evil... animal hurting pony!"

She also remembers the door opening and cold wind gusting out. "That pony lived inside that dark, cold house eating animals... like..." Fluttershy cringes "...bunnies."

She remembers being invited inside and smelling her candles. "She did have a nice collection of candles though."

She remembers being given cookies and milk. "She was a good baker too... I could tell they were homemade." Fluttershy rolls onto her side and feels a slight pain in her leg.

She then remembers Razor's life story. "And I thought I used to get picked on? Everypony hated her and her family. And her mom... Oh no."

She finally remembers her hugging Razor and how they were about to play a game. "Oh no... What have I done? I was her only friend and I ran away from her... screaming, thinking she was a monster. I'm sorry Razor... I can't believe I got so scared at something I already knew you did..."

Fluttershy continues thinking of how nice Razor was. "She was polite and kept her house very clean... at least from what I could see. Why did she keep her house so dark?"

Fluttershy lays staring at the wall, a detail she had blocked out  bumps it's way back into her mind "Razor cuts herself... why would she do that? She said it made her sadness go away, but..." 

Fluttershy feels the wound on her leg and winces slightly at the pain. "... I think it would just make me even more sad. Tomorrow I'll ask her... if she'll let me."
"I hope she doesn't hate me..."


*****


The moonlight shines in through her bedroom window, glistening off the pool of blood that has accumulated under her legs in the middle of Razor's floor. She bites down hard on the knife in pain as it slices through her leg, leaving another gushing streak. She shutters at the sight and quickly covers it with her other dripping hoof.

Her breaths come out wavering in pain "Too deep... just as you should be."

She presses down harder with her soaked hoof trying to stop the blood. Seeing how this cut is seriously worse than the many others on both her legs, she drops her knife and reaches for the surgical tape she kept nearby for just such an occasion. She pulls it over and wraps it around her leg pressing down and adhering it. The tape submerges on both sides with her blood as Razor trembles from the searing pain coursing through her legs.

She struggles to talk through her torment "I'm sorry Fluttershy... sorry I'm... such, a terrible pony." Razor longingly looks up through her bedroom window. She takes in a few deep breaths and relaxes herself looking at the stars above. Her scorching pain fades into a dull agony as she asks "I wonder what Fluttershy is doing now? Probably planning to tell everypony in town..."

She hears a noise from the hallway outside her room and quickly spins her head around. "Who's there?!? Fluttershy?"

"Why would Fluttershy be here?" the darkness calls back.

Razor recognizes the voice and answers back. "I don't know... Maybe she changed her mind? Wait, why are you here?"

"Because I wanted to say hello..."

"Hi." Razor turns back to looking out the window. Her anger builds and masks the pain in her legs.

"I see things aren't going well with Fluttershy?"

"Shut up... Your not real."

The voice is offended by Razor's response and waits for an apology, but one never comes. "Why don't you tell me about it all?"

"Shut up... Your not real."

She lets out a frustrated exhale and steps closer to Razor. "Razor I care about you, and I don't like to see this sad. So could you tell me what's wrong?"

"Shut up... Your not real."

"I was when mom died..."

Razor looks back into the darkness. "Don't bring mom into this."

"Well then don't ignore me Razor!"

Razor looks down at the bloody mess she made and sighs. "Alright we can talk..." 

The voice's attitude instantly changes to a happy, pleased one. "Good! So... what's up?"

Razor looks closer at her scars, thinking of how much she deserves them. She dismally replies "I think, Fluttershy hates me."

"Well... She did run out screaming."

Razor lays her head down into her bloody legs and closes her eyes. "Yeah..."

"Eww! Get your face out of that! It's going to harden up soon..."

She mumbles from in between her legs "I don't care. I just want to move again... before everpony in this town hates me too."

The voice in the darkness lays down and scoots up towards her. "I don't think Fluttershy is going to tell everypony."

"Why not?"

"Because she's nice and... I think she likes you." 

Razor lifts her head up and looks into the darkness with blood smeared all over her sad face. "You think she likes me?"

The voice in the darkness vomits in her mouth a little, but swallows it. "Oh Celestia... Uh!"

"Wow! Your not used to this by now?"

Razor giggles as the voice continues to gag "Well, it's... all over your cheeks!"

"Oh it is? Let me get that." Razor sticks her tongue out and licks the blood.

"Oh Pony Feathers! It's comin'!" The voice proceeds to make multiple vomiting noises while Razor laughs. Soon the voice stops and joins in laughing along with her, they both ease down into a smile Razor had missed.

Razor lunges out into the darkness and latches onto the voice. She groans in pain from her legs, but she doesn't care. "I've missed you so much Little Sis! Where have you been?"

"Razor get off me! Your a mess!"

Razor just holds tighter "I don't care, where have you been?"

"I've been right here, don't you remember the talk we had?"

"Yes... I didn't like it."

The voice pushes Razor off and looks at her. "Me neither, but... That doesn't mean I wouldn't stick around to make sure you were safe."

Razor sniffs "I'm glad you did."

"Me, too..."

Razor limps through the darkness, across the pitch black hall into her bathroom. In there, without turning on any lights, she fills her sink with water and starts washing the blood off.

The voice waits in the hallway watching her "Good, good... make sure you get your chin too!"

"Um, yeah!" Razor finishes washing her face and limps out of the bathroom. In the hallway the voice blocks her path. "Aren't you going to wash your legs to?"

"Well, no. They're going to be bleeding throughout the night anyway."

"Yuck..." Razor walks around her and goes back into her bedroom. The only place visible inside is the square of light illuminating the bloody mess in the middle of the floor. Razor continues over to her bed under the window and lays down.

"Well, Goodnight Razor!"

"Wait... Little Sis?" Razor looks across her dark bedroom into the hallway.

"Yes?"

"Do you, maybe... want to... sleep... wi-"

"How old are you! I can't believe your still scared of the dark."

"I'm not! But... I haven't seen you in a while..." Razor pulls out her most convincing pouty face.

"I'll only come over if you close the window."

"Ok!" Razor quickly jumps up and closes her shutters hurting her legs in the process. She then quickly dives under the covers and pulls them up over her chin. She looks over at the voice and Squees!

The voice rolls her eyes and walks over to her bed.

"Well? I can't get in if the covers are up."

"Oh sorry." Razor pulls back the covers and the voice climbs in. She picks the covers back up over her and scoots in close to Razor. Razor instantly wraps her hooves around her and starts to snuggle.

"I've missed you so much Little Sis."

"Well..." The voice checks around to make sure no one else is looking and says back to her "...I've missed you too." And she returns her embrace.

Razor lays there with her eyes closed smiling "Hey Sis?"

"Ya?"

"So, you think Fluttershy likes me?"

"I do, I think she was just a little startled from your fridge."

"A little? That's an understatement."

"Still... I don't think she would go around and tell everypony about you. I think she wants to help you."

Razor opens her eyes and looks at the darkness in front of her. "Really? Or do you think she just pities me?"

"Hmmm... she probably just pities you."

Razor frowns and snuggles up closer to the voice closing her eyes.

"Razor, I was just kidding. She probably does like you... you two have a lot in common."

"Like what?"

"Well, you both have wonderful voices."

"I know she does but, so do I?"

"Yeah! Don't you remember how you and dad used to sing out on the swamp? You sounded great!"

"Yeah! That was fun. Remember that awesome spell he learned to turn two sticks and a rock into a propeller? We were flying through the marsh!"

They both smile thinking of the memory "Yeah that looked like fun."

"I'm sorry you couldn't come Little Sis."

"It's ok... I had fun watching."

Razor and her lay there, reminiscing about the past for a long time until eventually falling asleep. Razor was so happy when she fell asleep, but she knew Sis wouldn't be there in the morning to wake up beside her. She never stayed around in the morning.


*****


As if like clockwork, the pleasant song of the birds wake up Fluttershy to witness the new day. She sits up sorely, yawning and rubbing her eyes from the inadequate slumber she had last night. She squints out through her window at the morning sun hurting her eyes. Fluttershy groans and closes them falling back into bed. There she nestles under the covers again and goes to sleep.

A few dream minutes later she hears the sound of a crowd of animals gathered around her cottage. They all wait outside impatiently for their provider, who is already an hour late. Fluttershy yawns "I guess I should get up now..." She leans up and slowly slides out of bed, forcing herself not to fall asleep mid-slide.

When her hooves hit the floor she stands still staring out the window trying to wake up. She yawns again "I hope..." A loud roar bellows from the front door. "What? Oh... Mr. Bear." Fluttershy softly calls to him "I'm coming!" and heads towards her bedroom door.

A few hours later after she has made both her and her friends breakfast, Fluttershy heads out the door. She trots away from her home into Ponyville in the late morning determined to see Razor, if she will let her.

Fluttershy crosses the bridge into Ponyville and looks in towards the town's center. A few shops are open as usual but only a few ponies seem to be paying any attention to them. The streets are much more deserted today and everypony seems to have some place to go.

"Fluttershy! Good morning to you!"

Fluttershy looks behind her to see Rarity approaching, she stops and let's her catch up.

"Good morning!"

Rarity walks up beside her and they continue their stroll. "So, where are you off to on this glorious day?"

"I'm on my way to Razor Sharp's house."

Rarity gives her a worried look. "Razor Sharp? Is she, or he, the pony your teaching friendship to?"

"Yes... she is."

"Hmm... that's an, interesting name for a pony. How is she?"

"Um..." Fluttershy thinks to herself "I probably shouldn't talk about Razor's, habits. It would be rude to talk bad about her behind her back."

"She hasn't been mean to you, has she?"

"Oh no. She has been really nice, she gave me cookies when we talked inside her house."

Rarity looks back down the road and thinks about this new pony.

Fluttershy changes the subject "How is the castle coming along."

"Hmm? Oh yes, the castle! You should see it now Fluttershy I've added marvelous tapestries all throughout the palace. I also fabricated a few seat cushions for our crystal thrones."

"That sounds wonderful!"

Fluttershy and Rarity make their way around Sugar Cube Corner and the road towards Cloudsdale comes into view.

"Yes it does look much better, and those thrones are so much more gentle on the flank. I've also hired a professional sculptor to add some elegance to the place. I would do it myself but... I'm better at finding crystals, not really sculpting them."

"The whole castle? That sounds expensive... are you sure you can pay for it all?"

"It is going to be a rather supreme payment... but, for a palace like ours it seems essential. By the way, Twilight said to come to the palace for a meeting tomorrow. One to discuss how you all are doing on your assignments."

"Ok, I'll be there."

They both approach the road towards Cloudsdale and stop. Rarity looks around at all the different houses and asks. "Which one is Razor's?" Fluttershy points to the vine covered neglected house furthest down the road. 

"That is her home!? I thought that house was condemned?" Rarity's face becomes worried thinking of the type of pony that would live in such a dreary place. She turns to Fluttershy and asks her "Are you sure she is a nice pony?"

"She is... I know she doesn't live in a nice place... but that doesn't make her not nice."

"Hmm... I guess your right." Rarity turns to face Fluttershy. "If you say she's nice, then she probably is. Are you still coming to the spa on Friday? I had to change some plans and it will have to be in the afternoon instead of the morning."

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for anything!"

Rarity smiles at Fluttershy and gives her a hug goodbye. "Oh goodie! Have a fun time at Razor's darling, I'll see you later."

Rarity lets go of Fluttershy and they both begin to go their separate ways. Rarity calls back to her "Buh-Bye, Fluttershy!"

"Bye-Bye!" Fluttershy makes her way down the street towards Razor's house. Along the way she can feel the other ponies watching her, shocked she is going back to that house after her incident yesterday. Fluttershy hates the feel of them staring and quickly picks up her pace. Soon she arrives at Razor's and knocks on the door...

Knock knock knock...

> Chapter Three: Nip of Empathy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
Light shines in through the cracks in Razor's shutters illuminating the pillow next to her. The small slits of light shine off of it and bounce back into her face. She squints hard trying to block out the sun and reaches out with her hooves feeling for her friend. Razor feels nothing but the pillow and sheets beside her and sadly gives up, rolling over to go back to sleep.

Knock knock knock...

"What was that?"

"Razor, are you home?" Razor hears Fluttershy's voice and quickly opens her eyes. She throws the tangled covers off of her and hops out of bed. She lands on her forelegs and nearly collapses from the sudden surge of pain.

"Ow! Coming!" She quickly limps out into the hallway and carefully makes her way down the steps. She reaches the door and opens it with her mouth. Outside Fluttershy stands, expecting Razor to be angry at her for running away yesterday. She greets her nervously "Hello, Razor."

"Hi Fluttershy! I... Um..." Razor opens the door a little further letting the light shine in. She squints to see her "I'm sorry about yesterday..."

"It's ok, I'm sorry too." Razor looks at her confused and opens the door a little more to step closer. "I shouldn't have been so afraid of something I already knew you..." Fluttershy notices the dark red surgical tape at the bottom of her eye and looks down. She sees the terrible wounds that cover Razor's legs and gasps in shock.

"Did you, do that?" Fluttershy asks. Razor walks back into the dark to hide her legs "I was really, really... really sorry." She looks down ashamed of herself. Fluttershy steps closer "Are you hurt?"

Though Razor's legs still ache from the pain, she doesn't want to worry Fluttershy. "No, it's fine... I can't really feel it."

"Oh, well... ok." Fluttershy looks at Razor, sad for her pain and afraid she'll cut herself more if nothing is done about it.

Razor looks up and asks "So... I guess you, don't hate me?"

"Razor, I never hated you..."

Razor smiles back at her, a gleam forms in her eye but disappears when she rubs her wounds. "You don't think I'm a monster?" Fluttershy sees her rub them and becomes more worried for her. "Your not a monster... your a nice pony."

Razor's smile grows even bigger "Thank you... I have some more cookies left, if you want to have a few?" 

"I would love to!" 

"Fluttershy does like me!"

Razor hops into the air, joyous she has her friend back. She lands on her fore hooves sending a sharp pain through her legs. "Ow!" she raises her bandaged leg and looks at it.

"Oh! Are you ok!?" Fluttershy asks walking into the dark house to look over Razor. She smiles back at her "It's ok, I'm just glad your here!" Razor limps over and closes the door.

She walks into the darkness and grabs another match. Striking it she limps around the room lighting up all the candles from yesterday. As soon as she's done, she enters into the kitchen and turns on the light, throwing away the match.

All this walking around worries Fluttershy "Razor? You don't have to get out any cookies for me. I don't need them."

Razor calls from in front of the fridge "Are you sure? They're good!"

"No it's alright I don't need any."

"Well I'm getting myself some." Razor opens the fridge and bends down picking up a gallon of milk with her teeth. She pours herself a glass and fixes up a plate full of cookies. She takes them and sets them on the coffee table.

"If you want one off my plate, go ahead." Razor offers with the wave of a hoof.

"Ok, but I don't need any... really."

Razor shrugs "Well, alright." and gives Fluttershy a sly smile. She walks back into the kitchen to grab her milk as Fluttershy hops up onto her couch against the back wall to get comfortable.

The smell of cookies hits her nose. "Mmmm! That does smell good... They smell fresher than yesterday's."

Razor walks in with her glass of milk and sets it down next to her plate. She looks up across the table at Fluttershy laying on the couch. "Would it be ok if... I sat with you?"

"Uh, sure... I guess?" Fluttershy scoots over as Razor pushes her cookies and milk to the other side of the table. She happily trots over and hops up next to Fluttershy. With the wave of a hoof she elegantly brushes her violet hair away from her face and reaches down to grab a cookie.

She picks the cookie up in her blue hooves and takes a big, seductive bite. Though Fluttershy is still a little shocked at the amount of mutilation Razor's legs seemed to have taken last night, Razor does make that cookie look tasty.

With a mouthful of chocolate she mumbles in her enchanting voice "Mmmm! Straight from the oven... well the heat lamp, but they taste just as good."

"Um..." Fluttershy stares at the melted depressions of chocolate across the cookie's crispy surface.

"I'm surprised my house didn't burn down after leaving a heat lamp on inside a cabinet all night!? It was a big cabinet though, the one next to the stove."

Fluttershy gives a quick look at Razor and then continues staring at the gooey, chocolate embedded insides of Razor's bite. "That doesn't sound safe... but um, could I have a cookie?"

Razor chuckles in triumph and reaches down to grab one. Realizing she was being rude, asking for a cookie after saying she didn't want one, Fluttershy tries to correct herself. "Oh! No I don't need one, never mind."

Razor holds both the cookies between her hooves taunting Fluttershy "But I already got one for you? And they are... delicious!"

"Oh, alright..." Fluttershy reaches out and takes the cookie. She takes a small bite and savors the wonderful flavor. Razor quickly finishes off hers and reaches down to grab her milk.

As she picks it up Fluttershy decides to ask her "So Razor, um... how has your day been?"

Razor takes a few swigs from her glass and sets it back down. She wipes off her mouth and embarrassingly states. "Actually, I didn't get up until you knocked. Sorry if my hair is messed up."

Razor looks down at her wounds "Well... I guess it's not the most messed up part of me!" She chuckles a bit at her own morbid joke. Fluttershy, though disturbed, laughs back out of politeness.

"How was your day?"

"My day? Um, It was good... I got up late today and, my animal friends weren't to happy about it."

Razor's eyes light up "You have pets! That's so cool! What are they?"

"Well, I have a bunny named Angel... and really he's the only one I consider a pet. All the rest are just my friends." Fluttershy smiles thinking of her animals.

Razor sits stunned at what she just said "How could you be friends with animals? Every time I ever came across a snake or alligator, it either hissed or swam away."

Razor's face saddens at a realization that sweeps over her. "Oh... They probably didn't like me because... I ate them." She laughs a little at how stupid she feels, but quickly stops when she sees Fluttershy's blank face.

An awkward silence soon fills the room as both mares look around for something better to talk about. A few more moments pass before Razor coughs into her hoof to break the silence. Fluttershy looks over at her mangled blue, and now red, legs. She hesitantly decides to switch the topic over to them.

"So, Razor... Um, why did you do that?" she points at her legs.

"My cuts?" Razor looks at them. "Well, I felt really REALLY bad about yesterday... I thought you hated me, and was going to tell everypony how horrible I am."

"Oh no, I would never do that to you."

Razor smiles "I know that now! But... I didn't know it then. So to stop feeling sad I... did this." She holds out her legs, showing them off.

Fluttershy examines them "Oh my... Doesn't it hurt?"

"It does a lot! But the more it hurts, the better I feel afterwards."

Fluttershy is greatly confused by this logic "How does it make you feel, better?"

Razor shrugs her blue shoulders "I don't know exactly? It just, does somehow?"

Fluttershy puts a hoof to her chin thinking "How could pain make somepony happy? How!?"

Razor reaches down and grabs another cookie, she sits there for a while watching Fluttershy think. She admits with a mouthful of cookie "I've wondered for a long time, why pain makes me happy." she swallows her bite "And I've never understood it."

Razor finishes her cookie and decides to ask "Do you get sad a lot?"

"Not, as much as I used too... I've gotten a lot better over the years."

Razor looks at her concerned, "Why did you used to be sad?"

"Well, back when I was in school I used to get teased a lot... about how much of a weak flyer I was. Even after school, ponies didn't like to talk to me."

Razor scoots her back legs off over the side the couch, giving Fluttershy some room, and lays down. She lifts her head up "Fluttershy, I've told you my life story... how about you tell me yours?"

"Oh, I don't know... It's not that interesting."

"But I want to hear it... Please?"

Razor rests her head in her hooves and looks up towards Fluttershy.

"Mmm... well I guess I could?"

"Ok!" Fluttershy looks at how Razor is laying and scoots her legs off the side of the couch as well. She lays down to eye level with Razor, eagerly waiting for her to begin her story. "Well, I was born in Cloudsdale..."

For the next few hours Fluttershy lays in front of Razor telling her life story. Razor sits in awe listening to her tales. She loves how she got her cutiemark, and is amazed at how Fluttershy and all her friends beat Nightmare Moon. Throughout her tales Razor sits happily listening, but with each passing achievement she talks about, the more sad Razor becomes. She compares her life to Fluttershy's in her mind, making her own seem boring, dismal, and... such a waste of time.


*****


When Fluttershy finally finishes her tale, Razor is amazed at who lays before her on the couch. She gets up to a sitting position and bows her head. "I am humbled by your presence, most noble Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy looks away blushing "Aw, you don't have to bow to me! I'm not that important..." Fluttershy thinks of how the townsponies reacted to seeing her yesterday, and her smile widens.

"Fluttershy your amazing! Why is a wonderful pony like you even spending time with me?" Razor asks smiling for her friend, but feeling so insignificant inside.

"Oh, I forgot to mention... Twilight has sent all of us out to help other ponies make friends around town. So that's why, I'm, um... here." 

Razor's happy façade falls from the news, "So I am, just an assignment?"

Fluttershy realizes how rude her last statement must have been and quickly tries to correct herself. "No! Your not just an assignment... Your, my friend."

Razor looks away still comparing her life and Fluttershy's in her mind. Doubting her she replies, "Your just saying that." 

Fluttershy sits up "No, I'm not just saying that... you really are my friend."

After a short pause Razor looks back at her and sniffs, Fluttershy responds with a hug. It eases off some of the tension she is feeling, but in her mind, her life still seems meaningless compared to Fluttershy's.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Fluttershy implores, feeling like the cause of Razor's sorrow.

Razor rests her head on her shoulder and an idea comes to her. She isn't sure if it would be rude or not to ask, but it would make her feel much better. She tosses the idea around in her mind while asking, "Anything?"

"Anything."

"Should I ask... I could just do it later if I feel like it. But, maybe she'll like it?" Razor closes her eyes thinking hard of what to do.

"It might offend her, but... she has to know the feeling."

"Uh... Fluttershy?"

"Yes?" Razor becomes increasingly nervous about what she wants to ask of her.

"Um... uh, nothing, never mind." Razor sniffs again, wracked with sad thoughts of her meaningless life and nervous feelings about her question.

"You can ask me anything Razor... I won't judge you."

"Well... might as well ask." With the little ounce of confidence Razor gains from Fluttershy's words, she asks "Could you... bite me?"

Fluttershy freezes, wondering if she heard correctly. "What did you say?"

Now with embarrassment to add to her list of feelings, Razor blushes and sniffs "I said... would it be ok if, you could... bite me?"

Fluttershy looks down at the pony she's hugging wondering, what to do in this situation. Razor feels her looking but doesn't move, she keeps her head rested against Fluttershy's shoulder nervously waiting for a response.

Fluttershy stares at her blue fur, "Does she need pain to feel good now? Why from me!?"

She decides to ask her, "Razor... why do you want me to, bite you?"

With a nervous pause, she claims "Because I don't feel good, and... that will help."

Fluttershy can't help but feel like the cause of her sadness. "I'm the one that ran away screaming and made her hurt herself. And now... I've made her think she's an assignment! I owe it to her to make her happy... by any means."

"Ok Razor, I'll do it."

Razor's woeful eyes snap open from the unexpected response. "You, will?"

Now determined to make up for what she's done Fluttershy answers "Yes... Now, where do you want it?"

Stunned by her enthusiasm Razor states "Um... anywhere is fine."

"Ok." Fluttershy looks down at her fur. She picks a spot on her back and leans down, ready to bite. Razor feels her hot breath on her back as she pauses, open mouthed trying to think of how to do this exactly.

Razor feels a set of teeth touch down on her fur. With a small squeak of effort, the teeth press down slightly and then lift off. Fluttershy backs away and gives an accomplished exhale, feeling she's done the right thing.

"Do you feel better now?" She asks feeling proud. Suddenly a thought washes over her. "Oh no! I didn't bite too hard, did I?"

Razor, confusedly states "No... you, didn't even bite me."

Fluttershy's pride fades away leaving her baffled as to what she means. "But, I did... didn't I? I pressed down, and everything."

"But... you have to press harder." Razor claims growing impatient for her pain. "Razor what are you doing!? Stop demanding pain like some masochist and give your friend a break!"

Razor lifts her head and leans back to look Fluttershy in the eye. "Fluttershy I'm sorry about this... I shouldn't tell you what to do. You bit me fine... you don't have to do it again. I'm even starting to feel better." In her mind Razor can't believe how greedy she just was and an overwhelming sense of shame washes over her.

"But... you said I didn't do it hard enough? And, I don't want to see you sad any more. I want to make you happy." Fluttershy looks down at Razor's fur, challenging herself to bite harder.

"No Fluttershy... you don't have to. I'm sorry..."

Fluttershy bends down anyways and gently clamps down on Razor's shoulder. She presses down with slightley more force this time, grunting from her strain. Razor looks down at her, squeaking from the effort.

Fluttershy stops, her mouth still open on Razor's shoulder. She asks "Whah ahk harg enough?"

Razor laughs a bit at how silly she sounds as Fluttershy lifts her head to look at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I tried biting harder but... I just, can't." She hangs her head in defeat.

Razor hates to see her disappointed, and decides to help her through it. "You can bite harder... you just need to close your mouth more, instead of pressing down."

Fluttershy lifts her head and goes along. "Alright, I'll try again."

She puts her mouth back to the spot on her shoulder and presses down. She starts to close her mouth this time and her teeth begin to dig in. "Ya, like that... but, a little harder."

"Ok!" Fluttershy gladly goes along and sinks her teeth deeper into her coat. Soon it actually starts to hurt Razor, almost to the point that it might leave a bruise. Razor feels her teeth sink even deeper and lets out a whimper of pain. Fluttershy stops and pulls back. "I'm sorry!... To hard?"

"Not at all, I liked it." The pain begins to wash away all the terrible feelings inside her and Razor starts to feel better. She let's out a sigh of relief as her mind clears, looking at Fluttershy she happily claims "Alright... my turn!"

"What!?" Before Fluttershy can react more Razor pulls her towards her into a pleading hug. "Please?... I your bite felt wonderful and... I want you to experience it too."

Fluttershy sits with Razor holding her, thinking about the idea. "I... don't know?"

Razor looks up to her "Please? It feels good, I promise."

Fluttershy looks down at her thinking, "She said it feels good... and you do still owe her. Go ahead, say yes."

Hesitantly she answers "Ok, I guess." Fluttershy immediately gets second thoughts, but pushes them aside.

Razor raises up and smiles at her, lowering her head into Fluttershy's shoulder. She opens her mouth and rests her teeth onto her. Fluttershy gulps, nervously awaiting the pain. She feels Razor's teeth sink down into her shoulder, hard! Fluttershy squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a pained "Oow!"

Soon the sharp pain fades into a burn as she feels Razor's teeth leave her skin. Razor backs away to look at her and Fluttershy frowns back rubbing her wound. "Razor... I didn't like it."

Razor frowns too "I'm sorry Fluttershy." She scoots around to face the inside of the couch. She pushes her withers towards Fluttershy as an offering, "Here, you can bite me back."

"What? No, I don't want too." Fluttershy continues rubbing the wound, a tear starts to form in her eye from the pain.

Razor looks back at her watery eyes, she moves closer to her with her back still turned. "If you do it, you'll feel better."

"That's what you said last time." Fluttershy sternly replies, feeling like she is being tricked by Razor. She rubs her wound some more reminding her of the pain, "Razor bit me really hard!"

"Razor... if you wanted me to bite you again, why didn't you just a..."

Razor interrupts her "Fluttershy, just bite me already."

"Razor your being mean. You lied to me and now your being rude!" Fluttershy rubs the wound some more, reminding her of what Razor did. "Well fine then, I will bite you!" Razor notices Fluttershy stopping to think to herself and smiles, knowing soon she'll bite her, harder.

Fluttershy angrily stares at Razor's blue coat, as her thoughts become words. "Fine! I will bite you!" She lunges at the blue fur growling, she clamps down onto her back and presses as hard as she can. Razor feels her teeth dig into her, almost breaking the skin. She lets out a happy pained scream "Yay!" before Fluttershy let's go out of surprise.

"What do you mean, yay?" Fluttershy asks as Razor turns around flinching from the deep bruise on her back.

She smiles at Fluttershy, and says to her in her sweet voice. "I said yay because... Now it's my turn!"

Razor gets up onto all fours on the bed and looks Fluttershy right in the eye. She giggles as Fluttershy's angry expression begins to turns into a worried one. She raises a hoof and, before she can react, slowly knocks Fluttershy over onto her back.

Fluttershy hits the couch and quickly realizes how mad Razor must be at her! She turns over and tries to push herself off, keeping an eye on her. "Trying to get away? Good!" Razor threatens through her evil grin. She throws herself on top of Fluttershy and pulls her further into the couch. Fluttershy waves her hooves frantically about trying to keep her away, but Razor pushes through them. She plants herself against her, blocking her flailing forelegs and scooting past the reach of her hind legs.

Fluttershy pulls her legs back to push her away, in a fruitless attempt. She desperately kicks at her flanks trying to get her off, making Razor's menacing smile grow. She gets her hooves under Fluttershy's and pushes them back above her head. Now helplessly struggling to free herself Razor presses her blue nose against Fluttershy's.

She gives a hungry stare and grins one last time before lowering below Fluttershy's gaze. After what seemed to be a full minute of nothing but the breath of Razor against her, she feels the sharp pain of teeth sting through her chest. She let's out a fearful cry. "Help! Somepony! A-Aow!"

Razor lifts off of her and swishes her violet mane out of her face in victory. She eases off of Fluttershy's hooves and jumps back onto her side of the couch. "Score two, for me!" With a smile she flops over onto her back, "Also, I loved the distress you added! I don't know if I can top that?"

Fluttershy looks over at Razor lying on her back, eagerly watching her. She rolls over onto her stomach, now hurting from the bite, and slowly stands up on the couch. She stands there and cools off a bit, staring at the happy pony across from her. "She did all that just to bite me? And not even hard?" Just to set things clear in her mind she asks, "That was... your turn?"

Razor cheerfully nods her head, "MmmHmm! Wasn't it exciting!?"

"It was scary! I thought you were really mad at me." Fluttershy answers. "It was a little exciting, I guess..."

Razor's becomes concerned from her response, "Did you think I was really attacking you?"

"Yes!"

Now realizing that Fluttershy was actually trying to get away Razor apologizes. "Oh... I'm sorry, I thought you were just playing along since you bit me back?" Razor notices how Fluttershy is paying no mind to her bruise and gets a feeling she liked it. "Still, it was definitely exciting, wasn't it? Didn't you have fun?"

Fluttershy bashfully looks away, "Well..."

"Oh, I know you did! You had so much fun you didn't even notice your bite mark." Razor points a hoof to Fluttershy.

She lifts up her chest a little bit and looks down at the horrible deep blue oval on her. She jumps from how bad it is, "Oh my goodness! That looks terrible!" Yet only a slight burning comes from it.

"Does it hurt?" Razor asks concerned.

Fluttershy touches her horrible bruise, feeling only a slight pain. "No."

"Do you feel better?"

Fluttershy pauses to think to herself, "No, I don't really feel better. But that was surprisingly fun! I need to get her back for this, though." She dismally looks at Razor and says "No... actually my chest really hurts."

"It does?" Razor's face fills with regret, as Fluttershy walks up to her. "Fluttershy I'm sorry, I..." She steps over Razor, shadowing over her. Razor looks up, past the pink hair hanging down and sees Fluttershy's angry face glaring at her.

"You hurt me really bad Razor, and now it's time to pay me back... I mean.  I get revenge... On you! Or, something like that?"

Razor smiles knowing what's happening, and quickly gets into character. "Nonono NO!!! Fluttershy... GAH!" She mindlessly throws her hooves about tossing and turning under Fluttershy.

Fluttershy lets out a hiss, and slowly lowers herself down. Razor screams "HELP! VAMPIRE! IF ANYPONY IS OUT THERE!?! I NEE... Huh?" Razor feels her skin break through the force of Fluttershy's bite. "Ow! Fluttershy!?"

She stops biting and raises up, "What is it?"

"You broke the skin!?" Fluttershy looks at the wound on Razor's chest and sees not a bruise, but two small holes. They aren't deep enough to be lethal, but they soon begin to bleed quite a bit.

Fluttershy covers her mouth in shock. "Oh no! I'm sorry?"

"It's fine... woah!" Razor looks at the wound and quickly gets up before she stains her couch. She hurries into the kitchen and opens up a cabinet. She pulls out a few bandages and falls onto her back to administer them. Meanwhile Fluttershy sits on the couch, scared she has taken things too far.

Razor hollers from the kitchen "Fluttershy, how did you leave two holes?"

Fluttershy sits on the couch, horrified at what she has done. She answers back to her, "Um... I don't know?" She lets out a small sob, fearing what her friend thinks of her. Razor hears it and quickly finishes up to run back to her.

She runs into the room "Fluttershy? No... don't be sad. I'm fine, really..." She trots up to her and examines her mouth. "I just want to know what kind of teeth you have?"

Fluttershy wipes her eyes in relief, "My, teeth?"

"Yeah." Razor asks with a smile.

Fluttershy opens her mouth a bit and Razor looks inside. Her mouth looks completely normal, "Hmmm, can you hiss again?"

Fluttershy giggles, "Sure, Hisssssss!" Razor is startled by the sudden appearance of fangs in her mouth, as her hiss ends they retract back into her gums.

"Sweet Celestia... You are a vampire!?" Razor stares in envy at her.

"Vampire!? Oh... yeah."

Razor's jaw drops as she falls back onto her haunches. "How in the world are you a vampire!?"

"Well, one day... my friend Applejack had a few, vampire bats on her farm. So, we all came down to help... and Twilight accidentally cast a spell on me. I guess it never went away completely?" Fluttershy sits back on the couch, staring at Razor overcome with astonishment.

After a moment more of envy Razor comes out of her daze, she gets up and instantly hugs her. Razor's words practically squee out of her, "Fluttershy... Your Awesome!"

Fluttershy blushes as Razor squeezes with all her might. "Goddesses... Your So Cool! And obviously the best biter here!" Razor eases off a bit, "But that doesn't mean you've won." She backs away to reveal another evil smile to Fluttershy. "It's my turn, again!"

"Oh no!" Fluttershy faux screams between giggles. She jumps out of Razor's hold, leaps off the couch and runs into the darkness.

"Careful! Watch out for desks... I mean, You Can't Hide Forever!" Razor turns and bolts into the darkness after her, cackling like a maniac. As blackness envelopes her she stops to listen. She hears the sound of hoovesteps slide under a desk at the far corner of the room.

"I've got you now." She whispers to herself, silently tiphoofing over to the noise. She bends below the desk and growls, feeling around.

"BOO!" Razor springs backwards into a chair. The voice she heard definitely wasn't Fluttershy's, unless?

"Lil' Sis?" Razor strains trying to see her in the dark.

She giggles and whispers to her, "Yeah, it's me! Do you want to know where Fluttershy is?"

Razor whispers back "No, that's cheating... And spying is rude."

"Alright, I'll go... Seeya later... Vampire hunter."

"Just call me, Dr. Clopnelius Van Horseing."

Her sister laughs and makes her way upstairs, to give them some privacy. As soon as Razor hears her hooves hit the top step, she continues the hunt!


*****


After several hours of hiding from one another, Razor finally declares Fluttershy the winner, thirteen to twelve. Fluttershy helps her up and together they walk back to the couch. They both flinch in pain from the discolored wounds strewn across their bodies, but neither of them mind. They had a great time, and the worst pain they feel now is hunger.

Fluttershy holds her stomach as it groans, "Oh, when was the last time I ate? This morning?"

Razor does the same, "At least you ate once! All I've had is that cookie." She looks up into her kitchen and thinks about the delicious rabbit waiting for her in the fridge.

Fluttershy hops off the couch and turns to face her. "Well... I've had a wonderful time tonight!"

Razor smiles back, "Me too!"

"I guess I'll head home now... for dinner... uh, bye bye Razor!"

Razor dramatically throws her hooves out at Fluttershy, "Wait! You never taught me any friendship lessons?"

Fluttershy pauses, "Oh, well... I can tell you them tomorrow... Oh wait, I have a meeting with Twilight in the morning."

Razor pouts at the news. "It's ok, I can come over afterwards."

"Well, Ok!" Razor watches as Fluttershy makes her way to the door. When she hears it open she calls out, "Bye Fluttershy!"

Her small voice can be heard calling back, "Bye!" As the door closes behind her. Razor lays down on the couch and relaxes after a long and wonderful day with her friend. "She really is my friend!" Razor envisions, staring at the ceiling. Her candles have almost burnt completely out and soon she will be immersed back into total darkness, besides the small amount of light shining from her kitchen. She feels the wounds on her back tingling and closes her eyes, thinking of all the fun they had today.

A voice calls from the staircase, "Don't fall asleep now, or you'll have to cook that rabbit tomorrow... with her here!"

"I'm not going to fall asleep, I just want to, take a moment to... reflect." Razor takes in a deep breath and continues thinking of Fluttershy.

"Hmmm... Sure." Her hoofsteps can be heard as she walks back upstairs to leave Razor in peace.


*****


As the door closes behind her, Fluttershy looks up into the orange sky. She trots off onto the dirt road and makes her way further into town. The streets are already fairly barren at this time of day, but through the cracks of shutters pony eyes peak out.

Several neighbors of Razor watched as their beloved Fluttershy went back into that horrible place. With fear they waited and watched, hoping she would be ok. Luckily, she seemed to be happy as ever trotting away from the dank place. But her body was covered in strange blue spots nopony could make out. They figured it was probably nothing though, if Fluttershy is happy so are they.

She continues home through the town, across the bridge and up to her cottage. Angel sits in the window waiting impatiently just as before, for his food. Fluttershy sees him and smiles back, humming a tune all the way to her door.

She opens it and greets him, "Hi Angel! Sorry I'm late... again."

He glares at her, wondering why she isn't getting to work yet. He sees the blue marks all over her but doesn't think anything of it, it's not the most important thing to him right now.

She realizes that and happily gets to work feeding all her animals and fixing Angel's dinner just as she does everyday. And, just like everyday, Angel finds something wrong with his meal. Fluttershy hates that she can never get it right, but she is too happy and hungry today to care. After finally finishing with all her chores she makes herself another snack and heads upstairs to go to bed.

She nestles under the covers feeling the marks all over her body sting from the pressure of the sheets. They remind her of Razor's house and how much fun she had. With thoughts of them rolling through her head and her eyes getting heavier by the second, she eventually drifts off into a pleasant slumber.


*****


"Hey, Razor? Razor!" Razor feels hooves rock her back and forth. "Razor wake up." She opens her eyes and sees nothing but the small light from the kitchen. She turns towards the voice and lets out a long yawn.

"I thought I told you not to fall asleep?" She scolds. Razor pushes her away and sits up. Her stomach lets out a fierce growl, making her clench it tightly. She looks into the darkness at her sister.

"What time is it?" She asks, slowly beginning to slide off the couch.

"I think it's around three A.M. or something?" Razor walks into the kitchen holding her stomach from the pain. She burps and opens up the fridge, "Three huh? Well that means I've gone, uh... fourteen hours without eating!"

Razor reaches in and pulls the rabbit out, she sets it on the counter and unravels it from the plastic. "When did Fluttershy leave?"

"I think around, nine?"

She pulls out a pan and some ingredients out of a few cabinets and sets them near the meat. "I've been asleep for six hours!? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I've just been... busy." She hears her sister jump up onto the couch in the darkness and lay down. "Busy wandering through the town."

Razor seasons the meat and turns on the oven. "Wandering around town? Um... what did you see?" She puts the meat in the oven and steps around the corner to listen better.

"Not anything too fantastic... but it's nice to get out every once in a while. Ya know?"

Razor looks towards the front door, "Ya I guess?" She walks through the dark to the door and opens it up. As it creaks open a cool night breeze blows through, carrying the smell of the forest nearby. Razor's stomach growls once more but she ignores it, soaking in the beautiful serenity of the moonlight.

The meat still has around 12 minutes left, so she decides to go outside. She trots out, closing the door behind her and turns around to looks up at the decrepit house she calls home. She slowly walks around to the left side of it, admiring the chipping paint and deteriorating shutters that litter the building. Her beige walls, faded pink windows, thriving vines, and especially her grey slate roof all give her a melancholy feeling as she looks up upon them. Her house looks heartbroken and beautiful in her eyes, and she is thankful for how lucky she was to have found it.

She spends a few more minutes cherishing the architecture before the smell of rabbit hits her nose. Her stomach lets out a cry for sustenance and she quickly answers it. She rushes in and carefully pulls it out with an oven pad, placing it on the stove top. She then gets to work, preparing a nice meal for herself.

"So, what were you dong outside?"

Razor can barely hear her over the chorus of sizzles popping in front of her, "What? Oh, outside! I was just admiring this magnificent castle we live in."

"Castle? This house is anything but a castle. It's more like a good sized shack... No! Not just a shack, a ramshackle shack!"

"Don't insult it!" Razor pets the wall nearby, "Don't listen to her... I think ur boodiful." She nuzzles the counter and kisses it.

Her sisters eyes can practically be heard rolling in her head as Razor continues fixing up her plate. She lays the main course out on top of some lettuce and lines it with a few veggies. She then places the garnish on top and carries it to the couch in her mouth. After feeling around for a bit she finds the coffee table and sets it down. She walks over to the drawer and pulls out a few candles.

"Well... I will let you eat, in peace." Her sister gets up and goes upstairs while Razor sets all her candles up around the table. She lights them all and backs away to get a good view of picturesque dinner. "Perfect."

With her stomach groaning louder than ever, she walks out of the room and back into the kitchen to clean up the mess she'd made. She turns off the stove, puts away all her utensils and wipes off the counter. She pours herself a glass off water and carries it to the coffee table to make her dinner complete.


*****


After a nice hot meal Razor is wide awake. She puts all her dishes in the sink and blows out all her candles, ready to do something. She hollers up to her sister "Hey! Are you doing anything?"

She grumpily yells back "I'm trying to sleep!"

"Oh, sorry!... Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" Razor looks around her house, "Hmmm... What should I do?" Through a crack in the shutters some moonlight shines through. "The moon sure is bright out tonight. Ooh, I'll go outside again!" Razor walks over to her door and opens it. The smell of the night hits her, instantly telling her she made the right choice.

She steps out again, into the night...

> Chapter Four: Destination Interrogation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With an eager haste, Razor pulls shut her creaky front door and spins around to behold the sleeping town of Ponyville. Wind blows through her mane, sending a pleasant chill down her spine as she makes her way through her yard towards the road. The rustling of leaves blowing through the black, empty streets invigorates her with a sense of opportunity!

"What a peaceful place this is at night! It's ashame I never did this before." Razor happily walks further down the street staring down the black alleys between the buildings wondering what secrets they concealed! She knew there probably was none, but she still loved the mystery. "I need to travel somewhere?" She thought scanning the thatched rooftops lining the dark horizon. At the end of the road was a lamp post lighting up a nearby bench, "First destination.. The Bench!"

After a few hoofsteps, she reached her destination! In triumph she lays down on the bench and begins to ponder, "Now what?" Looking up into the stars a faint glint catches her eye. She turns her head towards its direction and sees a shimmering spectactacle of twinkling stars. "Ooh! I've never seen a star shower before!"

But as soon as Razor gets a good look at them, they all freeze mid-flight. "Huh!?" Razor, startled by the lack of movement, gets up from the bench while keeping a close eye on the shower. As she moves up and away from the bench the twinkles begin to move again but instead of descending, they move everywhere! "What the buck is..." Razor notices the twinkles seem confined in a tree shaped space. "Oh, its Twilight's castle." "Second Destination!"

In a nearby building, a pony is awoken from his slumber. He grunts awake and rolls out from under the covers. "Ugh, who's awake at this hour?" The voice of a young mare echos through his open window. He sleepily trudges over to it and looks out. Across the street from him, under a lamp stands the pony he least suspected to see.

A small squeak of loneliness whimpers out from his bed as a tired, and now frustrated mare wakes up. "Cagey?" She rubs her eyes, "Cagey? What are you doing?" He looks back at her and whispers, "Guess who's wandering the streets? Razor Sharp!"

"Who?" The confused mare whispers back yawning and squinting. "The pony that moved in last week... the one I saw dragging bloody pelts into the forest." The mare's eyes quickly snap open as she begins to wake up. "Razor Sharp! What's she doing?" The mare sits up in bed and attempts to peak out the window. "Nothing, just standing there talking to herself about... Princess Twilight's castle?" He tilts his ears and listens intently as Razor continues her ramble.

"It's so pretty! I can't wait to get a closer look... Actually, the night is still young. Maybe I could stop by all their houses?" Cagey is startled by the news, "What is it?" asks the mare. "She said she's going to visit the castle and the rest of 'their' houses?" Razor looks back up at the sparkling tree and trots out from under the street lamp. "Have the gaurds arrived from Canterlot yet?" The mare asks concerned for the safety of her princess. "No, not yet."

"Well... maybe you should go after her. To make sure she isn't, a spy or something?" He looks back at her loathing the idea. She stares back at him with a sincerely worried look, convincing him to come to a conclusion. "Alright, I'll be back soon."

"Thank you." She whispers back admirably watching him as he grabs his black trench coat out of the closet. He drapes it over his brown fur concealing himself and slips his hoofs through the legs. Seeing him back in his old coat excites her, filling her head with romantic ideas. "Bye!" she happily whispers to him as he silently steps through the door.

"Bye." He closes the door behind him and starts his way down the hall. He hears a squee come from the bedroom as he leaves, "Wow... I can't believe I'm actually going to give up what was going to be a great nights sleep just because she's 'worried' about her Princess." He stops by a door down the hall and looks in at the two fillies sleeping in their beds. A soft smile spreads across his face as he sighs, "The things I do for your mother." He quietly steps down the stairs into the living room. He grabs his hat off of the rack and expertly tosses it onto his head. Pressing it down a little further for a more snug fit on his yellow mane, he opens up the front door and walks outside.

Across the street from his house the bench sits empty, with the shimmering light above it in the night sky. The cold night air sends a ver unpleasent chill down his spine as he crosses the street. "This is stupid! She's just a crazy pony that wants to see the castle, Big Deal! I should just, go back to bed." When he gets to the bench another cold breeze wafts under his coat angering him further. He turns back to head home, but pauses when he notices a movement in his bedroom window. With her head in her hooves his wife looks back at him smiling. She waves a hoof whispering "Hi!" He smiles back and waves, "Ugh, nevermind I'll go."


*****


Through the alleyways Razor roams, guided by the sparkling palace on the outskirts of Ponyville. Through the darkness she trips over a few cans here and there, but makes it through with relative ease. At the end of the alley the tall grass of the forest encroaches into it, wavingunderneath the grand display of shimmering lights across the crystal castle. The scene of the giant crystal tree in the middle of the meadow fills her soul with awe. 

"I wonder if it's unlocked?" In her excitement she answers to her own thoughts. "Well let's go see!"

"That's her alright." Cagey mumbles to himself, crouched in the bushes near the alley adjacent to the one Razor is now cantering out of. He watches as her speed increases into what seems like a full on sprint. "What in the world is she doing?"

Razor sprints through the tall grass of the field as fast as her hooves can take her. Between her panting breaths she says to herself, "Grass... is... damp... and.. tall... perfect!" With the last of her energy she bolts into a ludicrously fast sprint.

"What in the world!" Cagey says out loud as he watches the head of the crazy sprinting mare dip down infront of her. Her hind legs fly up into the air as she tucks in her head and braces for impact. She lands on her side and instantly begins to roll out of control. Her legs fly about wildly as she tumbles over and over through the grass at breakneck speed. After a few yards she begins to scream as she continues uncontrollably flailing about.

A few more yards later she finally thumps to a halt. He watches in shock as her lifeless body lays sprawled across the field half-way to the castle. He stares on further, wondering what just happened. "Did she trip? Is she dead!? Maybe I should check on her?" He steps out from his bush and begins to walk in her direction.

Razor opens her eyes and looks up through the tunnel of grass into the night sky, proud of the excellent crash she had always wanted to do. She wraps her hooves around the grass and pulls it in towards her. After a long whiff she lets out a satisfied exhale. "Ah! It's nice to get out once in a while." She curls up her legs and rolls over onto her stomach. After shaking the dew off of her she looks around to see if anyone saw her.

Cagey quickly drops down into the grass, hoping she doesn't notice the black hump his coat makes. A few moments of silence pass before he decides to raise his head and check. When he looks up past the swaying blades he sees Razor trotting up to the castle. "Did she do that on purpose?" He raises up from the tall grass to get a better look. Under his breath he mumbles to himself, "I don't think she's a spy. But she defenitely is insane." He stands watching her for a bit as he contemplates the idea of going back to bed. Although, he had already gone this far, why turn back now?

Razor slowly walks up to the grand stairs leading up to the massive crystal doors. Now that she is closer to it, she can make out what most of the castle looks like. As she gazes across its crystal surface, she trots her way up the steps. "To think, I know someone who's friends with the owner of this magnificent place." She makes her way to the top of the stairs and takes a closer look at the four engraved princesses across it. While looking at it she notices that the bottom corner of one door isn't finished yet.

"That's weird?" She looks more closly at it and lays her hoof on the door for support. It shifts slightly under the weight, causing her to quickly let up. "Are they unlocked?" she wonders out loud, pressing her hoof against the door once more. She pushes a little harder this time and manages to open it about two feet.

"It is! Oh..." she catches herself before talking any more. "Maybe I should just think what I want to say for now on?" Cautiously she pokes her head through the opening. The sheer size of the inside stuns her. Her eyes drift across the giant chamber examining the many spiraling staircases and pillars that hold up the castle above. The main chamber alone stands as an outstanding testiment to architecture, and before long Razor begins taking in the details. Though the chamber is dim she can still makes out the hundreds of historical events illustrated across the surfaces of the pillars. Most of the pillars that is, a few weren't finished yet.

"More unfinished engravings?" The sound of a hoofstep behind her grabs her attention. "What are you doing?"

Razor stutters backing out of the doorway to face whoever it was behind her. "Uh, ah... um. What?" The black concealing attire of the stallion gives her an uneasy feeling, along with his angry eyes. Calmly he reiterates, "I said, what are you doing?"

Razor backs her tail end into the opening of the chamber doors preparing for a quick escape inside. Her fear increases as he takes a small step closer, she nervously gulps remembering horrible encounters with bullies in her younger years. "Nothing..."

He chuckles in disbelief from her statement. "Huh. I was just taking a night stroll and saw you poking your head in and thought... maybe I could help you?" Razor takes several more steps back into the door and nudges it open a few more feet. Ready to sprint away, she fearfully asks, "Help, with what?"

"Help with whatever your looking for. Your looking for the princess right?" Razor barks at him, "No!" He raises his eyebrows in surprise, "Your not? Then what are you looking for?"

"Nothing... go away!" He takes a few steps back bewildered at her sudden hostility. "Ok, fine." Pushing his hat down a little further he turns back and slowly makes his way down the steps. All the while, Razor watches like a hawk making sure he doesn't turn around or do anything else.

Slowly he makes his way down the long dirt path around the field back into town. About half-way there he looks back over his shoulder at the castle. Laying on the landing at the top of the crystal stairs rests Razor, idly watching him as he makes his way down the path. "What a fruitcake. I better warn the kids, not to go out too late."

Once his black trenchcoat leaves her sight she stands up in triumph. "I'm not a naive filly anymore! When I see danger, I deal with it!" She nods her head in approval of her actions and quickly darts her eyes about making sure the coast is clear. More memories come back to her from her younger years of how bullies used to coordinate with one another just to beat her up. "I should probably leave and go home now." Razor walks back to the giant crystal doors and struggles pulling them back to to their closed positions. Once they are back in place, she makes her way down the stairs and hops back into the field.

Trudging home through the field, the damp grass brushes against her legs. Soothing them and taking her mind off of bullies and terrifing walks home from school. Under a tree near the castle she rests, she looks back at the town and wonders what the rest of their homes look like. How many dresses does Rarity have on display? What types of pastries do they sell in Sugarcube Corner? What Does a pegasus' house look like? All the questions she was hoping to answer tonight are... "Going to happen, because nopony is going push me around anymore!"

"Yeah!" Razor strikes her hoof at the ground as she prepares for another mad dash through the field. "Third destination... Sugarcube Corner!"


*****


Like a bullet she takes off through the field. Her hoofs kick up tufts of the tall grass as it whips by her. Now entering the middle of the field the temptation to jump and tumble about is strong, but her determination to see their houses tonight is stronger. Her breathing is as rapid as her heart beat as her legs carry her faster and faster.

With the wind whistling past her ears and through her main, the grass drops out from under her replaced by dirt as she enters the streets. Tilting to make the change in direction, she turns to head down the street towards Pinkie's store. Her heart beat is getting louder now and adds to the noise of the wind, breathing and hoof beats. After a few moments Sugarcube Corner comes into view and quickly disappears behind her.

"Ooh I missed it!" Soon she passes the bridge to Carousel Boutique. "Sweet Celestia! I gotta slow down." She enters into the town square and, using all her might, circles around the fountain for a while slowing her pace down to a canter. But, as soon as she stops an immense load of fatigue hits her like a stone wall.

She leans against the fountain panting heavily, trying to get through the throbbing pain in her head. While desperately trying to catch her breath she looks down into the water and leans in. She takes in a deep breath and dips down into it, sucking in as much water as she can. What seems like a full minute passes by before she pulls her head up to continue breathing. She looks back behind her at the town square and takes a seat on the ground feeling a bit more refreshed from the drink. "Ahh! That's better."

"What was that?" Cagey wonders hanging up his hat on the rack. "Sounded like hoofsteps?" He looks outside the window and sees the dust clearing. He knows exactly who did it too, and thinks about what all he'll have to say when the morning comes. He quietly makes his way upstairs and walks down the hallway to his bedroom door. "She better be thankful for what I put myself through tonight." As the door opens, it slowly reveals his empty bed. He steps inside and looks around the room. Quietly he whispers, "Naive, are you in here?"

The door quietly slides to a close behind him as a wonderful scent fills the room. From behind the door Naive's voice whispers back, "Yep." She steps out from the darkness and circles around him into the moonlight. Her mane isn't tangled like it was earlier, it is now brushed into an elegant wave that bounces with each step she takes. Once in the light she stops and looks back at him. She then, bends her head down and reaches as far as she can to stretch. "Sorry, I'm still a little... tense from bed."

A few moments longer of stretching she relaxes a little bit, but still holds the same pose. After a little wiggle from her butt, she looks back at him. With the moonlight gleaming off her captivating eyes she pleads, "Help me relax."


*****


Taking her time, and not wearing herself out like before, she makes her way down the street towards Sugarcube Corner. The bridge she passed earlier comes into few as she makes her way around the street corner. Once around both of the destinations she plans to visit appear into view, and she becomes torn between wich to visit first. Feeling a weariness in her legs she thinks, "Well Rarity's is closer, I'll go there first. Uh... Fourth destination, Carousel Boutique!"

Crossing the bridge she tiredly trots up to the store window, preparing to be dazzled by the many bejeweled dresses displayed inside. She looks inside and is dissapointed by the sight of nothing but blank curtain shades. "The shades are closed? Well, it is kind of late. I wonder what time it is?"

Razor walks around the store checking each window, hoping to find at least one with a crack in the blinds. But unfortunately, each shade is shut tight. A sudden unfortunate realization comes to her. "I bet Sugarcube Corner is all closed up too. And, AppleJack's farm is too well gaurded by cattle. And Rainbow Dash's house floats. How could I make out a cloud house in the dead of night?"

Razor looks up into the moon hoping its gaze can cheer her up. Staring up at it she notices a small rainbow falling from a cloud? She focuses a little harder and manages to make out the pillars surrounding the majestic white tower in the center. Pools of rainbows spill over the sides of the cloud, fueled by waterfalls arching out of its dome roof. "Wow! Rainbow Dash must be rich! Or maybe all pegasi have amazing homes?"

As she continues looking at the the floating mansion on the other side of town, another thought comes to her. "Isn't Fluttershy's house near Rarity's?" Razor quickly looks around for a 'small cottage' as Fluttershy described it. She looks out into the surrounding fields and find other homes nearby, but all of them look the same as the ones in town.

She moves further out into the open to get a better view, but doesn't see any sort of cottage in sight. Giving up, atleast in this area, she turns around to head back to Rarity's.  On her way back a strange object catches her eye. Through the trees she spots what looks like a chicken coop next to a big bush. A big bush with a window?

Razor walks up to the trees and pushes the brush back to get a better look. "It is a window! Why does a bush have a window?" With curiosity calling her, she pushes through the brush and into the opening where the chicken coop sits. Now with a closer examination, she can make out the bottom of the bush. Which contained a wall lined with more windows and a few birdhouse scattered here and there.

Realizing it was a house she was looking at she decided to have a look around till she found a door. On her way around she is surprised at how much foliage has taken over its roof and walls. "Need some hedge clippers for this thing! I wonder if it's abandoned like mine was?" Further around the house Razor notices a bridge leading to it crossing a small creek. From the bridge all the way to the arched front door, birdhouses hang from the trees along with small doorways built into the ground around them and under the bridge.

"Whats with all the... Wait a minute, this is Fluttershy's!" Razor jumps with joy finally seeing her friends house in person. Quickly she trots up to the nearest window and peeks inside. Inside she sees what looks to be a very fancy and cozy looking bathroom. Wow! That is some fancy woodwork! Kind of reminds me of something out of Snow Whithers and the Seven Miniature Horses. I never liked that story, but I loved the illustrations!"

Razor continues walking around further, past her front door and onto the other side of her cottage. As she makes her way around, it seems the moon has gotten brighter making it easier to make out the details of Fluttersh's amazing house of nature. Once on the other side, she lifts her head up to look through the window. But the reflection of the sky behind her veiw and catches her attention. "Where did all the stars go? And why is it so... Bright!" She turns around and witnesses the moon beggining to fade over the horizon. "Uh Oh, I better get to bed! I don't want to be tired tomorrow, Fluttershy's going to come over."

Razor takes off down the road, making one final look back at Fluttershy's cottage. "Goodmorning Fluttershy!" she yells back as she quickly makes her way to and across the bridge back into Ponyville. As she speeds through the town, she sees the silhouettes of ponies waking up and getting ready for work. One even opens up his front door and steps outside.

"Hi there!" he calls out waving a hoof at Razor. Razor smiles back at him but continues on the road home. From behind her she can hear him saying to himself, "What happened to her legs?" Making her feel embarrased and pick up more speed.


*****


Finally at home, Razor looks back at the sky and doesn't see the moon at all! Just the bright blue morning, luckily without a sun. The birds have also started waking up, filling the forest with thousands of songs all jumbling together into one big mess of chirps and caws.

Razor quickly opens the door and steps inside, once inside she quickly closes the door and runs upstairs to let the oncoming wall of fatigue hit her in the privacy of her own bathroom. As she closes the bathroom door behind her, locking her once again in the darkness she loves, the wall hits her. Not nearly as bad as by the fountain, but her chest still hurts from the pain. She turns on the faucet and takes a few sips, catching her breath inbetween them.

Finally once she has relaxed, she begins to brush her teeth getting ready for bed. In the middle of brushing she hears a knock on the door. Her sister sleepily calls out to her from behind the bathroom door, "Hey Razor?"

With a mouth full of suds she answers, "What is it?"

Her sister takes a long yawn before responding, "I need to use the bathroom."

"Okay." Razor spits out the suds in her mouth and realizes that, she hasn't gone to the bathroom all day! "Hang on one more minute."

After finshing up and leaving the bathroom for her sister she crosses the hall into her bedroom. The light of the morning sun shines in through the crack in the shutters above her bed. "I bet Fluttershy's just getting up now. She'll probably be over in a few hours after her meeting. Better make these hours count."

Razor pulls back the covers and crawls into bed. The sun bouncing off the pillow next to her makes it hard to fall asleep, so she rolls over to face the back wall. She hears the bathroom door open from the hallway and tilts her ears in its direction. From the darkness her sister smiles at her, "Good morning Razor."

"Good morning to you too." With that final statement warning her of the upcoming events of today, she quickly curls up into her comfiest position and squints her eyes to attempt to fall asleep.
> Chapter Five: Yellow Foundation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Safe under her blanket Fluttershy sleeps curled in a warm ball while the memories of yesterday weave a wonderful dream in her mind. Razor is chasing her through the hushed darkness, dodging tables and chairs scattered throughout a never ending maze of carpet and black walls. Never ending it seems, until Fluttershy finds herself at a dead end. With the predator slowly closing in on her prey Fluttershy backs up against the wall ready to fight back the cannibalistic jaws of her friend.

Her bright yellow eyes, shining like a beacon in the dark, make their move as they lung into the air careening toward Fluttershy with a playful intent. The bandaged and scarred legs of Razor collide with the sides of Fluttershy's neck quickly wrapping around it, gently tackling her to the ground. She factitiously screams in fear as her predator goes in for the kill! She sees the sharp teeth sink in, feeling warmth and comfort emanating from each tooth that pierces her skin. The face watches her as it bites, slowly getting more and more surprised as its teeth sink deeper and deeper.

Razor's eyes open wider as she stares at Fluttershy. The shear amount of rising shock building on her glowing face begins to worry Fluttershy. "What's wrong?" she asks, as Razor's mouth detaches from her fur and raises up to look her more directly in the face. "What's wrong Razor?"

Razor looks up into the dark ceiling of the maze. With the same shocked expression, she stares into the ceiling watching as it slowly melts away in large sticky strands. Dim morning sunlight shines in through the soupy ceiling in rays as the songs of birds fill the air with an almost deafening noise. The walls of the maze begin to dissolve into large puddles in the newly forming grass springing up all around her. Fluttershy looks past the melting black walls across the landscape slowly forming around her into grassy fields stretching on further than her eye can see. Fluttershy looks back at Razor hoping for an explanation, but she just continues staring up at the sky in a daze.

Hoping to maybe jostle Razor out of her possessed state, Fluttershy reaches a hoof out to poke her. As her hoof touches her bandaged leg, Razor lifts it and slowly begins to walk towards her. Fluttershy raises up preparing to give her approaching friend a hug, but with each step Razor seems to move further away. "Where are you going?" Fluttershy asks her quickly departing friend. "Razor!?"

Without even a glance down, Razor's body glides over the horizon and out of Fluttershy's world. For a minute she stands looking at the fields surrounding her, void of any form of life besides her and the deafening call of birds. "Why am I here?" she asks herself, watching the sun beginning to rise over the horizon. The bright beams from the morning light wrap themselves around her body enveloping her in warmth, reminding her to Wake up, they're hungry.

Fluttershy's eyes snap open, revealing the dark bedroom she fell asleep in. She shifts her eyes around the room making sure it really is hers and not some strange dreams interpretation. She looks down and moves her legs around examining her bed sheets. Finding them just as comfy as usual, besides being very hot, she comes to the conclusion it really is her room letting out a long breath she had been holding in.

Relieved her dream is over she turns onto her side to go back to sleep. Getting a better look around, while on her side, she notices the amount of light shining in through her bedroom window. "Is it morning already?" Fluttershy wonders, kicking the covers off as she twists her way out of bed.

Through the glass in the window Fluttershy can hear the hundreds of birds waking up in the forest nearby. Each singing to one another with a different song, eventually jumbling together to make one large mess of noise. Accompanying the noise is the bright morning sky, void less of a sun, but bright enough to make out distant shapes. She can spot a few ponies already walking through town as well as one crossing the bridge back into Ponyville.

She can't stare out the window forever though, very soon she will need to get ready and go feed her animals, just like every morning. Fluttershy turns around and notices her bed sheets sprawled across the floor to her window. She gives out a sigh walking over to them remembering what Rarity had said, "...Twilight said to come to the palace for a meeting tomorrow. One to discuss how you all are doing on your assignments." Fluttershy stops and looks down at the pile of sheets, and a thought comes to mind. "How will I tell them about Razor?"


*****


After finishing her morning chores Fluttershy waves goodbye to her friends and heads off towards the crystal castle. She feels bad leaving her animals friends this morning, they all looked so worried when she handed out their food. And not a single one of them, besides Angel, had a happy face as she walked out the door.

"They looked at me like, something was wrong with me?" Fluttershy thinks as she makes her way onto the small bridge crossing into town. She stops for a minute and looks down into the stream below. The reflection shining back was as normal as ever. "I don't understand?" She says to herself, examining the other Fluttershy in the water.

Finding no answer she raises her head up to continue on her way, but freezes as her eyes meet with another mares across the street. The other mare quickly looks away embarrassed she was caught staring and trots off down the road. Feeling a bit uneasy now, Fluttershy continues on down the street.

As she makes her way through the streets of Ponyville more and more eyes meet Fluttershy's. Some are quick glances, while others are long worried stares looking her up and down. She picks up her pace but all the attention is nearly to much for her to handle. Feeling ready to take off in a bolt down the street any second now, a pony confident enough to talk to her approaches.

He asks, "Um, Fluttershy?" Fluttershy stops in her tracks and meekly answers, "yes?"

"Why do you have all those bruises on you?" He points a hoof out towards her sides, reminding her of the consequences from last night. Fluttershy takes a few steps back, quietly stammering out an inaudible response.

"I'm sorry, but, what did you say?" the pony asks watching the shivering savior of Equestria in front of him.

Quickly trying to think of something to get her out of this terrible situation Fluttershy whispers out the only excuse she can think of. "Um, I... have to go to, Twilight's."

"Uh... I'm sorry again, but what did you say?" The other pony leans in a little closer grabbing the attention of other nearby citizens. A crowd slowly begins to form around them, as the pony listening tries to piece together what she said out of her quiet mumbles. Fluttershy continues quivering as more and more ponies gather around them muttering to each other about her bruises. Finding no words to leave her mouth Fluttershy closes her eyes and slows her breathing to try and calm down.

Seeing Fluttershy so afraid in the presence of this other pony the crowd soon turns their attention onto him. Whispering phrases like 'He's probably the one that hit her!' slowly turns the sympathetic crowd into an angry mob. The other pony sees their angry faces and quickly takes to action, "Um, Well, that's good to know Fluttershy! I'll be on my way now!"

With a nervous smile plastered against his face he hastily nudges his way through the crowd. After many apologies for bumping ponies aside he breaks his way out of the mass and briskly trots off. After he disappears around the bend, the crowd's mentality turns back to a sympathetic tone. Fluttershy calms down a bit and opens her eyes again meeting all the faces around her.

"Are you ok Fluttershy?" a mare asks from the edge of the crowd. "Yeah, who was that guy?" another one asks. "Are you hurt?" more and more questions begin to flood from the audience.

"Do you need a doctor?"	"I think I know a spell or two about healing?"	"She has bruises? From what?"	"Those look like bite marks?"	"Did one of your animals do this?"	"Is that Fluttershy?"	"Fluttershy, it's ok. Tell me what happened."
"Don't treat her like a filly, she's defeated beasts thirty times your size!" The questions pile up further and further as Fluttershy attempts to answer each one. "No. It's fine I... Um... Well, NO never. Yes. I can't I have to..."

"WAIT! She's trying to say something!" a stallion yells out instantly silencing the crowd. Everypony leans forward listening intently for what she has to say. Fluttershy looks away from them towards the ground whispering, "I have to go to Twilight's right now, so..."
The mare in front of her gives an apologetic smile towards Fluttershy, "I'm sorry Fluttershy, we didn't know you had to be somewhere." She backs up into the crowd pushing away the mare beside her to make room for Fluttershy. The rest of the crowd soon follows, opening up to let her out.

As she walks through the crowd looking back and forth between the apologetic and worried faces of the townsponies, she can hear a few ponies in the back still asking about what's going on? Finally passing through the crowd Fluttershy continues down the street waving back at them as they all say goodbye.

The crowd only dissipates slightly as she makes her way around the edge of a building. Hugging the wall she thinks to herself about the meeting at the castle.





Twilight leans back in her chair letting out a relaxed sigh. "I take it, you like what I've done with the place?" Twilight pressing back in her thrones new pillows closes her eyes and almost falls asleep before nodding and answering, "Definitely!"

Rarity smiles back at her, "I knew you'd love it! Those old thrones were just to hard for any derriere to find comfortable."

"Eeyup..." Applejack closes her eyes now laying across her new red throne, "...they sure are." Soon she quickly falls asleep.

Rarity squees with pride and turns her gaze onto Pinkie Pie, bouncing on her new throne. "Do you like it? I added extra springs and Fluff to yours."

Pinkie stops mid-hop, "Did you say Fluff!?" She falls back to the ground and examines her throne's new cushion. A large zipper on the side catches her attention and she unzips it. As the zipper's teeth separate, globs off molten marshmallow bulge out in sticky lumps.

Pinkie gasps in excitement, "It is Fluff!" and scoops out several hoof-fulls into her mouth. She looks back up to Rarity covered and filled with the sticky marshmallow. While chewing she exclaims, "Water I'm gownna mwake a Fwuffer-Nutter!"

Twilight let's out a loud snort waking herself up. "Huh! Oh, sorry Rarity. What were you saying?" She looks over at Pinkie shoveling the contents of her cushion into her mouth. Thinking nothing of it she asks, "So Pinkie, have you helped any ponies yet?"

Pinkie painfully gulps down the last glob of marshmallow before gleefully answering. "Absolutely! I've made a list of everypony in town..." Pinkie pulls out a list of everypony in town running her hoof down the list, "... and I've helped each and everyone of them!"

"Well, except for a few Rarity asked to help." Twilight looks at her astonished, "Rarity you actually found time to help somepony?"

Rarity nods her head, "MmmHmm!" Twilight turns to Rainbow Dash to ask her, but Rainbow beats her to the question.

"Yes I have! He was a tough case, but after several days of intense arguing. I finally convinced him to be nice."

"And it worked?"

"Yup!"

Puzzled by her methods Twilight reminds herself to ask more about it later. She turns her attention towards AppleJack and attempts to wake her up. "AppleJack? AppleJack!" Her ears tilt towards Twilight's direction. "Have you helped anypony?"

"Eeyup... sorry for being short Twilight but, my bed ain't so soft... Goodnight." AppleJack falls back to sleep leaving Twilight with one more pony to ask. And she isn't here?

Suddenly the doors to the chamber door slide open as Fluttershy walks into the room. Twilight's turns to greet her but is instead shocked to see her bruised body. Twilight's mouth hangs open, Rarity's hooves come up to silence her gasp and Pinkie, in horror, wipes the marshmallow from her face.

"What's everyone looking at?" Rainbow asks turning around in her chair, halting after her gaze falls upon the purple splotched body of Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy?" Rarity asks through her hooves, "What happened to you?"

Rainbow Dash flies up to her to get a closer look. "They look like teeth marks."

"Teeth marks? Was it one of your animals?" Twilight inquires as AppleJack rolls over to get a better look at what all the fuss is about. She springs  up into a sitting position after seeing Fluttershy's purple marks. "What n'the hay!?"

The butterflies in Fluttershy's stomach begin to accumulate along with her sense of dread as she tries to think of a response.

"Fluttershy! What happened to ya?"

Rarity hops off her chair edging closer along with everyone else. "Darling... what did this to you?"





"Um... nothing happened to me, I'm fine." Fluttershy nervously whispers looking up at the castle from a lonely alleyway in the middle of town. Even though she is a great distance away, Fluttershy's nerves demand her to stare at the castle; focusing in on the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of the meeting. As each eye scans across, the nerves in her body build higher and higher on all the thoughts of how her friends would react. She even starts to feel queasy, frantically checking each window for signs of movement.

"It's kind of early I guess?" Her mind tells her after seeing no movement. "I should go back home and... Put on makeup!"

"Makeup!" The idea brings a slight relief to her as she turns around to leave the alleyway. She slinks between a few garbage cans and pokes her head out into the street. Besides a few ponies it seems relatively empty at the moment, and she takes this opportunity to dash across the street.

She dives behind a few bushes beside a house and pokes up to see if any pony saw. To her dismay a few ponies stand across the street puzzled at what they just witnessed. Feeling slightly embarrassed she gives up all hope in stealth and runs back to the bridge, crossing it to go back home.


*****


Across the street a few ponies watch as Fluttershy crosses the bridge back home. "What's going on with her?" Cagey asks in-between a few ponies that stopped  to stare at the fleeing mare on their way to work.

"I don't know? I think she has an iron deficiency." A pegasus near Cagey nonchalantly states.

A mare walking down the street halts hearing the comment and angrily trots over to the pegasus. "What do you mean she has an iron deficiency?" she sternly asks.

"Well she was covered in bruises and when you have an iron--"

"No! They were bruises from bite marks." The annoyed mare coherently declares, staring into his eyes with an insulted look about her. The pegasus stares back at her blankly as one eyebrow slowly rises. He adjusts his posture and begins an explanation for his statements, "I'm sorry. I was at the back of the crowd that gathered around Fluttershy and I did not see or hear what--"

"That was Fluttershy?" Cagey interrupts, feeling it would be important to start taking mental notes.

"Yes! And she is very hurt!" The mare gives the same insulted stare back at Cagey as he puts a hoof to his chin and turns away, completely ignoring her. He looks up into the sky as to not get distracted from his thoughts, and annoys the mare further. The pegasus chuckles from the display and asks her, "So she was bitten?"

The mare looks to him, furrowing her brow into a deeper scowl. She bites out her answer, "Yes!"

"Interesting..." the pegasus puts a hoof to his chin and looks up into the sky as well. "VERY interesting indeed..." he turns around facing down the street and continues on his way to work chuckling to himself.

The mare rolls her eyes and also continues on down the road in the opposite direction leaving Cagey alone to think. "Fluttershy went into Razor's yesterday without any bruises, but did she leave with them? Did she even leave till this morning? Why was she at Razor's dump anyway?"

Cagey looks back down towards the direction of Fluttershy's cottage where he can see she just arrived. "Big purple splotches all over her, all from Razor? " Cagey starts off on his way to work, "Twilight better do something about this."

Fluttershy bursts through the door greeting the silence that comes after the morning feeding. All of the animals had left for the day to live their own lives, before going back to the free hotel known as Fluttershy's cottage. All of them except Angel who hops into view wondering what Fluttershy is doing back home? "Hi Angel!" she says walking towards him.

Angel had plenty of plans for the day and none included Fluttershy! His displeasure is clear as she lays down in front of him. "I know you had plans today, but I just wanted to say that, I'm sorry for this morning."

She scoots a little closer to him, "I had completely forgotten about my bruises... and, I just wanted you to know that they don't hurt, and you don't have to worry."

Fluttershy greets Angel's un-amused stare with her own apologetic smile, before pulling him in for a hug. "Thank you for understanding." Fluttershy tells him, gently holding him in her hooves. He simply rolls his eyes and pats her on the head before jumping out of her grasp.

Hopping away Fluttershy's voice stops him, "Um, and don't worry about your plans. I wont stick around for long!" Angel nods his head, not fully understanding or caring what she plans to do, and hops off. Once he is gone Fluttershy walks to her bathroom to look for her makeup supplies.

She opens the makeup cabinet on the wall and begins digging around the multiple makeup kits inside. "Foundation is what I need, right?" She checks the covers of all the kits, each with a birthday or Hearth's Warming Eve tag reading Love Rarity.

Pushing her hair extensions kit aside she pulls out several makeup packages and lays them out on the sink. Checking through them she finds several shades of yellow. Fluttershy opens the box and pulls out the brush with her mouth.

She dabs a bit onto the brush and lowers her head to reach her shoulder. With a bit of finesse she brushes on the color and looks into the mirror. "Woo-Hoo!" The makeup covers up most of the bruise! It still looks fairly bad, but with more makeup it should eventually disappear.

After several more strokes her bruise is finally covered. She sets down the brush and looks into the mirror appreciating her effort. She turns to get a better look at her new shoulder and notices the multiple other marks across her back. "How am I going to reach them?" she wonders out loud as this new problem arises. Fluttershy opens her bathroom door, calling out for assistance. "Angel!... Are you busy?"


*****


Back at the castle Twilight sits in her hard crystal throne coughing on the dust filling the air and covering her ears from the sound of drills. A large chunk of dust flies into her lung, "Ahk! cough cough Rarity can you call off your sculpting crew for a minute!"

Rarity sneezes before answering, "I'm sorry Twilight, I thought break time was sooner." Flattening her ears from the noise she hops out of her chair and walks towards one of the ponies drilling into the walls.

After tapping on his shoulder she asks, "Excuse me! But, could you pause construction while we are in here!?" The pony sets down his drill and pulls off his mask. "Sure thing ma'm. Hey Zipper pack yer things!"

Across the room a fairly taller unicorn looks over in surprise and sets down his chisel. Confused, he muffles through his mask. "Is it break time already?"

"Eh, yea. Grab your bag." Both the ponies pack up their things as Twilight magically blows most of the dust out of a nearby window. Once the workers leave the room Rarity walks back to her chair.

"I'm so sorry Twilight, I didn't know they would cause such a commotion during our meeting."

"It's fine Rarity..." Twilight looks up at her new ceiling, consisting of Celestia, Luna and Cadence swirling around the new princess of the land, while stallions of all races stand on pillars holding the ceiling on their backs. "... all this commotion is definitely paying off."

Rarity smiles with delight, "I'm so glad you like it!"

Besides her feeling a little strange having so many pieces of art of her, Twilight does think the castle looks much better. "It's wonderful!"

Rarity smiles back again shifting her weight in her chair. AppleJack shifts in her chair as well along with Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash goes to shift her weight but gives up flying into the air.

"Rainbow Dash, what's wrong?" Twilight asks.

"I can't feel my legs." Rainbow states, kicking them around to get the blood flow back into them.

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I knew I should have weaved those pillows sooner." Rarity says watching her friend thrashing in the air.

Rainbow gives a few bucks at some leftover dust clouds before responding. "It's fine, I'm just not used to sitting this much."

Applejack, shifting her weight once again, turns to Twilight, "Twilight, I don't think Fluttershy's comin'."

Twilight looks back at her surprised at the statement. "Why do you think that?"

"She's probably too busy helping her pony to come join us."

Feeling the numbness forming in her legs along with the stinging in her rump Twilight, despite feeling bad for leaving out Fluttershy, decides to go along without her. "Your probably right AppleJack, let's start the meeting."

Using this as another opportunity to shift their weight everyone scoots closer to lay their hooves on the table. Except for Rainbow Dash, which simply floats nearer.

"So, who wants to go first?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Pinkie raises her hoof jumping up and down nearly hitting Rainbow Dash.

"How has it been going with you Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asks, while everypony turns to listen.

"It's been going great! I made a list you see..." Pinkie pulls out a long scroll and sets it on the table. It quickly un-ravels revealing the names of all the citizens of Ponyville. "... I've helped nearly one-third of everypony in Ponyville so far!"

AppleJack chimes in, "How could you help so many ponies in, what's it been... two days?"

"Three if you count before the meeting." Together they all look at Pinkie, doubting her 'one-third of everypony' claims. "What? It really wasn't that hard. Most of them said a Party would help them! So I plan to throw one big 'Let's Make Friends' party after I've helped all the other ponies in town that didn't feel like going to my awesome party."

Feeling like a party wouldn't help, and wanting  to hear how the rest of her friends are doing, Twilight moves the meeting along. "A party? Well, I'll ask more about your methods later. For now let's hear how Rainbow Dash is doing."

Rainbow floats back down into her chair clearing her throat. "It's, not going so good. It's going pretty terrible actually."

"How so darling?"

"Well he's just so... weird?" Rainbow leans in a little further to make sure her friends can hear her. "It's like one minute he wants to hug me... and the next he wants to beat the crap out of me!"

"Oh my!" Rarity gasps, while the rest of them share an equally shocked look. "That sounds like he has a bipolar disorder."

"I think so..." Rainbow Dash leans back into her chair thinking about all the out-bursts she had witnessed over only the past few days. Seeing her wear such a troubled expression compels Twilight to ask, "Rainbow, I know your supposed to help him but, maybe you should move on to somepony who's not so dangerous."

Rainbow waves a dismissive hoof, "No, it's fine Twilight. Nopony else is willing to help Twinkle, making me his only chance."

Twilight gives her a confident smile, "I guess you are." Rainbow gives an affirmative nod, before Twilight moves on to the next question in her mind. "You say his name was Twinkle?"

"Yep, Twinkle Hemorrhage." Twilight's smile dissipates, moving onto the next subject. "I'll ask more about Twinkle in a minute. I want to just, get the jist of everyone progress so far." Twilight turns her attention towards Rarity, "So Rarity... no, you've been in the castle all week."

Rarity looks at the murals engraved across the walls, "MmmHmm!"

Twilight frowns from the cheerful statement, knowing Rarity doesn't want to help. With nopony else to ask she turns to the last remaining pony in the room, "AppleJack... well, tomorrow you'll visit the pony your helping, right?"

"Sure enuff'. I'm gonna catch the train to Dodge City tomorrow to help out my neighbor's relative that lives there." Twilight raises an eyebrow, "I thought you would be helping somepony here?"

"I thought she lived here too, but when I asked where she lived they said Dodge City." AppleJack scoots a little closer into the group, "They said her name was Apple Ho-Down. Which got me thinkin', I might just be going to help a distant relative of mine!"

Pinkie Pie pulls confetti from her main and flings it into the air after hearing the wonderful news. "Yee-Haw! I've got a new cousin!"

Brushing the confetti out of her hair Rainbow asks, "What are you talking about Pinkie?"

Pinkie's eyes grow wide, "You don't you remember the scroll I found saying that I was related to AppleJack!?"

"Uh... kind of? Maybe?"

Pinkie leans back into her chair, "Well let me tell you all about it!"


*****


Back at the cottage, Fluttershy watches through the mirror as Angel stands on the sink grumpily moving the brush back and forth across a bruise on Fluttershy's back. The brush wipes nearly all its powder off onto the mark, barely covering it up. Angel re-fills the brush with the makeup kit, resulting in emptying one more kit of the right shade of yellow.

Fluttershy pulls the yellow-less kit off of the sink and sets it in the pile of other used kits. She reaches next to it and pulls up the last good one, opening it up and placing it next to Angel. "This is the last one Angel. Can you finish with it?"

Angel lifts the brush away from her and shrugs, doubting he can. "I hope so..." He presses the brush back onto her and continues with his work, attempting to use as little as possible. It takes a long time to cover the wound and Fluttershy's attention soon shifts away from the mirror and onto the floor.

After a few silent minutes pass by staring at the floorboards, Angel smacks Fluttershy on the rear indicating she should turn around. "Ooh! Sorry." she spins around revealing the other side to Angel.

Angel counts the wounds on her body and looks back at his remaining supply of powder. There is enough to last two more bruises, but not enough for the other three. Figuring he doesn't want to waste the time to cover only two he gives a sorrowful look to Fluttershy.

"There's not enough?" Angel shakes his head, placing the brush inside the new kit. Fluttershy lets out a heavy sigh, "Ok, thank you for your help." Angel pats her on the head again and hops off the counter, exiting the room.

Fluttershy looks at herself in the mirror, comparing her painted side and her purple splotched side. "So much for the meeting. At least I can still go to Razor's." She walks out into her living room and looks around for Angel.

"Angel? Um, I'm going out!..." no response. "Goodbye!" she opens her door and steps outside. A thought knocks at the back of her mind halting her as she closes the door, "What time is it?"

Fluttershy looks back inside at the cuckoo clock mounted on the wall, "3:14... the meeting will be over soon." The thought of her friends wondering where she is knocks once again. "Maybe I should leave them a note."

She walks back inside and trots over to her drawer pulling out a pen and paper. "Hmmm?"



Dear Twilight, Friends,
Hello! I'm sorry I missed the meeting, but I've been helping out Razor Sharp (my pony) all day long. She lives on the road towards Cloudsdale.



"I can't write where she lives, they'll come and see me. And Razor will be right there to take the blame..." Fluttershy crumples up the paper and tosses it in a waste basket nearby. She pulls out another sheet and gets to work.



Dear Friends,
Hello! I'm sorry I missed the meeting, but I've been helping out Razor Sharp (my pony) all day long. I hope you didn't worry about me, and I'll make sure to definetly show up to your next one!
Love, Fluttershy



Fluttershy studies her work, pondering on whether or not it's convincing. "Maybe I should have written more? Well, it's probably fine." she reaches into the drawer and pulls out a tack. Carefully holding the tack and paper in her mouth, she closes the drawer and trots back outside.

She pins the note to the door and before fully closing it yells, "Angel?... Goodbye, again!" Hearing no response, again, she closes the door and heads off down the road. "I should probably go around Ponyville." Fluttershy thinks to herself remembering the crowd that gathered around her. I hope my animal friends don't notice me."
> Chapter Six: Bananas
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
Nearing the end of their meeting Pinkie frowns at Twilight quizzically, "What do you mean I didn't help him? Strawberry Cream didn't have a wagon so I let him borrow mine!"

Twilight groans in frustration from explaining these situations several times. "Pinkie, letting somepony borrow your wagon doesn't help them understand the lessons of friendship any better. All those ponies you 'helped,' probably didn't have any friendship troubles."

Pinkie gawks at Twilight's statement, "Are you saying I have to re-help everypony I've checked off!?" She looks down at her list and quickly skims through the names she had checked off. "That's nearly... one hundred and sixty-three Ponies!"

Twilight holds up a hoof to speak but is cut off. "Do you know how long it took me to help all of those ponies!? Three Days!" Twilight sets her hoof back down on the table, meeting Pinkie's frustrated glare with an un-amused stare.

"You know, since most of those ponies were probably fine to begin with-"

Pinkie's demeanor instantly changes as a realization hits her, "Oh Twilight, your right. I didn't do it right the first time... but I will the second!"

Twilight is taken aback by her sudden change, "Oh... well, ok! But you don't necessarily have to erase all your checks and restart."

Pinkie tilts her head, "I don't?"

"Nope, because those are ponies you already know-"

"-are invited to my party!" Pinkie hops out of her chair and pulls out her list, rubbing out most of the checks. "Thanks for reminding me Twilight! Now I only have to re-help... seventy-nine ponies!"

Cheerfully Pinkie jabs her list into her mane and leaps out the door, dragging behind her a long list of names. "No! Pinkie wait! That's not what I-" Twilight jumps out of her throne and flies across the table. She slams a hoof down onto the crystal floor, barely missing the end of Pinkie's list by an inch. She runs to the door opening and yells after her, "Pinkie! I meant because those ponies you already know don't need help!"

Twilight sighs and looks back at her friends, "Well, I guess this meeting has gone on long enough." She walks around the table and slumps back down into her thrown wearing a slight frown.

"Twilight, what are ya'll down in the dumps for?" AppleJack inquires, voicing the thoughts of the rest of her friends. Besides Rainbow Dash, who had been staring at the same corner of the table for the past forty-five minutes.

Twilight looks up at her friends, "Oh, I don't know... It just seems that, nothing good has come of this, 'friendship spreading thing.'" Twilight slumps a little further back into her throne.

"Come now Twilight, there are plenty of positive things that have came from your decree!" Twilight looks at Rarity questioning the truth of her statement. "There really are! Like... Um..."

She frowns a little further. "Well it has only been three days you know, friendship takes time. It took months for AppleJack to fully consider me even an acquaintance!"

AppleJack quickly turns to face her accusing friend, "What n' the hay!? I think it was the other way around!"

Rarity smiles getting the reaction she intended, both being AppleJacks anger and Twilights little smile. "Whatever darling, its all in the past." She looks around AppleJack back towards the moping princess. "I know I haven't been the most helpful in your quest Twilight, but as soon as... I finish the pillows for our thrones..." Rarity gives Twilight an extra large apology smile, "I promise I will bring the magic of friendship to the most sorrowful pony I can find!"

Twilight's frown shortens, but still remains. "I believe you Rarity." She looks to Rainbow Dash hoping for some input or comment on the situation, but instead finds her giving the table the same thousand yard stare. They all look at each other and back at Rainbow. AppleJack waves a hoof and barely even gets a blink out of her.

Keeping an eye on her Twilight announces, "It's probably time to go now, I think it's almost four." They all stand up from their seats, watching Rainbow all the while. They all walk to the end of the table; Rainbow doesn't move an inch. "Rainbow Dash, are you coming?" No response. "Rainbo-"

"Huh! Oh, yeah." She quickly flies up into the air and heads for the door. She stops outside it and looks back in. "Uh, we are leaving right?" All her friends nod, "Ok. Sorry about that, I kind of spaced out for a sec."

"Sugarcube that second, lasted nearly an hour! What was on your mind?" Rainbow Dash shrugs, "I dunno, just thinkin'." AppleJack lifts an eyebrow, getting nothing but another shrug as they all leave the meeting chamber.

After winding their way through the maze of halls and staircases throughout Twilight's castle they eventually arrive at the main entrance. Rainbow says goodbye and flies off, still looking deep in thought, leaving AppleJack, Rarity and Twilight by themselves.

"Well, I guess I'll be goin' home to pack my things. Tell me if you find out what happen'd ta Fluttershy will ya?" AppleJack says beginning to head off towards the farm.

"Will do. Have a nice afternoon!" Rarity exclaims waving a dainty hoof at her friend. Twilight looks at her wondering "'Will do?' I was going to check on Fluttershy." Rarity reads her expression like a book cover and explains, "I thought I could check up on Fluttershy for you, since she is on the way."

"Thanks Rarity! I'll come along with you." They both share a smile and trot down the crystal steps leading up to the castle. They set off down the dirt path and Rarity asks, "So, Twilight How is your 'Feed The Zebras' mission coming along?" Twilight groans, "Not good."


*****


Meanwhile, Fluttershy finally makes it to Razor's home. She had made her way through the forest to remain undetected, but now she would have to walk around to the front of Razor's house to knock. She looks around the corner and sees only a few ponies at the far end of the street along with a mother happily watching her fillies play in their backyard.

"Now's my chance!" she thinks, tip-hoofing around to the front of Razor's house. She gets to the door and rapidly knocks on it whispering for her friend. Knocknocknock "Razor!" Knocknocknock "Are you asleep!?" The mother watching her fillies a few houses down sees the commotion and turns her attention away from her foals.

Razor hears Fluttershy and her subconscious throws her out of bed. Still half asleep she stumbles towards her door. "Fluttershy? What are- Oh!" she runs into the door frame and becomes stunned for a moment. "Excuse me?" She shakes her head and jars her brain back into its normal state. "Fluttershy is coming over!"

"Razor!"

"On my way!" she trots down the stairs and stumbles a bit on the last step. She quickly unbolts the door and greets her friend, "Fluttershy!" she leans back onto her hind hoofs and throws her forelegs into the air for a big hug, but Fluttershy spins around quickly slamming shut the front door.

Razor is startled by the sound of cracking wood as the door slams in front of her. She loses her balance and falls on top of Fluttershy, "Oof!"

"Oh! Sorry about your door Razor." Razor slides off her back and brushes herself off fairly nonchalantly. "It's fine Fluttershy. What-" she notices the yellow streaks across her stomach, "What is this stuff?"

Fluttershy turns around in the familiar darkness to face Razor's voice, "I'm sorry again! It's just some makeup I put on today." she hangs her head in shame while Razor walks over to her candle cabinet to pull some more out.

"Makeup? I didn't know you wore makeup?" she pulls open the drawers and finds them bare. "Uh-oh! Now what will I do? I can't spend all day with Fluttershy in the dark... although we have been friends for a while."

"Well I don't usually wear it, but... Um, I kind of had a bad morning." Razor looks back at her, "Oh, I'm sorry. what happened?" She walks over to the wall and puts a hoof on the light switch. Before Fluttershy can speak she asks, "Hey Fluttershy?"

She holds back her description of this morning, "What is it?"

Hesitantly Razor asks, "Well, I ran out of candles so... would it be fine if I turned on the lights?"

"Yes, er, whatever you want." Razor doesn't want to show off her disgusting walls, but decides that either way Fluttershy would eventually have to see them. Dust flies off the flipping switch as a bright white light from the center of the room washes out their dark world in a flash. Both of them clench their eyes and raise up a knee to rub them with.

Fluttershy's eyes adjust faster to the light, opening before Razor's to view her... unbelievably clean home! The color pattern of the room seems strange to Fluttershy (orange carpet with grey walls and a brown ceiling), but not a single speck of dirt is visible on any surface she sees. Each wall even seems to have a slight shine to it.

Razor finally opens her eyes and notices her astonished face. Fluttershy walks up to a wall and goes to put a hoof on it, but holds back. "Um, Razor? Would it be ok if I, touched your walls?"

Razor winces with a thought, "Dang it! I knew I missed a spot in this pigsty." Begrudgingly she answers, "If you want to." Being careful to not damage it, Fluttershy places her hoof on the wall and slides it down. A loud squeak emits from the wall. Amazed it can even be possible Fluttershy whispers to herself, "Squeaky clean..."

She turns to Razor slowly walking back to the light switch and asks, "How did you get your walls so clean?" Razor raises a brow, "Clean? But there are smudges and stains everywhere."

Fluttershy looks back at the wall, "I don't see any?" Razor is dumbfounded by her statement. "But, you even tried to wipe that stain off?" She points were Fluttershy had rubbed the wall.

Fluttershy looks at her hoof for smudges but doesn't find any, "Oh... Well, I didn't see a stain. I just wanted to..." Fluttershy seems embarrassed by her actions, "... see if the wall would, squeak." She gives raiser a timid little smile, realizing she probably looked really silly.

"So... none of this bothers you?" Fluttershy looks around, a bit confused and questioningly answers, "No?" Razor steps away from the light switch letting a long sigh walking towards the couch in the middle of the room. Before her sigh can end she rolls over the back of the couch and lands on its cushions.

She pokes her head up and rests it on the back of the couch to look at Fluttershy. "I'm so glad to hear that! This room has always seemed kind of dirty to me." Fluttershy smiles at her and begins to walk around to the couch against the wall. "Even though I love the look of haunted houses, I would never want to live in one."

Fluttershy carefully lays down on the couch across from her, making sure she doesn't brush any makeup onto it, and asks, "Haunted houses?"

Razor happily nods her head, "MmmHmm! That's why I chose to buy this, fine establishment!" She waves a hoof through the air presenting it to Fluttershy. "One day when I was looking through the paper I saw what looked like a haunted house for sale and I just couldn't miss the opportunity!"

Fluttershy looks around the place a bit more, now that she is able to fully see Razor's living room. "Well, you have definitely cleaned the place up nicely!" She looks at all the candle holders around the room and notices how all the wax had been wiped off of them.

"Thanks! You should have seen this place before. It was a mess! But, after a full week of non-stop cleaning I cleaned everything too it's fullest potential." Razor's smile shortens a bit, "It's not as clean as I'd like it to be, only the entryway has reached that level. It's a shame the lighting is so bad in there. Otherwise I'd leave the light on all the time to show it off... But I'm glad you don't mind."

"Oh wait! You were going to tell me about your morning?" Fluttershy's happy demeanor quickly changes, "Oh, yes. It wasn't very good."

Razor adjusts her posture and crosses her hooves taking on the look of a therapist. She looks at Fluttershy with an endearing smile and asks, "Why don't you tell me all about it?"


*****


Rarity and Twilight make their way up to Fluttershy's home and read the note on the wall.




Dear Friends,
Hello! I'm sorry I missed the meeting, but I've been helping out Razor Sharp (my pony) all day long. I hope you didn't worry about me, and I'll make sure to definetly show up to your next one!
Love, Fluttershy




Twilight is relieved to find that at least somepony was getting the help he (or she) needed. "Well, that's good!" she happily affirms.

"I'm not so sure about that Twilight..." Rarity gives her a concerned look.

"Why is that?"

"Well, Fluttershy showed me Razor's home a few days back and to say the least... it gave off an aura of foreboding!"

Twilight's mind flips through memories of all the buildings, shops and homes in Ponyville and none of them seemed 'foreboding' in the least. "I can't recall any creepy buildings in Ponyville?"

"It's the old residence on the road to Cloudsdale." Twilight shrugs. Rarity's concern increases as her worries begin to stack, "Twilight, I think we should go check up on her."

Inside Twilight figures Fluttershy is probably fine, but seeing Rarity this apprehensive over one mare does make her wonder. "Alright, let's go. Although it's a shame we'll have to walk all the way across town again."

Crossing back over Fluttershy's bridge Rarity's worries fade away a bit when she begins to wonder, "Wait, why is a Princess walking around town anyways? Have not your servants arrived yet to submit to your every whim?" she asks with a smirk.

Twilight furrows her brow in response, "My servants should be here in around month."

"A month? Is there a shortage?"

"A small one. Apparently Tirek was held back for quite a bit before he finally fought his way through to the castle..."

Rarity gulps, "Casualties?"

Twilight nods, "Discord said that he wasn't there at the time and didn't arrive till the battle had already been lost."

Rarity sighs and they both make their way back into Ponyville lamenting of how everything could have gone so much better.


*****


At Razor's Fluttershy finally ends her story "... and once the coast was clear I ran to the front door and yelled for you."

Razor feels ashamed for being the cause of her morning sorrows and repeats again for the fifth time, "Fluttershy I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you so bad."

Fluttershy also repeats for the fifth time, "It's fine Razor, I don't mind." They both sit for a while in silence now that Fluttershy's story is over; both of them feeling bad for the other's pain and bruises, even though they both had fun making them.

Fluttershy speaks up, "So, you had a fun night last night?"

Razor cheers up a little, "Definitely. I hadn't gone night walking for months, and it felt really great."

"Did you see anything on your walk?" Fluttershy's mood improves as she begins to invest herself into Razor's story.

"Eeyup, I saw Twilight's beautiful castle! And it was surrounded by the best rolling grass I've ever tumbled in!"

"I guess the grass is pretty? When it blows in the wind." Fluttershy says relaxing a bit.

"It was pretty. But, it was a lot more fun to roll around in."

Fluttershy smiles as Razor seems to get more excited from telling her story. "When I saw the field, I took off sprinting until I reached like... fifty miles an hour! Then when I was about to run out of breath I jumped in to the air and rolled." Razor does a little roll on her couch (somewhat) demonstrating what it looked like.

"I rolled for a Long time, head over hooves!" she chuckles a little remembering. "I must have looked ridiculous to the pony stalking me last night!"

Fluttershy is more than a little shocked to hear this, "Stalking you?"

"Yeah! Last night after I made it up to Twilight's castle, which was breathtaking, a brown pony in a trench coat jumped out of the shadows!" She holds a mangled leg over her muzzle concealing it like a cloak as she pauses for dramatic effect.

"He asks, 'What are you doing? Are you looking for the Princess!?'" she glares at Fluttershy with same expression he 'glared' at her with. Fluttershy cowers a little as she continues her story, "I said ' No, Go away! You dirty spy!' He looked as though his cover had been blown after that and he quickly lept back into the darkness!"

"There is a spy after Twilight?" Fluttershy whimpers out. "I don't know? After I leapt into the shadows after him, he did a few ninja moves and I lost him." Angry and disappointed in her ability to keep up with the spy she frowns. Her mind begins to wander toward the kitchen-

"Ninjas!" Fluttershy is horrified by this news, "We have to warn Twilight!"

"Definitely!" Razor's stomach is abruptly struck by a chorus of rumbles, "Let's do it on the way to lunch though."

"Wait, but uh.." Razor gets up off the couch; Fluttershy soon follows after her. "But, my bruises?" Razor stops and looks back at her, "Oh yeah... dang" her stomach rumbles again.

Fluttershy looks down at the few bruises she had not covered in makeup and sighs, "I'm sorry..."

Razor walks over to her, repeating an almost overused saying, "It's not your fault. Maybe I have something in the kitchen?" Razor walks over into her kitchen, flipping on the light and opening up the fridge. She is sad to see instead of bleeding flesh nothing but a few carrots, apples, and surprisingly bananas.

Digging around further in the fridge she calls out, "Fluttershy? Do you like bananas?"

Being half-way in the fridge muffles her sound. Fluttershy responds with, "I'm sorry, but... what?"

"I said, Do you like bananas?"

"Bananas?" Fluttershy takes a while to think about it, "Um, yes."

Fluttershy's response is muffled by the door as well. "So, you like bananas?" Razor opens up a few drawers at the bottom of the fridge and digs through them finding more fruits, vegetables and roots.

"Yes."

"Alright!" Razor gives up her search for other fruits and bites down on a bushel of bananas. She closes the door behind her and walks back over to the couch. Placing the bundle of bananas down on the table she picks two off.

Holding one in her mouth she warns, "Hey Fwuttershy, here comes a bwanana!" she gently tosses one over. Fluttershy stares at the oncoming fruit and opens her mouth to catch it. The banana bounces off the top of her snout and hits her in the eye, "Ouch!"

"Sorry!" Razor says before she sits back down on the couch and attempts to peel her banana open. Fluttershy picks up the fruit that hit her and glares at her. She walks into a good position while Razor fiddles with her peel and flips her head, flinging the banana back at Razor.

Fluttershy's projectile knocks the other banana from razor's hooves. "Hey! I was trying to peel that!" An evil smirk spreads across Fluttershy's face, withering a bit as Razor continues to look back at her confused.

A moment passes and Razor says nothing. Fluttershy's smirk dies as her mind asks herself "Why did you do that? Razor didn't do it on purpose." She looks down at the bananas on the couch and sees Razor pick one up. Suddenly a banana bounces off her snout again, this time luckily missing her eye.

"And another!" Razor shouts, picking up the other banana and jumping off the couch. She strolls up to the confused Fluttershy and gently places it on her head. After careful balancing it she picks up the other banana from the floor and puts her hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders. Still confused by what is going on she asks, "What are you-"

"Shhpfh!" Razor whispers through the banana in her mouth. Gently she balances the other banana on Fluttershy's nose and takes the one on the top of her head off. She hops back onto the couch, fidgeting with the banana peel once again.

Fluttershy looks down at the banana on her snout, gaining a giggle out of Razor from the funny expression on her face. Fluttershy glares once again and flicks the banana into the air to catch it. It flies behind her and Fluttershy leaps up after it, fearing the humility of being uncoordinated

But she misses, and tumbles backwards onto her back with a soft little "Oof!" Razor nearly chokes on her banana as her giggling ascends into a full-blown laugh. She rests the banana on the couch and painfully swallows her bite, laughing at Fluttershy wiggling on the ground still attempting to grab the banana.

Fluttershy grabs the banana in her hooves and rolls back over onto her stomach. With a scowl she states, "It's not that funny!"

Razor suppresses herself for a moment, "But you were all like 'My Banana! Derp!' Bwahehahooganeheehehe-" Suddenly a yellow object bashes into her forehead with an unexpected force. "Ow! Hey, that's gonna bruise!"

Fluttershy flatly states with a deeper scowl, "It's a banana, you'll be fine..."

"I wasn't talking about me I was talking about the banana!" With a bit of a chuckle Razor holds up the banana in between her hooves and shows her the tiny black circle beginning to appear. "Ye see that? It's ruined!"

Fluttershy looks over at the bundle on the coffee table and jumps for it. She quickly breaks off a piece, while the slightly bruised banana flies back and hits her in the eye, Again! She squints through the pain and throws her newly acquired missile back at Razor in retaliation.

Razor ducks and misses the banana, "Ha Ha. Too fast for you!"

"No!" Fluttershy yells, squinting her eye in pain and frustration. She picks out another banana from the bunch and runs over to Razor's couch with it in her mouth. She jumps up onto the couch, startling Razor a bit. "Fluttershy what are you doing?"

"Rawr!" Fluttershy lunges at Razor tackling her down on the couch. She spits the banana out of her mouth onto Razor and proceeds to rub it all over her face with her hoof. "Fluttershy! pfft pffht..." Razor's forelegs fling about trying to push Fluttershy off while the banana breaks open under her hoof.

Banana juices begin to poor out of it's peel and ooze onto Razor's face. Soon her eyes are filled with a cold yellow haze as banana chunks slide into her open mouth. She swallows a few mouthfuls, "Mmmm good stuff! Wait a second, I don't want banana stains in my couch!" Razor increases the force of her flailing hooves, "Alright that's enough!"

She throws her body up along with her raised hoof, striking Fluttershy in her chin. Fluttershy's head jerks up, lifting her hoof from the banana, shocked at what has happened. Razor gasps at what she has done and hopes she didn't go too far. Fluttershy slowly looks back down at her with the same angry expression, putting Razor at ease knowing she probably didn't mind the hit.

Razor shakes the banana off of her face exclaiming, "Take that!" She rolls onto her stomach and lifts Fluttershy into the air; turning around and tossing her off onto the carpet floor. As she hits the floor, Razor hops off of the couch and reaches back onto the coffee table to pick off another banana.

Once the fruit is off of its bundle, Razor is immediately hit with a painful buck to her side; knocking her into the middle of the room. She spits the banana out of her mouth, "Ow! what in the world was-" Razor sees Fluttershy rake at the ground preparing to charge. Razor quickly jumps up and rears onto her hind legs letting out a fierce whinny before Fluttershy takes off sprinting.

She rams into Razor's stomach. Razor falls over Fluttershy onto her back, holding on as Fluttershy comes to an abrupt stop in the kitchen. Fluttershy shakes all about trying to get Razor off of her. She kicks and bucks, and even bites Razor's back legs in an attempt to get her off. Razor retaliates to the bite with a bite of her own on Flutterhy's rump.

Fluttershy squeaks with pain and rolls over onto her back, finally knocking Razor off. She immediately gets on top off Razor and jabs a hoof into her eye. Razor can feel the grooves of her hoof press down into and around her eyeball as a small squish echoes through her head. She screams in pain; knocking the hoof away and covering up her face with her leg. She uses the other one to deflect the rest of Fluttershy's frantic blows.

Through her teeth Razor yells, "Don't Hit My Eyes!!!" and lurches up pulling Fluttershy's head to her snout. Fluttershy throws her legs around attempting to escape as Razor lets go of her eye and wraps both her forelegs around Fluttershy's head. Now with a firm hold on her, Razor bites down on her forehead with all her might.

Feeling the skin breaking from the pressure Fluttershy yelps and attempts to shake her head free. She pushes as hard as she can against the tile floor and strains her neck muscles attempting to free her head as it begins to go numb and moist.

Finally Razor let's go. Fluttershy throws her head back relieved to be free from her jaws and is met with a very hard hoof slaming against the side of her cheek. It knocks her sideways, just enough for Razor to roll over and get onto her feet.

As she raises up a sharp pain rattles through the back of her head from another one of Fluttershy's punches. Razor spins around from the hit and comes nose to nose with her. Without even a second for her to react, Razor launches a hoof up and into the snout of Fluttershy.

Fluttershy shuts her eyes as her snout is shoved back into her skull, sending an excruciating pain throughout her face. Fluttershy steps back with her eyes still closed, feeling pain slowly spread across her nose, teeth and eyes in the rhythm of her heart. Feeling a bit tired she hangs her head down, fighting the urge to pass out.

Surprised she hasn't already retaliated Razor looks at her with her good eye and takes a few steps closer. "Fluttershy, are you ok?"

Fluttershy sniffs and nods. Swaying a bit she continues to hold her head down as the throbbing pain creeps across her face all the way to her ears. She can hear the drips on the tile as the throbbing increases.

Razor watches as the drips increase sending a stream of red out of Fluttershy's nose. A small puddle begins to form on the tile, "Uh-oh, um... Fluttershy I'll be back."

Fluttershy nods and sniffs up a gulp of blood. She swallows it and quivers at the taste and amount that must be leaving her numb face. She tilts her head up and attempts to stop the bleeding, resulting in a large amount dripping down into her throat. She gags and tilts her head back down, while hearing hoofsteps enter the room. She opens her eyes a bit to see what was going on?

Razor throws a towel down on the splattered puddle, "Fluttershy I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do this." Razor stomps the towel down into the puddle and swirls it around to soak up as much as she can.

Fluttershy looks down at her and covers up her nose with a foreleg almost falling over in the process. Razor looks back up at her and notices how unbalanced Fluttershy has gotten and quickly runs to her side.

Razor lets her lean on her and helps Fluttershy away from the messy towel. She eases Fluttershy down onto the kitchen floor and examines her nose. "Fluttershy?" She looks at her. "Can you wiggle your nose?"

Fluttershy wiggles her blood matted nose back and forth behind her leg, getting a relieved sigh out of Razor. "That's good. I was, really hoping I didn't... break it." Razor continues to stare at her while Fluttershy stares back, worried about the terrible bruise she had created on Razor's eye. Unclear on what to say next, Razor simply apologizes, "Fluttershy... I'm sorry." She lays her head down on the floor next to her. Fluttershy closes her eyes again and slumps down further into her fore leg.

A knocking sound catches Razor's attention. She stands back up and looks towards the front door. "Uh, Razor? Are you home?" a strange voice asks on the other side. Razor hesitates, "Um... Yes?" She walks across the kitchen and through her living room to the front door. She uses her good eye and looks through the eye-hole, "A white unicorn and a... purple alicorn!? Princess Twilight!"

"Princess Twilight!!!" Razor bounces with joy into the air, her smile growing so large it hurt her bruised eye. She had heard so much about Twilight from Fluttershy, and if she was like her in any way they would become friends with her as well! Her excitement overpowers her and she throws both hooves on the door handle, ready to greet the princess of the land and the other pony who she can only assume is Rarity?

*****

"Razor?" Twilight asks again, raising her hoof to knock as the old creaky door flings open in front of her. Twilight jumps back in horror at the sight of a huge blue smile with one bright yellow eye glowing in the dim light of the afternoon. The face quickly lowers in front of her stretching out its minced and blood matted legs in a bow. A lovely voice happily exclaims, "Good afternoon Princess!"
Twilight takes a closer look at the sliced legs of the bowing mare in the doorway.  Crusty red lines flow down from the multiple slashes across the legs' surface. Twilight gulps and attempts to speak, "Oh... Gulp Dear Celestia." Rarity stops examining the siding of the house and looks over at Razor. She sees her legs, filling her lungs with a shocked gasp.
Razor looks up at her, "What is it?" Underneath a pile of fuzzy tangled violet  hair one good yellow eye looks up at her beside a deep, purple, squinting sore. The sight is too much to take in at once, Rarity screams at the top of her lungs, "Aaaaaaaaaaa-Uhf!" Twilight kicks her side. "Cough cough Oh my! Cough Um, excuse me dear!"

Razor's eye shifts between the two of them, feeling embarrassed and scared. Rarity sniffs a few times, "The allergies this year are just, really getting to me." Twilight frowns at her and looks back at Razor. "Um... Good afternoon to you too."

A moment of silence passes between the three of them, "Uh... so are you Razor Sharp?" Twilight asks. Razor stands up and nods, "Yeah." She looks over at Rarity, "Are you Rarity?"

Rarity jumps a little at the question, "Yes." Razor smiles and looks at the two of them, straining to open her injured eye. She gives a quick strain to open it, but the pain keeps it closed. "Ouch!" She lowers her head and puts a foreleg against her face. Twilight watches her eye twitch underneath her leg, "Uh... Razor Sharp? I think you need to go to the hospital."

Razor lifts her head up and blinks, "Nah, I'm good."

Twilight watches her put her leg back down and notices a few bruises on her shoulders. Politely she asks, "Razor, would it be ok if you stepped outside a little bit?"

"Oh, Sorry!" Razor steps out into the sun and reveals more bruises scattered across her body. "Oh My!" Rarity gasps again, walking a little closer to Razor.

"Razor I Really think you should visit the hospital." Twilight states again. Razor looks at them both almost blushing from her embarrassment. "But, I'm fine..."

Rarity can't stand seeing a pony this injured, "Razor, you can barely open your right eye! Come with us, we'll walk with you to the hospital." Razor thinks about it and rubs her legs together looking at the floor. The sound of scabs scraping together makes Rarity a little sick and increases Twilight's want to tend to her wounds.

Razor looks back to them opening her mouth, but is interrupted before she can speak. "And don't worry about the cost. I'll pay for any bills." Rarity smiles at Twilight, "Taking a page from my book I see."

Her stomach fills with butterflies as she comes to a decision, "Um... ok. But, could we stop somewhere to eat first?"

"Of course Darling! Neither of us have had a bite since breakfast."

Razor steps out into the sunlight a little further feeling a bit queasy, "Alright." She walks out of her doorway and up next to Twilight. Out of curiosity Rarity, looks into her house. Inside she sees a very clean living room and... a blood soaked towel on the floor! Instantly the lights flick off in the bloody room, sending a chill down her spine. "Probably just... ketchup. And... faulty wiring." Rarity looks away and catches up to Razor and Twilight now walking very close together.

"I've never been to the hospital before." Knowing they would bump heads if she turned Twilight simply glances over, "You've never been before? Well... good! I guess?"

Razor stops in her tracks and looks back at her house, "Fluttershy!" She hastily trots towards the open doorway calling back, "Sorry! I need to... uh, get something." She walks inside and closes the door behind her. She whispers, "Fluttershy? Did you know Twilight and Rarity are here?"

"Mmmhmm" Razor walks into the kitchen and flips the light on. The light unveils Fluttershy curled into a ball in the corner of the room. A large blood stain covers her leg where her nose lays; her eyes are nearly closed as Razor walks up. She kneels down in front of her, "Fluttershy..." She stares at the deep red gap between her nose and leg, "... Twilight said she would take me to the doctor. Do you want to come along?"

Fluttershy shakes her head and closes her eyes, wincing a bit. Razor lays down on the tile next to her, "Ok, I'll just stay here with you then." 

Fluttershy shakes her head again, wincing a bit. She raises her snout up above her leg and whispers, "But, I want you to meet my friends."

Razor stares at the blood draped across Fluttershy's snout, "But..." Fluttershy opens her eyes a bit and looks at her, "Please?"

The look in her eyes is enough for Razor to know that she has to go. "Ok..." Razor nuzzles up next to her, "Bye Fluttershy..." Fluttershy rests her head back down into her leg closing her eyes.

While getting up Razor whispers to her, "If you want to sleep in my bed you can." Fluttershy smiles a bit and nods. "Ok!"

"It's the door on the right upstairs, the door across the hall is the bathroom." Fluttershy nods again.

Razor begins walking out of the kitchen waving at her friend whispering, "Bye!" Fluttershy smiles and sleepily waves back as Razor rounds the corner, turns off the light and heads back to the front door.

Outside Twilight and Rarity watch as Razor exits her home. Rarity takes another quick look inside before the door closes, but the light is still off. "Ready to go?" Twilight asks. "Yup! Just had to do... something." Razor quickly trots up next to Twilight again. "So where do you want to eat first?"