//------------------------------//
// A Very Important Lesson 
// Story: Sunset's Stash 
// by ShiveredTimbers 
//------------------------------//

Sunset's Stash
by Shivered Timbers

When Sunset Shimmer answered the door with a groan and a despairing sigh, hair messy, still in her pajamas, Fluttershy was quick to suggest she come back later.

"No, no, Fluttershy, it's fine." Sunset ran her hand down her face.  "I just totally forgot we were getting together for the group project today."

She beckoned Fluttershy into her apartment, staggering across the studio's bedroom-slash-living-room-slash-kitchen like one of the living dead.

"Have a seat," she mumbled, scratching herself in places Fluttershy likely wasn't meant to witness.  "Feel free to watch TV or play a game or something.  I'll go freshen up."

With a leonine yawn, she disappeared into the alcove where the bathroom was, door closing behind her.

"Oh," said Fluttershy, more out of a sense that something needed to be said at that moment than from having anything to say.

She set her butterfly-patterned messenger bag down next to the door, slipped off her shoes and relaxed awkwardly upon the couch.  Fluttershy was not a fan of Sunset's couch; the high front led to her legs and butt growing sore after enough time.  For now, it would have to do.

The shower began to run.

Lifting the remote, Fluttershy turned the television on.  Rather than dwell on wondering how Sunset had managed to get such a big one -- and Fluttershy had always wondered -- Fluttershy ran her eyes across Sunset's collection of video games.  She hadn't really needed to, but she felt that at least considering the offer was polite.  Sunset enjoyed playing video games with a lot of violence and high-speed action.  She and Rainbow Dash got along quite well in this regard, while Fluttershy enjoyed quiet, slow-paced games about cooking or taking care of animals.

Those sorts of games didn't seem to be very popular for some reason.

Fumbling with the remote, Fluttershy skipped right past trying to find a program and ended up in Sunset's DVR menu.  This, she decided, was a happy accident.  After all, trying to scroll through the hundreds and thousands of programs available on even basic cable would have been as tiring as it was overwhelming.  This way, she could look for a movie or a cartoon that Sunset liked, and if Sunset liked it, then it couldn't be that bad, since it wasn't a fast-paced, violent video game.

The first thing Fluttershy noticed was that Sunset had saved a lot of nature documentaries.  A lot of them, more than would fit on the screen at once.  A little excited thrill squirmed up Fluttershy's back; she hadn't known Sunset was such an avid nature fan!  Why hadn't this come up in conversation before?  Certainly, it was something they could share as friends, just as certainly as Sunset and Rainbow Dash shared video games.

The next thing Fluttershy noticed was the theme.  She wasn't a hundred percent sure about every entry in the list, of course, but it was obvious that the bulk of these saved programs were horse-related.  It was likely a safe bet the unobvious ones were, too.

Fluttershy giggled.  It was easy to forget sometimes that her fire-haired friend was actually a unicorn pony from another dimension.  Despite being aware of the concept, Fluttershy thought it was one of those things that, if she were being really honest with herself, just did not make sense.  What did it mean to secretly be a magical talking pony?  She knew Sunset wasn't lying; Princess Twilight was proof enough of that.  But even still, Fluttershy didn't get what going through the mirror portal did.  She wasn't sure she ever would.

Sometimes, she just pretended Sunset was a horse furry.  Fursuits were adorable.

The third and final thing Fluttershy noticed was that most of the recorded shows had been stopped partway through, especially the ones higher in the list.  Curious, she pressed the OK button on the remote.  The documentary started up with a British man's calm voice speaking over a scene of wild horses.

"Now that the male has won his contest, he approaches the female, who demonstrates her willingness to accept him as a mate."

Fluttershy leaned against the back of the couch, tapping her thumbnail against her upper teeth.

Pausing the program, she went back to the DVR list and selected another horse show.  It, too, started up with a discussion of equine mating rituals.  A third program began right in the middle of the mating taking place.

"Huh."

Is Sunset squeamish about sex?

That was the only thing that came to mind as Fluttershy pondered the coincidence.  She herself was completely inured to the idea of animal mating, for all that she turned bright red at the merest mention of the human kind.  But if Sunset were slightly prudish, that would explain why she stopped all these shows right as things got heated, no pun intended.  Maybe it was a holdover from her days in Equestria; she watched the documentaries to reconnect with her pony nature, but when it came to things ponies would find indecent...

The gears in her mind came to a screeching halt just as the shower turned off.

"Oh no."

Sunset wasn't into nature documentaries.

She didn't stop the shows because things were getting too icky.

She paused them right before the good parts.

A sound like a kettle beginning to boil squirmed its way out of her mouth as red heat crept up her neck and into her face.  The bathroom door banged open, and Sunset, towel covering her only below the waist, stepped out and snatched up a hair brush from a nearby stand.

Fluttershy couldn't help but stare.  Her hands flew up to her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she shouted through her palms.

There was a pause before Sunset said, "Oh, right, sorry," and the bathroom door closed again.

Curled up on the couch, Fluttershy could only shiver, trying to rub what she had just witnessed out of her eyes.

Sunset had walked out of the bathroom half-naked, with her... naughty pillows hanging out all over the place.  Right in front of her.  And the only reasonable explanation was she had forgotten they were considered indecent by human standards.  Because she was actually a pony.  A magical, talking unicorn pony in the body of a human girl, in a world where horses didn't talk, and so humans thought it was okay to film their baby-making habits for display on public television.

Fluttershy hyperventilated as Sunset exited the bathroom once more wearing normal clothes, the towel wrapped around her hair.

"I'm sorry I watched your porn!" Fluttershy wailed.  She could hear Sunset's wet feet slapping against the floor as she moved over to the couch.

"Ohh, Wild Herds of Mongolia!  That's my favorite." She stopped behind the couch, and there was silence, during which Fluttershy had her eyes squeezed tight and kept her hands clamped over her ears.  "Fluttershy, you okay?"

Fluttershy shook her head.

"Hey, come on." Sunset sat on the couch next to her, resting a hand gently on Fluttershy's shoulder.  "Sit up, I'm not mad at you or anything.  I mean, I guess I actually should be embarrassed you found out I whack it to horse documentaries.  I guess if any of my friends were going to find out, I'm glad it was you, because you're not gonna make a big deal out of it."

She released a breath.  "Well, other than the big deal you're making right now."

Fluttershy hiccuped but righted herself.  "A-and I'm sorry I looked at your, um..." She whispered the word.  "Boobaloos."

Sunset rolled her eyes.  "Yeah, I should definitely apologize for that, too.  Kinda forget about common human decency standards in my own home, y'know?" She chuckled.

"It's okay, I guess," Fluttershy mumbled.  She rubbed her arm and watched Sunset unwrap the towel from her hair and start in on taming the tangles.

If Fluttershy was being honest with herself, Sunset was a far messier individual than she had ever given her credit for.

Sucking in a breath, Fluttershy glanced at the TV, slapped at the power button on the remote until it shut off and exhaled.

"First, I promise I won't say anything about this.  Not to our other friends, especially.  Maybe not even if you want me to."

Sunset gave her a soft smile.  "Thank you, Fluttershy.  That's kind of you, and I appreciate it."

"Secondly." Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment.  "I just want to make sure you aren't comparing yourself to... To what you watch on television."

Sunset paused in her brushing, side-eying Fluttershy in obvious confusion.  "Comparing myself to what I watch?"

Fluttershy nodded earnestly.  "Oh, yes.  Many young people are first introduced to sex through porn, and it can set, um, unrealistic expectations.  Both for your body and for how, um, sexy sex should be."

She was turning red again.

"A-and I just want to make sure that, regardless of whatever porn you enjoy, um, watching, that you're enjoying it responsibly and with an understanding that it's just fantasy."

Fluttershy took a while to realize that Sunset was watching her with stark incredulity.

"Fluttershy, they're nature documentaries.  There's nothing fantastic about them!"

"O-oh." Fluttershy bit her lower lip.  "Right.  I'm sorry.  I guess I got carried away." She glanced at Sunset through her bangs.  "Just to be sure, you don't compare yourself to the, uh, the mares in those shows, right?  Like... any of your body parts?"

Sunset snorted and laughed.  "No, Fluttershy, I definitely don't compare myself to the mares."

There was a long, awkward silence as Sunset's brushing gradually slowed.  Soon, it was just the two girls watching one another, frozen, on the couch in Sunset's apartment.  Fluttershy shifted around on the couch.  Her butt was beginning to hurt.  Sunset coughed.

More to break the silence than because she had anything to say, Fluttershy mumbled, "Uh--"

"I have a giant horsecock," Sunset blurted.  "Like, between my legs.  Right now."

Fluttershy's face instantaneously completed its transition to a bright cherry red.

"Oh my god, gimme."

THE END