Recollections: A Sunflower Story

by The Lone Doctor


Day One

True to what I had expected, I woke up with some pretty nasty cramps and knots down my spine. Wasn’t anything a good stretch couldn’t fix. Aside from that though, the morning started slowly and rather normally. Wallflower obviously didn’t have her toothbrush with her, but we had bigger things to worry about. We both got dressed and left my apartment, this time on foot. Gas was pricey after all, so I couldn’t use my bike all the time. We made a quick stop at the nearby cafe for a bite, then headed straight for school.

It wasn’t long until we ran into another problem when we got there.

“Where am I supposed to go?” she asked. We were only a few steps into the entrance when she froze, her body tensed and trembled and her breathing sped up as she frantically looked at the many hallways the atrium connected to. “D-D-Do I have everything I need? What do I do?”

I glanced around. Thankfully it seemed we had some time to figure this out, as there were still plenty of students trickling in. I pulled Wallflower aside, away from the stream of students, and held her close, rubbing her back as I did last night to calm her down. “Wallflower, take things one step at a time. Remember the deep breaths you did last night?” I felt her nod against me. “Try that.” I could hear her take deep breaths, the trembling crescendoed as she struggled to slow her breathing. Pretty soon I could feel her lean slack against me. It was just as warm as it was the last time I held her.

I knew I shouldn’t make a habit of this, but I couldn’t push myself to pull away from her.

But all good things had to come to an end, and soon she pulled back, a shy but warm smile on her face. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” I said, with an equally warm but discreet smile. “Now let’s see what you have for classes. Maybe you wrote something down in a journal or something? Maybe an agenda? I know the school usually gives them out every year. Haven’t seen anyone use them though, even me.” I chuckled.

“Yeah… I remember seeing something like that in my bag when we were digging through it.” She slung off her bag, zipped it open, and dug through it before she pulled out a familiar mini blue and yellow spiral notebook with the familiar horseshoe on the cover.

A quick flip through the pages gave us what we needed. Assignments, classes, room numbers, even her locker number. We made a quick stop there to get the books she needed. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find the combination to her locker. Wasn’t much of an issue though. It was a while ago, but I’d taken up lockpicking at one point when I first got here, and so I was able to get it unlocked real quick with some trial and error.

“Yep, still got it,” I said with a smirk, and what I’d like to imagine as a twinkle in my eye. I opened up the locker with a dramatically graceful movement, like one of those doormen from those fancy hotels I saw in movies. “Your locker, my lady,” I said in an absurdly low voice and an exaggerated curl of the edge of my lips.

Wallflower snorted, then laughed. “My hero,” she said between breaths. It was a full on hearty laugh, something I didn’t expect, given she was usually quiet as a mouse. It felt strange hearing it from her.

Not that I didn’t want to hear it again.

In the locker, I found her books stacked neatly in a corner, but that wasn’t what caught my eyes. Wedged between one of the textbook's pages were several scraps of burnt, aged parchment paper.

“Did you find anything?” Wallflower asked behind me.

“Your books are still here, there’s also something else in here as well, some old scraps of paper or something.” I fished out the scraps, and made way for Wallflower to grab her books.

Looking over the parchment, there wasn’t much to glean off of it. Half of them were already burnt, what was left had some sort of unusual script. With our first period coming up, I didn’t have time to look at the parchment any further, so I returned it to Wallflower. “We’ll need to look at this later, classes are going to begin soon.”

I walked her to her first class. While it looked like she and I shared a few classes (odd, given that I didn’t remember seeing her before), this unfortunately wasn’t one of them. And so, as we came closer to her first class, she became a little tense again, and huddled closer to me.

“Nervous?” I asked. She nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll have each other in the next few periods or so.” I stroked her arm as a way to comfort her. “Think you’ll be able to take care of yourself until then?”

“I-I think so…” she said, though she still held onto me like a foal holding a security blanket.

I gently grasped both of her shoulders, and turned her to face me. “You’ll be fine, just focus on the teacher and answer any of the questions she gives you, simple enough. I know it’s an hour, but it’ll melt away quickly.” I let go of her and moved towards the doorway. “I’ll find you as soon as this period ends, alright?”

She nodded, a little smile returned to her face. “O-Okay, I’ll see you soon Sunset.” She held her textbooks closer to her chest in my place.

“See ya,” I replied, and made my way to the door, quickly heading to my own class.


I kept my word, and soon we sat next to each other for the next period. Class went smoothly as usual, and Wallflower said nothing happened in the first period. Sitting next to her in the second period gave me a chance to observe how she usually acted in class.

She kept to herself, at least from what I could see, and kept close to me. It made sense though, given the others were all practically strangers to her. I was probably the only one she knew since yesterday. Outside of that though, she was on top of most of the problems and questions our teachers gave us. Whatever caused the amnesia, it seemed pretty selective.

Soon, it was brunch. Usually around this time I’d meet up with the rest of the girls, but looking into Wallflower’s student life before yesterday took a higher priority. I texted Applejack saying that I’d meet with them at lunch and introduce them to her.

As for now, I had some questions to ask, and there were only so many people I could ask before brunch ended. Wallflower came along with me, seeing as she had no one else to hang out with, and even if she did, she insisted that coming along might help her remember something.

I started with the Eco Club. Among the books I found in Wallflower’s bag were some plant guides and gardening books, maybe they knew her in the days before she lost her memory. It was just a hunch, but it was better than nothing. Wasn’t too hard to find them, they were sitting clumped together with some of the science kids in one of the bio classrooms.

“Hey there Sandalwood.”

“Sunset, what brings you to our groovy abode? Don’t tell me there’s something kooky going on again.”

I smirked. “Maybe. For now, I just came here to ask a few questions.” I nodded over to Wallflower. “Does anyone in your club recognize her?”

He looked over to her, and instantly his face lit up. It was progress, and I was hoping maybe we didn’t need to look too far. Turned out I might’ve hoped a bit too soon. “Yeah, I kinda know her.”

“Kinda?”

He nodded, lips pursed. “Yeah, she usually hung out at the back of the room during our club meetings. I think she might’ve been in charge of some sort of gardening club or something.” Bingo! Score one for team Sunset! I caught a quick glimpse of Wallflower’s face. She seemed surprised that she’d be part of a club, let alone be in charge of one.

“That’s all I know though, other than that there isn’t really much I can say. We’ve never talked to each other, so I wouldn’t know anymore about what she did in her club.” He brightened up again, realizing something. “Maybe Roseluck might know something? She has a green thumb herself, if anyone was going to be in the gardening club, it’d be her.” He turned towards Roseluck, a burgundy-haired girl. “Hey Rose!” He waved her over to us.

“What is it, Sandal?”

He jerked his head over to Wallflower. “Ever been to the Gardening Club?”

“We have a Gardening Club?” she asked, her eyebrows arched and her head slightly tilted. I took a quick glance back at Wallflower, and my heart sank. She looked like a kicked puppy hearing that kind of response right after finding out she was in charge of something.

He nodded. “Wally here’s in charge of it. Haven’t been there myself though. Was wondering if you’ve been there before?”

“First time I’ve heard about it,” she said, frowning. It didn’t take long though for her face to brighten up again, and she turned to Wallflower. “But if there’s really a gardening club, when are your meetings? Me and a few of the other girls do some gardening in our spare times, we’d love to join.”

I gently nudged Wallflower over to Roseluck. She froze up, shocked at suddenly being the center of attention. She quickly looked back at me, wide terrified eyes screaming out ‘What do I do?’ I gestured to her bag. Hey, it worked so far, maybe she kept a timetable in there or something. She caught my drift, and quickly dug through her bag. “O-Oh! Umm, well, I should have some flyers here.” She promptly pulled out a flyer, and handed it over to Roseluck. “Th-There you go.”

Roseluck’s eyes quickly scanned the flyer. “Wow, and it’s after school as well?! I can definitely make it!” She held the flyer up. “Mind if I keep this? I could show it to the rest of my friends, see if they might be interested in coming as well.”

Wallflower stood there, stunned. I wouldn’t blame her, it must've been shocking to find out you were in charge of something no one seemed to care about, only for there to be sudden interest. A quick nudge from me brought her to the present. “U-Um sure! I don’t mind.”

“Neat! Catch you later!” Roseluck said with a smile before she left.

Sandalwood turned back towards me. “Welp, that’s as much as I can help you with Sunset.” He paused for a moment before he asked, “By the way, what’s with the questions? Something for yearbook?”

I scratched my head. “Yeah, kind of. I’m asking around to see how well the students know about the activities of each club and stuff like that.”

“Neat. Well, catch me later if you want to write anything down about the Eco Club.”

“Alright, thanks for the help Sandalwood.”

“Anytime Sunset.”

And with that, Wallflower and I left the room, still not much better off than when we went in. I wasn’t too deterred though. Figuring out Equestrian magic before the Friendship Games was more frustrating than this, and it was natural that something like this would require more digging.

The problem was, if that was what questioning the rest of the students was going to be like, we were going to have a long way to go. I still wasn’t even completely sure if the amnesia was from magic either, or why would Wallflower even use such magic in the first place. It wasn’t like there was any natural explanation to this in the first place though, so it was all up in the air. Still, two people were two people, asking more people would certainly give us a better picture on what Wallflower had been like in school, and help narrow down any motives.

The heavy silence on our walk away from the bio classroom must’ve been weighing on Wallflower, since she awkwardly spoke up, “U-Um, thanks, for what you did back there.”

I stopped and turned to her. “Hmm? Oh, it was nothing. I know speaking to new people could be intimidating, but they’re all nice people once you get to know them.”

“I know,” she said. She was staring at her feet again, face hidden by her hair. “But everything, the room, the anxiety, all of it. It felt so familiar.” She looked back up towards me. “But when you were there, guiding me, I didn’t feel so scared anymore. It felt like it was the first time anyone ever listened to me, much less recognized who I was.”

I cracked a little grin. “It wasn’t all me though, Wallflower. I just nudged you in the right direction, literally. You talking to Roseluck, giving her your club info, that was all you.” I leaned against the lockers. “You’re a lot braver than you give yourself credit for.”

She squeaked, and quickly hid behind her curtain of hair again. “R-Really?”

“Really.” I slid down the locker and sighed. “Still, asking Sandal and Roseluck didn’t help clear anything up with what you were like before you lost your memories. Besides the fact that you were in a few clubs that is.” I looked over to her. “Any of that ring a bell for you?”

She quickly snapped back up, still covering her face somewhat. “N-No, not really, aside from those feelings.”

I nodded, then pushed myself off of the lockers. “Well then, let’s keep asking around, see if we can find anything? We still have time, right?” I offered my hand out to her, and she took it with a smile and a nod.

We spent the rest of our brunch period asking people about Wallflower and their thoughts on her. We asked anyone that seemed relevant, some of the other eco kids, Roseluck’s friends, some of the other teachers Wallflower had, even a handful of random students.

The majority of their responses were similar, mostly neutral.

The general consensus was that Wallflower usually kept to herself in the background. No one really had any strong impression of her. The teachers, on the other hand, noted how much of an average student she was, but also agreed that she usually kept to herself as well. We even made our way to the ASB office, just to see if any of them were familiar with her through her club activities. The same kinds of responses were given. There were little interactions outside of the initial meeting held annually by ASB to brief club officers on any changes made to rules.

Halfway through asking most of the student body, I realized I didn’t take into account that maybe having Wallflower with me during these talks might’ve influenced how each student responded. But based on body language alone, it seemed like they were all earnest, almost as if they didn’t notice that she was even there. It only made me feel more sorry for her, to be so introverted to the point where people didn’t notice you were in the same room when they let loose with what they really thought of you. It made my heart sink even more with how dejected Wallflower looked the more students we asked.

Eventually we had to call it all off, the bell rang signalling the end of any chance we had to ask anyone else. Before we split off to go to our own classes, I turned to give her a little hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll think of something,” I reassured her. “See you next period?” She hummed as I felt her nod. And so we split and made our ways to our classes.


Third period went by smoothly for me, and before I knew it, I was heading off to the yearbook office, my fourth period class. Despite knowing Wallflower was going to be there, it was still surprising to know that she had even chosen to take an elective like the yearbook committee. Even more so that I hadn’t noticed she was there in the days leading up to yesterday. I guess even I wasn’t immune from the lack of awareness of her existence.

Though in this case, it made sense. The yearbook committee wouldn’t all be in the office during this time, rather they were busy taking pictures around campus or making arrangements with the photography company the school worked with. She might’ve just been another name on the roster to me before now for all I knew.

When I came into the office, she was already there, looking a little worse for wear. “Had a rough time last period?”

She nodded. “With all we’ve learned about me during brunch and all I had to remember for Mr. Doodle’s class, and everything that happened yesterday…” She sighed. “It was all overwhelming.”

I frowned. Wallflower had been through a lot already within the span of days. Seeing her tired and dejected like that, it wasn't something I could bear.

I took a seat next to her and gently grabbed her by the shoulder. “Wanna lie down for a bit? It’ll make you relax.”

Wallflower stared at me with confusion. Then a deep red tint appeared on her cheeks as she caught onto what I was offering. For some reason, seeing her blush made my cheeks heat up as well, but I tried my best to keep an earnest expression and a comforting smile for her. After a moment of hesitation, Wallflower obliged, and slowly laid her head on my lap, while I stroked her hair all the while. “Feeling better?” I asked.

She looked up at me and nodded, but stuttered as the red color remained on her cheeks. "Y-Yeah, but—"

I shushed her then and there. "Trust me, you need this."

She sighed and laid back down, her head falling limp on my lap. She looked back up at me with a small smile. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” I smiled back.

We stayed there like that for half an hour, enough for her to calm down and relax as I thought out what we could do next. Helping Wallflower regain her memory through asking around about her seemed like a dead end. Another idea was to go to Principal Celestia to ask for the student records. I immediately shot that idea down. I wouldn't be able to access the records by myself since I was still a minor.

While I knew Celestia would be eager to help if we revealed the reason, especially if I told her about the scars on Wallflower's body, she’d definitely look into Wallflower's family situation. That would blow things up into a mess, and might even get the authorities involved. Given how fragile Wallflower seemed to be, I didn't want to put her through all of that if I could help it. There was also the puzzle of Equestrian magic at play here, which I wouldn't be able to investigate if I went that route. I'd have to keep that option as a last resort.

A thought suddenly came to me, after I remembered where we were.

“Wally?” I asked gently, making sure I didn’t startle her.

“Hmm?” She looked up.

“You took some pictures for the yearbook, right?” She nodded. “Maybe those pictures have clues on what happened before you lost your memories.”

Her eyes widened, realizing what I had just thought of minutes before. “You think we’d be able to find something?”

I shrugged. “Better than what we’ve got so far.” I gently nudged her up, then walked over to the cabinet containing all the cameras the yearbook committee lent out to all the members. Looking through the clipboard tied to the handle, I quickly found the camera she used, and took it from the cabinet. Wallflower stood behind me as I plugged it to the computer. “Still remember your password?”

“No, unfortunately.”

I nodded. “Alright, we’ll use my account then.” The screen lit up with a colorful wallpaper of a group of girls, each bore significantly different appearance and manner, from the eccentric puffy pink hair girl jumping in mid air, to the classy fashionista with a stylish pose, the cheeky tomboy wearing a confident grin.

Yet they all had a similar, genuine expression of affection and friendship. And right in the middle of the picture, basking in it all, was a girl with red and blonde hair, smiling awkwardly, but with no less appreciation in her eyes. Unconsciously, I broke a smile.“ Those are my friends, we’ll be meeting them at lunch soon.”

“You must really care for them, don’t you?”

I nodded. “After Fall Formal, they were the first ones to forgive me.” I smiled fondly. “They were the best group of friends I could ever have.” I turned to look at her. “And that includes you now.”

“Me?”

“Mmhm, I couldn’t bear it to hear how many people didn’t even recognize you, or even noticed you were there. You must’ve been really lonely before I found you.”

Wallflower paused for a moment as I opened up the directory to the camera’s files. “Yeah…” she concluded. “I was, wasn’t I?” She continued to be lost in thought as I dug through the many files the camera held.

Most of them were shots of plants, from vast flower beds, to giant trees where students laid about, relaxed and frozen in conversation. They were all serene. Even as an introvert, it seemed she admired looking at things from afar, especially if there were plants in the background. All of the photos blurred into each other as Wallflower and I sorted through them.

Fortune came our way, as our hard work paid off. A picture caught my eye, a photo of the very same garden I found Wallflower in. “Hang on, this was where I found you yesterday. Do you recognize any of this?” She leaned in to take a look, her proximity became more apparent to me as I felt heat radiate off of her.

She shook her head. “No, not really. But it feels really, really familiar.”

I nodded. “This is the second time this place popped up. It must’ve been really important to you.” I selected the photo and printed it out on a piece of paper. “This might be important for later.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Call it a hunch.”

A quick glance over the rest of the photos in her camera turned up nothing. There weren’t any photos of her family either, but that was a given, since none of the cameras were allowed off of the campus without permission. Once I logged off and unplugged the camera, I placed it back in the cupboard, just as the lunch bell rang.


Introducing Wallflower to my friends was a pretty straightforward process. As we made our way to the cafeteria, Wallflower stuck close to me, holding onto my arm. The girls were already sitting at a table, their bags spread out on some seats for us. Rainbow was the first to see us arrive.“Hey Sunset, good to see you here. Missed ya at brunch this morning.”

Her remark caught the attention of the others. They all turned away from their conversations to look at us, making Wallflower shrink further behind my back.

I casually shrugged. “Something came up, I was trying to help out here and there.”

Rainbow nodded towards Wallflower, who shied away from the fact she was slowly becoming the center of attention. “Is this the girl AJ said you’d introduce to us?”

Before I was able to respond, a blur of pink flew right past me.

“Hey there!” Pinkie exclaimed, reaching for Wallflower’s hand and shaking it aggressively, causing her to let out a panicked squeak. “I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? AJ said you’re a student here, which is weird because I haven’t known you, and I know everyone in this school. But I get to finally meet you now, I am so excited ‘cause-I-can-say-I-finally-know-everyone-in-school-and-we-should-throw-a-party-to—”

“Pinkie, hold your horses!” I said, holding my arms out to shield Wallflower from the pink barrage. “She’s very shy, don’t scare her.”

As Pinkie backed away, I turned to Wallflower, who was grabbing on to the sleeve of my jacket like a shield, and gave her a reassuring smile. Then I turned back to my friends.

“This is Wallflower. We met yesterday while she was having… uhm… a panic attack. She’s got some kind of mild amnesia. Nothing serious, but it occasionally causes her to panic. So I am kind of looking after her at the moment to make sure she’s ok.”

I felt Wallflower pressing tighter into my side at that, as if seeking that warmth, that comfort, that protection. Throughout the day Wallflower had kept close to me for various reasons, but this time it felt different. The way she instantly relaxed into me, the way she sighed into my touch, the way she held me close, it meant something. It felt right. But I didn’t know what ‘it’ was.

Inadvertently, I felt a small smile break onto my face. “She doesn’t have a lot of friends because of her condition, so I am thinking about introducing her to you guys. I think we can be good friends with each other.”

That was as much as I dared to say. I didn’t want to get the girls too involved in this, at least until I was more certain that this had something to do with Equestrian magic. It was for Wallflower’s sake as well. I didn’t want her to be the subject of my friends’ pity instead of having genuine connections with them.

Saying anything else could make the others worried, and given this was only a minor problem, telling them everything about the possible links to Equestrian magic would probably escalate things when they didn’t need to. I still wasn’t sure if there was a threat, and I still wasn’t sure if it was world-ending. Once I had a better picture on what happened, I could talk to them about it later.

For a moment, my friends kept looking at us in silence. Then, Fluttershy gently approached Wallflower and held out a hand. “It’s ok, I know how you feel. I don’t usually do too well with crowds either. But my friends here are all very nice. I have always felt comfortable with them around, and I know you will too, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Wallflower seemed to slightly relax at Fluttershy’s soft voice. She gingerly took Fluttershy’s hand and slowly stepped away from my side. She looked around nervously at the rest of the group, unsure what to do.

“You don’t have to worry about us dear,” Rarity remarked. “Sunset could vouch for us, we do our best to make everyone feel welcome and quite at ease.”

“She’s right,” Twilight, this world’s Twilight, added in. “I just transferred here a few months ago after the Friendship Games, they’ve gone out of their way to make me feel at home here. I am sure you’ll feel welcomed as well. We can show you a lot of fun things to do together.”

Rainbow smirked. “Yeah, don’t listen to Twilight. Her definiton of 'fun' is reading the encyclopedias in the school library. In Alphabetical order.”

“Hey!”

The group broke out in laughter. Surprisingly enough, Wallflower started to join in with her own chuckles.

Watching it all from the side, seeing Wallflower getting accepted, making new friends, I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face. I was so captivated by the scene, I didn’t notice someone approaching my side.

“So, mild amnesia huh?”

Jolted out of my trance, I turned to the side and saw Applejack giving me a knowing look. I broke a nervous laugh. “Well…”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “So how's it goin’ with her?”

With a sigh, I briefly told her about what little progress we’d made that morning.

“Ah see, so it looks like she ain’t got a family, and she ain’t got friends here from what you could gather?”

I pursed my lips. “Honestly, I haven’t looked into what her family is like just yet. Based on what I could gather though, it doesn’t look good. Nevertheless, we need to find where her family is.”

She hummed. “How in the hay are you goin’ to find her house? Not like she can remember that on her own.”

“Well, I do have one clue. She has a photo of her family and a house. I was thinking of taking a little trip to look around tomorrow to see if I could find it. Two days is already pushing it for her to be away from home.”

Applejack looked at me with concern. “Are ya sure your grades could take a hit like that, sugarcube? I know you’ve been working hard, but this can’t look good for your attendance. I still think you’d just let Principal Celestia handle this, it’s right up her alley after all.”

I shook my head. “I’ve already said it before Applejack, something feels wrong about this, and getting Principal Celestia involved would only complicate things to say the least. Besides, we’ll be skipping only the last two periods at most. And if it leads to Wallflower regaining her memories, I’d do anything.”

“That’s what ah’m worried about. If your hunches are correct, Wallflower must’ve gone through something fierce if it left those kinda scars on her. What if bringin’ back those memories just brings more pain to her?”

I sighed. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Applejack hummed, taking a sip of apple cider. “I just hope you know what you’re doin’ sugarcube.”

“I hope so too Applejack. I hope so too.”


Lunch came and went, and the last two periods passed just as quickly. Thankfully Wallflower and I shared the same classes. We spent the rest of the time trying to keep up with the lessons before the final bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. As we made our way back to my apartment, I looked towards the clearing where I found Wallflower. That place had come up twice already, there had to be something there I was missing. I made a mental note to return there later.

The evening went by in peace. We spent time having dinner, doing our homework, and just enjoying each other's company, leaving behind all the excitement and exhaustion of the day. Once again, while we were watching TV before bed, I offered Wallflower my lap to lay her head on. This time, she quickly took on the offer without the hesitation she showed that afternoon, although still with a shy smile and a faint blush on her cheeks.

As we stayed like that, dazedly watching the TV screen, I found my gaze occasionally gravitating to her face, lit only by the glow of the screen. Oddly, seeing Wallflower like that, calm and relaxed, I felt a strange sense of happiness warming my heart.

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to forget about everything and just enjoy the moment, I couldn’t simply ignore the problem hanging over our heads. So, just as we were getting ready for bed, I asked Wallflower for the parchment fragments I found in the locker earlier to take a closer look.

As I noted when I first found the parchment, the edges and some parts of the fragments were blackened and burnt out. The edges that didn’t blacken looked to have been torn even before then. With that in mind, I pieced together the fragments the best I could given their condition, and tried to glean off more clues from there. Although there were a few pieces missing from this puzzle, I still was able to assemble a somewhat readable paper.

Equine iconography found on some of the fragments provided a clear tipoff that this could indeed be an Equestrian artifact, the only difference in iconography was the symbol of an eye found on another fragment. Any script I can make out on the parchment was made up of squiggles and squares, nothing like the modern written Equestrian I grew up with.

Something seemed familiar about the script, but I couldn’t recognize it with what little was left. Still, the thing screamed 'Equestrian origin.' And there could only be one person who would be able to help us.

More accurately, one pony. I took out the journal and wrote a message to Princess Twilight on what was happening, with a detailed description of the parchment and a careful transcription of the script. Maybe her library could shed a light on something.

Just when I closed the journal and was about to hit the couch, Wallflower grabbed my pyjama sleeve. “I saw how you got up this morning from the couch,” she started. “You said it wasn’t comfortable to sleep in, didn’t you?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “Nothing I can’t handle though.”

She turned away from my gaze, but still grabbed my sleeve. A brilliant scarlet adorned her face as she whispered meekly, "We can... sleep together on the same bed. It's big enough."

I froze, and after a second, I could feel my face burning as well. I stammered, "I-It's ok, you don't have to."

She turned to meet my stare, her voice quiet, "I don't mind. Actually, I feel safer with you by my side."

Her words hit my heart with a feeling I couldn't fully describe. It was partly sympathy, but partly something completely different. Something I couldn’t describe. After a moment, I only nodded sheepishly. "O-ok. If you want me to."

She nodded in return, a deep blush was still on her face, but accompanied by a genuine smile.

And so we spent the second night together in the same bed. While there was enough room for both of us, the bed wasn't big enough for us to keep some space between ourselves. Wallflower didn't seem to mind though. Neither did I, of course.

Needless to say, I slept comfortably that night. And after what would happen the next day, Celestia knew I needed it.