//------------------------------//
// Time 
// Story: With Blood and Swords 
// by FALG 
//------------------------------//

I don't know how much time I stayed the same since Rainbow told me about my dad, but it passed some time; and when I returned back to Earth, Rainbow wasn't in the room anymore.

I leaned to the head of the bed, and looked the ceiling, not thinking anything. Next, I turned at a table on the side of the bed, and something caught my attention.
There, on the little table, was the leather sachet containing Fluttershy's first molted feather.

I hastily tried to reach the little bag but my wounds retained me, so I tried again slowly. I opened it, and looked the feather for some time, caressing it.

I wanted to hug Fluttershy so bad right then, kiss her, tell her I love her. But it was still bright outside, so I had to deal with the wait; meanwhile, I'd observe the feather.



It was a real pain in the flank to wait, so I took a nap, even if I'd woken up just about an hour. I woke up again, and tried to sleep, but I couldn't.

Lucky that Twilight visited to spend time:
"Hey there, how are you hangin'?" she asked.
"I could be better, but I'm fine, thanks."
"I'm glad. Hey what's that?" she signaled the sachet I left at the table.
"Do you know about pegasi custom, when they acknowledge their special somepony?"
"Umm... molted feathers, am I right? But what does it have to do with that?"
"That's Fluttershy's feather."
Her mouth went agape.
"That's her feather?!"
"Whoa, it's not like you've never seen it before, didn't you?"
"Well I did see you wear it at the Gala, but I didn't know you'd wear it in a skirmish too!" she said, and groaned "Ugh, I'm really jealous of you two."
"Really? Well I feel flattered, but why? There's not much to be jealous about us."
"Oh come on, you're not seriously asking, right?"
I just looked at her, not really knowing what she was referring.
"Maybe I just envy the fact that you have each other, I never had a coltfriend before." she clarified.

Silence took over for full 5 seconds before I spoke:
"Well, I can only tell you to wait, your time to have a coltfriend will surely come."
"You think?" she asked.
"Absolutely, you are a nice pony and you're pretty too. You just have to be a little patient to find somepony you can share most moments and feel good around him, or her, I don't know where you aim." I snickered.
"Don't worry, I get it." she replied.
"I mean, there are more females in here than..."
"I GET IT." she cut me off.
"Hehe, sorry."

We talked the rest of the day, it was good to have Twilight, she is pretty conversationalist.



We talked about the events recently occured, the rescue and chase in Anvil, the battle of Ponyville:
"So you fell unconscious after the explosion?" she asked.
"I lost quite an amount of blood." I explained.
"You didn't lose that much."
"But I have a low blood pressure. So I couldn't keep with the blood loss."
"That's funny, because you seem to practise a lot, I thought you were healthy."
"Oh no, on the contrary, I also have low stamina."
"What? You're an earth pony! Your race is the one with most stamina among us!"
"I'll give you that, maybe I have more stamina than most unicorns or pegasi, but I have very low stamina compared to earth ponies."
"Wow, that's something you don't hear everyday." she pointed.

"Hey, I asked Shining why he didn't tell me about you." I said.
"Oh really? What did he say?" she asked intrigued.
I explained Twilight the situation. How his brother didn't want her to know me because of romantic issues.
"Is that so?"
"At least that's what he told me, but you better ask him yourself, he'll explain better."
"Yeah, besides it's getting late out there."
"Is it?" I looked at the window, it was indeed becoming darker outside.
"Haven't you noticed?" she asked.
"Well, when I'm entertained I can lose sense of time." I said.
"You and me both." she laughed "It's nice to talk to you." she said and winked at me while going to the door "Take care."
"Yea, you too Twilight."
And she left.

It was, indeed, nice to talk to Twilight, besides she is kinda polite sometimes. She'd definitely have a coltfriend if it weren't for the alarming number of mares in this town.



Fluttershy came some time after Twilight left, and she was accompanied by Rainbow. 

As soon as she saw me, she quickly wrapped her arms around me, I did the same to her.
"Don't worry Shy, I'm fine." I told her over and over as she hugged me stronger.
She didn't say anything, only whines and sobs. It took her some time to calm down.

A question crashed into my mind. What will happen now?