I groaned at the Doctor. "You have to be kidding me!" I shouted. Fluttershy whimpered to herself.
"It's true. It turns out not only did you make Fluttershy remember her feeling towards you, but you made the memories of her mother return, and now she's back." he said.
"And you didn't realize this sooner?" I asked, annoyed.
"No." he said, too quickly. "Okay, maybe I did a little sooner." I glared at him. "Okay, as soon as Fluttershy gained her memories back."
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" she asked.
"Because you two were happy. I didn't want to see you two upset about her coming back." he said.
"So you do have a heart after all." I said, a little too harshly.
"Yep. Two, actually." he said with a smile.
I sighed and turned to the table. "You are unbelievable."
"I know, I know. But, we can beat her." he said.
"How?" I heard Fluttershy ask.
"With this." he said, holding two hoof bands up.
"What are those?" I asked.
"Think of them as advanced perception filters." he explained. "She won't be able to detect you or know where you're at with these."
"But if she does?" I asked.
"She won't."
"But what if-" he cut me off.
"She won't. Trust me."
I sighed. "I don't have a choice do I?" I asked.
"Nope. Now put it on and be happy." he said.
I placed it around my hoof and watched it disappear around me. "What just happened?"
"Remember that it's just like a perception filter only more advanced. It can't be seen, no matter what." he explained.
"Is it just the band or are we going to turn invisible too?" Fluttershy asked.
"Just the band. It would freak ponies out if you were invisible and started messing around with things." the Doctor said. "But don't worry, you're perfectly safe as long as you keep that thing on."
"What if we run into her? What should we do then?" I asked.
"If for some strange reason you run into her, which will only happen if you take the band off or she gets lucky and the universe lines up just perfectly, you run in the opposite direction." he said. "If she's near, I'll be close by."
"You stalking her or something?" I asked.
"More or less." I rolled my eyes. "Look, just wear it for a few weeks. I'll have her in custody by then. Your mother is currently working with the Princess herself on finding her."
"Doctor! We gotta go! The Princess got a location on Clarrise." Derpy said from outside.
"Right!" he exclaimed. "Well I have to run. Got a pony to catch." he said and headed for the door. "Oh, by the way Fluttershy, happy birthday!"
"Thanks, Doctor." she said with a smile. After they left I turned and looked at her. "Well it was nice of him to come by and tell us about her." she said.
"Wish he would have said it earlier." I said.
"Oh, don't be too hard on him. He's trying his hardest." she said as she played with the bird.
"Doesn't it bother you?" I asked.
"About my mom?" she asked. I nodded my head. "Well of course. But I feel safer knowing that I'm protected by this band...thing."
"I guess."
She put a hoof on mine. "Hey, let's go back to my place. I can tell you're flustered." she said.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes. Don't worry, I owe you a favor anyways." she said with a wink. I smiled as we walked out of the restaurant and headed back to the cottage. When we got there she stepped in front of the door and pulled me in for a hug. "Thank you for the present. I can't say how much it means to me." she said.
"Hey, I told you I was going to look out for you." I said.
She pulled out of the hug and was blushing. "I know I can't say how thankful I am, but...maybe...I can show you?" she said shyly.
"What do you mean?" I asked. She lunged at me and kissed me. Hard. She let go of me and I stood there in a state of shock. "Oh..." I said. "I see..."
She giggled. "Come on." she said, taking my hoof and pulling me inside. As we walked in she kissed me again and I laid down on the couch. She sat on my lap and began to kiss me. I don't know where this part of her came from, but I wasn't going to complain. I liked it. It had been awhile since we had done this and it was bringing back memories. "Let's go to the next room." she whispered in my ear.
"Snog, snog, snog, is that all you two do?" I heard the Doctor ask.
"Doctor!" Fluttershy shouted in surprise, jumping off of me. It actually hurt a lot because she slammed her hooves into my chest. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Well, we got a location on where your mother was. Turns out she was here." he said as he began sonicing the walls. "It seems she was hoping to find you here."
"So you just barged into my house?" Fluttershy shouted.
"I didn't barge in! I just landed the TARDIS inside the house." he said.
"It's still rude." she said.
"Well, don't mind us." he said as Derpy walked into the room. "We're just making sure she didn't leave anything behind."
"And where have you checked?" I asked, rubbing my chest.
"Well, let's see, there's the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the bedroom, the backyard, the front yard, under the sofa, under the bed, in the cupboards, the cabinet-" he trailed on but Derpy interrupted him.
"We searched the whole house but didn't find anything." she said, sounding almost as annoyed as me.
"Now we don't know that-" he tried saying but was cut off again.
"Admit it, Doctor. Your TARDIS' sensors were wrong." she said as she sat next to me on the couch, obviously tired.
"The TARDIS is never wrong!" he exclaimed.
"And yet instead of taking me to Sol 3, you took me to Sul 3. One is 70% water, the other is 70% lava, and you landed us straight on the lava!" she shouted.
"Okay, okay! So the TARDIS is 99.99% correct." he said.
"Anyways, how are you two?" Derpy asked us.
"Well, we were kind of in the middle of something." I said.
"What do you-" she started to say. "Oh!" she exclaimed as her eyes grew in realization. "Oh, right! I'm sorry." she said quickly, jumping off the couch. "Doctor, we gotta go!"
"What? Why?" he asked.
"Because they want some alone time." she said as she tried to push him out the door with little success.
"Why would they want alone time? They get plenty of time to themselves."
"Not that kind of alone time!" she shouted at him. "You know, the kind of alone time where you don't want to be disturbed."
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Oh for the love of-" she said and gave him a final push. "MOVE!" she shouted.
"Oh, fine. And you two!" he shouted, pointing at us. "No funny business! Birds and bees will not be buzzing around when I'm anywhere nearby."
"Doctor if you don't move your fat flank..." Derpy threatened.
"I'm going, I'm going. But I'll have you know that business on Sul 3 was not the TARDIS' fault. There's a one letter difference and it can be hard to hone in on the right coordinates." he said as they walked out the door.
"I thought they would never leave." I sighed.
"Umm...I'm going to go make some tea. Okay?" Fluttershy said quietly.
"Oh, okay. Sure." I said. She walked into the kitchen and turned the sink on. I followed her and heard her whimpering. "Hey, you alright?" I asked.
"I'm fine. I just...thought that maybe we could..." she tried to say but was cut off by her cries. "All I wanted was to spend a night with you, with no distractions, no Doctor, no mother, no danger or surprises. But I can't even get that." she said in tears.
I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. "Hey. Listen to me. I love you. Even if we can't get one night together where we aren't worrying, but no matter what, I love you and will always be here for you." I said.
"But one night. That's all I'm asking for. One night where I can just hold you and kiss you and not worry about whether my mom is going to barge in and attack us or the Doctor is going to have us running off again somewhere." she cried. "Just one night."
I had never seen her like this. Usually she was shy, quiet, and collected. But now...now she was so distraught that I lost all sense of what to do. Normally I know what to do to comfort her, but right now, I had no idea. But I wanted to do something for her. To protect her. "I'll talk to the Doctor tomorrow. And then I'll talk to my mom. And the Princess. I will make sure that you are safe and that nothing will harm you. I promise. One day, we'll have our night alone." I kissed her on her forehead and held her tight to me as she bawled into my chest.