IV
That night, I had my first “slumber party” in ages. Sir didn’t seem to mind too much (“If you want food, be quiet about it, I’m listening to my stories on the radio”), and Fluttershy took the floor while I slept in my bed. I offered her mine, but she politely took the floor. It occurred to me that maybe I was the one being the psychopath.
She was quiet, and I figured she’d gone to bed. So I shut my eyes, and drifted off to dreamland.
“Hey, are you, um, still awake? It’s okay if you aren’t.”
The soft voice from over and below me. Of course I was. She was so passive.
“Yeah. Something on your mind?”
“No…” She trailed off. “Just bored, I guess. I feel so out of place around here.”
“Pfft. You’re telling me. It’s a little weird when you first move here.”
I heard rustling down there, and I pictured her propped up on her elbow now. “What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.
“I mean,” I began, “I’m not originally from here. I only moved here a little over a year and a half ago.”
“Really? Where from?”
“You’ll never believe this…” I said, “But Ponyville.”
She gasped. “No way! I’m surprised I don’t know you, but then again, I’m not what you would call ‘outgoing’.”
We both laughed a bit. Then a more serious question: “What made you move here?”
The question wasn’t uncalled for, that was for sure. But, there were a lot of ponies out there who viewed me a lot differently than most. Part of the reason was the same reason I moved here. I liked Fluttershy; I didn’t want her to recoil so quickly at me.
“It’s…complicated, I suppose,” was my soft reply.
“Oh, ok.” She seemed to understand. “May I ask another question?”
“Go for it.”
“I noticed the flame on your flank when you yelled at the activists…what’s your special talent?”
I smiled. There was really no harm in telling her this, so I did. “Fire, Fluttershy. My special talent, and my unicorn magic involves anything fire.”
“Oh! Does that make you a p-pyr-pyrom – no, wait, that’s not it, - um, a gyr- no, still not it – um…”
“A pyromaniac?”
She sighed. “It sounds so bad when you say it that way, but yes.”
I laughed it off, and she joined in. “Well, I guess so. Wanna see?” I didn’t mind the occasional boast.
“Oh, I would love to.”
I sat up straight in my bed, and looked at an empty paper lantern hanging in my room. I willed the fire inside the paper.
Sure enough, a light inside the paper began to glow, and the paper itself reached up higher than the string and touched the ceiling.
“How neat!” She marveled at it. It was simple, though. I could do a whole lot more.
“Eh, that’s nothing,” I said, waving my hoof for emphasis.
“Maybe you can show me more tomorrow.”
I hadn’t even thought about tomorrow. She had to go to the Marine Center; I didn’t really picture Fluttershy spending most of the day with me. But, it appears she wanted to spend at least some of it with me.
It beat spending the day with Sir. “Yeah, maybe so.”
“Oh, that’d be wonderful. I hope you don’t mind, Firestarter, but I’m getting kind of tired. I think I’m going to sleep, now.”
“Sleep doesn’t sound too bad. I might do that myself.” We chuckled. I rested my head against my pillow and began to nod off. “G’night, Fluttershy.”
“Goodnight, Firestarter,” she said. I heard her head hit the pillow, and I imagined the blankets being pulled over her. The Sandpony was calling my name, and I eagerly answered.
But just before I did, I heard Fluttershy say one last thing. “Thanks again, Firestarter. You’re a real friend.”
My eyes opened wide in bed.
Friend.
She called me friend.
I leaned over my bed to find Fluttershy fast asleep. She had to be tired – she dealt with activists, walking through town, lost, meeting someone new and was actually now sleeping them.
I said, in barely a whisper, “You are too.”
I shut my eyes, and sleep welcomed me with open arms.
The next day, Fluttershy and I went out for a walk to the local park.
She told me about her times in Ponyville, and the friends she had there – an honest farm pony named Applejack; a loyal tomboy pegasus, Rainbow Dash; a generous dress-making unicorn, Rarity; an eccentric, ever-laughing earth pony, Pinkie Pie; and who she wrote to about her trip, the studious, friendly, always-good-with-magic Twilight Sparkle.
Her tales of misadventures amazed me. Especially the ones about the Grand Galloping Gala – it turns out it stunk. A whole lot. I’m kind of glad I never went, but I still kept Sir’s opinion in mind. Then again, Sir was Sir, and Fluttershy was Fluttershy.
I told her about life here in New Horseleans – the inner beauty nopony seemed to see, all the street merchants, my day at the Carnival, and so on and so forth. Her eyes got wider with every story.
And then, we talked about the whale; her job here. We discussed different ways to go about it, including taking hair dryers and melting off the ice. An idea’s an idea, no matter how stupid.
The dark clouds began to roll in. Many ponies got up and began to leave, in fear of the rainstorm. It also began to get a little chilly. I noticed this, when telling Fluttershy one of my many theories for the whale – ripping off the ice floe.
“I mean, sure, it might be painful,” I was saying, “But if we – what’s the matter?”
She was shivering, and wrapped her wings around her. “Just a l-l-little cold,” she chattered, “Sh-sh-should’ve br-brought a j-j-jacket.”
“Oh,” I happily retorted, “I can fix that.”
With my magic, I imagined a medium-sized campfire, suspended just above the ground, to appear before us. Let there be fire! I thought. And so there was.
We now had a small campfire burning before us, bringing us tons of heat even thought it was now completely overcast.
“Whoa!” Fluttershy marveled at the flame. “That flame is huge! You can do that?”
I shrugged. “I told you, I’m a pyromaniac.”
We both laughed at that. She continued looking at the fire, mesmerized by the flame. I figured now was a good time as any to continue my theory.
“As I was saying,” I began, “We could always –“
“Oh, Firestarter! I just had a brilliant idea!”
Fluttershy didn’t tend to interrupt – that’s my job. But, then again, she was always soft-spoken, and it seemed the fire gave her some sort of idea. A good one.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“How well can you control your fire?”
I thought about it for a second. “Fairly well, if I concentrate hard enough…why do you ask?”
Her eyes twinkled with excitement. “Well what if you used your fire – and we heated up the whale?”
I leaned up on my elbows. “You want me to set the whale on fire?”
Fluttershy seemed horrified of the idea. “Oh, Celestia no! Never! But, I mean – we could light a fire close to the whale, and heat her up slowly. You have the control over it, so you can specifically adjust the fire to the whale’s needs! We can save him!”
I sighed a long sigh. I had a feeling the fire might’ve been her idea. It sounded pleasant and all, but unfortunately, it just couldn’t be done. I knew why; she didn’t.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I’m not sure that’s going to work.”
I laid back down under the shade of the tree. Fluttershy leaned over me and batted her eyes. “Oh, but please, just – there isn’t any way you can help the whale?”
“It’d be way too dangerous,” I said frankly.
“Dangerous? But, just look at this campfire. It’s like you’re totally in control.”
“’Cause I am. I mean, no, well, I – “
“See? I think you’d totally be able to save the whale with your fire. Unless, of course, this is as big of a fire as you can create.”
“No, I’ve done bigger,” I said without thinking, and I immediately regretted it. Of all times to get defensive, why now?
“Bigger? Just how big?”
I sighed again. “Fluttershy….” I mumbled, “I don’t really want to talk about it. Bad memories.”
“Um, okay,” she said softly, and she laid back down next to me. There was a nice period of silence, and then Fluttershy asked a different question.
“Firestarter, is there something you don’t – you don’t want me to know?”
That hit me. I now fully considered Fluttershy my friend, and if I had any beliefs in friends, it’s that you were completely honest with them. Even after a day, I felt closer to Fluttershy than I had to anybody else in months.
She was like a childhood friend, I suppose. Which was fantastic. My childhood was cut short by that event that day. The event that cause me to move. Something that had been on my mind the last 24 hours, simply because Fluttershy asked how I got to New Horseleans.
And now, I felt, that she may deserve to know.
I sighed, and felt those horrible butterflies fly every which way in my stomach. “No, Fluttershy,” I said, “Not anymore.”
I turned to her. “Would you care to know how I ended up in New Horseleans?”
“Are you kidding? It’s all that’s been on my mind.”
“Okay…” I took one last deep breath, “Be prepared. The story is probably not what you’re expecting.”