Fluttershy slowly awoke, her forelegs and hindlegs completely wrapped around Minny. She felt the cool smoothness of his body pressed up against her; while at the same time, she felt the inner warmth stemming from his core. She sighed and pulled him into a tighter embrace. She always felt so safe with him by her side—and five thousand rounds per minute had nothing to do with it.
Well.
Almost nothing.
Lightly nuzzling him, she planted a light kiss on his barrel. “Time to wake up, sweetie . . .” she cooed.
She felt a shudder work through Minny, and she carefully gave his barrels some space.
He gave a long, slow whine, gears grinding as they slowly revolved.
“Neither do I, but we have to get up soon.”
He cranked out another whine.
Fluttershy giggled, blushing slightly. “Oh, stop it.”
He whined again, whirling faster as his parts warmed up.
She blushed redder and used her hoof to pull her mane into some semblance of order. “That’s enough out of you,” she said sternly, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.
He let out an extremely long whine that any entity could easily identify as a sigh.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing his handles, “time for breakfast.” Letting out a quiet grunt, she lifted him out of the covers and carried him down the stairs. Placing him on the middle of the floor, she gave him a quick pat. Flitting away, she soon returned with a container of oil. Opening his intake, she began slowly pouring the fluid into the small hole. “Is that better?” she asked, accidentally splashing a droplet onto her foreleg.
Minny whined, gears already moving easier.
Leaving the bottle to drain into him, Fluttershy slowly brought the shiny black bead up to her face. Tentatively sticking out her tongue, she lapped it off of her coat. She immediately gagged, throat clenching, stomach heaving.
Minny whined concernedly.
“Fine!” she choked, spitting her saliva onto the floor. She sprinted into the kitchen and held her mouth under the running water. After the taste was no longer prevalent, she turned off the faucet. Quickly devouring a nearby apple, she smiled as the juices helped the wash the oil away. “I just kinda figured that a little drop wouldn’t hurt,” she said, returning to the room.
Minny whined sternly.
“Yes, I know both you and the shopkeeper said not to drink it, but I just had to see what it’s like,” she replied, grinning sheepishly. “Don’t you want to know what apples taste like?”
Pitch raising and falling with incredible speed, Minny whined for thirty minutes straight.
“. . . Oh.” She finished the rest of the apple, chewing thoughtfully. “Well, when you put it that way, that makes perfect sense. I promise I won’t ever do that again.” She returned to Minny and took the bottle out of him. “So . . .” Sitting on the ground, she twirled her hooves, half hiding behind her mane. “How’s your ammo looking?”
He whined.
“Oh, that much?” She smiled. “I was a little worried that you hadn’t replenished yourself since last time.”
He whined again.
“Aren’t I allowed to be worried about my future husband? It must be tiring to reload yourself.”
Minny let out a long whine of varying pitch while Fluttershy nodded.
“You’re right. We should ask Twilight about that later today. But if you’re up to it, do you think we could maybe . . . ?”
Minny replied with a whine.
Fluttershy grinned wickedly—wicked for the kindest pony on the face of Equestria, that is—and grabbed onto Minny’s handles. “Angel?” she called into the house. “I’ll be back soon.” Angel poked his head out of a nearby hole in the wall. He nodded once and saluted, giving Minny the death glare of death to end all other death glares that bring death of a lesser death death glare. She carefully peeked her head out of the door, checking to make sure nopony was watching; then she quickly burst through the door and flew into the forest. Farther and deeper she flew, desire hastening her wings.
She stopped at her secret place. Quickly pushing the leaves off of Twilight’s Noise Cancelling Crystal©, she placed it in the middle of the small clearing. She tapped she baseball-sized crystal three times, causing a blue aura to expand from it. Twilight said that the bubble kept the outside sound out, the inside sound in, and made everything quieter overall. It was perfect for lulling an anxious animal to sleep, but she had found other uses.
Fluttershy grinned and faced the dirt mound in front of her. Setting her sights on the bullet-ridden bullseyes, she braced herself. “Ready?”
Minny’s comprehensible whine soon turned into the sound of him preparing to fire. But before she could let him loose, she felt a foreleg on her shoulder. “What are you doing, Fluttershy?” asked a familiar voice, muffled by the noise dampener.
“Eeep!” cried Fluttershy, almost dropping Minny. She whipped her head around to see Rainbow Dash looking at her with a confused expression on her face. “What are you doing here!?”
“I saw you leave your house from my house,” explained Rainbow, staring at Minny. “And I followed you here.”
“Oh, um, hi,” said Fluttershy, eyes shifting as she smiled.
“So what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere?” She took an appreciative look around, studying the surrounding trees. “And in the Everfree, no less! I thought you didn’t like coming in here.”
Minny whined, and Rainbow raised her eyebrow while looking at Fluttershy.
“He says, ‘Hello,’” she translated, fidgeting with Minny’s handle.
“But that doesn’t explain why you’re here.” Rainbow lifted up her hoof and let the aura play over her coat. “Or what all this is.”
“It’s a little bit private . . .” hinted Fluttershy.
“You can show me! I’m only, like, your oldest friend!” Rainbo grinned. “And besides, it’ll be the perfect opportunity to introduce me better to Minny.”
“Well . . . you really want to watch?”
Rainbow nodded rapidly, then paused. “Unless it’s sex; I do not need to see that.” She shuddered, paling. “I don’t even want to know how that works.”
Fluttershy turned a deep red. “No, it’s n-nothing like that.”
“I mean, where is, you know, it?” She shuddered again. “And how do, you, you know, do it?”
A bug flew past Fluttershy’s cheek and spontaneously burst into flames, screaming in agony as it fell to the ground, sputtered out, and died a horrible death. “I, um, I mean, um, oh my. . . . Well, he, is, uh, oh dear—”
“. . .”
“. . .”
His engine not even having time to fully warm up and whine, Minny turned his barrels approximately three degrees, and the single click was like a thunderclap in the silence.
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“. . .”
Shaking her head, Rainbow forced her rising wings to lay flat on her back once again. “Nevermind. I don’t want to know. So . . . that was . . . awkward. . . . Back to my original question: what were you going to do?”
Attempting desperately to calm her blush, but only having marginal success, Flutttershy said, “. . . It’s . . . well, I’ll show you if you really want me to. It’s a bit scary the first time, so it’s okay if you get frightened. Just make sure you stand behind me.”
“You are talking to the bravest pegasus in Equestria,” said Rainbow, jumping into the air and striking a pose. “I’m not scared of anything.”
Minny whined, and Rainbow looked at Fluttershy expectantly.
“He was just, um, pointing out yesterday,” said Fluttershy, grinning sheepishly, finally getting her blush under control.
Rainbow slowly drifted back down to the ground, a frown on her face. “I wasn’t scared.”
Minny whined.
“Oh no, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” Fluttershy shook her head.
“What, what did he say?” asked Rainbow.
“I really don’t think I should tell you . . .” mumbled Fluttershy, not meeting Rainbow’s eyes.
“Was he talking to me?” asked Rainbow, taking a step closer.
“Oh, well, um . . . yes,” she sighed, her head falling.
“Then you have to tell me!” Flaring her wings, Rainbow stomped her hoof on the ground.
“He, um, said that you probably couldn’t handle it anyways.” She quickly finished, “But I’m sure that you’d be fine.” Fluttershy grinned and flattened her ears against her head.
Frowning, Rainbow’s face contorted into one that Fluttershy knew all too well. “Can’t handle it?”
“I knew this was a bad idea. . . .”
“I want to do it.”
“Oh, dear . . .” Fluttershy mumbled. “I mean, you can, but only if you’re really sure about this.”
“I have to—I never back out of a dare!”
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” asked Fluttershy, slowly taking a few steps toward Rainbow. “You don’t even know what he said!”
“Of course I know! . . . But you should tell me so I know that you know.” Rainbow grinned, her eyes flicking left and right.
“Ok-aaay, first off all, you have to make sure to hold onto Minny tightly and—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nopony said anything about touching your super cre—” Fluttershy stared at Rainbow, frowning “—not at all creepy fiance!”
“If you don’t want to, that’s fine too.” Fluttershy smiled and placed one of her forelegs on Rainbow’s shoulder. “We won’t judge you.”
Minny whined.
“No, we won’t tell anypony else that she backed out of a dare, either. That would be mean. Well, unless they ask, of course,” Fluttershy answered, looking down at Minny. “We don’t want to lie.”
Rainbow paled. “Give me him.” Quickly standing up on her hind legs, she wrenched Minny out of Fluttershy’s hooves and pointed him at the mound of dirt. Minny felt cold, yet somehow warm. He was heavier than she expected, too: he was almost as heavy as a pony, but far more awkward. “N-now what?” she asked, feeling the side of his body dig into his leg as she wobbled on her rear hooves and flapped her wings for balance.
“This part is very important. Point at the bullseyes and don’t let go,” said Fluttershy, taking a step backward.
“What do you mean ‘don’t let’—” Minny started spinning. The humming vibrations shot up Rainbow’s forelegs and shook her the core. He spun faster and faster, filling her head with a continuous whine. The sound bounced around inside her mind, blocking out all other thoughts. “What’s happening? Fluttershy? I'm not sure if this—”
Everything exploded.
The ground swam under her hooves as fire shot from Minny’s rotating barrels, sending pieces of hot lead careening into the dirt. The demonic cries of tormented air shrieked in Rainbow’s mind as the sound barrier was broken five thousand times a minute. Somepony screamed, but Rainbow couldn’t tell who it was. Everything was wrong—alien. Terrifying.
She had to get out of there.
“No, Rainbow! No!” yelled Fluttershy, watching in horror as her friend tried to escape the love of her life. Except, in her haze of terror, Rainbow forgot to let go of Minny as she took to the skies, screaming uncontrollably. Once the pair left the noise cancellation aura, the sound erupted outward, sending shockwaves across the land. Worse, bullets began flying in every direction as Rainbow began darting around, erratically evading absolutely nothing.
Bullets impacting the ground around her, Fluttershy dove behind a nearby rock and hid, closing her eyes and pressing her back up against the cool stone. Panting, she took a deep breath and peeked over the edge of the boulder.
Bullets stopped flying as Minny finally managed to reorient himself and realize that he was firing at nothing. But that didn’t stop Rainbow from screaming. She finally unclenched her hooves from the handles and let Minny plummet to the ground.
“Noooooooo!” screamed Fluttershy, leaping forward. Minny fell in slow motion, tumbling end over end as the ground rushed up to meet him. Fluttershy’s jump carried her a measly three inches forward, leaving her an additional seven feet to cover after she hit the ground. Using her hind legs to skid along her belly, she watched in morbid fascination as he hit the ground, just a foot out of her reach. She quickly jumped to her hooves and ran forward. Wrapping her forelegs around Minny’s form, she whispered, “Are you all right?”
Minny was silent.
Fluttershy felt a pain in her chest. “Please, say something . . .” she whimpered, hugging him close. “Anything.”
Minny said nothing.
A single tear dripped out of her eye and fell onto the ground. She was dimly aware that Rainbow had stopped screaming and, instead, was standing quietly in front of her, eyes downcast, body shaking. “S-sorry, ‘Shy. I don’t know what happened. I just—”
“Get help.”
“What?” asked Rainbow, looking up at Fluttershy.
“Go get help! Now!” she screamed, tears rapidly pouring down her face and matting her coat.
Rainbow quickly nodded and leaped into the air, heading for Ponyville. She was going to get the most qualified pony she knew—by any means necessary. She was going to fix this.
“Hey, what are you doing in my house!
“No! Stop! Get away from me!
“That’s my frying pan!
“Wait, what are you doing with that?
“Oh, no.
“. . .
“. . . Ouch, my head . . .
“. . .
“Oohhh, where am I . . .?
“Wait . . . am I in a sack?
“Well this sucks.”