Twilight finished her great charge at the edge of the Everfree Forest. There was no tent there, no hut, no small home. Where did he go? He had to be in her immediate reach. He always was. Twilight gazed at the empty spot: surprised that he would or even could leave so quickly. Even so, she now had no hope at helping Kevin. She would lose two of her friends to the same small event.
Saddened, Twilight turned just as the voice hit her.
“Something wrong?” the friendly voice spoke in hopes of cheering her up.
Twilight jumped in fright. The figure that stood before her firmly scared her.
She lowered her head and brushed off her negative feelings about her friends never returning to her side. After all, they weren’t always true. “Not now,” Twilight tamed.
It was him. The stallion from the funeral. The one that chewed out Dumbbell and Hooves.
The pony in front of her hid behind a khaki trench coat - something he didn’t usually do. An epic scar - a byproduct of the last time the two had met - draped in a diagonal line across his muzzle. His worried green eyes stared straight into hers.
Twilight walked towards him to ask him the favor.
“I need your help,” She told him.
“What with?” the stallion asked cocking his head.
“You know that Portal?”
Kevin, having been helped up to Cloudsdale along with Fluttershy, sat at the mess hall.
Fluttershy stared at her food. It wasn’t that she wasn’t hungry. If anything, Fluttershy just felt weird eating around someone already so special to her. She was so shy that the thought of being around him while eating was discomforting. How could she manage to choke down the food? What if she got some on her face? She considered he wouldn’t like her if she ate weirdly. Fluttershy might even get fat off of so many calories.
Fluttershy’s brain ached with so many thoughts.
“Fluttershy?” Kevin turned to the mare, “Is there something wrong with the food?”
Fluttershy thought if over and considered the best of her options to say to him.
“It’s um… fattening?” Fluttershy complained, hoping he’d buy it.
“Fattening? Why should that concern you?” Kevin asked.
“I, um…” Fluttershy tried to back up her complaint.
“You’re thin, Fluttershy. What did those boys say about you?”
“I’m fat and ugly…” Fluttershy whispered clutching her shoulders and staring at the floor.
Kevin gasped, “Fluttershy, you stop those thoughts right now!”
Fluttershy panicked. This was like some sort of hard love. A hard love that was scary.
“You’re beautiful, Flutters,” Kevin wondered.
Fluttershy looked away and assumed he was lying.
Kevin pulled his arms all the way round her: bringing her close as she drew one tear.
“You can trust me, Fluttershy. You are one of the most beautiful mares in all of Cloudsdale,” Kevin assumed.
Fluttershy saw her chance and took it.
“You’ll go the dance with me then?”
“What dance?” Kevin asked not remembering the conversation the teacher had with his students earlier.
“Nevermind,” Fluttershy decided. It was better to not ask and not get rejected or embarrassed.
“Yes,” Kevin answered. On the one hoof, he loved the magenta mare on the other side of Equestria (likely practicing magic with Princess Celestia at the “School for Gifted Unicorns”). On the other, this mare needed someone close to go to it with. Kevin, being the regular party brony when he was back on Earth was up to any dance anyway, and he himself needed someone to go with. Either way, Kevin agreed.
Fluttershy looked back at him.
“Yes?” She muttered
“Yes, I will go to the dance with you,” Kevin answered.
“Yes!” came the very evident replacement to Flutter-yay.
It was Fluttershy’s turn to hug Kevin. She leaned forward and barely managed the hug with both her small size and her general shyness holding her from completing it.
Kevin calmed the attitude, He leaned into the hug and braced her against him.
Bellus began towards the cemetery. The ground was wet with rain as it poured down.
“So it appeared here?” He asked the brothers: his voice like the echoing noise of a thousand serpents.
Each of them nodded.
“What did he look like?”
The brothers each took turns notifying his traits with the occasional slip up of telling the wrong characteristic and completely exaggerating everything like: “he had claws instead of hooves” or that “he had sharp teeth.”
Bellus stood at the end of the portal in wait. If a pony had appeared here, it would have to show up at one point to get back to its world. Maybe he could get his mitts on that purple one and finish her in those ways he had thought over. She would be the very description of pain.
“So, you can get the portal to send us to Earth?” Twilight questioned the stallion as he worked on a spell.
“I can,” he started over his shoulder as he worked, “It’s complicated, though. This spell I’m making will have the portal send us back to wherever it was that Kevin was last sent to.”
“So, we just have to do the same thing that Kevin did?” Twilight asked.
“Should work,” he proclaimed.
Twilight was quite desperate. One of her closest friends was gone. Maybe forever. She might never see the beautiful mare again. If this was her last option, she would do it. Even if it weren’t successful, Twilight needed the reassurance that she did everything that she could.
After about a half hour of investigating, the stallion finally finished his spell writing and came to the edge of the ruins.
The blue unicorn put away the spell book that he was currently working on along with the corresponding quill and began with it.
His horn glowed bright green and an aura floated all about him. It consumed the stallion’s entire body and then began to coat the building itself: bringing it to a completely different shade than it was this morning.
Before long, the spell ended and the stallion rubbed his head as he stared deeply into the shadows of the broken house.
There was nothing visible. He would have to go inside.
“Did it work?” Twilight’s voice brought to mind exactly what he was thinking.
“Probably,” he confirmed as he walked in, “Come on, let’s see.”
They both stepped into the empty house looking for the possible hiding place of the portal. He tall stallion ducked his head under several beams as his head was already so high off the ground. Twilight followed not far in his footsteps.
A glow caught the stallion’s eye as he stumbled into the living room (at least what looked like to be a living room after the sudden “change in scenery”).
He carried himself to the spot in discovery that his spell had at least worked on front. The portal had shown itself and regardless of its current position on Earth, he could still know where this one is. The stallion again tried to cast the same spell just to see if the portal had really made itself formidable. The portal glowed bright. It wasn’t bright like it was before. It was a different color. It was as if it were bright black. The sensation of both dark and light flooded the unicorn and he looked around to find Twilight in the same state. Although stunned, the stallion moved towards the portal is if hypnotized and attempted to confirm his theory. He put his hoof to the edge of the portal. It was difficult to tell if the hoof came out on the other side.
In order to be sure, he would have to go through the portal at a full charge. If not, then he would never know if the portal just transported part. It was too dark to tell otherwise. The stallion invited Twilight through the portal even though it was clear that the adventure was dangerous (and maybe only applicable to Twilight in the sense that she tends to be in those situations. This would also only apply to her in the matter that Kevin was her friend and she would want to help. As such, it is probable that that was the reason why she agreed. She nodded to the unicorn and came over to his side in preparation for the event to come.
The stallion continued through the portal in one swift moment finding the spell had worked. His head appeared in a very plain world. The very monochrome environment almost made him want to have an epileptic seizure. Twilight came soon after. Each of their heads being curiously too close together in another world. The stallion continued through the portal. He turned to help the mare after him. Being the gentlecolt that he was, he brought the mare forward with one hoof as a coach-pony would help a date from a carriage.
“Thank you,” Twilight said as she exited her dimension.
The stallion unicorn’s spell had worked and the portal had transported them to the very same place that Kevin had teleported to. Each of them turned to take a look at their new surroundings. They were in a graveyard. There was barely any light out and the rain trickled very slightly down to the mildly brown grass. The tombstones were in somewhat good condition with a small discoloration in one of the bunch. The stallion began to walk toward the portal to cast a second spell. The Portal will maintain visibility, but will act as it did before: they can think of their friends in another time and they can use their memories to go to their friends. The stallion brought his horn down to cast the spell before Twilight let out a sharp gasp.
This unicorn had only heard about humans from Twilight’s many stories. He had listened very fluently and was all too aware of the incoming threat. The assault came from behind the Tombstones. The unknown intruder quickly drew a gun from his back pocket and pointed it directly at the stallion standing in front of the portal.
The unicorn smiled as he turned his head to meet the threat, but no more than two seconds later, the hand-held weapon was fired. The stallion drew two swords from his horn: directly covering his face to keep the shot from reaching him, soon following the second spell: smoothly picking the human up and throwing him several feet to the side. The assaultist hit his leg against the ground and his head against a grave. Blood trickled from the new open wound of the side of the very infant adult that had moments before been the one attacking.
The recent guest to the new world turned to the mare beside him: still startled from seeing the ghost of an earlier month. The other unicorn went in for the hug that they both knew would come and they embraced each other in a tight hug.
Kevin trotted down the halls. All week had been like this. Fluttershy would be picked on and then he would step in and instead he’d be picked on. It didn’t matter, though. All this would be over with soon and he could see the pony that he really cared about. With this in mind, Kevin walked the schoolhouse: getting ready for his test today. If he could fly by the end of the month, he would pass flight school. Fluttershy would most likely not. That was too unfortunate. Hopefully, he could change that with the help of Rainbow Dash. Kevin began to walk towards the track. After practicing as much as he could, he might be able to fly after the very first couple of weeks.
Fluttershy sat in the corner, alone… again. Why does she insist on torturing herself like this? She had friends even as rare as they were. She didn’t have to hide herself so.
Kevin trotted over to the hallway corner and sat down beside the yellow scare in the wall.
“Why the long face?” he asked without thinking about the pun (Yeah, that pun’s old, reader, but what else was I supposed to say?)
Silence. Kevin put his arm around the still mass. Her warm fur pressed against his. Kevin was repetitively put in the type of situation where all he could do was give the yellow pegasus, or any other mane six for that matter, a hug. Kevin began to regret several instances where he had done this without much cause. That, though, was not as important to him as the fact that he gave what he had. He gave them a hug.
Kevin heard the pegasus hiccup. It wasn’t a hiccup as in when someone’s lungs stop working as they’re supposed to. It was a hiccup as in: one that comes when that particular person has been crying for enough time that the diaphragm becomes hard to control.
Kevin pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” He begged.
Fluttershy kept her mane over her eyes: hiding them from whatever judgment may come. Kevin still held his hooves on either side of the mare.
“I’m…” Fluttershy gasped before pulling back and bringing her head to her own chest.
Kevin leaned forward and lifted her head up with his hoof. Fluttershy reluctantly brought her head with it before noticing people passing through the halls and again throwing her head at a stare-down with the floor.
“Fluttershy,” Kevin again begged, “You need not fear judgement from me.”
Fluttershy still kept her head low until slowly bringing it up.
“There,” He stated, “Now what’s wrong?”
“That’s just it,” Fluttershy barely managed. “I’ve been nice, and tried everything I could to make friends. Nopony will. I’m not good at sports, I’m not really smart, and I’m not…” Fluttershy paused, “Pretty.”
That was enough, if not too much for Kevin. He had to get the brilliant character that she really was back into herself. Kevin recognized those words. He himself used to repeat them on a regular basis. He was not greatly popular, if anything he was an outcast. The only thing he was good at was being nice. Being nice to others, though, was being torturous to oneself. Not only was he unpopular, but he had to put up with other’s mocking. He was the dungeon for which their hate was kept and never released back.
Kevin was more relatable now than anyone to Fluttershy. The best thing that he could do is just what he was doing all his life. He would make the one he considered friend smile: regardless of what he or she thought of him. If he was their friend.
Kevin again lifted up the quaking head before bringing himself to communicate whatever lines he could to make her happy again. The sight of his dear idols crying this way completely burnt his heart. It almost made him think of it as his heart just being pulled right out of its cavity. But to make them smile was greater than all of that. When their cheeks are pulled all the way back to their ears and their manes just seem to come to life with the same type of passion that fills their bright faces was the greater emotion.
“Pretty?” Kevin examined.
Fluttershy shook her head as to confirm that she was firmly opposing that feeling.
“No, Fluttershy. Not pretty. You’re beautiful.”
Fluttershy raised her head all on her own, now. How could he say such a thing? How was he going to try to push her down like this? He would call her pretty. Even more than pretty, even and then go as far as to mock her for her very own feeling about herself.
“Don’t say that?” Fluttershy cried, “...I know it’s not true.”
Kevin was mentally gasping. He was only able to keep in the shock of this thought with the small figure that he would refuse his own words back when he was human. It upset him just as much, though.
“But you are,” he spelled out.
Fluttershy gave a sharp “No” in her squeaky voice.
Kevin couldn’t take it anymore. He had been sitting by her for about five minutes. The pauses in their conversation led it to be a lot longer than it would if it were spoken casually.
Fluttershy again hid behind her hair. Her big eyes fled from any chance at conversation.
Kevin avoided the conversation. He had one more trick up his sleeve. He had one: stupid and straight-up impulsive trick left up his sleeve.
Kevin arched his back: barely popping one joint before pushing the mane out of the way of her eyes.
Fluttershy was stunned. What was he doing?
Kevin put his lips against hers and kissed the shaking mare. It wasn’t really hard. It was really just one of the kisses that one would do as a little kid. It was without tongue (needless to say) and Kevin regretted doing so before even starting.
Twilight was his closest friend and he was starting to get to know her on a completely different level recently. He might have just blown it with a simple trial at telling a beautiful filly that she was in fact a beautiful filly. Another problem: she is the one accepting the kiss. What is she thinking right now? She might be quite violated by this and never want to be around him at all ever again.
Fluttershy had never been kissed by anypony before. This was her first time. To think that it was pretty much stolen was beyond her emotions at this point. She had no control over it. She just waited it out and attempted to move her lips as he did.
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The stallion held Twilight awkwardly as she shook from the shock. She knew he’d stop at nothing to take as much of the burden as he could. Judging by the expression on the limp hairless creature that sat completely unconscious on the ground by the tombstone.
Twilight finally separated herself from the blue stallion and looked to the portal. They had to warn their friend that there was in impending doom about to kill him if he were to stay. Kevin could be saved. Since he wasn’t alive during this reality, he could be saved. After losing one friend, Twilight was unwilling to lose another one or to ever lose one in the first place.
The portal shimmered regardless of its positively black and lightless appearance: the illusion drove the stallion’s eyes mad.
The party of two dried their tears in preparation for the travel back through the portal.
Kevin pulled away from the kiss. He wasn’t as reluctant as he thought he’d be. Now that that was done was over, he had to face whatever consequences she thought were necessary. Perhaps maybe, she’d suffer long-term effects from this and she’ll end up even more shy than before. Even so, Kevin retreated from his action and acknowledged everything that he had just done in the possible last two minutes.
Fluttershy brought her hoof up to her face and blushed. This made her rethink her previous stance. Was he really telling the truth? did he really want her to know the truth? Her thoughts filled her head. The last one entered: “He might be lying so that he could hurt you worse later,” It hurt Fluttershy at a point that she decided to ignore the thought.
Kevin looked at the mare: deep in thought. Her immediate expression told him that in fact she was not upset. Kevin stood up from the conclusion of his moral stance.
“So,” Kevin pertained, “we have a dance to go to later, yes?”
“Um…” Fluttershy had forgotten about the dance and stared into the floor trying to realise what her impressions were as of earlier this evening. What dress was she wearing? What hair? What shoes? What colt? Silly questions, she knew each of them, but the shock of the moment before had wisped it all away. Everything from her memory was gone - including the who. She pondered as Kevin bended over and grabbed her hoof to help her off the ground.
Fluttershy took it with both slow reaction and eager shyness.
Kevin pulled her hoof until she was standing on all fours. He then continued his cooperations.
“I’ll see you there?”
Fluttershy nodded hesitantly.
Kevin bowed and then walked away to the ring. afterwards, he would have to get himself dressed for the dance tonight. The day after: test day. He would have to be able to fly or he’d fail the course and either have to stay for summer flight camp otherwise, The Rainbow Factory. It seemed unlikely, but maybe popular fanfictions had actually come true in this reality. Kevin shook the thought off and continued toward the track.