//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: Peculiar Love 
// Story: Portals: Beyond The Pail (Book 5 In The Portals Series) 
// by The Derpy Doctor 
//------------------------------//

	Kevin looked at the moment the two were having. Sunset’s arms squeezed the scales of the red dragon, no longer a demon. He was free. He had one he loved.
“I have somepony I love!” thought Kevin, almost revealing it aloud. Kevin shot away from the intimate hug and ran for the edge of the crowd. 	Kevin pulled out his pocketwatch and stared at the emotions it read: fear, pain, loneliness… This couldn’t be true. He threw the watch back down and darted past ponies everywhere he saw them.
“Fluttershy?”
No response.
“Fluttershy?!”
“I’m right here,” examined the calm voice from right beside Kevin. His eyes bugged out at the startling immediate response.
“Fluttershy, you…” Kevin turned to see the mare standing high, completely unhurt.
“Why aren’t you…?” Kevin asked, thinking about her leg from before, clearly broken.
“Why aren’t I what?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head.
“It’s just… your leg before looked perfectly…” he squinted up at Fluttershy trying to understand, “...broken.”
“It’s. It’s fine,” said Fluttershy, wiggling it, “See?”
Kevin looked at the leg in awe. There’s no way it healed from that. It was so certainly broken… But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe just the matter of fact that it was somepony he loved so much made it seem like it was something much worse than it really was. Maybe she was truly okay, he was overly concerned. He was  being clingy.
“Sorry,” he offered.
“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said, full of happiness.
Delightfully, she trotted away. “Come on!” she played.
Kevin came with Fluttershy. They had a walk scheduled for this time today, it was time to embrace it.
Kevin looked down at his watch on last time: fear, pain, rainbows.
“Rainbows?” thought Kevin, “Maybe she’s hiding pain and fear with her bubbly personality. “But she’s not bubbly” he questioned himself. 	“Exactly, she’s playing bubbly so that I will never see past her smiles. She’s not telling me something. She’s hiding her emotions from me, but I’ll help. I love her, I need to help.”
The word need echoed in his mind. He didn’t usually think to himself that way, what was he saying? Was he himself anymore? He shook himself into reality. This wasn’t him, but he’d have to snap out of it or it would become him.

Kevin took one more look at his watch before putting it back and walking next to Fluttershy. Whatever she felt needed to be solved. The only way to solve it was to help her know she was loved before any emotions are revealed.

Blast slowly put his arm around Twilight. The attempt was barely worth trying. Twilight noticed the hoof raised slightly over her shoulder opposite him. Picking it up in her magic, she moved it down onto her, helping Blast to embrace her. He smiled slightly, looking into the mare’s eyes until she nuzzled her head under his neck and watched Sunset in its embrace with the rough, rocky body before them.

Kevin cuddled up in bed, reaching into his pocket to find his watch: fear, sadness, rainbows.

Morning was sound. Fluttershy woke Kevin up on purpose so that they could talk - which was somewhat like her, but not this way.
“Kevin?” asked Fluttershy.
“Yes?”
Fluttershy hesitated and looked at her hooves momentarily, “Do you love me?”
Kevin leaned forward and hugged the mare, kissing her on the forehead before backing away to give the answer: “I do. I always will.”
Fluttershy smiled and looked at her hooves again, “I love you too.”
Kevin walked into the kitchen to fix breakfast for both him and Fluttershy. As the stove began cooking the eggs and hash browns, Fluttershy walked in and stared at him. It appeared she was admiring him in a stalker way. Her eyes fell upon the food on the stove and she gulped hard.
Kevin turned the stove off and brought the pan over to the table, giving Fluttershy a good amount of the contents before serving himself. 	Fluttershy stared at her food, barely touching it.
“Is something wrong?” Kevin asked.
“No,” replied the yellow mare, “I’m just… full already.” Kevin stared down at her plate full of untouched food. She hadn’t eaten a lick of her own 	breakfast. How could she be full? Something was odd about her emotions, maybe it was time they spoke.
“Fluttershy?” Kevin asked, “Is there something wrong?”
“No,” she shook her head before slowly getting down from the table and moving to take care of her animals.

That talk was over with too soon.

“You blew them up?” asked Twilight after hearing Blast’s story.
“Yes, they’re gone now. Each and every one of them are gone, now.”
“But, doesn’t the portal work off of emotions?” asked Twi.
“Not anymore,” responded Blast.
“What do you mean?”
“The sudden change in air pressure and heat caused the portal to shatter.”
“So our way there and back is gone?” asked Twilight.
“Yes, but that’s not a bad thing. We’ll never have to go back. We can stay here and no dimension will bother the other.”
Twilight looked at the floor, sadly. The chances were, she’d never see her earth friends again. Their world would never exist without hate, and 	Blast made it worse. Even if he were to fix the portal, that world would only hate ponies more for everything he’s done.

Fluttershy cared for her pets as well as she could, but to no avail. It seems Fluttershy has lost her touch on the animals. Each one seemed to have something wrong with it that Fluttershy couldn’t cure. She didn’t know how to help. Everything was odd. The world wasn’t there anymore.
Kevin went to Sweet Apple Acres to take care of his own job: bucking apples with Applejack. However, he wasn’t himself either. He was so perfectly lost in his own thoughts. “Her leg was so clearly broken!” he thought, “Why… Am I hallucinating? Did getting hit by the energy that Bellus fired make my memory of the scene seem worse?” Kevin’s thoughts turned. Nothing was right anymore. What was happening to himself? Kevin stared deeply into the trunk of a tree, thinking.
“Hey, what’s going on?” called a voice from behind Kevin. It was Applejack, “Is somethin’ on yer mind, sugarcube?”
“Yes, Applejack,” Kevin acknowledged.
“What is it?” Applejack started before bucking at a tree.
“Well… Fluttershy doesn’t seem quite herself recently and it might be my fault. I should have come home when I heard that Bellus was 	coming, but instead I stayed to fight and I could swear she seemed hurt, but…”
“Did you try talkin’ to ‘er?” Applejack interrupted.
“Yes, but… She just said nothing was wrong… And I know something was wrong.”
“So… maybe she feels unappreciated and wants to see if you’ll make it up to ‘er.” AppleJack advised, “has she tried to get you to say you love ‘er?”
Kevin recalled, “yes.”
“Then she’s probably trying to emphasize that you need to make it up to her by hiding it behind something nice.”
“Is that what you’d do?” Kevin asked.
“Shucks, I don’t know what I’d do if somepony made me feel unappreciated, but this isn’t about me, this is about Fluttershy. She probably 	wants you to make it up to ‘er. Just do that somehow.”
Kevin looked at the ground and thought it over. “Thanks!” he concluded.
“Don’t mention it!”
With that, Applejack started carrying the apples into the barn.

Fluttershy rested her tired head on the top of the couch. No woodland creature came to sit by her and comfort her. “I’m never going to make it. I’m going to end up abandoned, alone, hungry…” She thought aloud. Her eyes started closing. Her eyelashes covering her face all the way down to her cheeks. Her mouth shut as she tried to get some sleep.

The door opened and Kevin took a few steps in. “Hello?” he called, before waiting for an answer.
Silence.
Kevin got ready to call again to see if his marefriend was still here, but that question was quickly answered. She was lying on the couch. Her head rested firmly against the hoof-rest.
Kevin smiled at the adorable sight before continuing to the kitchen to proceed with his plans.

Fluttershy’s eyes opened slowly. The room around her was clean. All of the animals in the house had been moved to their beds. The floors had been cleaned of all fur and hair and the furniture was perfectly clean of any dust or dirt. A stallion stood in front of her wearing full, best dress. He reached out his hoof her her and guided her away from the couch.
“I’m not dressed to go out.” said Fluttershy to Kevin.
“We’re not going out,” the white stallion returned.
Kevin carefully guided the mare into the dining room, where the table was set up with two chairs, a large salad in the middle and two candles. 		Fluttershy took one look at meal and almost gagged, but held any of the signs of discomfort from Kevin. He’d tried hard on this meal.
Kevin sat Fluttershy down on her end of the table before sitting down himself on the opposite end. He passed Fluttershy the salad at the center of the table so that she could serve herself. She picked off a small amount of the salad and plopped it down onto her plate and then passed it to Kevin, who then served himself. Fluttershy took her fork in her hooves and poked it through a few leaves of lettuce, looking over at 	Kevin, slightly confused.
“Why?” Fluttershy asked.
“I love you.” Kevin said.
Fluttershy straight-up gagged, now. She had been way overfilled throughout the last few moments.
“Be right back,” Fluttershy said before running off the chair towards the bathroom.
Kevin looked down at his food, insulted, trying to help Fluttershy, but apparently only making it worse.
Fluttershy hugged the bowl of the toilet for several moments and returned to see Kevin looking sadly at his plate of food.
“Are you okay?” Kevin asked
“I’m…” Fluttershy’s face got hot at the question and she grabbed her stomach. “I’m perfectly…” the mare looked up at Kevin to see a worried, 	caring face just trying to help her. “I just…” Flutters continued.
“You can tell me,” Kevin said.
His words and expression made Fluttershy worse again and she looked away.
“You’re filling me too much, I’ve had enough, I can’t feed anymore!” Fluttershy panicked. Her stomach felt like it was going to explode both from guilt and from having way too much food.
“What?” Kevin looked confused.
“Just don’t look until I tell you,” Fluttershy said, trying to avoid getting fed.
Her skin flashed, revealing herself as a changeling.
Kevin looked.