The entire walk to Fluttershy’s place is silent. I look at her every so often, but she makes a point to keep her face locked in front of her at those times. Conversely, she shoots every few seconds what I know to be nervous glances, even though I don’t look back. Once we’re at her front door, she pauses.
“Um… well… here we are…” She opens the door and leads me through. Once inside, I can see pictures of all kinds of animals and various knitted knickknacks all over the house and. We end up in front of a door, presumably to her room. “Wait right here, please.” She opens, walks through, and closes the door swiftly. I hear some soft chirping and meowing coming from the room, but nothing from Fluttershy. A moment later, she comes back out with a gift-wrapped box. She hands it to me, but before I can open it, I feel a slight presence on my foot. I look down to see a little rabbit, its paws on the toe, looking straight up at me.
“Hello there, little fella.” I kneel down to pet it. “Where’d you come from?” I look at the door, now cracked, which provides me a glimpse of a birdcage and scratching post, each currently occupied. I look back at Fluttershy. “Who’s this lil’ guy?” She immediately perks up and smiles.
"That’s Angel Bunny.” She picks Angel up. “How’d you get out?” I point to the crack in the door, and she ducks her head. “...oh.” She puts Angel back into her room, then closes the door fully. “Sorry, it just… I’m used to being the only person here.” We walk over to the living room and sit on the couch.
“You don’t live with your family?”
“They’re all back in Cloudsdale. They visit every other year, and I visit them for Thanksgiving anyway.”
“So why’d you come to Canterlot?” I ask.
“Rainbow Dash. We went to the same middle school, and we've been good friends ever since.”
“Hmm… I can relate. I went to my middle school because of a couple friends I made in elementary… but…”
“What? Did something happen?”
“I was on the honor roll in elementary school, even got an unsung hero award in fifth grade. When I started middle school, everything started going downhill…. mainly because of the bullies.” Her eyes widen.
“You were bullied?” she says, shocked. I nod and gesture to my body.
“I didn’t always look like this.” ...in more ways than one. “I was quite overweight for some time, and that was one of the things that I was picked on over. Other things happened just because, like…”
“Like…?” she repeats.
“...like being kicked in the crotch.” She gasps in horror.
“Why would anyone do anything like that?!” I shake my head, not able to give a good answer.
“Where I come from, kids are just cruel. At least it didn't do any permanent damage.” I look in her eyes, unshed tears pooling under my eyes. “Do you know what’s even worse? I tried standing up for myself, pushing back against them. What happens? I get punished worse than them… WORSE!” I rest my head on the couch, the tears falling freely now as I squeeze my eyes closed. “What… what did I do wrong…?” I feel arms wrap around me. I just sit there, letting everything go for a minute to just cry. Once I’m done, I take a few deep breaths as Fluttershy releases me and picks up a tissue from a nearby box, offering it to me. I accept and thank her, rubbing under my eyes and nose. “Thanks for letting me vent… it’s been a while since I thought about all that.”
“It’s no trouble. I get like that myself--well, um, not as much since...”
“Pinkie and the others became your friends?” She pauses.
“It’s complicated. I was friends with Pinkie when I was a freshman, then we were driven apart, but we got back together a couple months ago.” I just shake my head.
“All right, change of subject: want any help with your animals?” Her eyes light up.
“Sure!” She leads me back to her room. “So you like animals?”
“From a distance, mostly. Honestly, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t take any medicine.”
“What for?”
“Oh, I have this little allergy to just about any animal with fur or feathers and the like.”
“Oh goodness no! I should--” She runs off. I’m puzzled until she runs back with a bottle of pills and a glass of water, pushing both into my hands.
“Fluttershy, I said I already took something earlier.”
“Oh… well, you should still keep those on you for later.”
“You already gave me this.” I move the gift box nestles between my right arm and the side of my torso. “I shouldn’t-”
“You should. I keep those for emergencies and I can always get another supply.” I open my mouth, but she just gives me a look.
“You’re too kind, you know that?”
“I’d like to think I’m making up for people who aren’t kind enough.” I sit the pill bottle and glass down, then open my present. Inside the box was a nice knit sweater that looks like a perfect fit. I place it with the other items on the table.
“How’d you know my size?”
“Oh, Rarity gave me your measurements.” She gently picks up Angel and hands him over to me. “I’ll get him some food.” She leaves me with the little bunny, who just nuzzles into my arm.
Okay, that’s one advantage of being here versus Equestria: a pet bunny rabbit that doesn’t act like he runs the place.
*KNOCK-KNOCK*
The motorcycle ride to the apartment complex doesn’t take long, but shaking off the pain from riding it probably will.
“Ow,” I repeat a few times as I carefully raise myself off the bike.
“It takes some getting used to,” Sunset Shimmer says with a giggle.
“That, plus an ice pack.” I look over to the building. “So which one’s yours?”
“You’ll see.” She leads me into the complex’s lobby, then to an elevator. She pushes a button close to the top of the grid, and I look at her incredulously. She just looks at me with a smile and leans back on the wall. About a minute later, the doors open and she leads me to a door the end of a hallway. Fishing out a keyring from her jacket pocket, she unlocks the door knob and opens it, ushering me through. She flips a switch on the wall, and her apartment is flooded with light.
The furniture is a mix of what looked to be black leather and brown suede, all in all quite tasteful. Everything else seems pretty generic, seeing as there’s not much but bits and pieces of school papers littered about. A newspaper here, a report card there… Thankfully the place is spacious, so there should be no problem fitting all seven of us in one room. I walk over to the window and see that a view of the whole city for miles on end. I can spot the high school and a number of places around here that I’ve walked past and memorized. Sunset walks over next to me.
“That’s the biggest reason I got this,” she whispered.
“How can you afford a place like this?” I ask back, slightly awestruck. She stays silent for a moment.
“It’s a long story,” she says before turning away. I turn as well, and I can tell without looking at her face that there’s a bit of sadness to her.
“Hey, you wanna get started on decorating, or is Pinkie gonna come and help?”
“She helped me pick up some things a few days back, so we should be fine.” Sounds like that cheered her up a bit, so I keep on that.
“Did you have to show some restraint before she broke the bank?”
“How’d you guess?” She looks back with a slight smirk.
“Spending a few hours with her can get a bit… tiring, I’d imagine.” I exaggerate cracking my back for emphasis.
“And next, she’ll e-vite you to every party she throws… and quite a few she doesn’t.”
“I need the social interaction. I haven’t been to a party in ages.”
“Pinkie will set you up with some pretty soon, I can guarantee you that.” She leads me over to where she stores her decorations, and we start getting everything set up. We make some small talk as we set up the garland, the holly, and get some food set out.
“I take it you don’t get the place so festive all that often? All I saw was the wreath on the back of the door and that little tree in the corner.”
“Yeah…” She sighs. “I didn’t do much celebrating before a couple months ago.”
“Why’s that?” I ask, although I already know the answer.
“If I tell you, you probably wouldn’t believe me.” She looks away.
“If you tell me the truth, I will.” I look at her, and she looks back to me. I give her a slight smile, and she relents. She tells me about how she bullied the entire school, not caring about anything except her plans. I ask her to elaborate, and she gives me the whole deal about Equestria, her tutelage under Princess Celestia, and how she fell from grace and escaped to this world. She went on to detail how she was defeated by Princess Twilight and the five friends she made, and ended with their becoming her first friends.
“And are those the only friends you had?” She nodded and dipped her head. A couple unshed tears dropped onto the floor.
“The rest of the school can’t forgive me for what I’ve done…” She dropped to the ground and hugged herself. Immediately, I go down and lightly wrap my own arms around her. She sobs lightly for a few moments before looking back up at me with a sad smile, giving me a near-silent “thank you.”
“Hey, we all got moments of weakness.” I release my hold and help her up. “Just ask Fluttershy. A couple things slipped out about how I was bullied at my old school, and she did the same for me.”
“Then why are you so… okay with me? Especially after what I told you I did?”
“Because what you are now is more important. Instead of an evil unicorn she-demon, you’re a young woman who knows what you did was wrong, and wants to make up as best you can.” I grab a line of garland and throw one end to her. “Even if I can’t stand what happened, it’s Christmas. Why not spend a bit of time with an enemy, since it’s the one day a year they can become a friend?” I see her smile return, a bit wider than before and coupled with tears of joy.
“Thank you,” she repeats, now with more volume.
“You’re welcome. Now, we gonna hang this or see if it’ll hang itself for a change?”
*KNOCK-KNOCK*
About an hour later, we’re done with all the trimmings and such when we hear knocks not a few minutes later. We stand up from our opposite seats in the living room begrudgingly and walk over to the door. She looks through the peephole and says that all five of them are here, each with several presents.
“So you’re all doing a gift exchange here?”
“Yeah. Mine are in my room.” She looks to me. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever.be.”
She turns the lock off with a soft ‘CLICK’.
Let the party begin.