//------------------------------// // S2 Chapter 4, I Deserve It! // Story: Friendship is Life // by alejin //------------------------------// Fluttershy opened her eyes, she remembered what she when she came back to her home and raised her head; she looked around and found herself in her bedroom. Nothing in her place seemed unusual, probably she was exhausted and her animal friends took her there, she sighed. “I guess it was a dream…” A smile crossed her muzzle; she stood up and stretched a little getting ready to do her chores. Before leaving the room, she smelled something delicious, “pancakes?” she thought it was Angel cooking for her, she came down the stairs and entered the kitchen. “Oh Angel! It smells. . .” And then, she saw the real cook: Alex. They both stared each other. Fluttershy was about to faint again but Alex acted quickly. Without moving from his spot, he shouted. “No no no! Please don’t! It’s me! I’m real I swear!” After hearing his voice, Fluttershy found the strength to remain conscious; then looked at him again. Alex didn’t know what to do so he grabbed a plate with some pancakes and offered it to her. “Pancakes?” She didn’t answer. She kept looking at him without saying a word. Alex was speechless, he wanted to hug her but somehow he knew what was coming; her eyes gave her away, once she was closed enough she raised her hoof and he closed his eyes. She slapped him so hard, he thanked God that she held back a lot or his jaw would be broken. It still was strong enough to make him fall on his knees. “Ok. . .I know I deserve…” She slapped him again. Alex turned to her again and noticed she was crying. “IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT!” Alex didn’t say a word; she needed to take it out and he deserved it. “HOW DARED YOU? HOW DARED YOU DO THAT TO ME! YOU KNOW HOW MANY NIGHTS I DIDN’T SLEEP? I WAS SO WORRIED! YOU JUST LEFT A BUCKING LETTER! HOW DARED YOU! WHY? WHY? WHY HURT ME LIKE THAT! YOU ARE AN IDIOT!” Alex realized how is auctioned had hurt her. He was a real idiot for leaving her like that. Fluttershy kept crying, but the tears turned into kisses; first on his cheek, then on his forehead and then on mouth. A very passionate kiss that lasted for a long time. After kissing him, she stared at him again; tears started to came out and she put her head on his chest, hugging him with no intention to let go. “Please don’t tell me you are just an illusion!” Alex hugged her as strong as he could. “I promise I’m very real” Fluttershy just kept hugging him and crying, she felt strength was leaving her body and knew she was going unconscious again. She at him and asked: “Will you be here when I wake up?” “Yes, I promise” “Thank y…” She closed her eyes. Alex carried her to the couch and sat down, he tried to stand up but her hooves never let go of him, so he decided to stay on the couch with her watching her sleep. She was amazingly cute. He now knew leaving her like he did was one of the worst decisions of his life. “I will never leave you again my love” he said and kissed her forehead, even in her sleep, she smiled and whispered: “I will never let you go again…” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After some hours, Fluttershy opened her eyes only to notice Alex was still looking at her, she was still hugging him and didn’t think for a second of letting him go. “Do you feel better now?” Alex asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Are you ready to talk with me?” She nodded again. Fluttershy let go of him. She turned around and looked at him in the eye; Alex knew what the first question would be: “So?” He asked. “I think you know very well what my question is . . . why?” “Darling, I had many reasons to do it, but the most important was that I just wanted to protect you.” “To protect me?” “Yes, I mean, you saw all those creatures buying what that Minotaur said, the look on their faces and their anger against me. I was afraid of the things they could do to any of my friends or you so I wanted to protect you from them and from me.” “Alex! Why are you saying that? I can understand about protecting us from judgmental ponies but why do you say you wanted to protect me from you?” “Fluttershy, you saw me that day! I lost control of myself and became a psychopath! I dismembered that asshole and I … I enjoyed it!” Fluttershy flinched for a moment; it was true that scene was traumatic. She even had some nightmares about that disastrous day but she knew him and understood how hurt he was that day after what happened to Proud Hammer. “That’s why I wanted to get away from all of you” He continued “I didn’t want you to share any of my suffering.” Alex looked down. He felt ashamed after he remembered all the things he did that day. Fluttershy smiled and raised his head with her wing: “Alex, to be honest, I’m so mad with you right now. What you did to me was inexcusable! When I became your marefriend, I agreed to share everything with you . . . even your sadness but you didn’t even give me a chance or talked to me before leaving.” “Sorry, I-” Alex was interrupted by another kiss from Fluttershy, a very deep and long kiss. They didn’t stop kissing until they were out of breath. Fluttershy looked at him again and said “I’m much happier that you are back here with me. Love, I want to know what made you return to us!” “Well, it was all thanks to my best friend back on earth!” Alex told her everything that happened on Earth, how Steven helped him overcome his fears and made him snap out of his depression. Fluttershy couldn’t help feeling thankful at Steven; he managed to do what nopony could. After a couple of hours of storytelling, Fluttershy knew anything she needed to know. Alex continued “And that’s it, you already know the rest; I came back, went to the Crystal Empire and now we are here!” “I see” She said “but tell me, why did you run away from me on the Crystal Empire?” “Because I was scared. Maybe you won’t believe it but I do feel bad for leaving you and I know very well I disappointed all of you. But now, I’m just not ready to meet all my friends again, heck! I can’t even believe I’m talking to you right now! It’s just, I heard what you said in the Crystal Empire and with a little “push” I gathered enough courage to come to see you. I was excited, but I must admit I never expected all of your pets to attack me when I came in. I guess a little bunny did a good job spreading the word about what I did to you to the entire forest.” They remained silent and looked at each other for a long time until Alex broke the silence. “Fluttershy, what I really want to say with all this is that I’m sorry; I’m sorry for hurting you. I stand my reasons for what I did but you are right, I didn’t trust you enough to share my problems with you. The last thing I want is to see you suffering and I really thought leaving was the best way to achieve that, for you and me to be happy. I know now how wrong I was. I don’t want to be away from you but I will understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore, not after what I did. Just say it and I will leave forever, I promise…” Fluttershy grabbed his hand with her both hooves and looked at him with a warm smile. “Alex, sometimes I’m really impressed of how naive you can be. You heard what I said back in the Crystal Empire, isn’t it obvious that I still love you?” “Well, I guess so…“ Alex was interrupted again by another kiss; deeper than the last one. Fluttershy then asked the question Alex wanted so much to hear: “Alex . . . would you want to be my special somepony again?” “Yes . . . I’d be honored to be your special somepony, but under one condition” “Sure, tell me what …” This time was Fluttershy was the one who was interrupted by Alex. He hugged her as tight as he could. “Fluttershy please, don’t die, please stay with me forever! I’ve lost the ones I love, I wouldn’t stand losing you!” Fluttershy shared some tears. Even though she knew how strong Alex was, sometimes she forgot he was as fragile as anypony else, she got as close to him as she could and said: “I. . .I can’t promise you I won’t die, but I can promise that I will do all that is in my power to keep living for you; for the both of us. And while I can, I will always be with you!” “Thanks my love” Alex said whispering. “But I also want you to promise me something” Fluttershy said. “What is it?” “Never leave us again, don’t be afraid to share your fears with us or at least with me. Remember you and I are a team now, your problems are my problems too, never forget that!” Alex smiled and nodded. They remained hugging each other for a very long time. When they finally let go, both of them proceeded to have a nice brunch with all the animal friends, it was no secret they were still a little mad at him for making Fluttershy suffer, but they agreed on giving him a second chance. Alex was glad for that; he had to admit they could be very intimidating when they wanted to. “So, what do you think we should do?” Alex asked. “Well, in my opinion” Fluttershy answered “I think we should go directly to Ponyville to see everypony else.” “I guess that’s not a bad idea but . . . do you think they will not try to hurt me like you did?” “Hmmmm, I think it is obvious Rainbow Dash and maybe Applejack will, but please don’t be mad at them, they are just hurt right now. I hope you understand?” “I do but still I wouldn’t want them to hit me.” “I will be there to treat your injuries, I promise” “Well, that doesn’t make me feel better about getting hit…” “I never said it would” Fluttershy giggled. Alex was still reluctant on meeting their friends right away, but after speaking with Fluttershy for a little longer, he finally agreed. They were going outside her house when they saw Rainbow Dash coming their way; they immediately got back inside the cottage. Alex ran upstairs while his marefriend talked with Dash. “Fluttershy! Twilight is back from the Crystal Empire and it seems she needs to tell us something and it seems is very serious” “Really? But I was . . . ok, just give me 10 minutes to get ready!” “Ok I’ll wait here!” Fluttershy went upstairs to talk to Alex. He listened what the Pony said. “It seems our reunion will have to wait. I don’t think we want to put more stress on Twilight right now.” “Yes, I’m kind of disappointed but I think this is something good, I will use this opportunity to soften them a little, don’t worry, we will have our reunion eventually.” “Ok! Meanwhile I will go back to the sister’s Old Castle” “Oh no mister! You are not going there anymore, you will stay here and that’s an order!” “But I don’t want to bother you with…” Fluttershy put her wing on his mouth. “Please Alex, don’t say anything” “Alright, I’ll stay here.” “Good! Don’t worry; there is enough food for several days. Knowing how Twilight is, we might be going in some kind of adventure so I’m not sure I will comeback today. In case I don’t, please feed my animal friends everyday and always wear your pendant when you are outside. It’s your choice if you want to speak to any of our friends while I’m away, ok?” “Ok, Flutts, I’ll think about it” Alex kissed her very softly “Have a nice trip” “Knowing you are back, I’m sure I will, but I will be very impatient to come here again to kiss you!” Fluttershy went outside to meet with her friend. In the meantime Alex decided to rest a little. He was happy everything turned alright with Fluttershy; he smiled while thinking about her and slowly started to close his eyes. Even though there was happiness in his heart, he couldn’t stop feeling something was not right. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Far away from him, deep in a dark alley; another Pony was unconscious. His eyes showed no color and his cutie mark was gone. Standing next to him, a hooded creature was laughing maniacally.