The Titans' Orb

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Fifteen: On The Shy

“Okay.” Fluttershy hummed.

“I’m sorry…” I mumbled, hanging my head guiltily.

I felt terrible, the poor mare must have been absolutely horrified, and must now utterly loathe me; out of all the ponies, why her? Why did Fluttershy have to be the first one to know?

“What for?”

Blinking rapidly and craning my neck, I was left utterly bewildered by this response.

“What do you mean? You know exactly what I’m sorry for, I eat meat...”

“So?”

“I, what?” I said, astonished.

Sitting down beside me, Fluttershy smiled at me and explained.

“Callum, I knew from the first day. With all the different animals I spend time with, I know a creature’s diet from the moment I see their teeth. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores like yourself, I’ve never been wrong. You have to remember, I care for so many little critters back home, many of which are carnivores. I have to get imported meat products all the time to feed them, and Applejack helps me catch fish to feed the ferrets, cats, and larger birds. This isn’t a big shock to me, I just wanted to better understand what kind of creature you are.”

Everything she was saying made perfect sense, and yet, I was still completely baffled at her response.

“So, you-you don’t hate me? You’re not going to y-yell at me? Not even berate me a little bit?” I stuttered nervously.

Her eyes widened, as she realised how distressed I’d been in answering this question, and the reaction I’d been expecting.

“Oh Callum... Did you really think I was going to be that upset with you?”

Nodding my head with tears in my eyes, the pegasus wrapped both of her forelegs around me and gave me an affirming cuddle.

“I’m not even the slightest bit bothered, okay? Just so long as you don’t plan on eating me!” she giggled.

Breaking into a laugh of my own, I returned the hug and confirmed that I had no such plans. Like a cool breeze in a hot room, I felt a huge wave of relief and relaxation. Ever since that first night, I had dreaded Fluttershy’s reaction to this, and now here we were, joking about it, without her possessing a shred of contempt for me. The weight that had been lifted from my chest was indescribable, as was the euphoria that came from knowing that I didn’t need to obscure the truth anymore.

“Hoooph...” I sighed heavily, “Not going to lie, I might have been a tad anxious about you finding out.”

“I never would have guessed.” she teased.

Huffing with amusement and further released tension, told the pegasus that her simple acceptance had meant more to me than she knew. I then admitted to her that I had been worried about this from day one. Finally letting go of me, she told me that she was well aware of that, for she had seen the flicker of fear in my eyes, when Pinkie had first asked me what food humans ate.

"I just wanted to get to know you a little better, before asking you outright." she explained, shrugging.

“Makes sense...” I hummed.

“So um, how about we get back to the others? I don’t want to get lost from them.”

Nodding in agreement, we both got up and set off to find the rest of our company.

The others had taken no time at all in moving on, and it was quite a long trek before we caught up to them, we found them all sitting in a circle talking amongst themselves. Before we reached them, I lightly tapped Fluttershy on the shoulder.

“Hey, uh, do you mind if the others didn’t know about this yet? I don’t think they’re going to take it as well as you have, so I’d rather they just weren’t aware yet, you know?”

She gave a little hum in response and nodded her head, indicating that she understood where I was coming from. I quietly thanked her and we reached the others, to which I boldly greeted them and merged with the circle.

“Good morrow ladies!”

“Ah, there you are! We assumed the jungle had eaten you up by now!” Rarity chuckled.

“Nah, I don’t taste that good. Too fatty.” I joked, jiggling my belly.

The girls laughed and I sat down amongst them, with Fluttershy joining me at my side.

“So, what were you two chatting about?” Rarity asked.

Before we could answer, Rainbow Dash noticed how uncomfortable Fluttershy looked, and with a crude smirk, she decided to make things weird.

“How much do you want to bet they were making out?”

Fluttershy, bless her heart, went beetroot red and stared at the ground, utterly mortified.

“Really, Rainbow Dash? Don’t be so ridiculous!” Applejack scolded.

“What?” Dashie chuckled, “We all know how much Flutters loves rare and exotic creatures. It’s not hard to imagine that she was trying to, get to know him a little better...”

“That’s not what happened!” Fluttershy whimpered, now hiding beneath her own tail.

“Stop tormenting the poor girl, you know full-well that Fluttershy isn’t that kind of pony! I don’t think she’s ever even been in a relationship, for goodness sake!” Rarity tutted, shaking her head.

With a sly grin, Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really? Then what about Middy?”

As though she had been stung by a bee, Fluttershy gasped loudly and scrambled away from the circle, before getting to her hooves and running away into the brush, crying.

“Well, that was a reaction and a half…” Dashie mumbled.

Everyone, Twilight included, gave the pegasus a look of absolute distain, to which she started to recede into herself.

“I was just, joking around...”

Rarity was the first one to scold the pegasus, with her shrill voice being sharp enough to pierce anyone’s guard.

“What you were ‘just’ doing, was making somepony extremely uncomfortable. And when she clearly needed you to stop, you pressed on, until she felt the need to flee in floods of tears! With the strain we’re all under on this mission, I cannot believe you would choose to be so callous, and uncaring.”

Rainbow gulped, shuffling her hooves, and Applejack was the next to scold her, calmly stating that she was incredibly disappointed in her. Even Pinkie had something to say.

“That wasn’t funny Dashie, and trust me, I know funny.”

Looking from face to face, I realised just how much disarray there was throughout this group, all it took was a joke going too far for everyone to fall apart; getting to my feet, I decided to nip this in the bud.

“You, with me, now.” I commanded, glaring at Rainbow Dash.

Still a little shaken from the verbal beatdown from her friends, she was more than willing to obey.

“And where are you taking her exactly?” Twilight demanded to know.

“To execute her, obviously.” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes at the unicorn.

Tutting, I simply elaborated that we were going to find Fluttershy, and that Dashie was going to put it right, and then we were going to put this situation to bed. Beckoning the pegasus to follow me, we made our way after Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry.” she mumbled as we walked.

“I’m not the one you need to apologise to.” I tutted, “What the hell were you thinking? We’re all exhausted and overheating in this shitty jungle, and you’re intentionally pressing Fluttershy’s buttons. Not to mention the fact you know she’s sensitive about that Midnight fellow, why would you expose her like that?”

“I just, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Yeah, too right you weren’t thinking.” I spat.

“I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t tell me that, tell her.”

I pointed ahead, where Fluttershy could just be seen, weeping to herself among the bushes. We went over there together, and upon seeing us, the mare wiped at her eyes and looked at the ground, visibly shaking. When we were almost upon her, I tapped Rainbow on the shoulder and leaned down, to bring my face close to hers.

“Sort it out.” I told her in a low, rumbling tone.

She nodded, and I turned away to lean against a nearby tree, giving Rainbow Dash a moment for a proper apologetic heart-to-heart. I couldn’t hear much, but I overheard a few things, mainly about how badly Dashie had regretted being so thoughtless, and that she had been really stupid. After a little while, I saw them exchange hugs, along with Fluttershy playfully cuffing her friend in the head with one of her wings, which made me smile. Knowing that they had made up, I came over and escorted them back to the main group.

We returned to find that the others had moved on a little further, and were setting up camp for the night.

“We’ve still got plenty of daylight left, are we really setting up already?” I inquired.

“Twilight can’t go on any further today.” Rarity explained, “Her blueout symptoms are getting worse. The poor thing’s just been sick.”

Raising my eyebrows, I couldn’t quite believe that these blueouts could be so severe! Nodding in total understanding, I genuinely felt a pang of sorrow for Twilight; after all, it had been my decisions that had brought her to this state. Shedding some good news to the group, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy trotted along beside me and said everything was fine between them again, which needless to say, everyone was most pleased about.

After the camp was fully established, Pinkie Pie began to lament about how bored she was, and begged for us to play a game with her or something. Thinking about it, we hadn’t done anything fun together since that game of Fluffy Bunnies back in England. Everyone was up for a game, (bar Twilight of course), but I enforced that we played something that didn’t involve running off into the wilderness.

“Hey, I know, let’s play I Spy!” Pinkie sang out.

“Ooh, great idea!” Applejack praised.

“Dibs on first go!” Dashie cried out, “I spy, uh, something blue!”

“You?” I laughed.

Shaking her head, she grinned.

“The sky?” Fluttershy suggested.

Another wrong answer; Pinkie then jumped up and pointed out Rarity’s tent.

“Hey, nice one Pinks!” Rainbow congratulated, “Your turn!”

Looking all around, Pinkie hummed to herself loudly, and licked her lips.

“Hmm... I spy, with my little eye… Something… Green!”

Chortling, Applejack gestured all around at the sea of green we were enveloped in.

“Uh, everything?”

We all laughed, before we took turns pointing out every conceivable green thing in sight; we even went into the specifics of pointing out individual leaves. About twenty minutes went by, with Pinkie shaking her head so much that I was worried it might fall off!

“This is ridiculous, it’s going to be some random little leaf in the treetops or something.” Rainbow grumbled.

“Alright Pinkie, you got us. We give up.”

“You sure?” Pinkie asked, sticking her tongue out.

“Yes!” we all shouted in unison.

“It’s Callum’s eyes!”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…” I groaned loudly.

Pinkie rolled onto her back in a fit of giggles, and my personal space was suddenly disregarded by all, as they came to properly inspect my irises and confirm that they were in fact, green. Tutting with annoyance, we continued playing, now under the singular rule that Pinkie was only allowed to guess. Midway through the next game, I tapped out as I needed the bathroom, and awkwardly retrieved the toilet roll from my bag, and fled to the jungle to relieve the call of nature.

Upon my return, I found that the group had given up on playing, and Applejack was cooking some dinner for us; boiled potatoes and herbs, seasoned with salt and ground garlic, all generously lathered with butter. It was an absolutely delectable dish, and it successfully elevated our spirits, including Twilight’s. After a good natter around the campfire, we called it a day and got to bed nice and early. Our sleeping arrangements had remained consistent since England, and I tucked myself in next to Fluttershy, who was now totally at ease with my presence; she had even taken to pressing against me in the night for assurance and comfort. This level of closeness to one of the girls had brought me unfathomable levels of jubilation, and feeling her soft velvety fur against my skin at night, along with her warmth, had allowed me to drift off easier than ever before in my life. Despite the unfamiliar jungle sounds, and the heat, I always awoke feeling well-rested, and full of elation.

“Hey Flutters, mind if I ask you something?” I inquired as she settled down beside me.

“Um, sure, what is it?” she replied.

“Earlier, when Rainbow Dash was being a bit of an idiot. You took things really personally, and I was just wondering, what was it she actually said that caused you to get so upset?”

“Oh, um... Well, um, um...”

“You don’t have to tell me.” I assured her.

Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she explained why Rainbow’s teasing had startled her so badly.

“I um, okay, this is going to sound really silly, but I have a really vivid imagination. When somepony puts an image in my head, it’s like I can actually see it, inside my mind, and I can’t stop it from happening. So when Rainbow Dash said what she said, I started picturing things, and it made me feel really bad, and dirty. Like, we’re only just getting to know each other, and then Dashie made me imagine stuff like that, and I just started feeling so incredibly guilty!”

Rolling over to face me properly, the mare gave me a desperate expression.

“I don’t think of you like that, I promise. Please, I don’t want to make things weird!”

Smiling warmly and exhaling through my nose, I shook my head and confirmed that things were most certainly not weird; this response of hers was nothing short of adorable. Breaking into a light chuckle, I divulged to her that I too, had a vastly imaginative brain, and could visualise things in the exact same way she did, which had brought on all sorts of intrusive thoughts throughout my life.

“Trust me, I completely get it.” I said to her, “It’s not made anything weird, I swear to you.”

Sighing heavily, Fluttershy visibly relaxed and flopped into her pillow.

“Besides...” I continued, “It’s already clear to me that you’re taken.”

Blushing heavily and recalling the diary incident from the aeroplane, Fluttershy cleared her throat and flicked her tail anxiously, before coming clean about that too.

“Um, about that... Midnight and I aren’t exactly, um, like, a thing...”

“You’re, not?” I quizzed, tilting my head.

I was about to point out the image from her diary, when she sat up properly and looked me dead in the eyes.

“Can you, promise, never to tell the others?”

“Of course, promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Taking me at my word, Fluttershy leaned forward and told me the truth.

Midnight Plume was a pegasus she’d grown up with in Cloudsdale, and much like herself, he had been more concerned with animals than other ponies, with his sole interest being in birds. They quickly bonded over their shared adoration for them, and became the closest of friends. There was undeniable chemistry between them, along with physical attraction as they grew older, but there was one slight hitch; for as much as they had feelings for one another, Midnight’s love for birds was always stronger, and he knew in his heart that he wished to settle down with a griffon.
That wasn’t to say that their relationship fell apart, and when Fluttershy moved to Ponyville, ‘Middy’ would come to visit her from time to time, where they spent most of their time tending to her birds; some of their time however, took place elsewhere...

“We have a, um, a kind of agreement...” she explained, “Until he finds a griffon to settle down with, we could have a sort of, um, special friendship, in private...”

Cupping my mouth with my hands, I genuinely wouldn’t have believed her, if not for what I’d seen fall from her diary.

{You, Fluttershy, of all ponies...} I thought, slowly shaking my head.

I would have expected something like this from Rainbow Dash, sure. Come to think of it, I could also imagine Rarity having a gentleman caller on the down-low, but Fluttershy!? It would seem that the age-old cliché rang true in both of our worlds; always keep an eye out for the shy ones...

“And uh, the pictures?” I asked, swallowing nervously.

“Um, yeah, um, you really, um, weren’t supposed to s-see that.”

Her reply had come as a trembling whisper, and it didn’t take a genius to guess she was panicking for letting the cat out of the bag to someone; but I was a man of my word, and not a soul would hear of this, not from me. Shakily, she continued to explain that the photographs were something of a keepsake, which he had consensually agreed to let her take. This was so that when he eventually did meet a griffon someday, and would come to visit her no more, she could treasure some truly intimate moments, of which she feared that she’d never have with anyone else.

“Why not?” I posed.

Sighing, Fluttershy dipped her head.

“Well, um, I don’t think I could ever give myself to somepony else like that. Even if Middy never comes to love me in the same way, I’ll always belong to him, in case he ever were to change his mind...”

Tears started welling up in her eyes, and they nearly started to well up in mine too; that last sentence was utterly heart-breaking! Sniffing, Fluttershy broke eye contact and tried to blink away the tears, making it perfectly clear that this conversation needed to take a different turn, followed by a conclusion.

“Well you know what?” I began, “I think that’s really damn sweet, and I don’t judge you in the slightest.”

“You don’t?” she whimpered.

Shaking my head, I told her that her business was her own, and that she was a grown mare, perfectly capable of choosing how to live her life, and that there was only one shameful thing about the whole ordeal.

“What’s that?”

Cupping her cheek with one hand, I regained eye contact with her and smiled.

“That Midnight would rather give his heart to some grouchy old bag of feathers, than to the kindest, sweetest, most perfect little pegasus that could ever grace Equestria.”

Unable to stop the tears, but now grinning like an idiot, Fluttershy buried her face into my chest, releasing the mix of emotions that had been bubbling up inside her. Lightly stroking the back of her head, I smirked with warm pride, thankful to have developed such a close bond with her. Once Fluttershy had calmed down, she thanked me profusely for letting her finally tell someone about this secret.

“So nobody else knows? At all? Surely Rainbow Dash knows at least!”

“She doesn’t have a clue, she thinks I’m too innocent.” she tittered, “Rainbow’s just under the impression that he visits for the birds, and that I’m too shy for anything too serious.”

“Huh, fair enough.” I hummed, “It just seemed like she was in the know, based on what she said earlier.”

“No, she just likes to play it up. If only she knew that she was actually downplaying it!”

We both giggled to ourselves, before eventually deciding to settle down for good. After one quick trip outside for a wee, we nestled up to each other, and drifted off to sleep.

I woke to find Fluttershy already gone, and just outside the tent, I could hear the voices of the girls, talking over breakfast. Slowly rolling over and stretching, I quietly slithered to the entrance and listened in to what they were saying, hoping to catch some juicy gossip.

“I mean, they’re nice looking and all, but I don’t think I’d ever date one.” Applejack said.

“Hmm, I’ve never really been fond of interspecies relationships, so I think I’d have to pass.” Rarity joined in.

More relationship talk; was there something in the air? Perhaps my conversation with Fluttershy had sparked her to come out and tell them the truth? No, she wouldn’t do that, not after so adamantly making me Pinkie Promise; but I had certainly heard an interspecies relationship being mentioned. Craning my neck to listen more carefully, I continued to eavesdrop.

“What about you Rainbow? It ain’t no secret that you’re a big fan of all sorts of fellers.” Applejack chuckled.

“Pfft, okay, fair enough. Yeah, I would totally get it on with a human.”

Now that woke me up; my eyes shot wide open as I realised, they were talking about me, or at least, my species.

“Well then, don’t be subtle about it!” Rarity laughed.

“Why be subtle? You know me, I love experimenting! By the time I’m old and decrepit, I want to have slept with every race on Equus, so why not add an alien to the list?”

I placed a hand over my mouth to prevent a gasp. From last night’s revelation, to this; never in a million years would I have expected them to be this openly debauched, especially in casual conversation. But, on the flipside, there were two very important things that I needed to remember.
Firstly, as stated numerous times to me, the cartoon world of Equestria and its inhabitants were far from childish; their world was as real as my own, and reality was always grittier than fantasy.
Secondly, these girls had been friends for years, so with me presumably out of earshot, there’s very little they wouldn’t talk about together. Trying to cast aside my male mindset, I tried to picture that girly ‘BFF’ mentality, in which ‘gal-pals’ would tell one another literally anything, with no holds barred.

Shrugging, I forced myself to accept the new norm, and decided to roll with it.

“Frankly, I don’t know how you could even think of copulating with one of those, things!” Twilight spat, gagging.

Unzipping the tent, I popped my head out and locked eyes with the unicorn, startling everyone.

“Um, because I’m sexy as hell, that’s why!”

Everyone burst into fits of laughter, and I properly emerged from the tent to join them.

“He wakes at last!” Applejack cheered, still laughing.

“Indeed he does.” I replied with a grin.

I sat down next to Rainbow Dash, and decided to give her a good old dose of karma.

“So, Miss ‘I Love Experimenting’, are you quite finished objectifying me behind my back?”

The pegasus’ eyes nearly bulged out of their damn sockets, and her cheeks flushed a deep red.

“Wait, you heard that!?”

Simply raising an eyebrow at her, Rainbow Dash desperately tried to backpedal.

“I was, I just, um... It-It was a ‘what if’ thing! You know? I was just joking! I would never, you’re so gross! You don’t even have fur! I wasn’t objectifying you, it was just a-”

“Rarity, might I have some tea?” I loudly interrupted.

Rainbow went silent as a mouse, and went back to her breakfast, her forehead visibly sweating. I looked over to Fluttershy and gave her a wink, to which she giggled quietly.

“What goes around, comes around, ey Dash?” Applejack teased.

Realising that this was partially her punishment for upsetting Fluttershy yesterday, Rainbow Dash sighed and shook her head, before eventually laughing along with us, and apologising to me for talking so crudely about me behind my back.

“But for what it’s worth, Applejack and Rarity were objectifying you too!” she added.

“Oh I heard.” I admitted, “But they were judging humans based on dateability, meanwhile you were only interested in one thing, adding another species to your list.”

“Okay, can we change the subject?” Dash pleaded, still blushing heavily.

“Yes, let’s, before I’m violently ill.” Twilight interjected.

Rolling my eyes, I took the tea that Rarity had just brewed for me, along with a bowl of cereal from Applejack, and enjoyed a nice breakfast with everyone. After I’d eaten, I decided to check in on my phone; I attempted to turn it on, and much to my relief, it vibrated. A few seconds later, I was met with the usual Sony Ericson Xperia splash screen.

“Well?” said Rainbow Dash, standing beside me.

“We’re about to find out, but the phone itself works, which is a good sign.” I murmured.

The home screen eventually loaded, along with all my app thumbnails and such. I also noticed that my battery was fully charged, which was of course, an absolute boon. I made my way to the offline map application and tapped it, only for the screen to turn black.

“Crap.” I muttered.

“Is it broken?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head.

“Your technology is pathetic.” said Twilight.

Alas, pathetic it was not, for the screen flickered on once more. The app loaded, and quickly displayed our position on the map, submersed in the green mass of the Brazilian jungle. Upon touching the screen, it flickered in the same blue hue as Rarity’s magic; the map then zoomed out automatically to show more of the country, followed by a white dot appearing somewhere out in the State of Amazonas.

“It worked!” I hollered.

Everyone broke into a cheer, and I tapped on the dot and copied the coordinates, to ensure we knew where to go if the enchantment wore off. I then realised just how far away the dot was.

“Woof...” I blurted out.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Um, we may or may not have a few weeks of walking still ahead of us.”

Everyone groaned in displeasure, but Twilight quickly silenced the protests, stamping the ground with a hoof.

“Well, those weeks aren’t going to go by any faster if you whinge about it. Pack up the gear, and let’s get moving.”

Strutting past us to pack her own belongings, I shrugged and found myself in agreement with the mare, even if her approach had been rather blunt. The camp was swiftly packed away, and then, to prevent the need for bathroom stoppages, everyone went to privately relieve themselves.
Once we had reassembled, we resumed our journey through the jungle...

Despite the early start, there was only so far we could walk until nightfall came upon us once again; the sky was already turning a navy blue. After finding a nice secluded clearing, we stopped to make camp.

“Hey, to speed up our morning start, how about we just set up one tent tonight?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“Um, I don’t think we’d all fit in one tent, Dashie.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Not all of us, no. But I could sleep up in a tree tonight? It’s been a while since I’ve had a nice tree to snooze in, and that one right there is calling my name!”

Rainbow pointed up to an abnormally girthy tree, one that sported many thick branches for sleeping on.

“Well, you can sleep up there if you want. But that certainly don’t mean the rest of us are all squeezing in together, there’s no way we’d fit.” Applejack remarked.

“Fatty.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, Rainbow…”

Hopping away from the farm pony with a nervous chuckle, Rainbow Dash asked me to back her up. Shrugging, I suggested that everyone bar Rainbow sharing one tent was out of the question, but two tents?

“If you think I’m sharing a tent with you...” Twilight started.

“Oh relax, I wouldn’t dream of disturbing your beauty sleep.” I scoffed.

For better or worse, I chose to show off, and decided that I would sleep in the tree with Rainbow Dash. That way, Fluttershy could take Rainbow’s spot in Rarity’s big tent, thus withdrawing the need for all three of them to be set up.

“I hate to break it to you Sugarcube, but you ain’t no pegasus.” AJ chuckled.

“You’ve already seen that I’m great at climbing trees.” I pointed out.

“Heh, and falling out of them.” Rainbow snickered.

“I’ll just lash my legs to a branch with rope, I’ll be fine.” I replied, grinning.

In hindsight, I secretly acknowledged that it was a stupid idea, but now that I had made the suggestion, I wanted to commit; and so, with some reluctance from Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity, only two tents were erected. We all had some supper, and then Twilight and Applejack went off to their tent. Shortly after that, Pinkie went to bed too; the rest of us weren’t quite ready for sleep yet, and sat around the campfire to natter amongst ourselves.

“So, what else can that phone thingy of yours do?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“Ooh, yes, tell us!” Fluttershy added.

Rarity too, showed a keen interest, so I retrieved the device and educated them on just what a mobile phone was able to do; from its communication features as a phone, to its capability to run games, along with its functionality as a flashlight.

“You can write notes with it, you can check your bank balance with it... Oh, and it can play music too!”

“Ooh, ooh! That reminds me of something I wanted to ask you!” Fluttershy chirped loudly.

Gesturing for her to continue, Fluttershy asked me what sort of music I liked to listen to.

“Now that’s a can of worms.” I chuckled, “Humans are very musical creatures. We have created every type of genre you could possibly think of, and I enjoy listening to all of it!”

“Can we hear some?” Rainbow Dash begged, prodding at my arm.

“Sure!” I agreed merrily.

Running over to my bag, I dug around until I found the earbuds I had packed. Plugging them into my phone, I quickly went and picked out some individual songs from different artists, ones that I thought would pique each girl’s interest.

“Who wants to hear first?” I asked.

“May I?” Rarity pleaded.

“Me! Me! Pick me!” Rainbow Dash squealed excitedly.

I looked between the two of them and smirked, letting the tension set in.

“And this year’s prom queen is… Fluttershy!” I announced, handing the earbuds to her.

“She didn’t even say anything!” Rainbow gasped, green with envy.

“Exactly, she was patient.” I replied, winking.

Sticking her tongue out at me, Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs and huffed. Fluttershy giggled and shuffled closer to me, clearly excited to listen to her first piece of human music. Knowing Fluttershy’s kind nature, I had picked out a song that would suit her taste perfectly.

“Just take these and pop them in your ears.” I instructed, offering her the earbuds.

She did as she was told, and I went to the playlist I’d just created for them, and selected ‘People Should Smile More’, by Newton Faulkner. It was easy to tell that the music had started playing, as Fluttershy’s face lit up, her adorable little smile continued to grow, until it was nothing short of a cheesy, ear to ear grin.

“Well, you seem to have met Fluttershy’s liking, that’s for certain.” Rarity noted.

When the song ended, Fluttershy took the earbuds out and wrapped her forelegs around me.

“Oh Callum, that song was just simply wonderful…” she sighed dreamily.

“My turn!” Rainbow Dash shouted, full of excitement as she shifted over next to me.

“Rarity! How wonderful of you to volunteer next!” I cheered.

“Wha-? Oh come on!”

Rarity giggled at Rainbow’s annoyance, and used her magic to plug in the earbuds. I had actually added two songs for the unicorn, as I hadn’t been entirely sure; at first I was going to play something classical, but on second thought, I went with the more modern choice, and selected ‘I’m Yours’, by Jason Mraz. At first, Rarity looked at me with confusion, as the song began with the sound of an aeroplane, but as the music started, she began to smile, much like Fluttershy had done. Soon after, Rarity closed her eyes and lost herself in the experience.

When the song ended, Rarity’s response was nearly identical to Fluttershy’s, with her leaning back and sighing.

“That was simply divine, his voice was so, lovely…”

“Yeah, Mr Mraz is pretty lush.” I agreed.

“Who?” she quizzed.

“Jason Mraz, he’s the singer, in the song.” I clarified.

“Oh I see.”

I looked over to Rainbow Dash, who was impatiently prodding at the ground with her hoof.

“Would you like your turn, Rainbow?” I asked.

Immediately brightening up, she nodded frantically and zipped over to me. Chuckling, I passed the earbuds to her and promptly selected ‘So What’, by P!nk.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to break into a smirk, as the electric guitar began to play.

“Yeah heh heh… Now this, is good music!” she rasped, closing her eyes.

As the song got to the chorus, Dashie started to nod her head to the tune, which almost caused the earbuds to fall out; she caught them and stuffed them back in, and continued to nod to the beat.

“This is awesome!” she squealed.

The song ended, and she took the earphones out and grinned.

“You have some awesome music dude.”

“I want to hear more!” Fluttershy said in agreement.

“Hm, well how about this...” I proposed, “We have so many days of walking ahead of us, so how about, once per night, you can all hear a new song? That’ll keep things fun, and you’ll have something to look forward to every day.”

Rarity proclaimed that it was a fantastic idea, and so we made a pact that I’d share my music with them, each night before bed. With bed in mind, I yawned, which set off a chain of yawns in the others. Deciding that it was time to turn in, I bid everyone goodnight, and went over to my rucksack and retrieved the rope from our makeshift raft.

“I’m not going to bed until I know for certain you’re safe up there.” Rarity tutted.

Rolling my eyes, I tucked the bundle of rope into my waistband, and began to climb the tree. Despite lacking lower branches, there was a plethora of thick ivy to use.

“Goodness! Look at him go!” I heard Rarity gasp from below.

This put me off, and I lost my grip with my left hand and almost fell, I was left dangling by my right hand.

“Oh shit, dude!” Rainbow Dash yelped.

{Why did I ever think this was going to be a good idea?} I lamented to myself in thought.

Regaining my grip, I continued to climb, until I eventually reached the thickest branches, where I would be resting for the night. I hoisted myself up and lay on my stomach, to find that the branch was thankfully coated in soft dry moss.

“Well, at least I won’t be sleeping directly on hard wood.” I muttered to myself.

Rainbow Dash flew up to me, and commended me on the climb.

“Cheers. Now be a lamb, and loop this around the branch a few times.” I ordered, passing her the rope.

She did just that, and after some adjustments, tightening, and tying, I was safely strapped to the branch.

{I can’t believe I’m doing this...} I thought, shaking my head.

Dashie landed on the same branch and curled up close by; we chatted for a little bit more, before she eventually fell asleep. Closing my eyes, I attempted to do the same, which was when I was suddenly poked in the arm by something hard and rough; my eyes shot open and I was met by a glowing blue cookie.

“The hell?” I mumbled quietly.

Peering off the side of the branch, I spotted Rarity looking up at me from the entrance of her tent, smiling warmly. Beaming back down to her, I gave her a small wave, before retrieving the cookie and taking a bite.

{Ah, a Threezie...} I realised, closing my eyes.

It was vanilla flavoured, and as I began to chew it, it started to taste like marshmallows; upon swallowing the delicious morsel, I was quickly met with the aftertaste of rich milk chocolate. I looked back down to thank Rarity, only to find that she had already gone; shrugging, I got myself comfortable and tucked into the rest of the Threezie, savouring every bite and humming to myself in ecstasy. With such blissful flavours now dancing upon my tongue, I very quickly forgot that I was about sixty feet up in the air, lashed to a bloody tree branch.

Laying back against the soft moss, I swallowed the final bite, and drifted off to sleep...

---

Comments

[jkreader]

Wow. Fluttershy sure did tell Twilight off.

[Darth-Piekus]

Twilight is starting to get annoying. I am convinced that she got corrupted somehow to the opposite of Friendship which is Hatred.

[theFlancy Mernin]

Woo!

[PonyJoe1]

I like these sort of episodes.
There's a lot more emotional character development.
Effective dialogue...
But there's too much talking all at once.
This whole chapter was pretty much set all in the same spot!

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

5363711 Agreed...

[Snowkitsune]

And Rainbow Dash flies west yet again.... Threezie for for whoever can place what im talking about

[GoldOsburn]

Rarity giggled at Rainbow’s annoyance, and used her magic to plug in the earphones. I then scrolled through my music to find something for her. I had a feeling that she’d enjoy the classical pieces, but I settled on something more modern and selected another one of my favourites, Jason Mraz.

“I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this.” I said happily as I selected ‘I’m Yours’.
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thought you'd like to know that this link is no more so I thought since I got the name of the artist and the name of the song I was able to find it and I'm going to post it here.

Please click to listen to the music.
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

[Mister Horncastle]

10135644
Thank you very much for pointing this out, links are now replaced with working ones. 🙂

[Kitsune_Kenshi]

I was expecting Rainbow Dash 's song to be Danger Zone.