Monday, February 15, 2016

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): You should take time today to reflect on your situation and prepare for what lies ahead. You may have lost a battle, but you haven't lost the war.

Morning

There's no school today.

Twilight and I sleep in late. When we get up, we get ourselves cleaned up (twice; we can't resist having a quickie in the shower), then head to the lobby to meet up with Shining Armor and Cadance.

I check my horoscope while we're waiting. Twilight glances at it over my shoulder and hums thoughtfully. "We should probably have a quick little meeting with the girls when we get back."

"Yeah. There's no hurry, though."

Cadance and Shining Armor arrive, and we head out to our favorite breakfast buffet. Twilight loads an entire plate with scrambled eggs...and another with waffles, sweet rolls, sausage, and bacon.

Shining Armor stares at Twilight's two plates and two-fisted, two-fork eating style. "Uhh...got enough food there, Twiley?"

"Sex makes me hungry," Twilight mumbles through a mouthful of eggs.

Shining Armor chokes on a biscuit. Cadance shakes her head and giggles.

I roll my eyes. "Twilight, breathing makes you hungry."

Shining Armor gives me a level stare. "You're not gonna do something stupid like getting my little sister pregnant, are you?"

"I'm on the pill, Shiny," Twilight says as she crams an entire sausage patty in her mouth.

"I wouldn't want to get on your bad side, Coach," I say. "We'll be careful."

Shining Armor stares at Twilight, then shakes his head. "Dude, if she gets pregnant, I'm not what you have to worry about."

Cadance and I follow his gaze.

Cadance turns pale. I have a sudden, terrifying mental image...

Twilight, cheeks bulging with food, looks around at us. "Wff?"

Cadance shudders. "Dear God..."

Daytime

When we get back to the dorm, the only people home are Pinkie and Sonata. They're sitting in the lounge watching cartoons and giggling.

"Oh, hey guys!" Pinkie calls. "Did you have a good daaaaate?" She gives us a sly look.

"Yes. Yes we did."

Twilight looks around. "So where is everybody?"

Pinkie shrugs. "Rainbow went out to practice softball, Applejack and Apple Bloom went to visit their daddy, Rarity and Sweetie Belle went out with their mom, and Fluttershy's...fluttering someplace, I dunno."

Sonata giggles at that.

Wanna watch cartoons with us?

Twilight and I look at each other. She shrugs. "Don't really have anything better to do," she says. "Let me just get my bookpad..."

Twilight and I spend the rest of the day watching TV with Pinkie and Sonata.

Evening

Everyone wanders back in fairly late in the day. We order pizza for everyone for dinner.

After dinner, Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, Cadance, and I meet up in Cadance's living room. "Is Shining Armor here?" Twilight asks.

Cadance giggles. "Yeah, but he's asleep in the bedroom. He won't be waking up either." She toys with her hair. "I...pretty much fucked him into a coma."

"CADANCE!" Twilight cries. Rainbow leers. Pinkie cackles. Rarity smirks, rolling her eyes.

"What, you didn't get enough last night?" Rainbow asks.

Cadance smirks. "I never get enough," she says. Then, with an uncharacteristically shy look, she adds, "Besides...we're kinda hoping...maybe..." She looks down, a silly smile on her face.

Rarity's eyes widen. "You're trying for a baby?"

Twilight gasps.

"Yay!" Pinkie cheers. "Be sure and let me know when you get lucky, okay? I'll throw the perfect baby shower!"

"It...might take a while," Cadance says. "Anyway, let's get down to business."

"To defeat the Huns?" Pinkie asks. Twilight slaps her upside the head.

Cadance shoots Pinkie an odd look, but shakes her head. "So...looks like our little tip about me not being the target paid off." She frowns. "But that means two things."

"Yeah. It means somebody died on our watch," Rainbow says with an unhappy frown. "I mean, Snips...no real loss there, he was a punk, but..."

"It also means we lost our shot at taking out Aquarius," Twilight says with a cross look at Rainbow. "That's one more Shadow we have to worry about."

"Assuming this...'informant' of yours is on the level," Rarity says.

"We're pretty sure this person is trustworthy," I say. "If a bit creepy."

Cadance sighs. "Right, so...what do we learn from this?"

"Well, for one thing...we need to be careful about relying on our assumptions," Twilight says. "We were so convinced you'd be the next target it never occurred to us that somebody else might...that we might be wrong." She sighs. "Not that we'd have been able to protect Snips. He was out of town..."

"I believe we could've come up with something," Rarity says. "But, you're right. We need to be more vigilant and less self-assured." She picks at a thread on her blouse. "We also need to train harder."

"We'll go to Zodiac sometime this week," Cadance says. "Now, about this whole Eris thing..."

"I'm more convinced than ever that Fluttershy is Eris," I say. "The way she was dressed the other night, the way she's been acting lately..." I look around the room, then at Twilight. She gives me a pleading look.

I look at Cadance. She nods once.

I look at Pinkie, Rainbow, and Rarity. "There's...something we haven't told you girls," I say.

"I'm hardly surprised," Rarity says.

"Something you didn't even tell me?" Pinkie asks, lip quivering.

I sigh. "It...it isn't something I wanted...wanted anyone knowing. Anyone who wasn't...who didn't have to. Twilight and Cadance know, Luna knows, but that's only because Twilight and Luna are on the third floor, and we had to tell Cadance."

Twilight takes my hand and squeezes it.

I take a deep breath.

"Tuesday night...Sunset Shimmer was in the dorm. She...raped me."

Rarity, Rainbow, and Pinkie gasp in shock. Rarity's eyes widen in horror. Rainbow shoots to her feet. "Wait...WHAT?"

"You heard me," I say, shuddering.

"Oh my GOD, Flash!" Pinkie screeches. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"Flash...resisted reporting it to the police," Cadance says. "And he convinced Luna to forget she heard anything about it."

"And none of you are going to say anything to anybody," I say.

"Totally get you, dude," Rainbow says. "A guy gettin' raped, that's...that's embarrassing."

"Rainbow!" Twilight snaps.

"So that's why you looked like you wanted to kill Sunset Shimmer the other day," Pinkie says to Twilight. "I wondered..."

"Anyway, it...it happened, but it doesn't matter anymore," I say. "Sunset Shimmer's beneath notice. She's a skid mark." I shake my head. "No, what's important is that she couldn't have gotten into the dorm without help." I look around the room. "And the only person who could've let her in is Fluttershy."

Rarity sighs. "That...would seem to be the case," she says.

"Wait," Rainbow says. "Fluttershy, help Sunset Shimmer rape you? It doesn't make sense."

"I don't think she knew Sunset Shimmer was going to...to do that," Twilight says.

I nod. "I agree. I've been thinking..." I pull out my phone and lay it on the table. "The horoscopes from before that were fairly vague...they only really made sense in hindsight. But...the horoscopes since then have been, well..."

"Pointed, direct messages to Flash," Twilight picks up. "We've been talking it over...Fluttershy is Eris, and...and she's the one hacking the horoscope app. I think...I think what happened the other night...it was too much. Whatever grudge Fluttershy has against all of us, whatever reason she has for doing all the things she's done..." She shudders. "That thing with Sunset Shimmer crossed the line, and..."

"Wait, are you sayin' Sunset Shimmer's got somethin' to do with all this Zodiac crap?" Rainbow asks.

"We don't know," I say. "She may, she may not. We've been wrong about a lot of things. But...whoever Mephistopheles is, they might have put Fluttershy up to letting Sunset Shimmer into the dorm. And then that happened. And now Fluttershy's..." I gesture vaguely.

Twilight looks around. "Of course, we're making a lot of assumptions here, and we don't have a lot of facts. All we really have is circumstantial evidence against Fluttershy and a very sudden change in the behavior of whoever's hacking the horoscopes. Which may be Fluttershy or it may not."

Everyone is quiet for a minute.

Cadance sighs. "This is all very serious, and...we're going to have to dig deeper, find more clues. But...in the meantime, we need to worry about what we know for certain."

"Right. The next Shadow." Twilight stands up and starts pacing. "Pisces..." She sighs. "I honestly have no idea who the next victim will be. We need to be ready for anything."

"We're not lettin' the next one get away," Rainbow says decisively. "No more deaths."

"Rainbow Dash is absolutely right," Rarity says. "We need to stay sharp and stay focused. And all this...this other business, Eris, Fluttershy, Mephistopheles, Sunset Shimmer...we can tackle that as new information becomes available to us."

"Twilight, when's Fluttershy's birthday?" Cadance asks.

"March 29," Twilight replies immediately. "She's an Aries."

"If she isn't attacked, then we'll know for sure," Rainbow says, frowning.

"That's not good enough," I say, shaking my head. "We need to find out what Fluttershy has to do with all this before the next Shadow attack. If she is Eris, we...we need to get her on our side."

"Are you loco in the coco?" Pinkie demands. "Eris tries to kick our butts every time we see her, Fluttershy let Sunset Shimmer into the dorm to rape you...how can we trust either of them? Especially if they're the same person!"

"Because we need to," Twilight says. "Because I think she needs our help too."

It's late...

Everybody heads up to bed.

It takes a long time for me to get to sleep...