Zodiac

The pleasure of Pinkie Pie's tongue slurping across my clit is completely shattered by the cold dread I feel when the change overtakes the room and the texts start crawling.

"Oh no...no no no...not now!" I sit up, my heart hammering. Pinkie pulls back, frowning as she gathers herself in a lotus position. Beside me, Cadance rolls over onto her back and groans.

"Just when this was really getting fun," she complains.

The door to the master bedroom flies open with a bang, and Fluttershy storms in. "Get up, you degenerate sluts!" she yells. "We're in real trouble here!"

"Oh my GOD will you STOP?" Pinkie screeches. "Do you have ANY IDEA HOW SICK WE ARE OF YOU BEING A BITCH TO EVERYONE? Oh, happy birthday, by the way."

I blink. Is it already...?

I grab my phone off the bedside table and check it. Sure enough, it's past midnight...

Cadance frowns. "Fluttershy, is this..." She cringes at a particularly vile text which floats by. "I mean, are you...?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is," Fluttershy says. "Of course, you could do us all a favor and check..."

Cadance gives her an icy glare, then heads across the hall to retrieve her own phone. When she comes back, she's also carrying a pair of shorts and a tank top. Catching on quickly, I snatch up some shorts and a T-shirt from my own stuff; Pinkie grabs the T-shirt she came in wearing (which belongs to Flash) and pulls it on.

Aphrodite appears above us. Cadance gasps. //We're...we're surrounded! I'm reading twenty...no, fifty...oh my god...there's more and more Shadows appearing every second! The house is surrounded!//

"Oh no!" Pinkie wails. "This is bad...! What do we do?"

"Well I'm damn sure not going out there and getting myself killed," Fluttershy says.

"Uhh...aren't they after YOU though?" Pinkie asks.

//I'm not sensing Aries...//

"Oh, it's out there," Fluttershy says. "Dammit..."

"Sunset Shimmer's turned on you, hasn't she?" I ask. "Just like Snips. She killed him and now she's going to kill you."

Fluttershy snorts. "With six Persona users inside the house? The Shadows can't get in here. We can hole up until my birthday passes and wait it out."

"What about Flash and Rarity?" I ask.

//I'm sensing them further up the beach...// Cadance gasps. //There are Shadows moving toward them! A lot of them!//

Fluttershy frowns. "Well...sucks to be them."

I've had all I can stand of this...

I grab Fluttershy by the collar of her shirt and punch her in the nose, then throw her on the floor. "The Shadows can have you," I snarl.

//Twilight...//

"No! I'm sick of this!" I glare down at Fluttershy. "What is WRONG with you? When have any of us ever done anything but try to be your friend...and then all this time, you've been working against us, fighting us, trying to hurt us..." I see black spots dancing in the corners of my eyes. "And even then, we..." I sink to my knees. I'm crying... "We just want...to reach out to you..."

"Twilight..." Pinkie says. "We...we need to warn Flash and Rarity...they're all alone out there..."

I sniffle and wipe my eyes. "Right..." I glare at Fluttershy. "Which side are you on? You'd better decide fast, because I swear if anything happens to Flash, I will throw you out the window." I pick up my phone and call Flash. My heart pounds in my chest as ring after ring pass before...

"Twilight, are you okay?"

I didn't realize until just now that I stopped breathing... "Flash, are you alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine. What the hell happened?"

"Flash, there's Shadows everywhere! The entire beach house is surrounded!"

//I'm picking up over a hundred Shadows in the vicinity and more closing in fast. I'm not picking up Aries—//

Sonata and Rainbow rush in. "There's Shadows everywhere outside!" Rainbow exclaims.

"There's no way we can fight that many!" Sonata cries.

"We're going to have to," I say. "Flash and Rarity are all alone out there." I turn and frown at Fluttershy. "And there's a Hunter coming for her."

"Oh no," Sonata whimpers. "We can't let Fluttershy die!"

"Twilight wants to do just that," Fluttershy says.

I haul off and slap her again. "STOP IT!"

//ALL OF YOU stop it!// Cadance takes a deep breath. //We're all going to make it through this alive, but we have to work together. That means you too, Fluttershy. Twilight's right, you have a choice to make. You can drop the attitude and join us, or you can keep acting like Sunset Shimmer.//

Fluttershy's eyes widen. "N-no...I'm not like...her..."

//Yes you are. Only worse, because you betrayed all of us. You pretended to be our friend. You've hurt all of us. I don't know if you care about that or not, but...//

Fluttershy shrinks into herself.

//So what's it going to be? Are you going to start making amends? Are you going to stop being as bitchy as you can possibly be to everyone and at least TRY to earn back our trust? Because if you want to keep acting like that and being a spiteful little cunt, I'll call Principal Celestia as soon we get out of this mess. We'll go back to Canterlot today and I'll have you in a jail cell before you know what hit you.

//This is it, Fluttershy. This is your last chance. Whose side are you on?//

Fluttershy bows her head. She's trembling. She clenches her hands into fists in her lap. Her hair obscures her face. "I..." Her breath hitches. "I...I'll help you."

I let out a sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding, then offer Fluttershy my hand. She takes it; I pull her to her feet. She sighs. "We're all going to die if we go out there. You know that, right?"

I shake my head. "No...we won't. Because Flash is out there. And he's coming for us. I...I know he is."

Meanwhile...