May......meets somepony?

Shy looked at the throne. He grinned at May.

"Well, she's not gonna be needing it anymore, right?"

He started picking out the valuable bits and packed them into his saddle bag. Think of all the paints he could buy...of course, May seemed more important to him than treasure. He hugged her, happily explaining.

"Think of what we can do with the- What was that?"

He looks around, aiming his sword in all directions. 

"I know you're there. Come on out."

Shy got a little fright when the voice spoke. It sort of reverberated around the room. Nevertheless, he quickly regained his composure and pointed his sword at the beast.

"Look pal. We're just here for a little exploring. We won't hesitate to turn you into paste if you get in our way."

If there was one thing Shy was good at, it was hiding his emotions. Outwardly, he was perfectly calm and confident. Inside, he was excited, Happy at the prospect of getting to butcher the monster.

When the gargoyle grabbed May, Shy felt a very familiar emotion rising. Anger. Bitter, burning anger. He looked at this creature and saw it was like his younger days; stuff constantly being taken from him. Now here was something trying to take somepony who actually made him happy. Not. On. His. Bucking. Life.

Shy took the sword and jumped onto the creatures hand. He used it as a jumping point to get it in the eye. He put the sword into the socket, twisting it round for maximum pain. He then jumped off, watching the gargoyle reeling back, green blood streaming down it's face. As he fell, Shy took the oppurtunity to grab May and bring her down beside him.

"Now that our little friend here isn't holding you prisoner, what say we make him into paste?"

He grinned at May. He loved it when she fought alongside him; they worked like one pony, timing strikes and such with such perfect timing and precision it seemed unreal. To Shy, this was romance.

May smirked, "best idea I've heard in a while." she laughed, smiling devilishly at the beast. It held a paw to its eye, screaming angrily. 

May approached it slowly, but built up speed and was soon racing towards it. She sliced at his stone arms, and swung at its stone head. It stepped back, bleeding. But May didn't stop, she continued attacking the creature, one slice after the other until the beast fell.

Shy high hooved May as the beast fell. For good measure, he jumped onto the gargoyle and drove the sword right into it's chest. He looked at its corpse- not much of value on it. He turned to the throne and started splitting it up into carriage chunks with his sword. He halved it then took one half of the loot and gave the other to that beautiful mare.

He grinned at May. "So, anything else you wanna see or d'you think it's time to head Back?"

(Sowwy it's short- not much to say.)

"I say we head back." she grinned, slugging her share over her shoulder and strutting out of the building. She left her tail swishing and smirked as she trotted through the forest. 

"Wow, the trip back is a lot shorter." she laughed as they neared the edge. Finally, she burst through the trees into the sunset. "ugh, it's still light out." she complained, rolling her eyes.

Shy smiled and followed May put of the forest. He had to admit that he didn't really like the shade of the sky at this time. He was fine with sunrise and daylight, but he never liked sunsets. The colours always Made his eyes sore.

He knew how to help May out though. He held her close and kissed her, his shadow blocking the horizon from her view. He wasn't even really that scared to kiss her now- earlier he had been scared to even hold her hoof. Now he was kissing her out of the blue, like those colts at school. He felt anger flash in his mind for a moment before calming down. He'd got off just as well as them. No need to think about them.

Of course, he was still bitter and would probably get violent if he recognised one but he didn't think of that. After all, he had May. That was all that mattered.

Burning Heart was on patrol in Ponyville for the umpteenth time. She was put on guard here more than anywhere else. Did Ponyville really even need protection? It seemed quite peaceful here already. All Burning could do was get drunk and spend her pay for guard duty. At least it was enjoyable to a degree. Burning wandered by the forest that laid on the outskirts of Ponyville.

While strolling by the forest, she spotted a familiar stallion. She moved faster and faster to get a better look at him. She knew him as Shy Smiles. She would have greeted him. But he seemed rather preoccupied with his mare...friend... Burning was both confused and enraged. She was told by Shy that he didn't like mares. And here he was, kissing one. She almost snapped at him and clenched her hooves.

"Hello Shy... What are you doing here with a mare?"

May was surprised when Shy kissed her, so much so that she dropped her bag of treasure. Closing her eyes, she kissed Shy back. Not thinking of anything except him, but in front of them, she heard a noise, somepony running towards them. 

Then a voice, a voice she could have sworn she'd heard before. She broke off, looking at the mare. It's her alright. The mare from the tavern, the friendly guard. She thought. 

"hm, you two know each other?" she asked rather bluntly, looking pointedly at Shy then Burning. 

For the two had met in the tavern, along with another pony by the name of Burning Dunk, they had similar names. And May remembered the mare telling her to say hi to Shy if she saw him. She remembered freezing up, but smoothly speaking that she would. Woops, musta forgotten. she laughed a bit mentally.

When Shy was done kissing May, he saw she'd dropped her bag. He picked it up for her and handed her it, smiling. He then heard a familiar voice calling him. It was Burning Heart. Oh Celestia, let the awkwardness commence. He was rather taken aback by Burning's way of talking to him.

"Well it's kind of obvious what we're doing. What's wrong with you? You look like you want to kill me. Look, I know it didn't work out, but didn't we get off on good terms? What's the problem?"

He remembered her saying the attraction had gone from her too anyway. He just didn't understand what was wrong with Burning. He went a little red at May's question.

"Erm...yeah. We hooked up briefly, but the attraction sort of died after I decided I was gay. Of course, you changed that." He said, nuzzling her.

Burning Heart glared at Shy. He should have known what the problem was. He said to her directly that he liked stallions, and he went and kissed a mare right in front of her. Then Shy said how May changed his attraction from stallions to mares. She wasn't buying that at all. She stepped closer to him.

"Oh, don't give me that crap Shy! You told me to my face that you didn't like me because I'm a mare. And here you are, kissing a mare! You lied straight to my face! And I'll admit, the attraction wasn't that strong after the tavern. But you lied to me so you could avoid me. I should kill you right where you stand..."


Burning was getting closer and closer to becoming violent with Shy. Hell hath no fury, like a Burning Heart scorned...

"Huh." May raised an eyebrow at the mare, "Burning isn't it?" she asked, stepping nonchalantly between the two. she smirked and reached quietly into her pocket, pulling out a match, "Now, wouldn't it be a shame if that name became a reality?" she laughed quietly, striking the match against her cloak, lighting it. 

Normally, she would have already set the mare on fire, but she didn't exactly want to if Shy stopped her. Of course, that probably wouldn't work anyways.

At first Shy felt fear at Burning. She was really that paranoid? He looked to May and shook his head.

"I don't think she'll burn. She's a crystal pony."

He felt another emotion rising- anger. Bubbling hot, slow building rage.

"Are you really that thick?!?! Do you actually think I'd be dumb enough to do that? I'm far from the nicest pony, but that's just sick. I genuinely liked you. I saw you as somepony who could help me through those memories I had to relive. You did that, and I'll admit I'm grateful for the help. But how the hell would I know I'm Bi? I thought I was gay. I looked at you and said 'She's a mare, but I think I prefer stallions.' I got that off a memory I saw after that deep drink."

He growled at her, giving a look that suggested 'come on then.'

Burning Heart was feeling the strongest sense of anger she had ever experienced. Sure, she didn't like him as much has she did when they met. But he said he was gay to get away from her. Or so she thought. She didn't believe the whole bisexual thing. And May stepping in threatening to burn her didn't help. It only made her angrier.

Burning stared at Shy. He looked like he wanted to fight. So she'd give him exactly that. A fight. Burning Heart, without warning, took a huge swing at Shy's face. She had no feelings other than violence right now. And the only way to solve it was somepony getting hurt

May narrowed her eyes as Burning attacked. She was about to retaliate, but instead stepped aside. This wasn't her fight. It was Shy's.

Before getting out of the way, she looked apologetically at Shy. She got out of the way because she knew it would be embarrassing if a mare protected a stallion. Personally, she saw nothing wrong with it. Stallion's did it all the time do mares, why couldn't mares do the same? Sexism. May tsked and shook her head, but leaned up against a tree.

Shy reached for his sword, but realised that wouldn't be fair. This wasn't lethal combat- this cow simply wanted to rough him up a bit. Probably. He took her hoof to the face. He kind of laughed at the punch- Burning could really hit. He hit right back with an uppercut to the chops. Before she could respond, Shy simply grinned at her.

"The best part of this is that I was kinda happy that we ended on good terms. Now look at us- you're duffing me up over something so trivial as you thinking I've lied to you-which I haven't by the way. Do you really want it to end like this, Miss Heart? The love story changing from 'they loved and helped each other briefly but decided it wouldn't work out' to 'She got miffed and smacked him about in the rain after making a stupid misunderstanding. Bravo, Bravo."

Shy sarcastically clapped his hooves. He nodded to May.

"Thanks for staying out of this. This is between me an her."

Burning Heart stepped back a bit from Shy's uppercut. He had a mean punch. He only laughed at her shot. Was she getting weak? Or was he just having fun? Shy seemed like he enjoyed a good fight. So did Burning. It was starting to go from vengeance to entertainment. After Shy's long attempt at trying to talk the fight down, she took a look at herself. A cow? Was she getting out of shape? She shook her head and stopped worrying about something as stupid as that right now. She still had a hard time believing that he went both ways.

"Oh really? Okay then, Stallion of a Thousand Words. I want you to prove to me that you really do like both sides. I want to see you make out with a stallion. If you enjoy it, I'll believe you. I'll even give you the pay from my last three jobs. If you don't, however... May might just become single..." She felt like she was just being dumb with this request. He could easily fake it, or just deny it and go back to fighting. It was worth a try at least.

May laughed, grinning. "Right on!" she smirked, still snickering. Her hood had fallen over her face, and she looked up.

"Well, you have fun with that." she said, turning away and hefting the bag over her shoulder. She allowed herself one longing look at Shy, but closed her eyes and turned back to Ponyville.

Really, she didn't want to go, but also didn't want to get in the way. If she spoke out, who knows what Burning would do. May could easily take the mare, but didn't want to fight unless it was necessary. And she didn't want to force Shy to choose. "I hope to see you again, Shy. That was really quite fun." she smiled reassuringly, desperately hoping he would in fact return to her. With that, she began trudging back to the town, barely letting a tear fall.

Shy went red at that thought. Yeah, he might be Bi but he didn't really know any stallions he wanted to kiss- he hated most ponies anyway. He still didn't know how May managed to charm him. Speaking of which, his spirits lifted when May said she wanted to see him again. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have her. He turned back to Burning.

"Three points: Firstly, why should I prove myself to you? I don't get anything out of it. I'm not in any financial problems and I think you'll need that pay more than me. Second, I hate most ponies. I don't know what May did but she does it damn well to be able to get to me. Finally, what did you mean by 'She might just become single?' Are you gonna kill me or force me to date you?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, anticipating a fight.

Burning Heart kept glaring at Shy. He was just filled with reasons why to not do anything to convince her that he actually liked both stallions and mares. She was starting to get annoyed. All Shy did was talk. In the end, it just sounded like moaning and whining. She was starting to miss when they were together for a very short time.

"You don't exactly need to prove your worth to me. I just want to be fully convinced that you didn't just weasel your way away from me. It's an odd request, I know. But I need to know if you're telling the truth. And about May being single? I wouldn't force you to date me. I could always find another stallion. So, that's the deal. Kiss one stallion, and I will never speak to you again. I will never bother you again. But if you don't... It could get messy... Just find a cute stallion and kiss him. Shouldn't be too hard now, could it?"

May walked home quietly, and dropped her cargo on the floor without a second thought. She looked about her dark home. No windows to let light in. Barely any lights at all for that matter. Cobwebs had collected in the corner. She trotted up to them and waved them away, letting them fall to the floor. She took out a broom and swept them out the front door. She may like the dark but preferred her house clean.

Suddenly, she wondered what Shy and Burning were up to. Were they still bickering, or had they decided upon a deal? She tried to shove the thought out of her head, but found herself fumbling for the keys-which could be counted as a big deal, May is never clumsy. She opened the door and locked it, stuffing the key in her pocket.

She regained her calm and smooth demeanor, and continued on towards the forest. Luckily, she wa already very quiet. She had the ability to sneak about with nopony noticing. She smirked. Silently, she approached the two at the edge of the forest. so they're still here she thought. She slunk away into the forest to eavesdrop among the foliage.

She knew she shouldn't listen in on Shy, but felt the need to. Hopefully, it wouldn't turn nasty. Hopefully, he wouldn't catch her. She hoped he wouldn't. That would be the end of that

Shy rolled the idea in his mind. Then, a sneaky little thought popped up. 'Oh Shy, you clever colt....' He thought to himself.

"No. I'm not gonna just kiss a random stallion. You should know that I'm not like that. Now buck off- if you try and 'get messy' I might just have a word with a certain captain of the guard about you harassing a pony over his own personal life."

He turned and walked away. What the hay was even her problem? She thought she could just bully him into kissing somepony he didn't know. How would she like it if he told her to kiss some random mare? Whatever.

He walked down the path, away from Burning. He kept his guard up though- no telling what she might do.

Burning Heart's eyes widened at Shy's threat to report her to her boss. She couldn't lose her job. It was the only thing she knew how to do. And it would ruin her family heritage. She then decided violence and threats on her end weren't going to solve anything. She trotted after Shy. She was going to try and be more rational with this.

"Okay Shy, you won. I'm sorry. It's just, this isn't the first time I had something like this happen to me. I knew a stallion who declared himself to love stallions, and I found him with another mare the next day. I ran from that situation. And I hate being avoided like that. Maybe you really are bi. You would know that for sure. But I'm no mind reader. And you probably still hate my guts, seeing as you're always so untrusting of other ponies. I just gave you more reason. You think we can look past this?" Burning was expecting Shy to flip what she said around and onto her. As he was doing this entire time...