Friday (February 3rd) Early morning; Fluttershy's POV
What was I going to do? What was I going to do?
I was panicking. A letter had come in the mail for Light from his sister's work place. A close friend had finally set up a funeral service for her. It had taken so long because Light had not been able to come and sort things out. Yet she still managed to set up a service and she wanted Light to come.
I couldn't deny him the right to his sister's funeral. Lying was one thing, but not letting him say goodbye was another; and it was in one week. I had one week to tell Light that his sister was dead and that he would have to attend her funeral, that he himself had nothing to do with.
I was almost one hundred percent sure that he wasn't ready for the news. Whenever he did something really physical, he clutched his that his chest. He had been doing spectacular with the physical therapy, but it would still take some time till he was back to his pre-coma state. And even longer till he was as close as he could get to his original state.
As I felt his breathing, I was terrified. How? How would I do it? Would I rip it off like a band-aid? Or take it slow and break the news to him one step at a time? Each had their downsides. If I did it like a band-aid, it might not get through to him or it might give him another attack on the spot. If I laid it out for him, he might break down and not let me finish explaining. Either way, he would probably end up hating me.
"Fluttershy?" I heard him ask. He sounded exhausted.
"Yes, Light?" I responded.
"Why are you awake? The sun is not up." He pointed out. The truth was I had never gone to bed in the first place.
"I had a bad dream, but I'm okay now." I told him. He nodded.
He tried getting out of bed, but was too tired. He tried to fight it, but couldn't. He fell back asleep which I was glad for.
For the next few hours, I thought and thought about how to tell Light. I went through every scenario in my head that I could think of. Eventually, I settled on one.
When Light woke up again, I pretended to be asleep. I could feel him trying his hardest not to make any noise getting out of the bed. I let him do his morning routine before I got out and did mine.
I found him downstairs fumbling with the kitchen utensils trying to make breakfast.
"Here let me help you." I said as I went to grap the spatula he was holding way too high on the handle. He frowned but let me take it. Together we cooked breakfast and ate it.
Since it was still winter, I didn't have any of my usual duties or chores; and with Light being unemployed, he didn't have anything to do either. We had the entire day to ourselves.
Up until noon, we talked and played tiny games that Light had taught me that he used to keep himself from becoming bored during long, tedious things.
When noon struck, I knew it was now or never. I couldn't make any substantial difference with him in just a week. It had to be before I lost my nerve entirely.
"Light, we need to talk." I told him. The tone in my voice telling him that this was serious.
"About what?" He asked. He looked almost frightened.
I scooted closer to him on the couch. I needed for him to only focus on me.
"Stella... had some... complications, the past few months." I told him. His face lost all color.
"Light please. Stay with me." I begged him. He nodded to tell me he was still listening.
"And, right before your coma, she...she passed away." I told him. I had tried to combine the two. I told him as simply as I could, but I gave him an explanation.
"Sister is...gone." He said quietly. I could barely hear him. Tears were forming in his eyes.
"Sister can not be gone. Sister is healthy. Sister is still here and I will find her!" He had steadily grown louder with each statement. I heard the anger in his voice increase as he said each statement, as well.
He stood up suddenly and rushed out the door. I was in shock for a second before I came to my senses.
I rushed after him out into the snow. The other pegasi, the ones in charge of the weather, had really been bringing it down hard this year. If I included the recent snowfall yesterday, my cottage was extremely hard to get to from town. The snow was up to my inner thigh for most of it, the wind having blown snow onto my walkway.
I looked around for any sign of Light. I noticed large holes in the snow wrapping around the cottage to the left.
I was already starting to feel the cold. Being a pegasus, cold wasn't much to me. Growing up in cloudsdale had steeled me against this type of weather, but I was still getting cold, fast. I could only imagine how Light must be feeling.
I started trying to walk in Light's hoofprints but realized his legs were too long. I couldn't fly because it was too cold out. My wings would get frost bitten if I extended them away from my body.
I was completely useless to him right now.
I called out for him. After a few minutes I started walking in Light's hoofsteps again. Soon I found a rhythm that helped me go faster than a crawl, but still didn't end in me just plowing my way through from hole to hole.
I could see him in the distance. At some point he had taken a turn and was now headed towards the everfree forest. I tried going as fast as I could and I caught up with him at the edge.
"Light, please. I'm sorry about Stella, but she passed away almost two and half months ago. You have to listen to me." I begged him. It had to be below freezing out here. It was the only explanation for the amount of cold I could feel seeping through my sweater.
"No! I must see Sister!" He yelled. I could see the exhaustion in his body as well as the cold. He was vibrating and his entire body sagged.
"Light, we have to go back to the cottage. It's way too cold out here." I told him.
He roared and punched the nearest tree. His fist left a large dent in the tree down past his knuckles. He tore his fist out of the trunk and hit it again, over and over. Soon, a piece of bark just fell off.
"Light, stop." I told him. He would topple the tree or break his hands, whichever came first.
With another roar, he pulled back and smashed his fist all the way into the tree.
Suddenly, all the snow tumbled out of the tree and on top of us. I was buried under several pounds of snow in a small air pocket. I screamed, hurting my ears, and I could feel one of my arms pinned under the snow. The cold was really starting to get to me. My teeth were chattering and I was shivering.
I kept screaming hoping Light would hear me. I could feel myself panicking. If I didn't get warm soon, I might freeze to death. I struggled to get my arm free but with no luck.
"Light!" I yelled desperately. Suddenly, I felt something on my arm. I realized with terror that it had gone almost completely numb. Then I was pulled out of the snow bank and into something soft. I looked up and saw Light. I was against his sweater.
I grabbed him. "Light, we need to go inside. It's too cold. Please." I pleaded through chattering teeth. He picked me up fully and started making his way back toward the cottage.
I could feel his body convulsing as it tried to stay warm and I could feel my own body doing the same thing. It felt like hours before we reached the house again. I felt him put me down on the sofa.
"No, we need to get out of these clothes. They'll just absorb heat that we need." I told him. The house wasn't helping me get warm, it just stopped me from getting any colder.
I forced Light upstairs and out of his clothes. I took mine off with shaky hands and climbed into the bed, motioning Light to do the same. He didn't move.
"Light, this will help us warm up." I explained to him.
"Sister." He said. He sounded broken and there was a croak in his voice.
"Light, come here." I called to him softly, lifting up the blanket for him. He slowly made his way over and climbed in.
His body was warm against mine, but all that told me was that I was colder than him.
"Light, I'm sorry about Stella. For the short time I knew her, she was amazing." I tried to comfort him. I didn't know why, though. He was taking this infinitely better than I had expected.
"Sister is not gone. Sister can not be gone. She would not leave me." He told me. He was blankly staring down at my collar bone, as if in a trance.
After some debating, I decided to tell him. "Light, she explained to me that this would happen eventually. Something was wrong with her. It's why she was trying so hard to make us mates. She wanted us to be together because she knew that she would leave you. I'm so, so sorry-" I explained, but I was interrupted.
"You knew!" He shouted right next to me.
"I did, but-"
"You always knew! You lied to me!" He kept yelling. He threw off the covers and leaped out of the bed, letting cold air rush in around us.
He walked over to the door and slammed it shut behind him. He was still naked.
I rushed after him to the first floor. I found him on the couch with his head in his hands.
I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
"Light, please listen to me-" I tried.
"No! You lied to me. You knew sister was gone and you never told me! Fluttershy lied." He had tears streaming down his face. It made me feel awful.
"Light, you were in no place to hear about it. You had a heart attack caused by stress. Learning about your sister's death then would have killed you. And I can't lose you, Light. You're too important to me." I explained to him.
He stood up and looked down at me with an almost hateful expression.
"Important to you? I am not important to you. If I was, you would not have lied." He spat at me. It wasn't malicious. Light couldn't be malicious, but it felt like it.
"Being important to me was the one reason that I lied. I know it was wrong of me to do, but it was for your own safety." I pleaded. I grabbed his hand, but it felt weird.
I looked down at it just to see it covered in blood. I realized that it was the hand that he had used to destroy the tree.
"Light we need to get this bandaged, come on." I told him. Trying to change the subject any way I could. But he wouldn't let it go.
"No." He pulled his hand out of mine.
"I do not want to go anywhere with you. I do not want anymore of your lies." I could see him shivering.
"Light, you're just angry. You don't mean that." I tried to rationalize his remark. "Why don't we go back upstairs and get back in bed and warm up?" I asked him.
He didn't respond. He just kept glaring at me.
"Light, please. You'll catch your death if you don't warm back up. I can still see it, you're freezing." I reasoned with him.
He started walking. I started up the steps and walked to our room, but before I opened the door I heard another open. I turned around to see Light's tail slip through the guest room door.
My eyes burned with tears. Maybe he did hate me now.
I walked over to the door and knocked. "Light? Why don't you come sleep in our bed?" I asked through the door.
"I do not want to sleep with you. Go away." He called.
I sunk to my knees and put my head in my hands. I may have just lost the love of my life.