A piece of music could be heard across Fluttershy's living room. A slow drumbeat contributing to an even slower cello, while a saxophone played a dreamy melody. The sweet smell of fresh fruits and nuts, laid out in fine dishes for all the animals, gave a nice aroma for the air and the sun shone warmly through the window as it slowly crept up on the horizon. The room itself was neatly ordered, cleaned only two days ago. Everything still had a shine to it, especially the vases on the window sill.
The overall calm morning mood was ruined, though, as a certain bunny felt that his breakfast was the only one that hadn't been made in advance. No salad, no carrots, no water, nothing. He hopped out of the kitchen, red faced with anger. Angel Bunny, the most ill-tempered mammal in all of Ponyville, then went on into the living room. The music still played in the background. A soothing melody, lively and yet strangely calm. A most suitable song, one could say, for the owner of this house. Angel didn't care about that of course, thinking himself above the owner in rankings and ignoring that, in a direct fight, the odds would be against him. Brave little Angel Bunny had never cared about such things and instead moved forward to where the couch stood.
The couch was shaped like a bean and dyed in a fine green with two pillows on it; one a darker shade of the couch's colour, the other a pale yellow. Everypony who ever had the chance to sit on it had found it the most comfortable couch in the entirety of Ponyville, from the cute critters around the woods to Rainbow Dash to Discord himself. Everypony found themselves returning to this place again, for the comfort of talk with the owner of the cottage and the comfort of two pillows on a bunk and. It was almost a certainty that the owner would be found there, too. Like now, with her long, rose mane coming down, flowing in fine combed streaks and her pale yellow body moving softly with each breath. The smallest of smiles adorned her face, hinting of the wondrous world the pony dreamt of.
Angel Bunny didn't care. Angel Bunny only wanted his breakfast. He hopped towards her and in the middle of a jump took her hair and pulled it down with him. The tug made the pony scream out as she rolled off the mattress and, as irony and gravity both willed it, fell onto Angel, whose last second before being squished beneath tangles of hair and a pony's head was spent smiling in the most smug way possible.
The pony looked up to the ceiling, feeling something beneath her head. Realizing what had happened she jumped up immediately, turning around. Angel Bunny laid there, twitching with both pain and regret.
"Oh," Fluttershy said and picked him up immediately, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." Her words were spoken in the softest of voices and were more soothing to the bunny than the music could ever be.That was something most of the critters could agree on. For them, the pony named Fluttershy was the best of friends, and Bunny was the one who took her for granted the most. He knew it and whenever his hard demeanor allowed it he would show kindness. Though, none of that would happen today since he was hungry and had gone through the night with nothing but water – again. He squeaked and pointed to the kitchen.
She looked at the kitchen, confusion reflecting in her eyes, which only made him angrier. He squeaked again. "I'm hungry and you didn't make my breakfast," was what he meant. No other pony would've done what she did.
"Oh, I didn't? But I thought... Sorry," as small as her voice was it was at least a blessing that she was able to understand, a talent only Fluttershy boasted. This was the one reason why they had become friends. Fluttershy put him down and walked over to the kitchen, mumbling excuses and asking herself why she hadn't made him anything.
At least until she found a note, kicked off the table by the bunny and picked it up.
"Friday, shopping on the market with Discord. Also no food for Angel Bunny – top priority," it stood written there and it came back to the pegasus. Carrot Top hadn't been available this week due to some problem involving her distant family. Sadly, she was the only pony in Ponyville planting carrots and that meant that, for now, there wouldn’t be any carrots on the market. She was supposed to be back today, but if not... Fluttershy looked at her impatient friend, one foot stomping up and down like a hammer on a particularly stubborn nail.
"O-Okay, I can fix this," she said, looking over all the other stuff, squinting her eyes a bit. Sure, she had worked yesterday until late after midnight and it couldn't be long after sunrise, but that wasn't so impairing. Not after she'd done it over a thousand times.
She looked at the kitchen and the various foodstuffs she had in store, her mind racing. After a second she looked at Angel again. "How about I make you a nice salad for now. Just some nice greens for now, and then for dinner you can have carrots. Your diet needs to have a bit more variety anyhow... if you'd like, I mean. I don't want you to do anything you don't want to and probably..." She had started out as assertive as she'd get without provocation and then had stumbled into some hole again. Normally, Angel would've tried to argue with her, but he was simply too hungry. So he just nodded in agreement. Anything to get food.
A few minutes later, she placed her hooves on the sandy path that lead from her house to the village of Ponyville. She moved past her chickens, who greeted her happily after a good night's rest. One, Petunia she called herself, had a bandage around her head, still from that one time she had wandered too deep into the Everfree Forest. From the hillside, a vixen with a broken leg waved at her. The wound had been treated by the pony, like so many others, and she had been given a stern warning about disturbing the farmers on the far end of the village. But all in all, it seemed like the day would start out well enough.
On her way blades of grass softly went against her leg, the cold wetness of the morning dew soaking through her fur after a while. It was a fresh morning, the kind of morning Ponyville just loved. She saw Lyra plucking her harp around the first corner, a smile as bright as the sun on her face. Berry was taking her daughter to school, cracking a joke she had picked up from Cherry Berry, one which the young one openly laughed at. Bon Bon was sitting on a bench, eating some candy and looking miserable. Dark lines had formed under her eyes. She had slept over at Sassaflash’s and Caramel’s home, the two of whom had some dispute over the tapestry in their kitchen. She knew from Rarity that said dispute involved yelling at each other deep into the night, mostly about why green was such a nice color or why it wasn't. Rarity felt part the reason why the dispute had happened, having had her own problems involving the color. It was none of Fluttershy's business and she didn't want to intrude into any of their business. She wasn’t that rude a pony. Instead, she simply strolled towards the market, a melody on her lips and the sun warming her from above.
The market came into sight, with quite a few booths placed across it. They didn’t catch her eye, though. Instead, what got her attention was the creature that stood right in her path. The dragonequus, Discord, waving at her. That was a sight which made her stop immediately.
Standing before her was a being that once had threatened the entirety of Equestria, who now wore a wonderfully large straw-hat and sunglasses along with a cute basket adorned with butterflies and flowers, and waved at her frantically. That would've made any pony halt. From what Fluttershy had heard, when Luna had seen Discord after so long, she had simply returned to her quarters and slept through that day and the next. Even those unfettered couldn't stand before the utterly implausible. Still, Fluttershy put on her brightest smile and waved at her friend.
"Ah, Fluttershy," he said, his voice filled with the same amount as mischief as it had been the day he'd broken out from stone and threatened to make Equestria his. "I hope you slept well?"
She smiled, even though casual conversation with him seemed weird – if not somewhat terrifying. "Yes, I had a good dream, but I forgot to prepare Angel Bunny's breakfast yesterday."
He giggled, "Well, you hardly ever relax, my dear Fluttershy. Between the adventures with your friends and your critters, when do you ever relax?"
A fair question, the pegasus knew, but the fact that it had come from Discord's mouth... well, he was the one who knew most about relaxation if she had heard correctly about the escapades he and Pinkie would go on while babysitting the Cakes. She relented as they turned towards the market.
"Well, I have my work cut out for me," she said, taking a firm stance. Discord was the last creature to judge another for anything, she had found, unless it involved paperwork. Discord had a deep-seated hatred for bureaucracy. For some reason, she had never asked why. "I love working with the critters and spending time with my friends." She gave him her smile and hoped it was enough.
He turned his head away, a bit nervous. Discord was still not used to this whole “friendship” business and had confessed to reciting the whole 'Friendship is Magic' mantra once after brushing his teeth, all day, every day. If it worked? Maybe. Fluttershy made a point out of not questioning most things in life.
“Despite,” she added after a moment, “there’s been an awful lot of wounded animals coming in lately. Taking care of them takes up a lot of time.”
“And that worries you why exactly? Not to step on their toes, but most of them aren’t the brightest-” Fluttershy frowned at that remark, but Discord laughed that off, but at least he had the decency to correct himself. “I meant, whatever happens in the woods, that’s hardly any of your trouble.”
He was right, but still she cared. “It kept me up yesterday, too. I just can’t help thinking about these poor animals. What if something is in the Everfree? Something that can hurt them?” A thought she dreaded.
“It’s the Everfree, even in my time it worked in its own way. You shouldn’t worry too much about it. And if you’re spooked, maybe you could go check it out.”
Another thought that send shivers down her spine, but... “Maybe you’re right.”
He laughed it off, like so many things. It wasn’t in his nature to take things seriously, so she wondered why she even told him.
“Well, let’s change the subject to something less gloomy,” he then proclaimed and somehow the conversation shifted over to boiled eggs and time vortexes as they looked over some of Time Turner’s work, the brown earth pony looking at them through bored eyes that didn’t hope that they’d buy anything.
Time Turner himself had long since established himself as one of the top clockmakers in the world. As far as Fluttershy knew, he had learned the art in the griffon lands, where punctuality was a virtue, and all his clocks were works of art. She liked browsing through them, even though Time himself seemed to have little taste for selling them. He was an artist till the end, she figured.
Her thoughts quickly returned to her animal friends again, like they had throughout the night and even into the realm of dreams as she had found some respite on her couch. She couldn’t remember much of her dream, only that it had involved the forest, the critters and that it hadn’t been a particularly nice dream.
Discord must’ve noticed her staring off, thinking and picked up one of the pocket watches offered. Artfully designed vines of silver ran across the blued metal. The dragonequus looked at it. “Are you really that worried?”, he asked.
She looked at him, thinking he’d turn this into one of his jokes – well, maybe not, he wasn’t Pinkie Pie. “Everypony knows that there are things in the Everfree Forest.”
It wasn’t some myth but common knowledge. She had seen hydras and manticores, cockatrices and other beasts within the enchanted woods, not to speak of the places. There were ponds filled with magic and castles housing ancient forces. She had seen all that and the thoughts of what she hadn’t seen, those there were the ones which sometimes kept her awake in her small cottage at the edge of Ponyville.
“Ah yes, the things. A few years back, ponies were scared of something in the forest, too. That’s just what I heard, though. A creature that had fallen from the stars and had roamed the ancient forests for days, hunting whomever it met. It turned out to be some pegasus.” He looked at her with that mess of a face he called his own and opened the watch and showed it to her, the clock hands moving slowly. “Time ticks away and sometimes it might even seem like it repeats. That’s how history goes, you know. You shouldn’t worry too much. In the end it might end up to be nothing but a coincidence and all these animals of yours? They all just happen to have accidents all over the forest. There is nothing quite so frightening as the things that aren’t even there to begin with.”
She had looked at Discord, had smiled and then agreed. Maybe she was worrying herself too much. The day went over smoothly, with Golden having the carrots and even giving Fluttershy some extra. “Sorry for the trouble,” she had said and laughed. Chances were she had taken up some business lessons from Applejack. It still went on but after as the sun drew close to the horizon, the two bid each other farewell and Fluttershy made off to her home again.
It was sunset when she arrived and the bunny wasn’t all too happy about how long she’d taken, having spent most of his day living off flowers, which hadn’t helped as much with the hunger as he’d hoped. So the anger passed over quickly as he saw her saddlebag filled with carrots, of which even the orange color appeared tasty to him.
“I kept you waiting, didn’t I? Sorry about that,” she said to him as she went for the mailbox and looked inside it. She found it empty and moved towards her house. The pegasus opened the door and they both went straight for the kitchen. There she immediately started preparing their dinner.
Aside from Angel the house was empty, she found out with a quick gaze. That was rare in it’s own right but considering how the past few days had been particularly stressful she was somewhat grateful for it. She made some salad for Angel and for herself before retreating to the couch again, leaning back on it while silently munching on her food and staring off into nothingness. Her thoughts were drifting once more, towards the Everfree Forests, the wounded animals and what Discord had said. The forest was always worrying everypony and even though there were dangerous things in it, most of it was rumours, actually. When one lived only a day’s march away from the Gates of Tartarus, those kinds of things just appeared and spread.
She blinked, her tongue finding a cucumber amidst the blossoms and leaves and she relaxed more, spreading herself across the green, bean-shaped couch. She had been told it was the most comfortable couch by quite a few ponies and this was one of the few moments where she could only regretfully agree. Her thoughts were drifting and slowly consciousness was moving away from her.
She then felt a sudden sting in her left hind leg and her eyes shot wide open, looking into a pink face with brown eyes behind glasses, watching her with a shocked expression on their own.
“A reaction?”, she heard a voice ask.
“Impossible,” the pink face said and all Fluttershy could do was open her mouth and then, with another blink it was gone.
The pegasus was still lying on the couch but she felt a blanket spread across her. Courtesy to Angel, she thought. The bunny was at his best when nopony was looking. The house was dark otherwise, since lighting a fire in summer was unnecessary. She made herself sit up and catched a glimpse out of the window. No noise was heard but as she watched the darkness she felt like she saw something moving by the mailbox. A critter maybe?
She made herself stand up, feeling the slightest cold, thus wrapping herself up in the blanket. She strolled through the room, to a small table which stood close to the door. On it she kept her lantern and some matches to light it. She carefully let her ends move over the table until she found the items and then quickly lit a match and put the gas on.
A few moments later she stepped outside, the radiance of the gas lantern doing little for her sight. Still, she moved across her garden to her mailbox, looking around.
“Anypony here?”, she asked as loudly as she thought necessary, staring into the darkness with nothing staring back at her. She frowned and turned around again but found her eyes stuck on the box itself.
She saw that a letter was crudely stuffed inside it. She didn’t recount seeing any letters before, maybe she had overlooked it? The pony took the letter with her hooves, examining it. It was a scroll, rolled together and held by the royal seal.
Fluttershy did a double take and looked at it again. It was still the royal seal of her majesty, the princess Celestia. She wondered what that meant. Both a sense of dread and wonder overcame her as she looked at the letter and curiosity made her break the seal immediately, unrolling the scroll hastily. Inside it, two short sentences were written in the crudest handwriting, the ink washy and in the dim lighting only barely readable. Still, there they stood and after a few seconds she understood them and upon understanding them couldn’t help but give voice to the words.
“Nothing is real. Come back to us.”
She looked at them, not knowing what was meant with them but in the corner of her eye she spotted something moving. She turned her head towards the forest, the huge, dark Everfree Forest.
“Is somepony there?”, she asked again but received no answer.
Fluttershy put the letter back into the mail for now and stumbled forward, despite her brain telling her to do the exact opposite. She walked closer to the forest and with every step she wanted to return to her home, get into her bed and get a proper night’s rest. But it didn’t seem to matter how much she wanted that. Something was there in the forest. She didn’t know what but it couldn’t talk. If it was another wounded animal, she didn’t want to leave it behind just because she was a bit scared.
She stepped from the grassy fields into the forest, black wood against the nightly darkness. The stars above were hidden by clouds now.
“Is anypony here?”, she asked again, her steps getting smaller with every meter. She needed to turn back, she knew. This was neither the time nor the place to be snooping around. “Anyone?”, she yelled but received no answer.
Her house couldn’t be seen anymore and she was surrounded by blackness, turning around herself with nothing but the silence and the dark to keep her company. This wasn’t the moment to be brave, she knew then, this was the moment to gallop and hide beneath the sheets of her own, warm, comfortable bed. She took a deep breath and made a step into the direction she was sure she had come from but something moved in the corner of her eye.
She turned around, yelling: “Hello?” Her voice sounded as scared and confused as the pony was as she stared at the hundreds of trees around her, which were unmoved by the small, yellow creature in their midst.
Her breathing became quicker, fear spreading. She thought that she should return and she should do so quickly. Fluttershy took a step and then she felt something touching her right front hoof.
“Don’t,” she heard a voice say. It was the voice of a caged bird with broken wings. A voice she had heard once before. Where? She couldn’t tell at that moment. The world started spinning and the pony with it, as she tried to figure out what was happening. The only ones who could watch were the trees of the Everfree Forest and they weren’t able to help.
The pony breathed and the feeling left her body. She fell and her face felt the ground against it. It felt cold and wet against her cheek as she fell and she must’ve bitten her tongue on impact, feeling pain and tasting the blood. She saw the lantern having fallen down, the glass chipped and the flame going out within a split-second. Fluttershy blinked and looked at the darkness. Nothing was moving, nothing was staring back at her. She blinked again and the darkness became a total blackness. She felt the cold, the wetness she even knew the blood’s taste and she remembered a few words she had been told by the dragonequus, Discord.
“They all just happen to have accidents all over the forest. There is nothing quite so frightening as the things that aren’t even there to begin with.”
She couldn’t help but smile at the irony as she closed her eyes for good.
The girl opened her eyes again, feeling something holding her hoof. She wanted to react but couldn’t. The only thing that would move were her eyes. She was in a bed somewhere, she knew instantly, looking up at the ceiling but she caught a glimpse at whoever was by her side.
Somepony was sitting by Fluttershy’s bedside, who it was she did not know since the nightly darkness hid her well. However, the person soon let go of her hand. Fluttershy could make out the motions in the dark, if only barely. And even if she hadn’t had that, she would’ve still felt the warmth of the touch leaving her.
She heard a door creak and tried to turn her head. Slowly but surely her body responded, crying out as if it had never used it’s neck before. There was light outside the door and Fluttershy managed to get a good look at the person’s back.
Her eyes widened in surprise.
The mane was made of finely combed, straight black hair tangling down her shoulders, down to the girl’s waist. She had a slim built, mostly hidden by an oversized nightgown. She pink skin without any coat to speak of whatsoever. Above all else though, the girl walked on two legs, much like a minotaur. Just that her legs clearly weren’t those of a bull. They too, had no hair, boney things that they were.
She saw another person come up to the girl.
“What are you doing here?”, she could her a female voice ask. The person stepped into the light and Fluttershy could see that she easily towered over the girl. This one had more meat on her bones and was dressed in a dark blue dress with a white apron. A white nurse’s hat adorning her fiery mane. “Come on, child. Go to bed. Wandering about so late. Wonder what’s gotten into you,” she said as she showed the girl off into the hallway. Leaving her to fend for herself.
The nurse turned to Fluttershy, a lantern in her hand, mumbling to herself, “that girl really is a rarity of sorts.”
Fluttershy didn’t want to have this moment taken from her. She didn’t know where she was, what was happening or... anything for that matter. She tried to move her mouth but the muscles would hardly budge, like gears that hadn’t been used in ages. Her tongue moved randomly as she tried to produce a sound and the nurse was still approaching.
“H,” she finally managed and the nurse stopped dead in her tracks.
“What?”
“H,” Fluttershy stuttered again. She saw the Nurse coming closer, the light flashing across her face. She looked in astonishment as Fluttershy tried to form words in front of her.
“Don’t tell me,” she said, her voice hollow and her face turning a shade whiter.
Fluttershy closed her eyes and put all her efforts into two words. “H-hel... Help... M-M... M-Meee.”
The lantern fell, the glass chipping as it reached the wooden floor and the light going out. The nurse was holding her mouth in that last moment.
Sadly, that motion just left Fluttershy as much in the dark as she’d been before.
