The Last Of Us

Fluttershy startled and gasped for a breath, sweating heavily and looking around in bewilderment.

“W-what was that?” She asked herself, just as she noticed that nopony, but she and Angel were present.

Apparently torn out of her dream by a loud sound or a similar shocking thing, she realized that the darkness and sleepiness of the city was gone, and she could see a bright, flickering light form outside the window.

Though in anxiety, she swallowed her concerns down and stood up, carefully, so she would not wake up her beloved Angel. As she slowly walked to the stairs, climbed them up and went to the window next to Twilight Sparkle's main bed and Spike's sleeping berth, she got blinded by the lucent light, and only slowly, her eyes adapted to it.

When she was able to see properly again, she realized what the blazing light actually was. A conflagrant firestorm.

“What is happening over there? Hey... isn't that... Sweet Apple Acres? Oh my gosh.”

Out of nowhere, she felt the soft sensation of a paw stroking her shoulder. Though she winced at that feeling, she immediately realized that it could only be her little bunny friend, and as she turned her head towards the figure that stroke her, her guess was confirmed.

“A-Angel? Please, don't scare me in such a way,” she told him genially, but Angel barely noticed that and simply jumped onto the window edge to catch what is happening outside.

“Never fear, Angel. I'm sure everypony is alright,” Fluttershy tried her best to calm him down, even though he was not shocked that much, it being more a way to calm herself down.

“Wait!” she suddenly actualized as she hesitatingly turned around. “Where is everypony?!”

It was just now that she actually fathomed that she and Angel were all alone. She shook her head in bewilderment and gazed at the clock.

“Ten minutes past midnight. Only ten minutes elapsed after I fell asleep?” she asked Angel, to which he could only shrug taken aback.

Fluttershy leaned forward and opened the window. Quickly, a cold breeze streamed past her mane and she jittered, but was soon brought out of this feeling when she heard barely audible, panic-fueled outcries from a distant place, but likely still from inside the village. In contrast, the area around Twilight's library was completely empty of life.

“Something is definitely wrong. I hope they are all alright,” Fluttershy susurrated, having nothing but concern on her mind at the moment.

She looked down and held her amulet tight, hoping that the present of her friends would give her strength, and remembering the wonderful moments just mere minutes ago, a small smile grew on her face. But this was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a white light that dashed over the city.

“Is that... magic?” Fluttershy was astonished at the sight, and just as it faded away, she heard a loud bang, like something exploded, simultaneously to a coruscant flash of light that hurt her eyes a bit.

“No. That wasn't just magic. It was... an attack. Are the Royal Guards fighting off something? Oh I hope nopony gets hurt.”

Right on cue, the sky began to fill itself with more and more waves of these magic projectiles. They littered the sky more than the stars did, and Fluttershy's foreboding feeling of dread and tremulousness began to increase excessively.

“I can't just stand here. There must be something I can do to help. I-I must protect my little friends,” she reprehended herself, and just when she was about to turn around and leave the library, a light from behind her began to flood the entire interior of the room she was in.

Fluttershy looked up and with a shocked expression, she saw what was the cause of that bright light. One of those energy blasts was directly heading to one of the houses that surrounded Twilight's tree-library. It came closer, and closer. Seconds felt like hours, and soon, the attack would hit the house, and due to its sheer size, probably destroy it.

Like a deer when blinded by an artificial light in the night, she could do nothing but stare at it, plagued with inner disturbance. Just few blinks of an eye before colliding with the house, she snapped out of it and grabbed her little friend Angel.

“Look out!” she yelled, before she jumped, only with the power of her hind legs, away from the window. An ear-battering detonation echoed trough the entire area, and pushed by the blast wave the explosion released, they, as Fluttershy was in the middle of her jump, flew down the tree.

Fluttershy held Angel tightly to protect her, and as she landed on the wooden ground, she kept doing so, even though it meant that she could not cushion her own impact and rolled several times around her own axis, before coming to an aching halt.

The entire second floor collapsed under the high pressure, and much debris, consisting of wooden planks, ceramic and other materials, lacerated the side of the tree Fluttershy was just at, as well as parts of the ceiling.

She, groaning in pain, opened her eyes, and she saw Angel in her arms, save, pressing her head against her chest. She looked at the spot she just stood at and only saw a gaping hole that separated them from the outside. The beds, the books. All of them were torn apart and fused with the rubbish.

Fluttershy breathed in heavily, and agonizingly slow, she got on three of her four hooves, still carrying around Angel in one of them. Just as she felt save, both of them could hear a shrill noise, like a scaffold was about to break down.

From the place the wall was deteriorated, a crack arose and formed its way into Fluttershy's direction, becoming bigger and bigger with every second. She and Angel realized that the entire side of the tree must have been torn to pieces, and that the the library's structural integrity suffered from it. Maybe the entire building was about to break down.

The floor of the first level began to be ripped into two pieces, and the only way out of the building  was to jump over the gap and out of it. Due to the fall, her wings hurt, temporarily rendering her flying abilities unusable. There was only one way out, and she knew that, so she brought up all the courage she had, to gallop towards the increasing gap.

At the edge of it, she jumped as far as she could. Her heart stopped for a second, and she could no think about breathing. She could only hope she would made it. Luckily, she just managed to do that.

She hung at the edge of the other side, cleaving to it and trying to pull herself up, clenching her teeth while using all her power. Angel forced herself out of the protection of Fluttershy and climbed up her foreleg to help her, taking her hoof and drawing her up. Fortunately, Fluttershy was light as a feather, and he indeed manage to lift her up a little bit.

To their calamity, the brink Fluttershy was holding on was, like the rest of the floor, covered in cracks, and not giving them enough time, it broke away from the rest of the floor, causing them to fall down to the ground floor.

Fluttershy did not hesitate and quickly pulled Angel against her chest, preparing herself for hitting the ground back first and feeling the sensation of acute pain.

And so they hit the floor, but since she was actually in motion, her impact was cushioned tremendously, making her roll backwards several times instead of perceiving severe pain.

The lamp, the sleeping begs; almost everything fell down alongside the two characters, making the last remaining floor of the tree look like a rubbish tip.

Even though she suspired and complained of her body's pain, she was surprisingly not badly injured, and Angel was completely save and blithe. Fluttershy was just happy that she could protect her very close friend and see his smile, again. Dirt in her hide would not bother here, as long as she could be sure about that her friends were save.

Just as she rolled on her back and completely opened her eyes, she startled and quickly rolled to the side. Barely tips of the finger away from her, one of the bookshelves, with the piece of wall it was build in attached to it, slammed into the ground, directly into the spot where her head just was, leaving behind only splinters and ruined paper.

Fluttershy crawled back in panic. Her veins filled with adrenaline and her heart pumping like crazy, she was overcome by utter panic. Without noticing it in her tears, she came close to the door, and without being prepared for it, she got dragged out of the building by an unbeknown arm.

Fluttershy curved on the humid, soft grass, weeping and coiling up. Just as she felt the gentle sensation of another hoof, she squalled and gazed at the figures who apparently saved her. All of her close friends. She abrasively embraced Twilight and cried in her arms, just as the other ponies joined her and embraced Fluttershy.

“Hey, Fluttershy...” she whispered as she gently stroke her back. “No more fear. Everything is okay. You and Angel are save now.”

Twilight looked around and saw the mess her library had become. Only one quarter of it was still intact, and she sighed, plagued with the feeling that she just lost her home, but only temporarily.

“Gosh. What a disaster. It'll take time, but everything is exchangeable. The only thing that matters is that you are save.”

Twilight gently stroke Fluttershy with her own wings, trying to calm her down, while Spike hugged Angel, who was also completely in shock.

But as the time went by, they recollected themselves and Fluttershy let go off Twilight.

“It was horrible. I thought we were done for. We didn't know what was happening. Everything turned upside down. We saw Applejack's home burning, we heard ponies screaming, we saw those magic attacks which by the way nearly wore us down,” she told them extremely speedy, slowly calming down.

“Where were you, anyway?” Fluttershy asked them in bewilderment.

“Sweet Apple Acres,” Spiked replied. “We saw it burning as well. Just when you and Angel fell asleep, we saw the ceiling of the barn burning. We don't know how it happened, but don't worry, everypony is save.”

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and continued to asked her friends out.

“But why then all the panic and those attacks?!” she questioned Twilight discomposedly.

“Apparently, some sort of... of calamity... broke loose. That's why the Royal Guard intervened.” she could only reply funereally.

“W-what? What... calamity?” she began to worry, but as she looked into the frowns of her friends, she did not get an answer.

“We...” Twilight Sparkled tried her best to explain her. “We don't know...”