Fluttershy opened the back door to her cottage, dragging a large sack behind her. She gripped it tightly in her mouth, using all of her strength to pull it out the door. Slowly she made her way out into the yard, where a dozen chickens wandered around aimlessly. As soon as they saw her, though, they rushed forward, crowding around the pegasus and the bag.
"All right, everyone, just calm down," she said through the cloth in her mouth, her muffled voice almost getting lost in the squawks of the birds around her. "Calm down, there's enough here for everyone." The birds settled down a bit, although they still circled her. Once she had reached the center of the yard, she let the bag go. It fell to the ground, spilling bird seed out onto the dirt.
The chickens rushed forward, gobbling up the seeds. Fluttershy opened her wings and flew a over them, landing on the other side of the bag and picking it up to spill out a third of the remaining food. As the birds clustered around it, she gripped the bag in her mouth once more and dragged it back to the side of her cottage, propping it up against the wall. There was still another two day's worth of feed in it, so she wouldn't have to go buy another one until Saturday.
Having taken care of the chickens, she flew up and checked on the other birds in the trees that lay on her property. The robins seemed to be fine, and their chicks were beginning to replace their downy feathers with the mature feathers of adults. She smiled as one of them hopped over, fluttering it's developing wings to glide up onto her head. It gave a little celebratory song that made the pegasus giggle before gently putting it back in the nest.
The other birds also seemed to be doing well when she checked on them, although the hawk that was nesting on the cottage roof looked like it might be getting a bit sick. After a quick examination, though, she figured out it was just tired from a long flight.
By the time she had looked at every animal that was nesting, burrowing, or generally living on her property the sun had begun to go down behind the horizon. She'd also found a mouse with a sore throat, an otter with a sprained leg, and a fox with a bad toothache. All of these animals she'd brought into her house, where she could treat their ailments better. Now the mouse was sleeping, having swallowed a drop of cough syrup, the otter was in a splint, resting under the cottage's couch, and the fox was back in his burrow, sans the infected tooth.
Fluttershy yawned, ready for bed, although she had a few things she needed to take care of first. Two of those things she was taking care of at the same time as she stirred a carrot stew around in a large pot. Angel, her friend and companion, was sitting on the counter next to the stove and wearing an overly large chef's hat. He dipped a spoon into the mix, brought it up to his nose, and then took a deep sip. He coughed, miming disgust, then wacked the pegasus on the head with the spoon.
She flinched, then added some more carrots to the pot. A few more stirs and it apparently met his approval, seeing as he didn't whack her again. She poured the stew out into two bowls and carried them over to the table, setting one on each side. Angel hopped by and sat down on one end as Fluttershy sat at the other. The bunny had gotten rid of the chef's hat but he was still holding the spoon in one paw, and he started to dig in as soon as he sat down. On the other side of the table, Fluttershy was blowing on her spoon to cool the stew down.
For a few moments the house was nearly silent, with the only sounds being Angel's furious eating and Fluttershy slowly making her way through her own bowl. Unsurprisingly, the bunny finished before the pegasus. As soon as he was done, he got up on the table an mimed yawning, then stared pointedly at Fluttershy. She finished a spoonful , then smiled at him.
"I just have one more thing to do," she told him. "Then I'll go to sleep."
He gave her a flat look, and she blushed. There were times she'd lost track of time when taking care of an animal and had been an hour or two late getting to bed. Since she liked to rise at dawn, this made her extremely sleepy the next day. It wasn't that she got irritable as much as that she became forgetful and more prone to accidents. The last time it happened, Angel had ended up upside down and covered in pink paint.
"It'll only take twenty minutes," she told him. "I promise."
Angel still looked unconvinced. He gestured at himself, then at her, indicating that he'd come with her to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. Fluttershy just gave him a smile, and then she finished off the last of her stew. She took the bowls back into the kitchen, leaving them on the counter. She'd deal with them the next day.
She walked out the back door, Angel hopping next to her. She made her way through the yard, passing the chicken coop where the normally energetic chickens were all sleeping. She unlatched the gate and looked out at the Everfree forest, swallowing her fear. As scary as the forest was in the day, it was ten times worse at night.
Suddenly, she let out a small shriek as she saw something moved between the trees, appearing for a second and then vanishing again. The mare leapt backwards, and the gate loudly slammed shut, causing her to jump again.
"Wh-what was that?" she said, looking at Angel. He shrugged and rolled his eyes, then gestured forward impatiently. "Oh, right. I suppose I am being a bit silly." She pushed the gate open again, turning right onto a slightly worn path towards the White Tail Woods, resolutely not looking at the other forest.
As she crossed over into the Woods, Fluttershy let herself relax a bit more. She liked to be in bed by the time night came about, but she wasn't particularly scared of the animals that preferred it to day. It was the magical creatures in the Everfree right next to her house that had her petrified with fear.
She gave a nervous chuckle to that last thought, realizing how appropriate it was. Angel looked at her a bit strangely, but that was okay. He was used to her little idiosyncrasies.
Suddenly, she felt a shift in the night, a darkness that hadn't been there before. It was difficult to describe what it was with words, but the mares instincts were screaming danger. She whipped around in time to catch a black shadow flying up through the trees and out of her sight. She stared after it for a moment before Angel smacked her in the back of the head, gesturing impatiently.
"It's just a bat," she said to herself, although the feeling of unease didn't disperse. It was silly of her to be afraid of a bat, especially since she was out in the forest to check up on a bat colony anyways.
As she thought this, the hollow tree that served as the colony's roost came into view. It'd been a large tree before a stray lightning strike had knocked off the top and burned out the inside. Now it served as a summer roost for a local colony of bats. As she approached it, a swarm of bests burst from a small hole and started circling her, calling out in pitches at the edge of her hearing. After a moment, they split apart and landed on the branches of the trees that surrounded her. She smiled and lifted a hoof for one of them to land on.
Some of the younger bats took off and jockeyed with each other for a moment, then one of them came out and perched upside down on her hoof. She brought him up to her face, taking a moment to examine his wings and fur. Finding that he was healthy, she gave him a quick nuzzle, then held her hoof up high to give him enough space to get back into the air.
"Anyone need help?" she asked, her voice carrying over the cacophony of bat wings. When none of them came down, she smiled. She never minded when they did, but she always liked it when none of her animal friends were hurt or sick.
Suddenly, she heard a pair of wings come from behind. Turning, she saw a large male bat flapping towards her. Something seemed strange about him, but she couldn't quite place it, and the feeling of unease she'd had was back, stronger than ever. Still, that wasn't a cause for not helping someone, so she steeled herself against the fear and moved forward.
Again she held out her front leg. He didn't seem to want to perch on it, and was instead hovering in front of her, so she brought it back down again, with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm.
"What is it?" she asked, hoping that whatever he needed, it wouldn't take much time. Something about this bat felt wrong and unnatural, and her instincts were telling her to get away as quickly as possible. She shoved the thought aside guiltily, and realized that he hadn't responded to her question. "What's wrong?"
Getting no reaction, she turned to look at the other bats of the colony, hoping they'd provide some insight. Instead, she found the bats hugging the trees, staring in terrified silence at the creature in front of her. Angel had pressed himself up against her leg and was shaking in fear, his normally haughty expression replaced by one of complete terror.
As she took this in, Fluttershy realized one of the things that had been bugging her about the strange bat. He was a male, a mature adult male, in a nursing roost where only mothers and their young are allowed. A male at a nursery roost was as unnatural as an owl going out in the day. She started to turn back.
"What are-" was as far as she got before the creature lunged forward, it's eyes flashing red. The creature opened its mouth wide, showing off the abnormally large fangs that the mare knew weren't supposed to be in any bat. Her eyes widened as she realized the implication of that statement. Then the creature plunged its fangs into her neck and her world dissolved into pain.
Angel watched, frozen by fear, as the creature lunged towards Fluttershy's neck. As soon as it reached her, biting down on her exposed skin, the mare went completely rigid. After a second, it released her, pulling its teeth out from her neck and launching itself backwards up into the sky. A few seconds later it disappeared, lost against the blackness of the horizon.
As it flew off, the mare stood upright for a second before falling over away from Angel, landing with a dull clunk. She didn't move after that, she just lay staring sightlessly ahead. Angel hopped up onto her body, racing over to her neck. Blood was continuing to pour out, trickling down the mare's yellow fur. A small puddle had formed beneath her and was growing every second. Not wasting any time, Angel put his paws on her neck, over the wounds, and began exerting pressure. They weren't that big, only about half an inch long each, but despite that they were bleeding profusely. More specifically, the right cut was bleeding profusely, as it had cut into her Jugular vein.
Angel didn't know all of this, of course, but he'd watched Fluttershy with injured animals enough to know that pressure slowed the bleeding. Still, some blood seeped past his paws, staining his fur a dark red color. He pushed with all of his strength, although considering he was a bunny, that wasn't too much. Still, it slowed the bleeding, keeping it to a minimum.
Behind him, the bats flew in circles, chittering to each other. Angel barely recognized their existence. Beneath his paws, the lifeblood of his best and only friend spilled out because he'd been too cowardly to warn her of the creature. He sniffled, then shook himself angrily. That wouldn't help Fluttershy- only actions would. He pushed down with renewed force. He didn't notice when a group of bats split off from the main crowd, flying off through the forest.
After a few minutes, he felt the blood start to slow, slowly coagulating. He pulled his paw off the cuts, one at a time, and saw to his relief that they were no longer bleeding. It was only then that he noticed the sheer volume of the blood that coated his and Fluttershy's fur, over a litre of spilled out on the ground.
He slowly stepped off her body, his eyes widening at the amount. He'd heard Fluttershy talk about blood loss, and although he didn't know how much blood set the limit for something to be called serious, he got the feeling that this was more than enough.
Suddenly, Angel's ears picked up the sound of large pawsteps coming from behind. Turning, he saw a massive grizzly bear slowly approaching, looking tired and slightly irritated. A group of bats fluttered around the bear, directing him forwards. Angel let out a sigh of relief.
Harry was massive, two times taller than a pony and more than a hundred times larger than Angel himself. Despite that, he was a real softie, preferring to eat berries over other animals and always willing to help Fluttershy out. In return, she'd give him a massage every few weeks. He was one of the only creatures besides Fluttershy that Angel liked or respected (the other ones being the princesses and Opalescence, Rarity's cat).
Harry froze upon seeing Fluttershy's prone body, letting out an anguished growl. Angel stepped back as the bear made his way forward. Harry scooped up Fluttershy with his front paws, lifting her off the ground. As he did so, blood drained out of the mare's fur, dripping to the ground.
Moving as quickly as he could, Harry began to make his way back to Fluttershy's cottage, Angel hopping behind and a crowd of bats following.
v---v
For a moment, Fluttershy was frozen in shock and fear as the bat-like creature sank it's fangs into her neck. Then the pain and poison set in and the mare's muscles locked up completely.
Dimly, she was aware of the creature flying away, and then of herself falling over. Then she lost the ability to think as the pain flared. It wasn't a burning pain as much as the pain of cold, of ice, of desolation and heartbreak and misery.
From the pain, the mare found a memory, buried away, one she hadn't thought about for years. Suddenly, she remembered a time years ago when her parents had taken her camping right before Hearths Warming Eve. It had been freezing outside, but her father had insisted on going, saying that it would be a good time for the family to bond.
They'd hiked out to the site, a small campground by the side of a frozen lake. There was a few inches of snow on the ground and the branches of the pine trees that surrounded the site, but that hadn't intimidated her father. He'd seen it as a challenge, to find wood and get a fire going when everything was either drenched or snow-covered.
Fluttershy had been too young to help out with carrying logs and her mother had flat out refused to, saying that it was her husband's ridiculous idea to go camping in the middle of winter. It hadn't dissuaded the stallion, though, and he had half ran, half flown around the woods searching for wood as his wife and daughter set up the tent and then sat in it watching him try to light the damp logs with a flint and steel, without much success.
After a while, though, he did manage to light the wood, and the three of them sat around it for the rest of the night as they talked and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. They'd actually ended up having a pretty fun time, with Fluttershy's father telling funny stories and her mom wrapping a wing around the filly for warmth.
Later on in the trip, though, her father had decided to teach Fluttershy how to ice skate. After strapping on his own boots and helping the filly with hers, he'd taken her out on the surface of the frozen lake. Her father was an expert ice skater and an excellent teacher, going over the basics with her and practicing them slowly until the filly was able to do them as well.
Fluttershy had been wobbly at first and would have fallen over countless times if her father hadn't been there to steady her, but after an hour of practice she was able to skate on her own without falling to the ice.
She'd made her way to the other end of the lake, unsteadily skating over as her father had tried to convince her mother to join them. When he'd turned around and realized where she was, it was too late.
All at once, the ice had broken beneath her hooves, sending her careening into the frigid water. Her parents launched themselves into the air at the same time, reaching the filly a few seconds later pulling her out, teeth chattering and shivering. She'd been fine in the end, drying off next to the fire with three blankets wrapped around her body.
But for those few moments that she was been in the water, she was in utter agony. Her breath was stolen and the frigid water cut to the bone, searing every nerve in her whole body. She thrashed around, crying for help, but the pain remained, still searing...
The memory faded out as the pain came back full force, burning her up. Desperately, the mare searched for something, anything to grasp to keep the pain away. And at the edge of her perception, she felt something- a dim sense of something, far away but still strong. She reached for it, trying to find shelter from the icy pain.
As she moved forward to meet it, the sense grew even stronger, until it resolved into a feeling of total and absolute betrayal. The force of it almost knocked the mare away from her refuge, but the pain had diminished somewhat, so she kept moving towards it.
Suddenly, she was in a large stone room, the full moon visible through a stained glass window to the side. Before her lay of Celestia, prone with her head on the ground, looking utterly defeated. A loud laugh echoed inside the room and a feeling of triumph surged through her veins. Fluttershy recognized it as the laugh of Nightmare Moon just as she realized she herself was laughing.
In the image, Celestia looked up. She didn't look like the kind and wise Celestia Fluttershy knew. Her face was a mask of sadness, and tears rolled down the side of her face. Still, she got to her feet, slowly, cringing as she did so as if each step pained her.
"Luna! Give up, please!" she cried out. For a moment, she felt herself waver. Then she remembered Celestia's betrayal, and her resolve firmed.
"My name," she said menacingly, charging up her horn, "is Nightmare Moon!" The beam shot out and struck Celestia directly in the chest. The princess flew backwards, slamming into the wall behind her. A trickle of blood came out of the side of her mouth. Fluttershy smiled at the sight, even as she tried to rush forward to help the fallen princess.
Celestia looked up. "You give me no choice," she said, ducking her head. "I'm sorry sister."
She raised her head then, and her eyes glowed white with power. Six stones appeared around her, and they began spinning around her head, steadily increasing in speed. As they spun, magic bleached off, turning the air around her into a rainbow of colors. The rainbow shot up, spiraling in the air, before slamming straight at Fluttershy, crashing into her chest.
The last thing she felt as she was thrown out of the memory was Nightmare Moon's feeling of disbelief and pain, that her own sister would use the Elements of Harmony against her. Then the pain washed over her again and her thoughts scattered to the wind.
v---v
Angel sat beside Fluttershy, holding her hoof in his paw. Harry had managed to get Fluttershy back to the cottage with little difficulty, and with Angel's help had been able to get the mare up the stairs and into her bed. The bunny had pulled the covers up around her and closed her eyes with his paw, and now she was tucked in, looking for all the world like she was sleeping.
In the corner of the room, Harry was sleeping in a large, furry pile. The bats had returned to their nest, all except two that hung from the room's rafters and watched over the mare. Angel felt the steady throb of Fluttershy's heartbeat through the fur of her hoof, and it had started to lull him into falling asleep as well.
Suddenly he felt it change, slowing down. In an instant, he was awake, hopping upright on the bed. He hopped over to the mare's neck, putting his head down on the uninjured skin and listening for the heartbeat there. As he feared, it was slowing down as well, and the mare's skin was getting colder as well. Her fur paled a bit, becoming a slightly lighter shade of yellow.
As Angel listened, her pulse dropped from a beat a second to once every five seconds, and then finally one heartbeat every twenty seconds. It continued at that rate for four more beats, and then it stopped all the way.
Angel kept listening, hoping it would beat once more. When it didn't he stepped back, his eyes wide with shock. He looked at the face of his friend, companion, and caretaker, now looking completely still.
And then her eyes flashed open.
Author's Note
There's really no excuse for putting this chapter out as late as I did. I wish I could tell you I've been busy, and haven't had the time to write, but that's really not the case. I guess I could say I had some difficulty with the middle part, and I had to rewrite it a few times... Lets go with that.
In all seriousness, I'll try to get a chapter out three times a week, although I might fall behind that a bit when school starts. If anyone is looking to be a pre-reader/editor, please PM me. If you have some constructive criticism, please leave it in the comments below. Thanks!
~DJ TR33
