Seeing Yellow

7 years ago, August 10 2013, around 10:30 AM

I was sitting down on my bed, looking at my computer. The pencil image appeared on Skype, writing 2 dashes and 1 dot continuously. I watched, with baited breath, waiting... waiting...

The message appeared. "Have you summoned Fluttershy into this world?"

Time for the joke to begin. I wrote back. "..."

I moved my mouse up to my Skype status, and changed it to Offline. I started laughing. Maybe my friend didn't believe me. Maybe he did. Only time would tell. Still sniggering, I changed my status back to Online. A message greeted me.

"Casually goes offline."

I typed back. "Just casual."

"Not very formal at all. But seriously, answer the question Claire."

There he goes again. Referencing Ready Player One, for the 10th time since starting the conversation. I rubbed my hands together. How to sell this joke..., I continued to think. Coming up with an idea, I started typing.

"I might have..."

"You MIGHT have?"

"Yes... might."

"YES OR NO MORTAL!?"

I started to laugh. He truly believed. Or maybe he was just interested.

"YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH! AHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHHAHAA!"

"I'll ban you. NOW TYPE. Yes or no?"

I stared at this line. He was bluffing. He sometimes pulled the 'Ban from the Minecraft Server' card before. I knew he really didn't mean it, but now, I'm not so sure. Just to clear things up, I continued...

"Ban me from what exactly?"

"The server."

Yep, I knew it. The Minecraft server. But he wasn't done there.

"For a month. 31 days."

I stared with disbelief at this. He was still typing.

"Now, answer the question. Yes or no. It's that simple."

Well... that happened fast. I wasn't sure if he was just bluffing... or did he truly want an answer? Did he... believe me? After a moments hesitation, I continued.

"Well... the truth is... I'm not sure. (NOW NOW, DONT BAN ME, give me a chance to explain!)"

The small pencil icon wrote feverishly.

"...explain mortal."

"Well... it could of been a dream, but I can remember it so well... It's too vivid to be a dream... I summoned Fluttershy to this world... and then I woke up... But I swear I saw something pink flash out of sight. So... dream or reality. I'm not sure"

That part was actually true. The dream, seeing the pink flash, the dream being REALLY vivid... all true. But, as a brony with a lot of random ideas and images in his head, I just chalked it up to my over-active imagination. My Skype beeped. Well... it didn't... beep. I had changed the sound to the squee sound from MLP. In my opinion, that had to be one of the cutest sound effects ever. But anyway, I hadn't realised that I had minimised Skype. Re-opening it, I saw this.

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. I'm gonna make like Pinkie on this one."

And not question it, I finished dully in my head. The phrase had passed through our conversations so much, that it was almost second nature to say it in response to anything.

"I'm sure Fluttershy is real..." I started to write back. "...and I will find her... You do believe me... don't you?"
No pencil emote came up this time. Just, empty space.

"(That long silence)" I wrote, trying to get him to respond.

"I don't fully believe you BUT I don't think that you're going insane..."

Not completely sure how to react to this, I fell back on my bed, thinking it through. After a while, I glanced up at my computer again, and saw the new message that had popped up.

"...yet"

The conversation slowly changed back to our normal ramblings. We talked all day, and played some Minecraft together. He had to go around 8pm. Once he disconnected, I stared at my computer screen for a while, mulling it all over. He did believe me... to an extent. Thus, my joke had succeeded! Now to phase B. Pretend to see her a couple of times at school, then reveal it all was just a joke. Simple, I thought, as I shut off my computer, and laid my head on my pillows, closing my eyes, sinking into the black void known as... sleep.

I woke up around 4:00am. Way too early for me. However, I couldn't just get back to sleep. My brain was annoying at times, so I had no choice. I got out of bed and headed down my long hallway towards my kitchen to grab some food. Then I noticed something...odd. A long pink tail whipped around the corner and out of sight. I blinked a couple times and briskly walked after it. Poking my head around the corner, I saw nothing in sight. Weird, I thought to myself. However, I disregarded it. I was still pretty tired, and my brain might be screwing with me again. I grabbed some slices of bread, made toast, and headed back to my room.

I rubbed my hands in anticipation as I left my house for school the next day. Time for some fake Fluttershy sightings. I knew it wasn't the best joke, but still, exams were coming up and I needed some entertainment.

I sighed as I walked to school, the excitement of the joke leaving me. My life was getting dull and boring, it was just the same old shit everyday. Wake up, school, home, sleep. The basis of my life. My long lasting depression didn't help calm these thoughts. I have had depression for over 7 years now. My family didn't know. No one knew. I kept it to myself. I knew I would have to come out and speak one of these days, but finding the right person to confess to, who would understand me; someone like that seemed impossible to find. I couldn't tell anyone. Having them bear that secret of my life was reason enough to not talk about it. All I wanted was for everyone around me to succeed in life and be happy. A weird dream, one I truly wanted to become reality...

Lunch passed around quick, and I met with my friend. We started talking about me 'seeing' Fluttershy in this world. I was about to report a fake Fluttershy sighting over his shoulder when something else happened.

It's difficult to explain. But I had some sort of feeling in my heart. A leaping, piercing-like feeling. I looked over my shoulder, looked back at my friend, then did a double take. Fluttershy was standing behind me around 15 meters away. I blinked a couple of times. She was still there. She wasn't doing anything, just standing there. She then simply trotted away. I looked at my friend, who was looking at me quizzically. I told him what I saw.

"Where?" he asked simply.

I pointed in the direction of Fluttershy. Or... more specifically, where Fluttershy had been.

"I can't see anything."

"Obviously. Whomever summons Fluttershy to this world is the only person who can see, hear, or touch her. You remember the picture on My Little Brony you showed me?"

He nodded. The picture showed Pinkie Pie with the caption, "This is Pinkie Pie. You, and you alone, have the power to summon her into this world. You are the only person who can see, hear, or touch her. However, everyone around you will think you are insane. Would you do it?" My friend and I were both partly crazy and insane anyway, so we both answered will a "HELL YEAH!".

"Maybe the same rules apply from that picture?" I stated, wanted a reply.

My friend said nothing. He just shrugged.

"It seems to be like a 'Laughter Never Dies' thing." my friend finally said.

I nodded, approving the reference of one of my favourite Fanfictions.

"Maybe it's like some sort of residual dream image..." I continued.

He nodded. "However, if you start having conversations with her, I'm gonna get REALLY suspicions."

I was confused. "Why?"

"That's pretty hard to believe, no matter how trust-worthy the friend"

I understood what he meant.

"Yeah... Fluttershy will probably hide from me. And I'll never see her again..."

For some reason, saying that made me sad. I know that this Fluttershy thing could all be in my head... but what if it wasn't? What if Fluttershy was actually real and in this world, and only I could communicate with her? Where would she go? This world was a big place. If she got lost... that was my biggest worry for her right now.

"Exactly." my friend finished.

"But wait a second... If Fluttershy could of just hid from me, then why is she not? She was just there a few minutes ago."

"I don't know..."

The rest of our conversation went back to our usual topics. But I was distracted. Was Fluttershy real? Or was it just my mind? I asked these questions to myself over and over. When school had ended, and night had fell, I was really looking forward to a great night's sleep. I collapsed on my bed and dropped off to sleep immediately.

Over the next 2 years, I kept on seeing Fluttershy in random places at random times. She never walked towards me, she just looked at me for a while then trotted away. At first, my friend believed me. He seemed to have the same heart thing I did. But after a while, my friend called what I seeing a joke, and if I believed in what I saw, then I was crazy and insane. I stopped talking to him about it, but he wouldn't stop teasing me about it. After a while, he stopped and forgot about it. I didn't stop seeing Fluttershy though... I finished school at the end of the second year, with high marks too. So I entered university. After I left school, I didn't see Fluttershy at all.

It has been a year since I last saw Fluttershy, and I now believe that she as gone back to her world. A part of me still believes that I imagined the entire thing. That was... until one day during my semester break in January 2017.

I was alone in my house. My family were all out. Everyone apart from my older brother had gone shopping in the morning. My older brother had gone out to his friend's flat. I was playing some Dota 2 as Tinker, my favourite character so far in the ever-developing game. As I carved through the lanes, taking out creeps, towers, and enemy heroes alike, my thoughts strayed to Fluttershy. I never really thought about her nowadays, due to many other things in my life. I should be studying, I told myself. My next semester is going to start in a couple of days. I got a Beyond Godlike streak after getting a triple kill at that moment. It can wait, I thought, smiling to myself at my obvious lack of interest in my school work.

I just won yet another game when I checked my watch. 6:00pm. Wow, time had really flew. But more importantly, my family should have been back by now. I didn't panic though. I rarely panicked nowadays. My mind came up with at least a dozen reasons why they were late. I turned off my computer and got myself some food. The phone rang. I walked over to the phone and picked it up.
"Hello?" I said, in my usual cheery voice.

Sobbing. The sound I heard from the other side of the connection.

"Hello?" I said, more confused now.

"Hey." the voice said through tears and sobs.

It was my brother.

"What's wrong?"

"I just heard. Mum, Dad, our siblings... they're dead."

For a few moments, I didn't believe him. I couldn't believe him. Dead... our family? No... I couldn't. But, I thought, my brother would never call if it wasn't something important. And he never cried. Never. He was telling the truth. My world shattered around me, just like my innocence on the outlook of life at that moment.

"How?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from cracking.

"The car lost control, and careened off a ledge."

The next few minutes of our call were mixed. Sobbing, comforting, and information. The police had told my brother everything. He had seen their bodies.

"What now? We are the remainder of our family. What do we do?" I asked.

"I don't know... We'll think of something. I'll be back tomorrow."

"See you then."

I placed the phone back on the hook, and glared at it for several seconds. Then I broke down. I stumbled to my room, slamming the door behind me and I sat down on my bed, head in hands. Pictures of my family flashed through my mind, obscuring my vision. I couldn't push it away. The ghostly images floated around me, as I sat and wept in my sorrow.

I heard my bedroom door open. I looked around, my sorrow turning to anger, as I glared at whoever had opened my door. Then my anger melted away as I saw who it was. I couldn't believe it. My eyes knew who it was; my brain just hadn't caught up yet. Somehow, I managed to stand up and look at the door. Standing at the door was a four-legged creature with a yellow coat and a pink mane and tail. I stumbled backwards, falling onto the floor. I stared at the newcomer. I couldn't speak. It was all too much. The creature entered the room slowly, gazing at me with large blue eyes.

"F- Fluttershy?" I managed to finally choke out.