All is well in Ponyville, Luna's moon shining on the calming waters, all is calm, all is asleep, except in one small house, or more accurately in one Sugar cube corner. " So what did you wish for Fluttershy?" a hyperactive pink pony asked.
" Oh um..." Fluttershy was interrupted by a very strong looking work pony by the name of applejack.
" Now wait just a minute there Pinkie! Y'all don't want to ruin Fluttershy's wish do yah?" Applejack said in a calm but stern voice.
"But I was just..." the party pony started,
"girls you shouldn't be arguing! this is a happy occasion." twilight said in her usual caring tone. both Pinkie and Applejack nodded in agreement,
" of course it is! it's Shy's birthday " Rainbow Dash in her usual tomboyish fashion retorted. Although Fluttershy knew she should enjoy seeing her friends was wanting to go home not because she wasn't enjoying the party but she felt she didn't deserve it, not that she could ever think anything bad of something her friends do for her. No, this was because of personal matters, and it was getting worse, she was starting to get worse and worse ever since she managed to reform Discord who was now helping the princesses spread harmony through the Badlands, she always felt alone even when with her friends, like there was just something missing, she would always just zone out of conversations and her friends didn't even...
"FLUTTERSHY!" Twilight shouted, worried about her friend who had started to silently cry right infront of her friends.
" are you alright darling, you have been so distant these past few weeks, is there something going on?" her fashionable friend softly spoke, her worried tone was only matched by the caring nature her friend's faces were practically gleaming of.
"y'all know you can tell us don't you sugarcube?" applejack added.
" I ... I ca... I can't " Fluttershy wept, tears raining from her eyes like a waterfall,
" what do you mean you can't!" Rainbow bolted, clearly not understanding her friends feelings.
" Rainbow! there's no need for that!" twilight returned to rainbow's unnecessary comment. she continued, " if it upsets you this much, you should tell us Fluttershy, it doesn't matter what it is we don't think anything else of you other than that we are your friends and we take care of each other,". all her other friends nodded in clear agreement, "so..." twilight finished.
"I'm... sorry...but...yo... you don't.... you can't..." Fluttershy tried to get out before she ran out of the room. Her friends watched here motionlessly, unable to grasp what had happened.
" Whatever is wrong... I don't think we can do much about, or at least that what she thinks." Rainbow said sadly,
" For now... one of us have to follow her, to make sure she is okay" twilight spoke, taking charge of the situation as usual,
" I think you should go darling, your better suited to this than all of us." Rarity answered,
"alright then." Twilight finished.
Fluttershy was already quite far from her shaken party, 'why is this happening to me, why do I have to make my friends feel so bad about me ' she thought silently to herself.
"oh Fluttershy why are you doing this to yourself," twilight said to no one in particular. whilst running through the dark starry night Fluttershy noticed a shooting star, she thought about wishing on it but, " I don't deserve a wish... but it would be nice to make my friends feel better about me..." she stopped, closed her eyes and said the words " I wish for someone to be my friend, someone more than a friend, someone to be my pillar." twilight who was close enough to hear that was confused at what she meant, but was also sad that she thought she was alone, so thought to ignore it. The rain did not prove to help the situation.
After arriving home Fluttershy 'locked' her wooden door, went to her room and collapsed on the bed in a wet, yellow mess, much to a little white bunny's distress, who was very worried about his carer. Twilight arrived at the cottage a few minutes to find that the door was unlocked. due to the fact Fluttershy could not lock the door correctly due to her state, she was greeted, unfortunately, by a very upset looking bunny, " Angel have you seen..." she was interrupted by angel pointing up, Twilight knowing more did not need to be said, thanks to the bunny's look of despair and worry her carer was lost, she went to her room and knocked on the door three times, no answer. she knocked again, still nothing, " Fluttershy? Are you alright? Is it okay If I come in?" her question was answer by the sound of quiet, will tearing shrieks of her friend crying, she therefore took it as a yes and entered.
The scene set was chilling, infront of her, she saw her best friend in a state of complete sadness, her bed now dripping with tears and herself unable to move or speak, for a few moments twilight felt everything happening infront of her to be a dream, that her friend was not having a mental breakdown, on her birthday no less, and crying uncontrollably but this was just a horrible, horrible nightmare. But the truth finally dawned on her and she knew, something had to be done, or this could turn into much worse, she has already lost friends, she did not want to lose a friend like Fluttershy. Though she knew she needed to be tough to get her friend to tell her what was wrong, Twilight felt it was impossible to follow the 'cruel to be kind' way of thinking, especially to somepony like Fluttershy, but she thought this was the only way to get the needed information out of her. so, reluctantly, she started, " Fluttershy, you have to tell me what is wrong, you cannot stay like this, I will not allow it." She calmly demanded, with her friend on the edge of being lost like this she would not stop until all was fixed.
It took a while, but Fluttershy had eventually managed to calm her nerves enough to just about talk to her, " I'm so sorry you have to see me like this Twilight, this is all my fault." Fluttershy managed to mutter,
"no this is not your fault whatsoever, but you need to tell me what's wrong, or I cannot help you Fluttershy, so lets start from the top, what has happened, why have you been acting distant?" twilight asked, although with a face of undeterminable emotion, as the question still stood silence still held the room until,
" I just feel so alone." a tiny little voice shrieked. Obviously shaken by this twilight decided to further investigate, not that she had, or wanted any other choice...
" how can you be alone when we are almost always with you, and need I remind you of all your little animal friends?" twilight managed to somehow keep herself calm by this earlier comment,
" I don't mean it like that Twilight. it is more complicated."Fluttershy responded sadly,
"what do you mean then?" Twilight asked, confused. 'where is she going with this, I don't understand... unless she means...'
" I mean that ever since I realised that no one is going to be able to help with my problems that there is no one I can truly love as family, not that I ever had one..." Fluttershy said, almost as if she did not say that herself, her tone becoming more dark and evil-sounding, Twilight started to become more worried her friend was lost,
" what problems are you referring to exactly?" Twilight worriedly questioned, noticing her friends off behaviour,
" problems like... erm... (sigh) I don't really want to talk about them." Fluttershy stated In a dismissive manner, not wanting to talk about her true fears,
"Fluttershy! you need to tell me, you are on the verge of becoming an emotion train wreck, you can't just turn your back on the world, this has to stop!" twilight shouted, she felt bad raising her voice but knew she needed to.
" I guess that you should know, but I'm afraid you'll just laugh at me like all the others did." Seeing her friend smile softly made her understand her friend's genuine request, she continued, " I always worry that I will lose my friends, and then there is this dream... it is very strange...". even though she was grateful of her friends honesty she need to get to the deeper source, so she kept depicting,
"what exactly happens in this dream?" Twilight asked, knowing that this dream of hers can't be the source of her deep sadness.
Fluttershy continued, " well at first everything is very dark, much like the sky without the sun, moon or stars, then there is this light, it felt so real, but it felt as though it was distant, that it did not belong, then I hear voice, saying ' you will become like the rest' then in wake up as if it was just a bad dream. it always scares me but that isn't what is making me upset." Twilight silently huffed to herself in agitation, " every time I see my friends I see... ". As Fluttershy starts to cry her voice starts to diminish into a quiet cry of unintelligible noise, Twilight however keeps concentrating as she recognises this as what is bothering her. " I see nothing but disappointment, I always mess things up, I'm just know for being the one whimpering before the going gets tough , I can't take being known as a nuisance... " before Fluttershy could finish she was tackled into the ground in a hug,
"of course your not a nuisance, what about the time you saved us all from that horrible dragon, or when you helped the manticore when we first met or when you stared down that cockatrice to protect Applebloom, Sweetiebell and Scootaloo, never mind all the lives you saved taking care of the animals, you shouldn't dwindle on your weaknesses Fluttershy because you are more special than anyone I know, you should be proud of yourself, not to mention the girls." Twilight happily responded. As she thought about it, Fluttershy realised that her friend was right, and she had been getting herself worried over nothing, she did have a tendency to take things the wrong way, so this would not be the first time, like when Rainbow said her wings were a bit small and she couldn't stop crying for a week, she happily hugged her friend and thanked her for getting her out of a sticky situation.
It was not long before they had started saying goodbye when both Fluttershy and Twilight noticed something strange outside, " Do you see that twilight?" a brilliant white light was sparkling in front of them like a gem, they both had never had seen anything like this, but all good things go bad, the ground suddenly started shaking and the white light was now gone, after the small quake had finished, the unmistakable sound of a spell could be heard, the whirring of sound could be heard from Canterlot, " What's happening Twilight!" Fluttershy screamed,
"I don't know!". after a few tense moments the screech stopped, but the worse was to come, as from just outside Fluttershy's yard there was an ground-shaking explosion, which caused both of the distressed mares to fall over. eventually the shaking stopped and both mares were able to get to their hooves. " what could have cause that?" a shocked Twilight said, rubbing her now bruised head,
" whatever it was, it was outside," Fluttershy added. shakily they both exited their safe haven and trotted outside to the location of the explosion and what was in front of them shocked them.
Author's Note
The story change was a bit sudden, but I think the intended effect was applied, what do you think they found and what about it was so shocking. why are you asking me! I'm just text! but seriously you'll find out in the next part, strap yourselves in, this is gonna be a long one. dun dun duunnn!
