Justice

My friend Nathan and I were sitting on the couch playing Xbox as usual.

I practically lived  at his house after school.

After yet another headshot from him to me, I sigh in exasperation and say,

“Could you let me win once? This is ridiculous!”

He just laughs and says, “Hey you got your ninja skills in real-life, but when it comes to video games, I’m the ninja!”

I just roll my eyes, “Whatever.”

As we start up a new game, I glance out the window at the red, smoke-filled sky.

“You sure we’re going to be alright? That fire looks pretty close…”

“Its alright, forest fires go by all the time but they never get near. You know that.”

The new game starts, and I am killed within the first ten seconds.

While I’m waiting to respawn, I say, “I know, but I am still worried about my house, the fire looks to be right over where my I live…”

Nathan glances nonchalantly out the window, “Eh, its close, but I’m sure it will miss your house.”

I finally spawn in the game, but I don’t take even a single step before he snipes me.

I glare at him out of the corner of my eye.

He just laughs.

The phone rings in the kitchen, and I hear Nathan’s mom go to answer it.

I don’t think anything of it.

I’m drumming my fingers against the couch’s arm when suddenly I hear glass drop to the floor and break. Nathan and I look at each other in alarm, and together we rush into the kitchen. Nathan’s mom is sitting on the floor of the kitchen sobbing. The phone had fallen halfway between his mom and us, and I heard a voice emanating from it.

“Hello? Ma’am? We received information that the teenager named Ty is at your residence, we need to speak with him. His house just burned down with his parents inside… Ma’am? Is anybody there?”

I stare at the phone, and I feel like my entire world crumbles around me.

As I slowly regain consciousness, I am aware of two things.

I can’t move.

Pain.

I feel like a mummy that has been wrapped for burial. My whole body aches and burns from my many wounds. I open my left eye because my right has a thick bandage over it. I squint from the light, and my eye slowly adjusts to it. I am in a small stick shelter, similar to the one I built on the road from Canterlot. My eye darts around, but I can only see the woven sticks above me. I try and open my mouth, but I can’t. The bandage from my eye wraps all around my head. I give a muffled grunt, hoping something will hear. Nothing happens.

“Where is Fluttershy? Did she put all these bandages on me? If so, where did she get them? How am I not dead? What was that mass of magic around twilight before she disappeared? Did it kill her?”

These thoughts dart around my head as I lay there completely motionless. I decide to give one final grunt to see if Fluttershy can hear me, and then I wait. After a few moments, I hear a rustling coming from the other end of the shelter.

I see Fluttershy’s head appear over me.

“Oh your finally awake! I was so worried! I was afraid you would never wake up… I’m so sorry I asked you not to use your sword… They almost killed you! I don’t kn-”

I silence her tirade of worry with another grunt. I use my eye to point to the bandages. and I give her a questioning look.

Realizing what I meant, she says, “Oh, Spike sent the bandages and a magic healing potion that repaired your internal damage. He knew you needed them because Twilight told him about the battle.”

My eyebrow shoots up into a surprised look at hearing twilight wasn’t dead.

“Oh, that burst of magic from Twilight didn’t kill her, it actually teleported her right into the library where she lives. That’s how Spike was able to know about the fight and send the supplies so fast.”

I nod my head in understanding as best I can, but I quickly realize that is a bad idea due to the pain. Seeing my face contort in pain, Fluttershy frowns and says quietly,

“I’m sorry you’re in so much pain, I found a few herbs that would take the edge off, but apparently I didn’t get enough… I’m sorry….” She looks down in shame and I see tears begin to form.

“She must think this whole ordeal is her fault!” I realize.

I raise my uninjured left arm, and I place my hand on top of her head. She looks up, and I give her the best smile I could muster with only half my face showing.

She gives me a sad smile, and says,

“You need to rest some more, go back to sleep okay?” I just close my eyes, and slowly drift back off to sleep.

Twilight’s POV:

“I’m going to kill him!!! I’m going to tear him and Fluttershy apart!!! Nopony defies me!! I can’t believe Fluttershy would work with a monster like that human! How could they have beaten me?!?!?!”

I sent another bookshelf flying into the wall, where it broke with a satisfying crunch. Spike is cowering in the corner watching me rage, but I don’t care. I pass by a mirror on the wall, and for the ten-millionth time I look at the niche carved into my horn.

My rage builds all over again.

“SPIKE!” He jumps from the corner and falls at my hooves.

“Take a letter to the Princess. Tell her I still haven’t found the human, and that I don’t need any reinforcements here. Got it?”

“Ye-s” He stammers out.

“Good. The Princess mustn’t  know that they beat me, I can’t be a failure to her. I will kill them myself, no matter what it takes…”

I see my entire body turn a darker shade of gray in the mirror.

And I like it.

Rainbow Dash’s POV:

It felt good to finally relax. No more taking orders, just time to chill on my favorite cloud. I lazily roll to the side and look over the edge of the cloud I’m resting on. I see Ponyville far below me, but I don’t really care about it. I glance nonchalantly at my hoof as it turns another shade darker, but I just ignore it.

“Cloudsdale is way better.” I thought. “I wonder if Twilight managed to capture that human… doesn’t matter. I actually hope he got away just because of how much it would piss her off.” I snort at the thought and fall back to sleep.

Rarity’s POV:

“He is mine… all mine…”

I had put my diamond statue in the basement of my boutique, where nopony would find him.

“I’ll name you… Tom 2.” I spoke aloud to it, while polishing away every bit of dirt.

It didn’t matter that my own coat and mane were filthy, just so long as Tom 2 sparkled like the diamond he is… I grin madly as I see my reflection in the diamond turn a darker shade of gray.

I lay down in the dust at it’s feet.

I rock back and forth and say,

“All mine…all mine…”

Applejack’s POV:

My head was pounding like all get-out. I rose to mah hooves, and looked around, blinking in confusion. “What in tarnation happened?”

Ah spoke aloud ta nopony in particular. I

saw Pinkie stand up, and wobble over towards me.

“Pinkie, do you know what happened? I’m pretty sure we were hit by ah tree, but ah am not sure.”

She rolls her eyes at me and says, “Close, we were knocked out by the human. Looks like everypony left us here.”

Ah stare blankly at her.

“Now your sure it wasn’t a tree?” Ah ask again.

Pinkie gets right in mah face and growls at me.

Ah notice her whole body turns a darker shade of gray.

Ah look down, and see mine change as well.

Ah look back up and ah see Pinkie trotting away.

“Where ya goin?” Ah call after her.

“I’m going back to Ponyville!” She shouts back at me.

With nothing better tah do, Ah follow.

Fluttershy’s POV:

I stood over him, watching him sleep.

All I could think of while looking at him lying there was:

“Its all my fault. I told him not to kill my friends… and he paid the price for my weakness… He has been so kind to me, he has protected me, and this is how I repay him.

I… I love him…

I have to become stronger. I can’t let my timid nature hold me back anymore… I will become stronger!”

I glance down and see my coat darken considerably. I feel my mind become darker and colder.

This time, I welcome it.

“If this is what it takes to protect him, so be it. I refuse to remain weak any longer…”

Ty’s POV:

Four days had passed.

Each day Fluttershy woke me up, brought me food, and left.

Every now and again she would check my bandages, and would remove a few. She never said anything after the first time I woke up, and it worried me. What worried me more was that the food she brought me had meat. In the shade of the shelter, I could barely even see her. On the fourth morning, she came into the shelter, looked me over, and removed the last of the bandages. She motioned me to come outside, and left. I hesitantly sat up. I experimented with stretching my legs, and when I felt I was ready, I stood to a crouch and walked out of the shelter. Once outside, I raised my hand to my face, and squinted from the bright sun. After my eyes adjusted, I look around and gasp. There were animal carcasses littering the ground. I heard a twig snap behind me, and I whip around to see what it is.

My mind doesn’t believe what it sees.

Fluttershy was standing there many shades darker than she was before, and she had a dead squirrel in her mouth.

I gasp and ask, “Fluttershy?? What are you doing?!”

She gives me a weird look and says, “Getting dinner. What does it look like I’m doing?”

I just stare blankly at her as she drops the carcass by my sword. My sword was out of the sheathe and propped against a tree.

It’s blade was covered in dried blood.

Seeing me looking at the blade, Fluttershy says, “Its easy to call the animals towards me, the sword really helps with killing and skinning them. I knew you needed meat to regain your strength, and eggs would only go so far.”

I stare in horror at her and say, “Fluttershy… What happened to you?”

Seeing my look, she drops her head in semi-shame and says, “I needed to get stronger so you would never get hurt again because of me. So I did. That’s all there is to it.”

I stand there watching her with a distraught  look on my face, and suddenly I drop down and pull her into a hug. She struggles for a moment to get away, but quickly gives up. While I’m holding her, I say, “Fluttershy, my wounds aren’t your fault. They are my own for underestimating your friends. It won’t happen again. Please, don’t lose yourself to self-perceived strength. Just because you think it is your fault, which it isn’t, doesn’t mean you have to completely change your personality to fix it.” I pull away and look her right in the eyes.  “I love you just the way you are, you don’t have to become stronger to protect me. I consider it my job to protect you because I love you.”

At the word “love” her eyes get big and I see tears begin to form.

She suddenly breaks out sobbing and throws herself against me. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight while she cries. As she cries I notice something change. Her coat slowly turns a lighter color. After a few seconds, it is a bright yellow, and her mane is a bright pink as well, not just shades of gray!

“Fluttershy! Look at your coat! I think your back to normal!” She stops sobbing for a moment and looks down at herself. She breaks into a huge smile, and then suddenly notices that she is practically on top of me. She quickly gets off and looks down in embarrassment.

I have to chuckle at the sudden attitude change, and I say, “Are you really this shy all the time?”

She stammers, “Ye-s.. B-but I can not be shy if you want… if its okay with you….”

Her voice got smaller as she kept on talking until I couldn’t even hear her.

I laugh, “You’re so adorable! Anyways, I told you before, you don’t have to change yourself, your fine just the way you are.”

She blushes even more and gives a small squeak of embarrassment.

I smile, “Now that you are yourself, I’ll have to get to know you all over again. Why don’t you tell me more about yourself?”

She lifts her head up slightly and smiles, “Okay… if you want me to…”

We spend all day talking to each other, and Fluttershy gets more and more comfortable being around me. Eventually, night begins to fall over the woods and I crawl back into the shelter.

Fluttershy stops at the entrance to it and asks, “Um… may I sleep in here tonight? I get kinda cold sleeping by myself…”

I nod, “Sure, come on in.”

I lay down, and Fluttershy curls up next to me.

“I’m glad your really back Fluttershy.” I say.

She sleepily nods and snuggles up closer to me.

I rest my arm over her and I close my eyes.

In the darkness of my mind however, something nags me from the back of my head.

Something I had seemingly overlooked… My conscience seems to come out of nowhere and asks,

“Is this okay?”  I ask it, “What do you mean?” It says, “Being in love with a pony, that’s what I mean!” “Well, she is a lot like a human…” I feebly try and defend myself.

It doesn’t work.

“That doesn’t matter! Its just not right and you know it! If you really love her you’ll stop leading her on and end it now! What are you going to say to her? ‘Sorry I really like you, but it is morally wrong to love you, so goodbye!’”

My conscience says in a mocking tone.

I have no answer.

“Fact is, she is an animal, you are a human. Case closed.”

Before I can attempt to argue with my conscience, it is gone. I open my eyes and look at Fluttershy sleeping beside me.

“What am I doing…” I think, “What should I do?”

I close my eyes and fall into a disturbed, fitful sleep.

A/N Most "Human In Equestria" fanfics I have seen where a human loves a pony or vice versa, they completely ignore the moral implications of such a thing. Not in this one. It will be a major plot element has he struggles with his feelings and what he knows is right.