The temple loomed, imposing even in its faded grandeur. Vines crawled up the cracked black granite, smothering the broken spires beneath in a layer of broken foliage and filth. It was still possible to see some hints of its former glory, the way its spires must have soared into the sky to point out the stars it worshiped. Now, however, it was little more than a cadaverous ruin, piled upon itself like so much refuse.
Despite herself, Fluttershy felt a pang of sadness.
Three weeks ago, the elements had come here at Princess Celestia’s behest. It had been something regarding an undead dragon and worship of the darkness between the stars, but Fluttershy couldn’t remember exactly. In truth, she’d gone into a panic attack when she’d first seen the pictures. Crawling murals of fear incarnate, carved from scales and flesh that put the dragons she’d known to shame. Even wrought in dead, broken stone they filled her with a hysterical terror she’d never known.
They decided to go without her.
She wasn’t sure which shamed her more in the end, that she’d let them go alone, or the relief she’d felt in doing so. They were heroes one and all in their own right, and she was just the quiet town caregiver. Yes, she’d been the one to talk down the only dragon they’d ever actually had to fight (Spike excepted), but surely they’d all learned their friendship lesson from that. She was sure that, if they ever faced a dragon again, they’d do just fine without her.
Except they hadn’t.
She still remembered speaking to the Princesses. All she could remember were their eyes, the way they avoided hers, trying to both hide their shame and share their sympathy. She couldn’t remember the room, or the weather, or even the rest of the day. All she could remember were their eyes, and the terrible news that every pony friend she’d ever made were simply gone.
She was alone again.
Yes, she still had Spike, and the CMC, and even Zecora, but it was clear that every one of them struggled under the pall of the loss. They all tried, desperately, to hold themselves together, but Fluttershy could feel the bonds fraying. It was too much, too quickly for all of them. They needed their girls back. They all did.
So she came here.
She wasn’t sure what she was thinking, slipping by the royal guard cordon. She knew it was insane. She knew she was going to vanish into the dark just like her friends. Maybe she wanted to try before Scootaloo or Spike tried something stupid. Maybe she thought she could do something with her own tiny share of rainbow power.
Maybe she just didn’t want to be alone anymore.
She took another look up at the crumbling stone edifice, and fought the shiver that threatened to crawl up her spine. She couldn’t let this place win. She couldn’t lose everything she’d gained over these last precious years in Ponyville. If she turned away now, it would just be to return to the void her life had become. She couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t.
Slowly, she put one hoof in front of the other.
The temple grew larger with every step. Within the cracked stone, small crystals gleamed in the midday light, setting the whole temple shimmering like the sky it had been erected to honor. At its front, a massive archway marked the entrance to the temple interior. Fittingly, no light penetrated within, leaving an empty void to greet her.
Fluttershy carefully reached into her saddlebags, and pulled out a small firefly lantern. When she’d gone to Twilight’s castle to check on Spike, she’d found him going over Twilight’s shopping list, assembling one of the kits that the would-be adventurer had deemed essential to survival. It left a bitter taste in her mouth now that she’d talked Spike out of going after Twilight, only to swipe his supplies and go herself. Just the same, the soft glow of the lantern against the dark rather deftly dulled her regrets.
The entrance way was breathtaking in an austere way. The granite had been smoothed but not polished, leaving its inky surface to swallow every drop of light. Were it not for the still shining day behind Fluttershy, she could well have stepped into an abyss. She almost bumped into the wall as it started to curve, and she found she had to trace it with a wing just to keep her bearings. Beneath her, the ground began to slope downwards, and the light slowly disappeared from view.
The darkness stretched in all directions. At once, it felt both infinite and claustrophobic, and with each step Fluttershy couldn’t decide if she was going to plunge into void or run into a wall. She extended her other wing, but only stagnant air greeted her touch. It struck her that there were no smells down here, not of foliage or even rot. There was just emptiness.
By her count, the ramp went around three times before it finally stopped. The wall started to pull away from her touch, and for a moment she fought whether to follow it or continue forward. “Hello?” She whispered into the dark, even her tiny voice echoing off into the distance. She quickly pressed herself to the wall, overwhelmed as the space before her became an abyss without end.
It was several seconds before she could move again. Her heart thundered in her ears, and it was a battle to unclench her legs from her sides. A logical part of her brain told her she could simply fly, but her soul gibbered wildly about being swallowed by the shadows around her. If she let go of her wall, that would be it. She’d be gone forever.
As she stared off into the darkness, a small glimmer caught her eye. She squinted, but the gleam of her little lantern fell just short. Hesitantly, she took her first steps away from the wall, scraping her hooves along the ground in front of her just to make sure it was really there. Inch by inch, she crept closer to the object of her attention.
It lay upon the floor, brilliant white. An arrow, it seemed to be smeared on the ground with some sort of substance. Fluttershy edged closer and her heart skipped a beat as she recognized Rarity’s makeup. It only took a moment to realize the crude illustration hadn’t been done by the fashionista herself. Between the sloppy job and the blunt “EXIT” written below it, Fluttershy put the blame square on Dash’s hooves. She felt her heart settle in her chest.
Now that she had her bearings, she was able to take better stock of the space around her. Within sight of the arrow was another splash of makeup, this one far more delicate and sparing in its use. No doubt Rarity had taken charge of marking their path when it became clear her makeup was the best option. The thought brought a smile to Fluttershy’s lips.
She started to follow, more confident now that she had a direction. So far, it seemed her friends had everything well in order. The marks were steady and precise, and had exactly the sort of precision one would expect from Rarity at her best. There were no frantic scribbles or horrible messages, just a nice safe path to follow.
Before long, something else caught her eye. She wasn’t sure if it had been obscured by a hidden pillar in the dark, or if it had actually swum from the shadows itself, but a lone light matched her own lantern in the distance. She felt her spirits rise even higher as she made out the sight of several bedrolls and a stack of books and what looked like papers. There was no sign of her friends, however.
“I’m sure Twilight kept notes…” Even with the comfort of a second light, her voice still faded disturbingly into the distance. She started looking through the books, though as she searched she began to find more disturbing signs among the campsite. Food tins sat around the lamp, old scraps of spinach dried to the insides, and the bed rolls sat around in rumpled neglect. Whoever had been living here had ceased to care about their condition long ago.
She cracked open the first book, and nearly gasped. Even inside the first page, Twilight’s hoofwriting roved between the margins, desecrating the fine typesetting and pristine paper. She started to read, but for the most part it was gibberish referring back to page numbers and even other books. She tried reading further into the book she’d chosen, a treatise on Precelestian civilizations, but the mayhem only grew worse. Fine, delicate notes warred for space with frantic scribbles of numbers and terms. There wasn’t a lot Fluttershy could garner from the book, except that some of the frantic notes referred to some of the finer ones, meaning they’d come later.
Her mouth a little drier than when she began, she started to read the other books, only to find more of the same. She made her way through the entire stack, but unfortunately most of the notes either contradicted the books with blunt statements of “useless” and “totally wrong”, or cryptically told her to “Compare to page X in the Starward Script.” However, no matter how many times Fluttershy went through the pile, she couldn’t find a book labeled Starward Script. She even checked the bedrolls, thinking maybe Twilight had forgotten it in bed, when she noticed something strange.
There were only four bedrolls.
She did a double take, counting again, but there were definitely only four. That meant that one of her friends had moved to a different campsite, and likely taken this important book with them. For a moment, hope flickered in her heart that one of her friends could still be okay and on the move. Then she took a look at the depthless void around her, and it died as if snuffed. There were no more helpful arrows or even a map among the books. There was just featureless darkness.
She gulped and sat down beside the books. She’d come this far, and whatever else had happened the camp was undisturbed. Her friends had to be expecting some kind of rescue attempt: they wouldn’t have just left without a clue of some sort. Then again, they probably expected the princesses, and the princesses had magic. Chances were the clue was some clever magical trick that only Celestia would know.
Fluttershy sighed and stared forlornly at the site before her. She’d always been afraid of letting her friends down, not just because of her abilities, but because she was always so scared. She knew she was the first one to cower or run away when trouble reared its head, but the one time she’d pulled it together to save her friends she just wasn’t good enough. This was a job for princesses and soldiers, not a wannabe veterinarian.
Tears began to well in her eyes as she stood up to leave. She turned around, searching the darkness for the dotted line that had led her here. Finding it through her misty eyes, she began to follow it, her hopes and the campsite fading behind her. She’d failed, and that was that.
Maybe it was for the best that her friends weren’t counting on her. Clearly they couldn’t. They were waiting for Celestia or Luna to come and sweep away the darkness. Then they’d all ride back to Ponyville, and give her a big hug for trying. Or yell at her for being so stupid. Which she was.
She carefully wiped the tears from her eyes, giving a pathetic sniffle as the line before her turned again. Somewhere in the back of her mind, something nagged at her, but she really couldn’t be bothered to put her hoof on it. At least until she noticed a new message beside the line.
THIS WAY
Her heart stopped. All at once she realized the line had changed. She couldn’t remember all the turns, but she was sure they were wrong. Somepony had changed the line out in the dark, and now she was following it who knew where. She started to hyperventilate and almost ran back to the camp before she realized how useless that would be. She couldn’t remember how the line went, and maybe this message had been left by one of her friends? Then why didn’t they leave her something personal, or come out to greet her?
After a few seconds alone in the dark, she pressed on. She had nowhere else to go, and maybe this was the clue she needed. Maybe she could still save her friends. As she walked along, she spied another message, written below a crude drawing of a crystal.
EVIL
BREAK
Fluttershy felt her legs begin to shake. So there was evil down here. A part of her had hoped that her friends were just really amazingly lost, or maybe trapped in a cave in. Now there was no question about why they hadn’t returned. Again she spied another drawing of the crystal, and again a message beneath it.
BREAK
BREAK
BREAK
That nervous shake grew heavier, and she felt her steps slowing down. She wasn’t a fighter, she didn’t wrestle timberwolves or fight dragons. She sat in her cottage and tended to her sweet little animals. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d broken anything heavier that a dropped teacup. And that had been mostly Angel Bunny.
Ahead, she thought she saw a hint of something. She squinted against the dark, but all she could make out was the faintest suggestion of light. Actively battling her fear now, she inched her way closer, hunched in on herself as though she could hide behind her modest lantern. There was definitely a light ahead, the glow of another lantern, though it bobbed and weaved strangely.
It was a reflection.
Before her was a great forest of crystals, their polished surfaces lost in the darkness. As she wandered closer, more and more reflected from the darkness at her, making her feel almost as though she were in a glade of fireflies. The thought brought her some measure of comfort, until she made the mistake of comparing them to eyes. Instantly her comfort disappeared.
“Who’s there?”
Fluttershy felt her heart leap, only to immediately clench with unease. She’d know Twilight’s voice anywhere, but at the same time there was a sickly rasp to the words. She sounded tired. Tired and, not hurt, but ill.
“Twilight? It’s me, Fluttershy.” She timidly started walking towards the voice. “I came to, um, save you.” The words sounded so limp and pathetic it made her want to hide.
“Fluttershy?” There was a moment’s silence. “You bastard.”
“W-what?” She stopped dead at the venom in her friend’s voice.
“You shouldn’t have come here, and you shouldn’t have moondamned hurt her. I was already going to kill you, but now I’m going to enjoy it.” The rush of air was the only warning Fluttershy got. Even as she leaped aside, there was a sound like shattering glass and cracking stone. Hot pain flashed across her flanks as shards of crystal and flecks of blood scattered on the floor.
She ran in a mad panic. More crystals flew about as she dodged through the forest, all the while her beloved Twilight cursing at her in language that would have terrified her on its own. Her mind flashed to the messages scribbled on the floor, and she grit her teeth as she tried to turn towards Twilight’s voice. Another shard smashed near her, and an errant chunk shattered her lantern to pieces.
Reflexively she curled into a ball at the blast of sharp glass against her face. Not even daring to whimper, she simply sat there and shivered. Above her, the fireflies scattered away in every direction, their darting lights reflected a dozenfold in the forest around her. Much to Twilight’s vocal rage.
“Your cute tricks aren’t going to save you!” More crystals lashed out, lancing through the dark at the weaving lights, setting the space reverberating with their cacophony. Slowly, Fluttershy realized that Twilight had lost track of her. Maybe she could sneak away.
And leave Twilight trapped down there.
Taking a deep an incredibly quiet breath, she started towards Twilight’s voice. Few ponies were better at being quiet than Fluttershy, and beneath Twilight’s enraged screams, it was easy to move undetected. A dim glow of purple shone ahead, and Fluttershy’s eyes looked up to behold what had become of the Princess of Friendship.
“Hah! Almost out of lights! I’ll kill every one of your little pets!” Twilight, or what was left of her, screamed from within a prison of jagged crystals. Rather than having grown from the floor like the others, these ones had sprouted from her body, pinning her in place by their sheer ungainly mass. Every scream and twist made them shift and grind each other, dancing in a mocking imitation of the body trapped within them. Even her face and parts of her eyes had been consumed, twisting her flesh in ways that made Fluttershy’s stomach lurch violently.
She almost turned back right there, except that beside Twilight was the crystal in the pictures. She could still save her friend. Steeling herself, she crept towards it, shivers running through her as Twilight’s impaled eyes twitched back and forth, her deformed mouth drooling through a vicious grimace. She slipped around behind, and wrapped her hooves around the crystal.
“No!” A shard of crystal followed Twilight’s demented howl, and suddenly Fluttershy was swept sideways. The evil crystal remained locked in her hooves out of nothing more than sheer instinct as she was knocked to the floor, and skidded with a grinding noise that ponies couldn’t make. “Thought you could sneak up on-- Fluttershy?-- is that really, Fluttershy, no!”
Twilight ground her way towards Fluttershy, dragging herself through sheer magical power, but the grating of her prison was strangely distant. Fluttershy blinked blearily at the crystal before her, her side feeling oddly warm even as the rest of her grew cold. Smash. She had to smash the crystal.
“Fluttershy, don’t, I’m sorry, I-- Fluttershy, no!” Twilight’s voiced turned from scared babbling to raw terror as Fluttershy raised her hoof over the crystal. It smashed with a report like a thunderclap.
Fluttershy watched as cracks spiderwebbed up the crystals binding Twilight. She shrieked and howled in agony so loud it pierced even the haze clouding her mind. With a sound like falling sand, every single crystal burst into nothingness at once, dumping Twilight on the ground. Or rather, it dumped what was left of her.
Even dying, Fluttershy could register the full horror of half her friend lying there, trying with flickering magic to stuff her own innards back in between half missing ribs as perforated eyes stared and bled sightlessly into the dark. The blood poured and poured as Fluttershy stared, until Twilight breathed her last, and that dim violet light flicked out.
There was only darkness.
