Hollow Victoryby Inferno demon DashChaptersVolunteer; Blissful Strength Of WillShackled Monster; Put The Blame On Somepony ElseAmends; She's Getting StrongerVolunteer; Blissful Strength Of WillThe expression on Rainbow Dash’s face was one of irritation, replacing her usual bored or naturally arrogant mask of self worth as her eyes narrowed, her teeth gritting in annoyance at Twilight Sparkle’s words. “This isn't funny, Egg Head.” The Pegasus growled, causing the Alicorn before her to roll her eyes in the attempt to quell her own rising annoyance. “It’s not supposed to be funny, Rainbow, what we are all here for is to help Rarity learn more offensive and defensive magic, one that could literally save her life if she was ever threatened.” The former protegee of Celestia snapped back at Rainbow Dash, who snorted with an eyebrow raised. “Then give her a book, you have hundreds of them you know!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, waving a forehoof at the many shelves lined in perfect rows with thick, slightly yellowing books around the seven of them. “You know as well as I do, Rainbow Dash that Twilight would not call all of us here just to hoof me a book that would not affect any of you, besides, I have read all of the subjects that Twilight has provided, when I was given the opportunity of course. And practiced the arcane magic either alone or with her help, so there is no reason to get upset.” The alabaster unicorn spoke with a long breath before exhaling deeply, slightly winded. Rainbow Dash only rolled her eyes then snorted before snapping back “Well unless you got a clear reason for me being here, I’m going home, I got work tonight with the storm clouds brewing in, ok?” She spoke then walked over the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of hard cider. Twilight and Spike kept it around the house for when they wanted something with a bit of kick, Rainbow figured she’d help herself to it. “Actually yes, there is a reason, despite popular belief I’m not perfect-” Twilight spoke before Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. “No shit.” A comment which Twilight ignored before continuing. “Therefore to further both of our education into the mysterious art of magic, I found a very ancient spell in a very old ancient book that predates known history in the Canterlot library last week while Spike went to see his adopted mother, Princess Celestia. Basically, using this spell, one or more unicorns can enter into the mind of a single pony, maybe even other creatures for a limited amount of time.” Twilight said all of this before being forced to catch her breath. When she did she added, “I wanted to give it a try.” As one, all of her friends raised an eyebrow. “The down side of that is that both the unicorns and creature will be deeply asleep while our mental bodies are warped into their heads, so I’ll need not only a volunteer but some loyal and noble friends to watch over us as we travel into somepony’s mind.” Twilight finished before looking over all her friends with a large smile. Rainbow Dash rubbed her left forehoof with her right nervously with a slight chuckle before taking a sip of her drink. “Oh well, you know I’m always up for a challenge, Twi but after your last ancient spell of turning me into a stallion, I’ll have to pass.” She coughed before looking at Applejack. “Oh, gee, Twi you know Ah would always help you out but last time your spell to cure the common cold left me having the sniffles and trots for a week, sorry buddy.” She replied with a blush of embarrassment and then turned her head so not to make eye contact with her friends. After a second or so she looked over towards Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie only grinned widely before rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly with a hoof. “Um, sorry to burst your bubble, Twilight, but I was in the hospital for three days when you used your magic to try to turn me into a Pegasus, thanks for the offer but I don’t want to experience the feeling of vomiting and being really, really dizzy everytime I try to get up, I am really sorry.” Pinkie could only muster with a small smile causing her studious friend to frown. Pinkie Pie then looked at Rarity who spoke that she would be performing the spell with Twilight and even if she was not, she did not want to have the uncontrollable urge to bury things like last time, the mud, dirt and the simply disgusting act of using her bare hooves to try to drop things into a hole was too much for her perfect order of beauty. Not to mention what she did made the Diamond Dogs really pissed at her, even though Twilight was only trying to help her friend get over her fear of spiders. Twilight sighed loudly in exasperation before looking over at the now matured eighteen year old dragon she loved and knew so well. Spike was now as tall as an Alicorn, his body was very muscular and well built. He was so attractive that made all of them drool at the mere sight of him. His voice had deepened significantly as he had aged and he currently sat on the couch in the living room, reading a book with a glass of sweet tea on the nearby table. “Oh, Spike, would you kindly-” Twilight’s voice was interrupted by Spike replying in a curt tone. “Forget it Twi.” Twilight sauntered slowly towards the couch and whispered. “Aww come on, don’t be like that. I’ll give you a nice treat when we are done.” She smiled slyly. Spike turned on the couch and glared daggers over towards Twilight and said, “Forget it Twilight! Why in the hell would I allow you to touch me with that magic of yours after the failure you had last time. In case you forgot I’ll remind you...” He then began to quickly retell of the previous attempt she made at transforming his body into a dog and made Winona, who was in heat at the time, chase him around the entire town for a week while Twilight tried to find the reversal spell. It turned out that Discord had eaten the paper for laughs so Spike had not been able to change back for a month, it still gave him nightmares. Twilight face hoofed before glancing pathetically at Fluttershy, the only pony she had not physically, mentally or emotionally scarred with her new growing abilities. “Shy, you don’t have to-” “I’ll do it.” Fluttershy spoke abruptly causing all of them, even Spike to look at her in surprise, a slight tinge of horror colored all of their expressions. “You, uh, sure, darling? It won’t be just Twilight doing this spell, I’ll also be-” “I know, but you are my friends and I want to help you both anyway I can...but um, can I have a cigarette first?” She asked hesitantly, knowing how much her friends disapproved of her disgusting habit. Twilight let loose a very relieved sigh, appreciating how much of a dear friend the poor mare was to her, also knowing that while she disapproved of her addiction, Fluttershy was an adult and her actions reflected on no creature but herself, the consequences were her’s to deal with alone. “Sure, Shy, I’ll buy you a carton after this is over, now the book says that it won't physically hurt, but if it does, tell us and-” Twilight was once again forced to halt mid sentence as a sharp knock on the door brought everypony’s attention away from the mare and towards the door. Twilight huffed before trotting towards it, opening it with a hoof. “Yes?” She said as politely as she could looking at the unicorn mare before her. Vinyl Scratch's purple shades were reflecting into Twilight’s eyes, as they were sitting on top of Vinyl’s head, catching the light. Twilight looked away from Vinyl almost instantly as a result. “Hey, Twilight’s what’s up, my main, insane mare, um, is Spike here? I got to talk to him about something.” The cheerful yet heavy accent of the record player from Fillydelphia laughed softly. “Hey, Vinyl, yeah he’s here, Spike-” She didn't get another word out due to the fact that a laughing Spike had pushed past her and ushered Vinyl inside, giving her a claw bump which she returned with her hoof. Twilight glared after Vinyl, a mixed stab of jealousy and anger hit her before she rolled her eyes, closing the door and walking back to her friends, hearing the annoyingly loud conversation about a party Spike was invited to next week, knowing it was an adult party and that Spike was likely going to come home drunk off his ass...again. It was not that Twilight hated Vinyl or anything remotely like that, it’s just...she did not feel all that comfortable with how much time the mare always wanted to spend around him and to be honest, the jealousy she felt got stronger every time they were together. After hearing Spike laugh loudly from something that Vinyl had said, Twilight decided she had had enough and wanted Vinyl out so she and Rarity could prepare but before she could speak, Rainbow Dash started to shout at how unfair it was that Spike could go to the party but she couldn’t. “You got so drunk you threw up all over Roseluck’s garden, Rainbow, not to mention you threw my roommate’s couch through a window and somepony saw you pee in a vase she got from her grandmother.” Vinyl snapped, angered at how Rainbow could even protest. “It was an accident, and-” “Granny Pie is still angry at you , Dashy, not to mention my cousin is still waiting for the money you owe her for the damage.” Pinkie Pie blurted out with a frown and narrow eyes. Rainbow Dash could only lower her head in shame. “That was two months ago though, guys, come on, it’s water-” “So what you all up to?” Vinyl rudely and intentionally interrupted, by Rainbow Dash’s account at least. Vinyl pushed Rainbow out of the way to stand before them while Fluttershy trotted towards Spike to bum a Diseased Stallion cigarette before they used the spell on her, the dragon lit the tobacco with his emerald colored flames, and smiled slowly causing Fluttershy’s heart to beat rapidly as he turned back to his book. “Well, before we were bothered by somepony, we were just discussing on using an ancient spell to share our minds with Fluttershy, then learning more about the-” “That sounds fascinating, Twilight really, but I kind of got to go do something that won’t bore me to tears, so if you don’t mind-” “It takes quite a strong amount of will to perform such a delicate spell, Vinyl, no unicorn can just easily sustain the amount of complex-” “I’m sorry, Miss Fashion Pony are you calling me stupid?” Vinyl Scratch spat before getting herself eye to eye with the Element of Generosity who scoffed and took a step back, annoyed at Vinyl’s obvious disrespect for her personal space. “Of course not, darling, but I’m only saying that I have an abundance amount of magical armament from Twilight’s assistance and that using this-” “Well if you think you’re so great, then do it already, I’ll even add my own backwater magic to give you a little boost and get this ball rolling, Rarity.” She spoke cruelly, emphasising her name with a loud snort. Twilight stepped in at this point and added her own voice to the argument. “Look, no pony invited you here, Vinyl and it’s Fluttershy’s mind we are entering so the only reason we are not kicking you out of the door this instant-” “I don’t mind, Twilight.” The calm, soft spoken voice of Fluttershy broke through the argument, inhaling the last of her cigarette then exhaling it out her nose before snuffing it out on the ash tray Spike had on the table to the left of him and looking at the arguing ponies before her, noticing that all three unicorns jaw’s had all dropped from surprise. “Are you positive, dear? This could very well overwhelm you, none of us has ever done it before and from what Twilight said we may do something to mentally or emotionally harm you without meaning to.” Rarity spoke softly, placing a hoof on her loving, caring, tedious friend. In hindsight though, she couldn't really blame her. All of their lives had become pretty routine, day in and day out, always the same. The only one that wasn't bothered by it was Spike. Shaking away the dreadful and frankly disturbing thoughts, Rarity barely noticed that Fluttershy had answered. She was sure that both had missed something as both Twilight and Vinyl were glaring at one another. She said nothing however, not wanting to go against Fluttershy’s wishes and her adamant belief that she could handle it. Without another word, Twilight looked at her friends who nodded, Spike setting his book down and moving to sit beside Pinkie Pie, before Twilight brought out a very thin, withered book, the size of a very small notebook before telling the two unicorns to sit on either side of Fluttershy. Twilight opened the book and began reading through it again. She had read it when Spike had first brought it home with him and it had taken her about a week or so to translate the very ancient text that it contained. The book was old, extremely old, judging by both the way the spell was cast and the language it had been written in. To her knowledge, it predated the time of Luna’s banishment by at least one thousand years. After she had confirmed that she knew the words to the spell and what to expect, she passed it to Rarity and said, “This is gonna be a bit of a deviation from normal spell casting. According to the book, once the first word of the spell is spoken, the magic will seize control of our bodies, causing us to move and finish the chant. I wanted to do it the old way first...and then I was going to see about modernizing it.” Rarity frowned as she memorized the words, the way this spell sounded, it felt totally barbaric. Still, she had agreed to do it, and there was no backing down now. After she was done, she hoofed the book to Vinyl, who took it as though this were the most normal thing in the world and began her turn of memorization. After all of them had read the book and memorized the words for the spell, Twilight instructed them to take a deep breath and as one they started. The muttering of the words began in a soft but rapid string, the voices of the three unicorns overlapping each other, forming a soft chorus of ghostly whispering. The magic took hold of their bodies, as Twilight had said, their bodies beginning to sway to and fro slowly, their eyelids fluttering rapidly, half open, feeling the grain of the wood roughly scrape against the fur on their hindquarters unconsciously. The eerie trance of the four ponies was a difficult sight to look away from. The other ponies and the lone dragon looked on, slightly appalled from what they were witnessing. Twilight’s eyes suddenly opened to their fullest, looking at the face of Fluttershy who seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, fighting to control her breathing to prevent hyperventilation. Her strength and resolve failed her when the entranced Twilight smiled in reassurance before lighting her horn with magic, touching her friend’s forehead with her horn and forcing her into a very deep, very heavy sleep, so deep that it appeared as though Fluttershy was not even breathing. Twilight seemed to come out of the trance, looking down at Fluttershy, satisfied with that phase of the spell. She turned to the others and motioned for them to take a place around Fluttershy’s head as she herself sat in front of it. It was obvious to the bystanders, judging by the glassy looks of both Vinyl and Rarity that the trance of the ritualistic spell was still in effect. Rarity sat on the floor next to Fluttershy’s head on Twilight’s right side and Vinyl sat on her left. As one the three simultaneously lit their horns, and bowed over Fluttershy, their horns touching her head in unison, the individual glows of magic seeping out from the horns, flowing deep into Fluttershy’s mind. The moment the glow was gone from each horn, the three unicorn’s closed their eyes and slumped forward against Fluttershy, only their breathing the only sign of continued life. It was obvious by now that the spell was complete, but it didn't stop all of those left in the room from being worried beyond all comprehension. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************* They felt as though their minds were being sucked into a vortex, ripping away all conscious thoughts and sounds, slowly peeling their flesh like a bandaid being harshly torn from a sickeningly, ugly, sore cut. Before the sensations of the vortex could become unbearable, they felt the world righting itself as they were transported headlong into the solid earth of their friend’s imagination, feeling their joints crack and pop in pain, their fur, mane and tail an unruly mess and each having a migraine, like they been binge drinking on hard cider. “By the gods, let’s never do that again.” Vinyl Scratch groaned loudly, sitting up and then almost immediately running for a nearby blueberry bush and vomiting. “Oh, agreed, very much agreed.” Rarity wheezed and held her head in her hooves to try to stop everything from spinning around her. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would-” Twilight cut herself off mid sentence and coughed up blood onto the grass beside her before wiping her mouth with a hoof, streaking the fur with the crimson substance and slowly getting up off the ground. She looked at the blood for a moment, contemplating it before Rarity’s voice broke through her thoughts as she asked, “Dear, if we are in Fluttershy’s mind, how is it we still have bodies?” Twilight looked over to her and said. “The book said that we’d have mental projections of our real bodies that feel and act as real as the ones we left behind. That’s why we still feel pain. Its not real though, I don’t think.” Rarity eyed her with a look of worry and said, “You don’t think? Twilight are you sure this is safe?” Twilight simply nodded and stood up, motioning for the others to the same. The other two followed the Alicorn’s example and stood up on all four hooves. It wasn't long before Rarity shrieked loudly and immediately attempted to fix her appearance with her hooves, grumbling that she wished she could have brought her accessories if she knew this was going to happen. Neither of the other two replied, instead choosing to observe the breath taking landscape around them. Creatures of all shapes and sizes were lumbering around the very large, open terrain. The variety was immense; Dragons with sheep and minotaurs, buffalos idly chatting with Parasprites, even a Chimera playfully wrestling with a few Ewes were just a few of the things they saw. It was a pristine paradise. A cloudless sky with a bright sun, shining brightly above the area, the grass was perfect and smooth, and not a single dead thing existed anywhere, not even twigs or fallen leaves. So many animals of all manner of species were talking, playing and in a few cases mating with each other that it made all three of the unicorns smile and cheer in joy at their success and at how innocent their friend’s mind really was. “Hey girls, glad you could join the party!” A loud, happy voice spoke far away from them, making the group turn to see Discord waterskiing, using two dolphins as the skis and pulled along by a cheerful looking squid. “What is he doing here?” Rarity questioned making the god suddenly and nonchalantly teleport on her back in which she toppled to the ground due to the sudden increase in weight. “Why having fun of course, Fluttershy’s mind is frequently used by immortals as a place for relaxation from the physical world, why just the other day, Chrysalis and I were eating apple pie together and Cadence was laughing with a cow, it was a fun day.” The spirit answered before floating off her back and making a picnic appear before him, settling on the grass as many animals crowded around the god to enjoy the feast. “So all animals can suddenly understand each other here?” Twilight asked causing Discord to laugh and throw her a brownie which she caught with a smile. “Yes indeed, we don’t question it and simply enjoy ourselves,” He chuckled taking a large bite of a piece of chocolate cake. As he was chewing Twilight asked softly, “Yeah, but it’ll eventually end when Fluttershy passes on won’t it.” Discord seemed to struggle with swallowing as she finished speaking, almost as if the words had caught him off guard. He managed to swallow and seemed to deflate a bit as he said, “I know that one day it’ll end...but I do plan to enjoy my time here with her while I can.” He seemed to perk up a bit but Twilight could tell that what she had said had hit deep within him. She didn't say anything else about it though as a small group of animals rushed past playfully, Discord taking off after them in the form of a small fox, the picnic vanishing as he left. It wasn't long after that that another voice piped into the group, one they knew very well. “I still have a long time before that happens, you know. But it still bothers him to think about it...he’s unsure of what to do. Not only with the time he has with me, but with the future as well.” The sudden unexpected and quite voice spoke behind them and they turned to see Fluttershy unharmed with a small smile on her face, one that seemed slightly marred with whatever she was feeling about Discord. After a moment she smiled more clearly, motioning to the beautiful expanse, “Welcome to my mind, a utopia filled with anything you could imagine and desire without the stress or worry of never achieving said peace of heart and mind.” Fluttershy giggled softly before the three mares hugged her firmly. “This is amazing, Fluttershy, I always thought that your mind was peaceful, but I never imagined it was this peaceful. I can’t wait to see what other mental worlds other ponies and one day other creatures have, thank you for sharing this experience with us.” Twilight said sincerely causing Fluttershy to blush and calmly step away from the loving embrace. “Feel free to do whatever your heart desires here, my mind is yours to wander, though,” She hesitantly paused and quietly added in a low whisper, forcing them to go closer to her “Please don’t go farther north to my more intimate and personal thoughts. I have that entire area sealed off from any creature’s use, stay within the border of ‘Harmony Valley’ please.” She added before giving a smile, taking a cigarette from her right ear with her tail. Discord came out of nowhere and happily lit it, before flying off to leave her friends to their own devices. The trio spent what seemed like hours to them enjoying themselves, never getting hungry, tired or angry as they explored the entire area of either the very large, crystal clear lake, the freshly cut grass beneath their hooves that covered as far as the eye could see. Tall and proud tree’s grew out of the ground in places, filled with all kinds of fruits and flying creatures of the forest. Farther ahead of all this were tall, soft peaked, mountains that the sun never set behind, staying perfect in its position at all times. It was the world that was even more perfectly surreal than their own and they loved every second, although Twilight became disappointed that even though all the animals talked and spoke in their language, they could only answer the questions that Fluttershy herself knew, making trying to learn about many of the different animals a tad annoying. She also noticed that none of them ever repeated themselves or were sometimes completely emotionless in their responses like robots, the latter of the two creeped her out a bit, admittedly. Rarity who just got done getting her mane and tail braided by a lion and a few squirrels trotted up to Twilight who was enjoying getting a tan beside a chimera and sighed dreamily as she laid down on the smooth, warm grass. She volubly admired at how amazing the place was and that Fluttershy had to be the most caring, and heart warming pony imaginable to have such a world in her mind. “I agree, it really was thoughtful for her to do this for us, though we can’t stay too long, or else our physical bodies will start to slowly deteriorate and we will be forced to end up in the hospital, also I’ll have to do a very detailed report on everything we encountered and send it to Princess Celestia before we can even think of trying to override the side effects of the spell it took to get us here and try to enter into other ponies astral plane.” Twilight slowly mumbled and rolled onto her stomach. Before Rarity could reply, Vinyl Scratch came out of the lake riding a giant stone crocodile and spraying all three animals with a large amount of water. She jumped off the back of the carnivore with a large grin and slight bounce in her step, her shades plastered on her face before she shook the excess water out of her fur with a hearty laugh. “I bucking love this place!” She screamed with a roar of laughter, starting off towards a cheetah in hopes of trying to gamble using snails but was stopped by Twilight’s hoof on her chest and repeating what she had told Rarity. The blue maned unicorn merely scoffed and lightly pushed the mare’s hoof away with a shake of her head. “Yeah, alright, I get your point, mom,” She spoke with a tone of sarcasm before adding with a slightly dark grin “If what you say is true then why don’t we go see what all the fuss is about with Fluttershy’s border line, huh?” She chuckled softly before trotting to the destination she just mentioned, causing the two other mare’s to gasp in horror and shock. “Vinyl, how could you dare suggest a thing, Fluttershy is our friend and we promised her not to invade her privacy and go beyond the border she created.” Rarity cried overdramatically racing after the over zealous unicorn. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s get one thing straight, Fluttershy is your friend, not mine, alright? I never promised her anything. I mean she’s cool and all but she’s a hell of a downer when it comes to a party or smoking some Hay Weed, who the buck get’s high after two hits of the shit or gets hammered after only two beers? That girl has got to get more hold over her liquor, maybe get an iron liver and stomach like Rainbow Dash, though Rainbow’s a bit of a jerk at times, especially when drunk and annoys me to death sometimes, she’s a real partier.” Vinyl rolled her eyes with a sneer painted across her face and simply walked pass the fashion pony. “I find your very offensive and rather cruel choice of words about my friends to be disturbing, Vinyl Scratch, if you don’t like it then you can just get out of poor Fluttershy’s mind right now!” Rarity snorted with a firm stamp of her hoof as the dj looked at her and childishly stuck her tongue out making Rarity step back repulsed by the brash tomfilly. Not paying attention, neither unicorn noticed as Twilight stood up and teleported in front of the mare known as DJ Pone-3, casting a firm glare at her before Vinyl bumped into her. “Talking about our friends and advancing after Spike the way you do is the reason none of us like you, Fluttershy did you a huge favour in just letting you into her mind, let alone trying something that has never been done in millennia. While you are not an exception towards being a friend to her, you’re quickly overstepping yourself by abusing the trust she’s putting in you. If you don’t like it then get out of here.” Twilight threatened frankly making Vinyl turn her head away in frustration, knowing the book worm was right. “Fine, fine, you’re right ok, I’m sorry, and blah, blah, blah. Look, you do things your way with friendship and what not, but where I’m from, it’s everypony and creature for themselves, I’m not going to bore you with a sad ass sob story because it’s like you said, we don’t got enough time, so if you'll just kindly-” Vinyl attempt to sidestep the mare failed when Twilight blocked her body with her own and snorted with exhaled air visibly to prove her point before Rarity spoke up. “Though I am quite intrigued on what Fluttershy is trying to keep from us, I understand everypony has their secrets but we did promise each other we would not keep any worthy knowledge from the other.” Rarity commented with a flick of her tail as Vinyl laughed and poked Twilight’s chest with a hoof sharply. “You hear that? Shy promised and did not hold up to her end of the bargain, so nothing wrong with a little peek, ‘friend’ two against one after all.” Vinyl sneered and ignoring the annoyed glance Twilight gave to the now sheepish looking Rarity, bypassed Twilight and continued on towards the northern barrier, Rarity following after Vinyl moments later Twilight sat back onto her flank, refusing to budge and called after Rarity, “I hope you can live with what you’re doing. Fluttershy trusted you.” Twilight scowled and flopped backwards onto the ground, staring up into the sky, suddenly wishing she were home again. As she lay there brooding, a sudden male voice interrupted her thoughts, “You need to go after them, they are going to need you.” She looked to her right and saw Discord laying on his side next to her, looking at her with an obvious concerned look. Twilight shook her head, returning her gaze to the sky above and said, “I’m not going to betray Fluttershy’s trust in me. If they want to hurt Fluttershy like that by invading her privacy, let them take the blame, I tried to stop them.” Discord scooted closer towards Twilight and spoke softly. “I know you did and I’ll defend you when Fluttershy finds out. Of all the creatures who have ever entered her mind, there is only one other being that she has allowed into that area, Me.” He frowned and said, “Believe me when I tell you that your friends are not prepared for what exists there, and they will need you.” Twilight looked over at Discord again, her brow knitted with concern. In all of the time that she had known him, he had never been this serious. She didn’t know if he was lying to her or not, but something deep inside told her that he wasn’t. She rolled back onto her hooves and said, “You sure that Fluttershy will forgive this?” Discord waved his eagle talon as if to shoo her away slowly and said. “With you, certainly, you didn’t want to go anyway, with the other two, I’m unsure. Go on, you don’t have much time.” Twilight nodded and thanked Discord before galloping off after the other two. The border that Fluttershy had warned them about was just in sight of the two lone ponies as they walked across the landscape. It was vastly different than either of them had expected, an invisible line separated the perfectly green grass on the side they stood on and on the other side of it lay a barren wasteland. Dotted all over the place where plants of all kinds, trees, flowers, bushes, and grass; all of them withered and dying. Unnatural beasts of all shapes and sizes roamed across the isolated and desolate area, enormous, wild Timberwolves were feasting on the carcass of some unknown animal and somewhere off in the distance, a blood curdling scream echoed out towards them making the ponies on the other side of the border jump in fright. “Well I think I've seen enough, how about we go back-” Rarity’s scared tone of voice was cut off by Vinyl telling her to stop being such a filly and take a few risks to get to the really juicy parts of her friends mind. After that Rarity fell silent as Vinyl gathered up the courage and took a small step towards the gods forsaken world. A loud crackling filled the air as the barrier came alive with arcing bolts of lightning, tendrils of electricity running over Vinyl’s body, holding her rooted to the spot as she was electrocuted. Rarity yelled with alarm and threw out a lasso of magic, grabbing Vinyl and pulling her away, the DJ landing on the ground with a gasp, her body aching and throbbing with pain. After a few moments, Vinyl staggered back to her feet and looked over to the barrier with narrowed eyes. “An electric barrier, huh? Clever, alright, lighting wall, prepare to meet your doom!” Vinyl Scratch barked with an angered yell before lighting her horn with magic and throwing a powerful concentrated disrupting spell directly at it. The barrier flexed as the spell hit it, absorbing the impact of the spell and starting to glow eerily. In the second that Vinyl realized she'd majorly screwed up, a deafening blast blew outward from the shield as the force of her spell was rebounded at her, three times stronger than before. Both Vinyl and Rarity were sent flying off their hooves, slamming into the ground yards away from where they had been with grunts of pain. As they lay there stunned, a second beam of energy flew over them and hit the barrier, thin and narrow in size, channeling small amounts of energy into the shield. Vinyl dazedly looked over at the shield and saw a small opening appearing in the shield, growing larger and larger until it was big enough for three ponies to walk through. As the two other unicorns slowly pulled themselves to their hooves, Twilight walked up to them and said. “Just like Fluttershy, the harder you push, the tougher it becomes to get anywhere. A gentle touch is needed to get through to her.” Rarity sat up holding her head and asked, “Twilight, what are you doing here? I thought you said you weren’t going to invade Fluttershy’s privacy.” Twilight looked at Rarity and sighed loudly. “I’m not doing this because I want to. Discord said that you would need my help in there, and judging by what I’ve seen so far, he was right.” She shook her head and nodded her head to the dark entrance. “The way is open guys, now’s your last chance to turn back.” Vinyl jumped up from the ground, her aches apparently forgotten and sprinted towards the hole, passing through into the landscape beyond, quickly followed by Rarity and then by Twilight. “Whew, Shy was not joking when she said she had this area sealed off, haven’t been knocked around this much since that time I tried rodeoing on a visiting buffalo.” Vinyl laughed uneasily and trotted along faster before both Twilight or Rarity could ask if that was the reason why the apple family was still upset at her. The question was pushed back to the farthest corner of their minds though as they saw evil, glowing eyes of all different colors stare at them from the everlasting darkness around them, allowing their fur to get damped with coat of nervous sweat, their hooves trembling with every step they took, each looking back to see if the barrier and eternal sunshine was still there but all traces of it were lost in the darkness that surrounded them. They had entered into the ‘Shadow Forest’ as Vinyl so elegantly called it, and it was clear that this was in no way a place where Fluttershy stored her intimate desires. This was the place of her nightmares... On three separate occasions they had lost all sense of direction and had been forced to run away from all kinds of flesh eating, heartless and feral monsters that existed in the dark, always just outside of view and always there. Their horns provided them with some measure of light, allowing them to better see as they navigated through this labyrinth of horror. Eventually they came to a very wide and grassless area, something about the spot made even the most violent of creatures keep their distance and allow the trio to stumble towards three impossibly high, and very, very large tree trunks. High in the branches were six heavy linked and very thick silver chains which coiled around the trunks of each tree tightly, holding a single creature suspended into the air. The four limbs of the monster were held away from it with four of the chains, while the other two were wrapped around its neck and tail. The trees were arranged in the same order that all three unicorns had been in when they entered into the once innocent pony’s mind, one to the left, one the right and one behind, Twilight noticing that the middle tree had one more chain on it unlike its siblings, but it was broken, savagely torn off and appearing worn with age, the early stages of rust showing through the once brilliant metal. They appeared to have held something small judging by appearance of two small but thick cuffs on the very last link. Though Twilight had not the faintest clue as to what it could have held. The silence that now struck through the entire landscape was incredibly eerie and caused all of them to huddle together from the ridiculously powerful presence of evil that the prisoner emitted, feeling as though this one being was the incarnation of all nightmares. Rarity was panting so hard that she began to feel faint, Vinyl doing all she could to hold down the mental lunch she had eaten, trying to prevent it from spewing forth. Twilight gulped heavily, her mouth drying out in fear. It took all of her willpower to force herself to step closer to who or whatever the creature was, using every ounce of strength she could summon she crept slowly towards it. Illuminating her horn more, she provided larger source of of light causing it to fall across the figure held in the trees. The three of them stumbled backwards at what they saw, trying to regain their footing as the creature in the tree opened its eyes and mouth and let out a piercing wailing shriek. The force of the sounds made their vision vibrate as each of them covered their ears, the ground beneath them trembling and the trees of the forest billowing in an unseen wind. When the noise finally stopped Vinyl uncovered her ears wincing slightly at the ringing she was hearing. She looked back up into the trees, now truly terrified as the monstrously slowly drifted off to sleep. “By the gods, what is that monstrosity? I don’t think I’d ever seen anything so terrifying in my entire life.” Vinyl shivered slightly, emptying her bladder at the very sight without embarrassment or hesitation. Rarity was gasping in shock, holding her head in pain and quite convinced that her ears were bleeding. Before she could regain her composure, Twilight stepped closer again and whispered hoarsely, with her eyes wide with fear and horror. “We have, but it’s been so long since we last saw it...I hoped that we’d never see it again, that’s-” Twilight and the others almost jumped completely out of their fur by sound of a cold, cruel voice behind them that finished Twilight’s sentence. “Flutterbat.” Author's Note Any errors then please tell me or my editor right away so we can clean them up. I'm back ha, and I'll write more soon, promise....enjoy. Shackled Monster; Put The Blame On Somepony ElseThe two unicorns and one Alicorn turned as one and let loose a scream loud enough that it echoed all throughout the Shadow Forest, no doubt perhaps, able to be heard from Harmony Valley. Their hearts were pounding in their chests so hard that each of them felt like they were about to have heart attacks. A bright yellow pegasus stepped around them, bringing a measure of relief to the group. Twilight, who was rubbing her chest tenderly gasped, “Shy, you nearly scared me out of my fur.” The others in the group nodded their agreement to this statement, however, as they looked at her, they soon came to realize that Fluttershy was in a particularly bad mood. Fluttershy’s face was stern and drawn, a scowl clearly defined on her face. This was one of the few times that any of them had seen her like this, and each time it indicated one thing. Fluttershy was furious. The screaming seemed to rouse Flutterbat even more from her sleep, the chains clinking as the creature moved around. Despite having had opened its eyes and previously yelled, Flutterbat still seemed to be unconscious. Fluttershy turned to look at the creature and closed her eyes, focusing as she muttered, “No, you go back to sleep, I’ve spent too long keeping you from escaping for you to be released now... go back to sleep!” Fluttershy yelled this last part, as if in desperation. Flutterbat shifted only a little more before it’s eyes closed and head drooped forward into its deep sleep. She turned back to her friends and snapped, “I warned you not to venture into areas that you had no business entering.” Turning at the two now shaken unicorns and sole Alicorn, fully comprehending that they had disobeyed her. “Darling, we were not aware that you would be keeping such a reckless and, frankly, evil secret from us. Honestly, we tried to listen to you, but our curiosity got the better of us, please-” “Nopony was suppose to know, Rarity! I can’t have her taking over my body again, she’ll kill everyone!” Fluttershy shouted, her face riled with so much fury it forced all of them to take a step back. “But she only ate apples, Fluttershy.” “Sure that would damage the apple crops and potentially ruin Applejack’s family business, but-” “You don’t understand, no one does...she told me once how she had imagined tasting flesh, tearing the fur off of a body and other beings and feasting on it, if she wins, I have no doubt she will attempt it, I’ll be powerless to stop it if she savors the texture, I won’t let that happen.” She whispered back with a firm stomp of her hoof, turning her head to avoid her friend's’‘gaze before feeling salty tears run down her face as she wiped them away with a hoof. “Fluttershy, it won’t come to that.” “We can get rid of her and strip her of all that nasty-” “You honestly don’t get it do you?” Fluttershy interrupted before she let out a harsh crackle. “You can’t kill her! She’s stolen fragments of my memories over time that I can never get back, this whole cursed area, this ‘Shadow Forest’ is her doing, she’s been trapped here so long that she’s able to siphon parts of my mind, if you erase her here and now...it will drive me completely insane, that apparently ‘impenetrable’ barrier is the only thing keeping her from sizing everything I am or used to be.” Fluttershy groaned and shook her head swiftly. “But I bet we can help you out Shy”. Vinyl said softly. “If we use our combined magic-” Vinyl spoke before she was rudely cut off. “It doesn't work like that Vinyl Scratch, didn’t you just hear what I said, she’ll drive me batshit crazy with no chance of recovery if you end her existence, she’s a part of me, a ferocious, sinister, destructive part of me.” “I tried everything short of murder, even if I had the strength and confidence to do it, I would still lose in the end, I should have never agreed to this.” She muttered in part to herself and to her friends. “Keeping her locked up is the only option I have, short of….nevermind. How do I know I can trust you, knowing you betrayed me without even bothering to ask permission.” She questioned looking into their eyes as they dropped their heads, ashamed of their actions, guilt washing over them like a tidal wave. “But it’s not like she can control the vampire fruit bats or even speak any known language other than hissing and snarling, we can fight this together and try to restore your memories if we ask Princess Celestia-” “The Alicorns can’t help me, Twilight...Celestia said so herself. Even using the Alicorn Amulet would only delay her for a short time, they were the ones who told me how to make this barren wasteland.” “How to create the trees that used nearly all of my mental strength, and how to form the unbreakable Chains of Eradication, as they called it but only smaller in size to hold her...obviously they were not as indestructible as I thought and in exchange.” “The immortals have my permission to use Harmony Valley whenever they like. I was told how to do it, but don’t you see...they never lifted a limb or glow of their magic to help me...when it could have mattered most...it took six months for Flutterbat to get her wings free, it’s only a matter of time until she escapes again.” Fluttershy wailed helplessly looking up into her darker version which was heavily sedated. “How long has she been been chained like this?” Twilight asked making the Pegasus only snort before replying. “A year, you’re right, at one time she never knew how to speak coherent sentences, but now she can speak the pony language fluently, her voice is so raspy and dripping with so much rage it’s unbearable.” “I never meant to get her to learn it, it just happened naturally, she’s been asleep ever since she gotten her wings free...if she awakes again, another shackle will fall and she’ll no doubt be able to claim a larger piece of my mental territory, I won’t let that happen, I won’t!” She suddenly screamed, heaving with anger and exhaustion. “There are times when I can hear her voice even in the physical world, but her eyes won’t open, she’s only been mumbling I know but I’m afraid she’ll wake up and attempt to tear off another chain, she’s getting stronger...oh so much stronger.” Fluttershy spoke, her voice laced with soul crushing pain that all of them knew they could not heal. “Fluttershy, you don’t have to go through with this, alone-” “Get out, I should have never have brought you here, especially you,” She seethed, pointing a furious hoof at Vinyl, making the mare shuffle back two more steps in shock and shame “I should have listened to my gut feeling that you would have caused so much trouble, I should have….get out.” She ordered a second time, finally making one of the three stand their ground to make her listen to reason. “We thought the private thoughts you kept guarded were something naughty by nature, like, Celestia forbid you were raped, or done drugs or even, the gods forbid had an abortion.” Rarity said with a hint of anger in her voice at Fluttershy’s behaviour. “Oh don’t give me that, those questions are so cliched there would be no reason for me to form such a shield or have to go through so much trouble if it were that easy, Rarity. I could have simply outright told you those things if you wanted to know.” “I’m not ashamed, the past is the past. Besides...I wish it was that easy.” Fluttershy whispered softly, her head bowed in disgrace for the beast above her and how much ground she had allowed it to cover. “I fought so hard to keep her at bay, so damn hard, I’m slipping, my will to fight and try to keep on the mask I do every day in the physical realm is sapping from me. “I’m so tired of playing this charade any longer for anypony...please, just go.” She quietly pleaded one more time, jumping once she heard the chains above began to clank and swing once more, forcing her to stand on her hooves where she sat and glare at the foul demon which threatened her very being. “But darling we can do all in our power to-” “I believe the lady asked you to leave.” Discord’s cruel, but emotionless voice spoke behind them as they turned around right before he snapped his tail, their mental bodies were flung with the force of a train into the vortex he had summoned above, their screams reverberating throughout the entire realm of the Element of Kindness’s mind as she dropped to the ground and wept. *************************************************************************************************** The trio was thrown back into their physical bodies with so much force they awoke coughing and sputtering, their mouths feeling as dry as sand, their eyes watering from the sudden light and their lungs working overtime to restore their breathing to it’s regular pattern. Spike was at Twilight side in an instant, ordering Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack to get all of them large glasses of water as he held her close to his chest. Reassuring her as much as he could that she was fine, stroking her back fur as she cried into his scales while Vinyl and Rarity thanked the girls and slowly drank the water given to them, Pinkie Pie making sure to grab an extra one for Fluttershy. “What happened to ya’ll?” Applejack said with a puzzled look on her face seeing all of them in hysterics, seemly at their wits end. “It was better than I imagined-” “The impossibly clear lake, my mane getting braid-” “Should have seen this bucking Timberwolf, it was the size of-” Their voices overlapped each other quickly before they were forced to stop and breath in a calm, slow rhythm. Then Twilight began to explain everything with certain added quips from Rarity and Vinyl in so much detail and awe in their voices, it was though they had glanced into the Heavens themselves. At a certain point in their story they simultaneously pause, fearing the cruel claws of Fate rake against their sides without hesitation as they each told segments of the unmerciful forest they had traveled, the monsters that stalked them and then finally. Of the very abomination they had witness with their own mental eyes, tears streaking down their faces at the description in which they told of their old, adorable friend. “Hold up, you’re saying Fluttershy got angry enough to throw you out? Fluttershy, the pony afraid of her own damn shadow, seriously?!” Rainbow laughed mockingly before rolling her eyes. “Ah agree, certainly does not sound like the mare we know and love, girls.” Applejack’s southern drawl drew their attentions to her before all of their eyes were directed to the Pegasus who groaned loudly. Using a forehoof to push herself from the ground before eyeing the water beside her and in a flash using her teeth to drain it down without a moment’s pause, shocking all of the ponies and dragon before her. She released the glass with a large sigh, panting as the empty cup fell to the ground and shattered on impact, causing all but the mare herself to wince as they looked into her narrowed, furious unblinking eyes. A very serious expression on her face which masked her usually loving smile forcing all of them, even Spike to shudder, uncomfortable with the anger that seemed to radiate through her body. “How dare you have the nerve to frolic through any portion of my head without my permission!” Fluttershy uncharastically growled, baring her teeth causing all of her friends to finally take notice of the twin fangs nestled at the back of her mouth. Rainbow Dash walked towards her until she was able to touch her then slowly put a hoof on her left shoulder which the mare jerked away with a snort. “If you were really my friends you would have simply bothered to not stick your noses in any of my business that had absolutely nothing to do with you.” Fluttershy whispered before quickly moving past Rainbow Dash and trotting towards the door. “Fluttershy wait, we’re sorry, honest, we never meant to-” “If she awakes and rips off all the chains that bind her...the blood of the souls she reaps will be on your hooves, so you better be ready to bucking kill me, I won’t let her ruin innocent lives.” The Pegasus spoke softly, turning her head to look over her shoulder at Twilight before she, without another word opened the front door and closed it with a slam that scared the feathers off of Owlowiscious and Peewee who had flown to their owners to see what the commotion was about. ******************************************************************************************************** Rain pelted the dirt at a brisk but harsh pace, ponies scrambling to find shelter from the undaunting liquid and the slowly increasing thick, gray clouds that began to block out the sun’s gentle, loving rays. But getting out of the rain and rapidly turning mud was the least of Fluttershy’s concern as she trotted at an even stride towards the destination of her comfortable, secure cottage. Her top teeth grinded painfully against her bottom lip, threatening to slice open with small drops of blood if she did not halt in her actions. Her thoughts on edge that the soul stealing creature would only relish in the chance to taste something besides apples, for once, even if Flutterbat was not the one to physically experience it . Fluttershy’s mane was basically attached to her shoulder fur, her tail slogging in the rain and mud, her hair being wild and unruly in the sudden blast of wind that stung her eyes and caused her to blink quickly. Shaking her head to rid herself of the cold water being flung into her eyes as she tried to clear her vision and with a heavy sigh, start to gallop home. The bang of the wind plus their owner’s annoyed close of the front entrance alerted every animal being safeguarded in the warm, smelling like fresh cut grass house to their owner’s distress. Fluttershy would very rarely vocalize her rage to her animal friends, not from a lack of communication but from the fact that many of them were still very young and she did not wish to fill a baby’s mind with garbage spewing from her tongue. So she ran upstairs to her room, swearing a bit under her breath as she felt her wing clip the sharp turn before closing the door with as much contained patience as she could muster. Hearing Angel Bunny scrap against the wood with his nails but for the time being she wanted to be alone as she dropped into the safety of her bed, grabbed the pillow a few inches in front of her with her hooves then screamed into it with all the air in her lungs that her body would allow. Feeling light headed and really tired she turned around, laid in a soaked blanket on her back, with an emotionless gaze at the ceiling before breathing in deeply then releasing the exhaled air out as calmly as she could. She needed a cigarette. ******************************************************************************************************* Though assembled with their friends, the three unicorns were now physically exhausted, Rarity barely able to stumble to her house with Applejack’s help as Spike offered to take Vinyl to her’s who only let out a dry chuckle. Slapping the drake with her tail and saying she needed a drink as they walked out the door, Spike helping her get stable flaring the jealousy inside of Twilight’s eyes to their full limit once more. She would have thought his presence and comfort for her once they were forced out was special, obviously not and Spike was merely helping his caretaker. “Like a little brother would.” She thought bitterly before turning to the task at hoof and attempted to write down all the information to Princess Celestia she could, with the assistance of Pinkie Pie which caused her to slowly smile and thank her friend. After all the analyzing and detail in the tale was written she had meant to send it to Princess Celestia immediately but with a huff had forgotten Spike was with Vinyl, as she stomped on the wooden floor beneath her angrily knowing the two were probably enjoying a beer. “What does she have that I don’t? That...that bitch.” She swore to herself, knowing that she would normally never use cuss words to release her emotions but this time she felt it was justified, Pinkie Pie looked outside and saw the pouring rain stating that she had better start heading home as Twilight wished her good night. The library was as quiet as a crypt which caused the Alicorn to shudder looking around the empty living room and kitchen, noting that Owlowiscious and Peewee might have flown out the tree before the storm hit and stood from where she sat to write, feeling a wave of dizziness assault her as she held a hoof to her head and waited for it to subside. She was to tired to do anything else tonight so she slowly began to walk up the stairs, eased her way into her comforter and blanket and with her head resting on the pillow she started to doze off into slumber. But Fate had other plans as a very bright red flash caught her eyes forcing her out of bed to see the form of a very angry Discord before her who glared with an intense stare into her eyes. “Do you have any idea exactly what you have done, Twilight Sparkle?” He growled and gripping her throat in his eagle talon brutally slammed her against a wall, his claws digging into her flesh causing her to cry out in pain. Without skipping a beat he snapped the fingers on his lion paw and instantly summoned Rarity and Vinyl Scratch behind him, Rarity’s fur was drenched as though she had been taking a shower. Which was true because there was still soap in her mane that had started to run down into her eyes, making her furious at how the god had forced her to be brought before him and screeched in pain at the suds now getting into her open eyes. Vinyl was buzzed, her mane, coat and tail were dirty and she had an open bottle of white wine in her tail, which was now dripping onto the floor causing Twilight to shout at her in shock before stopping mid sentence as Discord only added more pressure to her now slightly bleeding neck. “You….mortals, are so bucking careless and native with your thirst for knowledge, your curiously truly knows no bounds, no sense of being sated, now does it?!” The draconequus growled menacingly before tossing Twilight to the ground like a rag doll, his face more angered and serious then they had ever seen, completely making all of them give him their undivided attention. Rarity, after getting rid of all the soap in her mane and tail asked the spirit why he was so concerned with Fluttershy, even though she knew that the Pegasus was his friend, though by the scene he was making it appeared to her as though they were more. “We are, little pony.” His tone of voice was one of defeat, somber and small as he looked into her eyes, knowing what she seemed to be wondering, it appeared. “After showing me the compassion and trust of a friend like she had, which I now realized I rudely ignored, we formed a stronger bond...it was one I have not felt in eons, a perfect sync that appeared to open both our eyes and...well, we just allowed things to process naturally, none of you would understand….I doubt you ever will….she’s losing this battle...and she’s eventually going to lose the war.” Discord sighed loudly, before vanishing and re forming onto Twilight’s couch with Vinyl's bottle as he took a large swig. His lion paw over his head and his anger seemly and unnerving instantly fading, they calmly walked over to the depressed immortal, not able to come up with any reassuring words to cheer him up. They were frankly still confused on how to help Fluttershy though, they knew that magic could help her in some way before Discord let out an emotionless and sad chuckle. “You can’t do anything she would not want you to, we can’t intervene, by my own name I would give anything just to be able to bring her back to the pony she used to be, anything. “I love her, me, a god who been through so many wars and seen things you could not possibly fathom loves a Pegasus who only has at least sixty more years on this planet more than I could ever dream, it is not a normal situation, you understand and not one to be taken lightly but...she trusts me.” He was now speaking to himself, unaware that he even had company behind him and talked about all the instances he and Fluttershy had together. Their first date that the mare had kept hidden from Rarity who made her dress a for that special occasion, the secret routines Discord had came to to cheer Rainbow Dash on beside his mate while holding her hoof without any of her friends knowledge. The very first kiss Discord had given to the virgin pony and the first one he had ever received on the lips by a mortal, the very first time they made love. In Celestia’s own bed nonetheless infuriating the Alicorn so much once she caught them that she had imprisoned the spirit into the sun for a week and made Fluttershy tend to her garden alone prolonging Fluttershy’s stay at Canterlot for those grueling seven days that her friends had to take care of her and tend to her animal friends by order of the Princess. Sincere, heart wrenching tears ran down his face as he spoke, so much that he used his own tail to dabble them away and then Twilight’s tail to blow his nose loudly to which she silently shivered in horror and used her magic to make the trailing snot disappear. He then began to speak of how he became Fluttershy’s guardian for when she slept and kept watch over the signs of her incredibly wicked foe, speaking that the batpony was starting to stir more in her sleep and in no time would dispel of her grogginess and find the strength in her muscled limbs to break another bounding weight off. “Your interference has only complicated matters in ways you simply don’t understand...of ways I doubt you’ll ever understand.” He muttered half heartedly before without even a goodbye he vanished before their eyes, leaving the unicorns to be crushed with the guilt and ramifications of the struggle they had only fueled of their friend having to protect her mind now more than ever. ******************************************************************************************************** As Spike ran back home to an annoyed but sad Vinyl who trotted away without even a thank you in the heavy rain along with Rarity who used her magic to try to teleport herself back with some suggestion from Twilight causing her to somehow end up in Rainbow Dash’s bed which fortunately once Derpy Hooves was able to rescue her from her impending doom they all went to bed, none being aware of the plight the young, butter furred Pegasus was going through at the moment. Squeezing her eyes tight as she tried to fall asleep and speaking words that made no sense was the least of the fidgeting pony’s worries, for in her very mind she could feel the rattle of another chain shift and groan loudly. Being stretched to its full limit before she, with a thunderous slap heard it fall and crash into the base of the tree below it. Flutterbat’s right rear hoof was freed of its captivity at last, making the nightmare causing creature open her demonic crimson eyes slowly, lift her head with as much access upwards that her neck chain would allow and stare Fluttershy right in the face of her mind eye with a dark, twisted grin. “Not so long now, puny herbivore.” The insane fiend whispered quietly, a second before Discord put a paw around his love. Forcing the mare into such a frenzy that she jolted up from the bed so quickly it would have looked at though she had been struck by lightning, screaming at the top of lungs and no amount of words or physical contact was enough to calm the bawling mare in the draconequus’s arms, no amount at all. Author's Note Forgive me for not having this edited. Figured everyone waited long enough. It's time I finished this story, the next chapter to be posted soon. I tried to tone down the swearing and such, I hope you all can understand Fluttershy's behavior, I have a feeling I didn't really keep her all in character but honestly could you blame her? Amends; She's Getting StrongerCalming down a full grown dragon, by ponies standers at least was a very difficult thing for Twilight Sparkle to do, the consuming rage that the drake was roaring into the very house that they occupied together only made it worse. “Spike, calm down, please. I told you, it was our fault, we were the one’s-” “No one lays their limbs on a female, Twilight, no male should ever lay their hooves, claws or whatever they have on a female, I don’t care if he is a god, I’ll kick his-” “No, you won’t!” She suddenly shouted in a firm tone making the reptile eye his companion angrily. “It was our fault,” She stated in a calm but icy tone at the enraged lizard who could only curl his claws deep into his palms and glare at her. “We had no idea what we would tigger going into such an area. We were warned, we disobeyed...the deed of what we had done are ours alone, Spike...he did not mean it, he was just frustrated. Truthfully I can’t blame him.” She sighed loudly, taking a seat at the dining room table and scratching at the bandages on her throat absentmindedly. There was nothing but silence which resonated throughout the library before she heard Spike take a deep breath, exhale and sit down across from her. “I care for you, you know that…” The tone in his voice gave no hint on which side of the relationship he meant; as a friend, a sibling...a lover, Twilight was unsure and honestly it drove her crazy that she could not decrypt in which matter he spoke but she supposed for the time being that they should focus on Fluttershy and her internal struggle for keeping her sanity. “She was supposed to be destroyed you know, Twi.” Spike growled in a very dangerous whisper, making a cold shiver trail down her spine at his unknowing husky voice. “Gods, if only his attention was directed at me.” She thought sadly before getting down from the chair as her faithful sidekick followed her with his eyes. “Where you going?” He asked carefully, a little worried since she has been through Tartarus and back after her failed experiment. “To the store, I owe Fluttershy a carton of cigarettes, time to keep my word.” She replied with a sigh and went to fetch her saddlebag. “Need anything?” She questioned, looking at him while he merely shook his head. “Nah, I’m good...thanks though. I’m going to visit Rumble and Thunderlane, they want to go to a concert and we need tickets, think I’ll grab Rainbow Dash and buy Fluttershy some as well, since I know she’s a big fan.” He answered and stretched before laying back on the chair, rubbing his eyes. “Ok, um, who's the band going to play?” Twilight wondered making the dragon chuckle. “Carriage On Fire.” He laughed before giving her a predatory grin causing the former unicorn to laugh with a roll of her eyes, playfully. “You all love that rock and roll band a bit too much, I will say, I like how they have different members other than ponies though. Alright then, I’ll see you later, don’t get into trouble.” She ordered lightly. Spike could only reply that he made no promises, making her laugh all the way out the door. ******************************************************************************************************** Witty banter between the two lifelong friends was something few creatures ever achieved in their life times, despite Fluttershy having such a friend, she was not there for her at the moment, the butter furred mare herself was currently lying in her bed. Curled up into a tight ball with her hooves covering her ears with all the strength the limbs could muster, it was futile...but for the moment it was all she was capable of doing other than screaming with all the air in her lungs...again. Tears ran down her face in a swift manner, her tail wrapped tightly around her waist as she did everything possible to drown out the dark voice slithering in her head...she was slipping, and they both knew it. “You’ve been abandoned, delicate little pony...forsaken even by your gods, by the one who claims to love you. Relinquish control just for an instant and I swear to you...I’ll imprison you as quickly as you done to me, it will be over...give me control...” Flutterbat’s sadistic and resentful accent growled to the grown mare making her shiver visibly. This was not supposed to happen, this was not in any way, shape or form the life she had ever pictured for herself, not a life she wished for any soul even if she ever had the audacity to hate another creature. It was not in her nature to want death on anyone, to speak of misfortune or spite, to not give someone a second chance...at least, that was what she once believed. “No, no, no, no...I...I can still win. I have my friends-” “The very souls who unintentionally aided in my freedom. You are forgotten, you are weak...you will never amount to the love and adoration that you desire, spineless foal!” Flutterbat screeched so loudly and with such force that it temporarily scared Fluttershy to death. For five seconds, her heart stopped beating, her pupils dilated to the size of a crumb and the very second she felt air forcibly be pumped into her lungs by nature itself….she screamed with so much force that she fainted. Awaking by icy cold water was the very last thing Fluttershy ever wished to bring her back into consciousness. The slightly muffled voice of her mate, Discord as he tried to arouse her frightened her for a moment because she had thought she had died. But reality came crashing back the very next instant as the Pegasus wrapped her hooves around the draconequus and wept with all the tears her body had to offer. Quite frankly he was stunned, he had gotten up to go make them both some coffee after the fit she had last night, he was only gone for about ten minutes, what had that abomination done to his poor little angel to make her a nervous wreck? Petting her fur and just holding her somehow made the mare calm down, for a time but he knew it would get worse...Flutterbat was getting stronger and bolder than he had thought...perhaps now was the time for drastic measures. Whispering sweet nothings in her right ear his words allowed her to resume her natural routine of breathing, blinking and finally when she felt well enough, getting out the bed to rush to the bathroom and vomit, disgusting really but necessary in hindsight if she was to continue about the day like a normal pony...or at least a sane one. It was time he had a little chat with the wicked soul who plagued her brain, after Fluttershy returned the two went through and together, did the tasks required to keep her animals happy and content. When they had finished two hours later, sipping a new cup of coffee on the dining room table, Discord reached out his lion paw and calmly take her hoof in his limb as she smiled at him with delight. He chuckled softly and kissed her cheek causing her to blush as he spoke softly, knowing he could only enter into the Shadow Forest with her permission. “My dear I need to make sure she’s secure, you know? No loose chains, signs of rust, the like.” Discord whispered, seeing the hesitation and deep rooted fear inside her eyes. “B...but, I can-” “Shy, we both know you’re going through so much more than is needed. I won’t be long beautiful, I promise...please and after which, we can go to that dinner you wanted to attend tonight.” The tone in his voice, while pleasant was a bit demanding she knew with a slight frown but if she trusted anyone to defend her against her dark alter ego, it was him. With a heavy sigh, she nodded, saying that she had to attend to some things anyway and with a kiss directly on the lips, somehow finding such courage to make a bold move, he laughed cheerfully and disappeared with a snap of his eagle talon, evaporating into her most guarded treasure. ****************************************************************************************************** While her mate vanished before her eyes, Fluttershy, now done with her chores stood up from her chair, put her empty cup in the sink, grabbed a lone cigarette and a match from the table and trotted to see the friends she had not been abandoned by. Flutterbat was wrong and she was going to prove to her and everyone around her that she was a normal, loving pony with the same personality she was known for, that was a promise. Saying good morning to many ponies that she walked past and with a beautiful, heartwarming day with little clouds to grace the sky was what greeted the ponies of their rural town, seeing the Marketplace getting more crowded as the day escalated. With a gentle smile but roll of her eyes she continued to her current destination, hoping to grab a snack from Sugarcube Corner since she had forgotten to eat breakfast and with a silent gasp also remembered she had forgotten her saddlebag. “Oh I hope the Cakes will allow me a little sample, if anything, or maybe I could just go back and get-” Her voice was cut off however by slamming rather painfully into the door of the very bakary, rather the only one she had meant to come to. A bit frightened that she would be chased off for having no money, she quietly entered the shop, seeing that the shop was not as busy as she had thought with a small sigh before walking towards the counter and allowing a smile to appear on her muzzle at her best friend taking charge of the register. “Hey there, Fluttershy, how’s it going?” Pinkie Pie’s enthusiastic and very bright demeanor made the mare laugh lightly before replying that she was well, the air apparently being cleared of her own hostile stance last night and knowing just how forgiving and loving her dear friend was. “Um, may I have a peanut butter and chocolate brownie please?” She asked politely forgetting to add that she had no bits on her in her haste to acquire the scrumptious, delectable treat that Pinkie knew she craved every week, it was like an angel had created the sweet just for her and she was it’s most popular customer. Laughing aloud with mirth in her voice, Pinkie Pie nodded and went to go get the item her friend had requested fresh out the oven. Fluttershy’s day was going really well, despite Discord being inside her head to take care of the...situation she was terrified to do herself. But her peace would not last, as much as she willed against it she started to feel faint, hearing a very familiar, nefarious whisper deep inside her head, feeling her vision go blurry from the compulsion of Flutterbat’s relentless voice grating her very body to the point of exhaustion in just a few sentences. “Your insolence is staggering, pony. The mere existence of this wing less foal is making me rattle in my shackles with ferocity, kill her now….kill her with your bare hooves and your suffering will end this moment, herbivore. Kill her!” Spasms racked Fluttershy’s entire body, uncontrolled and unpredictable, she couldn't breathe as her chest tightened in quick, uneven breaths, sweat ran down her forehead and formed a very small puddle beneath her as she gritted her teeth as firmly as she could. Her fangs sliding effortlessly into her outer cheeks as she tasted the copper liquid absentmindedly and spat it onto the wood without a second thought, her eyes narrowed to mere slits as her hooves pushed with enough force to make it slightly crack from the pressure. Pinkie Pie had just come from the back room with a steaming hot brownie on a small blue glass plate she had in her left front hoof, humming a tune she heard on the radio with her eyes closed, her head bobbing to the catchy tune, oblivious to the agony her friend was experiencing in front of her before she set the plate before her, a large grinned plastered on her muzzle before she opened her eyes. “Here you are Shy, that will be four-” Shrieking loudly at the unusual display before her, Pinkie Pie loudly asked in a panic if Fluttershy was alright but she could not hear her, resisting the urge to do what the savage ordered of her before her right front hoof slipped and she skidded the plate away with her treat tumbling to the ground on accident. The loud, fracture that resounded in her ears brought the twisted voice and the unbearable pain to a stand still, Fluttershy was able to restore her limbs in the span of a few seconds and, panting heavily, opened her eyes to see the damage she had unknowingly caused around her. The perspiration she had emanated from her body now covered a quarter of the large counter, not much but still enough to worry her. The indents from her hooves had crushed the wood forming a slightly large piece of splintered wood, blood mixed with her sweat slowly forming a disgusting looking shape, shards of glass now embedded themselves into her snack, as well as cut to her side a tiny bit, not enough to hurt though she bled a small amount all the same. Looking into Pinkie’s face it was a mirrored reflection of her own, agitation, horror and a slight hint of fear was seen making Fluttershy shankly take a deep breath, tears in the corner of her eyes before she turned around and galloped out the now open door, almost running into Sweetie Belle while Pinkie Pie shouted at her to come back and talk to her, which the mare abruptly ignored. She invariably ran straight into Twilight, the carton of nicotine levitated in the Alicorn’s magic was flung away during the collision as the purple mare groaned and rubbed her aching forehead, before looking at her injured friend and quickly lifting herself and Fluttershy off with ground with her magic. “Are you alright?” She asked slowly, seeing her bleeding side and muzzle, but the Pegasus only half heard the words she was speaking, petrified that Flutterbat would damage her body again, her eyes widen to their full length and a frighten, panic look filled them, concerning Twilight greatly. Grabbing the mare by the shoulders, Twilight slowly shook her, yelling into her ear if she was ok, the horrified expression on the mare’s face slowly disappeared before she glanced at her surroundings, again. Snapping back into focus, Fluttershy now saw the mare that held her, Twilight having the same worried look Pinkie as she stumbled back, trying to gain her bearings once more. “I-I’m fine...thank you...T-Twilight.” She responded slowly, as if still in shock, it did little to calm the former unicorn’s fears but for the time being she let it drop. Twilight was honestly relieved that her friend was not angry with her anymore, at least she prayed she was not before grasping the box in her magic and slowly bringing it towards the now calm animal caretaker. It was as though she had been given the Holy Grail itself in her hooves, cradling the rectangle in her hooves as a mother would a newborn baby, she calmed down immensely but did not move to open the box, instead looking into Twilight’s eyes and thanking her with the most sincere smile she could form. There was an awkward pause between the two that could be sliced with a knife, forcing Twilight to clear her throat and ask the Pegasus just what had happened looking into her friend’s eyes. “It...it was nothing Twi. Thank you again, really-” “It was Flutterbat, wasn’t it, Shy? Please I can help you if you-” “I’m alright, Twilight. Seriously, I just need to go home for a bit. Oh, that reminds me, I have a dinner reservation for two at that new restaurant, Hay-filet, you and um...well, Spike I suppose can go out under mine and Marvin’s, I mean Discord’s name tonight at seven. They allowed us a free meal because we saved Equestria and-” “Wait a second, Marvin?” Twilight question with a quizzical eyebrow raised in confusion before her face flushed red at the partner of her friend’s choice seeing Fluttershy giggle. “It was his idea, he said it would cause a lot of awkwardness if ponies saw the former king of Equestria dating an Element of Harmony, he was going to change his form to one of...well, us.” She replied with a small blush and smile before getting to her hooves with the carton wrapped securely in her tail. “Well, I better get home. Again, thank you Twilight I needed this...more than you know.” She whispered softly and slowly trotting away before she heard her friend’s voice telling her to be careful. As Fluttershy walked to home, Twilight turned around to see Pinkie Pie with a very worried expression on her face making the Alicorn put a hoof on her shoulder to reassure the Earth pony. ******************************************************************************************************** The second she closed the door to her cottage, she sat on the ground, dropping the carton of nicotine beside her and sighed, leaning on the wooden entrance with her head held high, exhausted. Grabbing the lone cigarette from her right ear with her hoof, she took the match from her right ear and as she had done many times since the demon plagued her mind, struck the match, igniting the tobacco and inhaled a long drag. Sluggishly, she got up from the floor and walked up the stairs towards her bedroom, feeling as though her body was forcing her to go to sleep before falling into her bed, she had just enough time to put the lit cigarette into the air tray beside her before her eyes closed and she was forced into a deep slumber. Author's Note Here you are my friends, thanks to my author brother, KorvasTerindar for editing, next chapter to be posted in a few days, give or take...enjoy.
Volunteer; Blissful Strength Of WillThe expression on Rainbow Dash’s face was one of irritation, replacing her usual bored or naturally arrogant mask of self worth as her eyes narrowed, her teeth gritting in annoyance at Twilight Sparkle’s words. “This isn't funny, Egg Head.” The Pegasus growled, causing the Alicorn before her to roll her eyes in the attempt to quell her own rising annoyance. “It’s not supposed to be funny, Rainbow, what we are all here for is to help Rarity learn more offensive and defensive magic, one that could literally save her life if she was ever threatened.” The former protegee of Celestia snapped back at Rainbow Dash, who snorted with an eyebrow raised. “Then give her a book, you have hundreds of them you know!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, waving a forehoof at the many shelves lined in perfect rows with thick, slightly yellowing books around the seven of them. “You know as well as I do, Rainbow Dash that Twilight would not call all of us here just to hoof me a book that would not affect any of you, besides, I have read all of the subjects that Twilight has provided, when I was given the opportunity of course. And practiced the arcane magic either alone or with her help, so there is no reason to get upset.” The alabaster unicorn spoke with a long breath before exhaling deeply, slightly winded. Rainbow Dash only rolled her eyes then snorted before snapping back “Well unless you got a clear reason for me being here, I’m going home, I got work tonight with the storm clouds brewing in, ok?” She spoke then walked over the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of hard cider. Twilight and Spike kept it around the house for when they wanted something with a bit of kick, Rainbow figured she’d help herself to it. “Actually yes, there is a reason, despite popular belief I’m not perfect-” Twilight spoke before Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. “No shit.” A comment which Twilight ignored before continuing. “Therefore to further both of our education into the mysterious art of magic, I found a very ancient spell in a very old ancient book that predates known history in the Canterlot library last week while Spike went to see his adopted mother, Princess Celestia. Basically, using this spell, one or more unicorns can enter into the mind of a single pony, maybe even other creatures for a limited amount of time.” Twilight said all of this before being forced to catch her breath. When she did she added, “I wanted to give it a try.” As one, all of her friends raised an eyebrow. “The down side of that is that both the unicorns and creature will be deeply asleep while our mental bodies are warped into their heads, so I’ll need not only a volunteer but some loyal and noble friends to watch over us as we travel into somepony’s mind.” Twilight finished before looking over all her friends with a large smile. Rainbow Dash rubbed her left forehoof with her right nervously with a slight chuckle before taking a sip of her drink. “Oh well, you know I’m always up for a challenge, Twi but after your last ancient spell of turning me into a stallion, I’ll have to pass.” She coughed before looking at Applejack. “Oh, gee, Twi you know Ah would always help you out but last time your spell to cure the common cold left me having the sniffles and trots for a week, sorry buddy.” She replied with a blush of embarrassment and then turned her head so not to make eye contact with her friends. After a second or so she looked over towards Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie only grinned widely before rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly with a hoof. “Um, sorry to burst your bubble, Twilight, but I was in the hospital for three days when you used your magic to try to turn me into a Pegasus, thanks for the offer but I don’t want to experience the feeling of vomiting and being really, really dizzy everytime I try to get up, I am really sorry.” Pinkie could only muster with a small smile causing her studious friend to frown. Pinkie Pie then looked at Rarity who spoke that she would be performing the spell with Twilight and even if she was not, she did not want to have the uncontrollable urge to bury things like last time, the mud, dirt and the simply disgusting act of using her bare hooves to try to drop things into a hole was too much for her perfect order of beauty. Not to mention what she did made the Diamond Dogs really pissed at her, even though Twilight was only trying to help her friend get over her fear of spiders. Twilight sighed loudly in exasperation before looking over at the now matured eighteen year old dragon she loved and knew so well. Spike was now as tall as an Alicorn, his body was very muscular and well built. He was so attractive that made all of them drool at the mere sight of him. His voice had deepened significantly as he had aged and he currently sat on the couch in the living room, reading a book with a glass of sweet tea on the nearby table. “Oh, Spike, would you kindly-” Twilight’s voice was interrupted by Spike replying in a curt tone. “Forget it Twi.” Twilight sauntered slowly towards the couch and whispered. “Aww come on, don’t be like that. I’ll give you a nice treat when we are done.” She smiled slyly. Spike turned on the couch and glared daggers over towards Twilight and said, “Forget it Twilight! Why in the hell would I allow you to touch me with that magic of yours after the failure you had last time. In case you forgot I’ll remind you...” He then began to quickly retell of the previous attempt she made at transforming his body into a dog and made Winona, who was in heat at the time, chase him around the entire town for a week while Twilight tried to find the reversal spell. It turned out that Discord had eaten the paper for laughs so Spike had not been able to change back for a month, it still gave him nightmares. Twilight face hoofed before glancing pathetically at Fluttershy, the only pony she had not physically, mentally or emotionally scarred with her new growing abilities. “Shy, you don’t have to-” “I’ll do it.” Fluttershy spoke abruptly causing all of them, even Spike to look at her in surprise, a slight tinge of horror colored all of their expressions. “You, uh, sure, darling? It won’t be just Twilight doing this spell, I’ll also be-” “I know, but you are my friends and I want to help you both anyway I can...but um, can I have a cigarette first?” She asked hesitantly, knowing how much her friends disapproved of her disgusting habit. Twilight let loose a very relieved sigh, appreciating how much of a dear friend the poor mare was to her, also knowing that while she disapproved of her addiction, Fluttershy was an adult and her actions reflected on no creature but herself, the consequences were her’s to deal with alone. “Sure, Shy, I’ll buy you a carton after this is over, now the book says that it won't physically hurt, but if it does, tell us and-” Twilight was once again forced to halt mid sentence as a sharp knock on the door brought everypony’s attention away from the mare and towards the door. Twilight huffed before trotting towards it, opening it with a hoof. “Yes?” She said as politely as she could looking at the unicorn mare before her. Vinyl Scratch's purple shades were reflecting into Twilight’s eyes, as they were sitting on top of Vinyl’s head, catching the light. Twilight looked away from Vinyl almost instantly as a result. “Hey, Twilight’s what’s up, my main, insane mare, um, is Spike here? I got to talk to him about something.” The cheerful yet heavy accent of the record player from Fillydelphia laughed softly. “Hey, Vinyl, yeah he’s here, Spike-” She didn't get another word out due to the fact that a laughing Spike had pushed past her and ushered Vinyl inside, giving her a claw bump which she returned with her hoof. Twilight glared after Vinyl, a mixed stab of jealousy and anger hit her before she rolled her eyes, closing the door and walking back to her friends, hearing the annoyingly loud conversation about a party Spike was invited to next week, knowing it was an adult party and that Spike was likely going to come home drunk off his ass...again. It was not that Twilight hated Vinyl or anything remotely like that, it’s just...she did not feel all that comfortable with how much time the mare always wanted to spend around him and to be honest, the jealousy she felt got stronger every time they were together. After hearing Spike laugh loudly from something that Vinyl had said, Twilight decided she had had enough and wanted Vinyl out so she and Rarity could prepare but before she could speak, Rainbow Dash started to shout at how unfair it was that Spike could go to the party but she couldn’t. “You got so drunk you threw up all over Roseluck’s garden, Rainbow, not to mention you threw my roommate’s couch through a window and somepony saw you pee in a vase she got from her grandmother.” Vinyl snapped, angered at how Rainbow could even protest. “It was an accident, and-” “Granny Pie is still angry at you , Dashy, not to mention my cousin is still waiting for the money you owe her for the damage.” Pinkie Pie blurted out with a frown and narrow eyes. Rainbow Dash could only lower her head in shame. “That was two months ago though, guys, come on, it’s water-” “So what you all up to?” Vinyl rudely and intentionally interrupted, by Rainbow Dash’s account at least. Vinyl pushed Rainbow out of the way to stand before them while Fluttershy trotted towards Spike to bum a Diseased Stallion cigarette before they used the spell on her, the dragon lit the tobacco with his emerald colored flames, and smiled slowly causing Fluttershy’s heart to beat rapidly as he turned back to his book. “Well, before we were bothered by somepony, we were just discussing on using an ancient spell to share our minds with Fluttershy, then learning more about the-” “That sounds fascinating, Twilight really, but I kind of got to go do something that won’t bore me to tears, so if you don’t mind-” “It takes quite a strong amount of will to perform such a delicate spell, Vinyl, no unicorn can just easily sustain the amount of complex-” “I’m sorry, Miss Fashion Pony are you calling me stupid?” Vinyl Scratch spat before getting herself eye to eye with the Element of Generosity who scoffed and took a step back, annoyed at Vinyl’s obvious disrespect for her personal space. “Of course not, darling, but I’m only saying that I have an abundance amount of magical armament from Twilight’s assistance and that using this-” “Well if you think you’re so great, then do it already, I’ll even add my own backwater magic to give you a little boost and get this ball rolling, Rarity.” She spoke cruelly, emphasising her name with a loud snort. Twilight stepped in at this point and added her own voice to the argument. “Look, no pony invited you here, Vinyl and it’s Fluttershy’s mind we are entering so the only reason we are not kicking you out of the door this instant-” “I don’t mind, Twilight.” The calm, soft spoken voice of Fluttershy broke through the argument, inhaling the last of her cigarette then exhaling it out her nose before snuffing it out on the ash tray Spike had on the table to the left of him and looking at the arguing ponies before her, noticing that all three unicorns jaw’s had all dropped from surprise. “Are you positive, dear? This could very well overwhelm you, none of us has ever done it before and from what Twilight said we may do something to mentally or emotionally harm you without meaning to.” Rarity spoke softly, placing a hoof on her loving, caring, tedious friend. In hindsight though, she couldn't really blame her. All of their lives had become pretty routine, day in and day out, always the same. The only one that wasn't bothered by it was Spike. Shaking away the dreadful and frankly disturbing thoughts, Rarity barely noticed that Fluttershy had answered. She was sure that both had missed something as both Twilight and Vinyl were glaring at one another. She said nothing however, not wanting to go against Fluttershy’s wishes and her adamant belief that she could handle it. Without another word, Twilight looked at her friends who nodded, Spike setting his book down and moving to sit beside Pinkie Pie, before Twilight brought out a very thin, withered book, the size of a very small notebook before telling the two unicorns to sit on either side of Fluttershy. Twilight opened the book and began reading through it again. She had read it when Spike had first brought it home with him and it had taken her about a week or so to translate the very ancient text that it contained. The book was old, extremely old, judging by both the way the spell was cast and the language it had been written in. To her knowledge, it predated the time of Luna’s banishment by at least one thousand years. After she had confirmed that she knew the words to the spell and what to expect, she passed it to Rarity and said, “This is gonna be a bit of a deviation from normal spell casting. According to the book, once the first word of the spell is spoken, the magic will seize control of our bodies, causing us to move and finish the chant. I wanted to do it the old way first...and then I was going to see about modernizing it.” Rarity frowned as she memorized the words, the way this spell sounded, it felt totally barbaric. Still, she had agreed to do it, and there was no backing down now. After she was done, she hoofed the book to Vinyl, who took it as though this were the most normal thing in the world and began her turn of memorization. After all of them had read the book and memorized the words for the spell, Twilight instructed them to take a deep breath and as one they started. The muttering of the words began in a soft but rapid string, the voices of the three unicorns overlapping each other, forming a soft chorus of ghostly whispering. The magic took hold of their bodies, as Twilight had said, their bodies beginning to sway to and fro slowly, their eyelids fluttering rapidly, half open, feeling the grain of the wood roughly scrape against the fur on their hindquarters unconsciously. The eerie trance of the four ponies was a difficult sight to look away from. The other ponies and the lone dragon looked on, slightly appalled from what they were witnessing. Twilight’s eyes suddenly opened to their fullest, looking at the face of Fluttershy who seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, fighting to control her breathing to prevent hyperventilation. Her strength and resolve failed her when the entranced Twilight smiled in reassurance before lighting her horn with magic, touching her friend’s forehead with her horn and forcing her into a very deep, very heavy sleep, so deep that it appeared as though Fluttershy was not even breathing. Twilight seemed to come out of the trance, looking down at Fluttershy, satisfied with that phase of the spell. She turned to the others and motioned for them to take a place around Fluttershy’s head as she herself sat in front of it. It was obvious to the bystanders, judging by the glassy looks of both Vinyl and Rarity that the trance of the ritualistic spell was still in effect. Rarity sat on the floor next to Fluttershy’s head on Twilight’s right side and Vinyl sat on her left. As one the three simultaneously lit their horns, and bowed over Fluttershy, their horns touching her head in unison, the individual glows of magic seeping out from the horns, flowing deep into Fluttershy’s mind. The moment the glow was gone from each horn, the three unicorn’s closed their eyes and slumped forward against Fluttershy, only their breathing the only sign of continued life. It was obvious by now that the spell was complete, but it didn't stop all of those left in the room from being worried beyond all comprehension. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************* They felt as though their minds were being sucked into a vortex, ripping away all conscious thoughts and sounds, slowly peeling their flesh like a bandaid being harshly torn from a sickeningly, ugly, sore cut. Before the sensations of the vortex could become unbearable, they felt the world righting itself as they were transported headlong into the solid earth of their friend’s imagination, feeling their joints crack and pop in pain, their fur, mane and tail an unruly mess and each having a migraine, like they been binge drinking on hard cider. “By the gods, let’s never do that again.” Vinyl Scratch groaned loudly, sitting up and then almost immediately running for a nearby blueberry bush and vomiting. “Oh, agreed, very much agreed.” Rarity wheezed and held her head in her hooves to try to stop everything from spinning around her. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would-” Twilight cut herself off mid sentence and coughed up blood onto the grass beside her before wiping her mouth with a hoof, streaking the fur with the crimson substance and slowly getting up off the ground. She looked at the blood for a moment, contemplating it before Rarity’s voice broke through her thoughts as she asked, “Dear, if we are in Fluttershy’s mind, how is it we still have bodies?” Twilight looked over to her and said. “The book said that we’d have mental projections of our real bodies that feel and act as real as the ones we left behind. That’s why we still feel pain. Its not real though, I don’t think.” Rarity eyed her with a look of worry and said, “You don’t think? Twilight are you sure this is safe?” Twilight simply nodded and stood up, motioning for the others to the same. The other two followed the Alicorn’s example and stood up on all four hooves. It wasn't long before Rarity shrieked loudly and immediately attempted to fix her appearance with her hooves, grumbling that she wished she could have brought her accessories if she knew this was going to happen. Neither of the other two replied, instead choosing to observe the breath taking landscape around them. Creatures of all shapes and sizes were lumbering around the very large, open terrain. The variety was immense; Dragons with sheep and minotaurs, buffalos idly chatting with Parasprites, even a Chimera playfully wrestling with a few Ewes were just a few of the things they saw. It was a pristine paradise. A cloudless sky with a bright sun, shining brightly above the area, the grass was perfect and smooth, and not a single dead thing existed anywhere, not even twigs or fallen leaves. So many animals of all manner of species were talking, playing and in a few cases mating with each other that it made all three of the unicorns smile and cheer in joy at their success and at how innocent their friend’s mind really was. “Hey girls, glad you could join the party!” A loud, happy voice spoke far away from them, making the group turn to see Discord waterskiing, using two dolphins as the skis and pulled along by a cheerful looking squid. “What is he doing here?” Rarity questioned making the god suddenly and nonchalantly teleport on her back in which she toppled to the ground due to the sudden increase in weight. “Why having fun of course, Fluttershy’s mind is frequently used by immortals as a place for relaxation from the physical world, why just the other day, Chrysalis and I were eating apple pie together and Cadence was laughing with a cow, it was a fun day.” The spirit answered before floating off her back and making a picnic appear before him, settling on the grass as many animals crowded around the god to enjoy the feast. “So all animals can suddenly understand each other here?” Twilight asked causing Discord to laugh and throw her a brownie which she caught with a smile. “Yes indeed, we don’t question it and simply enjoy ourselves,” He chuckled taking a large bite of a piece of chocolate cake. As he was chewing Twilight asked softly, “Yeah, but it’ll eventually end when Fluttershy passes on won’t it.” Discord seemed to struggle with swallowing as she finished speaking, almost as if the words had caught him off guard. He managed to swallow and seemed to deflate a bit as he said, “I know that one day it’ll end...but I do plan to enjoy my time here with her while I can.” He seemed to perk up a bit but Twilight could tell that what she had said had hit deep within him. She didn't say anything else about it though as a small group of animals rushed past playfully, Discord taking off after them in the form of a small fox, the picnic vanishing as he left. It wasn't long after that that another voice piped into the group, one they knew very well. “I still have a long time before that happens, you know. But it still bothers him to think about it...he’s unsure of what to do. Not only with the time he has with me, but with the future as well.” The sudden unexpected and quite voice spoke behind them and they turned to see Fluttershy unharmed with a small smile on her face, one that seemed slightly marred with whatever she was feeling about Discord. After a moment she smiled more clearly, motioning to the beautiful expanse, “Welcome to my mind, a utopia filled with anything you could imagine and desire without the stress or worry of never achieving said peace of heart and mind.” Fluttershy giggled softly before the three mares hugged her firmly. “This is amazing, Fluttershy, I always thought that your mind was peaceful, but I never imagined it was this peaceful. I can’t wait to see what other mental worlds other ponies and one day other creatures have, thank you for sharing this experience with us.” Twilight said sincerely causing Fluttershy to blush and calmly step away from the loving embrace. “Feel free to do whatever your heart desires here, my mind is yours to wander, though,” She hesitantly paused and quietly added in a low whisper, forcing them to go closer to her “Please don’t go farther north to my more intimate and personal thoughts. I have that entire area sealed off from any creature’s use, stay within the border of ‘Harmony Valley’ please.” She added before giving a smile, taking a cigarette from her right ear with her tail. Discord came out of nowhere and happily lit it, before flying off to leave her friends to their own devices. The trio spent what seemed like hours to them enjoying themselves, never getting hungry, tired or angry as they explored the entire area of either the very large, crystal clear lake, the freshly cut grass beneath their hooves that covered as far as the eye could see. Tall and proud tree’s grew out of the ground in places, filled with all kinds of fruits and flying creatures of the forest. Farther ahead of all this were tall, soft peaked, mountains that the sun never set behind, staying perfect in its position at all times. It was the world that was even more perfectly surreal than their own and they loved every second, although Twilight became disappointed that even though all the animals talked and spoke in their language, they could only answer the questions that Fluttershy herself knew, making trying to learn about many of the different animals a tad annoying. She also noticed that none of them ever repeated themselves or were sometimes completely emotionless in their responses like robots, the latter of the two creeped her out a bit, admittedly. Rarity who just got done getting her mane and tail braided by a lion and a few squirrels trotted up to Twilight who was enjoying getting a tan beside a chimera and sighed dreamily as she laid down on the smooth, warm grass. She volubly admired at how amazing the place was and that Fluttershy had to be the most caring, and heart warming pony imaginable to have such a world in her mind. “I agree, it really was thoughtful for her to do this for us, though we can’t stay too long, or else our physical bodies will start to slowly deteriorate and we will be forced to end up in the hospital, also I’ll have to do a very detailed report on everything we encountered and send it to Princess Celestia before we can even think of trying to override the side effects of the spell it took to get us here and try to enter into other ponies astral plane.” Twilight slowly mumbled and rolled onto her stomach. Before Rarity could reply, Vinyl Scratch came out of the lake riding a giant stone crocodile and spraying all three animals with a large amount of water. She jumped off the back of the carnivore with a large grin and slight bounce in her step, her shades plastered on her face before she shook the excess water out of her fur with a hearty laugh. “I bucking love this place!” She screamed with a roar of laughter, starting off towards a cheetah in hopes of trying to gamble using snails but was stopped by Twilight’s hoof on her chest and repeating what she had told Rarity. The blue maned unicorn merely scoffed and lightly pushed the mare’s hoof away with a shake of her head. “Yeah, alright, I get your point, mom,” She spoke with a tone of sarcasm before adding with a slightly dark grin “If what you say is true then why don’t we go see what all the fuss is about with Fluttershy’s border line, huh?” She chuckled softly before trotting to the destination she just mentioned, causing the two other mare’s to gasp in horror and shock. “Vinyl, how could you dare suggest a thing, Fluttershy is our friend and we promised her not to invade her privacy and go beyond the border she created.” Rarity cried overdramatically racing after the over zealous unicorn. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s get one thing straight, Fluttershy is your friend, not mine, alright? I never promised her anything. I mean she’s cool and all but she’s a hell of a downer when it comes to a party or smoking some Hay Weed, who the buck get’s high after two hits of the shit or gets hammered after only two beers? That girl has got to get more hold over her liquor, maybe get an iron liver and stomach like Rainbow Dash, though Rainbow’s a bit of a jerk at times, especially when drunk and annoys me to death sometimes, she’s a real partier.” Vinyl rolled her eyes with a sneer painted across her face and simply walked pass the fashion pony. “I find your very offensive and rather cruel choice of words about my friends to be disturbing, Vinyl Scratch, if you don’t like it then you can just get out of poor Fluttershy’s mind right now!” Rarity snorted with a firm stamp of her hoof as the dj looked at her and childishly stuck her tongue out making Rarity step back repulsed by the brash tomfilly. Not paying attention, neither unicorn noticed as Twilight stood up and teleported in front of the mare known as DJ Pone-3, casting a firm glare at her before Vinyl bumped into her. “Talking about our friends and advancing after Spike the way you do is the reason none of us like you, Fluttershy did you a huge favour in just letting you into her mind, let alone trying something that has never been done in millennia. While you are not an exception towards being a friend to her, you’re quickly overstepping yourself by abusing the trust she’s putting in you. If you don’t like it then get out of here.” Twilight threatened frankly making Vinyl turn her head away in frustration, knowing the book worm was right. “Fine, fine, you’re right ok, I’m sorry, and blah, blah, blah. Look, you do things your way with friendship and what not, but where I’m from, it’s everypony and creature for themselves, I’m not going to bore you with a sad ass sob story because it’s like you said, we don’t got enough time, so if you'll just kindly-” Vinyl attempt to sidestep the mare failed when Twilight blocked her body with her own and snorted with exhaled air visibly to prove her point before Rarity spoke up. “Though I am quite intrigued on what Fluttershy is trying to keep from us, I understand everypony has their secrets but we did promise each other we would not keep any worthy knowledge from the other.” Rarity commented with a flick of her tail as Vinyl laughed and poked Twilight’s chest with a hoof sharply. “You hear that? Shy promised and did not hold up to her end of the bargain, so nothing wrong with a little peek, ‘friend’ two against one after all.” Vinyl sneered and ignoring the annoyed glance Twilight gave to the now sheepish looking Rarity, bypassed Twilight and continued on towards the northern barrier, Rarity following after Vinyl moments later Twilight sat back onto her flank, refusing to budge and called after Rarity, “I hope you can live with what you’re doing. Fluttershy trusted you.” Twilight scowled and flopped backwards onto the ground, staring up into the sky, suddenly wishing she were home again. As she lay there brooding, a sudden male voice interrupted her thoughts, “You need to go after them, they are going to need you.” She looked to her right and saw Discord laying on his side next to her, looking at her with an obvious concerned look. Twilight shook her head, returning her gaze to the sky above and said, “I’m not going to betray Fluttershy’s trust in me. If they want to hurt Fluttershy like that by invading her privacy, let them take the blame, I tried to stop them.” Discord scooted closer towards Twilight and spoke softly. “I know you did and I’ll defend you when Fluttershy finds out. Of all the creatures who have ever entered her mind, there is only one other being that she has allowed into that area, Me.” He frowned and said, “Believe me when I tell you that your friends are not prepared for what exists there, and they will need you.” Twilight looked over at Discord again, her brow knitted with concern. In all of the time that she had known him, he had never been this serious. She didn’t know if he was lying to her or not, but something deep inside told her that he wasn’t. She rolled back onto her hooves and said, “You sure that Fluttershy will forgive this?” Discord waved his eagle talon as if to shoo her away slowly and said. “With you, certainly, you didn’t want to go anyway, with the other two, I’m unsure. Go on, you don’t have much time.” Twilight nodded and thanked Discord before galloping off after the other two. The border that Fluttershy had warned them about was just in sight of the two lone ponies as they walked across the landscape. It was vastly different than either of them had expected, an invisible line separated the perfectly green grass on the side they stood on and on the other side of it lay a barren wasteland. Dotted all over the place where plants of all kinds, trees, flowers, bushes, and grass; all of them withered and dying. Unnatural beasts of all shapes and sizes roamed across the isolated and desolate area, enormous, wild Timberwolves were feasting on the carcass of some unknown animal and somewhere off in the distance, a blood curdling scream echoed out towards them making the ponies on the other side of the border jump in fright. “Well I think I've seen enough, how about we go back-” Rarity’s scared tone of voice was cut off by Vinyl telling her to stop being such a filly and take a few risks to get to the really juicy parts of her friends mind. After that Rarity fell silent as Vinyl gathered up the courage and took a small step towards the gods forsaken world. A loud crackling filled the air as the barrier came alive with arcing bolts of lightning, tendrils of electricity running over Vinyl’s body, holding her rooted to the spot as she was electrocuted. Rarity yelled with alarm and threw out a lasso of magic, grabbing Vinyl and pulling her away, the DJ landing on the ground with a gasp, her body aching and throbbing with pain. After a few moments, Vinyl staggered back to her feet and looked over to the barrier with narrowed eyes. “An electric barrier, huh? Clever, alright, lighting wall, prepare to meet your doom!” Vinyl Scratch barked with an angered yell before lighting her horn with magic and throwing a powerful concentrated disrupting spell directly at it. The barrier flexed as the spell hit it, absorbing the impact of the spell and starting to glow eerily. In the second that Vinyl realized she'd majorly screwed up, a deafening blast blew outward from the shield as the force of her spell was rebounded at her, three times stronger than before. Both Vinyl and Rarity were sent flying off their hooves, slamming into the ground yards away from where they had been with grunts of pain. As they lay there stunned, a second beam of energy flew over them and hit the barrier, thin and narrow in size, channeling small amounts of energy into the shield. Vinyl dazedly looked over at the shield and saw a small opening appearing in the shield, growing larger and larger until it was big enough for three ponies to walk through. As the two other unicorns slowly pulled themselves to their hooves, Twilight walked up to them and said. “Just like Fluttershy, the harder you push, the tougher it becomes to get anywhere. A gentle touch is needed to get through to her.” Rarity sat up holding her head and asked, “Twilight, what are you doing here? I thought you said you weren’t going to invade Fluttershy’s privacy.” Twilight looked at Rarity and sighed loudly. “I’m not doing this because I want to. Discord said that you would need my help in there, and judging by what I’ve seen so far, he was right.” She shook her head and nodded her head to the dark entrance. “The way is open guys, now’s your last chance to turn back.” Vinyl jumped up from the ground, her aches apparently forgotten and sprinted towards the hole, passing through into the landscape beyond, quickly followed by Rarity and then by Twilight. “Whew, Shy was not joking when she said she had this area sealed off, haven’t been knocked around this much since that time I tried rodeoing on a visiting buffalo.” Vinyl laughed uneasily and trotted along faster before both Twilight or Rarity could ask if that was the reason why the apple family was still upset at her. The question was pushed back to the farthest corner of their minds though as they saw evil, glowing eyes of all different colors stare at them from the everlasting darkness around them, allowing their fur to get damped with coat of nervous sweat, their hooves trembling with every step they took, each looking back to see if the barrier and eternal sunshine was still there but all traces of it were lost in the darkness that surrounded them. They had entered into the ‘Shadow Forest’ as Vinyl so elegantly called it, and it was clear that this was in no way a place where Fluttershy stored her intimate desires. This was the place of her nightmares... On three separate occasions they had lost all sense of direction and had been forced to run away from all kinds of flesh eating, heartless and feral monsters that existed in the dark, always just outside of view and always there. Their horns provided them with some measure of light, allowing them to better see as they navigated through this labyrinth of horror. Eventually they came to a very wide and grassless area, something about the spot made even the most violent of creatures keep their distance and allow the trio to stumble towards three impossibly high, and very, very large tree trunks. High in the branches were six heavy linked and very thick silver chains which coiled around the trunks of each tree tightly, holding a single creature suspended into the air. The four limbs of the monster were held away from it with four of the chains, while the other two were wrapped around its neck and tail. The trees were arranged in the same order that all three unicorns had been in when they entered into the once innocent pony’s mind, one to the left, one the right and one behind, Twilight noticing that the middle tree had one more chain on it unlike its siblings, but it was broken, savagely torn off and appearing worn with age, the early stages of rust showing through the once brilliant metal. They appeared to have held something small judging by appearance of two small but thick cuffs on the very last link. Though Twilight had not the faintest clue as to what it could have held. The silence that now struck through the entire landscape was incredibly eerie and caused all of them to huddle together from the ridiculously powerful presence of evil that the prisoner emitted, feeling as though this one being was the incarnation of all nightmares. Rarity was panting so hard that she began to feel faint, Vinyl doing all she could to hold down the mental lunch she had eaten, trying to prevent it from spewing forth. Twilight gulped heavily, her mouth drying out in fear. It took all of her willpower to force herself to step closer to who or whatever the creature was, using every ounce of strength she could summon she crept slowly towards it. Illuminating her horn more, she provided larger source of of light causing it to fall across the figure held in the trees. The three of them stumbled backwards at what they saw, trying to regain their footing as the creature in the tree opened its eyes and mouth and let out a piercing wailing shriek. The force of the sounds made their vision vibrate as each of them covered their ears, the ground beneath them trembling and the trees of the forest billowing in an unseen wind. When the noise finally stopped Vinyl uncovered her ears wincing slightly at the ringing she was hearing. She looked back up into the trees, now truly terrified as the monstrously slowly drifted off to sleep. “By the gods, what is that monstrosity? I don’t think I’d ever seen anything so terrifying in my entire life.” Vinyl shivered slightly, emptying her bladder at the very sight without embarrassment or hesitation. Rarity was gasping in shock, holding her head in pain and quite convinced that her ears were bleeding. Before she could regain her composure, Twilight stepped closer again and whispered hoarsely, with her eyes wide with fear and horror. “We have, but it’s been so long since we last saw it...I hoped that we’d never see it again, that’s-” Twilight and the others almost jumped completely out of their fur by sound of a cold, cruel voice behind them that finished Twilight’s sentence. “Flutterbat.” Author's Note Any errors then please tell me or my editor right away so we can clean them up. I'm back ha, and I'll write more soon, promise....enjoy.
Shackled Monster; Put The Blame On Somepony ElseThe two unicorns and one Alicorn turned as one and let loose a scream loud enough that it echoed all throughout the Shadow Forest, no doubt perhaps, able to be heard from Harmony Valley. Their hearts were pounding in their chests so hard that each of them felt like they were about to have heart attacks. A bright yellow pegasus stepped around them, bringing a measure of relief to the group. Twilight, who was rubbing her chest tenderly gasped, “Shy, you nearly scared me out of my fur.” The others in the group nodded their agreement to this statement, however, as they looked at her, they soon came to realize that Fluttershy was in a particularly bad mood. Fluttershy’s face was stern and drawn, a scowl clearly defined on her face. This was one of the few times that any of them had seen her like this, and each time it indicated one thing. Fluttershy was furious. The screaming seemed to rouse Flutterbat even more from her sleep, the chains clinking as the creature moved around. Despite having had opened its eyes and previously yelled, Flutterbat still seemed to be unconscious. Fluttershy turned to look at the creature and closed her eyes, focusing as she muttered, “No, you go back to sleep, I’ve spent too long keeping you from escaping for you to be released now... go back to sleep!” Fluttershy yelled this last part, as if in desperation. Flutterbat shifted only a little more before it’s eyes closed and head drooped forward into its deep sleep. She turned back to her friends and snapped, “I warned you not to venture into areas that you had no business entering.” Turning at the two now shaken unicorns and sole Alicorn, fully comprehending that they had disobeyed her. “Darling, we were not aware that you would be keeping such a reckless and, frankly, evil secret from us. Honestly, we tried to listen to you, but our curiosity got the better of us, please-” “Nopony was suppose to know, Rarity! I can’t have her taking over my body again, she’ll kill everyone!” Fluttershy shouted, her face riled with so much fury it forced all of them to take a step back. “But she only ate apples, Fluttershy.” “Sure that would damage the apple crops and potentially ruin Applejack’s family business, but-” “You don’t understand, no one does...she told me once how she had imagined tasting flesh, tearing the fur off of a body and other beings and feasting on it, if she wins, I have no doubt she will attempt it, I’ll be powerless to stop it if she savors the texture, I won’t let that happen.” She whispered back with a firm stomp of her hoof, turning her head to avoid her friend's’‘gaze before feeling salty tears run down her face as she wiped them away with a hoof. “Fluttershy, it won’t come to that.” “We can get rid of her and strip her of all that nasty-” “You honestly don’t get it do you?” Fluttershy interrupted before she let out a harsh crackle. “You can’t kill her! She’s stolen fragments of my memories over time that I can never get back, this whole cursed area, this ‘Shadow Forest’ is her doing, she’s been trapped here so long that she’s able to siphon parts of my mind, if you erase her here and now...it will drive me completely insane, that apparently ‘impenetrable’ barrier is the only thing keeping her from sizing everything I am or used to be.” Fluttershy groaned and shook her head swiftly. “But I bet we can help you out Shy”. Vinyl said softly. “If we use our combined magic-” Vinyl spoke before she was rudely cut off. “It doesn't work like that Vinyl Scratch, didn’t you just hear what I said, she’ll drive me batshit crazy with no chance of recovery if you end her existence, she’s a part of me, a ferocious, sinister, destructive part of me.” “I tried everything short of murder, even if I had the strength and confidence to do it, I would still lose in the end, I should have never agreed to this.” She muttered in part to herself and to her friends. “Keeping her locked up is the only option I have, short of….nevermind. How do I know I can trust you, knowing you betrayed me without even bothering to ask permission.” She questioned looking into their eyes as they dropped their heads, ashamed of their actions, guilt washing over them like a tidal wave. “But it’s not like she can control the vampire fruit bats or even speak any known language other than hissing and snarling, we can fight this together and try to restore your memories if we ask Princess Celestia-” “The Alicorns can’t help me, Twilight...Celestia said so herself. Even using the Alicorn Amulet would only delay her for a short time, they were the ones who told me how to make this barren wasteland.” “How to create the trees that used nearly all of my mental strength, and how to form the unbreakable Chains of Eradication, as they called it but only smaller in size to hold her...obviously they were not as indestructible as I thought and in exchange.” “The immortals have my permission to use Harmony Valley whenever they like. I was told how to do it, but don’t you see...they never lifted a limb or glow of their magic to help me...when it could have mattered most...it took six months for Flutterbat to get her wings free, it’s only a matter of time until she escapes again.” Fluttershy wailed helplessly looking up into her darker version which was heavily sedated. “How long has she been been chained like this?” Twilight asked making the Pegasus only snort before replying. “A year, you’re right, at one time she never knew how to speak coherent sentences, but now she can speak the pony language fluently, her voice is so raspy and dripping with so much rage it’s unbearable.” “I never meant to get her to learn it, it just happened naturally, she’s been asleep ever since she gotten her wings free...if she awakes again, another shackle will fall and she’ll no doubt be able to claim a larger piece of my mental territory, I won’t let that happen, I won’t!” She suddenly screamed, heaving with anger and exhaustion. “There are times when I can hear her voice even in the physical world, but her eyes won’t open, she’s only been mumbling I know but I’m afraid she’ll wake up and attempt to tear off another chain, she’s getting stronger...oh so much stronger.” Fluttershy spoke, her voice laced with soul crushing pain that all of them knew they could not heal. “Fluttershy, you don’t have to go through with this, alone-” “Get out, I should have never have brought you here, especially you,” She seethed, pointing a furious hoof at Vinyl, making the mare shuffle back two more steps in shock and shame “I should have listened to my gut feeling that you would have caused so much trouble, I should have….get out.” She ordered a second time, finally making one of the three stand their ground to make her listen to reason. “We thought the private thoughts you kept guarded were something naughty by nature, like, Celestia forbid you were raped, or done drugs or even, the gods forbid had an abortion.” Rarity said with a hint of anger in her voice at Fluttershy’s behaviour. “Oh don’t give me that, those questions are so cliched there would be no reason for me to form such a shield or have to go through so much trouble if it were that easy, Rarity. I could have simply outright told you those things if you wanted to know.” “I’m not ashamed, the past is the past. Besides...I wish it was that easy.” Fluttershy whispered softly, her head bowed in disgrace for the beast above her and how much ground she had allowed it to cover. “I fought so hard to keep her at bay, so damn hard, I’m slipping, my will to fight and try to keep on the mask I do every day in the physical realm is sapping from me. “I’m so tired of playing this charade any longer for anypony...please, just go.” She quietly pleaded one more time, jumping once she heard the chains above began to clank and swing once more, forcing her to stand on her hooves where she sat and glare at the foul demon which threatened her very being. “But darling we can do all in our power to-” “I believe the lady asked you to leave.” Discord’s cruel, but emotionless voice spoke behind them as they turned around right before he snapped his tail, their mental bodies were flung with the force of a train into the vortex he had summoned above, their screams reverberating throughout the entire realm of the Element of Kindness’s mind as she dropped to the ground and wept. *************************************************************************************************** The trio was thrown back into their physical bodies with so much force they awoke coughing and sputtering, their mouths feeling as dry as sand, their eyes watering from the sudden light and their lungs working overtime to restore their breathing to it’s regular pattern. Spike was at Twilight side in an instant, ordering Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack to get all of them large glasses of water as he held her close to his chest. Reassuring her as much as he could that she was fine, stroking her back fur as she cried into his scales while Vinyl and Rarity thanked the girls and slowly drank the water given to them, Pinkie Pie making sure to grab an extra one for Fluttershy. “What happened to ya’ll?” Applejack said with a puzzled look on her face seeing all of them in hysterics, seemly at their wits end. “It was better than I imagined-” “The impossibly clear lake, my mane getting braid-” “Should have seen this bucking Timberwolf, it was the size of-” Their voices overlapped each other quickly before they were forced to stop and breath in a calm, slow rhythm. Then Twilight began to explain everything with certain added quips from Rarity and Vinyl in so much detail and awe in their voices, it was though they had glanced into the Heavens themselves. At a certain point in their story they simultaneously pause, fearing the cruel claws of Fate rake against their sides without hesitation as they each told segments of the unmerciful forest they had traveled, the monsters that stalked them and then finally. Of the very abomination they had witness with their own mental eyes, tears streaking down their faces at the description in which they told of their old, adorable friend. “Hold up, you’re saying Fluttershy got angry enough to throw you out? Fluttershy, the pony afraid of her own damn shadow, seriously?!” Rainbow laughed mockingly before rolling her eyes. “Ah agree, certainly does not sound like the mare we know and love, girls.” Applejack’s southern drawl drew their attentions to her before all of their eyes were directed to the Pegasus who groaned loudly. Using a forehoof to push herself from the ground before eyeing the water beside her and in a flash using her teeth to drain it down without a moment’s pause, shocking all of the ponies and dragon before her. She released the glass with a large sigh, panting as the empty cup fell to the ground and shattered on impact, causing all but the mare herself to wince as they looked into her narrowed, furious unblinking eyes. A very serious expression on her face which masked her usually loving smile forcing all of them, even Spike to shudder, uncomfortable with the anger that seemed to radiate through her body. “How dare you have the nerve to frolic through any portion of my head without my permission!” Fluttershy uncharastically growled, baring her teeth causing all of her friends to finally take notice of the twin fangs nestled at the back of her mouth. Rainbow Dash walked towards her until she was able to touch her then slowly put a hoof on her left shoulder which the mare jerked away with a snort. “If you were really my friends you would have simply bothered to not stick your noses in any of my business that had absolutely nothing to do with you.” Fluttershy whispered before quickly moving past Rainbow Dash and trotting towards the door. “Fluttershy wait, we’re sorry, honest, we never meant to-” “If she awakes and rips off all the chains that bind her...the blood of the souls she reaps will be on your hooves, so you better be ready to bucking kill me, I won’t let her ruin innocent lives.” The Pegasus spoke softly, turning her head to look over her shoulder at Twilight before she, without another word opened the front door and closed it with a slam that scared the feathers off of Owlowiscious and Peewee who had flown to their owners to see what the commotion was about. ******************************************************************************************************** Rain pelted the dirt at a brisk but harsh pace, ponies scrambling to find shelter from the undaunting liquid and the slowly increasing thick, gray clouds that began to block out the sun’s gentle, loving rays. But getting out of the rain and rapidly turning mud was the least of Fluttershy’s concern as she trotted at an even stride towards the destination of her comfortable, secure cottage. Her top teeth grinded painfully against her bottom lip, threatening to slice open with small drops of blood if she did not halt in her actions. Her thoughts on edge that the soul stealing creature would only relish in the chance to taste something besides apples, for once, even if Flutterbat was not the one to physically experience it . Fluttershy’s mane was basically attached to her shoulder fur, her tail slogging in the rain and mud, her hair being wild and unruly in the sudden blast of wind that stung her eyes and caused her to blink quickly. Shaking her head to rid herself of the cold water being flung into her eyes as she tried to clear her vision and with a heavy sigh, start to gallop home. The bang of the wind plus their owner’s annoyed close of the front entrance alerted every animal being safeguarded in the warm, smelling like fresh cut grass house to their owner’s distress. Fluttershy would very rarely vocalize her rage to her animal friends, not from a lack of communication but from the fact that many of them were still very young and she did not wish to fill a baby’s mind with garbage spewing from her tongue. So she ran upstairs to her room, swearing a bit under her breath as she felt her wing clip the sharp turn before closing the door with as much contained patience as she could muster. Hearing Angel Bunny scrap against the wood with his nails but for the time being she wanted to be alone as she dropped into the safety of her bed, grabbed the pillow a few inches in front of her with her hooves then screamed into it with all the air in her lungs that her body would allow. Feeling light headed and really tired she turned around, laid in a soaked blanket on her back, with an emotionless gaze at the ceiling before breathing in deeply then releasing the exhaled air out as calmly as she could. She needed a cigarette. ******************************************************************************************************* Though assembled with their friends, the three unicorns were now physically exhausted, Rarity barely able to stumble to her house with Applejack’s help as Spike offered to take Vinyl to her’s who only let out a dry chuckle. Slapping the drake with her tail and saying she needed a drink as they walked out the door, Spike helping her get stable flaring the jealousy inside of Twilight’s eyes to their full limit once more. She would have thought his presence and comfort for her once they were forced out was special, obviously not and Spike was merely helping his caretaker. “Like a little brother would.” She thought bitterly before turning to the task at hoof and attempted to write down all the information to Princess Celestia she could, with the assistance of Pinkie Pie which caused her to slowly smile and thank her friend. After all the analyzing and detail in the tale was written she had meant to send it to Princess Celestia immediately but with a huff had forgotten Spike was with Vinyl, as she stomped on the wooden floor beneath her angrily knowing the two were probably enjoying a beer. “What does she have that I don’t? That...that bitch.” She swore to herself, knowing that she would normally never use cuss words to release her emotions but this time she felt it was justified, Pinkie Pie looked outside and saw the pouring rain stating that she had better start heading home as Twilight wished her good night. The library was as quiet as a crypt which caused the Alicorn to shudder looking around the empty living room and kitchen, noting that Owlowiscious and Peewee might have flown out the tree before the storm hit and stood from where she sat to write, feeling a wave of dizziness assault her as she held a hoof to her head and waited for it to subside. She was to tired to do anything else tonight so she slowly began to walk up the stairs, eased her way into her comforter and blanket and with her head resting on the pillow she started to doze off into slumber. But Fate had other plans as a very bright red flash caught her eyes forcing her out of bed to see the form of a very angry Discord before her who glared with an intense stare into her eyes. “Do you have any idea exactly what you have done, Twilight Sparkle?” He growled and gripping her throat in his eagle talon brutally slammed her against a wall, his claws digging into her flesh causing her to cry out in pain. Without skipping a beat he snapped the fingers on his lion paw and instantly summoned Rarity and Vinyl Scratch behind him, Rarity’s fur was drenched as though she had been taking a shower. Which was true because there was still soap in her mane that had started to run down into her eyes, making her furious at how the god had forced her to be brought before him and screeched in pain at the suds now getting into her open eyes. Vinyl was buzzed, her mane, coat and tail were dirty and she had an open bottle of white wine in her tail, which was now dripping onto the floor causing Twilight to shout at her in shock before stopping mid sentence as Discord only added more pressure to her now slightly bleeding neck. “You….mortals, are so bucking careless and native with your thirst for knowledge, your curiously truly knows no bounds, no sense of being sated, now does it?!” The draconequus growled menacingly before tossing Twilight to the ground like a rag doll, his face more angered and serious then they had ever seen, completely making all of them give him their undivided attention. Rarity, after getting rid of all the soap in her mane and tail asked the spirit why he was so concerned with Fluttershy, even though she knew that the Pegasus was his friend, though by the scene he was making it appeared to her as though they were more. “We are, little pony.” His tone of voice was one of defeat, somber and small as he looked into her eyes, knowing what she seemed to be wondering, it appeared. “After showing me the compassion and trust of a friend like she had, which I now realized I rudely ignored, we formed a stronger bond...it was one I have not felt in eons, a perfect sync that appeared to open both our eyes and...well, we just allowed things to process naturally, none of you would understand….I doubt you ever will….she’s losing this battle...and she’s eventually going to lose the war.” Discord sighed loudly, before vanishing and re forming onto Twilight’s couch with Vinyl's bottle as he took a large swig. His lion paw over his head and his anger seemly and unnerving instantly fading, they calmly walked over to the depressed immortal, not able to come up with any reassuring words to cheer him up. They were frankly still confused on how to help Fluttershy though, they knew that magic could help her in some way before Discord let out an emotionless and sad chuckle. “You can’t do anything she would not want you to, we can’t intervene, by my own name I would give anything just to be able to bring her back to the pony she used to be, anything. “I love her, me, a god who been through so many wars and seen things you could not possibly fathom loves a Pegasus who only has at least sixty more years on this planet more than I could ever dream, it is not a normal situation, you understand and not one to be taken lightly but...she trusts me.” He was now speaking to himself, unaware that he even had company behind him and talked about all the instances he and Fluttershy had together. Their first date that the mare had kept hidden from Rarity who made her dress a for that special occasion, the secret routines Discord had came to to cheer Rainbow Dash on beside his mate while holding her hoof without any of her friends knowledge. The very first kiss Discord had given to the virgin pony and the first one he had ever received on the lips by a mortal, the very first time they made love. In Celestia’s own bed nonetheless infuriating the Alicorn so much once she caught them that she had imprisoned the spirit into the sun for a week and made Fluttershy tend to her garden alone prolonging Fluttershy’s stay at Canterlot for those grueling seven days that her friends had to take care of her and tend to her animal friends by order of the Princess. Sincere, heart wrenching tears ran down his face as he spoke, so much that he used his own tail to dabble them away and then Twilight’s tail to blow his nose loudly to which she silently shivered in horror and used her magic to make the trailing snot disappear. He then began to speak of how he became Fluttershy’s guardian for when she slept and kept watch over the signs of her incredibly wicked foe, speaking that the batpony was starting to stir more in her sleep and in no time would dispel of her grogginess and find the strength in her muscled limbs to break another bounding weight off. “Your interference has only complicated matters in ways you simply don’t understand...of ways I doubt you’ll ever understand.” He muttered half heartedly before without even a goodbye he vanished before their eyes, leaving the unicorns to be crushed with the guilt and ramifications of the struggle they had only fueled of their friend having to protect her mind now more than ever. ******************************************************************************************************** As Spike ran back home to an annoyed but sad Vinyl who trotted away without even a thank you in the heavy rain along with Rarity who used her magic to try to teleport herself back with some suggestion from Twilight causing her to somehow end up in Rainbow Dash’s bed which fortunately once Derpy Hooves was able to rescue her from her impending doom they all went to bed, none being aware of the plight the young, butter furred Pegasus was going through at the moment. Squeezing her eyes tight as she tried to fall asleep and speaking words that made no sense was the least of the fidgeting pony’s worries, for in her very mind she could feel the rattle of another chain shift and groan loudly. Being stretched to its full limit before she, with a thunderous slap heard it fall and crash into the base of the tree below it. Flutterbat’s right rear hoof was freed of its captivity at last, making the nightmare causing creature open her demonic crimson eyes slowly, lift her head with as much access upwards that her neck chain would allow and stare Fluttershy right in the face of her mind eye with a dark, twisted grin. “Not so long now, puny herbivore.” The insane fiend whispered quietly, a second before Discord put a paw around his love. Forcing the mare into such a frenzy that she jolted up from the bed so quickly it would have looked at though she had been struck by lightning, screaming at the top of lungs and no amount of words or physical contact was enough to calm the bawling mare in the draconequus’s arms, no amount at all. Author's Note Forgive me for not having this edited. Figured everyone waited long enough. It's time I finished this story, the next chapter to be posted soon. I tried to tone down the swearing and such, I hope you all can understand Fluttershy's behavior, I have a feeling I didn't really keep her all in character but honestly could you blame her?
Amends; She's Getting StrongerCalming down a full grown dragon, by ponies standers at least was a very difficult thing for Twilight Sparkle to do, the consuming rage that the drake was roaring into the very house that they occupied together only made it worse. “Spike, calm down, please. I told you, it was our fault, we were the one’s-” “No one lays their limbs on a female, Twilight, no male should ever lay their hooves, claws or whatever they have on a female, I don’t care if he is a god, I’ll kick his-” “No, you won’t!” She suddenly shouted in a firm tone making the reptile eye his companion angrily. “It was our fault,” She stated in a calm but icy tone at the enraged lizard who could only curl his claws deep into his palms and glare at her. “We had no idea what we would tigger going into such an area. We were warned, we disobeyed...the deed of what we had done are ours alone, Spike...he did not mean it, he was just frustrated. Truthfully I can’t blame him.” She sighed loudly, taking a seat at the dining room table and scratching at the bandages on her throat absentmindedly. There was nothing but silence which resonated throughout the library before she heard Spike take a deep breath, exhale and sit down across from her. “I care for you, you know that…” The tone in his voice gave no hint on which side of the relationship he meant; as a friend, a sibling...a lover, Twilight was unsure and honestly it drove her crazy that she could not decrypt in which matter he spoke but she supposed for the time being that they should focus on Fluttershy and her internal struggle for keeping her sanity. “She was supposed to be destroyed you know, Twi.” Spike growled in a very dangerous whisper, making a cold shiver trail down her spine at his unknowing husky voice. “Gods, if only his attention was directed at me.” She thought sadly before getting down from the chair as her faithful sidekick followed her with his eyes. “Where you going?” He asked carefully, a little worried since she has been through Tartarus and back after her failed experiment. “To the store, I owe Fluttershy a carton of cigarettes, time to keep my word.” She replied with a sigh and went to fetch her saddlebag. “Need anything?” She questioned, looking at him while he merely shook his head. “Nah, I’m good...thanks though. I’m going to visit Rumble and Thunderlane, they want to go to a concert and we need tickets, think I’ll grab Rainbow Dash and buy Fluttershy some as well, since I know she’s a big fan.” He answered and stretched before laying back on the chair, rubbing his eyes. “Ok, um, who's the band going to play?” Twilight wondered making the dragon chuckle. “Carriage On Fire.” He laughed before giving her a predatory grin causing the former unicorn to laugh with a roll of her eyes, playfully. “You all love that rock and roll band a bit too much, I will say, I like how they have different members other than ponies though. Alright then, I’ll see you later, don’t get into trouble.” She ordered lightly. Spike could only reply that he made no promises, making her laugh all the way out the door. ******************************************************************************************************** Witty banter between the two lifelong friends was something few creatures ever achieved in their life times, despite Fluttershy having such a friend, she was not there for her at the moment, the butter furred mare herself was currently lying in her bed. Curled up into a tight ball with her hooves covering her ears with all the strength the limbs could muster, it was futile...but for the moment it was all she was capable of doing other than screaming with all the air in her lungs...again. Tears ran down her face in a swift manner, her tail wrapped tightly around her waist as she did everything possible to drown out the dark voice slithering in her head...she was slipping, and they both knew it. “You’ve been abandoned, delicate little pony...forsaken even by your gods, by the one who claims to love you. Relinquish control just for an instant and I swear to you...I’ll imprison you as quickly as you done to me, it will be over...give me control...” Flutterbat’s sadistic and resentful accent growled to the grown mare making her shiver visibly. This was not supposed to happen, this was not in any way, shape or form the life she had ever pictured for herself, not a life she wished for any soul even if she ever had the audacity to hate another creature. It was not in her nature to want death on anyone, to speak of misfortune or spite, to not give someone a second chance...at least, that was what she once believed. “No, no, no, no...I...I can still win. I have my friends-” “The very souls who unintentionally aided in my freedom. You are forgotten, you are weak...you will never amount to the love and adoration that you desire, spineless foal!” Flutterbat screeched so loudly and with such force that it temporarily scared Fluttershy to death. For five seconds, her heart stopped beating, her pupils dilated to the size of a crumb and the very second she felt air forcibly be pumped into her lungs by nature itself….she screamed with so much force that she fainted. Awaking by icy cold water was the very last thing Fluttershy ever wished to bring her back into consciousness. The slightly muffled voice of her mate, Discord as he tried to arouse her frightened her for a moment because she had thought she had died. But reality came crashing back the very next instant as the Pegasus wrapped her hooves around the draconequus and wept with all the tears her body had to offer. Quite frankly he was stunned, he had gotten up to go make them both some coffee after the fit she had last night, he was only gone for about ten minutes, what had that abomination done to his poor little angel to make her a nervous wreck? Petting her fur and just holding her somehow made the mare calm down, for a time but he knew it would get worse...Flutterbat was getting stronger and bolder than he had thought...perhaps now was the time for drastic measures. Whispering sweet nothings in her right ear his words allowed her to resume her natural routine of breathing, blinking and finally when she felt well enough, getting out the bed to rush to the bathroom and vomit, disgusting really but necessary in hindsight if she was to continue about the day like a normal pony...or at least a sane one. It was time he had a little chat with the wicked soul who plagued her brain, after Fluttershy returned the two went through and together, did the tasks required to keep her animals happy and content. When they had finished two hours later, sipping a new cup of coffee on the dining room table, Discord reached out his lion paw and calmly take her hoof in his limb as she smiled at him with delight. He chuckled softly and kissed her cheek causing her to blush as he spoke softly, knowing he could only enter into the Shadow Forest with her permission. “My dear I need to make sure she’s secure, you know? No loose chains, signs of rust, the like.” Discord whispered, seeing the hesitation and deep rooted fear inside her eyes. “B...but, I can-” “Shy, we both know you’re going through so much more than is needed. I won’t be long beautiful, I promise...please and after which, we can go to that dinner you wanted to attend tonight.” The tone in his voice, while pleasant was a bit demanding she knew with a slight frown but if she trusted anyone to defend her against her dark alter ego, it was him. With a heavy sigh, she nodded, saying that she had to attend to some things anyway and with a kiss directly on the lips, somehow finding such courage to make a bold move, he laughed cheerfully and disappeared with a snap of his eagle talon, evaporating into her most guarded treasure. ****************************************************************************************************** While her mate vanished before her eyes, Fluttershy, now done with her chores stood up from her chair, put her empty cup in the sink, grabbed a lone cigarette and a match from the table and trotted to see the friends she had not been abandoned by. Flutterbat was wrong and she was going to prove to her and everyone around her that she was a normal, loving pony with the same personality she was known for, that was a promise. Saying good morning to many ponies that she walked past and with a beautiful, heartwarming day with little clouds to grace the sky was what greeted the ponies of their rural town, seeing the Marketplace getting more crowded as the day escalated. With a gentle smile but roll of her eyes she continued to her current destination, hoping to grab a snack from Sugarcube Corner since she had forgotten to eat breakfast and with a silent gasp also remembered she had forgotten her saddlebag. “Oh I hope the Cakes will allow me a little sample, if anything, or maybe I could just go back and get-” Her voice was cut off however by slamming rather painfully into the door of the very bakary, rather the only one she had meant to come to. A bit frightened that she would be chased off for having no money, she quietly entered the shop, seeing that the shop was not as busy as she had thought with a small sigh before walking towards the counter and allowing a smile to appear on her muzzle at her best friend taking charge of the register. “Hey there, Fluttershy, how’s it going?” Pinkie Pie’s enthusiastic and very bright demeanor made the mare laugh lightly before replying that she was well, the air apparently being cleared of her own hostile stance last night and knowing just how forgiving and loving her dear friend was. “Um, may I have a peanut butter and chocolate brownie please?” She asked politely forgetting to add that she had no bits on her in her haste to acquire the scrumptious, delectable treat that Pinkie knew she craved every week, it was like an angel had created the sweet just for her and she was it’s most popular customer. Laughing aloud with mirth in her voice, Pinkie Pie nodded and went to go get the item her friend had requested fresh out the oven. Fluttershy’s day was going really well, despite Discord being inside her head to take care of the...situation she was terrified to do herself. But her peace would not last, as much as she willed against it she started to feel faint, hearing a very familiar, nefarious whisper deep inside her head, feeling her vision go blurry from the compulsion of Flutterbat’s relentless voice grating her very body to the point of exhaustion in just a few sentences. “Your insolence is staggering, pony. The mere existence of this wing less foal is making me rattle in my shackles with ferocity, kill her now….kill her with your bare hooves and your suffering will end this moment, herbivore. Kill her!” Spasms racked Fluttershy’s entire body, uncontrolled and unpredictable, she couldn't breathe as her chest tightened in quick, uneven breaths, sweat ran down her forehead and formed a very small puddle beneath her as she gritted her teeth as firmly as she could. Her fangs sliding effortlessly into her outer cheeks as she tasted the copper liquid absentmindedly and spat it onto the wood without a second thought, her eyes narrowed to mere slits as her hooves pushed with enough force to make it slightly crack from the pressure. Pinkie Pie had just come from the back room with a steaming hot brownie on a small blue glass plate she had in her left front hoof, humming a tune she heard on the radio with her eyes closed, her head bobbing to the catchy tune, oblivious to the agony her friend was experiencing in front of her before she set the plate before her, a large grinned plastered on her muzzle before she opened her eyes. “Here you are Shy, that will be four-” Shrieking loudly at the unusual display before her, Pinkie Pie loudly asked in a panic if Fluttershy was alright but she could not hear her, resisting the urge to do what the savage ordered of her before her right front hoof slipped and she skidded the plate away with her treat tumbling to the ground on accident. The loud, fracture that resounded in her ears brought the twisted voice and the unbearable pain to a stand still, Fluttershy was able to restore her limbs in the span of a few seconds and, panting heavily, opened her eyes to see the damage she had unknowingly caused around her. The perspiration she had emanated from her body now covered a quarter of the large counter, not much but still enough to worry her. The indents from her hooves had crushed the wood forming a slightly large piece of splintered wood, blood mixed with her sweat slowly forming a disgusting looking shape, shards of glass now embedded themselves into her snack, as well as cut to her side a tiny bit, not enough to hurt though she bled a small amount all the same. Looking into Pinkie’s face it was a mirrored reflection of her own, agitation, horror and a slight hint of fear was seen making Fluttershy shankly take a deep breath, tears in the corner of her eyes before she turned around and galloped out the now open door, almost running into Sweetie Belle while Pinkie Pie shouted at her to come back and talk to her, which the mare abruptly ignored. She invariably ran straight into Twilight, the carton of nicotine levitated in the Alicorn’s magic was flung away during the collision as the purple mare groaned and rubbed her aching forehead, before looking at her injured friend and quickly lifting herself and Fluttershy off with ground with her magic. “Are you alright?” She asked slowly, seeing her bleeding side and muzzle, but the Pegasus only half heard the words she was speaking, petrified that Flutterbat would damage her body again, her eyes widen to their full length and a frighten, panic look filled them, concerning Twilight greatly. Grabbing the mare by the shoulders, Twilight slowly shook her, yelling into her ear if she was ok, the horrified expression on the mare’s face slowly disappeared before she glanced at her surroundings, again. Snapping back into focus, Fluttershy now saw the mare that held her, Twilight having the same worried look Pinkie as she stumbled back, trying to gain her bearings once more. “I-I’m fine...thank you...T-Twilight.” She responded slowly, as if still in shock, it did little to calm the former unicorn’s fears but for the time being she let it drop. Twilight was honestly relieved that her friend was not angry with her anymore, at least she prayed she was not before grasping the box in her magic and slowly bringing it towards the now calm animal caretaker. It was as though she had been given the Holy Grail itself in her hooves, cradling the rectangle in her hooves as a mother would a newborn baby, she calmed down immensely but did not move to open the box, instead looking into Twilight’s eyes and thanking her with the most sincere smile she could form. There was an awkward pause between the two that could be sliced with a knife, forcing Twilight to clear her throat and ask the Pegasus just what had happened looking into her friend’s eyes. “It...it was nothing Twi. Thank you again, really-” “It was Flutterbat, wasn’t it, Shy? Please I can help you if you-” “I’m alright, Twilight. Seriously, I just need to go home for a bit. Oh, that reminds me, I have a dinner reservation for two at that new restaurant, Hay-filet, you and um...well, Spike I suppose can go out under mine and Marvin’s, I mean Discord’s name tonight at seven. They allowed us a free meal because we saved Equestria and-” “Wait a second, Marvin?” Twilight question with a quizzical eyebrow raised in confusion before her face flushed red at the partner of her friend’s choice seeing Fluttershy giggle. “It was his idea, he said it would cause a lot of awkwardness if ponies saw the former king of Equestria dating an Element of Harmony, he was going to change his form to one of...well, us.” She replied with a small blush and smile before getting to her hooves with the carton wrapped securely in her tail. “Well, I better get home. Again, thank you Twilight I needed this...more than you know.” She whispered softly and slowly trotting away before she heard her friend’s voice telling her to be careful. As Fluttershy walked to home, Twilight turned around to see Pinkie Pie with a very worried expression on her face making the Alicorn put a hoof on her shoulder to reassure the Earth pony. ******************************************************************************************************** The second she closed the door to her cottage, she sat on the ground, dropping the carton of nicotine beside her and sighed, leaning on the wooden entrance with her head held high, exhausted. Grabbing the lone cigarette from her right ear with her hoof, she took the match from her right ear and as she had done many times since the demon plagued her mind, struck the match, igniting the tobacco and inhaled a long drag. Sluggishly, she got up from the floor and walked up the stairs towards her bedroom, feeling as though her body was forcing her to go to sleep before falling into her bed, she had just enough time to put the lit cigarette into the air tray beside her before her eyes closed and she was forced into a deep slumber. Author's Note Here you are my friends, thanks to my author brother, KorvasTerindar for editing, next chapter to be posted in a few days, give or take...enjoy.
