Healing

by MasterFrasca

Rating: mature
Tags: Tragedy, Horror, Lyra, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Fluttershy
Length: 7084

Lyra tells a tale of Fluttershy's descent into madness and how she survived it herself.

Fluttershy is a healer, a tender of wounds, a helper of injured, a keeper of sick, and a friend to all creatures. This had been true for as long as Lyra had known, but now sitting in a police station late one night she now has a different story to tell.

Big thanks to IRPony for his pre-reading services, and also to AuthorGenesis for his editing expertise.

This story was heavily inspired by the title picture and the game Outlast. That being said:
WARNING: HEAVY GORE

Read, Comment, Enjoy!
-MasterFrasca99

Published 2016-02-24 19:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-02-24 19:40:01 UTC

Hurting

The typewriter clacked away behind the door as the chief of police finished up the report of the pony who had gone in before me. Occasionally there would be a pause in the sounds of the metal keys striking up against themselves, sometimes followed by the slide of a carriage and an accompanying ding as he started the next line.

I took a sip of my tea, letting the bitter liquid slide down my throat as I winced, steam wafting past my eyes as I set the cup down on the bench next to me. Thunder crackled outside of the window to my left, and I lowered my ear reactively tensing up and waiting for a nonexistent punishment. Opening my eye slightly, I calmed myself, realizing that I was in a police station now, away from harm.

Another sip of the dark tea and another slow blink of my tired eyes. I yawned for what had to have been the twelfth time that night. Sleep was something I desperately needed, but my paranoia wouldn’t let me fall. Talking with the chief of police and getting my statement in was probably the best thing I could do. I figured that telling someone else of what I had witnessed would put my mind at ease.

Softly, a muffled ding rang out from behind the faded glass door as the chief completed a line in his report. I looked at the clock to see the hands displaying the time of half past midnight.They had dragged the last unicorn out of the room, who had been kicking and screaming about how he was innocent about half an hour ago, and I was waiting patiently to be called in.

A flash of light plastered the shadow of a tree onto the glass door as another series of low rumbles rolled over the station. I shuddered instinctively before getting off the bench I was sitting on and downing the rest of my now-cold tea. I closed my eyes and let out a big sigh, rubbing a hoof through my mane. Levitating the paper cup behind me, I slowly trotted towards the front entrance, my hoofsteps echoing in the empty hall.

A small buzz fluttered through my ear as I passed by a room which looked like a crime lab, a pony mixing together two substances in what looked like a blender. I blinked and continued on to the reception desk, levitating the cup into a trash bin near the station entrance.

“Thanks for the tea,” I softly said to the receptionist who was sitting silently with a sudoku book. My words caught her attention, and she looked up from the book before flashing me a warm smile.

“Sure thing dear,” she said, setting the book down and turning towards me, her expression fading slightly. “How are you feeling?” she asked, an empathetic frown forming on her orange face. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I’m alright,” I lied. She couldn’t have known why I was here yet. “Just a bit of insomnia the past few nights.” I paused, darting my eyes left and right looking for an excuse for this “insomnia” I had just made up.

“Someone’s been breaking into my house the past few days, and I’m here to talk to the chief about it,” I lied through my teeth, hoping she wouldn’t question it.

“Oh, that’s terrible,” she frowned, glancing down the hall at the chief of police’s office. “Old Gumshoe’s always taking overtime for cases like yours. I’m sure he’ll do his best to help you out, Miss …”

“Heartstrings,” I finished for her, grateful that she had bought my lie. “I suppose I shouldn’t keep Chief Gumshoe waiting.” I ended the conversation as the clerk nodded and receded into her book again. I took the few steps back down the hallway, glancing back into the lab to see a pony’s shadow plastered on the wall behind her, the overhead lights out in the lab room. I assumed she was looking at photographs or something.

Suddenly, to her left, a shadowy figure entered, seeming to creep up and overcome the lab-pony’s shadow. The figure turned it’s head towards the door, and I saw the long tip of an elongated nose form. My heart sped up as I watched a curly smile open and the figure raised a sharp object. I almost shouted out in fear when I blinked, and just like that, the figure was gone. The blue lab pony opened the door and nodded to me before continuing towards the reception area.

The lack of sleep was getting to me more than I had thought, apparently.

Finally reaching the end of the hall, I sat back down on the wooden bench, waiting once again for the Chief of Police to call me in. I heard some more tacking from behind the door, and a ding, and then no more. A longer silence passed before I heard an audible sigh and the tear of a piece of paper. The Chief’s shadow moved around his office as I heard filing cabinets open and close. Eventually, the shadow moved towards the door.

The heavy door glowed, engulfed with a yellow-colored aura of magic, before slowly creaking open, revealing an old blue unicorn with tired eyes. “Hello there Lyra,” he spoke to me, taking a glance down the hall at the reception area. “Come inside and make yourself at home.” He waved a hoof slowly at a large wooden desk which was strewn with papers and photographs. “Please excuse the mess. I’ve got a few cases I’m researching.”

I merely nodded and walked into the small room, noticing that any open space had been stuffed full of cabinets and one wall was dedicated to a map of seemingly random photos and news articles. The wall was cluttered with battered string that seemed like it had seen better days, and many stacks of paper were resting underneath it in haphazard piles. Walking to the desk, I sat down in the armchair opposite Chief Gumshoe.

“How’re you doing, Lyra?” he asked, levitating his coffee mug over to take a sip before sitting down in his office chair.

“Better,” I curtly responded, not bothering to give him even a fake smile. I was still a bit paranoid and scared of my captor, even though I knew she was safely behind bars.

“That’s good,” he slowly responded, his expression telling me he didn’t believe me. “You know they’ve sentenced her with the death penalty,” he continued, taking a sip from his coffee mug and looked vaguely down at some papers on his desk as he moved his typewriter out of the way. “You won’t have to worry about her after tomorrow.”

“And after tomorrow I won’t,” I replied, my eyes fixated at the foot of his desk, at my own hooves swinging back and forth. “But for now,” I continued, “I don’t think I’ll be able to completely calm down.”

“Alright,” he consoled me. “Let’s just get to the matter at hand then, and you can get on home and try to get some rest.”

“If only it were that easy, Chief,” I mumbled, still staring at my hooves, clinking them together now.

“Why don’t you start from wherever you feel comfortable,” he said, ignoring my remark and lifting my head up with his magic so that I’d look him in the eyes. “I’ve got all night.”

I gave a big sigh and paused a second. “I suppose I should tell you that up until I discovered her secret basement, Fluttershy and I had been close friends,” I began, looking back down at my hooves. I couldn’t stand to look into the chief’s eyes. I felt a tear run down my cheek, and I wiped it away before continuing in a shaky voice. “I had never thought such a kind pony could be so awful.”

I paused, choking on my own grief and sadness for just the slightest moment. I took in a deep breath and held it for a bit before slowly letting it out and continuing. “That was the day before Bon Bon called you …”

“Fluttershy, are you home?” I called out, giving a happy knock on her cottage door. The cottage was particularly lovely in the late-evening sun, the orange glow illuminating the front so that a warmth irradiated from the roof. The breeze blew swirling patterns across the surface as the birdhouses cast long shadows across the windows.

“Fluttershy?” I called again, giving another knock on her door. I had dropped by rather unexpectedly, just wanting to say hi, as I hadn’t seen Fluttershy in almost a week. I had assumed she would be home this late at night.

“Is anyone home?” I asked, hoping the sound of my voice might reach my friend through the wooden doorframe. It was oddly silent for a house normally full of animals. For some reason, amidst the beautiful scene, a chill ran down my spine, as if something was not right with the world. Focusing magic into my horn, I engulfed the door with my aura and pushed it open. The door swung slowly and I peered inside to seem that the house was empty except for the usual furniture.

“Fluttershy?” I called out again, although more contained this time. I could feel something off about the house, a sinister feeling welling in my gut. The house looked like it had been abandoned weeks ago. Dust laid out on every piece of furniture, and the animal cages and beds were clean and fur-less. This wasn’t the way Fluttershy’s cottage should have been, not with the amount of animals she usually keeps around her.

Taking a step inside, I immediately scrunched up my nose as a putrid smell met my nostrils. Glancing in the direction of the kitchen, I noticed that a waft of something rotting was swirling past me and heading out the door. I looked to the left into the guestroom to see a neat bed, and nothing out of the ordinary. Turning my attention back to the kitchen, I took a deep breath of air and trotted over to the doorway.

I never would have expected to see what I did.

Peaking my head into the kitchen, I saw a pool of blood resting in the sink, dried areas of it splattered all over the countertop and the wall. On a cutting board next to it all was a butcher’s cleaver, rusted and caked with blood and what looked to be bits of dried flesh stuck to the blade. I could tell that this was the source of the stench violating my nose. I took a step back from the door, shocked to see such a gruesome scene splayed out in such a quaint place.

My stomach turned as my mind ran with where all the blood had come from. A body was nowhere to be found in the kitchen, but the pool of blood in the sink meant that it had to be recent. I held back my urge to vomit, morbid curiosity urging me further into the kitchen turned butcher room. I glanced around the room for anything, not seeing anything else unordinary.

Using my magic, I opened a few of the cupboards resting above the oven. Various pots and pans rested inside, a few with stains not unlike those of an animal’s blood. I closed the doors, not wanting to investigate any further as I took a few steps towards the fridge. I opened a few more cupboards to find them completely empty aside from a few various canned vegetables overturned and haphazardly placed inside.

Finally, I turned towards the fridge, humming softly in the corner of the room. I was almost afraid at what I was going to find inside it’s contents.I looked at the sink full of blood, my stomach flipping over again, then to the knife, where I imagined some poor animal headless on the cutting board only hours before. Obscuring the door with my magical aura, I pulled back and closed my eyes, expecting something to jump out of the fridge.

Opening my eyes, I saw that the fridge had nothing inside. Not a stain or mark disturbed the even, white surface of the fridge’s interior. I felt almost relieved that I didn’t find anything. Opening the freezer, I saw that there was only one object, large in size and wrapped in foil. The thing looked to be about as big as a small animal, something around the size of a fat squirrel. I gritted my teeth and levitated the package over to the counter in a clean area.

Slowly, I unwrapped the foil, the crinkling sound echoing in the empty halls of the house. The first layer gone, and all of a sudden, a horrible fleshy smell entered into my nostrils. I teared up and took a step back, coughing and doing my best to hold my lunch in my stomach. I covered my mouth and nose with a hoof and let my magic work its way through the rest of the tinfoil wrapped thing. Finally, I reached the center, and to my horrid surprise, it looked like a hunk of meat, frozen into a solid brick.

Jumping back, I threw up a little in my mouth before my brain caught up with myself. I had had these horrible visions of Fluttershy maiming animals when I realized that this was probably meant for one of her more carnivorous animal friends. It did seem a little gory for a simple animal feeding, but the thought calmed me down a bit. This was probably some salmon for one of her bear friends or something similar. I had no idea what her animals ate, and I realized I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge.

Taking my hoof off my nose, I took in a small sniff before becoming light-headed. The meat was so rancid that the stench nearly knocked me off my hooves. Wrapping the rotten meat, I set it next to the cutting board before turning back to the main room. I wanted to leave the room as soon as I could. Whatever Fluttershy was doing with that rancid meat was her own business.

“Fluttershy, are you home?” I called out once again, wondering if she just hadn’t heard me knock at her door.

“Yes!” her voice called out from upstairs. “Come on up Lyra!” she almost sang out the last words. She seemed unusually cheery for such a normally reclusive pegasus.

“Fluttershy!” I happily called out, a bit offput by the cheery tone, but happy to hear from her nonetheless. “You have some rancid meat in your fridge, and your sink is full of blood.” I continued, heading for the stairs to see Fluttershy’s face appear at the top of the stairs.

“Oh that,” she giggled, turning away from me. “Just a little mess I have yet to clean up.” She trotted down into her unlit hall as I advanced up the stairs. I saw her turn into a room as my hoof hit the top step. “Come here! I’ve got something you have to see!”

I was curious why the window that normally gave this hall light had been blacked out, but I just shrugged it off and squinted to see what room she was calling from. It appeared to be the second door down on the left side. If I wasn’t mistaken, that was where her second guestroom was. Trotting towards the dark room, I heard Fluttershy giggle again, an almost sinister air about her tone. I frowned. This wasn’t like her to be in the dark like this. She told me herself that she was afraid of the dark.

Taking one more step, I heard a miniscule splash and felt a warm liquid under my hooves. Pulling up my hoof, I could feel the substance drip back onto the puddle that was on the floor. Raising my hoof, I took a sniff and found that the substance covering my hoof was blood. my heart race sped up instinctively. “Fluttershy, there’s a puddle of blood out in your hallway,” I said reluctantly to the yellow pegasus.

“Oh, don’t mind that,” she responded happy as ever. “Just another cleanup I need to attend. It’s probably just from the tub.” She began to hum some lullaby in the next room over.

“The tub?” I mumbled, turning to my left to see an open door. My eyes had gotten a little used to the dark to see vague shapes and outlines, and I saw that the bathroom was indeed next to me. Squinting inwards, I saw the vague outline of the white tub sitting on the far end of the room underneath yet another blacked-out window. The outside of the tub seemed to be stained with dark lines, and I could see a trail of what I could only assume to be blood leading from the tub out into the hall where I was standing and into the room fluttershy had gone in, still humming away as if nothing was wrong with the world.

I turned to the tub, and then to Fluttershy’s guest room before turning back to the main hall. Chills were coursing through my body as I tried to decide what to do. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into a dark room alone with her at the current time. A few seconds passed and Fluttershy’s humming softened to complete silence. I started to shake, not knowing what was going on. Everything was wrong with how Fluttershy was acting, and the copious amounts of blood around her house were doing nothing to soothe my worries.

I took a step towards the staircase before a hoof grabbed my mouth and a needle stabbed into my neck. I felt a syringe inject something into my veins as the hoof kept my mouth shut and kept me from running. Whatever the liquid was inside the syringe, it was working fast. I could feel my entire body weakening. The hoof let go of my mouth, and I tried to scream, but my lungs gave out on me, it becoming almost a chore to even breathe. I took one step forward before my legs buckled, my body slumping to the ground.

 I felt like I should have been in pain, but nothing but numbness spread through my body. my eyelids felt heavy, and my tongue felt like a limp gourd in my mouth. I mumbled a faint noise before Fluttershy’s body appeared over my own. She was wearing some sort of mask with a very pointed nose. It seemed to be made from some sort of white ceramic material. “Now then,” she said from beneath the mask that always seemed to frown slightly, cracked black lines running through its surface. “Let’s go join the party. Pinkie’s here too!”

“Pinkie?” I tried to say before my vocal chords produced a small moan. My eyes were too heavy, the drug hitting my system hard. I couldn’t stay awake. I closed my eyes and felt someone tug on my front hooves before my mind shut down.

CRACK!

The sound of breaking bone rang out in the air, and a surge of fire shot through my body as a warm liquid dripped down my face.

“Ugh!” I moaned, my eyes drooping open with blurry images flashing through my vision. Before I could make sense of what was happening, a blinding light flashed in front of my eyes, keeping me sight-less for a good few seconds. The light dissipated as whoever was holding it in front of my face let go. It swung back and forth, and the spotlight rotated around the floor as my vision slowly came back to me, my head pounding and my heart racing.

“You’re awake!” Fluttershy happily called out. I blinked a few times to see she was standing under the swinging light, giving me a shy smile, the mask now missing from her face. my hooves were tied to a bedframe, all splayed out in different directions. I tried to pull on the rope, but the knots were tight. Looking over to Fluttershy once more I saw that she had turned and was rummaging through a bag at the foot of the bed.

Behind her, I could see Pinkie tied up with rope,  facing away from me with her front hooves bound behind the pole as if she was giving it a hug. Her back hooves were bound together as well, but she remained standing on two hooves. Her hair was down and straight, unlike the frazzled mane she usually wore around Ponyville.

 She moaned slightly before Fluttershy softly spoke, “Shush, shush, Pinkie.” Fluttershy stood up with a piece of white cloth in her mouth, walking over to Pinkie and dabbing the cloth near her mouth. I watched as she retracted her arm to see a cloth dripping with crimson red. I shuddered as Fluttershy said, “It’ll take time to heal, Pinkie. Just try not to overexert it.”

 Hearing Fluttershy speak, Pinkie turned her head to face the yellow pegasus. Blood was dripping out from her mouth, and she coughed once, spatters of crimson red speckling the floor. Seeing me out of the corner of her eyes, she turned to face me as best as she could, her mouth wide open, as it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to breathe without doing so. Her chest extended and distended rapidly, as if she was breathing heavily.

Her eyes screamed out in terror even though she remained silent. She shook her head in slight disbelief, a single tear running down her cheek before mixing in with the blood now drying on her face. “Unh-uh,” she said, tears now streaming down her face. “UNH-UH” she shouted, struggling against her bonds, and sobbing uncontrollably. She moaned and groaned, jerking at her restraints, Fluttershy noticing and quickly digging through the same bag at the foot of my bed. Before long, Pinkie started bashing her head against the pole, grunting and sobbing the whole time.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy muttered before throwing on the mask from earlier and producing a large syringe from her bag, not unlike the one she used on me. Pushing the plunger until the liquid squirted out, she turned towards the convulsing pink pony and jammed the needle into her neck. “Hush now quiet now,” Fluttershy whispered, pushing the plunger slowly as the medicine started to kick in, “It’s time to lay your sleepy head.” Pinkie’s struggles lessened as the medicine took a hold of her body. “Hush now, quiet now,” Fluttershy continued, holding the baker’s until it went completely limp, Pinkie’s eyes closing as Fluttershy lowered her into an awkward sitting position. “It’s time to go to bed.”

She stood up and took off her mask before putting the syringe hastily back in its container.”Oh I’m so glad I found that mask to help me with my healing,” she commented, sitting on the bed next to me and staring dreamily into my eyes.

“Fluttershy, what happened to her?” I asked, sweating profusely as my heart raced through my chest.

“Oh, Pinkie?” she asked, getting up and heading over to the closet in the corner. Opening up the closet, I saw faint reflections of glass jars lined up on some sort of shelving. I couldn’t see what was in them from my viewpoint, but Fluttershy seemed to pause as she looked for the right jar. “I just gave her a sedative, Lyra, so she can’t hurt herself like she was just doing.” She ran a hoof over the jars before proclaiming a small, “Aha! Here it is.”

“What’s in those jars?” I hesitantly asked, not really wanting to know.

“Why, our dinner, Lyra!” she proclaimed, taking the jar in her mouth and setting it next to me. Inside the jar was a bloated object that looked like some sort of tongue.

“Oh dear Celestia,” I mumbled, my stomach turning over in itself. “Fluttershy, is…” I paused before stuttering, not wanting to say the words “is t-that P...Pinkie’s…?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Fluttershy said, grabbing the jar and moving it down to the end of the bed. Digging once again through the container at the end of the bed, she continued. “She wasn’t using it anyways, and I’ve been wanting to try pony meat for some time.” Fluttershy stood up with a butcher’s cleaver, taking it and the tongue jar over the the dresser to my left.

“Besides,” the mad pegasus continued, opening up the jar and plopping the tongue out on the table, giving it a squish with her hoof. “Oh, it feels ready.” She clapped her hooves.  “Pinkie wanted to try out some new ideas anyways. She was telling me about her ideas in exotic foods. She even volunteered to help me out, although, she seemed pretty hurt by the procedure. I knew I shouldn’t have used that dull knife to cut it out. I do hope she pulls through. She was a nice friend. Hopefully she’s at least a tasty one.”

Fluttershy looked back before raising the knife above her head and plunging it into the raw meat, a loud thunk resounding as the tongue separated cleanly in half. “I was going to show you when you came in, but you looked like you were about to leave.” She raised the knife again and plunged it into the raw meat, cutting the halves into fourths. “My mask told me to keep you here so you can try out the wonders of meat too! I’d offer Pinkie a bite, but I’m not certain she’ll be able to. There’s a lot more blood than I thought coming from that wound.”

A tear streamed out of my eye as I looked to the pony slumped in the middle of the room. Her chest was rising and falling much slower than usual. There was a pool of blood forming underneath her hooves, growing steadily. It was more blood than I had ever seen a pony lose. I feared I was watching a Pony slowly die in front of my eyes. “Fluttershy,” I choked on the word, “How could you? What happened to you?”

“What happened?” she asked, raising the knife and sticking it hard into the table before turning to me with a soulless smile. “I met my mask friend,” she finished, glancing down at the foot of my bed. “He told me about all the tasty wonders ponies like us were missing.”

She dumped the bits of tongue onto a plate setting next to the makeshift cutting board. “This looks scrumptious,” Fluttershy took one and popped it into her mouth, chewing on the squishy slab of meat. “Oh, Lyra, you simply have to try this for yourself.”

I watched the yellow pony chew, my stomach not having any more of it, turning my head to the opposite side, I sat for a second trying to burn the image from my mind. Everytime I closed my eyes, I could only see Fluttershy eating her friends own tongue. “Oh this is juicy,” the pegasus hummed as I finally lost it.

The sound of the squishing meat and the comments from my former friend were too much. I released my lunch all over the side of the bed. Three times my stomach rejected its contents as three times I thought of my friends tongue in another’s mouth. “Fluttershy,” I almost whispered, my throat and mouth burning as my stomach still churned. “Please stop.”

“Oh, did you want some too?” she excitedly said, seeming to ignore the fact that I had just vomited on her bed. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any left. They were just so good …”

 If I had anything left in my stomach it would have left at this point. “Why …” I trailed off, at a loss for words. I knew at this point the only thing I wanted to do was get out of here. I was stuck, though. at the complete mercy of Fluttershy’s now messed up reality.

“The mask told me about it all,” Fluttershy said, turning to the black plague mask now sitting on the counter next to the stuck-in knife. “He’s told me about all the wonders of meat ever since that salmon I had months ago.”

“What,” I asked, looking fearfully at the mask and then back to “Why do you keep talking as if this mask is telling you things?”

“You don’t hear him in your head?” Fluttershy asked, looking woefully at the mask herself, the pitch black eyes staring dead into my own. The mask creeped me out, but not quite as much as the pony who had just been wearing it. “You don’t hear him telling you how wonderful all the meats taste?”

I held back my fearful face and slowly shook my head, noticing a glimmer of insanity twinkle deep in the mare’s eyes. The pony stared back into my eyes, a half-frown formed in her lips, a silence filling the room as she stared straight through me. “No, you don’t mean that,” she said, quickly glancing towards the mask on the dresser and then back at Pinkie Pie, whose breaths were so faint, it was hard to tell if she was still alive. “Really?” she said, excitedly, licking her lips and turning wide-eyed at the horrifying mask.

“Fluttershy, I said softly, taking a gulp as my body started to pump full of adrenaline, “who are you talking to?” I knew the answer, but I didn’t want to believe it. The pegasus gave a small gasp and a nod in the silence as if reacting to someone talking to her.

“I did like the tongue, but I never knew…” she trailed off as she put a hoof to her chin, the glimmer of madness sparking once again in her eyes as a sly smile formed on her face. “That is true… Let’s try it!”

Upon these words, she grabbed the mask and trotted to the foot of the bed, humming a tune in her head that sounded eerily familiar. She dug around in her bag for a few minutes, her tail sticking up and flipping back and forth as the sounds of metal tools clanked together.

I glanced over at my bindings once more, realizing that my back hooves had come slightly undone. Gripping at my upper restraints, I pulled and pulled until I could feel the knot loosen. My leg was free, and with a quick and precise kick, my other leg was freed up as well. I was about to try to get my front hooves when Fluttershy stood up adorning the mask and holding the same syringe she had used on me before.

She seemed to stare at me through the mask, the soulless eyes piercing into mine. A chill ran down my spine as she raised the needle up in front of the long curved nose. Giving it a tap, she depressed the plunger until a little bit of green liquid dripped out the tip. Turning her head to the side, she waved the needle in front of the light, causing a glint to swipe across my eyes.

“I believe that our patient needs a bit of surgery,” she spoke softly, turning the needle in her hooves and walking over to the heap of a pink earth mare still resting on the pole across from my bed. “Let’s begin the procedure.”

Fluttershy walked behind Pinkie Pie to grab what looked like a small gurney used in hospitals. From my angle, I couldn’t see exactly what was lying on it, but from the bumps I could make out I assumed all sorts of tools and knives were resting on its metal surface.

“First, a sedative,” the mare continued, talking to herself, or quite possibly the mask that was upon her face. “Nice and easy now.”

The pegasus plunged the syringe deep into Pinkie’s neck, her limp body jumping slightly before slumping back into another awkward state, blood still dripping from her mouth. Fluttershy paused for a second, blocking my view of what was going on before taking a step back, placing the syringe onto the gurney. Pinkie was still where she had normally been, blood oozing out from her mouth, but her chest remained motionless. I gasped, shocked at what I had just seen. A tear rolled down my cheek as my speech failed me.

“Oh dear… Well, time of death,” Fluttershy continued nonchalantly, as if the pony before her were a mere plant left unwatered for a few days, blood dripping from the kind mare’s hooves, “about two in the morning. Who needs to be exact anyways?”

“Do you want me to save you anything, Lyra?” she calmly asked, the masked face turning towards mine. “I know a liver you’d love!” she practically sang the last line as more tears blurred my eyes. I shut them tight, softly weeping for the deceased pony in front of me, about to be mutilated by a monster I once called friend. “Alright, then silent sycamore, more for me to enjoy.”

She took off the mask and set it next to her on the gurney, grabbing a scalpel from its surface and turning towards Pinkie’s body, plunging the knife into her chest, a spray of blood spattering against Fluttershy and the foot of the bed. Fluttershy started to hum amongst the sounds of tearing flesh,and my skin crawled as I realized that I was stuck in the same predicament. What Fluttershy didn’t notice, luckily, was that my back hooves were completely free now. I had to be careful with my next moves. Fluttershy was distracted, and I only had one shot at this.

Pulling my hooves as close as I could to the top of the bed, I pawed at the ropes still holding me down. The bindings shifted to the right a little, but the knot held firm. Soon enough, my strength was gone, and I had to rest my hooves. Fluttershy’s hooves raised from pinkie’s figure to place the scalpel back on the gurney, and she paused for a second, her hoof hovering over the table before setting it down, all the while, I was praying to Celestia she didn’t see me try to escape.

Finally deciding on what object to pick up, I watched as her hoof raised, in it a bonesaw speckled with dried red residue. Whether it was blood or rust I couldn’t tell. I just knew that I needed to get out before I was the one under it’s blade. “Pesky bones,” Flutttershy said, sighing a bit as I pulled my hoof to the tip of the bed once more to struggle with my rope cuffs. “Always getting in the way of those delectable organs.” After a few silent kicks, my left hoof was free. I leaned forward and looked at the fourth rope. I just needed to slip out of this one and I was–

“And where do you think you’re going, Lyra?!” I heard an angry shout resonate from across the room. Fluttershy was staring straight at me, her mask still adorned, the black eyes piercing my soul. “You’ll miss dessert!”

“No, no, no …” I mumbled, pulling at the rope erratically, hoping to break my leg free as Fluttershy slowly walked towards the bed, grabbing the cleaver stuck into the dresser as she approached. I yanked one more time as the pegasus raised the knife above her head, the foreboding mask on her face glinting in the light.

“Goodness knows I wouldn’t want to leave you here empty hooved,” she said, with a maniacal giggle following as she plunged the knife downward. I lunged to the side, rolling my body off the bed just in time to miss the piercing blade. The metal sunk into the mattress as I panted heavily, my hoof awkwardly twisted now in the rope.

Fluttershy gave a growl before pulling the knife quickly out from the foam mattress, raising it above her head once more. Before she had a chance to plunge it downward again, I lept back to my original position. She slashed the knife against my side, barely missing any flesh by mere inches. I took a gulp as I just realized how close she had gotten.

Before she had a chance to take another swipe, I pulled my hooves up and placed them in front of her face. Clenching my muscles, I supplied the hardest kick as I could muster directly on top of Fluttershy’s face. I heard a crunch and watched as the pegasus stumbled back into the wall, falling on her haunches as she clutched her face, the knife dropping on the floor next to the bed.

I could feel a pain in my hoof, and I realized that the kick I had landed was a solid one. Looking over towards the injured yellow mare, I saw that her mask had nearly shattered, three cracks running through its surface and the nose completely snapped off. The left eyepiece had also been punctured to show the light blue eye hiding in the darkness of the mask. It was squinted in an angry state, and tears were streaming from it, although whether they were from pain or anger I couldn’t tell.

Not wanting to stick around to find out, I yanked once more at my bindings, whimpering as the rope dug into my skin. Finally, I heard a reassuring snap, and my hoof flopped onto the bed, rid of the rope that held it. Rubbing my hoof for a second, I flopped it around until the pain became bearable. Rolling rather ungracefully off the bed, I sprinted for the door, turning the handle only to find out it was locked.

Looking back in panic, I saw that Fluttershy was starting to come to after the kick. Panicking, I threw my body at the door, a loud thump ringing throughout the room. The dazed pegasus slowly got to her hooves at the bedside, and looked back at me, throwing the mask to the ground and gritting her teeth, an invisible fire burning behind her gaze. I slammed my body into the door again, hearing a cracking sound as the door indented slightly.

“You destroyed him!” she shouted with ferocity I had never seen from the shy mare. “Now I will destroy you!”

I whimpered as I flung my body against the door one more time, the wooden structure finally snapping, letting me clumsily tumble through to the darkened hallway. I heard a loud thunk as a blade drove a few inches into the wooden floor right next to my head. Screaming, I scrambled to my hooves and booked it towards the front door.

“Get back here!” Fluttershy shouted from behind me, chasing me down the hallway. My heart racing in my chest, and my hooves slipping up themselves, I crashed down the stairs as another large surgical tool whizzed past my ear and stuck to the ceiling above the staircase.

I sat dazed for a few seconds before I shook my head and realized I was lying upside-down at the bottom of the stairs. I saw Fluttershy standing atop the staircase, a bone saw resting in her jaws. My eyes dilated at the sight. Screaming, I pushed myself to my hooves and ran for the door, her maniacal laughter following me out into the yard.

“And so you called the cops when you got home, then?” Gumshoe finished for me. I nodded in response to his question. He wrote a few things down before giving a long sigh. “It’s amazing how quickly people can become corrupt.”

“What’d you guys find out about the mask?” I asked, shuffling my hooves back and forth on the floor.

“This thing?” he asked, pulling the shattered remains of the mask from a drawer in his desk. I gasped and pushed myself away from his desk instinctively. “Nothing. It seems like a typical nightmare night costume actually.”

“So, there’s no evil thing living in it?”

He gave a chuckle before placing the mask in the drawer and taking a swig of his lukewarm coffee. “Nothing in it I’m afraid,” he finished with a small frown, realizing he had just laughed at me. “Whatever was happening to your friend was all on her. As creepy as this mask is, it’s got no auras on it or traces of any dark magical artifacts. It’s just a weird old mask she probably found in a store somewhere.”

“Oh,” I said, glancing downwards, realizing that the mask in front of me had nothing to do with Fluttershy’s plunge into insanity, at least not directly.

“So, since you’ve given us your statement, I’m going to put it into the report as soon as I find the time to type up everything,” Chief Gumshoe continued, placing the paper he had been writing on off to one side of the desk. Getting out of his chair, he walked over to a file cabinet and pulled out a thin, empty file with Fluttershy’s name on it. “We’ll mark this in her file, and she’ll be dealt with in the morning.” He paused and put the file back, taking in a big breath of air and slowly let it out. “I’m sorry to hear what happened to you, Lyra. Is there anything we can do to help you or anyone you would like to contact?”

“If it’s alright, may I use your phone to call Bon-Bon? She was working night shift tonight so she could walk me home.”

“Go right ahead, dear,” he finished. “Just go to the receptionist and tell her you need to make a call. Have a safe evening, Lyra. I’ll give you a call tomorrow personally once Fluttershy’s been escorted to the chair.

I nodded back to him with tears in my eyes. Getting out of my seat, I walked over to the door of his office, and stepped outside. As sad as I was to lose a good friend, I felt relieved that I wasn’t the only one who knew what happened. My only secret now was what I decided would never leave my own head.

Back in Fluttershy’s cottage, after cutting Pinkie’s tongue out, Fluttershy actually forced me to eat some of it. I hope Chief Gumshoe believed me when I said she had eaten it all herself. I was disgusted at the time, and I couldn’t imagine ever having to live that way, but thinking back on the moment made me realize something. I had swallowed that tongue-meat.

It tasted good.