Light Up the Darkness

Four Years Earlier

Two Days Before the Fall of Ponyville

     Fluttershy looked over to Rainbow Dash, still with tears streaming down her face, and said, in between a sobbing fit, “Come on. Let’s go to my place. Ok?” “Ok,” replied a bawling Rainbow Dash. “They’re fine,” thought Fluttershy, “Everypony is fine.”

     As the two Pegasi began towards Fluttershy’s home they heard a noise, a noise Fluttershy wouldn’t soon forget. There was a loud scream emanating from the ground. Just after that another voice cried out, and then another. As the pair listened to the shrieks, cries, and screams, gunshots began to ring out. It had only taken ten minutes for Ponyville to descend into anarchy.

     “Let’s hurry,” said, a still mourning, Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy just nodded to her and began home. The face masks they wore were completely soaked with tears. The cool, damp fabric irritated their snouts, but neither cared one bit. All they cared about was the loss of their friends and getting home.

     It was a silent, and thankfully short, flight to Fluttershy’s home. As the two Pegasi approached the house, Fluttershy looked around to see if anypony was nearby; thankfully nopony was, probably due to her living so far out in the country.

     Fluttershy’s hooves hit the ground first, soon followed by Rainbow Dash’s. The yellow Pegasus trotted over to the door and turned the handle. She never bothered to lock it, because there was no crime in Ponyville. There wasn’t even a police department; it wasn’t needed.

     The wooden door opened with ease and Fluttershy stepped inside. As she did so, she raised her hoof to the wall and flicked a switch. The room filled with light, to reveal everything just as she had left it. Once Rainbow Dash had entered, she closed the door behind them and locked it. The gloomy pair then trotted over to the middle of the room and sat down next to each other.  Tears no longer fell for the loss of their friends; it was as if they’d just run out.

     “This is it, isn’t it?” asked Rainbow Dash, who never took her gaze off of the floor. “I don’t know,” replied Fluttershy. “Then I don’t want to live in this world,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. Fluttershy instantly jerked her head in her friend’s direction and exclaimed “What!” “You heard me,” replied Rainbow Dash, who now turned her head to face Fluttershy, “What’s the point? It’s over. This is it.” “No!” yelled Fluttershy, “Yeah, this is different, but as long as we’re still kicking, we’re still fighting.” “I don’t want to fight. I want this to stop.” “Listen to me, we are going to be ok,” replied Fluttershy, in a softer tone. “Jesus Fluttershy! Don’t you get it?! We left Apple Jack and Rarity to die! Not to mention Twilight and Spike, where ever they are! I’m supposed to be the element of loyalty! It’s like I turned into the element of betrayal!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “I-I-I” stuttered Fluttershy. “I nothing!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “You know what they did! There were three shots! There were three ponies! Because of me our friends are dead! So don’t you sit here and tell me I deserve to live!” Tears were beginning to well in Rainbow Dash’s eyes; they weren’t tears of sorrow, but tears of anger; anger at herself. Fluttershy stood up, with tears of her own welling up in her eyes, as well, and yelled “Don’t you dare tell me that! You don’t get to check out! Not now; not ever! Because of this you’re all I have left! So if I lose you I die too! I need someone else to help me! Or do you just want somepony else’s blood on your hooves! So quit being so needy and selfish and grow a pair! Now you listen to me and you listen to me good! You don’t get to check out now! You’re alive I’m alive, so suck it up and deal with life!” Fluttershy had the most angry look on her face that anypony had ever seen. She was truly infuriated.

     Rainbow Dash was almost cowering at Fluttershy’s words. “I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “Good!” yelled Fluttershy who was still gripped with anger. “I-I won’t do it… For you.” “Thank you,” Fluttershy said, with her voice beginning to calm. “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” said Rainbow Dash with tears beginning to fall, “You’re all I have left now… I’m sorry.” Fluttershy was a bit surprised by the abrupt change in attitude. As she looked at her crying friend she moved over to her and placed a hoof around the mare’s neck. “It’s ok,” she softly said. Rainbow Dash quickly pulled Fluttershy into a full embrace and continued to cry over her shoulder. The tears that fell began to soak the yellow Pegasus’s fur, but she didn’t mind it. She then gently began to stroke the blue mare’s mane. “It’s ok,” she repeated.

     As she held her friend, her crying stopped. Fluttershy assumed it was because her embrace had calmed the Pegasus. Then, as she continued to stroke her mane, a bit of light blue fur fell into her hand. She looked at it for a moment and then down at Rainbow Dash. Suddenly, just as she did this, Rainbow Dash fell backwards onto the wooden floor. The mare was motionless for a few seconds, then she began to violently convulse.

     Fluttershy instantly jumped back, and watched in horror as white foam began to seep from her friend’s mouth. “No no no!” she screamed, “Not you!”  Tears were beginning to pour down Fluttershy’s face once more. Then, it hit her. She knew what she had to do, just like Apple Jack. She turned away from her friend and sprinted to the kitchen. She quickly entered the room and looked to where the kitchen knives were. Instantly, she grasped one and turned back to the room she had just left. What she saw next was more horrifying than seeing one of her best friends dead; Rainbow Dash was gone. The only evidence that she had ever been there was a fresh pool of thick, white, foam.

     “Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called quietly, as she entered the room. She knew there would be no answer, but it was just instinctive to her. She cautiously walked forward into the living room and looked around every corner; there was nothing. As she continued into the room she saw that her bedroom door was open, so she decided to check there first. Just as she stepped into the doorway she heard a light growl coming from behind her. Fluttershy slowly turned around; not wanting to see what she knew was behind her. There before her, stood Rainbow Dash, with foam and saliva spewing from her mouth, her eyes were blood shot and dilated, and her mouth seemed to quiver, almost as if she were throbbing with anger. Then suddenly Rainbow Dash leaped forward and darted for her former friend. Fluttershy wasted no time and quickly turned to run, but before she could do so, Rainbow Dash’s hooves pulled Fluttershy’s leg to her mouth. Just before she was able to take a bite out of it, Fluttershy kicked her in the face, as hard as she could. Some of Rainbow Dash’s saliva splattered onto Fluttershy’s hoof when she did this. As her friend flew back Fluttershy bolted into her bedroom and closed the door.

     The blow to Rainbow Dash’s head only seemed to anger the crazed pony further. So the pony quickly lunged forward and smashed through the door on the first try. The virus had given, the already strong, Rainbow Dash a good bit of extra strength. Fluttershy, who hadn’t even had time to move away from the door, was quickly knocked to the ground. When she hit the hard, wooden, floor the knife slid just out of her reach. She quickly moved forward to grab the knife, but was pulled back by an infected Rainbow Dash, once more. Quickly she kicked her free hoof at the Pegasus and struck her in the arm. Rainbow Dash quickly let go and stumbled back slightly. This gave Fluttershy the perfect opportunity to get to the knife, and she quickly did so. However this did not give her enough time to escape. Just as Fluttershy turned back, to kill her friend, Rainbow Dash sunk her teeth into her leg. Fluttershy screamed in pain and swung the knife forward. The blade pierced straight through her throat. A blood foam mix poured onto Fluttershy’s wound as the dying Rainbow Dash loosened her jaws grip. After what seemed like forever the infected pony fell to the floor, dead, with blood still pouring from her throat.

     Fluttershy scooted herself away from her friend’s corpse, and began to cry stronger than she ever had in her life. Then Fluttershy quickly turned her head away from the site and emptied her stomach contents, onto the floor. The yellow Pegasus continued to scoot away from the horrid scene before her. She then turned onto her side and attempted to stand, with her good leg. The leg that had just been mauled was still throbbing with pain and dripping blood; some of it was hers, some wasn’t.

    The yellow Pegasus limped over to the bathroom and turned on the lights. She then opened the medicine cabinet. Quickly, she reached for a bottle of alcohol and grasped it. With much pain, Fluttershy continued to limp over to the bathtub. She lifted her injured leg over the rim of the white tub, and turned on the hot water. The warm, clear, liquid wash away as much of Rainbow Dash’s blood as it could. The, normally clear, water turned a bright red the moment it touched her skin. Fluttershy then lifted the bottle of alcohol and unscrewed the top. She let the liquid pour over her open wound and gritted her teeth in pain. The burning hurt very much, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of your friend’s teeth tearing through your flesh. After a few seconds, Fluttershy put the bottle down and looked over to the medicine cabinet. That’s when she saw it; a bottle of her sleeping pills. She thought for a moment and lifted her injured leg out of the bathtub. As she walked to the cabinet she thought “After what I just did, I deserve this.” Fluttershy reached a hoof into the white colored, cabinet and pulled out the bottle. Tears still streamed down her face as she unscrewed the cap. She poured a few into her hoof and stared at them. Then she looked over to Rainbow Dash’s dead body and threw them into her mouth. Fluttershy quickly swallowed them and poured some more into her hoof. Suddenly her arm began to tremble. In a burst of anger, and sorrow, Fluttershy took the pill bottle and threw it across the room. It ended up hitting a mirror, which easily shattered due to the force at which it was thrown. Pills and pieces of glass scattered across the room. Fluttershy had just snapped; she screamed out and quickly fell to her hooves. Bawling at what she’d just done, and her fate to come.

Four Years Later

     Fluttershy awoke gasping for air. This had been the worst dream by far. She had long tried to repress that memory, but every time she would try something would bring it back into her mind. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she thought of Rainbow Dash. “I’m so sorry Rainbow Dash,” she said as tears began to fall onto her sheets. It was the worst feeling ever. The guilt of knowing you’ve killed your best friend.

     It took her a good thirty minutes of crying, but Fluttershy finally managed to slow her steady bawling. She began to wipe them away and sniffle a little. She didn’t want Twilight to see her in such bad shape, now that she and Spike were staying here. “Come on Fluttershy. Pull yourself together,” she said to herself. As Fluttershy wiped away the last of her tears from her red eyes, she sat up in her bed and slid out of the sheets. She sniffled a little more as she walked towards the door.

      Fluttershy opened her brown, bedroom door to see everything just as she had left it. “Maybe I just dreamt of Twilight and Spike,” she thought to herself. As she walked into the living room she saw Angel sleeping in the other side of the room. Not wanting to wake him, she quietly walked past the white bunny and to the staircase. As she began up it she watched as the sleeping bunny’s ear flopped. Normally she would have smiled at the site, but she didn’t really care too much, after her dream.

     Fluttershy reached the top of her staircase and looked down both ends of the hall; nopony was there. Despite this Fluttershy walked over to the guest room just to be sure, and when she opened the door she saw them. Twilight and Spike were sitting together looking out of the window, at the sunrise. Twilight was resting her head in Spike’s lap as he gently stroked her mane.

     Fluttershy smiled when she saw this and leaned against the doorframe. She just watched the couple for several minutes and thought of somepony she should have told her feelings to before it was too late, but time has passed and things have changed, like they always do. As Fluttershy turned away from the couple, her hoofstep was a bit louder than she wished it to be, and the two looked right at her. “How long have you been there?” asked Spike. “Just a second,” Fluttershy lied. “Come over here,” said Twilight, “We need to catch up now that we have a chance to.” “Ok,” replied Fluttershy, as she made her way over to the pair. Twilight and Spike then positioned themselves so they were facing her. Fluttershy sat down on the ruffled sheets and asked “So what do you want to talk about?” Twilight looked at Spike and then back to Fluttershy. “I’m sorry if this sounds blunt, but what happened to Rainbow Dash? After we left, we saw you two fly away together so we thought if we found you we’d find her.” Fluttershy looked down at the blue sheets of the bed, and back to Twilight. “I killed her,” replied Fluttershy, who didn’t take her gaze off of the sheets. She looked back to Twilight, who didn’t look that surprised, and added, “I brought her back here, she turned, and I killed her.” Spike, on the other hand, was completely shocked by her words. “You?” he asked, “No, you couldn’t have.” “It was me, Spike,” she replied, “I took a knife and did what I had to.” Fluttershy looked back to Twilight and asked “What about you? Have you had to make some tough choices?” Twilight nodded and said “After everything went to hell, we met up with some ponies in Canterlot. They seemed like really nice folks. After a while they were almost like family to us... Then one day they decided that they needed our supplies more than they needed us. It was all an act. They just wanted what we had from the beginning. So Spike and I fought our way out of there. We must have killed at least thirteen ponies. But it wasn’t over yet. All of our gunfire must have been like a dinner bell to those things, because just as we were leaving, a swarm of them killed what we didn’t.” Twilight then picked up the gun off of her nightstand and laid it in front of her. “Don’t make me use this on you too.” “Don’t worry,” replied Fluttershy, “You know me.” “Knew you. I thought I knew a lot of ponies,” Twilight quickly said.

     After a long, and awkward, moment of silence Fluttershy asked “So how did you get out of the library? I never saw you leave.” “Well,” began Twilight, “After Pinkie turned I grabbed Spike and ran out the back. No one saw me because I wasn’t sticking around to watch what happened next. I knew what was wrong with her. I thought everypony else had the same idea; of course they didn’t. They wanted to help her and ended up getting killed too.” “So, you know what they did next? Don’t you?” Twilight looked down at the floor and quietly replied “Yes.”