It was a quiet day in Ponyville, the sun was shining its radiant beams, the rivers babbled their cool, soft, beats, and everypony was simply content with life in Equestria.
Suddenly, Discord.
“RUN FOR THE HILLS EVERYPONY, THE END IS NIGH!!” the draconequus screamed, tearing across the sky and making for Somewhere The Fuck Else. Twilight Sparkle overheard his manic cries of terror and stuck her head out a library window.
“Well that was certainly out of character for… Discord?” the unicorn was initially confused, but fear quickly took its place; what could possibly scare the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, one of the only three god-like entities she knew, like that? A loud boom shook the town, followed by a wail coming from the other side of town.
“RARITY!” Twilight jumped, worried for her fashion friend, “Spike! Keep watch, I’ll be back!” Spike was huddled in a corner, biting at his claws in fear. Normally, he’d be the first to charge in and save his beloved, but the screams from outside shook the dragon to his core, leaving him paralyzed in utter terror.
Twilight galloped out to the main street, passing pony after pony cry out in fear at the incoming destruction.
"Twilight, TWILIGHT!" a bubbly voice behind her cried out. The purple pony turned her head to see Pinkie Pie bouncing quickly behind her.
"Pinkie Pie, what's going on?" Twilight asked, her voice threaded with panic.
"I don't know, I DON'T KNOW!" Pinkie yelled, her mane beginning to deflate ever-so-slightly, "I was over playing with Pumpkin and Pound Cake when all of a sudden I heard a loud BOOM BOOM and a CRASH and then Discord started screaming, and the babies started crying, and the Cakes told me to find you because you're the smartest pony ever and we don't know what to do and, and, and," Pinkie's eyes began to shimmer as she started to choke up. Twilight stopped her sprint and put a hoof out to halt the frenzied Earth Pony. She put her hoof on Pinkie's shoulder as a look of determination spread across the Unicorn's face.
"Pinkie, calm down. It's loud, it's scary, and everypony is freaking out, but you need to stay strong, and I promise, nothing bad will happen to you," Twilight smiled sincerely and Pinkie looked down for a moment, before holding up a pink hoof.
"Pinkie Promise?" she asked, her pleading eyes looking deep into Twilight's. Her friend smiled and lifted her own hoof.
"Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye," the two shared a small smile, their hooves in their eyes, before setting off again to Carousel Boutique.
"Oh no..." Twilight barely whispered, her eyes widening at the sight of the Boutique. Rather, what had been the Boutique. Rarity's crown jewel was demolished, a large amount of roofing spread across the nearby fields. A considerable number of holes were in the remaining walls, and a large wail continued to eek from the store's rubble.
"We're coming Rarity!" Pinkie yelled, dashing to the store and beginning to throw away bits of wood here and there. Twilight threw her hooves into the rubble also, before her mind caught up with her. The Unicorn's horn glowed and all the rubble levitated into the air and was cast with the rest of the destroyed wood and stone in the fields. Under a cloud of dust, the white unicorn lay. Twilight ran to her friend, only to stop in horror.
Rarity was absolutely covered in scratches and hoof marks, most bleeding and others pulsating from pure punishment. Her eyes were puffy and red and the make-up around them dried halfway through running down her face with the gallons of tears the pony wept. The worst of it all was her mane and tail, it looked as though somepony had tried to shave it off with a sharpened stone, taking all of the hair and a large amount of skin off of her. Blood had begun to pool around her head and rump, and the fashion pony's eyes were barely open.
"Twilight..." Rarity's voice was hoarse from screaming and wailing, "Twilight... Pinkie Pie... thank you." Rarity sighed as her eyes closed. Twilight put her ear to Rarity's chest, and felt a faint heartbeat. She turned to her pink friend.
"Pinkie Pie, get Rarity to the hospital. I have to find Rainbow Dash and Applejack and stop this.... whatever it is before anypony else gets hurt," Twilight said, using a spell to place Rarity on the Earth Pony's back.
"But what about Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked, her irises and pupils shrinking in fear. Twilight looked at the ground and sighed, unable to find the right way to tell her sensitive friend.
"She'll... be fine, just go!" Twilight commanded sternly. Pinkie ran off, and was soon out of sight. Twilight sighed and looked at the yellow hairs and feathers bordering everyone of the Pegasus-shaped holes in the sides of the walls. She had noticed that Rarity was tenderized, not one-hit stomped on.
"That means that whoever did this is incredibly light with lighter bones and less-dense hooves, something quite characteristically Pegasus-like," Twilight's fears were confirmed, long pink hairs were weaved in and about the rubble thrown in the fields.
"Fluttershy... why?"
"Applejack!" Twilight yelled, banging her hoof on the Apple Barn door, "Applejack! Are you in there? I need your help!" Twilight had seen more and more ponies in the same state Rarity was in, only their manes were left untouched. The effort put in did not change, and many ponies were bleeding quite heavily. A voice came from within the red building.
"Twilight? S'that you?" the cowpony asked shakily. Twilight smiled in relief.
"Yes, now please, let me in, is Rainbow Dash with you?"
"Yea, yea, jus' give me a minute here," a few clinks and clanks later, and the barn door opened, a shaken-up Applejack and a nervous Rainbow Dash at the ready to lock the door as soon as Twilight entered. She walked in and took a deep breath, picking the right words to tell her friends.
"You okay Twi?" Applejack asked after securing the door, "we heard all the commotion, and then Discord, and then those screams, those awful screams..." the farm pony seemed to lose herself for a moment before regaining her composure, "Big Mac took Granny Smith, my sister, and her friends to the cellar where they'd be safest, and Ah came up here lookin' for Rainbow Dash. Once we heard the booms and cracks get closer, we fled to the barn." The cyan pegasus nodded.
"This is... really bad. I keep telling myself to go out there and stop what's wrong but," Rainbow stopped for a moment, "I keep getting so scared," she descended from her hover and looked sideways down at the ground, "I want to help everypony, to save them from whatever's hurting all of them, but I can barely flap my wings correctly, I'm so scared," the Pegasus looked up at Twilight and narrowed her eyes.
"Enough about that, where's Fluttershy?"
"Girls... I want to explain something," Twilight started, unable to find a proper place to start, "I went to Carousel Boutique and found it... demolished." The other two's ears perked and they jumped.
"Rarity? How is she?" Applejack asked frantically.
"Pinkie and I found her under a pile of rubble, beaten and scratched, with her mane and tail torn off. After I sent Pinkie off to bring her to the hospital, I found countless amounts of," Twilight gulped, "yellow hair and yellow feathers in Pegasus-sized holes in the walls, and long strands of pink hair on and about the rubble," she looked at Rainbow Dash, whose jaw lay open in pure surprise. Applejack took off her hat and lowered her head. In the panic of it all, the cowpony's ponytail band had fallen out, her mane down and unkempt. Dash's eyes watered, and she blasted out the side of the barn, her rainbow trail as vibrant as ever. Twilight knew that the two Pegasus had a history and always were always there for each other, ever since Dash's first Sonic Rainboom.
Suddenly, the barn roof cracked as something fell on it. A second crack as another object crashed into it, and the whole roof broke open, Rarity and Pinkie Pie falling to the ground. Twilight stared in horror as her two friends crashed into the hard ground, both looking incredibly beat up. Pinkie's mane was burned straight, the skin around it singed, red, and pus-covered. Applejack ran to the two ponies, and was met with a direct his from a bolt of yellow. The Earth Pony jumped up, a black bruise had formed under her eye. Before the two friends flew another of their group, Fluttershy, who was silent as her narrowed eyes darted from one pony to the next.
"Fluttershy, what is this? Why are you doing this?!?" Twilight cried out, tears in her eyes. Applejack adjusted her hat.
"Look here missy, we've all been great friends for a long time now, but Ah won't let you hurt anypony else, ya got that?!?" she yelled, stomping her hoof on the ground. Fluttershy slowly blinked.
"I'm sick... and tired..." she began, voice dripping with malice and hate, "I'm SICK.... and TIRED... of being pushed AROUND!" she screamed, hooves ready to attack, "Every one of you is loved by everypony! Applejack's the main apple supplier, Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt-in-training, Twilight's a student to PRINCESS CELESTIA, Rarity is renowned for her dresses, and Pinkie Pie literally KNOWS EVERYPONY! Well who am I? What have I done? Does anypony know me besides you five? Does anypony even CARE? They do NOW!" Fluttershy's eye veins grew in size as her pupils and irises shrunk. "All I've got are a bunch of dumb animals, and even they push me around and act like I'm just some can-opener!" Fluttershy pulled Angel-Bunny's corpse out from behind her wing and threw it on the ground in front of her friends.
"THAT'S what I did to all of them!" she screamed, laughing manically. Applejack could stand it no longer. She galloped forward, and jumped high into the air, catching Fluttershy by surprise. The Pegasus flared her wings and blasted through the barn wall, tearing into the orchard. The two bit and thumped each other, Applejack's pure strength equally matched by Fluttershy's speed and Pegasus durability. The two crashed into a small hill, leaving a small crater. Applejack jumped up first and bucked Fluttershy hard, sending her flying into a nearby rock face. Embedded a good six inches in, Fluttershy fell flat on her face, before taking off into the air again. She swooped down to Applejack and stopped a split second to stay outside the range of the Earth Pony's second buck. Fluttershy grabbed an orange hoof and soared up, up, up into the sky, before hugging Applejack tight and plummeting back down to earth. The orange pony twisted and turned, but it was a futile attempt as her head finally made contact with the hard ground. Bloody and heavily bruised, Applejack gave in and passed out. Fluttershy grinned maniacally and slowly marched to the body of her cowpony friend, ready to finally have a first ki-
BOOM
Fluttershy was hit, hard. She attempted to open her eyes, but was quickly beat down hard by a flurry of hard hooves. Rainbow Dash cried as she mercilessly pounded Fluttershy's face, unable to comprehend how her friend could have become so corrupted. Blood splattered everywhere, and Fluttershy's skin began to come off in chunks. Dash began to scream.
"We were friends! We would always remember you, and always be there for you! You... you..." Dash stopped beating the other Pegasus and looked at her hooves, crying her eyes out, "YOU BROKE MY HEART!" Dash slumped back, sobbing uncontrollably. Next to her, in a deep crater, lay the corpse of Fluttershy. Twilight came to the edge of the crater, panting, and lowered her head in final respects to her friend's lost soul.
Years later, everypony had made a full recovery. Rarity had a new fashion line, Pinkie Pie was gearing up to manage Sugar Cube Corner as the Cakes looked into a new store in Canterlot, Applejack became owner of Sweet Apple Acres, and Twilight had won awards for her magical fidelity and seven books on magic usage. Rainbow Dash was accepted into the Wonderbolts, but had to begin a few years of training before given any show-time. One day, every month, she finds one particular hill in the middle of Sweet Apple Orchard, where a small statue of three butterflies stands. And every time she makes her pilgrimage there, Dash mind is flooded with the countless memories shared with her best friend, and what might have been.
