Strange Voice on the Phone

In a small cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville, Fluttershy was just putting the finishing touches on a splint for a small bird that had injured its wing in a race against another bird. "There you go Mr. Sparrow, all fixed up. Now stay off of that wing for two weeks and it will be as good as new!" she said happily. The bird chirped in gratitude. "Aww thanks Mr. Sparrow, now get home safely, it's dark out tonight." The bird hopped over to the door and out into the night. Fluttershy walked over to where she had fixed up the bird. She looked at the small mess of bandages and gauze and began to clean it up when suddenly, she heard the piercing sound of her new telephone. Fluttershy jumped into the air and gave a startled squeal. She still had not gotten used to the phone ringing despite having had one in her house for a few weeks now. She had only gotten one because everypony had one now and it did make contacting other ponies around town much easier. She put on the headset and pressed the large 'answer' button. "Hello?" said the yellow Pegasus nervously.

"Hi Fluttershy! This is Twilight calling to ask you if you are still on for meeting Rarity, Pinkie and I at the spa tomorrow," said the chipper unicorn pony on the other end. Fluttershy sighed in relief.

"Oh, of course, I wouldn't miss it! I have no appointments tomorrow and I have been looking forward to it all week," said a relieved Fluttershy. She didn't know why her phone bothered her so much, it was always calls like this. She guessed that it was probably just the loud ringing noise that startled her.

"Great! I'll let you know if plans change or anything like that. Well, I should be heading off to bed, goodnight Fluttershy!" said Twilight.

"Oh, goodnight Twilight," Fluttershy heard the click on the other end signifying that Twilight had hung up. She pressed the 'end call' button and took the headset off. Fluttershy walked back over to the small mess of supplies. At that moment, she felt her eyes begin to get very heavy and she began to register just how late (for her anyways) it was. She decided that she was simply too exhausted from the days work to clean up even this small mess that fixing up her bird friends had made. She turned to walk upstairs to her bed when once again, she heard the piercing shriek of her phone. She sighed and walked over to it, put the headset on and pressed 'answer'. "Twilight?"

"Who is this?" said the deep voice on the other end. Fluttershy became more alert when she heard the voice on the other end, she didn't recognize this voice. It was a male pony to be sure but she had never met anypony that talked like this.

"Umm, who is this?" She asked nervously.

"I asked first," replied The Caller.

"I think you may have the wrong number," she said.

"Do I?"

"Well, who are you trying to call?" said Fluttershy, who was just wishing she could go to her nice, soft bed.

"I don't know, what number is this?"

"I...I think you have the wrong number. Goodbye," said Fluttershy reaching for the 'end call' button.

"Wait, I just want to talk for a bit," The tone of the voice on the other end signaled to Fluttershy that this mysterious caller was enjoying this game of his. Fluttershy on the other hand, was beginning to get a headache from it all.

"No I don't think that's a good idea. It's really late and I should be getting to bed," said Fluttershy reaching again for the 'end call' button.

"Don't hang up on me." said The Caller sharply. Fluttershy squealed a bit and winced. The Caller heard this and chuckled.

"What do you want?" said Fluttershy in a tiny voice, now fully alert.

"I'm here in Ponyville looking to have a little fun. Have you seen the Scream movies?" said The Caller evilly.

"Well, yeah," said Fluttershy. Rarity had insisted that Fluttershy watch them with her a few months back, so they did a marathon of all four movies. It took Fluttershy weeks to mentally recover from that.

"Well I was in town hoping to reenact some scenes with, shall we say, deadly accuracy," said The Caller laughing maliciously.

"You're going to try to kill me?" said Fluttershy weakly, her stomach clenching up tightly in fear.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I want you or maybe I can have some playtime with your little animal buddies. Although, I don't see why I couldn't do both now that I think about it," The Caller laughed again. However, what he didn't count on was that Fluttershy was very protective of her animal friends. Her voice suddenly turned much louder and more threatening.

"Oh you will will you!? You listen to me whoever you are! You do NOT. HURT. MY. FRIENDS. Pony or otherwise!? Got it!?" Said Fluttershy, rage dripping form every syllable.The Caller faltered.

"Well I..." said The Caller in a small voice.

"I have half a mind to come find you right now and give you a what for!" she said, practically shouting into the headset.

"Ah..." said the clearly nervous caller.

"You know what!?" Said Fluttershy ripping off the headset and slamming her hoof on the 'end call' button. "Yeah!" She burst out of the cottage, wings open and a look of pure fury on her face. She jerked her head left and right, trying to discover where the pony who had the nerve to threaten her friends was hiding. Unfortunately for The Caller, he hadn't chosen a very good hiding spot and Fluttershy spotted him almost immediately in the bushes. She leaped up and shot herself straight towards him with a snarl of pure fury. The Caller could only sit there, frozen in shock and had no time to do anything but quietly mutter to himself

"Oh dear," Fluttershy tackled the costume figure, pinning him to the ground with her front hooves. She snarled in rage.

"Hurt my animal friends will you!?" The Caller struggled to get away, clearly over-matched by the protective anger of the yellow Pegasus pony. "What do you think gives you the right to hurt small, innocent creatures?" said Fluttershy, who was using every ounce of her self control to stop her from just stomping her hooves down on The Caller's neck. She felt her body being surrounded with a white glow as The Caller used his magic to throw her off of him. He threw Fluttershy as far away from himself as possible and she skidded a bit as she landed about 20 feet from The Caller. Once he was free, he bolted as fast as he could straight towards the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy quickly got up, unhurt from being thrown aside, and followed him to the edge of the forest, but once she saw that The Caller had vanished into the pitch-black darkness of the forest, she wisely came to her senses and did not follow him. It took a few minutes of staring straight into the forest but eventually her rage subsided enough that she was able to think straight. she took a few deep breaths and thought to herself, 'Okay Fluttershy, somepony needs to know about this.' She flew back into her house as fast as she could and quickly dialed Twilight's number. She heard the phone ring on the other end and hoped dearly that her friends was not asleep yet.

A few hours later, her small cottage was bustling with activity. Fluttershy was in a corner of her home comforting some of the smaller animals who had been disturbed by all of the noise. A detachment of royal guards was looking around her cottage, Princess Celestia had sent them immediately after Twilight had written her and told her about what happened. The door to her cottage burst open to reveal her five worried friends. They quickly scanned the room and when they saw Fluttershy, they dashed to her side immediately. "Fluttershy are you okay!?" said a very panic-stricken Twilight.

"Oh, I'm fine nopony got hurt and no animals either. I chased him off," said Fluttershy. Her blood lust had completely gone away and she was back to her old, nervous self.

"We're all so glad you are safe darling," said Rarity, a look of relief washing over her face when she saw that her friends was unhurt.

"Can you tell us anything about the pony who attacked you?" said Rainbow Dash.

"We would like to know the same thing actually," The six looked up and saw Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, standing over them. Twilight grinned, happy to see her brother but he just shook his head. "Later Twi, I'm here on official business, we can catch up later. So, Fluttershy, what can you tell us about what happened here tonight?"

"Well," said Fluttershy, nervously glancing up at Shining Armor. "I was just getting ready for bed when the phone rang. The caller had a male voice but seemed to speak through some kind of voice changing device. I know that because I did hear a voice on the other end of the phone that wasn't the primary voice but I didn't recognize it. He threatened my woodland friends and I just kind of, well, snapped and ran him off. He went into the Everfree Forest and I didn't really want to follow him in," Shining Armour nodded at a group of six guards who flew off to the forest.

"What did he look like?" asked Shining Armor.

"Oh um, well he had on a black cloak and a scary white mask."

"Did it look anything like this?" asked Rarity who pulled a movie out of her saddlebag. It was the Wes Craven film Scream. On the back cover was a picture of the costume of the killer. Fluttershy's eyes widened.

"Yes, that's it, that's what he looked like!" she said, pointing at the picture excitedly.

"Ooh! I got a call from him too!" said Pinkie, bouncing int he air happily. She stopped bounding and frowned. "He was very rude. He didn't want to play 20 questions and he broke window in Sugar Cube Corner! The nerve!" she said. The other six ponies stared at Pinkie Pie as they took a minute to register what she had just said.

"So this is not the first time this has happened," said Shining Armor. He turned to another guard. "I want you to interview everyone in Ponyville, see if anyone else has gotten these strange calls." He turned back to Pinkie "Anything you can tell us that Fluttershy didn't bring up?" Pinkie thought for a moment.

"Well, it was a few days ago but like Fluttershy said, I do know for sure that this pony was using a voice changer. I remember kind of recognizing the underlying voice but it was so faint that I remember where I'd heard it before. But the pony was about our size and definitely a unicorn," said Pinkie. Armor nodded.

"That's good, that narrows our search a lot," said Shining Armor.

"He did say he was from Canterlot but now that I think about it, he seemed to make that up on the spot," mused Pinkie. Armor nodded again. A guard came in carrying a large knife with him as well as a shred of the attacker's costume.

"We found these on the ground near the bush where Fluttershy said that she had found the attacker, nothing else though, said the guard. Armor took the items and looked them over for any clues. Finding none he placed them in a bag which he gave back to the guard who had found them.

"Good, we can start investigating that," He looked towards the six friends. "Okay, I think that's all for now. If you think of anything else, let us know. We'll be in touch." Twilight nodded.

"Is there anything we can do for you right now Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash sympathetically.

"Oh um...if you could keep me company tonight I would appreciate that," said Fluttershy "I'm kinda nervous being here alone." The other five voiced their agreement at this idea. Once the guards had all left, and the house was as quiet as could be, the six friends gathered around in Fluttershy's room for the night.