What'll you be having, Snoogiebear?
“Makes you sad, doesn't it?”
“Eep!” Fluttershy cringed in surprise at the sudden voice, despite it being severely relaxed and calm. She looked around in confusion only to see that nopony was around. Odd, since a voice usually required somepony close to be speaking. “Who said that?”
“That there's so much hatred in the world!” This time, she found the rather shocking speaker to be right above her. Only it wasn't a pony; it was more of a giant butterfly, with a strangely puppet-like look to it. It's body, half her size, was like a black plush doll of sorts and it's other body parts had cartoonish sizes. Aside from lidless eyes that weren't even focused on her, she noticed that it's head resembled sort of a black cap. “I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question?”
“Um, are you a butterfly?” The mare asked quietly, wanting to be entirely sure about it.
“No,silly! I am a little baby pigeon!” The thing crooned joyfully, confusing her before it suddenly broke into song...which confused her even more. “Have you ever wondered why we're here? What's it all about; you've no idea! And everywhere you look, all you see is hatred...and daaarkness, death and fear.”
She rubbed her hoof curiously. “Well, I have seen the death part recently. But those other two--”
“But you know it doesn't...have to be--that I hate you, and you hate me! Cuz’ even though we're different, it doesn't make a difference! And we can live in:” It spread its arms open as an appropriate word appeared in the air above it. “Harmonee!”
“But I don't hate you to begin with.” The poor, perturbed pegasus declared. “I don't even know your na--”
“Though you don't know who I am...maybe I can hold your hand.” The insect either realized that she didn't have hands, or just kept singing the song without trying to reach for her. “And together we can understand about Loooooooo~ve.”
Fluttershy was distracted by a slightly ticklish feeling racing through her arms. She frowned deeply as she saw her body dancing with purple sparkles of...magic, she guessed. “Um, what is this?”
“That's love, my friend!” It stared unblinking at her, reaching forward with a hand to creepily stroke her mane. Needless to say, Fluttershy began backing up. “And it's time for you to learn all about it!”
With a squeak from the pony and a goofy laugh from the bug, the two teleported in a puff of smoke and found themselves riding on a cloud as if it were a carriage. To make things more mind boggling, an entire instrumental chorus began to play from nowhere and other clouds began to chant: Love is a thing, Love is a place in time with the beat of the drums. While it was all very catchy, it did nothing to explain what was going on.
“And do you ever feel like life's unfair? Cuz’ everybody hates you and noone cares!” The butterfly said with sudden glee, booping the pegasus’ nose for effect. “But if you follow me, maybe you will see...that love is everywhere!”
Fluttershy ducked underneath a Rainbow, and somewhat wished Rainbow Dash was here to get her out of this odd musical number. “Why am I here? Can you tell me why?”
“No, its a feeling deep inside!” The cloud corrected her, staring all too heavily at her. Heck, everything with eyes was doing that…
“Why won't you just tell me?”
“No, you're lonely!” The Butterfly suddenly hugged her neck, breaking all the universal laws of personal space by rubbing their cheeks together. “I can see it in your eeeeeyes…”
Avoiding eye contact, she gingerly pushed the thing away. “I wanna go back to my picnic.”
“Don't worry, you will soon! Come meet some of my friends, they know all about love!” Was the response, and Fluttershy had a feeling that she was going to get ignored or interrupted. So for now, she kept her mouth shut and merely gave the bug a deadpan stare. The stupid thing didn't notice. “Come on! Just over the Rainbooow!”
“Oh look, it’s Fluttershy! Flying through the sky!”
Applejack looked up and saw her yellow coated friend sitting on a cloud next to some...thing. Blinking at this sight, her head turned towards Pinkie and then towards their lovely picnic. At least, about as lovely as one can be with only hamburgers and fries. “Maybe we should get her down, so she can eat sum friiies.”
“Well yeah, but there's lots of burgers left!” Pinkie shrugged, poking one for emphasis. “And I'd like to eat the burgers.”
Applejack rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I'd also like to eat the burgers! Guess we'll eat them first!”
The butterfly practically kept at the giant cloud surface, where an assortment of other puppet-like characters seemed to be. Before she could properly notice any of them besides the haunting tree with its shady smile, her guide said: “So here we are with all my friends! And they love you:all of them!”
“Yes we do!” A rabbit with enormous eyes exclaimed in girlish, dopey voice.
“It is true!” Said a...stallion? It vaguely resembled a pony, but it was too weird looking to be that, right?
“We love you!” Some hairless monkey declared.
Just two hooves away from her, a small beaver poked its furry head out of a burrow in the clouds to gaze up at her adoringly. “And you love us too!” Was the cute squeak it provided.
The pegasus still didn't like all of this , but this furry little thing seemed the least strange and creepy out of everything else. She leaned down towards with a smile, her hoof already stroking along it's back. “Aw, you don't seem so bad, little guy…”
It grinned even wider. “Teehee! HARDER.”
Fluttershy yanked her hoof away fast enough to break the sound barrier.
“So...now we've eaten the burgers.” Applejack wiped her lips ungracefully with her arm. “I don't know what to do...”
Pinkie beamed as if she'd suddenly gotten an idea. “Hey! Maybe we should look for our friend! Isn't that what friends do?”
“And you have finished the burger picnic.”
The two ponies stared in awkward silence at the duck abomination, and then turned their head to stare at what it was staring at.
“To love each other, is to care!” Fluttershy could only pout and Glare as the stupidly laughing butterfly buzzed around her head annoyingly and placed a crown of flowers on her mane. “To be kind!”
“And to share!” The flower crown sang in unison, and the pegasus applauded them with a tired sigh.
The bunny hugged the stallion not far from her, its eyes freakishly wide above its smile. “I love my friend, so I give him a hug!”
The hairless monkey shoved another flower crown in her face. “I made dis for you cuz I love you so much!”
“I love my pet,” The little beaver eagerly tugged on a leash connected to a decapod. “cuz he's a crab!”
“I hate this place, and I hate this day AND I HATE THIS--”
“No no no--thats not how it's done! “ The butterfly worriedly shushed her. “You must save your love for your special one!”
Fluttershy blinked and tiled her head. “My special one???”
“Everyone has a special one!”
A plan quickly formulated in her head and she began backing away as fast as she could. “Well,uh, you see: I am lonely, so--”
“Yes, that's true! But do not worry, yo!” The blasted butterfly pushed back against her flank and sent her closer to the tree that was staring at too much of her body for it to be friendly. “You're confused but that's okay! Let me put it...another waaay.”
The tree focused his creepy eyes down on poor Fluttershy even more, and the pegasus shrank down in a failed attempt to disappear. The tree spoke in a baritone voice, unlike that of the other characters here and made it that much more intimidating. “This is the story of Michael, the loneliest boy in town…
This is the story of Michael,
The ugliest boy in town!
Ugly and Weak,
They called him a FREAK!
So he lived on his own in the ground…
He lived on his own in the ground…
He lived on his own in the ground…”
“So you see?” The butterfly clapped enthusiastically. “Everyone has a special one!”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...Whatthefu--”
“Even Michael!”
“Your heart beats hard like a big love-drum, calling for your special one!”The butterfly floated over to the bunny, which had somehow acquired a drum set and was now playing it. “So be patient! And just maybe…”
Every single character on the cloud gave Fluttershy a heart attack by leaping up at random. “Your special one will come!”
“ He's made for her!” The beaver held up a stallion doll.
“She's made for him!” The stallion held up mare doll.
“And that's the way its always been!”
“And its perfect!”
The Butterfly hugged Fluttershy, much to the pony's chagrin and her decreasing sanity. “And it's protected with a ring!”
“That's the way that true love goes!”
“Like a flower, it grows and grows!”
“And its forever!”
“And forever!”
“And now we all worship our King!”
Fluttershy gasped as the enviroment suddenly changed around her, becoming a shadowy and gloomy place. The clouds were black, the sky was a blood red and the weird puppet characters were wearing odd black clothes. She gasped again when she realized she was sitting before a large grotesque head. It's shape was made up entirely of glass and stone, including it's scary eyes.
"His name is Malcom!" Some of the characters said amongst their chanting, dancing around the giant head with wide eyes and smiles. "He is the king of love! We must feed him! We must feed him gravel! or else he becomes ANGRY."
"I DON"T CARE, I DON"T CARE! LET ME GO!"
"AAAU--guh?!"
Fluttershy was suddenly awake, and found herself sitting upright on a tree branch. She frowned at the memory of her horrible and most confusing nightmare, and then looked down at two familiar friends on the ground. Applejack smiled and waved up at her. "Well, if ain't Sleeping Beauty herself! We've been looking for you all afternoon, Sugarcube!"
"We ate all our hayburgers." Pinkie declared soberly holding up something. "But look, we brought you the last carton of fries! So you can eat."
"Ah guess it's cuz we love you. Not sure."
Fluttershy smiled at their generosity and made ready to float down to them, when the fry carton started moving. All of the fries suddenly fell out of the carton as some horrible demon caterpillar creature burst from the bottom with a horrible spray of sticky blood. Everypony's pupils shrank as the thing exclaimed: "FATHEEEER!"
Then the carton was chucked several miles away by Pinkie, who quickly key looked at her friends. "You know what, I don't think Fluttershy is really hungry anyway. Let's go to Twilight's!"
Fluttershy shook her head to clear her shock. "Um, sure. I hear she got a new computer."
