I held my magic firmly, locking my eyes on the wild beast before me. She snarled, her leathery wings lashing against my telekinetic grasp.
“Release me!” she growled.
“No,” I said, calmly. “You know I can’t.”
She continued to struggle, the yellow coat becoming matted as she thrashed around. She looked at me, her blue eyes filled with hunger and hate, and behind those, fear.
“I know it hurts,” I said softly, soothingly. “But you just have to hold out a little longer.”
A glimmer of her old self flashed forth. “I know, but it hurts, Sunset.” Her tufted ears folded back in embarrassment.
Applejack came in, a basket of apples on her back, a nervous look on her face.
“She alright, sugar cube?”
I looked at Fluttershy, the transformation that had come over her unable to hide the beauty of my marefriend. I hated to see her like this, her curse triggering so hard that she had difficulty in controlling her more bestial urges.
“I don’t know, AJ,” I said. “It’s worse than I’ve ever seen before.”
“Apples,” Fluttershy whispered, her voice going deeper and more gritty. The beast had been awakened by the scent of the fruit from the farm pony.
I turned and made a mistake.
I met her eyes, and I felt the Stare connect.
When her transformation took place, her Stare took on a hypnotic aspect. With our eyes locked, I could feel her smile her fanged grin as she waited for me to fall under her sway. My eyes drooped, and my magic began to waver.
“Sunset,” she cooed enticingly, a way that she never spoke under the daytime sun. “Let me go, please?”
I began to release my grip, head lolling to the side when a orange form stepped between us.
“Sunset Shimmer!” shouted Applejack, snapping me from the spell I was in danger of falling under.
Shanking my head, I doubled the strength of my hold. “Fluttershy, get ahold of yourself!” I shouted.
The mare huddled down, her wings going to cover her face. I could tell she was still fighting the urge to lunge for the apples AJ had brought, and her guilt at bewitching me had brought her back to the surface.
“Please,” she whimpered. “Just put me to sleep until this is over. I hate you seeing me like this.”
I walked over to her, forcing her to look at me. I kept my gaze locked on the center of her brows so as to avoid another hypnotic trance.
“Sweetie,” I said, putting my hoof under her chin. “I love you no matter what. And haven’t these episodes been easier on you lately?”
She nodded, her ears slightly rising from their pinned position.
I nuzzled her, thinking back to the first time I had seen her like this. She had been out on a hill with me stargazing when she had leaned in and began nuzzling me a little more aggressively than normal for the reserved mare. When she pulled away, I saw the tufting on her ears and the elongation of her teeth. I froze in confusion and she leaned back in, her teeth grazing my neck, leaving some small love bites. She froze suddenly and flew off without even an explanation.
Twilight had told me the next day of the backfiring of a spell several months prior to my return regarding some vampire fruit bats out at Sweet Apple Acres. Fluttershy had gained a curse of a sort, transforming into something akin to a thestral, but more feral. Some nights it was mild, just a slight shift in appearance and a slightly more amorous nature, and some nights it was so bad she would lock herself in so she wouldn’t go to plunder the apple trees, her hunger for fruit so all-consuming it pained her as it did now.
We had managed to work out a system where on the nights where she felt it was to be bad, she would have me hold her in place, my magic and love fighting through the curse to allow her to maintain most of her self. Later on we found that allowing her apples during the night would keep the hunger at bay, but all of this was still just a stopgap. Twilight hadn’t stopped looking for a cure, despite all her duties.
Fluttershy pressed her head against my neck and I felt wetness soak into my coat. She was crying, though from suppressing her hunger or from shame I couldn’t tel.
“You’re still my Fluttershy,” I whispered. “I’m not afraid.”
A sob broke free, and I saw feathers start sprouting along her wings.
And a sharp bite on my neck made me gasp, my magic grip faltering slightly. She wrapped her forelimbs around me, her partially feathered wings moving forward to wrap around me as well. The pain dulled slightly and she moved her head back, kissing me deeply. I could taste my blood on her tongue.
Then with a shudder, she pulled away, seeming to diminish as she continued to return to her normal form as Celestia’s sun crested the distant hills.
I released my grip on her and floated the basket of apples over, settling it before her. She reached out and snatched one out, devouring it like she hadn’t eaten in months. She consumed the gleaming fruit as her wings finished feathering over, all signs of batwing gone. The only remaining outward sign of her dark side was the slightly pointed teeth that I had somehow missed in the early months of our relationship.
I went over and rubbed a hoof along her back and between her wings. I knew Pegasi had sensitive spots between their wings, some even being erogenous zones. Fluttershy merely found the act soothing though.
“Better?” I asked, leaning down and looking her in the eye.
She nodded, wiping a bit of the juice from her last apple from her chin. She blushed slightly.
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning away as she saw the blood on my neck. I reached out and turned her to face me again.
“It’s alright,” I whispered. “I don’t mind. In fact…”
I smiled with an evil smirk. “I almost found it hot.”
She flushed as red as the apples Applejack raised.
“Ahem,” a voice came from behind us.
I turned to find a red-faced AJ shuffling her hooves. “Ah should really get going, now that her change is over and, well,” she ducked her head, shifting her weight uneasily. “You two look like you may need some privacy.”
She turned and trotted out, but I noticed she deliberately kept her tail down as she left.
“Sunny,” came the soft voice. “Did…did you mean what you said? That I was still your Fluttershy then?”
I smiled at her and kissed her. “Of course,” I whispered against her cheek as I nuzzled her.
“No matter what you look like, deep down you are still Fluttershy.” I said. “And I shan’t shy away from you, for what is important to you is important to me.”
She ducked her head in such a way that her mane slipped forward to hide her blush, a move I had seen many times. It wasn’t meant to hide her, but to show that she truly appreciated whatever act I had just did.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her wings fluttering in a way that I had come to understand meant extreme joy.
I smiled, and leaned forward to bite her on the neck gently.
“Ow,” she said coyly.
“It seemed only fair,” I said.
One good bite deserved another.
Author's Note
This was originally a chapter from Red and Gold that was cut for length. I still felt that my choice to leave in the Flutterbat subplot in my SunShyne would be an important aspect of their relationship. Having a dark side herself, Fluttershy can empathize so much easier with Sunset, Discord, and Luna.
