The Sunset Fantasy

Chapter 2: The Preparations

Celestia hadn’t yet raised the sun over the distant mountains to the east, but Fluttershy was already tracking its progress across the sky. Approaching the main area of Ponyville, she quickly took note of a large amount of noise near the town hall. Taking a glance at the first item written—in smushed small print—on Trixie’s list, and realizing that it would cost her over a hundred bits, she decided to investigate the commotion.

As she trotted off the dirt path and onto the regular cobblestone streets, the noise became louder and more varied, resembling a haphazard conversation. Fluttershy trotted a bit more before seeing a crowd of ponies surrounding the tall building, ignoring the frantic foreleg-waving of Mayor Mare at her podium. She slowed to a walk, listening to some of the separate discussions on the outskirts of the crowd.

“Ferocious it was loud Spike sleepwalking I heard it too Woke me up in the middle couldn’t have been Spike coming for couldn’t sleep after know you didn’t see lock our doors warn Princess Celestia not that big he was once near the Everfree Forest dragon migration was last weirder things have happened!” Lyra, Bon Bon, Colgate, Amethyst Star, Doctor Whooves, Derpy Whooves and Nurse Redheart said in some order; who said what didn’t matter to Fluttershy, as she knew exactly what they were talking about.

“Oh my,” she whispered. She began backing away before the Mayor’s voice, with the aid of a megaphone, overtook everypony’s.

“Attention, everypony!” The noise died down, and the Mayor rubbed her eyes and readjusted her spectacles. “Now, I know that all of you are worried about the mysterious monster from last night, and the roaring it did to wake us all up.” At the word monster, Fluttershy’s ears pinned back. “I assure you, I am doing all I can to find out what it was, so I need you all to remain calm.” The townsponies collectively raised an eyebrow. “Twilight Sparkle has assured us that once Spike wakes up from his nap—“

“Wait a minute,” Caramel yelled. “You mean Spike isn’t here now? That crazy dragon could be wandering around?”

Murmurs went out through the crowd; Fluttershy shrank away from them. “Now, everypony, please!” Mayor cried, but everypony kept on talking. She saw the frazzled pony turn towards another pony next to her and speak to her; Fluttershy decided that now would be a good idea to trot away.

“Goodness,” Fluttershy spoke aloud. “I hope nothing bad happens to Spike . . .” Her trotting stopped in front of the local jewelry store. “If Spike could be in trouble, that means that . . .”

“Fluttershy?”

“EEEP!” Fluttershy bolted into the air and whirled around. Below her stood Doctor Whooves and Nurse Redheart. “Oh, sorry,” she said through gasps for air. “You startled me.”

“No trouble at all,” Doctor Whooves replied with a chuckle. “My fault actually, so terribly sorry. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“E-excuse me” Fluttershy asked while bringing herself back to ground level.

“You live near the Everfree Forest, correct? Right near the border?”

Fluttershy pawed at the ground. “Yes.”

“Well,” Doctor Whooves continued, lowering his gaze to Fluttershy’s and continuing to smile. “You must’ve heard the monster very close to you.”

Fluttershy winced. “Um, well, I did. I didn’t see it, though,” she blurted.

Doctor Whooves nodded. “Right, so it didn’t attack you or your animals?”

“Oh no,” she replied hastily. “We’re all fine.” She pawed at the ground again. “If I may ask . . . was anypony hurt?”

Nurse Redheart placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s wither and smiled at her. “Everypony’s fine, Fluttershy. Nopony was hurt and nothing was damaged.”

“You sure do represent the element of kindness, eh?” Doctor Whooves chuckled again and also placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s other wither. “Worrying about everypony and whatnot. Well, don’t fret; what happened last night has, at worst, just given everypony a fright.”

“As far as we know, of course,” Redheart added.

Fluttershy sighed. “What a relief!”

“Indeed,” Doctor Whooves said. “Well, I suppose I shall be on my way, then. Take care of yourselves, ladies!” With that, he cantered away from them.

“I should be on my way to the hospital,” Redheart said after a while. “Where’re you headed off to?”

“Oh!” Fluttershy looked back to where she was going. “I was about to go into the jewelry store.”

Nurse Redheart looked shocked for a moment and said nothing. “Oh . . . well then, I’ll leave you to that, then. See you later,” Redheart said with a hug, and trotted away.

Fluttershy stood there for a moment before she turned around. “Was it something I said?” With another sigh, she walked into the store for the first item on the list.

With the necklace around her neck, Fluttershy looked to the sky: the sun had risen a bit above the mountaintops. Oh my goodness, she thought to herself. “I must’ve wasted a whole hour! I better hurry!”

Her next stop was the library, which was currently surrounded by a myriad of ponies. Fluttershy hovered a bit to see the inside of it; Mayor Mare, Cheerilee, Zecora and a few of Princess Celestia’s royal guards were inside looking at a very panicked and stuttering Spike. Fluttershy couldn’t get any closer.

“I-I’m sure I didn’t go out last night!” Spike cried to the ponies inside.

“Just calm down, Spike,” Cheerilee crooned. “Now, can you say for certain that you weren’t doing anything at all last night? That there was no possibility of you sleepwalking and roaring?”

“I’m sure!” Spike screamed.

Poor Spike. Fluttershy moved around the crowd, craning her neck.

“Well, Spike,” the Mayor began firmly. “We cannot exclude you from being a possible cause of last night’s ruckus, so we will be keeping a close watch on you for a while.” Spike groaned. “Sorry, Spike, but that’s what has to be done to keep everypony safe.”

“M’kay,” he mumbled.

The Mayor turned her attention to the currently-blocked doorway. “Alright, everypony, back to your business!” Soon the entire crowd broke away, leaving Fluttershy to trot into the library.

“What did I do, Twilight?” Spike looked to his sister-figure.

“I’m not sure, Spike,” Twilight mused. “But this isn’t an average investigation, that’s for sure.” She watched the two guards trot out the door. “Whatever it was has the Mayor on edge.”

“Excuse me, Twilight.”

The unicorn turned from her assistant to look at the now-sweating pegasus. “Oh, hey Fluttershy. Sorry about all of this. It’s been a busy morning.”

“It’s alright,” Fluttershy replied, pawing a hoof on the floor.

“So what’re you here for?”

Fluttershy didn’t look up. “A-actually, I came to see if I could, if it’s not too much trouble, borrow a book for a little while.”

Twilight smiled. “Of course. That would bring some normality to an otherwise-crazy day! What would you like?” She used her magic to grab a thin light-brown leather-bound book. “You want to borrow the ‘Equestrian Fairy Tales Every Foal Should Know’ again? I know your animals just love these.”

Fluttershy shook her head. She reached for a hardcover blue book; on the front was the image of a ghost. “I’d actually like to borrow this one . . . if you don’t mind, of course.”

Twilight brought the book to her face; once she saw the title, she gasped. “’Ghosts, Goblins and Ghoulish Figures’? Good heavens, Fluttershy, are you sure you want to borrow this?”

“Yeah,” she shouted. “I’m sorry, but I was hoping to, um, read something a bitoutofmycomfortzone!” She giggled almost breathlessly.

Twilight raised an eyebrow before managing the book into Fluttershy’s saddlebag; it was at that point that she caught sight of the new necklace. “Oh, this is lovely!” She levitated the diamond gem to her face. “When did you get this?”

Fluttershy cringed away from her. “Oh, it’s just . . . something I . . .” she trailed off, not even sure what she was saying.

“What was that?”

“Sorry Twilight, but I have to go!” Fluttershy galloped out of the library and headed straight towards Sugarcube Corner, not looking back at all, but instead looking at the sky to see the sun had moved a bit more.

The rest of the morning was not as eventful as it had been earlier: she soon remembered that she needed to get to Sugarcube Corner to buy three dozen chocolate-chip-and-petunia cookies, to Sweet Apple Acres to acquire some cider (after finagling through a very frenetic Apple family), and finally to the Carousel Boutique (taking caution to hide the necklace) to borrow a sketch booklet. As Fluttershy looked at the list, checking off the last item, she could only wonder what Trixie would want with all of this in the first place.

Of course, she thought, with Trixie being so kind as to watch my animals while I’m . . . gone, it’s probably the least I could do.

As the sun reached its midpoint above Ponyville, Fluttershy reached her cottage door and, balancing a barrel and three pink boxes on her back, knocked lightly.

She was very surprised when the door swung open and, instead of Angel waiting to greet her, there stood Trixie with a blank expression. Her hat and cape were not on, and her mane and tail were not disheveled.

Upon glancing at all the Pegasus before her was carrying, Trixie smiled and levitated the barrel and box off her. “Let Trixie help you with these.”

Fluttershy looked at her quizzically. “Um, are you okay?” Trixie paid her no mind as she removed her saddlebag and explored the contents. Trixie first took the book out, then the sketch book—both were placed on the nearby table—and finally gazed at the necklace floating before her.

“So,” Trixie said a bit louder than normal. “You caught that bit I added at the top of the list?” Fluttershy only nodded. “Well, truth be told . . . Trixie did not expect someone as meager as you to be able to afford something like this.” She levitated it around her head and let it drop to her neck. “Hmm . . .”

“If you don’t mind, Trixie,” Fluttershy piped up. “I’d like to tend to my animals.” Indeed, a gathering of paws began pawing at her hooves. “It’s their lunchtime.”

Trixie levitated one of the cookies and began to eat it. “You may.” She then levitated everything Fluttershy brought home towards the bedroom. “As for me, I shall continue resting for today.”

Before Trixie could disappear into the bedroom, Fluttershy asked “Did the animals wake you, Trixie?” She didn’t answer as she and the goods disappeared into her room.

With a heavy sigh, Fluttershy walked to the storeroom (where everything scattered from last night had been placed away properly) and grabbed a bag of bird seeds.

The rest of the day was spent quietly, and although Fluttershy felt a pit in her stomach, she felt relief. She finally served the final bits of general-rodent-food to the small critters sitting around her, and looked outside. The sun was currently climbing down behind Canterlot.

“Well, guys,” she began, placing the box in the storeroom. “It’s time for me to go out.” The animals began chattering and chirping; Fluttershy shushed them. “Trixie may still be asleep. Now, please behave for her, and don’t worry: I won’t do anything scary like I did last night.”

All of the animals nuzzled against her. Silently, she broke away and headed for the door. “Good night, everypony.”

She closed the door and trotted towards the Everfree Forest. A light flicked on in Fluttershy’s room, and she could barely see a quill hovering and flailing about.

“Oh, Trixie,” Fluttershy whispered. “Thank you.” She didn’t say anything more as a tear fell to the ground. She continued to trot as the final rays of the sun disappeared behind the mountain. It was at this time, when Fluttershy was trotting along the Everfree Forest’s trail, that her cutie mark disappeared. She stopped and waited as her forelegs disappeared, her body grew and became covered in scales, her mane and tail turned to spikes and a much sharper tail, her wings lost their feathers and became webbed, her hind hooves bore claws, and her muzzle bore sharp teeth that jutted from her closed mouth.

She was once again a monster.