On The Wings of Love

Pinkie gazed out of the windows of Twilight's room to the night sky above. A lot was going to happen tonight. She could feel it. Her pinkie-senses had told her something big was going to happen. She had a hunch that it involved Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, but she wouldn't know until it happened. Hanging her head as her mane deflated slightly, the pink earth pony whispered quietly to the stars above.

"Please... let them heal each other's wounds. They've had enough pain."

"Pinkie, are you ok?"

Pinkie lifted her head up to look at Twilight with sad eyes before looking back out to the night sky.

"I'm ok Twilight... I just hope everypony else is too."

She felt a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

"Lets go to bed. You'll feel better in the morning." Twilight said with a concerned smile.

"I hope you're right Twilight." Pinkie said as she walked towards the bed, stealing another glance out the windows. "I hope you're right."

NOOOOO!!!!

Fluttershy's scream rocked the house and caused Dash to wake up with a start. She heard Fluttershy take another deep breath as though to scream.

Not even thinking, Dash threw her hooves around Fluttershy, cradling her in her embrace.

"It's okay Fluttershy. I'm here. I'm here..." Dash said as she slowly stroked Fluttershy's mane.

She seemed to calm down a bit but burst into tears as Angel hopped through a small door at the bottom of Fluttershy's door, a worried look on his face. His eyes searched over Fluttershy, seeing Dash holding her shaking form as she cried. The shock on Dash's face told Angel that she'd just been woken up as well.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a new thing for Angel. After certain, random events, Fluttershy would wake up screaming. All Angel could do was comfort her. Whatever was causing it, she wouldn't open up about it. She had never told Angel.

Angel pointed to Dash, looking between her and Fluttershy.

"Yea, I've got her. Go ahead and go back to sleep Angel. I'll take care of this." Dash said with a worried smile, still comforting the weeping pegasus in her arms.

Angel nodded reluctantly and hopped back out the door.

"Its ok Fluttershy. I'm here, Dash is here. I'm not going anywhere." Dash said comfortingly.

Fluttershy looked up into Dash's eyes.

"Dash?"

"Yea, I'm here Fluttershy. Are you alright?"

Fluttershy shuddered and hung her head.

"No. I'm not alright... Dash?"

"Yea?"

"I... I can't do this... not to you."

Dash was confused.

"Do what to me?"

"I... I can't be with you..." she turned her head away from Dash. "I don't deserve you."

Dash reached over with a hoof and turn Fluttershy's head back to face her own. Fluttershy wouldn't look her in the eyes though. She just looked away as tears fell silently down her cheeks.

"Fluttershy, look at me... please." Dash pleaded. Her heart was breaking at the sight before her.

Hesitantly, Fluttershy's eyes rose to meet Rainbow's.

"What makes you think you don't deserve me Fluttershy? If anything, I don't deserve YOU!"

Fluttershy tried to push away as she said.

"I just don't deserve you, not with what I've done."

Dash held her and wouldn't let her go. She didn't ever want to let go.

"What do you mean? You haven't done anything Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy stopped struggling as a shiver ran through her whole body. She slowly turned back towards Dash with a level look and tone as she said

"Yes I have. I've done, horrible, horrible things Rainbow. Things I can never forgive myself for. Mistakes I WON'T make you pay for."

"F-Fluttershy... what happened?"

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut tightly and turned away. She couldn't. She thought she had finally escaped her past but it still haunted her. There was no way she was going to tell Rainbow! She-

"Fluttershy... tell me."

Her eyes snapped open and she slowly looked back to Dash.

"Dash... I can't. You would never look at me the same way again." She again hung her head. "I don't deserve anypony's love... especially not yours."

"Tell me."

There was pain in Dash's voice. Fluttershy looked to see tears streaming down Rainbow's face as well.

"You were here for me... Now I'm here for you. I won't leave you Fluttershy. Tell me."

Fluttershy's resolve finally broke. The hurt in Dash's voice, the tears she was crying. She couldn't stand it.

"Ok, but I just want to say... if you leave after this. I'll understand." And with that, hopped out of the bed to look up at the night sky. She let the memories come flooding back.

"I was born on the east side of Cloudsdale. My parents were good ponies, we lived in a bad neighborhood though. It was one of those places that wound up in the news a lot because of violence. I was ten when everything happened."

Fluttershy turned her head to Dash.

"I don't think I'll ever forget that day."

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Fluttershy was sitting at home, relaxing on the couch while she dozed against her mother's side. Her mother's light tan coat and blue mane creating the warm comfort that she could always rely on to put her to sleep. The neighborhood was unusually quiet tonight. No shouting or fighting tonight it seemed.

"And how are my two best girls?" Fluttershy's Dad asked as he walked in the door. The red pegasus crouched down as his daughter leapt from her mothers side, running to hug him. His wife followed slowly behind her daughter, smiling from ear to ear.

"We're doing great honey." She said as she leaned forward and kissed him lightly before wrapping her hooves around him in a hug.

"Then you better be ready to start doing even better! I'm getting transferred to a job on the other side of town. We're going to be moving out of here!" He said exuberantly.

Fluttershy's Mom cheered and hugged her husband tightly. She had dreamed of the day they could finally leave this place. Of the day she wouldn't have to live in fear just walking out of the house! It was a dream come true.

They all sat around the dining room table as he explained that they would be out of the neighborhood in a week.

"All of the bits I've saved up over the years, plus the bonus I got today..." He said, lifting a bag of bits from his saddlebags and onto the table. "Should have us set for at LEAST a month!"

Everypony at the table was beaming and happy. So much so, that they didn't notice the shadow outside their window as they talked. As it left, Fluttershy thought she heard something and looked at the window.

"Something wrong my little Flutters?" Her father asked her, bringing her back to the conversation.

"Oh... no. Probably just the wind."

"Hmm, I do believe its time for this little pegasus to go to bed." Fluttershy's mother said as she watched her daughter suppress a yawn.

"I am a little tired. Guess I'm just excited. I get to go back to school next month!"

Her father chuckled at his daughters enthusiasm

"Yes you do. Which means that THIS little filly needs to get some sleep.

"I'll tuck her in tonight dear, dinner's on the counter. You must be starving." His wife said as she guided Fluttershy down the hall to her room.

"Yea, I could eat. I'll be there in a few minutes to say goodnight my little filly." He said with a smile.

"Ok Daddy." Fluttershy said with a smile.

The red stallion turned towards the counter as his wife rounded the corner of the hall way and froze. There was somepony at the window!

"AZURE!!" He yelled as the glass broke. He ran to his room and grabbed a baseball bat before poking his head in and saying "Stay quiet, I'll deal with this. Keep our daughter safe!" and shut the door behind him. She pulled Fluttershy into a tight hug, rocking her back and forth softly as Fluttershy sobbed.

"What's going on mommy?! I'm scared!"

"Shh, its ok Fluttershy. It'll all be okay." Her mother smiled at her, trying to keep her calm.

They heard voices outside the door.

"Alright old guy, where's the bits?"

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!" her father yelled defiantly. Several thuds and yells could be heard as a fight commenced outside of the room. A short while later, everything was silent. A set of hoofsteps made its way towards the door. It opened to reveal a brown pegasus with a black mane who was smirking at Fluttershy's mother as she put herself between the strange pony and her daughter.

Another strange and sinister looking pony walked up behind the one already in the doorway as he started talking.

"Well, well, well... looky what we got here boys. Got us one fine lookin' mare, oooh, and her daughter too. Bring 'em out here."

With that, the brown pony walked away as yet another pony walked up. The two strange ponies walked into the room and grabbed Fluttershy's mother, ripping her away from her daughter. Fluttershy was in the corner of the room, trying everything she could to stay away from the hoof reaching towards her. She squeaked in pain as the strange pony grabbed her by the mane and started dragging her out of the room.

She was pulled into a terrible, bloody scene. Her father lay in a pool of his own blood, the side of his head caved in by his own bat. One pony in particular was nursing a bruise just below his neck. Her mother was screaming at the scene, crying out to her husband in vain.

"Oh trust me, he's not waking up." The one with the bruise said as he brought the bat down on the already-dead stallion's head. Hard. The sound alone made both Fluttershy and her mother sick.

"Now, I'm only going to ask this once. If you don't cooperate..." the stallion paused before looking at Fluttershy, an evil smile forming on his lips. "Then I'll kill your daughter. But not until after we've had a bit of... fun with her."

Fluttershy's mother was terrified. "In the box under our bed, second door on the right. The combination is 5,23,12." She sobbed out, covering her eyes with her hooves.

"Go check it out." The brown pegasus told the pony holding Fluttershy. As soon as he released her, she ran to her mother, holding her tightly."

"Aww, now ain't that sweet boys. Little filly loves her momma. Lets see what we can do to change that."

Suddenly Fluttershy was wrenched from her mother by one of the stallions surrounding them. One of the stallions was holding her mother down as the brown pegasus walked over to her.

"I'd hate to waste a beautiful mare like you." he said as he caressed her cheek with a hoof. She tried to bite him, but he pulled his hoof out of the way.

"Hows that for gratitude. Here I am, you're still alive and you try to bite me? I think I'm going to teach you a lesson." the stallion said before back-hoofing her in the face and walking around behind her. She knew what he was about to do.

"Fluttershy, look away. No matter what you do, look away!" her mother screamed.

She tried to turn her head and close her eyes, but the stallion holding her had another idea.

"Either you watch, or I'm going to slit your mother's throat." he said, pulling out a knife and pointing it at Fluttershy's mother.

Reluctantly, Fluttershy opened her eyes and watched. She watched as tears streamed down her mothers face, the smell of blood filling her nose. She watched as the stallions around her laughed and cracked jokes to the stallion violating her mother. She watched as one of the stallions came out and jingled the large bag of bits that Fluttershy's parents had been saving. She watched as her whole life fell apart before her.

The stallion finally finished and walked up to look Fluttershy's mother in the eyes.

"Thanks for the sweet buck, you dirty whore."

The smile he gave her would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"You bastard." Fluttershy's mother whispered before spitting in the stallion's face.

Pulling back as rage crossed his features, the stallion hit Azure's face and motioned to the two stallions that weren't holding Fluttershy.

"Hold her, belly-up!" He yelled as he walked over to the drawers and started pulling them out, slamming them on the ground until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a long kitchen knife and walked towards Azure, now lying on her back, pinned by two stallions.

He played around with the blade as he walked over to her, taunting her, knowing full well that her filly was mere feet from them.

"Bastard huh? Lets see what tune you sing after this!" And with that, plunged the knife into Azures belly. The sound of her scream rocked the house as blood started to flow from around the knife.

"Now, what am I again?"

Azure said nothing, she was about to black out when the knife was ripped out of her belly, her blood spilling out and onto the floor. She grimaced and tried to curl up, only to feel a massive bolt of pain radiate from her belly.

"Yea, that's what I thought." he said before kicking her hard in the stomach, causing blood to fly and Azure to scream with such intensity that no sound came forth.

"Lets get out of here man, the neighbors have probably called the local guard by now." one of the stallions said nervously.

"Alright, lets go boys." The brown stallion said, turning to leave but then stopped short of the door.

"Actually... Wait a second." he said, smiling as he turned back and walked towards Fluttershy.

"You two, hold her wings out."

Struggling proved pointless as powerful hooves pinned Fluttershy and pulled her wings out to her sides. Giving the frightened filly an evil smirk, the brown stallion reared up and crushed Fluttershy's wings with his hooves, snapping the bones as he landed. Her scream echoed through the neighborhood, its intensity causing the ears of the pegasi still in her house to ring.

"GUARDS!!" The stallion at the door screamed, causing the entire group to flee.

Fluttershy crawled over to her mother, the pain in her wings being too much to allow her to stand up. As she crawled through the blood, she looked to her mothers face to see a pained expression and tears rolling down her face.

"Mommy!" Fluttershy sobbed as she reached her mother.

"It's ok Fluttershy. It's ok." Azure said as she weakly stroked her daughters cheek. The Cloudsdale Guard ponies came in and started to try and stop the bleeding from Azure's belly and to get a description of the ponies who had done all of this from Fluttershy and her mother. Fluttershy watched as one of the armored ponies covered her father with a sheet. She passed out after that, the pain from her injuries being too much.

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"They tried to save my mother but... in the end, she died from shock and blood loss. They were able to fix my wings but I'd lost all of my flying ability and had to start from scratch. Even today I'm not as strong of a flyer as I was back then. I wound up being adopted by a nice family from a nice neighborhood, but I'll never forget what happened that day."

Dash had a horrified look on her face and tears streaming from her eyes.

"Fluttershy... I-"

Fluttershy raised a hoof, cutting Dash off.

"Dash... that's only PART of my story. The true reason I don't deserve you... Well... I'm getting to that." Fluttershy said, a single tear streaming down her left cheek as she looked Dash in the eyes.

Pinkie Pie bolted up in bed, tears already streaming from her eyes as she looked out the window in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. The sudden movement waking Twilight up. She looked to see Pinkie staring out the window.

"Pinkie? Are you okay?" she asked, pulling the pink pony to her in a hug.

"Twilight... something... awful has happened. I don't know what... I just feel, in my bones that something is wrong."

Suddenly, she bristled and her eyes went wide as her head snapped towards the windows once again.

"Oh no..." she whispered before she started to cry.

She felt pain. No, she felt AGONY... One of her friends was hurting. The truth was coming out.