Author's Note

I've spent my whole life avoiding MLP, but now's time to change that. Why am I writing fanfiction when I have so little knowledge of MLP? Guess I'm more impulsive than I thought.

It

“So…”

Listen, Starlight Glimmer had no problems with Fluttershy. Nopony could truly have a problem with Fluttershy, in fact, with her sweet and caring personality and overall softness, anypony could be easily convinced she was a higher being, a blessing sent from Heaven.

But Starlight had no idea on how to talk with Fluttershy and keep the conversation going. It’d be easier if someone else was with them,, but that saldy wasn’t the case, no matter how much Twilight had wanted to go with them. The Map is always right, after all, and if it sent Starlight and Fluttershy to a supposedly uninhabited village, who could tell it otherwise? So off they went, Princess Twilight’s student and the best veterinarian of Ponyville, to a seemly useless adventure. Starlight expected to get out of the train, go to the village, find nothing wrong, and go back home so they can fix that blasted Map.

“Yes?” Fluttershy answered, softly, looking as uncomfortable as the other mare.

“What do you think of our… situation?”

“Hm… Something doesn’t look right, but... if the Map said it was needed, then...”

“And what if the Map is wrong?”

“Then we’ll have to just go back.”

Ok, ouch. Starlight wasn’t sure the pegasus meant it in a cutting way or not, but it felt very sharp. Guess even Fluttershy could snap at times. Sighing deeply to calm herself—Twilight had commented on her bad habit of overreacting—,the unicorn rested her cheek back on the cold glass of the train, eyes useless against the deep darkness of the night outside.

Starlight has no idea where she is. It looks eerily like the village she once had ruled. The houses are simple, walls of a boring beige, with cracks running through them like scars. The roofs are made of chaff, a pale yellow, almost a sickly white. The doors made of dark wood, sturdy like a prison, same as the windows. The ground has some really sharp pebbles, and she knows walking out of her small circle of smooth ground she’ll probably hurt her hooves. The sky is just darkness with a big, but weirdly shaped, moon. It’s like she has some type of filter in front of her eyes, as every color looks faded, like paint after a long time of abandon. There is no pony around.

Yet she doesn’t feel alone.

She does not feel like she is alone.

She is not alone.

She can hear it now. How can she not? How couldn’t she not, when the noise it makes, whatever “it” might be, is so near, so loud, so terrifying?

Her breathing and her heart try to make a symphony of their own, but it’s impossible to be louder than It.

It’s a morbid mix of gurgled whispers and choked giggles, as if someone istrying to talk with a sliced open throat. Together with the whispers is the sound of walking. Whatever It is, it has more than four members for sure. She can hear some of them dragging along the floor, the pebbles for sure being painted with red. She can hear It’s breathing, laboured, as if exhausted or excited or both. She can’t move. She can hear it. She can’t run. She can hear It.

It’s coming. she can tell, she can hear. It’s coming, It’s coming, It’s coming directly at her. It’s coming, she hears it, it’s coming and It’s fast and It’s nearing and she can hear It. She can hear It coming, she can, she knows It’s coming, she knows she can’t do anything about it. The whispers and it giggles and steps running at her and she hears it all and she can’t stop hearing, she can’t stop listening. Her heart makes a frenetic symphony, her breathing chants for her to do something and she does, she closes her eyes and she listens for there is nothing else for her to do than to listen, than to know that she can’t do anything but listen. Listen as It gets closer and closer and closer and faster and how It giggles and how It whispers and how It gets closer and how she can’t do anything but listen.

Then It stops.

She feels a puff of air on her face.

Warm.

Living.

Accompanied by a choked giggle.

“Starlight?”

Starlight spanned her eyes open, coming face to face with the ever kind Fluttershy. She blinked a few times, letting her heartbeat settle. She looked outside the train window. It was a lovely day, maybe a bit too gray, but the Sun still warmed the earth. Nearby was a dense forest with a barely there way in the middle.

“We stopped?”

“Yes, we arrived. Are you ok, Starlight? You looked like you were having a bad dream, but I couldn’t wake you up no matter how much I shook you.”

“Yeah, I had a really weird dream.” With a sigh,she got up, stretching a bit. “Let’s move on, then, I’ll tell you about it on the way.”

They grabbed their things, leaving the train, and then the station. It was chilly, as Twilight had predicted, and the two put on coats before continuing, but the wind had no hesitation in goung through the fabric, so they still felt some of the cold. The forest seemed not welcoming, with big trees covering the sy and casting shadow over the ground, and many animals running around so quickly one could say they were apparitions, doing enough noise to let their existence be known.

Starlight felt Fluttershy move closer to her as they walked, but didn’t comment on it, fully aware of the gentle pegasus paranoia. Instead she told her the nightmare plaguing her thoughts. How she was alone in a setting similar to her old village, how soon after she wasn’t alone anymore because of It and how she could do nothing but listen to It as It approached.

“That sounds… terrible!” The pegasus squeaked, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yes, Fluttershy, I’m sure it was just a dream.” Starlight soothed her companion, looking ahead as the path opened more, showing the end of the forest and the start of the supposed abandoned village.

It was just a dream, her conscience told her, accompanied by a choked giggle.