It was a sunny and sweltering day when Fluttershy parked Rarity’s car outside the nearby Cantermart, Canterlot’s largest chain of supermarkets. She had resolved to continue watching over her friend while she healed, worried about her after what had happened.

Rarity still had yet to tell her the full story, but from bits and pieces, Fluttershy could pick out that some sort of ooze had spilled in her house and then somehow chased her out over to Maple Street. She didn’t know if she heard that right, but she didn’t want to press her friend. Rarity would tell her when she was ready.

“Poor Rarity…” Fluttershy got out of the car and scurried to the supermarket’s entrance.

She wanted to prepare lunch for her, but once she saw she had run out of ingredients, she decided to take a drive down to the supermarket to get more food. Fluttershy had decided on some good old fashioned spaghetti. After all, it was the food of friendship.

She grabbed a shopping basket once she entered and made her way to the pasta aisle. It was only a matter of minutes as Fluttershy grabbed the pasta and the necessary ingredients for a bolognese spaghetti, dumping everything into her basket as she went to pay for them.

Carrying the bags back out to the car, Fluttershy got in the driver’s seat with the groceries on the passenger side, then twisted the key in the ignition.

As she made her way out of the carpark, the pink haired girl sighed. This was definitely not how she intended to start her summer break. First, it had been Scootaloo’s disappearance almost a year ago, then all the other missing kids, and then now, something had happened to Rarity to leave her a trembling wreck.

She had wanted to help out at the animal shelter most of her break, but that seemed like it would have to wait. Fluttershy imagined the little cats and dogs waiting in their kennels for her and it was hard to just leave them be for now.

“Sorry… But Rarity needs me more…” she said out loud, mainly to herself.

The drive back didn’t take long, except for a few red lights in her way, but she still made it back to her place in less than twenty minutes.

The girl got out and was about to shut her door when a series of gurgled barks drew her attention to the sidewalk behind the car. It sounded like an animal in dire need and her heart immediately tugged at her insides. If it was an animal in trouble, she had to help it.

Along the pavement beside her car, stood a dog. It was furry and big, but those weren’t its defining features. Its fur was matted with blood and what even looked like bits of meat, its eyes were a stark white, and its snout was dripping with snot and more blood. Bits of greenish growths popped out from its legs, looking diseased and gross. The sight alone made Fluttershy want to cry, but then the dog began to charge, lumbering towards her.

“Stop!” Fluttershy said sternly, using a tactic with her eyes to show her dominance over the animal. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work, and it only seemed to provoke the dog more, making it take big leaps towards her.

Doing the only logical thing left to do, Fluttershy dropped her groceries and got back into the car slamming the door shut just as the dog jumped at where she had been standing, biting at the air, its mouth unnaturally wide and its teeth almost like that of a shark.

“Th-that can’t be real…” Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. Perhaps it was just the heat playing tricks on her. There was no way the dog could have opened its mouth that big. There was no way it would have teeth like a shark.

She looked out the window to see if it was still there. Just then, it slammed against the car window, making her recoil back in shock. The dog’s saliva and blood smeared all across the window as it barked and growled, trying to get to her.

The girl couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Her affinity with animals was something she was proud of, but why wasn’t it working here? And why was it making her absolutely terrified?

Now that the animal was closer, Fluttershy could see the torn jaw hinges at the sides of the dog’s mouth, dripping blood and saliva. It sort of looked like a smile in an extremely twisted way. Such a poor creature was running about the streets like that. She just couldn’t bear the thought of what it had been going through.

She needed to get help for the dog.

Winding down a window, both to get air and to be able to talk to the dog, Fluttershy kept it up more than halfway, more for her own protection.

“U-Um, hi, excuse me…” she started. “I know it must all hurt. I w-want to help. Could you… stop jumping at my d-door, please?”

The dog stopped throwing itself at the door, but then it did something she hadn’t been expecting, and that only made her skin crawl even more.

The dog looked directly at her and began to laugh.

Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. “Wh-what’s going on…?”

“Tasty fear…” the dog breathed, fogging up the glass with its wet breath. “So very tasty…”

“Wh-what?”

“Do you fear me, Fluttershy?” The dog placed one paw on the glass, smearing a bloodied print on it. “Do you fear… that which you love?”

“N-No, why… Why are you like this? What hap-happened to you?”

“I’m hungry, Fluttershy. All I want is to eat… Would you feed me?”

And then the dog smashed its face against the glass, sending white tendrils across the window as it began to crack.

“Feed me, feed me, feed me!”

Fluttershy instinctively backed away, crawling on her bottom as she dove for the door on the passenger’s side. As she threw it open, the dog had already anticipated her move and ran around the front of the car, its rotting form appearing past her bumper.

Fluttershy squealed and closed the door, with the dog jumping at it and slobbering its saliva and blood all over it.

“Feed me! Feed me!” The dog bashed its head at the window again, trying to break in.

Fluttershy was in tears by now, unsure of what to do. And then suddenly, almost as quickly as it had happened, the rotting dog had vanished from her windows and it had gone deathly silent.

“H-Huh?” Fluttershy cracked open an eye and looked around.

There was nothing around the car, except for an odd object, an object that didn’t quite belong.

A single red ball rested on the hood of the car. And without warning, it started bouncing on its own.

Up and down, up and down.

Fluttershy had seen enough. Looking around once more, she decided to take her chances and got out of the car, grabbing her fallen groceries and dashed back to her house, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

Dropping her groceries on a nearby table, she peered out the window next to her door, looking at the car. The ball was still bouncing there, but now, there was a clown standing next to it. He had fiery orange hair and a silvery suit, but what scared her most was his wide and demented smile. And he was looking directly at her.

Fluttershy quickly slid the curtains shut and ran into the house to find Rarity.

“Ra-Rarity? Rarity!” she cried out.

She found her friend waiting in the kitchen, falling into her arms almost immediately, sobbing away. She’d never been so frightened in her life.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” Rarity asked, worry scrawled all over her face.

“Ou-outside…” Fluttershy sniffed. “Th-there was this d-dog. And then a cl-cl-clo…”

At that, Rarity’s eyes shot wide open and she sat straighter. “A clown, dear?”

The pink haired girl nodded.

Rarity got up and walked to the front door, looking out the same window. Her car was still outside, but there was no one else on the streets. Absolutely no one. That was a weird occurrence and it had been the same when she had rushed down Maple Street to evade the goo monster and then that clown as well, and just the thought of that sent a whole freezer of ice cubes down her spine.

It was no coincidence that Fluttershy had also seen a clown. Was there something more going on here? Heading back to her friend, the two of them sat there in silence, just needing the presence of each other to know that they weren’t alone.

Pinkie Pie liked baking. She liked it a lot. In fact, it might just be one of her favorite things to do, second only to throwing parties for people. That was the great thing about baking; baked goods were ever so helpful at parties, like reliable friends. Friends that could be eaten, but friends nonetheless.

Right now, Pinkie was making cupcakes. The base cakes had already been made, now they sat on the countertop cooling while she whipped up some frosting to go on top. And of course, Pinkie couldn’t just settle for one colour and flavour of icing. Where was the fun in that? The pink girl had already mixed up three flavours of frosting, but she felt as though that wasn’t enough.

Pouring sugar into a bowl and adding some egg whites, Pinkie whisked away at the mixture, dropping in some orange zest and a couple of drops of food colouring to bring the concoction to a light orange colour. She stuck her finger in the frosting and licked it. Yummy!

Dusting the orange frosting with some rainbow sprinkles, Pinkie checked up on the cupcakes. They were still warm, which meant that the frosting would melt if she put it on now. Oh well, she could always put together another flavour while she waited.

Earlier in the morning, she had gone with Rainbow Dash to the Muddy Place to search for Scootaloo again. They didn’t go too far into the sewers, but it did make her wonder if all the missing persons were in there. They had found Rumble’s shoe the other day, after all. Perhaps he was still wandering around in there with just one shoe. She had tried telling her parents yesterday, that perhaps Scootaloo was still alive and well in the sewers somewhere, but they had dismissed her claims, even after she told them about Rumble’s shoe. Her father had said there was no way anyone could be living in the sewers for almost a year without anyone finding her. She had to be dead.

Pinkie didn’t know what to believe, but at least she knew for sure that cupcakes were delicious.

As she was reaching for the bag of sugar, Pinkie heard the front bell of Sugarcube Corner ring.

“Ooh! A customer!” Pinkie zipped out of the back kitchen and to the front of the house, where Mr. Cake was waiting behind the counter.

Pinkie peered over Mr. Cake’s shoulder to look at who had come in. It was Brawly Beats from school, and he was looking at the menu as if deciding what to order.

“Hi!” Pinkie said cheerily. “What are you in the mood for?”

Brawly Beats seemed not to hear, but he stepped up to the counter anyway, addressing Mr. Cake.

“Yeah, I’ll have a bagel and a large black coffee,” he said. “To go, please.”

“One bagel and coffee coming right up, Mr. Cake,” Pinkie said, making her way to the coffee machine. She was just about to press the button to start the machine when she felt something pressing into her back. It was Mr. Cake.

“Uh, Mr. Cake?” Pinkie said, confused. “I’ve got this, okay?”

Mr. Cake gave no indication he had heard her. In fact, he did not seem to see her either. His eyes slid from Pinkie’s left to her right without stopping in the middle.

“Mr. Cake?” Pinkie waved her hand in front of his face, but Mr. Cake didn’t even blink. He reached past her and started the coffee machine, then went to retrieve a bagel from the glass display case.

“Here you go!” He eventually handed the goods to Brawly Beats and accepted the money, banking it in the cash register, all while Pinkie stood there, unsure of why he couldn’t see or hear her.

“Mr. Cake? Hello?” She even pulled out a balloon from her hair and blew it up, but he didn’t even notice that. Even popping it got no reaction from him, or anyone in the cafe for that matter.

“Oh, I get it! This is a prank, isn’t it?” she giggled. “Okay, I’ll play along!”

She happily went back to the kitchen to check on her cupcakes. They would be cool enough by now to add her multi-coloured frosting.

Pinkie arrived back in the kitchen, where she was relieved to see Mrs. Cake putting something onto a shelf. She sighed in relief. Surely Mrs. Cake would want to talk!

“Hi, Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie chirped.

The baker gave no indication that she had heard anything, and continued shuffling through the shelf.

“Mrs. Cake? Hello? Are you in on the prank too?” Pinkie waved her hand in her face, but she made no reaction.

Pinkie began to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. If this was a prank, it wasn’t very funny. And she had never known Mr. and Mrs. Cake to participate in such pranks anyway. Her Pinkie Sense was telling her that there was something very, very wrong here.

Now feeling unsettled, Pinkie ducked out of the kitchen and went back out into the dining area. Even though she was visibly sweating and panicking, nobody seemed to notice. Pinkie barrelled outside and ran right into someone wearing a trench coat and a hat that covered their face.

“Sorry,” Pinkie said instinctively.

“That’s quite alright,” the person in the trench coat said.

Pinkie was about to run off when something clicked. “Wait… you can see me?”

“Sure I can, Pinkie,” the stranger said. “You want a ball?” He held out a bright red ball in his right hand. “It bounces.”

“Oh, sure!” She accepted the bouncy object. “I just knew it was a prank. But I can’t think of why anyone would want to do it. It isn’t funny.”

“Maybe it’s because they know you fear their rejection, Pinkie Pie.”

That caught Pinkie off guard for a second, which was more than enough for the stranger to reach his hands out and grab her around the throat. Pinkie gasped and dropped the ball, then tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but he was too strong. A strong wind blew, snatching the hat off the stranger’s head. Without the headwear obscuring his features, Pinkie’s eyes landed on one of the most unfunny and frightening clowns she had ever seen. Skin as pale as the plague, glaring hungry eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth!

Pinkie opened her mouth to scream, but could find no air to do it. The clown’s trench coat flapped in the gale, blowing up behind him like a pair of hideous wings. She looked around the streets, but like Mr. and Mrs. Cake, everyone just walked around her as though she wasn’t there.

“No one’s coming to help you, Pinks…” The clown chuckled evilly. “No one loves you. No one sees you. No one really knows you. But I do. Come down with me. You’ll bounce too! Just let go.”

“N-No…” Pinkie stuck her tongue out, doing anything she could to get air.

She repeatedly kicked the clown in the gut, but he still stood there, gazing into her eyes as though he was looking right into her soul. He knew exactly what she was feeling and it was something she hadn’t felt in such a long time; such fear usually went right over her head, because she knew most fears couldn’t harm you, like shadows in the corner or spooky looking objects. This, however, was much different.

By now her face was turning purple and she still had no way of getting herself free, but without warning, there was a blare of a horn and a truck suddenly smashed into a lamppost and a fire hydrant, just beside her and the clown.

Pinkie gasped and coughed, suddenly finding that she could breathe once again. When she looked around, she realized the clown was gone, and she was now sitting before the truck on the pavement as the fire hydrant’s water spout began to drench her. A red car was positioned near the middle of the road, its front smashed, with the driver already shakily exiting his vehicle, blood dripping from his head. She’d never been so glad to see an accident before. It had potentially just saved her from getting choked out by a clown.

“Pinkie, are you okay?” Hands suddenly grabbed her from behind and hauled her to her feet. It was Mr. Cake and he looked absolutely worried. “Were you hit?”

“Y-You can see me, Mr. Cake?” Pinkie said between breaths.

“Why won’t I be able to see you?” He raised an eyebrow.

Tears ran down Pinkie’s cheeks and she smiled. It had been such a dreadful thing to be ignored like she didn’t exist. Prank or no, she was at least glad it was over.

Returning to the cafe, Pinkie was glad to be seen again. She resumed work and got back into making her delicious cupcakes, the memory of the clown already taking a backseat in her mind.

Author's Note

Sorry, this one's taking a while, but I still hope it's entertaining!
Cheers!