Equestria's Doom

“A solo mission? Now?” said Fluttershy with a frown.

They both stood outside of Zecora’s hut and in front of Twilight. The darkness of the evening was already beginning to set in and the sky was filled with the colors of the sunset. A multitude of sounds, from crickets to the sound of foals playing amongst themselves, rang out over the clearing. More and more refugees continued to stream into the encampment and Healing Hoof could already tell that the size of the camp had doubled or even tripled since she had arrived.

“Yeah.” said Healing Hoof. “You said you needed some ingredients from your house to make a potion that'll help out Twilight, so I can get that for you guys.”

She smiled after she spoke, eager to show Fluttershy how much she wanted to help. After all, Healing Hoof thought to herself, there was no better way to show friendship than through one's actions.

“But why?” asked Fluttershy in a tone of genuine curiosity. “You don’t even know us. Nopony would be able to help you if you got surrounded by demons. You really need to think this one through.”

Healing Hoof recoiled at her words, but gave a nod in response. “Fluttershy, I’ve thought this through. I know what I want.”

They both paused as Rainbow Dash began to murmur.

They looked to where the unconscious pegasus lay on the ground beside Twilight. Her talismans of pain had already begun to fill and the clear crystals within their center had filled with a shiny, red energy that seemed to move and twist like some sort of arcane gas. The pony herself had sunk into a dreamless slumber that gave neither of them any hints as to her inner experiences.

“Healing Hoof, we accept you as a friend without you having to do any of this.” explained Fluttershy with a hopeful smile on her face.

Healing Hoof’s lips twisted into a tight frown at her attempt at reassurance. “I have to prove myself, so you know I’m enough.”

Healing Hoof regarded Fluttershy as she sat before her. She became a bit jealous of Rainbow Dash, that she had managed to find such a sweet and truly kind lover. Fluttershy’s eyes regarded her with a tangible sense of worry, despite the fact that she had just met Healing Hoof. Healing Hoof almost wanted to listen to her and wait for other ponies to join her quest.

Yet at the same time, a worm of sorrow in Healing Hoof’s heart prevented her from being able to accept her words. Try as she might, what she truly wanted was to show Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash that she was worthy of being their friend. Though she wasn’t well-versed in mythical lore, she knew of the triumphs of the Elements of Harmony and knew that the three ponies who sat before her were far greater than she was.

“Everypony is better than me. It’s not hard to do.” she thought to herself with bitterness and regret as she turned her eyes to the ground.

Fluttershy’s eyes became softer than before and she suddenly took Healing Hoof in a tight hug.

“Please don’t do this.” she whispered in her ear.

Fluttershy pulled her head back and gazed at Healing Hoof with eyes that took her aback. “Are you okay?” asked Healing Hoof as concern for Fluttershy suddenly filled her heart.

“All my friends…” muttered Fluttershy as tears started to swim in her eyes. “First it was Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Now Rainbow Dash and Twilight are hurt.”

Healing Hoof took a step back and her lips curled into a deep frown as Fluttershy hung her head down. Her mane nearly touched the ground and covered the entirety of her head. The mare’s chest heaved with tearless sobs.

“It’ll be okay.” said Healing Hoof with a touch on her shoulder.

“I...I don’t have anypony left.” said Fluttershy in a voice so low that Healing Hoof struggled to hear it.

“I know how you feel.” responded Healing Hoof as she regarded the pegasus.

Healing Hoof began to think of the times in her life that she had felt the same way as the suffering pegasus in front of her. She remembered how humiliating it was to break down and show her weakness in front of other ponies. Healing Hoof recalled the inky, dark feeling of uselessness and how badly it made you want to destroy the world.

“None of them were...strong enough. Now I have to be the strong one. For everypony left behind, kidnapped or unconscious.” said Fluttershy.

Healing Hoof gasped when she saw Fluttershy’s face. Her eyes had turned into narrow slits and her face was wrinkled with a senseless rage. Her nostrils flared and her teeth were grinding together so hard Healing Hoof thought they would turn into bloody stumps of bone in her mouth.

“It’ll be okay. I’ll be careful.” answered Healing Hoof.

“Whatever happens, don’t you dare hurt me again. I can’t take it.” replied Fluttershy in a monotone voice.

The anger and grief of the previous moment had given itself over to numbness, observed Healing Hoof. Fluttershy’s face was now stoic as she found a way to compartmentalize the range of emotions sweeping her body. Healing Hoof felt a tear come to her eye as she found a deep relationship with how she felt.

“Nothing will happen to me and I’ll be right back here with the ingredients you need.” said Healing Hoof.

“If you’re going to ignore me, I might as well try to help you.” replied Fluttershy with a reserved sigh of defeat. “The potion is in a bright, neon-orange flask in my bedroom, which is on the top floor. It’s the only room in my house with a bed, you can’t miss it.”

Healing Hoof nodded. “Gotcha, I’ll be back with it before the sun rises tomorrow morning.”

“Just go away.” said Fluttershy with a sniffle. “I don’t want to think about you getting hurt out there. Or dying.”

“What does it help out with again?” inquired Healing Hoof in an attempt to change the topic.

Fluttershy sighed. “It’ll help us to prevent her from being repossessed once her horn regrows.”

Healing Hoof smiled and put her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I’ll be careful.”

“Go.” uttered Fluttershy.

Healing Hoof wordlessly began her departure from the camp.

Her saddlebags were loaded with enough supplies to sustain her for a day, as well as one of the maps Rainbow Dash had in her possession. Fluttershy’s house, on the outskirts of Ponyville, was marked on her map with a bright red X. Healing Hoof had also brought a sword that had been given to her as a gift from a solider who's wounds she had changed.

She took a deep breath of the night’s air from the edges of the refugee camp. In front of her were the woods, as lovely, dark and deep as they were tonight.

Despite herself, Healing Hoof felt a lightning bolt of nervous energy stream over her body.

Healing Hoof’s legs began to tremble and sweat formed on her brow at the sight that greeted her where the X lay on the map.

There was no house, but only an expanse of forest that gave way to a small field. At first, Healing Hoof thought she was alone, but a familiar pegasus sat in the middle of the tiny field with her back turned.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing here?” called out Healing Hoof.

“I can’t handle anypony else getting hurt.” said Fluttershy as she sat facing away from Healing Hoof.

Healing Hoof’s brows narrowed and a frown overcame her face. She said nothing as the pegasus wordlessly sat in the field with her head hung low.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the pegasus continued. “I’ll give you one chance to turn around and walk back to the camp.”

“Or what? You can’t control me!” called out Healing Hoof.

“That’s where you’re wrong. If ponies won’t listen to me, if ponies won’t do what they need to do to stay safe…” said Fluttershy as her lip trembled. “Then I’ll make them stay safe.”

“You know, this really isn’t okay. Just because you’re traumatized doesn’t mean you have the ability to do whatever this is.” retorted Healing Hoof.

“Turn back. Now.” muttered Fluttershy.

She turned around and Healing Hoof gasped.

Her mouth was drawn into an evil, wide-lipped frown that showed the whiteness of her teeth. Her eyes had narrowed to crevices that shone with an energy resembling the lava flows from an active volcano. As she stood up, her hooves dug themselves into the ground. Every inch of her body trembled with an emotion so intense Healing Hoof realized she had no capacity to imagine what Fluttershy was feeling.

“No.” said Healing Hoof, standing her ground. “I’m...gonna…”

Healing Hoof stopped mid-sentence as Fluttershy lunged at her with a furious roar.

Healing Hoof squealed and rolled to the side, sending various items tumbling from her bag.

With zero intent to actually hurt Fluttershy, she pulled her sword from her bag and held it in front of her with trembling hooves.

“You don’t know how to use that FUCKING thing.” spat Fluttershy.

She swatted the sword out of Healing Hoof’s hooves and the mare covered her face with her legs.

Confusion wracked her mind while Healing Hoof wracked her mind, trying to determine where Fluttershy’s sudden rage had come from. Was her entire personality of peace simply a lie? Or was this some kind of mental breakdown she had never experienced before? Healing felt a deep sorrow in her heart when she realized that Fluttershy likely wouldn’t be her friend after this, after all.

She would have cried from disappointment, were it not for the furious pegasus before her.

Healing Hoof let out a yelp as she felt Fluttershy’s teeth tug on her mane. “W-what are you gonna do to-”

“We’re going back. NOW.” yelled the pegasus as she dragged Healing Hoof through the clearing.

“O-okay, I’ll go back with-” stammered Healing Hoof in a trembling voice.

“You’re not. Gonna go off on some stupid adventure. And get hurt. Like the rest of my friends.” explained Fluttershy.

“Yep, sure thing, pleasecelestiadonthurtme-” pleaded Healing Hoof, her words blending together in panic.

“Oh, I’m not gonna be the one who hurts you. It’s going to be some STUPID monster, or some STUPID demon that possesses you and forces ME to be the strong one, forces ME to be the one who has to take care of you.” spat Fluttershy.

Healing Hoof got the impression that Fluttershy wasn’t speaking to her in particular, but just expressing something very deep from within her heart. She respectfully allowed Fluttershy to continue her rant.

Tears began to pour down Fluttershy’s face as her chest bounced up and down from the rapid breaths she was taking in. “And then, when all my friends are bleeding and dead and wrapped up in bandages, do you know what my last friend says? My friend who isn’t in a coma and isn’t bleeding from every hole in her body with her horn ripped off? She says, ‘Oh Fluttershy, I’m just gonna go on a little ADVENTURE.”

“Tell me how you really feel.” whispered Healing Hoof to herself.

Fluttershy clenched her jaw so hard that Healing Hoof was amazed it didn’t simply pop out of her skull. She began to smash her forehooves over and over again into the trunk of a tree. Bits of bark and wood flew off as Fluttershy let out a horrific scream that made Healing Hoof cover her ears from its pitch and intensity.

Blood began to pour down her hooves as they cracked from the furious onslaught Fluttershy unleashed against the tree.

Finally, Fluttershy stopped and curled into a ball on the ground. She covered her head with her hooves.

Healing Hoof nervously got back on her hooves. “Are you doing okay?”

Fluttershy looked up at her with blood streaking her face from her shattered hooves. “I’m breaking, Healing.”

“You’re what now?” asked Healing as she took a trepid step back.

“I’ve lost too many...too many friends. I can’t stand the thought of losing you, too.” muttered Fluttershy as her face changed into a deep shade of red.

“You know, it’s okay to feel the way you do.” explained Healing Hoof.

“Really?” asked Fluttershy, looking up to Healing Hoof.

“Yeah!” said Healing Hoof with a smile on her face. “You’re just traumatized. You aren’t a crazy pony, or a broken pony. Anypony would feel this way if they went through what you went through. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Fluttershy clambered to her hooves. The two ponies wordlessly embraced and kept the hug for a moment that seemed to stretch on for the whole night. Fluttershy’s body heaved with sobs as she pushed her face into Healing’s chest. Healing Hoof felt the fur on her chest grow damp, though she refrained from commenting on it.

Finally, Fluttershy pulled her head back from the embrace. “Ready to head down?”

“Head down where?” asked a confused Healing.

“Let’s go to my house, together.” said Fluttershy with a soft smile. She put her hoof on Healing’s shoulder and her face flushed a deep shade of crimson.

“Don’t you, you know, have a marefriend already?” asked Healing Hoof.

“As friends. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.” said Fluttershy with a renewed determination in her voice.

Healing raised an eyebrow. “I’d be happy to, but what changed?”

“Sometimes you just need a good cry session to work things out.” said Fluttershy with a small smile daring to tiptoe across her lips.

“A clear head is always the best way to make decisions. Being violent and controlling other ponies is never the best way forwards.” said a now confident, smiling Healing Hoof.

Fluttershy’s face had filled with another variety of intense emotion as it twisted up with regret. “I’m sorry for what I did, Healing.”

Healing paused for a moment and gently kissed her cheek. “You’re stronger than you think. And I should apologize too.”

Fluttershy looked to the side. “What do you have to be sorry for?”

“Even if I want to be your friend, it was reckless of me to head off on my own.” explained Healing.

“Well, you just want your new friends to respect you. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t put yourself in danger.” responded Fluttershy.

Healing Hoof smiled. What had only moments before seemed like a frayed rope was beginning to strengthen and tighten back into the bond which she originally hoped it would become.

She recalled sitting on the cliff overlooking the lake, with Javelin and Sparkling by her side, back all of those years ago in a distant time. A faint sensation of hope bloomed in her heart once she realized that the path to a friendship like that had once again been opened to her.

“All I’ve wanted, my whole life, is to just have friends that I can count on. I’m...sick of being lonely.” confessed Healing.

Fluttershy gave a reassuring smile. “We can talk more later, but we should really be getting on our way, if we’re going to my house together.”

The two proceeded through the dark woods under the cover of moonlight and the twinkling of distant stars.

What neither of the two ponies noticed was a pair of red eyes stalking them through the darkness.