Shattered Souls

Bonus 3: A Midnight Flight

In the dead of the night, over a moonless forest, a slightly darker blot flew. Despite the usually menacing imagery, the mutated Pegasus bore no ill will to anyone, save perhaps a mild craving to slake her thirst for apple juice.

No, Fluttershy was in her Flutterbat mode that night as a matter of habit. There was something she found soothing about being a creature of the night in her element. It was also something she had been doing more and more often over the course of the past month. Fluttershy could scarcely believe it had been that long.

A month since one of her best friends had died. A month since someone who was virtually an innocent bystander had been dragged to his death right along with her. A month since the poor creature known as Duskfall had come into being.

Fluttershy sighed as she let her leathery wings carry her forward, the blackest night no obstacle to her. The matter of Duskfall had been plaguing her thoughts more and more over the past month. Fluttershy had promised to show her Kindness and she had! But Fluttershy knew she could do better. That she should have done better. The simple fact of the matter was interacting with the heterochromatic Alicorn was painful and awkward and painfully awkward.

It would always be a point of shame for Fluttershy that she hadn’t learned of Duskfall’s breakdown until the day after. For her, it had just been another Friday. For everyone else it had been the day their failures had been thrown in their faces in the most painful and poignant way possible.

That was why Fluttershy was out here, over the Everfree and ruining her sleep schedule further. It was certainly better than lying awake at night, ruminating on these things. If she wasn’t going to be able to sleep anyway, at least she could do something somewhat productive.

“I hate feeling so useless. Yet somehow that’s all I ever end up being,” Fluttershy complained to the empty night air. As usual, no response was forthcoming. Fluttershy continued her solo flight.

Could she have prevented this? That was supremely unlikely. Duskfall’s mental health had been questionable from the moment of her creation. If not here and now, something else would have triggered something like this.

No, the thrust of Fluttershy’s current thought were on if she could have somehow lessened the blow. A gesture here, a kind word there, and maybe Duskfall wouldn’t have fallen quite so far. It was a thought that had haunted her for the last two days.

Were the midnight flights helping anyone? No. Honestly it was a minor miracle that no one had noticed yet. Makeup could only cover up so much. Yet Fluttershy couldn’t resist this soothing feeling the night air brought her. A long night of flying followed by a relaxing lemon balm tea was the only way she’d been able to get any sleep at all recently.

Fluttershy banked gently, changing course. Going too much farther in this direction would take her over the Castle of the Two Sisters. The first night she had done this, she hadn’t known the forest nearly so well. When she flew over the castle, she had been seized by an almost irresistible desire to burn it to the ground. It was where Twilight had found that spell, after all.

Ever since then Fluttershy had avoided the Castle. She didn’t want to risk giving in to that destructive impulse. It wouldn’t solve anything. It was pointless…just like she was. Kindness was built upon reaching out to others. It was something her introverted and shy self had perpetual issues with.

Fluttershy shook her head. She had been getting better about that, both of reaching out more and catching herself when her thoughts started to spiral into self-destructive territory. There was certainly already enough of those kinds of thoughts floating around Ponyville in the wake of Duskfall’s meltdown.

Most would probably wish things could go back to how they were before Tirek. Not Fluttershy. A wish like that would mean an end to Duskfall’s existence and for all the troubles surrounding her, Fluttershy didn’t hate Duskfall. Certainly she didn’t dislike her enough to wish she didn’t exist.

Fluttershy felt a familiar ache starting to creep into the joints of her wings. That was her signal to start heading home. As Fluttershy flew back home, meaningless wisps of thoughts leaving her mind, one thought stuck around: A hope that tomorrow would be better.

Author's Note

Takes place the night before Duskfall returned from her exile.

I'm not entirely sure where this came from. I was working on Standing United when I was gripped by a sudden overwhelming need to write a melancholy scene with Fluttershy.