Silent Ponyville 2

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Ending: Something's Not Right Here
Ending: That's Just How It Is
Ending: Was it Inevitable?
Ending: UFO
Ending: Face Your Fears
Ending: And That's When the Meteor Hit
Chapter 4
Ending: Game Over

Chapter 1

Author’s Note: This story takes place one month after Too Shy for a Rainbow. It explains why Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are a couple and adds context to this story. However, if you can simply accept that they're dating, it is not a required read.
-Story is Grimdark. Read at your own discretion!-

Chapter 1

“How does it make that sound?” A young filly stared hypnotized by the gentle music caressing her ears. The small box before her let out a harmony that reminded her of angels. The warm body next to her grew closer, nuzzling up against her.

“I don’t know the details myself,” an older mare’s soothing voice swept through her ears as if the voice itself was trying to hug her. Her voice was soft yet delicate, “But it’s just like an instrument. Every piece is finely tuned, so that when a cord is struck it plays a gentle note.”

“But it only plays one song…” The young filly mused as she continued to stare, comforted by the warmth of the other with her. “And…it seems a little sad…” she leaned her head against the bigger body, resting against it.

“Yes, I suppose it does sound a little sad.” The older mare smiled warmly, her long mane falling in the filly’s face. The little filly giggled a little as the hair tickled her face, before moving it out of the way to smile at the music box, “But this music box is…very special to me.” The older mare sighed happily.

“…I like it.” The filly smiled happily, closing her eyes as she listened, the melody softly flowing through her ears. She couldn’t help but think it was beautiful.

“Please never forget…that I love you…” The older mare’s voice grew quiet with those words.

“I know mother…I love you too.” The filly nuzzled against her mother happily. The older mare grew quiet as the filly nuzzled against her mother. There was a silence that filled the air, only being filled by the gentle and calming music from the box.

“…Mother?” The young filly broke the silence, but it soon returned. The chimes of the music seemed to slow down, drawing out each individual note. “…Mother…” she called again, lifting her head up to try and look at her mother. The older mare had suddenly grown quiet.

“Mother…say something…” The filly pleaded, pushing against her mother with her hooves, trying to get her attention. The mare’s body felt like it was growing colder, wobbling a bit before falling over. The older mare lay on the floor, her hair looking like cobwebs on the ground, her coat growing dull, her unmoving form framed against the darkness of the ground.

“Mother!” The young filly cried pushing her hooves against her mother as the music box continued to slow down, each note ringing in her head that something was wrong. The filly moved her hands away from her mother and stared at her hooves, her blood covered hooves. The body of the mare was withering away, blood escaping from underneath her body.

“Mother…Mother…MOTHER!” The filly cried as tears began to stream down her eyes, shaking her mother’s body to wake her, to tell her everything was alright. The music from the box died.

The body of the filly’s mother turned to dust, as it vanished in the wind, leaving nothing but the blood that had been spilled.

The filly shook and cried, tears drenching her cheeks. She touched the blood stain on the floor, trying to feel any remaining heat that told her that her mother was still there.

The blood was cold, no sign of life to it.

The music box started to play music once more, but it no longer played the sad but beautiful song. The music box hissed a horrifying sound, as if bees suddenly filled the box. The filly looked up into the darkness, terror filling her core.

Red eyes gleamed as a presence made itself known. It towered over the filly as it drew closer, its body cloaked in darkness. The darkness itself flickered and flowed off of its body, its mouth opening revealing a gaping hole of white filled with jagged black. The presence of the creature crushed the filly, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe, she was paralyzed by the very thing that stood before her. With a single swift movement, the creature closed the distance.

Its teeth sunk into the filly’s neck, lifting her up and holding her as if a prize. Tears continued to stream down the filly’s face, as the blood slipped down her body. The creature growled, before dropping the filly on top of the dust of her mother. The filly could do nothing but stare into the darkness of the world.

Even that darkness was soon fading, fading into a separate darkness.

The filly’s vision was filled with the beast. Its jagged white mouth turned into a grin, as it once more, drew its teeth at the filly’s face.

Fluttershy awoke with a scream. She panted heavily as she sat, staring at her pillow in the darkness, the covers hanging on her shoulders, her body soaked in sweat. The cool night air filled her burning, aching lungs. She put a hoof to her face, feeling the fresh tears that had been streaming from her face. She hiccuped softly as she tried to rub them away, still feeling fresh ones wanting freedom as well.

Something rustled under the covers next to her as she froze, turning as she heard the moan of something waking up.

“Another one?” Rainbow Dash groaned, sitting up from her spot on the bed, rubbing her eyes. “How many is that now? At least ten…” she let out a yawn, obviously still not used to being woken up in the middle of the night constantly.

“I-I…I’m….I’m sorry…” Fluttershy hiccuped, squeezing her eyes shut as she desperately tried to hold back her tears, her body shaking. “I-I…k-keep waking y-you up…I-I shouldn’t…h-have asked you to t-try and comfort m-me…” Fluttershy stuttered her words, lumps forming in her throat as tears escaped her shut eye lids.

“Ugh.” Rainbow put a hoof to her face. She shifted on the bed, before wrapping a hoof comfortingly around her marefriend’s shoulders. Fluttershy leaned into Rainbow’s chest and sobbed softly into her. “Come on Fluttershy, you should know by now that me sleeping isn’t as important as you feeling better.” Rainbow said quietly, lowering her head closer to Fluttershy’s. Fluttershy didn’t reply, only continuing with her soft sobs. “So me spending the last few nights here hasn’t helped your nightmares, that’s no big deal. It just shows us how serious this is.” Rainbow said trying her best to offer comforting words, something she wasn’t too used to.

Fluttershy could only let out a whimper in response. The nightmare’s terrified her, she was barely able to fall asleep anymore knowing they were waiting for her inside of her own mind She didn’t want to sleep anymore, she wanted to stay up and be rid of the dreams, but her body was exhausted, it demanded sleep, but her mind screamed to stay awake. The conflict inside her only brought out more tears.

Rainbow looked out into the darkness of Fluttershy’s room as she tried desperately to think of something to do or say. ‘If only I was a smarter…’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself.

It was as if a light bulb had been turned on in Rainbow’s mind.

“Fluttershy, in the morning lets go see Twilight. I’m sure she can help with these nightmares, I mean she’s got all kinds of books, I’m sure she’ll have something that can help with this.” Rainbow spoke eagerly but softly, making sure Fluttershy heard her.

“..Do…do you really think…she can help?” Fluttershy asked, managing to wipe her face as her sobs softened.

“Yea, of course she can.” Rainbow said confidently, nuzzling up against Fluttershy, “She’s Twilight, even if she can’t find an answer, she can ask Celestia! We’ll get rid of these nightmares before you know it.”

“…Thank you…” Fluttershy smiled softly, the tears finally stopping.

“Hey, what’s a marefriend for?” Rainbow grinned, kissing Fluttershy’s forehead.

“…I still don’t feel like sleeping though…” Fluttershy said, staring at the pillow of her bed. It was still deep in the middle of the night.

“…Hmm…” Rainbow said in thought. She wasn’t sure what to say for that. She looked up at the ceiling as she thought about it. She then let off a small shrug unintentionally as a thought rolled through her mind, ‘I guess it’s now or never then.’

“H-Huh?” Fluttershy said confused as she felt herself being pushed down onto the bed. She looked up at Rainbow Dash as she lay on her back, Rainbow climbing on top of Fluttershy before kissing Fluttershy deeply.

“Don’t worry; I’ll take your mind off of those nightmares so you can finish resting.” Rainbow grinned, blushing deeply. Fluttershy blushed in return, surprised, but accepting as she closed her eyes, their lips meeting once more.

“Shouldn’t you clear the clouds?” Fluttershy asked, yawning as her and Rainbow walked through the town, the warm sun only slightly obscured by a few clouds lingering around the sky.

“This is more important.” Rainbow said rubbing Fluttershy’s head lightly, “I can clear the clouds in a snap. Let’s get you feeling better first.” Rainbow grinned.

“I suppose.” Fluttershy rubbed her eyes, still trying to rid them of sleepiness. She had started to develop bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep, but nothing severe.

“Suppose nothing! It is more important.” Rainbow said trying once more to build Fluttershy’s confidence, “Just focus on getting better. Everything else can wait till then.”

“Getting better? Is Fluttershy sick?” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stopped as they looked behind them, seeing Pinkie Pie standing behind them with a basket in hoof filled with letters.

“Oh, hey Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow said turning to smile at their pink friend, “And no, she’s not really sick. She’s just been having some really bad nightmares lately, so we we’re going to see Twilight if she can help.”

The silence was almost deafening despite its brevity. The basket in Pinkie’s hoof fell, hitting the ground with what seemed like a loud thud, the letters spilling out before it.

“N-N-N-N-Nightm-mares?” Pinkie stuttered, a look of shock on her face.

“Uh Pinkie, you dropped your basket.” Rainbow said pointing to it.

“No time for that!” Pinkie said quickly rushing to Fluttershy’s side. She looked Fluttershy over, causing the yellow pegasus to flinch a little, before Pinkie look into her face, “How bad are these nightmares? How long have you been having them?”

“T-They’re…awful…” Fluttershy squeaked, answering though intimidated by Pinkie’s actions, “I’ve been waking up crying for the last week and a half now…I thought Rainbow Dash could help make them go away, but they still haven’t stopped…so Rainbow suggested we go see Twilight.”

Pinkie stared, mouth agape at Fluttershy. Fluttershy began to sweat a little, not understand what was going through the pink pony’s head. Pinkie Pie then looked serious for a moment, before turning her head from Fluttershy, as if she was in serious mental contemplation.

“…I see…going to see Twilight is the natural assumption to make.” Pinkie mumbled to herself.

“…Pinkie Pie, what’s going on? You’re acting even stranger than you normally do.” Rainbow looked at Pinkie Pie confused by her actions.

“…It’s nothing.” Pinkie lied stepping back from Fluttershy, “But I’m going to Twilight’s with you.” It sounded more like a demand than an offer.

“O-Oh, no, i-it’s okay Pink-”

“I’m. Going. With. You.” Pinkie interrupted Fluttershy, not backing down.

“…O-Okay…” Fluttershy meekly agreed as Pinkie then nodded, taking the lead in heading to Twilight’s house.

Rainbow Dash looked at one of the scattered letters on the ground, picking it up and looking at the pink envelope curiously.

“What’s gotten into Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked looking at Rainbow Dash confused about what just happened.

“I don’t know…but she just put off inviting us to a party for it.” Rainbow showed the envelope to her.

“…Wow…this IS serious.” Fluttershy said in a bit of shock.

“Hey! Come on, we need to get to Twilight’s house, like right now!” Pinkie Pie called out to the two mares after realizing they hadn’t immediately followed.

“…I think it’s best if we do what she says for now.” Rainbow said not wanting to chance thinking what else a serious Pinkie Pie might do.

“Right.” Fluttershy agreed as the two of them quickly followed after Pinkie.

“Oh, hey Pinkie P-“

“Twilight, we’ve got a serious problem.” Pinkie barged into Twilight’s house without giving the purple unicorn a chance to pose a greeting, “And I mean a problem as big as the last time I visited you with a problem.”

“…Huh? Do you mean the nightmares are back?” Twilight asked a little confused, looking Pinkie over, “But you’re mane is fine…”

“Oh, no, the problem isn’t with me this time.” Pinkie said pointing out the door she had just so casually walked through. Twilight turned her head to see a Rainbow Dash quickly walking in as well.

“Geeze Pinkie, was running here really important?” Rainbow huffed as she moved past Twilight, “This is a big deal, sure, but Fluttershy’s not good at high-speed pursuits.”

“Oh but there WAS a need to rush Dashie! Trust me on this one; we need to fix this ASAP!” Pinkie tried to get Rainbow to understand.

“…Is Dash having the problem?” Twilight asked, looking curiously at her rainbow-haired friend.

“No, it’s not her.” Pinkie said pointing to the door once more. Twilight turned once more, to see Fluttershy slowly making her way in as well.

“Sorry for the interruption Twilight, I hope we aren’t disturbing you from anything important.” Fluttershy apologized.

“No, it’s no trouble Fluttershy. I was just catching up on some studying.” Twilight smiled comfortingly, “But is something troubling you Fluttershy?”

“Oh…well, yes actually, that’s why we came to see you.” Fluttershy said, scrapping her foot against the ground, “I’ve been…having trouble sleeping…a-and was hoping you could help.”

“Trouble sleeping nothing.” Rainbow said moving to stand next to Fluttershy, “Fluttershy’s been having some nasty nightmares that’ve been keeping her up. She’s unable to sleep and she dreads having to go to bed. We we’re hoping you could help out Twilight.” Dash explained in more detail.

“Heh…well, I do happen to have one spell I know of that works won-mmph” Twilight’s words became muffled as a pink hoof was jammed into her mouth.

“No no, we’re not using that spell.” Pinkie explained.

“Bleh. Why not?” Twilight asked after removing the hoof from her mouth.

“Cause we’re not.” Pinkie said closing her eyes, as if not wanting to budge, “We have to find some other way to help Fluttershy.”

“But…the spell worked so well last time, why shouldn’t I use it now?” Twilight was very confused. Pinkie Pie had explained to her that the spell had let her come to terms with the tragedy of her sister’s passing, but she hadn’t explained what exactly happened during the spell that led to the revelation. All Twilight had seen during the delve was what appeared to be a warped picture sitting amidst a foggy backdrop. As she had tried to study the picture, it kept changing before her, till the mind delve disconnected itself in a flash of light.

“Trust me Twilight, using it on Fluttershy will end badly. So we’re going to help her without it.” Pinkie explained.

“But it’d be so much easier to just use the spell, it only takes a few minutes and I’ll have helped her with the nightmares. Doesn’t that make sense?” Twilight tried to battle Pinkie with her logic, an already losing battle.

“Even if it does, it’s still not happening.” Pinkie retorted back.

Fluttershy and Rainbow looked at each other very confused as Pinkie and Twilight went back and forth. They had no idea what their friends were talking about.

“So uhhh…what exactly ARE we doing to help Fluttershy then?” Rainbow finally asked, interrupting the back and forth between the two bickering ponies.

“Ugh…fine, I’ll go get my copy of ‘Dreams: a Psychological Understanding’.” Twilight said walking away from the pink mare who sat there looking victorious.

“Thank you Twilight, I assure you this will be the best for everyone.” Pinkie then bounced over to Fluttershy, putting her hoof around her shoulders while offering a comforting smile, “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I promise we’ll make your bad dreams go away.”

“…Y-You really think this will work?” Fluttershy looked at Pinkie for hope.

“If anypony can help make things better it’s Twilight. I’m sure of it.” Pinkie smiled happily.

“Alright,” Twilight said returning with a floating copy of the book, opening it up and flipping through several places, “The first thing I should do is see what kind of dreams you’re having. Since we won’t be jumping straight to the Mind Delve spell, there’s other solutions listed here that might work depending on the severity of your dreams.” Twilight explained before placing the book down on the table in the center of her house.

“O-Oh…how will you know that?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“There’s a spell in this book that will let me see the dreams you’ve been having. I’ll be able to judge for myself how severe they are.” Twilight said walking over to Fluttershy.

“…B-But…” Fluttershy began to protest.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy; Twilight knows what she’s doing, right?” Rainbow asked while trying to comfort the worried pegasus.

“Of course, now this will only take a moment.” Twilight smiled, not waiting for Fluttershy to give another response before gently sweeping hair away from her forehead and tapping her glowing horn against the Fluttershy’s forehead.

‘IDON’TWANTTOFLY IDON’TWANTTOFLY IDON’TWANTTOFLY’ The words screamed again and again, bouncing in her skull, driving her mad. Her wings were beating as fast and as strong as they could, despite every ounce of her being telling her to stop them. Her whole body was crying out for relief, pain filling her back and legs. Her wings were bent, horribly misshapen, not even looking like they should lift her, but they carried her through the sky. Tears swept across her face as every flap sent pain shooting through her back, scratching away at her mind, eroding her sanity.

A loud roar pierced her ears and shook her whole being. Her head painfully but slowly turned to look behind her, as a giant figure appeared from behind the clouds, billowing smoke as it soared at high speeds straight for her. Her legs flailed, feeling as if every movement snapped a bone and tore her muscles.

The large beast opens its jaws, before its gigantic teeth sunk straight down into her flesh.

She wanted to scream but no voice came to her. She wanted to close her eyes but her body would not obey her. She wanted to shut down and die but her body did not comply. The swirls of tortured screams filled every inch of her. Twisted faces and horrified cries screamed out to her. One word repeated itself endlessly in her mind.

Pain.

Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain.

There was nothing to decipher, only the red horror that swirled around her. It bellowed and cried, it screeched and it hollered, but its suffering would not end. Neither would hers. Everything assaulted her mind; she felt the pain as every fiber of her being was destroyed by the horror before her.

Her knife came down. It struck its target. She brought the knife back up. She swung it down, her target hit again. Her actions repeated again and again. One fluid motion after the other, her knife struck the body before her. She was coated already, coated in the warm liquid she had caused to splatter all over. Each fresh strike sent another burst of the warm liquid against her body.

A smile was on her face, one that had been there a long time as she had started. She made fresh holes and fresh liquid with each strike, plunging the knife in and out of the pony before her seemed to bring satisfaction.

They deserved this, she deserved to be the one to do this to them. This is how it was supposed to be.

She plunged the knife down one last time, panting as she looked excitedly at her work. The punctured body didn’t move or twitch, it just laid before her. The body would never move again.

She tossed the knife to the side and leaned forward, nuzzling the body as she smiled.

This was love.

Twilight stepped back as the memories of the dreams filled her mind. She grimaced as her stomach did a flip, a knot forming in her throat. They were horrific dreams, dreams filled with pain, suffering, insanity and loss. These weren’t just simple nightmares, no, she had seen dreams like this before…

“…Are…Are you okay Twilight?” Fluttershy asked nervously, not sure what to expect Twilight’s reaction to be.

“…Y-Yea…I’m fine…” Twilight finally managed to say after swallowing the knot in her throat.

“You’re awfully pale for being okay.” Rainbow said, looking at Twilight worriedly. She didn’t think the nightmares would’ve been so bad as to make Twilight lose a shade of color.

“Well, you didn’t go stumbling back into the bookcase this time; were they not as bad?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head curiously.

“…Oh, they’re…very bad.” Twilight rubbed her head a little, “But…they’re bad in a different way. I don’t think I could make an accurate comparison…at the very least, they felt the same in intensity.”

“S-So…w-what do I do?” Fluttershy asked meekly.

“Hold on, I need to consult the book.” Twilight said shaking her head lightly, before levitating it over to herself, flipping through some pages and reading a few passages.

“…There’s a lot of spells in here for more minor nightmares, soothing remedies, relaxation methods, normal and magical psychological evaluations…but…” Twilight sighed looking at Pinkie, “With what I just saw, there’s only one spell in here strong enough to find out what’s happening in Fluttershy’s mind.”

“…Are you absolutely sure? There’s NO other spell in that book?” Pinkie asked, desperate to not have to turn to that answer.

“I’m sure Pinkie. The mind delve spell is going to be our best solution.”

“Why are you so against using that spell Pinkie?” Rainbow asked looking strangely at her earth pony friend, “You said it helped you before, why shouldn’t we use it on Fluttershy?”

Pinkie was silent. She thought about it for a moment, before looking seriously at Twilight.

“Twilight, read to me the spell’s description.”

Twilight flipped back to the exact page of the spell, and began to read:

“The Mind Delve spell is used in cases where the nightmare or psychological problems are not so easily discernable. This often means that the problem is rooted deep within the patient’s subconscious and cannot be obtained through normal psychological methods without spending a very long time treating the patient. This spell allows the user to shorten the necessary time needed in order to bring the patient to a full recovery. Each patient the spell is used under experiences different results, as the subconscious is molded by the patient who owns it. No two patients will likely experience the same recovery under the use of the spell.”

Pinkie thought about those words carefully. Something seemed to spinning the wheels in her head.

“…Okay…” Pinkie finally said, breaking from thought, “We can use the Mind Delve spell on Fluttershy…under one condition though.”

“What?” Twilight asked blinking a little confused.

“You have to find a way to put me into Fluttershy’s mind when you do it.”

“Y-You want to…go into my mind?” Fluttershy asked very surprised.

“Yes. I won’t let you go through this alone Fluttershy. I’m going to be there with you to help you with your problem.” Pinkie said, turning her head slightly, shifting her mane so Fluttershy could see it better, “I wear this red ribbon as a testament that my friends are dear to me. That means if they’re in trouble then I’m going to help them. And I’m going to see you through this Fluttershy, so that you can not only feel better, but so that you don’t have to be alone while doing it.” Pinkie smiled.

“Well, then I’m going in too.” Rainbow said stepping closer to Fluttershy, “I can’t just let my marefriend do something like this without me. I’m going to be there for her till the very end.” Rainbow grinned, nuzzling against Fluttershy.

Fluttershy blushed as she smiled softly, “T-Thank you…both of you…”

“…Ugh…” Twilight put a hoof to her face, “I don’t even know HOW to do that.” Twilight said as she walked off towards the bookshelf, “You guys are going to have to give me a moment, there’s nothing in ‘Dreams: a Psychological Understanding’ that explains how to link minds together.” She said as she began to levitate books off of the shelf, checking each title before pushing them off to the side. There was a distinct sound of her mumbling something about how she shouldn’t have sent Spike on a shopping trip that day.

“This could take a while.” Rainbow said looking at the other two mares.

“Let’s play some games to pass the time!” Pinkie chimed in happily.

“That sounds fun.” Fluttershy smiled.

“King me!” Pinkie grinned happily, having victoriously jumped several of Dash’s pieces before arriving at the opposite end of the checkers board.

“Man Pinkie, how’re you so good at this?” Rainbow furrowed her brow as she looked at the board. She was clearly losing, for the fifth time now. Pinkie had just obtained her third king.

“Years of practice Dashie.” Pinkie chuckled as she awaited her opponent’s next move.

“I think you’ve both been doing very well.” Fluttershy smiled, having enjoyed watching the matches.

“OKAY!” Twilight suddenly declared very loudly putting the book she had been studying vigorously down. “I think I’ve got something. By using a mixture of various spells I SHOULD be able to get all of you to share in Fluttershy’s mind delve. I don’t know how well it’ll work, at the moment, it’s all theory. But I’ve made theories work before! I can do it again.” Twilight nodded, walking towards her friends.

“Oh good, I was getting tired of this game anyway.” Rainbow said standing up, waving a hoof at the board.

“Only cause you were losing.” Pinkie chuckled before hoping up as well, before turning to Twilight and looking a little serious, “Are you absolutely sure you can get this to work Twilight?”

“Absolutely. When have you ever known me to mess up a spell once I was confident in how it worked?” Twilight asked curiously.

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin as she looked off to the side before mumbling under her breath, “Well…not in continuity…”

“What was that?” Twilight asked not having heard her well.

“Nothing.” Pinkie smiled before turning to look at Fluttershy, “Are you ready for this Fluttershy?”

“I-I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” She said, walking next to Pinkie.

“We’ll have you feeling better in no time, just you wait.” Rainbow Dash smiled, standing next to Fluttershy as well, smiling her confident smile.

“Alright then, here goes.” Twilight’s horn lit up, glowing brightly as she concentrated. She walked up to her three friends who stood before her, before gently tapping her horn against each of their foreheads. A thin blue line attached to her horn that stretched from their foreheads with each tap. The light surrounding her horn grew brighter as she stepped forward, before tapping her horn against Fluttershy’s forehead.

In that instant the world felt like it slipped from under Fluttershy’s hooves. Everything felt hazy as her body almost felt numb. She couldn’t keep track of her surrounding, thought she felt like she was falling. The only indication she felt like she was moving was a sensation of wind rolling around her. She tumbled and fell through a hazy fog in her mind, unable to comprehend anything.

She let out a sharp gasp as air finally returned to her lung. She panted for a moment, before her eyes fluttered open. She got her bearings slowly, as the world began to come into view before her. She was still inside of Twilight’s house; however it was now missing that particular purple unicorn.

“Ugh…Twilight, what’s the big idea? That spell-…” It was Rainbow’s voice she heard next. She turned her head and saw her marefriend already standing up, looking around for Twilight, “Wait, where’d she go?”

“Ugh, I don’t think I could ever get used to that.” It was Pinkie’s turn to speak up, Rainbow and Fluttershy look behind them to see her groggily standing up, “But I’m glad to see she got it to work.” She smiled seeing her two friends.

“What’s going on Pinkie? Where’s Twilight?” Rainbow asked looking around, confused at their missing unicorn friend.

“That’s normal, she’s not going to be here with us.” Pinkie said, looking around quickly. She got up and ran to a nearby window looking out of it. She grew quiet as she stared out the window.

“…Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked looking at her friend oddly.

“Is this what you went through when Twilight helped you?” Rainbow asked curiously.

There was silence for a moment. Rainbow and Fluttershy looked at each other a little confused, before Pinkie finally spoke back up.

“Yes.” She turned away from the window, looking at her two friends with a serious look, “It’s almost exactly the same as what I went through, and is exactly the reason why I said I had to come.” Pinkie said galloping across the library to a shelf, before pulling a map out from it.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked as Pinkie brought the map over to the table, Fluttershy and Rainbow walking up to look at it.

“We’re going to need this to keep track of where we are.” Pinkie explained, pointing to the map of Ponyville that she unfurled before them. Pinkie looked up from the map, seeing that a bag lay on the table as well. “Fluttershy, you should be the one to take that bag.” Pinkie explained pointing to it.

“W-Why?” Fluttershy asked confused grabbing the bag and pulling it closer, opening it.

“Trust me; we’re going to need it. Is there some kind of instrument inside of it?” Pinkie asked, seeing Fluttershy look inside.

Almost as if an answer to Pinkie’s words, a soft, almost haunting melody began to slowly play from the bag. Fluttershy carefully reached in, pulling out an old music box that was playing the soft tune.

“T-This…” Fluttershy stared at the music box in shock, “This…is the music box my mother owned…”

“What’s it doing here?” Rainbow asked looking at it curiously.

“I…I don’t know…I lost it a long time ago. How did it get here?” Fluttershy wondered quietly.

The music slowly faded to a stop as she continued to stare at the music box. Pinkie Pie rolled up the map of Ponyville before placing it in the bag.

“Come on, let’s head out.” Pinkie said smiling at Fluttershy before heading for the front door.

“Head out? Where are we going?” Rainbow looked confused at her pink friend.

“We’re going to Fluttershy’s cottage. If we’re going to find any answers I think that’s the first place we need to check.” Pinkie explained as she opened the door.

“Answers? To the nightmares?” Rainbow thought in confusion, “What does this strange place have to do with them? Why are we even here?”

Fluttershy gently put the music box back in the bag as she listened to Rainbow Dash’s questions. She closed the bag, which had a clasp of a blue and pink butterfly. She gently lifted the bag up and placed it on her back to carry with her.

“I…I can’t say for sure what this place is. I think we’re inside Fluttershy’s mind, but at the same time…it feels too solid to just be our imaginations.” Pinkie scuffed the floor softly as she explained, “The only thing I know for sure…is that we need to be ready for anything.” Pinkie opened the front door, stepping outside.

“Let’s follow her,” Fluttershy said smiling at Rainbow, “She seems to know what she’s talking about, so we should follow her till we get our bearings.”

“Oh alright, I suppose that makes sense.” Rainbow said before following after Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy followed the same, stepping out the front door of Twilight’s house.

“H-Hey! What’s with this weather!?” Rainbow cried in confusion. Fluttershy stood in shock.

Ponyville had fallen into a thick fog. No building could be seen past a few feet in front of their eyes.

Chapter 2

Rainbow desperately waved her hoof, but no matter what she did she couldn’t seem to grab hold of the fog. She reared up her hind legs and kicked as hard as she could, but her legs only hit air.

“Ugh! What is wrong with this fog!? I can’t touch it!” Rainbow huffed, stomping a hoof on the ground.

“I’m not sure; it was like this for me too.” Pinkie said looking up at the sky, “I originally tried to escape from here by using my balloon fly out, but it had too many holes in it. I don’t know what’s beyond the fog bank.”

“Well I’m about to find out! If nothing else I should be able to be rid of this fog!” Rainbow said spreading her wings before racing up into the sky, disappearing from sight quickly.

“…Do you think it’s safe?” Fluttershy asked looking at Pinkie curiously.

“Well, if anyone can handle herself its Rainbow Dash. I’m sure she’ll manage to have this place cleared up in ten seconds fla-”

Pinkie’s words were interrupted by a ear shattering roar that bounced and echoed through the town. It felt like the very earth itself was shaking at the roar. Fluttershy and Pinkie instantly looked up into the sky at the direction of the roar, as Rainbow came barreling through the fog at them. The music box in Fluttershy’s bag began to hiss with a sound similar to bees being stuck in the box.

“HIDE NOW!” She yelled loudly before swooping down to grab the hooves of her friends before giving them a chance to register her words. She half-dragged them behind the library when they all heard a tremendous thud shake the ground, as if something gigantic had just landed quickly.

“What’s goi-” Pinkie tried to ask only to have Rainbow quickly shove her hooves into her mouth, giving a loud ‘SHHHH’.

“Look around the corner, carefully.” Rainbow whispered harshly before looking around the tree herself. Pinkie and Fluttershy carefully looked around the corner themselves. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she felt as if her heart could stop at the sight before them.

A gigantic black dragon had landed in front of Twilight’s house. It growled softly as black smoke billowed from its nose. It gave a snort, shooting out a large part of the smoke into the air, as it swiveled its head around, looking for the pony that had just escaped from its sight. It stepped forward carefully examined the building and areas on the street.

It gave another snort of frustration, as its wings opened up, giving them a good flap lifting its body into the sky and causing everything to rattle and shake with the force of the wind. With a few more quick flaps it flew up into the fog filled sky, disappearing from sight. The buzzing of the music box faded away with the dragon.

The three mares stood frozen, waiting until they could no longer hear the beating of its wings, before letting out a long collective sigh.

“What’s a dragon doing here?” Pinkie asked, stepping out from behind the tree, looking up at where it had flown off.

“I don’t know, but it seemed to know exactly where I was the moment I started flying.” Rainbow said looking at her wings, “I can’t go up into the sky and clear this weather away if it knows where we are when I fly…” Rainbow groaned, “Meaning I can’t fly AT ALL and that we’re going to have to deal with this fog.”

“It’s alright,” Pinkie smiled reassuringly, “the fog’s not so bad, once we get inside we’ll be able to see just fine.”

“If you say so. Alright, let’s go Flutters-” Rainbow said turning to look at the ball of pink that was curled up, shivering on the floor. “Fluttershy?” She asked worriedly, quickly running over to her marefriend.

“A-a-a-a….d-dragon t-that…c-chases you…w-when you fly…” Fluttershy stuttered in fear, whimpering and shivering curled up in a ball behind the tree. She was scared out of her wits.

“Hey, hey, come on, it’s alright, he’s gone now.” Rainbow said leaning down nuzzling Fluttershy gently, “He’s gone and he won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Fluttershy began to calm down, feeling the comfort of Rainbow Dash. She stopped shivering, leaning up and nuzzling Rainbow Dash back.

“It’s just one dragon, we’ll get to your house, find out what’s causing these nightmares and we’ll be out of here in no time, okay?” Rainbow said reassuringly to her marefriend.

“Well…” Pinkie said, looking conflicted, “I…don’t want to lie to you two…but…that might not be all we face.”

“What? You mean there’s more?” Rainbow said looking up surprised at Pinkie.

“Well…when this happened to me before…I…I encountered…many monsters.” Pinkie hung her head solemnly, not wanting to have to say this, “It’s…why I didn’t want Fluttershy coming in here alone. I was afraid she’d have to face monsters like I did…and I couldn’t stand the idea of her having to face them alone.”

Fluttershy shrunk back into her ball at Pinkie’s words.

“And you didn’t think to TELL us this when we were discussing the spells!?” Rainbow almost yelled, but holding herself back.

“Hey! I TRIED to get a different spell to be used! I did everything I could to make sure we didn’t have to resort to this! And when we did I refused to let her do this alone!” Pinkie protested to Dash’s accusations.

“You STILL could have told us there’d be monsters!” Rainbow felt her hair standing on end, “We COULD have been more prepared! We could have prepared for facing them or running away! We could’ve brought our elements!” Rainbow growled in frustration, closing her eyes, “We could have done SOMETHING so as to not put our LIVES in danger!”

Rainbow panted heavily. She was angry, she couldn’t remember being so angry before.

“…I’m…I’m sorry…” Pinkie lowered her head, her ears folding back. Rainbow opened her eyes and looked at Pinkie. Pinkie looked like she was on the verge of tears. Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. She was still mad, but she couldn’t stay mad at her friend this way. Rainbow turned her head to look at Fluttershy who had covered her head with her hooves, shaking.

Rainbow was sure she could hear Fluttershy’s soft sobs.

Rainbow sighed softly, walking up to Fluttershy, lying down on the ground before her, lowering her head and nuzzling her marefriend gently. Fluttershy hiccupped softly, trying to breath, her mind still reeling from everything.

“Fluttershy…listen to me please.” Rainbow said closing her eyes, speaking to her from her heart, “This isn’t the best situation we could find ourselves in. But I need you to know, that no matter what happens or what we face, you’re going to be okay.”

Fluttershy began to calm down again, sniffing as she took a deep breath, feeling the comfort of her marefriend. She slowly uncurled from her ball, moving closer to Rainbow, wrapping her head around Rainbow’s neck, as Rainbow nuzzled against Fluttershy’s neck.

“I need you to be strong right now, alright?”

Fluttershy looked up into Rainbow’s eyes, seeing the comfort and warmth they offered. She heard her words as they echoed in her mind. She gulped down the nervous tensions that had built in her throat, before nodding slowly.

“That’s my girl.” Rainbow kissed her forehead. She helped Fluttershy on to her hooves, “Now give me a smile alright?”

It took a moment, but Fluttershy managed to bring her courage forward and put a smile on her face. Rainbow smiled back, before turning to face Pinkie Pie, who was still had the apologetic look on her face.

“Uh…hey, look, it’s alright Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow put a smile on her face for her friend, “I know you meant well…you wouldn’t put us in danger on purpose. But since we’re already here, we might as well just deal with it.”

“…You’re still right Dash…” Pinkie turned her head away from Dash, still with the look of hurt on her face, “I really was a stupid mcstupid pants…” Pinkie let out a soft sigh, before putting a smile on her face, “But I’ll do my best to make up for this and get us out of here as quickly as possible. So let’s head for Fluttershy’s house.”

“Right.” Rainbow nodded smiling, the three mares walking off into the fog.

It seemed like a long walk to reach the outskirts of Fluttershy’s cottage. The town had been deathly quiet. There was a moment or two where they had frozen, thinking they had heard the wing beats of the dragon, but it faded as quickly as it came.

Ponyville had become a ghost town. The only three inhabitants seemed to be the three of them as they made their way out of town, following the path along the park, past the trees, quickly approaching the house where Fluttershy lived.

The air had felt thick between them. None of them had spoken since they had started walking. The only sounds they heard were their hoofsteps and the occasional breeze that seemed to blow through the town.

“Here we are.” Pinkie said as they approached the bridge before Fluttershy’s house, the three of them just barely managing to make out the shape of her house in the fog.

“Do…Do you think my animals are okay?” Fluttershy asked as she looked around, trying to spot any critters.

“I don’t think there’s any around.” Rainbow said looking around herself before crossing the bridge.

“I’m not really sure what determines what you do and don’t find in this world. Honestly I figured we should come to Fluttershy’s house first because ‘home’ was the first place I went. So since this is Fluttershy’s mind it made sense to me. When I was in my mind the path to Fluttershy’s house was blocked off.” Pinkie explained as she walked up to the front door of the cottage, checking for any locks that might be on the door.

“I see…well, I’m actually glad my animals aren’t here then.” Fluttershy smiled walking up to Pinkie, “I’d hate for them to be put in danger.”

Pinkie opened the front door and the three of them entered Fluttershy’s house. To Pinkie’s surprise, the house was intact. Everything that should be there was, nothing was run down or broken, there wasn’t even any dust as if the house had been sitting in time.

“What’s the matter Pinkie? You look surprised.” Rainbow chuckled as she walked further into the house.

“I…guess I am a little.” Pinkie chuckled a little awkwardly as she closed the door behind them.

“So, what exactly are we looking for?” Rainbow asked looking around at the house.

“I’m not sure…I guess anything that seems odd or out of place, something you wouldn’t expect or just a clue as to what exactly is going on.” Pinkie explained as she began to look around at various shelves in Fluttershy’s home.

“Oh…well, I guess I would know best then…” Fluttershy said tapping a hoof to her chin as she carefully glanced around the room.

As Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash carefully looked around the living room, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel a connection to the kitchen. She stepped out of the living room, soon entering the familiar space of her kitchen. She looked around carefully, trying to spot what was giving her the feeling something was in there.

It was then that her eyes fell on the fridge. Attached by a small butterfly magnet was a piece of paper, marked with what looked like a crayon. Fluttershy blinked, not having seen the paper before. She slowly walked up to it, getting a better look at it. It looked like a child’s drawing, drawn with several colors of crayon; it was of a simple house with a sun, outside the house was a happy pony attending to a garden. Bellow the picture there were words written in a red crayon:

When I grow up I will hav a house and lots of pets. I luv love helpin aminals.
I keep a kay key to let me know I will have a house.

There was a small bulge under the paper, as if the paper was hiding something. Fluttershy carefully lifted the paper and looked at the back of it, seeing a key taped to the back of it. She carefully peeled the key away looking at it; the key was also in the shape of a butterfly.

“Hey, how come this door is locked?” Fluttershy’s ear perked up as she quickly walked back into the living room. She saw Rainbow Dash struggling to try and open the door to her closet, which was locked tight.

“Does it have a lock on it?” Pinkie Pie asked turning from her side of the room to look at the door.

“Yea it does.” Rainbow said looking at the door, “It’s got the shape of a butterfly over a keyhole.”

“Oh, well, I just found a key with a butterfly on it.” Fluttershy said holding up the key.

“Then it probably opens that door.” Pinkie said thinking about it, “Though…maybe I should open the door.”

“Why’s that?” Fluttershy asked a little confused.

“Well…I just don’t want anything popping out and hurting you.” Pinkie thought, before looking at Fluttershy’s saddle bag, “But…I guess you’re music box isn’t letting out any noise…so I think it should be safe.”

“My music box?” Fluttershy blinked, turning her head to look at the saddlebag.

“Yea, do you remember when the music box started making noise when the dragon attacked? The music box will let you know when something that is trying to hurt you gets close. So just be careful alright?” Pinkie explained, choosing her words carefully.

“I see…alright, I’ll be careful.” Fluttershy nodded walking up to the door. Rainbow backed up a little from the door, watching as Fluttershy unlocked the door. She slowly opened the door to her closet, looking inside the lightly lit room. She stepped inside slowly, noticing that the things she would normally have placed inside were missing, and in their place was a grandfather clock, with words written on the side of the wall.

My hands are frozen, but they weren’t always this way.
I used to reach for the sky and wave over the crowd,
While my friend to my right offered me his snack.

“What’s in there?” Fluttershy heard Rainbow ask from behind her.

“I think it’s a puzzle.” Fluttershy said thinking about the words and looking at the clock. “I think I know the answer though…” She said carefully lifting up her hoof to the face of the clock. She turned the long hand up to face midnight, while moving the small hand to face three.

Fluttershy heard a loud click, as if something was unlatched by her actions. She looked at the clock, waiting to see what it would do, when it suddenly began to rush up and out of her vision.

Fluttershy let out a cry as she lost her bearings, falling into the giant hole that opened up beneath her

“FLUTTERSHY!” Rainbow Dash yelled, before the hatch that had opened closed.

Wind rushed past her ears, falling in the darkness. She screamed and cried, she had to open her wings and stop her fall, but they were stuck, glued to her sides. Her hooves flailed as she tried to grab something, anything. She descended into the bottomless darkness.

Fluttershy let out a groan as she slowly lifted herself up off the ground. She rubbed her head as her eyes opened. It was too dark, she couldn’t see a thing.

“Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy called out, trying to reach around for something. Only silence returned her call. She felt her saddle bag in her hoof and remembered something she’d seen inside of it. She carefully opened it up before reaching in. She moved the music box slightly to the side before grabbing hold of a lantern in her teeth, pulling it out and turning on the light.

She was in a blank room, the walls seemed to be made of cement worn away by age, the sound of water dripping echoed off of the walls. She looked up at the ceiling; a metal grate was sitting in the way of her trying to fly back up the long shaft she had fallen through.

‘How…did I get through the grate?’ She asked herself, not sure exactly what just happened, ‘And…why am I not hurt if I fell from such a great distance?’ she looked at her body, not seeing any damage or feeling any pain. It was as if landing on the hard cement after falling a great height hadn’t hurt her.

‘I…I need to get out of here. I need to meet back up with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie!’ Fluttershy thought to herself, quickly looking around for an exit. She saw a metal door along the wall behind her.

‘Okay, I just need to get my bearings, find where I am and…’ Fluttershy opened the metal door, revealing to a long hallway, water covering the floor after a small dip in the ground. The walls looks like they were molding over, the channel seemed to stretch and turn.

‘…I have no idea where I am.’ She had never seen this place before. ‘Why is it flooded with water?’ she asked as she slowly began to step into it. It wasn’t very deep, it only came up to about her ankles, but it was enough that the tips of her hair would drag in it. The cool water sent a few shivers up her spine, but she headed forward.

The only sound she could hear was the splashing of her steps as she went down the long hall. The quiet hallways seemed to echo her splashing loudly. The darkness of the hallways being lit only by the light of her lantern sent a chill up her spine. She really hoped she could get out of this hallway soon.

She rounded a corner along the hallway and found herself facing an intersection. The paths branched out to her left and right.

‘…NOW which way am I supposed to go?’ Fluttershy furrowed her brow in frustration and fear. She didn’t want to get lost, not here, not with the idea that monsters could be anywhere.

Her music box began to hiss, letting out the sound of bees buzzing. She grimaced at herself for having jinxed it. The next sound she heard was the slow splashing of steps being taken in the water, each step seemed to slosh around as it go closer. She looked down both paths, she couldn’t tell which way the sound was coming from, and running back would only lead back to the dead end.

Her attention snapped to the left route, when her eyes caught the creature emerging in the light. Her eyes widened as she stared at what was treading through the water.

It was a mannequin, a moving mannequin with no head. Its body looked like it was made of cloth, rotted with age and wear, it had several large seams sewn along it as if it had been put together and torn apart many times, it had several pale, sickly colors and looked like it had trouble walking.

Fluttershy took a step back from the creature; the buzzing of the music box grew louder as it came closer. It reared its front legs up and smashed them down into the water, growing closer to Fluttershy.

Her legs acted on their own, her galloping fast down the right path, getting as far away from the monster as she could. The water kicked up and sprayed across her body as she ran as fast as she could through the hallway. The water was slowing her down, but she could outrun that creature.

She looked behind her as the buzzing of her box grew to a quiet stop. The mannequin couldn’t keep up with her, she was in the clear. She slowed down a little, breathing softly as she turned to look in front of her, stopping just short of running into a wall. She had come to another split in the road. She looked down the right path, not seeing anything unusual.

Suddenly her music roared with its buzzing, as her head snapped to the left, right before her body was hit by two hind legs, sending her flying down the right path. She hit the water with a huge splash as she skidded along the ground. She winced in pain as her skin burned and her chest ached. The lantern had landed just next to her head with a splash in the water, cutting the light from the area.

She groaned in pain, feeling a welt beginning to form on her chest, as she groggily reached out for her light. She managed to grab the handle, lifting the lantern from the water. She could hear the steps of what had attacked her shifting through the water, getting closer slowly. She frantically moved to turn the lantern back on. It gave a few clicks without turning on, making Fluttershy grimace to each click. She desperately turned the knob again and again, praying for it to light up.

The flame came to life illuminating the mannequin whose front hooves now stood raised over her. The legs came down, striking her body.

Fluttershy wanted to let out a scream, but the handle of the lantern in her mouth just caused her to bite down. The hooves of the mannequin scratched against her skin as it dragged its hooves. Pain soared through Fluttershy’s mind as she winced her eyes shut, biting down onto the lantern so hard she began to bleed a little, tears rolling down her eyes as she couldn’t stop her attacker.

“I need you to be strong right now, alright?”

Her eyes shot open as she whipped her head around to look back at the mannequin, it raising its hooves once more to come down hard on her. Forcing every ounce of strength into her hooves Fluttershy swirled her body around before kicking the mannequin with her hind legs.

The mannequin stumbled a tiny bit, forcing itself to put its hooves back on the ground.

Fluttershy internally cursed herself for being so weak, but was able to get back to her hooves. She turned and began to run again, escaping from the tormenting creature. She felt like her lungs were burning, each hoofstep seemed to only intensify the pain in her chest, but she had to keep going.

She rounded another corner, seeing another split before her. The buzz of the music box returning. She swiftly moved her head back and forth, seeing the mannequin trying to head for her, trying to attack her. She wouldn’t let it this time. She turned down the left path and ran away from it.

She looked up ahead of her and saw an opening. She rushed forward, putting all of her might for this one point of escape. She jumped out of the water, landing on dry land as she reached out for the door and opened it, escaping behind it before shutting it.

Fluttershy panted heavily, leaning against the cool steel door. She felt like her chest was on fire, burning from behind tossed around and slammed. She could feel blood trickling down the side of her from where the creature had cut into her, as she felt where she had been hit slowly starting to swell.

She could only let out gasping groans and pants of pain as she tried to breath, her lungs feeling like they might burst with each breathe of air.

There were monsters, just as Pinkie Pie had said there were. Her music box had warned her of the danger of the creatures too. But when she had been struck, she couldn’t find the strength to stand up, she had been willing to lay there and take it. She would’ve let that mannequin do whatever it had intended to do to her…

But a voice struck out in her mind. It was Rainbow’s voice.

She had told her to be strong.

Fluttershy put the lantern down for a moment, wiping the blood from her mouth with her wet hoof. She was soaked; the water had drenched her completely. She needed to dry off and she needed to put something on her wounds. She looked at the room she had just entered.

It was a room similar to one she had fallen into, only this time there was a ladder in the middle of it, leading up into a hole above with a faint light shining down from it.

Fluttershy adjusted her aching jaw, gently spitting out some blood that had been pooling in it. She then gingerly picked up the lantern and turned it off, placing it back in the bag. She rubbed her jaw gently.

‘I…need a better way to get light…’ She thought to herself for a moment, she couldn’t keep holding the lantern with her mouth if she was going to keep biting down on it.

Fluttershy slowly walked over to the ladder, beginning to climb up it one hoof at a time.

The ladder seemed to stretch far into the hole. Fluttershy could barely see the top of the ladder, though she could still see it. A faint light was shining down the hole illuminating her path. The water in her mane and coat felt like it was holding her down, but it was slowly dripping off of her body.

With a few final grunts she managed to pull herself to the top of the ladder, pulling herself to the wooden floor and let herself lay on it, panting as she breathed. Her eyes felt a little heavy, but she couldn’t let herself lose consciousness yet, not till she at least tended to her wounds.

She was in a house, she couldn’t tell whose house it was, but it must’ve been a house in Ponyville. It was small but it was cozy. She grunted as she slowly got to her feet, moving to where she could see a bathroom in the house.

She pulled two towels that were hanging on the wall and placed them against her body. She winced as the cotton landed on the scratches on her back, but bore the pain for the moment. She rubbed the towels against her hair and coat, getting as much water as she could off of her.

Once she felt she was dry enough she looked at her wounds in the mirror. The scratches on her back were deeper than she had thought, but weren’t too serious. What worried her more was the deep blue marks that had appeared on the side of her chest from where she had been kicked. Her teeth were a little red as well, but it only seemed to be minor bleeding, it’d stop on its own.

She looked through the bathroom drawers and found a bottle of antiseptic and a few bandages. With very careful hooves she cleaned her wounds, grimacing and gritting her teeth as the alcohol burned. Once it was cleaned she carefully placed the bandages against the wounds, and wrapped it a few times around her body. A few tears escaped her eyes as she grimaced in pain, but she had to make sure the bandages were on securely.

She panted once the whole procedure was over. She wobbly stood on her hooves and inspected the bandages. They’d do for now, but she needed a serious medical evaluation once she could find a doctor.

Her eyes grew heavy as she slowly wandered out of the bathroom. She couldn’t go outside like this. If she was attacked she wouldn’t have the strength to run away.

Fluttershy wandered to the nearby couch and gently slid her bag off, placing it next to the couch, before getting on top of it and curling up.

‘Rainbow Dash…Pinkie Pie…where are you two…’ Fluttershy thought as she began to close her eyes, a few more tears escaping, ‘Please…I need you two with me…’

“I need you to be strong right now, alright?”

“…A-Alright…I…I promise I will be…” Fluttershy said, holding back her lonely sobs. She had to be strong, she told Dash that she would be.

Fluttershy slowly, but surely, fell asleep.

Chapter 3

Fluttershy snapped awake when a loud explosion rocked the house. A vase that had been placed next to the couch came crashing to the ground, shattering into pieces.

“What was that?!” She asked, moving quickly to get off of the couch.

She instantly regretted the fast movement, twisting her body in a way it didn’t approve as her chest roared at her in pain. She collapsed on the floor, panting as her chest throbbed. For the moment she had forgotten about her injuries. She groaned as she carefully sat up, making sure not to offend her wound. She inspected her dressing carefully.

Her injuries hadn’t bled any more than expected during her sleep and the recovery was about where she would’ve expected it for a bit of sleep. She carefully got to her hooves and took a few steps. She then stretched her wings before wincing slightly and shutting them back closed. She could move, she could walk, she could fly with a bit of pain, but she still wasn’t about to go flying around.

“…How long was I asleep?” Fluttershy asked aloud. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep; her body had done it almost on its own, as if on instinct. “I…I got separated from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie…I should’ve been looking for them, not sleeping.” Fluttershy felt awful for having left her friends alone, even though it was against her will. They were probably worried about her; they must’ve gone to look for her…

“Oh, I hope you two are alright.” Fluttershy tried to not let her worries hold her back, before moving to the front door of the house she was in. The door was locked; she stared at the door in shock. The door was locked from the inside. Above the handle to the door there was a doll shaped symbol hovering over the lock.

“…W-Why is the door locked?” Fluttershy frowned, staring at the door. She had to get back outside and see what was going on. She turned back around to look at the house in closer detail.

It was a small, quaint little house, but it didn’t look like a house that would normally be built in Ponyville. She hadn’t noticed till just now, but the building material was the kind you would find in a cloud city, material that was made specifically for sitting on clouds.

“Huh? This is…a cloud house?” Fluttershy looked around baffled, “But…the only cloud house in Ponyville is Rainbow Dash’s house...” Fluttershy was confused. She didn’t know whose house this was, as it certainly wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s.

She looked at the vase that lay broken on the floor, noticing something unusual about one of the broken pieces. Getting closer, she could see that it wasn’t really a piece of the vase at all, but something that must’ve been inside of the vase when it broke. She carefully picked it up examining the item.

It was a white coin with the shape of a cloud on it, with tiny writing engraved on the edges that read ‘The Floating Cloud’.

She had never been one to take things from other ponies, but something told her that she was supposed to take this with her. Maybe it was Pinkie’s words about what was going on in this place, maybe it was a gut instinct, or maybe it was just something about the coin looking valuable. She carefully placed the coin in her bag before looking back up at the house.

Her eyes drew to movement she hadn’t noticed before. Outside of a door in a hallway in the house there were several moths flying outside the door. This seemed odd to her, the moths seemed to have no reason to be gathering by the door, unless perhaps there was some kind of food behind the door they couldn’t reach. She walked up to the door and carefully pushed it open.

The door gave way, opening up to what appeared to be someone’s study. The moths didn’t seem to move still, confusing her, but she slowly entered the study regardless. The walls were lined with books on various subjects; she could recognize several different topics. Most of them were about cloud building, some were poetry books while others looked like business books. They all shared the same markings though, they were books from Cloudsdale.

Fluttershy slowly walked up to the desk that sat at the end of the room. There was a book open on the desk. Curiosity got the best of her, and she read what was on the open page;

…patient has shown symptoms of a weakened immune system. The case continues to grow more baffling as this now discredits all prior diagnoses of what was wrong. Every step forward causes two steps back. I have to start going through new tests to determine what the cause of her illness is.

I don’t have much time though. Her heart is growing weaker, the muscles are growing thinner the more time passes. I fear it’ll rupture before too long.

I’ll have to start her on another set of medication. She won’t like being on any more drugs, but we have to prolong this for as long as we can.

June 23, 983
Medical Case #1156 –Entry 14-
Dr. R. K. Mandeus

It was a book recording medical cases through the years. The book was open to one of the last entries in the book, recording the case of an unknown disease that had sprouted up before the turn of the millennium. It seemed the book went on to explain more about it in other entries.

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked at one of the pages; it was indented as if something was lying underneath the page. She lifted the page up to look, seeing a small brown coin with the shape of a house on it. Written in tiny text on the coin were the words ‘The Old Home’.

She carefully picked the coin up, placing it in her bag.

She was curious though, as to why the book was open to that particular page. Or why the coin had been hiding just underneath it. She had always seen a lot of medical books around the house and she’d read a lot of them, it’s how she’d become so good at tending to the sick and injured.

Next to the book she noticed something that looked like a long piece of thick string. It was curled up on the desk in a coil, as if waiting for someone to use it.

‘…Oh! Hey, I think I can use this.’ Fluttershy thought as a light bulb felt like it had turned on in her head. She carefully reached into her bag and pulled out the lantern. Her jaw still ached a little from biting down on it, but it certainly didn’t hurt as badly now. She placed the lantern down on the desk, before taking the string and looping it through the handle.

She carefully tied the string into a knot; with it now looping onto itself she had a makeshift necklace. She carefully placed the necklace around her neck, testing the string. It seemed to be supporting the weight of the lantern just fine, the lantern hung just in front of her chest comfortably.

She carefully turned the switch to test out how hot the lantern would get, the flame coming to life. She let it sit on her chest for a moment, then walked around slowly, then jumped around as best she could without making her injuries scream at her.

The flame danced to her movement, but never made the lantern too hot. It felt warm against her coat. The lantern hanging before her gave her good lighting in front of her, though she’d have to turn around if she wanted to see something that was behind her.

“Oh Fluttershy, you’re so smart.” She chuckled softly at her own ingenious. She turned the lantern off for the moment, since the house had plenty of light for her to see, but now she could still have light and not hurt her jaw anymore then she had to.

Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary though. It was just an average study. She turned around and headed out of the room, leaving the rest of it as it was.

She looked up at the moths that still circled outside the study. She was still confused at their flight pattern. Her study of moths showed that they usually preferred to travel following some source of light or near sources of nectar. These particular moths just seemed fascinated with circling around the air before the door.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind for the moment, seeing that in front of her was now an open doorway into the kitchen. She curiously stepped into it, looking at the small but quaint kitchen. She could smell something sweet, turning her head to look at the table, seeing a pie simply sitting on it.

“Who left a pie here?” Fluttershy asked curiously, walking up and looking at the pie. It smelled like an apple pie, thought there was a particular extra scent to it, as if a special ingredient had been added to its making. The scent reminded her…of her mother…

There was someone she hadn’t thought about in a long time. Besides the dreams, she hadn’t thought about her mother in a long time. She felt guilty about that. Her mother had died of a disease when she was young, leaving her and her father to fend for themselves.

“Mother…” Fluttershy quietly murmured, trying to remember her mother fondly. Images of the pink-haired mare flashed through her mind briefly, though for some reason they all felt hazy. As if she couldn’t focus in on the very memories she had of her mother. If she tried to concentrate harder on a memory she remembered liking, it seemed to just haze out even more.

Fluttershy rubbed her head in confusion. She’d never had trouble thinking about her mother before, what was different now? Was it because she was in this strange place? Was it a side effect of Twilight’s spell? It was the only thing that made sense to her…

She looked at the pie longingly, but though it smelled good she couldn’t bring herself to try it. Something just didn’t seem right to her about it being there. She saw something glint next to it though, drawing her attention. Next to the pie was a gold coin with what looked a young mare on it. In tiny writing the words ‘The Trapped Mare’ was written.

She instinctually added it to her bag alongside the others. She still wasn’t sure what possessed her to collect them. She turned from the table and walked out of the kitchen. The house seemed small; she was already outside the last door she hadn’t checked yet. She carefully pushed the door open peering inside.

It was a bedroom, though she could only tell that from there being a bed pressed up against the wall. The only other furniture in the room was a drawer with a glass case on it, and on the front of it appeared to be indentations.

Fluttershy carefully walked up to the desk, getting a better look at it. The indentations were in the shape of coins, with five holes. On the glass case she could see a note that had been taped down:

Only three of five exist in this world,

In the morning, noon and night the quiet wind blows
Through the world, giving the world its shape.

When the sun beats down it brings its heat,
Cold and water disappear into the sky.

Awaiting for those to arrive so that a home can be built
The world awaits, sitting quietly and empty.

It doesn’t take long, they arrive and they build,
What was once empty if now filled.

But though it is filled, it is not filled with joy or fun,
Instead there is a quiet unspoken misery.

Fluttershy read the note twice, thinking about what the note was saying. The drawer had five spots to fill with coins and she had brought three with her. Her instincts had yielded results, but now she just had to figure out what this meant.

She reached into her bag and pulled out the three coins, looking at each and its shape carefully.

‘Okay…when water is evaporated by the heat of the sun it becomes vapor, which the vapor then turns into clouds…’ Fluttershy surmised as she carefully put ‘The Floating Cloud’ in the second spot, figuring the first slot must be empty, similar to the effect of wind.

‘Next…they build a home in the empty quiet…’ Fluttershy thought leaving the spot next to ‘The Floating Cloud’ empty and placing ‘The Old Home’ in the slot. ‘Then that just leaves this coin in this slot.’ She placed ‘The Trapped Mare’ in the final slot.

The desk let out a loud click, confirming that she had done everything correctly. The glass case on the drawer swung open slowly, revealing a small lever inside of it. Curious, Fluttershy carefully placed her hoof on the switch and flipped it.

Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of something moving. She turned her head and saw that a door-shaped hole had opened in the wall that wasn’t there before. Inside was a dimmed staircase that led down into what looked like a basement.

Fluttershy looked cautiously down the staircase, it was dark. She couldn’t see past a few feet down them. Her music box was still silent, so she assumed there was no trouble just yet. She turned the light on her lantern on and began to make her way down.

The walls seemed to be damp as she walked further down into the darkness. There was the faint smell of wet mildew that emanated from the darkness, but she continued to walk further down. She wasn’t sure what would be waiting for her, but the area had been hidden so her instincts told her something was waiting at the bottom.

The stairs flattened out, before opening up into a wide open basement. Fluttershy looked around, taking in the sight of the gray moldy walls. She could hear the sound of dripping water, spotting droplets dripping from the walls and the ceiling. The floor had small puddles of water from where the water had collected Her eyes wandered the rest of the room before noticing something in the corner.

It was a small pony doll. Worn and torn from years gone by, covered in stitches and rotted with age. Fluttershy felt a pang of nostalgia looking at the doll; it was a very similar doll to one she had as a child. However, the one she owned wasn’t so riddled with stitches or aged so badly. It was sitting in a storage box in her house, waiting for the day she’d pass it down to a little filly or colt of her own one day…

Next to the doll was an opened and messy sewing box, spools of thread and needles were scattered around it, as if someone had dropped the case in a hurry and left it there. She figured it must’ve been the case used to help sew the doll back together.

She turned from the doll and kit looking around further, before noticing something glint on the ground. She carefully walked over to it, noticing a key on the ground. She leaned in closer, noticing that the key had the shape of a doll on the end of it.

“Oh, this must be the key to that door.” Fluttershy smiled before picking it up and placing it in her bag, now she could hopefully leave this house and start looking for her friends.

Her ears perked up as she heard a strange noise far off in the distance. It sounded as if a siren was going off, warning the town about something. The sound sent a chill up her back, but she couldn’t explain why. Something was off putting about the sound of the siren, she felt like she had to get out of the basement right away. She turned herself around and began to quickly walk back up the stairs she had just come down from.

But something seemed off, she couldn’t tell what it was right away, but something about the stairs seemed…different from when she had just walked down them.

The smell of mildew was stronger, the steps seemed more slick than they had when she was coming down; the sound of dripping water grew louder, it almost felt like water was coming from everywhere.

Her ears perked up again at what sounded like rushing water. She turned to light up the stairs behind her, hearing the sound from bellow her. Her eyes widened as she saw that water was rapidly beginning to fill the bottom of the stairs. White froth from the bubbles raged at the surface of the rising water as it filled the stairs.

Without wasting a second longer Fluttershy turned on her hooves and began to run, panic coursing through her body pushing her to run as fast as she could. Each of the steps before her were coated with water almost causing her to slip with each rushed step she took. She could hear it quickly filling up behind her, drawing closer as she ran. If she didn’t get back to the top of the stairs, she was going to drown.

Her front hoof slipped, sending her face into the stairs. She yelped in pain, but quickly stood back up trying to shrug the pain off. Her back hoof touched the swelling water and she burst into full panic, her legs stretching out and forcing herself to climb the stairs faster then she ever thought it would be possible for her to do.

‘I should be out of here by now! The stairs weren’t this long! I should be back in the room by now!’ Her mind screamed as she ran. Her chest was yelling at her, screaming that it was being put under too much strain; her face ached with a dull thud. She pushed all that to the side, trying to make it an afterthought, she couldn’t die here, not drowning in some staircase when she needed to find her friends.

The water began to splash against her back hooves, drawing closer still. She panted heavily as her body was struggling to stay away.

The stairwell suddenly made a sharp turn into a large opening, the stone steps being replaced with a metal fire escape, circling around a large open shaft that reached into the sky. Fluttershy couldn’t see where it opened up at, but she wasn’t about to stop. She began to run up the metal stairwell, having to turn every few feet to go up the square-spiraled staircase.

The water was swelling up even faster now, her hooves were doing their best but she could tell that she wasn’t going to be fast enough. Her heart leapt out of her chest and into her throat as breathing became hard from her forced exertion.

The water swelled, the back of her hooves falling into the water. Fluttershy cried and did her best to run, but the resistance and churning of the water instantly slowed her down. The water level rose up her legs, over her body.

Fluttershy took in one last final gasp of breath before the water rushed passed her head, finally submerging her.

She flailed her hooves in the water, trying to reach the surface. She was panicking, the water current was pushing her body and she was having difficulty orientating herself to follow the direction of the rising water. She put everything she could into swimming upwards, but her body was feeling the strain. Her light had gone out when submerged in the water and she was quickly getting disorientated, unable to tell which direction was the right one.

The water swirled around her; it clawed at her body and mind. She could barely think, the world was quickly being lost to her.

Her burning lungs forced her mouth open, the air escaping from her lungs, wanting to be replaced with fresh oxygen, but only water was awaiting her. She was fading and she could feel it.

She wouldn’t be in this world for much longer…

“Come on in, the water’s fine.” Fluttershy smiled happily as she gently floated around the quiet lake, looking at Rainbow Dash who seemed to be hesitant about entering the water.

“Uh…sure, I’ll be right there.” Rainbow forced a smile to her face as she slowly began to put a hoof into the water. She slowly began to walk into the water, though she didn’t tread too far. She kept herself about half a legs length above the water.

“Do you not feel like swimming? Because we could do something else, if that’s what you want to do…” Fluttershy said, slowly swimming next to Rainbow Dash, looking a little worried.

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Rainbow looked away, as if embarrassed, “I can swim…but I’m not very good at it.”

“Oh, is that all? Well I can teach you how to swim better.” Fluttershy said smiling comfortably as she swam up next to Rainbow Dash before standing up in the shallows.

“Well…I’ve never really been much on practicing my swimming. After all, I’ve always been a fast flyer by nature. Water just seems slower in comparison, it’s too heavy to get a good momentum going.” Rainbow furrowed her brow as she kicked the water.

Fluttershy thought about this for a moment, before smiling.

“Well, I can teach you how to use your wings underwater so that its similar to flying. You can actually get going pretty fast if you do the technique right.”

“Really? There’s a way to do that?” Rainbow said rather surprised.

“Of course, though it takes a lot of practice to get right. There are a lot of subtle movements and you’ve got to position your body correctly so the water will drag less as you swim, but it’s possible.” Fluttershy smiled proudly, feeling good about knowing something Dash was interested in that she didn’t know about yet.

“You HAVE to show me! I could incorporate swimming into my tricks if what you say is true!” Rainbow grinned eagerly.

“Of course I’ll show you.” Fluttershy giggled softly before moving back into the deeper waters, “Now watch carefully.” She spread her wings in the water, as she prepared to show off to Dash for the first time.

Fluttershy’s eyes shot open in the dark waters as she spread her wings out. Her hooves flailed around for a moment, before catching the railing on the metal staircase. She put her hind legs on the rail as her wings adjusted, battered by the current, but she could do this.

She kicked off with her back legs and she moved her hooves forward, flattening her body as she began to move rapidly in the water. Her wings bent and moved as they very carefully moved with the rushing water, moving the water around her wings to give her forward movement. She could feel the water rushing all around her, trying to drag her back down.

She began to flap her wings precisely, scooping the water and pushing against it, thrusting herself forward as she slipped gracefully though the water.

Her mind and body reeled and ached and screamed and tried to tear her apart looking for relief from her pain, from the inferno in her chest, from the wounds telling her she had to stop. Nothing could make her stop though.

She gritted her teeth, she narrowed her eyes, she flapped her wings with every last ounce of strength she could muster as she swam up through the dark abyss, looking, no, needing an exit. A dim light filled the edge of her vision and she spread her wings far, grabbing as much water as she could and powering them down to thrust her to the edge of the light.

The loud gasp echoed amongst the sound of splashing water as her head surfaced from the water. She coughed and gasped, hacking and wheezing as she scrambled for an edge to the water, grabbing hold of a floor. She threw both hoofs on the ground holding her up as her lungs accepted the sweet, sweet relief of air.

Her head was throbbing like mad, her body felt like it had been torn apart and every muscle in her body was telling her she was lucky to be alive.

She coughed up water that had entered her lungs. She grimaced unpleasantly as the pain became more and more apparent to her. Her echoing pants bounced back into her ears, making her realize just how lucky she truly was. For a moment she had accepted death as an inevitability, that she would’ve had no choice but to die in that cold watery hell.

…The water was cold. She hadn’t noticed in her panic, but she could feel herself shivering as she floated in the now calm water. She groaned as she pulled herself up, using any strength left to escape the water.

She managed to drag her legs out of the water, before slowly pulling her tail out as well. She lay on the floor panting, drenched in the cold water, breathing heavily as everything ached. She felt her eyelids slowly closing, wanting to drift off into sleep to calm down.

‘…No!’ Her mind snapped at her, forcing her eyes back open, ‘Fluttershy, you just almost drowned! Not to mention you’re drenched in freezing water. If you go to sleep without anyone around you may never wake up again, the oxygen deprivation may put you into a coma and sleeping in this cold could result in hypothermia. You can NOT go to sleep right now!’

She panted as she could feel the onset of her panic returning. Her medical training was coming back to her now, it was fine before when it was just some lacerations and bruising, but this was much more serious. She couldn’t go to sleep, she had just saved her life and she couldn’t let it slip away from her so easily.

She tried to stand up, get back on her hooves. Her legs shook tremendously; she could barely put any weight on them before they slipped from under hoof. She felt her heart rate accelerating, ‘good…stay awake…panic might just be my friend right now…’ she grunted as she did her best to stand. She had to get up, she had to start walking.

With the last of her strength she found her legs and was standing. Her legs were shaking like mad, but she was standing. She very carefully began to shake her whole body, harder than her body’s natural shaking. The water on her coat scattered as best as she could muster, there was no way she could get it all with her being so tired though.

She tried to look around for something to support her, but the light was too dim to see anything. She looked back at the lantern that was still pressed smartly against her chest. She needed the warmth of the flame right now. She clicked at the lantern, flipping the switch several times. She prayed that despite the water logging that it would still work for her.

By some miracle, the flame appeared once more. Somehow the oil and the wick were still useable.

Her head was groggy, shaky as the world seemed to spin around her, but she did her best to get a look at the world. She was in a small square room with a doorway opened to what seemed to be a lobby outside. A large square hole was in the middle of her current room, filled with the water she had just escaped from.

She carefully began to walk out of the room with the cold water into the lobby. Every step made her body shudder and cry, putting her on the verge of collapsing with each step. She needed towels to dry off, she needed to wrap up in something warm, she needed to put some food and drink in her.

She carefully walked towards a desk she saw in front of her. There were three things on top of it that she instantly took notice of. The first was a map of where she was, it read ‘Cloudsdale Hospital’ in bold letters before showing the layout of the two story building.

“…C-Cloudsdale…Hospital?” She stammered out loud unintentionally. She could hear the frailty in her voice, but she had spoken anyway. This hospital was where her father had worked, the best doctor in all of Cloudsdale. He had saved more lives than most other doctors had combined. It was thanks to him that she had learned all the medical knowledge that she had for taking care of animals and other sick ponies.

If she was in a hospital, she was sure she could find all the supplies she’d need to take care of herself…

Fluttershy quickly took note of where the patient rooms were. She’d have to come back to pick up the map, her bag would soak the map and ruin its use for her at the moment.

The next thing she saw on the desk was a bottle labeled ‘Health Drink’. She remembered them from her visits to the hospital, they were a special type of medicine that helped relax and heal the body. She needed that right now.

She carefully unscrewed the top off of the drink, before pouring the contents into her mouth. She chugged the whole bottle hungrily, the mixture tasting a bit like bitter strawberries but felt soothing going down her throat. She finished the drink and gave it a moment to sink in.

Almost instantly, she felt some of her exhaustion begin to wane, the pain that had been screaming at her began to fade, growing numb. Her eye sight straightened more and her mind lost some of the foggy haze that had been floating around in it. She could tell the drink had a pain killer like effect to it, she wasn’t truly feeling better just yet, but it was alleviating the pain so that she could feel better.

It was now, with her head feeling clearer, that she was able to get a look at the lobby for the first time.

The floor was made of rustic steel that was growing some kind of mold; the walls were falling apart from age, mold and being soaked with water. The roof was caving in in many places, the waiting chairs and tables were falling apart, in pieces and torn into shreds. There were overturned wheel chairs and gurneys, some spots on the floor had blood stains on them. The whole room seemed to scream that it was nothing but a vile place.

Fluttershy turned her attention away. She didn’t want to focus on the state of the room; she had to attend to her body’s needs first.

But before she left she read the last thing of notice on the lobby’s desk, a note that looked like it was written hastily in a red pen:

I locked it away
It can’t hurt us anymore
The staring oh, oh Luna the staring
They erected it but it won’t go away,
It’s judging us,
It knows
But it can’t hurt us without it
I locked it away
But should I need it I have this code

H I D E

The note didn’t make any sense to her at the moment but she felt it must be important. She’d come back for it as well.

She stepped away from the counter, taking in her new vigor to move past it and through the double doors behind it. She appeared in a hallway, one she was familiar with from her childhood. Though the place had aged into despair, she still recognized it.

She quickly made it over to the first room she could find and pushed it open. Inside was an examination room, though the cabinets were falling apart and the table looked like it had fallen to disuse, it was still an examination room.

Fluttershy carefully removed her saddle bag from her back and placed it on the table before moving to the broken counters. She found various supplies, fresh bandages, a few more Health Drinks, towels and gauze pads, everything she’d need to get herself feeling back to her top form.

As she began to work delicately on drying herself and applying fresh bandages, she didn’t notice the soft hissing that began to emanate from the music box in her bag.

Chapter 5

Only by putting all of her weight onto it was Fluttershy able to snap the end off of the mop handle. It was just the right size she needed. She gripped it tightly in her mouth, breathing heavily through her nose. Her mind was reeling, her body was fighting her decision, but it was one she’d already chosen to make.

She carefully looked back in the mirror; her body was starting to shake. She carefully raised a hoof up, her body screaming out as it touched the tender spot. She bit down harder on the stick, her breathing was stirring into a panicked breath, the Health Drink had numbed some of the pain, but it couldn’t numb this.

She had one shot to do this right and she had to watch to make sure she did it right, she couldn’t close her eye. Her heart throbbed in her throat; she could hear every fast and deep breath she took, her hoof positioning itself just correctly. She readied herself as best she could, and then in a swift motion moved her hoof.

CRACK

Fluttershy screamed into the broom handle like she’d never screamed before, the pain was instant and intense, like red-hot knives piercing the back of her mind. Her body collapsed once more as fresh tears poured out of her eye. She panted heavily, laying there as she tried to recover from the pain.

She lay there, twitching as her wing throbbed constantly now, in more pain then it had been before. She forced herself to stand up, to look at it in the mirror; she had to make sure she had snapped it back into place correctly.

Through one eye she looked at the wing carefully. Despite it being covered in blood, hurting like she’d never felt pain before, she could see that the wing was in the correct shape it should be. She’d managed to snap it back correctly. She prayed that would be enough to keep it useable once it finished healing.

She laid down onto her back and held her injured wing straight as best she could. Only having one hoof to mend her wound was a pain, but she could work around it. She carefully placed the stick on the wing to keep it straight, hoping it would also help in making sure her wing healed. She carefully grabbed the bandages, and proceeded to wrap her wing with the stick.

It was excruciating, but once her wing was wrapped, she’d finished taking care of her wounds.

She panted heavily as she carefully picked herself up, looking back into the mirror to see everything that she had done.

Her face was half covered now, wrapped in bandages so only her good eye was visible. Her hoof was bandaged and now raised in a sling that had been carefully tied around her neck, just below her lantern so that both could fit around her neck. Her body had been rewrapped for the third time as well to make sure the first wounds she had received were healing well. And finally her wing was wrapped in a makeshift cast that she had managed to get to lay flat against her body.

She sighed at the state her body was in. She had a hard time believing that this was real, yet there would no doubting the pain she felt.

“…If…If Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie are hurt…could…could they take care of their wounds?” Fluttershy frowned, looking at herself, “Rainbow Dash is reckless…but she’s also strong…she might be alright, she could fight back against the monsters here…but Pinkie Pie…” She shook her head, “No…Pinkie Pie’s done this before…a-as hard as that is to believe…she…she’ll be fine too.

“Both of my friends are fine.” She smiled to herself in the mirror, trying to force herself to be reassured, but it wasn’t working well. She frowned again, before looking away from herself, “I…I hope they are…”

She turned and looked at her surroundings. She had wound up in a bathroom after the lift ride, though it seemed the effects of the drenched, rotting world had been left behind for the moment. The bathroom looked like it had fallen to disuse, but nowhere near the levels the hospital had. She had found a mop in the corner of the room, though it hadn’t looked like it’d been used in ages.

It was time for her to leave though; she had to go find her friends.

She carefully slipped the saddle bag back onto her back, and very carefully coordinating her three hooves, walked out of the bathroom.

She walked out into a cool breeze, wincing a little as the cold air bit against her freshly bandaged wounds. She looked out as best she could to see where she was, but it seemed that night had fallen, shrouding the world in a veil of darkness.

‘H-Has it really been half a day?’ Fluttershy asked herself in shock. She hadn’t felt that much time pass, but maybe because of her condition she was having difficulty with being a good judge of time.

She carefully turned her lantern on and it illuminated the path before her. There was a dirt road before her, open wide at first, before narrowing into a forest. She looked around, noticing the building she had walked out of. She knew where she was.

It was the boat-house that sat on the edge of Crystal Lake just outside of Ponyville. That meant she was only a short walk away from Ponyville, she could be there in just a minute or two.

“Hold on Rainbow Dash…Pinkie Pie…I’m coming to find you.” Fluttershy said determined, before moving as quickly as she could down the path to Ponyville.

She was having trouble coordinating three hooves correctly, especially with trying to trot into town. She was wobbly on her legs, most likely a side-effect of not having rested enough, but she kept going forward. Her determination to see her friends was the strongest factor driving her mind right now.

Twigs in the forest snapped, strange noises crept through the leaves, she swore she could hear soft wails in the distant trees. But she forced her mind off of the sounds. She had to move past them, move into Ponyville.

The path began to open up before her, the dirt path quickly being replaced by the stone streets of Ponyville, the trees spreading apart as she saw the first signs of the homes in Ponyville. She smiled to herself as she returned, happy to be back in a place that seemed more normal than where she had been for the last half a day.

Her music box began to hiss, stopping her in her tracks.

‘Oh no…they’re here too…’ Fluttershy gulped as she looked into the night, trying to see what was causing her music box to hiss.

Sliding into view around the ground before her came a creature. It was in the basic shape of a pony; however this creature seemed to be no older than a filly reaching marehood. It’s body was completely hairless, the skin of the creature looking as if it had been deeply bruised all over, many parts of the skin dead or dying with other parts seemed fresh and healthy in comparison. It’s ears were folded down, melded with it’s face in such a way that it’s eyes were covered. It’s long legs pushed its body against the ground, its front hooves seemed to be strapped down on its back, as if tied down with its own skin, melding it with its body.

As the creature crawled around, it let out a strange, screeching cry, not unlike that of rusted metal grinding, unpleasant to the ears, but yet a sad wailing cry…

Fluttershy gulped as the creature seemed to push itself all over the place, unable to move in a straight line. Her instinct was to feel sympathy for the creature, her gut told her it was a creature to be pitied, that it needed her help…

Then an image of the dark creature appeared in her mind.

She carefully stepped around, slowly getting away from the creature, before running deeper into town. She slipped away from the creature, her music box finally going back to silence. She panted softly, looking over her shoulder to the direction she had left the creature.

It didn’t seem to be able to follow her, which didn’t surprise her considering it didn’t seem capable of moving in a straight line. She let out a soft sigh, grateful that she could avoid the creature, she really only had enough bandages left to wrap one more wound at best and she didn’t know when she would need it.

She carefully began to look around, trying to focus on the buildings around her. She blinked her eyes to gain more focus, if she knew where she was in Ponyville, she could navigate her way around.

She carefully moved her head around to look, careful not to harm her injuries, as a blur moved across her vision.

“Huh?” She said, quickly turning her head back to the blur. In the distance, as if glowing white like an angel, was the image of a young filly.

Fluttershy stared at the filly, not sure what to say or if to speak up. She wasn’t even sure if it was real or not, but it was a filly just standing in the middle of nowhere.

The little filly let out a giggle before turning around and running away from Fluttershy.

“H-Hey! Wait! It’s dangerous out here!” Fluttershy cried out, her instincts acting to quickly chase after the filly. “Come back! You shouldn’t be alone!”

If the filly could hear Fluttershy, she didn’t seem to be listening. She just continued to run, turning down a street. Fluttershy followed as quickly as she could, but she was slow and stumbling now, she cursed at herself for having let herself get so injured when she needed to help an innocent foal right now.

Her music box hissed as from the darkness crawled out another one of the monsters that pushed itself along the ground. Fluttershy ran past it, making sure to avoid even touching the creature. Her whole body was telling her she had to catch up to this filly.

The filly turned down another street and Fluttershy followed as best she could, nearly toppling over as she slowed herself down with her three hooves. She quickly paced down the street, when two of the monsters burst forth from the darkness causing her music box to wail.

These two seemed to be heading straight for her, with no time for her to move out of the way. She gulped before quickly jumping. The two creatures wriggled their way past her as she landed behind them.

She thanked Celestia for having avoided them, before returning her sight to the filly. The filly made one last turn, not down a street, but into a house. Fluttershy felt grateful that the filly had gone inside, but she still had to make sure the little filly would be alright.

Fluttershy quickly drew closer to the house, looking it over before gasping.

The house was in terrible condition, it didn’t look like it had been used in years. The windows were boarded, the walls were black, holes littered its frame, the gentle breeze caused it to groan very slightly.

Fluttershy gulped, getting a bad feeling from the house. However, the filly had gone inside of the house, she couldn’t leave the poor thing alone.

She very carefully walked up to the door and pushed it open, her lantern illuminating the insides.

The door opened up to a decrepit living room, the furniture had long ago been eaten by insects, the table lay in pieces on the ground, most of the doors were sealed off with wooden planks the floor was covered in a thick layer of dust.

Fluttershy slowly walked into the house, her every footstep made the house creak and groan, as if struggling to hold up her weight.

She looked around the living room, every doorway on the floor she was on was completely sealed, there would be no way for her to get through any of them. On top of that, she couldn’t see a single sign that the filly had entered the house.

She turned her attention to the stairs, the only path that hadn’t been barred off by wooden planks. If the filly had gone anywhere, she must’ve gone upstairs.

Fluttershy slowly made her way to the staircase, looking up its length. She very carefully began to climb it, testing each step to make sure it’d hold her, as she then worked on climbing the stairs with just three hooves. She found herself doing surprisingly well.

Despite the creaking, the moaning and the constant threat of collapse, she made it to the top of the stairs.

She looked around, to her left was a door that was blocked off by more wooden panels, to her right was…

Fluttershy blinked in confusion. The imagery before her seemed to clash with the rest of the house.

The section of the floor right before a door had turned into a red, rusted metal, the door made of the same material. The wall seemed to be stretch out in a circle around the door, making the walls rotting and falling apart while just behind the holes in the wall was a chain-link fence, as if they were holding the walls together.

The area gave her the sense that it was supposed to be like a cage…

Fluttershy gulped before walking up slowly to the door. She didn’t know what was behind the door, but something told her she had to look inside, that she had to find out what was in this room. She carefully put her hoof up to the door, took a deep breath for courage, and pushed open the door.

The first sound that came to her ears was panting. Loud, exasperated panting. Her eye focused on the image before her, her sight recognizing two different hues of pink in the shape of a pony. It had to be…

“P-Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy called out to her friend. The panting stopped as the pink form seemed to freeze right in front of her. It slowly turned; as Pinkie’s wide blue eyes came into view, looking to stare at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy let out an audible gasp as she instinctively took a step back. Pinkie Pie was covered in blood. Her mane was straight and her cheeks were wet with tears she’d been crying. Fluttershy’s eyes immediately tried to spot or identify a wound…but she didn’t see one. The blood on Pinkie hadn’t come from her, it had come from…

Fluttershy’s eyes moved down to the ground. Laying on the ground, in a pool of her own blood…was Pinkie Pie. Though this Pinkie was different…the hair was curly like Pinkie’s normally is, but it was wearing a multi-colored leather dress with varying wings on the back…

“Flu…Flu…F-Flutter…shy?” The standing Pinkie seemed to gasp, as if finding difficulty breathing.

“Pinkie Pie…what…what happened?” Fluttershy asked in shocked disbelief. She could barely make out the scene before her. Why were there two Pinkie Pies…and why was one dead?

“F-Fluttershy…” Pinkie hiccupped as fresh tears began to spill down her cheeks, “Is…Is that…r-really you?”

“…O-Of course it is…Pinkie Pie…why…why are you…” Fluttershy couldn’t finish her sentence. The words were refusing to come out, she couldn’t think of how to speak what she needed to say properly.

“Fluttershy…why…why are YOU…” Pinkie choked on her words, as she desperately rubbed her face of her tears, “Why are you…why are you so hurt!?” Pinkie twisted her head, as if saying those words struck pain into her.

“W-What?” Fluttershy asked confused, before looking down at her hoof in the sling. She was hurt…but at the moment she didn’t care about that, she cared about what was happening with her friend…

“I’m fine Pinkie Pie, but please, tell me-“

“You’re NOT fine!” Pinkie interrupted her with a yell. Fluttershy took another step back in shock; she’d NEVER heard Pinkie yell like that before, “Fluttershy…” Pinkie visibly shook as more tears came from the pink pony, as her blue eyes looked at her once more, “Your face is swollen and covered in bandages, your hoof is in a sling, your body is wrapped up and…a-and your WING IS IN A CAST!” Pinkie then snapped her head away from looking at Fluttershy as she sobbed hard.

Fluttershy was speechless. It was true; she was in very bad condition at the moment.

But…

But seeing her pink, party loving, fun having friend sob and cry while covered in blood didn’t feel right to her. She wanted to help Pinkie Pie more than she wanted to help herself.

“…Pinkie Pie…” Fluttershy mumbled softly, as if trying to find the right words to comfort her friend.

“This…This is all my fault…” Pinkie visibly shook as she cried, “I shouldn’t have let this happen. I should’ve protected you; I should’ve been there…” Pinkie hiccupped and gasped for breath, “I should’ve known better than to let Twilight do this…”

“Pinkie…you…you couldn’t have possibly known things would happen this way…” Fluttershy offered her words to Pinkie.

Pinkie seemed to stop shaking for a moment, before she began to shake again, though this time it was different. Pinkie…Pinkie was laughing. Fluttershy grimaced a little, this wasn’t a fun loving laugh, this was…this was the laugh of a mare whose mind was breaking.

“Oh…Oh that’s to laugh.” Pinkie tried to smile, but her mouth wobbled as she rubbed her face, “I’ve been through this before…I’ve done this once before and I…I know how horrible this place really is.” Pinkie shook her head, “But despite that…despite knowing everything I do, I let us get brought here anyway!” Pinkie let out a single laugh, before the smile she was trying to have vanished from her face as she hung her head.

“…Rainbow dash was right…” Pinkie mumbled quietly, “…If I…If I had really cared…I wouldn’t have said nothing…I would’ve told you everything that happens when you come here…I wouldn’t have tried to hide the truth for the sake of protecting you all from what I experienced…no…I didn’t speak up because I was selfish, because I only cared about myself…and so I let this hell fall upon you Fluttershy…”

Fluttershy’s mouth fell open as she tried to speak. She didn’t honestly believe any of Pinkie’s words. But she couldn’t say anything that would make her friend not believe them. Her mouth closed as she frowned, she felt so helpless…

Pinkie’s head slowly turned to look at the corpse of herself that still lay on the ground. Something about that body seemed to spark something inside of Pinkie Pie.

“But…But that doesn’t mean I’m going to just let my friends die!” She stood up, almost as if she was yelling at the dead Pinkie, “I REFUSE to be the reason they die! So long as I have strength in my body I will NOT let any of my friends fall victim to this world any longer! So long as I have a single breath of air in my body, I will fight this world with everything I have so that they can live!”

Pinkie was angry. She was panting heavily as she yelled at the corpse. In this one moment she had never seen Pinkie go through so many emotions, emotions that gave Pinkie’s words truth behind everything she said. The words were all personal, words that she had to speak from her heart.

Pinkie slowly turned away from the corpse, looking at Fluttershy with a glare. Fluttershy flinched. Pinkie’s stare softened when she saw the fear she was putting into her friend. Pinkie rubbed her face one more time as she tried to put on a soft but sad smile.

“Come on Fluttershy…let’s…let’s get out of here.” Pinkie said slowly walking towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy could only just softly nod, as she turned around and opened the door back up, walking out back into the abandon house’s hallway, slowly followed by Pinkie Pie.

“So…what brings you here?” Pinkie asked quietly, not looking directly at Fluttershy, but at the hallway before them.

“W-Well…” Fluttershy tried not to stumble over her own words, “I found my way back to Ponyville after getting separated…a-and then I saw a filly run into this house…I-I was looking for that filly when I found you…” Fluttershy explained quickly.

“So you saw a filly run in here?” Pinkie asked making sure she understood. Fluttershy nodded her head, “…Did you find her yet?” Fluttershy shook her head, “…Then we should try and find her. If there’s one thing I’ve come to realize…things don’t just happen without a reason here.” Pinkie said as she began to walk further down the hallway of the second floor.

Fluttershy slowly followed after Pinkie Pie. There was silence between the two mares. Fluttershy wanted to speak up, she wanted to say something, but the words only got caught in her throat. She felt like Pinkie Pie was portraying herself as a monster…

But she knew Pinkie Pie wasn’t a monster…she was a caring friend, who more than anything, loved her friends…

Pinkie checked a door, only to find it locked. She seemed to scrunch her face at the door, before letting it go and continuing on, leading the way.

Fluttershy watched Pinkie Pie as she moved. She seemed to scrutinize small details, looking at her surroundings with intensity. She looked like she didn’t want to miss a single detail of anything in the house. She seemed determined, focused, like nothing was going to stop her from the mission she had set herself out to accomplish.

Fluttershy’s ear perked up as her heart suddenly dropped. She could hear it…

She could hear the siren blaring in the distance.

“P-Pinkie Pie…do you hear that?” Fluttershy asked, terrified of the sound.

“Hear what?” Pinkie asked, instantly putting her focus on Fluttershy.

“…You don’t hear it?” Fluttershy asked surprised, “T-Then maybe it’s my imagi-“

“Fluttershy, don’t ever assume anything here is your imagination!” Pinkie said, emphasizing the word ever, “Tell me what you’re hearing!”

“I…I hear…a s-siren…” Fluttershy mumbled quietly.

Pinkie’s pupils shrunk, as if in instinct.

“Fluttershy…stay very close to me. Don’t leave my side, alright?” Pinkie said very seriously. Fluttershy nodded her head softly, as Pinkie turned back around before continuing down the hallway.

At the end of the hallway they came to another door. Pinkie put a hoof up to it and the door swung open.

Inside the room was a surprise. The shape of it was well taken care of; there was a new beige carpet with white walls all around the room, the room being lit fairly well. On one side of the room was a giant mirror that seemed to encompass the whole wall.

Pinkie entered the room first, scrutinizing it carefully. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the room, there was a small bed in the corner and desk with drawers. On one of the walls next to the window was another door, looking similar to a closet.

Pinkie walked over to the desk and examined it, seeming to be looking for something, opening each of the drawers for a clue or answer.

Fluttershy slowly walked into the room as she turned off her lantern. She had been expecting scenery similar to the kind she had seen at the hospital, everything drenched with water, rotting and falling apart…but the room was remarkably serene. Something about it gave her a sense of calm…

“Nothing…” Pinkie Pie muttered staring at the desk confused. She then turned her attention to the closet door and walked over to it. She opened the door and saw a small, walk-in closet that was lined with some clothes and boxes. She stepped inside to investigate for clues.

Fluttershy sat down, looking at herself in the mirror. She really did look a mess. She’d managed to avoid getting most of her hair in the bandages, so it was helping to hide the bandaged side of her face, but she still couldn’t believe just how much damage she had taken from her encounter at the hospital.

“…You’ll be okay…” Fluttershy said to herself, raising a hoof up to touch the mirror.

The mirror began to become translucent, as Fluttershy let out a shocked gasp. On the other side of the mirror, in a room similar to the one she was in, sat Rainbow Dash, staring at the mirror.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cried out, pressing her hoof harder against the mirror.

“Rainbow Dash!?” Pinkie cried out from inside the closet. She instantly moved to exit the closet, when the door slammed shut on her face. She stared in shock at the door, as she tried to force it open, but it was locked tight.

“NO! NO YOU LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW!” Pinkie yelled as she banged on the door. She banged so hard she could feel pain begin to soar through her hooves.

Fluttershy couldn’t believe that Rainbow Dash was on the other side of the mirror. She tried to bang her hoof against the mirror, but Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to hear her. Rainbow Dash was just staring blankly back at her from the other room opposite the mirror.

“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! RAINBOW DASH!” Fluttershy cried out desperately trying to get her marefriend’s attention. She banged against the mirror as hard as she could, her hooves beginning to bruise with each strike. But Rainbow Dash just sat there, looking confused at the mirror before her.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed. Fluttershy gasped as the light grew dimmer, her hoof quickly moving to her lantern to turn it on. The bright light blinded her as it reflected off the mirror, as she was no longer able to see through it or Rainbow Dash with the light on. She quickly turned the light back off, looking back into Rainbow’s room.

The door at the back of Rainbow’s room opened, though Rainbow still didn’t move. Darkness was creeping into the room from the open door, washing in as if it was mist.

Fluttershy’s heart sank. From the doorway flared a pair of familiar red eyes.

Fluttershy banged on the mirror again and again, crying out as loud as she could, “RAINBOW DASH! BEHIND YOU!”

The dark creature opened its mouth, revealing its wretched white mouth as it slowly walked closer to the sitting Rainbow Dash. But Rainbow Dash didn’t move. She only seemed to tilt her head in confusion looking at the mirror still.

“NO! STOP! PLEASE! DON’T HURT RAINBOW DASH!” Fluttershy begged as tears began to stream down her face, her hoof starting to hurt from how hard she was banging on the window.

The dark creature stood right behind Rainbow Dash, its white mouth grinning at her as her heart stopped beating, Fluttershy looking right up into its face.

The dark creature opened its mouth in a bigger grin. Fluttershy’s heart sunk further into her gut. The dark creature raised its mouth higher.

Then, it brought its mouth down hard on top of Rainbow Dash.

The mirror turned bright, forcing Fluttershy to shield her eyes from the sudden change. She adjusted her eyes as best she could, as she looked up at the mirror.

A soft, sad, music box lullaby began to play as images started to dance across the mirror.

“D-Don’t worry…A-Ashley…I-I’ll…f-fix you up…” the image was a crying, very young, filly Fluttershy. Her pony doll had been torn to pieces, the stuffing spread all around her. The filly was very carefully pushing the stuffing back inside of the torn up doll, before taking a threaded needle and starting to very slowly, very shakily, sew the torn pieces back together.

A splatter of blood struck the window, making the image turn red, before the image changed.

“Mother…” Filly Fluttershy called out softly to her mother who was lying in her bed. The older mare’s head seemed to almost snap, as if looking in anger at the child. Fluttershy shook at the sight, never having seen her mother look so angry at her before. But the look of the older mare soon softened, as she looked at her child. She was tired.

“What is it my child?” She asked, though exhaustion was apparent in her voice.

“Dad…wanted me to see if you wanted anything to eat…” Fluttershy whimpered softly.

“Hah…food to eat.” Her mother said with sarcastic bitterness, turning her head to look out the window of her room, “What’s the point of eating. It burns my throat and makes me sick.”

“B-But…you n-need to eat mother…” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Oh, I DO do I?” The older mare glared angrily at her daughter.

Another splatter of blood struck the window, causing the image to turn red once more, before the images changed once more.

A smack rang out loud, as Filly Fluttershy tumbled from her sitting position on the table. Tears sprang to the edges of her eyes as she looked up at what had just struck her; the nurse pony was glaring at her.

“Now tell me again…how did you break your wing?” She snapped at the little filly who was crying.

“I…I…” Fluttershy gulped as she tried to breath, “I…f-fell while…t-trying to fly…”

“That’s right.” The nurse said then walking over to Fluttershy and picking her up, sitting her back down, “You broke it trying to fly. You silly filly,” The nurse said as if trying to be patronizing to her, “You need to be much more careful when you try flying. It can be very dangerous to fly.” The nurse nodded her head slowly, “Now let’s freshen that cast.”

Fluttershy could only cry more, the cast on her wing seemed to be digging into her skin.

A third splatter of blood struck the window. The images turned dark, the mirror seeming to turn into a fire of darkness. The mirror burned up completely, disappearing without a trace.

Fluttershy sat in the dark, tears streaming from her eye. She was sitting in the pitch black room now, unable to see anything.

She carefully moved her hoof up to her lantern, before hesitantly turning it on.

The light lit up the room before her. Blood stained the carpet and the walls, but there was no sign of Rainbow Dash or the dark creature. The smell of blood and mildew struck her next, as she could hear the dripping of water all around her. The room was now rotting, drenched, she had returned to that world, the world separate from Ponyville.

She had returned to the Otherworld.

She very slowly stood up, lifting her hooves over the wall where the mirror used to exist. She carefully walked around the bloodstain that was all over the floor. She couldn’t see a single remnant that told her Rainbow Dash had been here, only the blood stains that scoured the room.

She hiccuped before gulping, praying that Rainbow Dash hadn’t just been killed before her eyes. But without a body there, she prayed that she could still be alive.

Fluttershy walked up to the door in Rainbow’s room, and saw something written on blood on the door,

Deep within there are secrets laid to rest
But we cannot hide forever from the sins of our past
What once was lost will now be found
Blood-stained hooves will rise once more

Fluttershy couldn’t help but realize, the words were meant for her. That the images she had just seen were only the beginning. Once she stepped through that door, she was going to learn…

Learn exactly what those images meant.

With a deep breath, and gulping down the heart beating in her throat, she opened the doors and walked inside.

Chapter 6

The hallway was dark and long, it was old, it was covered with mold as it rotted at its core, water fell down the sides of the wall in small streams, the floor had a small pool of water lying all about.

The hair on the back of Fluttershy’s neck stood on end, but she walked forward into the darkness.

Every step echoed off the walls, her hooves splashing against the water on the floor each time she passed a puddle. She didn’t know where she was or where the path was going. She didn’t know what happened to Pinkie Pie, she didn’t know what happened to Rainbow Dash.

She only knew that she had to go forward right now.

The hallway turned, Fluttershy followed it. It turned again, she turned as well.

The water was growing deeper, soon each hoof was splashing through water with every step she took. She stumbled for a moment, adjusting herself to walking through water with only three hooves, but she managed to catch herself.

The hallway turned once more, Fluttershy went along, the long winding corridor seemed to be leading her, guiding her to where it wanted to take her. She almost had no choice in the matter, even if she wanted to she could feel that there was no going back now that she had come this far.

Once she had crossed that doorway, there was no turning back.

Just before her the path opened up and split. A path to her left, a path to her right, and in the middle stood a door right before her.

The door was different though, it wasn’t made of the same rotting material as the other doors she’d seen, or of rustic metal or anything that would fit in with the drenched world she found herself in.

The door looked exactly like the door to her house back in Ponyville, in great condition despite the environment.

She carefully walked up to the door, pushing it open as she walked into the room it led to.

“Well, this is the best place I can think of.” Rainbow Dash said while flying with Fluttershy to the outskirts of Ponyville to a small empty cottage stood close to the edge of the Everfree Forest, an old ‘For Sale’ sign stood before the property. “No one wants to live here since it’s so close to the Everfree Forest, but with your love of animals that might work out for you.”

“Wow…its looks great.” Fluttershy smiled quietly, walking up to the house.

Fluttershy opened the door and looked inside. The house was dusty from disuse, but everything appeared to be in good condition still. It even came with furniture wrapped in cloth, waiting for someone to unwrap them for use once more. Fluttershy wandered the home as Rainbow Dash entered the house after her.

She could see everything she could do with the home, she could make spots for animals to live, she could set up the closet to hold her supplies, she could set up several soft chairs for resting and tables for eating, the kitchen seemed to have everything she’d need to cook the perfect meals and water was still running in the bathroom.

“Oh Rainbow Dash…it’s perfect.” Fluttershy smiled happily returning to the living room.

“You like it huh? Alright, then I’ll buy it for you.” Rainbow grinned. Fluttershy looked at her speechless.

“Oh, no, I could never ask you to do that! It’s so much money…I-I can work to pay for it myself.” Fluttershy fumbled her words.

“Don’t worry about it. This house is like, dirt cheap right now and I make plenty of money from my job here. Heck, there’s even talk of promoting me!” Rainbow waved her hoof at Fluttershy, trying to dismiss her worries.

“B-But…s-still, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me.” Fluttershy frowned, not wanting to take so much of Rainbow’s charity, it was a huge investment just for her, she didn’t feel worthy of it.

“Hey, just think of it as my apology for running out on you at school.” Rainbow weakly smiled, “So in return, you make this house your perfect home, alright? I know you had one in mind, you used to speak about it all the time when I last saw you.” Rainbow chuckled.

Fluttershy stared at the mare before her, still stupefied. She slowly looked around at the house once more.

‘The perfect home…’ she thought to herself, ‘Something I never had as a filly…but…I have the ability to make come true now.’ She smiled softly as she felt tears begin to form gently at the edges of her eyes.

“…I will…” Fluttershy wiped her eyes gently, turning to face Rainbow Dash, “I’ll make this…my perfect home.”

The room dimmed from the bright light that had filled her vision. The memories had flooded her vision before she had a chance to prepare for them. But now that the memories had faded, she could see the room for what it was. The room was laid out similarly to her living room, though it looked like it had when she moved in, covered in dust with cloth covering all the furniture.

Fluttershy was silent. She wasn’t sure what to make of the images she had just seen. It was her memory of moving into Ponyville after she had come to find Rainbow Dash. They had an amazing reunion and when she told Dash she was going to move to Ponyville, Dash helped her so much in finding a place to live.

“…That memory…I don’t…I don’t remember…thinking that…I didn’t have a perfect home before…” Fluttershy speaks softly, surprised by her own thoughts. She didn’t doubt that she felt that way, but she couldn’t remember why she would feel that way about her home.

A glint of light caught her eye as she turned to look at the back wall of the room; something was hanging from the wall.

She quickly walked up to the item, seeing that it was a key with the mark of a butterfly on it. Not sure what to make of it, she carefully picked it up and placed it in her bag.

She exited the room, stepping her hooves back into the few inches deep waters of the hallway. She now had a choice, go down the hallway to her left, or the one to her right.

Taking a guess, she began to walk slowly down the left path, listening to the sloshing over her hooves as she walked. She didn’t walk to far before she stopped, staring at what was standing perfectly still in the path, blocking her movement.

A mannequin seemed to be frozen in place on the path. It was just sitting there, her music box wasn’t making a sound and it didn’t seem to have a desire to attack her, but it just seemed to be waiting for her, blocking her path forward.

She carefully stepped backwards away from the creature, it soon disappearing from her sights once more. She turned herself around and began to head down the right path, wanting to stay away from any path that led to monsters if she could avoid it.

The right path wasn’t that long though, as it came to a rather abrupt end not too far away from the fork. However, at the end was another door, though this one was different. It wasn’t like the door to her cottage, this time the door reminded her of the ones she would see back at flight school.

She took in a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open, heading inside.

“Now you listen to me.” Her father said gruffly as the two of them stood outside of the Flight School in Cloudsdale, “It’s required for you to go to school so you’ll go everyday they have it. You’ll do everything your teachers tell you, and you’ll come straight home unless you ask permission to do otherwise. And if you’re good, I’ll likely allow your request.” He sounded very stern, “But every other rule from home still applies. You don’t talk unless spoken to; you don’t tell anyone anything unnecessary; you obey everything the adults say unless I overrule them. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes sir…” Filly Fluttershy squeaked her response, never looking her father in the eye, keeping her head low.

“If you understand then I’ll see you at home later tonight.” He said turning away from her, spreading his wings out and flying off. For the first time, Fluttershy lifted her head to look at her father flying away. Even from there she could see the scalpel that adorned his flank as he flew off.

She let out a soft sigh, thankful he had left. She looked up at the school before her. There were lots of young and old pegasi flying into the building, many were hugging and saying goodbye to their parents, many were meeting up with their friends, and many looked reluctant to head into the school.

It was the first day of school. Fluttershy was happy that she’d finally have a reason to be somewhere else other than home or the hospital. But the faces of so many pegasi she hadn’t met before intimidated her. She was scared of them.

She gulped down the lump in her throat and slowly began to walk into the school. It seemed almost every other pegasi was flying inside, she felt like she stood out like a sore hoof walking into the building.

But there was a spark of hope in her heart that hadn’t been there before.

Light faded from the room as the memory came to an end. The room she was left in looked like an abandoned school hallway, though cut off short by a suddenly erected wall. Rusted lockers lined the walls as a broken clock hung over them; the entire area was covered with dust from disuse.

‘…Was my father…always that stern?’ Fluttershy wondered to herself, not having realized her father had talked down to her like that, ‘…and…I was afraid of him…but…why was I…afraid of my father?’ she asked herself unable to find the answer within her memories.

Then she realized what was going on.

“Deep within there are secrets laid to rest…” Fluttershy murmured, remembering the puzzle on the door, “This…This place is showing me…memories I forgot…or…or more accurately…memories I suppressed…” Fluttershy felt a lump form in her throat.

‘If I forgot about these memories…I must’ve forgotten about them for a reason…’ Fluttershy did her best to gulp the lump that had formed in her throat. She walked carefully to the back of the room, noticing that the key was sitting there. She carefully picked it up, examining it. The key had the shape of a cloud on it. She carefully placed the key in her bag, before exiting the room.

Her hooves returned to the water-filled hallway once more. She hestitated for a moment, but she headed down the hallway to where the mannequin had been standing before. It was the next place she had to check, she couldn’t go back now.

She rounded the bend in the hallway, swallowing to keep her nerves as she drew closer to where the mannequin had been standing.

But it was gone now. As if it had been standing guard, waiting for her to see the second memory, it had vanished from its position.

Fluttershy counted her blessings at this; she couldn’t handle any more injuries to her body. She imagined that with the state her body was in, any more damage would possibly cause more serious internal injuries, one’s she couldn’t fix herself. If she got an internal injury now, she’d just die a slow, painful death.

Every step she was taking was draining her stamina, both physically and mentally. She never imagined walking everywhere on three hooves would be so taxing, but it was.

As she continued to follow the curving path of the hallway the water began to become shallower as the pathway drew slowly upward. She was now walking on dry ground as the hallway began to open up. She reached the end of the hallway, the path opening up into a large lobby.

Her music box began to hiss softly, Fluttershy turning her light to look at the room better.

Just at the edge of her light she saw a nurse pacing. It walked on the other side of a table in the middle of the room, before turning and walking back into the darkness. Fluttershy watched the darkness carefully, when the Nurse then reappeared in the edge of her light. It walked the same path it had when she first saw it, before it turned and walked back into the darkness.

The nurse seemed to be walking in a pattern, as if waiting for something to disturb it or ruin its routine. Fluttershy very carefully drew closer to the table, but the nurse didn’t seem to notice her.

Fluttershy’s eye turned to the table the nurse kept walking by, seeing something shine on it. It was another key. She paused carefully, waiting for the nurse to walk by and head away from the table, her music box hissing as it stepped closer to Fluttershy, before growing quieter when the nurse stepped away from her. Once the coast was clear she quickly walked up to the table and grabbed the key, before backing up before the nurse got close once more.

She examined the key carefully, seeing there was the symbol of a red cross on it. She placed the key in her bag and looked around the room.

Other than the circling nurse, there was the usual scenery of broken chairs and rotted walls. To one side she could see an extended wall with a door on it and a bookshelf along the wall past it. Then just past the circling nurse looked to be a small hallway, though what was beyond it was too dark to see at the moment.

She carefully walked around the table making her way to the door she could see. She pushed the door open, heading inside. Her music box became quiet as the familiar light flashed before her eye.

“Augh.” Filly Fluttershy whimpered as the nurse applied the alcohol to her cuts.

“Oh don’t be such a crybaby.” The nurse rolled her eyes a little before pulling away the cotton ball and placing a Band-Aid on the wound. “You really should be used to this by now; you’re always coming in here with some problem. Honestly, I don’t know why your father doesn’t just take care of you at home.” The nurse said begrudgingly as she walked away from the table Fluttershy sat on to the counter.

“That’s…That’s because…” Fluttershy whimpered softly.

The nurse snapped her head to glare at Fluttershy, Fluttershy instantly shut her mouth. She shrunk back into the table, trying to avoid the glare of the nurse. The nurse, once satisfied that the filly wouldn’t say anything, turned back to the counter organizing her items.

The door to the room clicked open, as Fluttershy sat up straight, her whole body turning stiff as her father strolled into the room, before closing the door.

“Is everything fine with my daughter?” Was the first thing he asked. The nurse pony instantly turned to him, her whole face lighting up, as if his mere presence brought her joy.

“O-Of course sir. You know I ALWAYS do the finest work I can when you’re asking me to.” The nurse said, batting her eyelashes flirtatious at the doctor, smiling almost as if her life depended on it. Fluttershy’s father didn’t look impressed by the flirtation and turned to look at his daughter. His daughter sat up straight, shivering as she sat on the table, afraid of what her father might do or say.

“Have you recovered from your ‘accident’?” Her father asked with the stern, overbearing tone, as if he didn’t actually care that she had recovered.

“Y-Y-Yes sir.” Fluttershy stuttered and squeaked, her whole body shaking as she stared straight ahead, not making eye contact with him.

“If you are then leave. You can do as you wish, just be in the lobby by 9 and I’ll take you home.” Her father almost growled.

“Yes sir!” Fluttershy instantly jumped off the table and practically bolted out of the room. Closing it behind her. She panted a little outside the door as her heart beat inside of her chest.

“Oooh…Doctor~” Fluttershy heard the nurse almost moan from inside the room. She didn’t stick around to hear more, she ran away from the room. She’d be in the lobby when her father told her to be there, but she’d be as far away from him as she could be till then.

The light faded away, revealing a room similar to the one she had just seen in the vision, only much like the rest of the world, falling apart, broken into pieces, covered in dust.

A chill ran down Fluttershy’s back as she recovered from the returning memories.

She was scared of her father. She was scared of him…but she didn’t remember what he did to make her scared of him.

But she had an idea.

“Did…my father…abuse me?” She muttered the words to herself. She didn’t want to believe that he did, but everything was falling into place that he did. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, maybe she was blowing it out of proportion, or maybe he’d just punished her too severely once by accident and hadn’t made amends yet…

“…or maybe I’m trying to make excuses for my father.” She sighed out loud as she lowered her head a little.

“I…I have to know the full story…” Fluttershy said lifting her head up, “If I don’t find out now…I’ll…I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” Fluttershy gulped once more. She walked carefully to the end of the room, where on the table she spotted a similar key to the others she had gathered. This one seemed to have the symbol of a needle. She carefully placed it alongside her other keys.

She exited the room, the hissing of her music box returned as the pacing nurse returned to her sight. Fluttershy carefully moved her lantern to get a better view of the room, seeing if she was forgetting anything.

A similar glint caught her eye in the corner of the room, the glint coming from the worn down bookcase that lay against the wall, just outside of the nurse’s pacing range.

She waited for the nurse to cycle through the path once more, then quickly rushed over to the bookcase. Making sure the nurse didn’t turn its attention to her, she looked at the bookcase. It seemed to be filled with rotting medical books, ones she saw a lot as a foal, but they were all illegible now.

Hanging loosely on one of the rotted rows was another key, this one with the symbol of a book on it. She carefully placed it in her bag, before turning to watch the nurse once more.

The only place she had left to go now was the hallway the nurse seemed to be pacing just in front of.

Fluttershy watched the nurse carefully, it seemed she’d just have a few seconds at best to run past the nurse and get to the hallway with her being the farthest away from it as she could. She remembered the last time she got too close to a nurse, it screamed and it had summoned…

A cold shiver ran down her back again. She couldn’t face that creature again. If she faced it, it would no doubt be able to kill her this time.

She took a deep breath and waited. She counted the number of times the nurse walked in a circle before her. She didn’t want to screw up the timing even by a second.

Ten times…fifteen times…twenty times…

She didn’t want to move but she knew she had to. She steeled her nerves, stretched her three hooves, and crouched down as she aimed for the door…

She ran as fast as her hooves would take her past the nurse, stay as far away from it as possible. The hallway came up on her blind side, but she knew where it was. She turned as soon as she needed to and moved down the hallway away from the nurse.

She skidded to a halt as the hallway came to an end abruptly. She had almost run straight into a heavily chained metal door. It took her eye a moment to focus in on the door, but once it did she could see everything.

There were five padlocks holding the chains to the metal door behind it, that seemed to have something written on it but was blocked by the chains. She recognized each of the symbols on the lock instantly; they matched the keys that she had just gathered from around the area.

Being careful but swift, she pulled out each key one by one and placed them in their corresponding lock. Each lock and key fell to the ground, seeming to shatter against the ground. When the final lock fell, the chains fell with it, the chains seeming to shatter into pieces across the ground. The door was now free, and she could see what was written on the door.

Strains of the Heart
Chained up Memories
Will things be the same?
You know what is true
You are not what you think you are
But feelings are strong
They can change everything
Or they can change nothing.
Experience the sins of another
Then perhaps the threads of destiny
Will make their feelings known.

Fluttershy looked at the poem and read it carefully. She read it at least three times, not fully understanding what it meant. A shiver ran down her spine as she read it though, she got this feeling in the gut of her stomach…

It was the feeling that it was trying to warn her about her future, telling her that she had something important to do once she crossed this door.

“…I…I can’t be scared off now.” She said out loud to herself quietly, before reaching a hoof up and pushing the door open.

Fluttershy almost felt blown back. A wave of heat struck her as the door opened. She shielded her eye from the heat. It felt like an inferno was burning on the other side of the door. She slowly moved her eye from where the fire was coming.

The room just before her was undoubtedly covered in flames. Fluttershy’s jaw dropped a little staring into the flames. Fluttershy slowly walked into the room, looking around. She could feel the heat all around her and she was having difficulty discerning the appearance of the room.

The door shut behind her as her vision began to clear.

She was inside what looked like the abandoned house she had entered in Ponyville, only covered in fire. She looked around, the fire was everywhere, it seemed that the house should have burnt down to the ground already, yet it somehow was managing to stay upright despite the flames.

But something stood out in the flames. Her eye turned to focus on the figure that stood in the flames, looking at a picture that hung from a wall.

It was a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called out, surprised but happy to see her marefriend alive and okay. She tried to draw closer, but a wave of fire seemed to stand between her and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash continued to stand in the same place, staring at the picture as if she hadn’t even heard Fluttershy call out.

“…Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called out once more.

“…It’s all the same, you know.” Rainbow Dash muttered quietly, not looking away from the picture.

“Huh?” Fluttershy responded, confused by her words.

“…I can’t believe I didn’t see it before…but it really has always been like this.” Rainbow Dash closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them again, “Always running away, always getting away when I don’t care anymore.”

“…R-Rainbow Dash…what…are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash just seemed to pause for a moment, before a small laugh came from her.

“Haha…heh…I’m the Element of Loyalty…what a load of crud that is.” Rainbow closed her eyes as a small smile faded from her face, “All I ever do is abandon. I’ve never cared about my friends or loved ones, I’ve only ever cared about myself. ‘There’s a better life for me out there!’, ‘I don’t want to be held down by your rules!’, ‘I don’t care about clearing the sky for you!’, ‘I don’t care for you as a friend anymore!’, ‘I’m going to abandon you for my own desires!’.” Dash seemed to be imitating herself.

“But…Rainbow Dash…y-you don’t abandon your friends…” Fluttershy offered a meek protest.

“Hah! Are you blind?” Rainbow Dash half laughed, half cried, “After you got separated from us, I abandoned Pinkie Pie to go find you. I yelled at her, I blamed her for getting us into this mess, I said…I said that if you died this would be all her fault.” Rainbow Dash shook her head softly.

“And I’ve hurt you the worst with my abandonment and you still want to say I don’t? I abandoned you at flight school when you needed me, all because I didn’t care to be held down.” Rainbow lowered her head, a sad grin on her face as she seemed to be accepting the truth just as much as she was telling it.

“B-But…t-that was a long time ago…things have chan-” Fluttershy started up, but she was interrupted by Dash.

“You know Fluttershy…when you join the Wonderbolts…there’s a minimum one year mandatory private training you have to go through, to learn all their techniques and flight patterns, to fly with the Wonderbolts successfully. They perform shows year round, all over Equestria.” It almost seemed like Dash didn’t want to say this, “When I make my dream come true…I’m leaving Ponyville. I’m leaving behind my friends…I’m leaving you behind…I’ll be abandoning you once again.”

Fluttershy’s mouth was agape, unable to comprehend Dash’s words. No…more accurately she didn’t want to comprehend her words. They felt like needles trying to jab into her heart.

“But…hey, why should that change now?” Dash lifted her head up and looked at the picture before her, “I ran away from home, I quit flight school, I give up friends just because we don’t see eye to eye anymore, and I’ll get rid of all my friends just for some silly dream.” The sad grin returned to Dash’s face, “I burn all the bridges I’ve made in my life, so that I can never look back at what I’ve done.”

“…Dash…” Fluttershy muttered weakly.

“I’m…sorry you fell in love with somepony like me Fluttershy.” Rainbow’s voice cracked, as if she was holding back tears, “I’m not one who deserves it.” Dash turned away from the picture, putting her back to Fluttershy, “You should forget about me.”

Dash began to slowly walk away, walking towards a doorway Fluttershy couldn’t reach through the burning flames.

“Rainbow Dash….Wait!” Fluttershy cried out.

Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks for a moment, as if she didn’t want to, but she had to hear what Fluttershy needed to say.

“Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy whimpered a little, feeling tears burning at the edge of her eye. She gulped the lump in her throat and lifted her head, summoning all the courage she could muster from her heart.

“I need you to be strong right now…alright?”

Dash didn’t react or move right away. She stood there as if the words seemed to sink in slowly. But, after a time, she finally spoke up.

“…Alright…” Was the only word that escaped from Rainbow, before she disappeared into the doorway before her, being shrouded by the fire that filled the house. For a moment, Fluttershy thought she had seen tears fall from Dash’s face.

Fluttershy lowered her head as tears began to fall from her eye, rolling down her cheek and down her chin. She didn’t care how hot she felt, or that the fires were still burning so close to her.

She just had to cry right now.

Chapter 7

The heat finally got to her. Once she had cried what felt like all she could cry, she moved slowly out of the burning room.

Her only path was to exit out of the door she had come in through. She pushed open the surprisingly cool door and walked through, the door closing shut behind her.

The cool air struck her coat, causing her whole body to feel a bit of relaxation as her temperature cooled. She wiped her face, sniffing as she continued to try and regain her composure. Dash’s words still had a strong grip on her heart.

“I…I can’t stop now…” Fluttershy gulped back more tears from spilling. “I have to move forward.”

She looked into the room at the end of the hallway, expecting to see the pacing nurse. However, the room wasn’t the same one she had just come from. The room before her was a small, square room, with a staircase going up before her.

Fluttershy blinked at the sight, but the twisting, warping rooms had become something she was accustomed to by now. She stepped across the room, quickly reaching the staircase. She slowly began her climb upwards, feeling a sense of déjà vu upon the climb.

Her hooves nearly slipped on the slick steps as the stench of mildew hit her nose once more. Water dripped down the walls and she felt a sense of dread.

Suddenly, as she reached the top of the stairwell, she knew where she was.

She was back in the cloud home she had entered when she was first separated from her friends…only it wasn’t a random cloud house anymore.

It was her home from when she was a filly. The room she had just entered…was her mother’s room from when she was young.

The same bed sat next to the window so she could look out it, the bookshelf that contained the books she’d read in her bed, the bedside table that held her personal belongings, a desk and a chair, the bathroom just a short walk away, everything she’d need for living in her room while sick.

Fluttershy was drawn towards the bed; a force felt like it was guiding her, telling her to go near it.

Her mind felt like a haze flew past it, as she stepped back. She saw blood flash before her eyes on the bed and on the carpet, as if her mind was trying to reject the images; but there would be no stopping them.

Her head began to ache with pain but she couldn’t stop the memories.

Her attention was drawn to the bed, as the memories that she had lost came back in full force, making her remember what happened in the room so long ago…

“Mother?” Filly Fluttershy called out, walking into her mother’s room.

Her mother sat on the bed, a knife in her hoof as if she was playing with it. Her hair was messy, unkempt and uncared for. Bags were under her bloodshot eyes and she seemed to be glaring at the knife, as if unhappy with it.

“…M-Mother…” Fluttershy whimpered, walking further into the room, “W-What would y-you like to eat tod-”

“Hahahahahahaha!” Her mother suddenly burst out laughing. Fluttershy halted her movements forward, looking up at her mother in shock. The older mare just seemed to have found some funny.

“Oh…yes…that’ll do nicely…” The older mare smiled once she’d finished laughing, turning her head to grin at her daughter. Fluttershy couldn’t move, afraid of what her mother was about to do.

“Come closer my daughter.” Her mother said, twisting her body closer to the edge of her bed. Fluttershy began to hesitantly move closer to the bed.

“I SAID CLOSE-” Fluttershy’s mom began to yell, but suddenly fell from the bed, hitting the ground with a thud.

“Mother!” Fluttershy cried out as she ran to her mother’s side, trying to ensure she was okay.

Her mother groaned, but slowly rolled over onto her other side so that she was facing her daughter. Once she could see her face, a wicked smile crawled onto her face.

“My dearest daughter…oh you came just at the right time…you see…I finally figured it out…I figured out how to cure myself.” Her mother gave another short laugh.

“R-Really!? O-Oh mother, t-that’s good news! I-I have to tell fathe-”

“No, you can’t tell your father yet.” Her mother hissed.

“W-Why not?” Fluttershy asked confused.

“Because…only you…can administer the treatment right now.” Her mother laughed, carefully holding the knife up to Fluttershy, “And you’ll need this to cure me.”

Fluttershy gingerly took the knife in her hooves, staring at it confused.

“I’d do it myself…but I’m far too weak to administer the treatment properly…but you…oh, you can do it just fine.” Her mother laughed, “And you want me to be cured right? Cured…and happy?”

“…O-Of course I do…b-but…w-what do I…” Fluttershy began to ask in confusion, but her mother seemed ready to answer.

“That’s simple my dear child…You take the knife…and you strike me with it.” Her mother smiled.

Fluttershy froze. That didn’t sound right at all. She knew that something as sharp as a knife hurt when you grazed its edge, why would striking her mother cure her illness?

“B-but…mother…that…”

“Are you questioning me?” Her mother glared at her. Fluttershy’s skin jumped at the glare.

“N-No b-but-”

“That SOUNDS like your questioning me!” Her mother growled. If she could move with any decent strength she’d have smacked her daughter, “I need you to do this for me! Only you can do it right now! You do love me right?”

That pulled on Fluttershy’s heart.

“O-Of course I do mother…”

“Then strike me!” Her mother demanded.

Fluttershy took a gulp as she shakily raised the knife up over her head. She didn’t want to bring it down; her mind was telling her that doing this was wrong; the knife hovered in the air, unable to strike it down.

“Fluttershy…” Her mother spoke quietly, coldly.

“Y-Yes?” Fluttershy whimpered still holding the knife up.

“You said you loved me…but you haven’t struck me with the knife yet…so you lied to me…” Her mother said bitterly.

“N-No, I-I do-“

“Then strike me!” Her mother yelled at her, making Fluttershy almost jump, “Strike me! Love me! You’re going to LOVE ME!” Her mother’s head snapped up off the ground, her mouth open as if to bite down on Fluttershy.

The knife sailed through the air, imbedding itself into her mother’s side.

Her mother’s eyes went wide for a moment, before the wicked grin returned.

“Yes! YES YES! DO IT AGAIN!” She demanded with a yell.

Fluttershy pulled the knife out and slammed it back down into her mother.

“DON’T STOP.” Were the last words Fluttershy heard from her mother.

The knife rose and sank down into the body before her, again and again. Each strike sent blood flying, her fur was being coated, and her mane was drenched.

Each strike sounded deafening, yet it was one of the quietest sounds in the world. It was as if the very knife was screaming at her, but only she could hear the screams of the blade.

She plunged the knife in one last time. She panted, she cried, she shook. Her mother wasn’t moving anymore, she wasn’t speaking, she wasn’t breathing, and she wasn’t warm anymore.

Fluttershy didn’t know what this meant, had she cured her mother like she had asked? Hadn’t she put her through a lot of pain? Was she going to be alright?

“Fluttershy, haven’t you gotten that answer from your mother ye-” Her father walked into the room.

Fluttershy slowly turned, tears streaming down her face, still holding onto the knife, covered in her mother’s blood, sitting before the corpse of her mother.

The air was silent.

Then, her father drew closer.

“F-Father…I…” Fluttershy hiccupped, trying to say something, anything to explain the sight before her father.

However, she was silenced. Her father’s hoof struck her, hard. Her small body was sent sailing across the room and smashed into the wall. She let out a yelp of pain before hitting the ground.

Her father picked up her mother’s head in his hoof as he began to cry.

Tears streamed down her face.

“I…I killed my mother…” Fluttershy whimpered, “I…I killed…” She cried. She couldn’t believe she had done it, but she had done it, all because her mother had yelled at her, because she had been too weak to disobey her mother.

Fluttershy felt her stomach twist, she felt like she was going to be sick. She turned and ran into the bathroom, wanting to escape the room for even a moment.

However, her brain assaulted her once more, a vision of memories forgotten appearing before her once more.

There was silence as her father scrubbed away at her coat, washing away the blood that had begun to cake onto her fur. The hot water was managing to get most of it away, but some of it was being stubborn.

He was being hard with the brush, harder than he had ever been before. Fluttershy didn’t speak up though, she couldn’t speak up against it, her heart felt like it was in a million pieces.

“…Do you know what you’ve done?” Her father finally asked.

Fluttershy whimpered her response, she couldn’t say any words.

“…You took your mother from us.” Her father said, as if he was breathing was becoming more ragged, the brush stopping its cleaning. “You took…the most wonderful mare I’d ever known…out of this world…” Her gripped the brush harder, he started to speak through gritted teeth, “You did it so quickly too, I sent you in to help her…and you killed her.”

Fluttershy’s eyes burned with tears. Her father’s words made her heart sting worse.

“…You’re a monster.” He growled.

Without warning he pushed her head down under the water.

Fluttershy scrambled at the unexpected movement, her mouth and nose filling with water as air escaped her lungs. Her hooves flailed as she tried to push herself up out of the water, but the hoof holding her down was too strong.

The air escaped her quickly and her lungs began to burn. She reached for air but it wouldn’t come.

Suddenly, she was lifted up into the air. Instinctively, she took in a big gasp of air, only for her head to be shoved back under the water. She lost her air almost instantly again, her whole body beginning to feel like it was burning from the movements.

This repeated several times, getting a short breath of air only to have it painfully taken away by the water once more. Her struggling had lessened and now she was too weak to push against the water, too tired to try and get air.

The hoof was holding her under the water for good now. Her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as her limbs stopped moving. She couldn’t stay awake any longer.

She was pulled out of the water. Her body gasped and took in the fresh air, before coughing up water that had filled her lungs. She puked slightly as her body tried to reject the water that had attacked her body.

“…No…no just killing you would be too easy.” Her father growled, watching her sputter and gasp for breath, “You need to understand the misery you’ve caused with your love.” Her father let go of her mane, Fluttershy instinctively catching herself on the edge of the bathtub, still recovering as her father walked out.

Fluttershy shook as she stared at the bathroom. Her father had tried to kill her. He could have killed her, but he didn’t.

Though, she felt like she deserved it at the moment. She had killed her mother in cold blood, death sounded exactly like what she deserved.

She backed out of the bathroom slowly. She didn’t want to be in that room anymore. She turned to the door to the hallway and quickly exited.

She panted heavily outside her mother’s bedroom as her tears refused to stop. She slowly hobbled forward, having difficulty even seeing where she was going. She reached a hoof up, touching what felt like a door. Without thinking she pushed it open, stepping inside.

“So, you sewed it back together huh.” Her father said, looking at the sloppy sewing job her daughter had done with her favorite doll.

“Y-Yes sir…” Fluttershy replied meekly, lowering her head as her father held it.

He wasn’t impressed at all. All the stitches were visible, the stuffing was still hanging out of spots not sewn close enough, and the fibers easily would come loose if tugged on.

“Unacceptable.” He said before grabbing the doll and tearing it apart. Fluttershy snapped her head up in shock as she watched; he tore apart all the seams and stitches. She had worked so hard making the doll one piece again after he’d torn it up the first time.

Soon the doll lay in pieces of cloth and stuffing before her again.

“If you love it, I shall destroy it.” He said sternly, “Then it will be your job to put it back together. And if you can’t do it perfectly, then you don’t deserve it at all.” He said as he walked over to his book shelf.

Fluttershy whimpered as she began to pick up the pieces of her favorite, most beloved doll, her doll Ashley.

A book slammed itself before her, making Fluttershy almost jump. But she read the title carefully, ‘The Mastery of Sewing’.

“If you don’t want to see your doll destroyed, you will make it look perfect.” Her father said before returning to his desk, going back to his work.

Once she had all the pieces of her doll, Fluttershy carefully picked the book up with her mouth, careful not to stain it with her tears, as she quickly left her father’s study.

Fluttershy whimpered. She was in her father’s study, she had wandered in there by accident, but now she had seen more of what she had forgotten.

She swallowed back more tears, as she began to calm herself down. Her mind began to put things together.

‘I…I wanted to see this…’ She breathed heavily, reminding herself that she had chosen to come here, that she had told herself that there was no turning back now. ‘I…I have to see every memory…for my sake…’ she took a deep breath as she wiped her face of tears, before pushing back on the door to her father’s study, exiting it.

She stumbled out of the study a little, finding the kitchen that lay just on the opposite side of it. She steadied herself, before walking into the kitchen. The haze returned as another memory surfaced.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?” Her father yelled loudly.

Fluttershy dropped the box of cereal she had picked up from the top shelf of the counter, her wings snapping shut to her sides as she fell a few feet before landing on the ground with a thud.

Her father was furious, as he stormed up to her, Fluttershy trying to back away out of fear. Her grabbed her hoof and forced her to eye-level with him.

“What have I TOLD you about FLYING without permission!? You’re NOT allowed to do it even in the house!” He yelled at her, gripping her hoof hard.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She cried out as tears streamed from her eyes, her hoof hurt like crazy as he gripped it hard.

“I’ve told you before! Bad filly’s who DON’T listen to what their told get eaten by Dragons! Do you WANT to get eaten by a dragon!?”

“No! No!” Fluttershy cried out, struggling against his grip.

“Well you’re ATTRACTING a Dragon by flying as a Bad Filly! You MUST want to be eaten by a Dragon! Why else would you be flying without permission!?” His screams made her ears feel like they wanted to burst.

“No! I don’t want to be eaten by a dragon! I’m sorry!” She cried harder.

“Well, you know what? I think I can HEAR a dragon! He’s already pretty close because you’ve flown! Maybe I should just throw you outside so he can eat you right now!” He hissed and growled.

“NO! NO DADDY PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO BE EATEN!” Fluttershy wailed, afraid for her life.

“Well, if you don’t want to be eaten, then there’s only one thing I can do.” He said tossing his daughter to the ground. The wind escaped her body as she tried to scramble to her feet, only to have her father’s hoof step on her holding her down.

His mouth reached down, gripping down hard on her wing, forcibly extending it despite all of her efforts to shut it.

“NO! NO DADDY PLEASE! STOP!” She cried out as pain shot through her back. But it was too late, he wasn’t going to stop.

CRACK

Fluttershy cried louder than she ever had before as her father snapped her wing.

“There, now you won’t be flying for a while, and you won’t attract any dragons.” He simply said stepping off of his wailing daughter, “I snapped it carefully; you’ll be able to fly once it’s healed, but we’ll have to get you to the hospital to put a cast on it.” He said though a grin formed on his face, “Though, only once the Dragon has left.”

Fluttershy barely heard her father’s words past her own screams of agony from the burning pain that echoed from her wing.

Fluttershy gulped down more tears, trying to hold herself back from crying. She slowly backed out of the kitchen.

‘My father…he was…cruel…’ She whimpered softly to herself. ‘I…I can believe that I made myself forget all this…it’s…it’s all painful to remember.’ She shut her eyes, another tear escaping despite trying to force herself not to cry.

She struggled with her hooves, to make herself continue forward. Past the kitchen was the living room. She could see the front door from there, she knew that was where she needed to head; her instincts told her so.

However, the living room held one more memory that she had to see. The haze returned, as the memory came to her once more.

“…Where did you get that?” Her father asked as filly Fluttershy walked through the door, carrying a candy bar in her mouth.

“Oh…a colt at school gave it to me.” She said quietly, “He said he liked me and wanted me to have it.” She said gently chewing on the end of the bar, savoring the sweet taste.

“Oh…he did, did he?” Her father said walking up to Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked up at her father, taking a step back from him getting so close.

Fluttershy fell to the ground as her father’s hoof hit her hard across the face. The candy bar slid across the room.

“Let me tell you something about boys loving you.” He growled, grabbing Fluttershy by the mane and picking her up, eliciting yelps of pain from the filly, “Colts will only hurt you. They only think of themselves and they want nothing more than to see you suffer.” He grinned wickedly, “After all, look at me. I love you and here I am hurting you.” He said before tossing his daughter across the room, her landing hard against the floor.

Fluttershy cried as she tried to curl up into a ball, not wanting to be hurt anymore.

“But I suppose you must really like being hurt, if you’re going to let a colt like you.” Her father grinned walking up to his daughter, kicking her in the back, causing her to cry out in pain, “Any colt that gets close to you will do nothing but hurt you. So I hope you enjoy this for the rest of your life. I’m sure you’ll find a colt who loves you even more than I do.” Her father laughed before walking off to his study.

Fluttershy whimpered and cried where she curled up, remembering the colt from school who had given her the candy bar.

Suddenly, her mind filled with anger, hate for the colt who had given her the candy bar. All he wanted to do was hurt her, he wanted to get close to her so that he could make her cry and suffer, just like her father did.

“I…I hate colts…” Fluttershy whimpered out loud. She vowed to herself that she would never like a colt, or let a colt like her, for as long as she lived.

Another lump came to Fluttershy’s throat.

‘…My father…he…he made me…hate colts…’ She thought to herself. ‘…But I…I don’t…hate them…’ she knew better now. Not all colts were like her father, not all of them would hurt her just because she got close to them. But…she still had never had interest in being with a colt, the only pony she had fallen in love with…

Was Rainbow Dash…

‘Do I…Do I love Rainbow Dash…for her…or because…she was the only pony who got close to me…that didn’t hurt me…’ Fluttershy found herself confused by her own feelings now. Everything she had believed had turned upside down in a single moment. It felt like she had just been lying to herself all this time and that everything she had done might have been a mistake.

“…No…” She suddenly said firmly to herself, “Because of Rainbow Dash…I came to Ponyville…I escaped from my father…I…I met the best friends I’ve ever had…friends who…who care about me more than anything else…I…I fell in love and…had a wonderful relationship.” She said looking up at the ceiling, as thoughts of her friends came to mind.

She remembered so many wonderful moments together with her friends. Picking flowers, going to parties, playing games, sleep overs, tea parties, hanging out, adventuring…

She’d done so much with her life now, even though she had forgotten about her foalhood because it was painful, it hadn’t stopped her from moving on in her life, from experiencing all the wonders life had to offer. If anything…because her father pushed her away, she found her way into the embrace of the ponies that truly loved her.

She took a deep breath as she calmed down. A small smile formed on her face.

“Yes…even though all this happened…I still have my friends.” She said, a warmth sparking inside of her heart.

It gave her legs strength. She walked through the living room up to the front door of the house. She could see the lock on the door, the lock with the symbol of a doll on it. She carefully reached into her bag and pulled out the key with the doll symbol on it, the key she had picked up a while ago and still had. She carefully placed the key into the lock, the door letting out a click to let her know it had worked.

She carefully pushed the door open and walked through the door.

On the otherside was a large open room, almost like a small gymnasium. She walked forward to the middle of the room, when she stopped.

A black fire was burning on the opposite side of the court. The fire slowly grew, rising up into the shape of a pony, before red eyes appeared on its face, a white mouth opening. It was the dark creature.

Fluttershy stared at the creature. She didn’t feel a heavy, overbearing presence this time. The creature was still drawing fear from her heart, but it wasn’t overwhelming her now. She could stand before this creature now.

The creature slowly turned itself around, showing its back to Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked at the creature curiously, not sure as to what it was doing.

Then, as it turned around, she could see that hanging from its mouth, was the body of Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy let out a gasp, as the creature flicked its head, tossing the body towards Fluttershy. It landed right before her, hitting the ground with a thud.

Fluttershy reached a hoof out and gently nudged the body. It was cold. Rainbow Dash was dead, killed by the creature before her. Fluttershy stared at the body for a long while, the creature watching her, grinning as it waited.

Fluttershy moved her hoof away from the body, a sad look appearing on her face. She turned her head upwards, to look at the dark creature.

“…Father…” she spoke softly, “I…understand now.” She made sure she spoke clearly, “I’ve done a horrible thing…and…it’s likely that I can never be forgiven for what I’ve done. I can’t bring the dead back to life…and the blood of my mother is on my hooves.” Fluttershy closed her eye for a moment, taking a deep breath, before she continued.

“I probably deserved all the punishments I received. No foal should ever do what I did. Though it may have been tough living with what I did and receiving the punishments for my deed…I lived with everything.” She smiled softly, “And…I’ve grown up to have a wonderful life now. I’ve…left behind all the things that made me sad, that hurt me, that made me miserable living at home.

“I have wonderful friends, animals that depend on me, a home I take care of myself…I found love that didn’t hurt me.” She smiled softly.

Fluttershy carefully stepped over the body before her, walking up closer to the dark creature. The smile of the creature faded as it looked down her, as if not amused. Fluttershy came to stand just inches before him, looking up at him smiling.

“You…brought a lot of pain to me…but…I forgive you.” She leaned in and nuzzled the chest of the dark creature. The creature let out a roar. “I forgive you for everything…and I thank you. Thank you for letting me find a wonderful life.”

An orb of bright white light appeared in the air above the two, floating down towards Fluttershy. The dark creature roared out in pain as the light gently floated past him, reaching Fluttershy’s chest. The light engulfed her body, filling her with a pleasant warmth. The bandages that covered her body began to unfurl. Each bandage was pulled away from her body, pooling around her as her body recovered.

Her wings extended out, she stood on all her legs, she opened both her eyes to look up at the roaring dark creature, which seemed to be fading away as the light shined. The very existence of the creature seemed to be fading away, burning up in the bright light that surrounded her.

The last bits of the darkness that made up the creature disappeared, as the light began to slowly fade. Fluttershy smiled softly as she looked down, seeing on her chest, in place of the lantern, was now a golden necklace with a pink butterfly shaped jewel.

For a moment her necklace glowed once more, a beam of light shot out, creating a doorway of light before her. Fluttershy looked at the doorway of light, knowing what it was.

“So…this is my way home now…” She said looking at the door. Once she passed through that archway of light, she would leave this world. She’d go back to Ponyville, she’d be able to take everything she had learned and live a better life than she had before…

“I can’t leave just yet.” She smiled at the doorway, before turning around and running away from the light. “I have two friends who are lost and need my help.”

Pinkie Pie lay on the ground, panting in pain and exhaustion.

“Haha…you’ve been running away oh-so-well…you’re very good at it.” The Other Pinkie smiled walking towards Pinkie, “You’ve killed me three times…and yet here I am again. You must really want to be a part of my parties.” The other Pinkie laughed.

Pinkie Pie could only sob. This other Pinkie wanted to kill…and she couldn’t stop her. What was the point of trying to stop her? She let Fluttershy go get separated twice now, she was probably dead with how injured she had been. And Rainbow Dash hated her, what was the point of trying to stop her other self from killing…when she was just as guilty of it herself.

“I’m sorry Bellamina…” Pinkie sobbed, closing her eyes.

“Oh well, guess I’ll just have to take my time playing with you.” The other Pinkie smiled, picking up her Butcher’s knife as she drew closer.

“Now just hold it right there for one minute!” Came a motherly demand.

Pinkie and the Other Pinkie snapped their heads to the doorway to the room they were in. There stood a yellow Pegasus pony with long pink hair, wearing a golden necklace.

“Hasn’t your mother ever told you it’s not nice to hurt other ponies?” Fluttershy stomped across the room towards the other Pinkie Pie. The normal Pinkie Pie was just staring with her mouth agape.

“Well, yea, but I’m not really hurting them, I’m playing with them!” The other Pinkie laughed, putting down her butcher’s knife to talk to Fluttershy.

“That’s NOT how you play nice with other Ponies!” Fluttershy stood right up to the other Pinkie, looking her straight in the eye, “You were going to seriously hurt my friend! You don’t use knives or sharp objects when you play, you play nice games! Like pin the tail on the pony or bobbing for apples! You should know better than this!”

“But-“ The other Pinkie began to protest.

“No buts! You should be ashamed of yourself. I have half a mind to tell your mother the kind of games you’ve been playing with other ponies!” The other Pinkie seemed to be shrinking back under the scolding of Fluttershy, “Now you’re going to take your little things, and get rid of them, and I never want to catch you doing this again, you got that?”

The other Pinkie could only nervously nod her head rapidly, before picking up her butcher’s knife and turning, running away from Fluttershy.

“That’s a good…second Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy smiled happily seeing the other Pinkie run off, before turning to the Pinkie who was staring in shock at Fluttershy. “How was that? I was so assertive.” Fluttershy softly chuckled as she felt a happy shiver go down her back.

Pinkie Pie stared. It took a long time for her to even register what was going on. But once it dawned on her that Fluttershy had just scared her other self away…a smile formed on her face. It quickly began to grow, before a sound escaped her lips.

“Pffft…pffft…aha…ahahah…AHAHAHAHAHA” Pinkie Pie began to laugh. She laughed hard, rolling over onto her back as her hooves flailed in the air. Fluttershy had scared away the very thing that scared her to her core. And she’d done it by just being Fluttershy. Pinkie couldn’t help but laugh as her hair poofed out into its usual curls. It was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen.

“Thank you.” Fluttershy said smiling, giving a small bow to Pinkie Pie, accepting the laughing as a compliment.

“Ahahahaha…Oh…Oh Fluttershy!” Pinkie laughed, finally rolling back onto her hooves and rushing up, hugging her friend dearly, “You’re all better! And you saved me!” Pinkie laughed joyously.

“Hey, what’re friends for?” Fluttershy grinned, returning the hug.

“Oh! Speaking of friends, have you seen Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie said, looking at Fluttershy with concern again.

“Don’t worry, I found you first, but we’re not leaving till we find her.” Fluttershy smiled.

“Right! Operation Locate Dashie is go!” Pinkie Pie smiled happily, saluting Fluttershy.

“It really is for the best.” A cold voice said.

“Yea…it’s what I’ve always wanted after all.” Rainbow Dash tilted her head, closing her eyes as she agreed.

“I’m glad to see you’ve been able to follow your true heart then.” The voice laughed. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to look at the pony that stood before her. She looked just like one of the Shadow Bolts, the flying team she had seen in the Everfree Forest the day they had taken down Nightmare Moon.

“It’s what I’ve always done…no point in changing that now.” Rainbow said slowing looking around. The two of them were sitting in the middle of a burning building, the fire staying just far enough away to not burn them.

“Good, then just take my hoof, and everything will be made clear.” The Shadow Bolt said, holding out her hoof to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash looked at the hoof hesitantly. It didn’t feel good, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do, but she felt it was the only thing she could do anymore. She slowly raised her hoof, reaching out to carefully take the Shadow Bolt’s hoof.

“DASHIE!” Came an insanely cheerful voice as suddenly Rainbow Dash was suddenly tackled from behind, flattening her against the ground. The Shadow Bolt gasped loudly.

“What the-Hey! Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow shouted annoyed, still being embraced by the pink mare.

“Oh my gosh I thought I’d lost you! After you’d ran off I was so worried that I tried to find you and Fluttershy, only I started running into the monsters I ran into before. Man, I was so depressed because of what you said that I couldn’t help but start to relive the nightmare here, but that’s all okay now cause I forgive you! And now I’ve found you again!” Pinkie cried out happily all at once.

“Yea, that’s great Pinkie Pie, but your crushing me!” Rainbow groaned as she tried to sit up, Pinkie finally sliding off of her.

“Oopsie, sorry about that.” Pinkie laughed.

“And what’re you doing here anyway!? I told you we were supposed to find Fluttersh-“ Rainbow Dash stopped herself as her eyes went wide, “Fluttershy! Oh my gosh, I TOTALLY FORGOT!” Rainbow Said looking around rapidly, “What am I doing here!? I have to find Fluttershy!”

“It’s okay Dash, I’m already here.” Fluttershy smiled happily, walking into the burning room from the hallway Pinkie had just ran through at blinding speed.

“Fluttershy! You’re okay!” Rainbow said galloping over and hugging Fluttershy, “What was I thinking!? You were right in front of me not too long ago and I completely forgot I had to protect you!”

Fluttershy laughed, hugging Rainbow Dash back, “It’s okay Dash, this place does weird things to a Pony.”

“Hey!” The Shadow Bolt yelled, standing up, glaring at the three mares before her. All three turned their heads to look at the Shadow Bolt, “What about your dreams!? You won’t accomplish them if you don’t come with me!” she growled.

Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy, Fluttershy smiled back at her, before Rainbow Dash grinned and turned to look at the Shadow Bolt, “Tell ya what, keep it for now. I’ll find a way to achieve my dream on my own.”

The Shadow Bolt yelled, before turning into a puff of black smoke and disappearing into the burning building.

“And don’t come back!” Pinkie yelled happily, waving at the puff of black smoke.

“Fluttershy…I’m so sorry.” Rainbow said again, “I shouldn’t have let this place get to my head and forget about protecting you…” Dash then turned to Pinkie Pie, who was smiling at Dash, “And Pinkie…I’m…I’m sorry I yelled at you. That wasn’t right of me when you were only trying to help.”

“That’s okay Dashie, I forgive you!” Pinkie said giving Rainbow another hug. “Let’s just focus on getting out of here!”

“I can handle that.” Fluttershy smiled happily. She turned herself towards the hallway and stood proudly. Her golden necklace began to softly glow, before releasing a beam of light that shot out before them. A doorway of light formed, their exit home. The necklace around Fluttershy’s neck, having served its purpose, turned back into an orb of light, floating up into the air before disappearing.

“Alright! Let’s go home!” Pinkie smiled happily.

“Yea, I’m kind of tired of this place.” Dash grinned.

“All of us are.” Fluttershy smiled.

The three mares walked through the doorway of light together.

-To Be Concluded in the Endings-

Ending: Something's Not Right Here

Ending: Something’s Not Right Here

Unlock Condition: Avoid viewing memories and don’t encounter Pinkie Pie in the Otherworld (avoiding the Pinkie Pie scene also causes the Rainbow Dash scene to not occur as well).

Fluttershy stared at the dark creature before her. She gulped a little, trying to swallow her fear. She knew what this creature was now, but somehow it didn’t help that much.

“Listen…” Fluttershy said trying to think of what she needed to say, “I…I know who you are…and…” What was she to say? She racked her brain for the answer, but none seemed to come. The dark creature made slow steps towards her, as she slowly stepped backwards.

“LEAVER HER ALONE!” Suddenly came a loud cry. Fluttershy turned her head to see a pink blur rush in from out of nowhere, before striking the dark creature.

The dark creature let out a loud roar as it stumbled backwards, before twisting its head to quickly look at the pink mare that stood triumphantly before it.

“P-Pinkie Pie!” Fluttershy cried in astonishment, not having expected to see her friend.

“No one hurts Fluttershy while I can do something about it!” Pinkie huffed at the dark creature.

“Pinkie Pie! Get away from it! It won’t hesitate to hurt you!” Fluttershy cried out, trying to warn her friend.

“Don’t worry about me!” Pinkie said turning her head with a grin to Fluttershy, “I can handle this guy.”

The dark creature roared once more, charging straight for Pinkie Pie. It’s mouth white opened as it brought down its mouth to tear into her.

The dark creature only bit down on air. Pinkie avoided the strike easily, dashing around the creature’s side. With a loud battle cry she swung her body around and struck at the side of the creature with her hind hooves.get her friend out of harm’s way.

The creature didn’t even seem fazed by her attack, only turning its head to glare at her.

“…Uh oh.” Pinkie said, quickly hopping out of the way as the roaring figure brought its white mouth crashing down where Pinkie had just been. Pinkie looked at the monster seriously, blowing her hair out of her line of sight, as she grinned at the creature. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to call in the air support! NOW DASHIE!”

“TAKE THIS!” Came the frantic cry of the rainbow haired Pegasus as she seemed to swoop out of the rafters from nowhere at break neck speed, her front hooves striking into the side of the creature before taking off into the air.

The dark creature let out a roar of pain as it skidded to a stop, never toppling off of its legs.

“We can’t let up! This thing was going to hurt Fluttershy!” Pinkie stomped a hoof, preparing another charge at the creature.

“Right!” Rainbow Dash said circling above, preparing herself for another strike.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but stare in amazement. Not only had her two friends come to her aid from out of nowhere, they were actually winning. The dark creature didn’t seem able to match the two of her friends. It was if…

As if they had a power she couldn’t wield. A power that could only be wielded by someone else yet was drawn upon by her.

More hooves collided, the creature yelled and roared, thrashing about as it struggled to catch the mares fighting it. It couldn’t seem to move fast enough to catch the agile creatures, yet it wouldn’t topple. The creature stood firm against the two. Regardless of what they did, it didn’t seem to be going down.

“Man, we’re hitting this thing with everything we got! Why won’t it go down!?” Rainbow Dash cried out to Pinkie, circling near the cieling above the creature.

“I don’t know…maybe we have to try something else!” Pinkie searched her brain for an idea as she stared intently at the creature.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but smile at this. Her friends really had come to help her. Once they saw she was in trouble, they came to rescue her without a second thought.

“Wait…Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy called out to the two of them. The two turned their heads to look at their friend, “Let me try something.” She smiled happily as she walked closer to the dark creature.

“Careful Fluttershy! This thing could hurt you easily if it wanted!” Rainbow called out her warning.

“I know.” Fluttershy nodded her head slowly, “But…listen to me...” Fluttershy said turning her attention to the dark creature, “Everything is over now. I may not have been strong enough to face my troubles before, but I have my friends by my side now.”

“That’s right!” Pinkie Pie said jumping next to Fluttershy with a smile on her face, “So long as we’re together, we’ll face any danger! Climb any obstacle! Eat any ice cream!” She giggled at herself, “No pony can stop us when we work together! Not even a meany mean mcDarky pants like you!” The pink mare laughed happily.

“Yea! And though things may not go the way we would like them to, we’ll always be friends!” Dash said landing next to Fluttershy with a grin, “We can find a way to make everything work out if we just put our minds to it!”

The creature let out a roar at the three mares, when suddenly an orb of bright light appeared between all of them. It slowly began to float towards eye view as the three mares stared at it.

“Hey, that’s one of the Elements of Harmony!” Rainbow said amazed.

“But…whose is it?” Fluttershy blinked confused.

“I don’t know, but I bet that’s our way home! Quick! Everypony try to use it!” Pinkie explained quickly. Each of the three ponies reached out to grab the element with their hoof. As the three touched it, the light of the orb began to expand rapidly. The light ensnared the entire arena as the dark creature roared in pain, vanishing amongst the light.

It was a mixed torrent, rushing wind, blinding light. Everypony caught in it lost track of what was happening around them. They felt tossed around, almost as if they were in a blender. Nothing made sense till the light faded away and reality hit.

“Gah!” Twilight cried out as she felt her body forcibly pushed away, rolling herself a few feet away from where she had been. She shook her head, trying to get the fuzzy feeling in it to go away. She soon put a hoof to her forehead before sitting up, groaning slightly, “What just happened?”

“Hey, I think we made it out!” Came Fluttershy’s excited voice.

“Hey, you’re right! Awesome, we did it!” Came Pinkie’s boasting voice.

“That was…increadible.” Came Rainbow’s shy voice.

“…Huh!?” Three mares cried out suddenly.

Twilight opened her eyes to see her three friends staring, open mouthed, in shock at each other.

“What am I doing over THERE when I’m HERE!?” Pinkie Pie cried out pointing to Rainbow Dash.

“What’re you doing there? You mean what am I doing THERE!” Fluttershy said quickly pointing to Pinkie Pie, “Clearly I’m right here, but I’m also here! And you’re not that OTHER Pinkie Pie who wants to play mean party games! I mean you could be, but that’s not likely since you’re not wearing the dress…though I suppose dresses can be taken off.” Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin in thought.

“What…how…” Rainbow Dash just looked back and forth in shock.

Then, each of the mares looked down at their own bodies.

“AAAAUGH! I’M PINKIE PIE!” Pinkie Pie jumped into the air and a few feet away from the other two, “Then…then that means!” Pinkie Pie desperately reached back with her hooves to a spot on her back where wings on a pegasus would be. Her whole face sunk as the normally curly hair burst, deflating into straight hair. “I CAN’T FLY ANYMORE!” Pinkie threw her head up into the air wailing.

“Oh come on, being me isn’t THAT bad.” Fluttershy said tilting her head in a way she wouldn’t normally twist it, “I mean I’ve got so many good things going for me! I can party, I can run as fast as Rainbow Dash, I can eat all the sugary treats I want, everypony knows who I am~” Fluttershy happily began to list off the reasons it was good to be Pinkie Pie.

“…I…I don’t know…being…R-Rainbow Dash…doesn’t seem right…” Rainbow Dash blushed as she spoke quietly, “I…I feel like I’m violating her privacy.”

“Come on!” Pinkie Pie grunted as she had now taken to jumping around in the air, stretching her back up as if trying to force wings to grow out of her back, “Come on! Come on! ComeoncomeoncomeonCOMEON!” Her voice grew more strained with each attempt at flight by jumping, even with a series of hoof flailing, only to be met by the ground once more.

“-And knowledge of how to back cakes, and the perfect way to set up streamers, and OH, how to get Gummy his supper-favoritist-special-food! That’s a doozy of a meal to make!” Fluttershy giggled happily.

“Oh my…I hope my animal friends will be okay seeing me like this…” Rainbow rubbed a hoof carefully against her leg.

Twilight could only stare in shock at the scene before her. Her mind refused to put the pieces together for a moment, but once everything they said and did began to click into place in her mind, a feeling of dread washed over her.

“Y-You…you three…switched bodies?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

The three mares stopped what they were doing as they turned to look at Twilight.

“…It seems that way.” Fluttershy looking at Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, “I mean, I’m Pinkie Pie but I’m clearly Fluttershy as well…well, I mean I am me, as in Pinkie, but not me as in Fluttershy, but I am Fluttershy…wait I-“

“Yes, she gets it Pinkie.” Pinkie groaned at Fluttershy, “And…yea…I’m Rainbow Dash…inside Pinkie’s body.” Rainbow didn’t sound thrilled at all.

“And…I’m Fluttershy…in…Rainbow’s body.” Rainbow Dash blushed again.

“Oh…oh my…” Twilight said rubbing her head, “I’m…I’m so sorry! I’m sure I can fix this! I don’t know how I messed up on the spell this badly but I’m sure I can fix it! Maybe if we try the spell again?” Twilight let out a little squeak as she gave an awkward smile to her friends.

Each of the mare’s eyes widened at Twilight’s suggestion, before looking at each other.

“…You know…maybe not being able to fly isn’t so bad. Yea, I won’t be able to join the Wonderbolt’s…but with Pinkie’s speed, maybe I can join a ground racing team!” Rainbow said quickly thinking off the top of her head.

“Y-Yea! That’s good thinking! And I can come up with even more awesome ways to decorate for parties! I don’t have to rely on balloons that hit the ceiling now, I can just fly up to it!” Futtershy quickly replied herself, point her hoof at Pinkie Pie.

“And…And I can finally be a strong flyer! I’ll be able to do things I never could before, even help my animal friends better!” Fluttershy awkwardly replied just as quickly.

“Yup, we’re all happy the way we are Twilight, and sorry we can’t stay but we should totally go figure out how our new lives are going to work!” Pinkie Pie quickly explained as she practically ran to the front door.

“Yea, we’ve got a lot of talking to do! Wait for me Dashie!” Fluttershy said quickly following after Pinkie Pie.

“Y-Yea…a-and I can’t just let my marefriend deal with this alone! Wait for me girls!” Rainbow Dash said quickly following after the two, closing the door behind them.

Twilight just sat in stunned silence for a good long while. The wheels in her head were having a hard time turning, processing what just happened.

“Oh Celestia…what have I done?” Twilight rubbed her head in agony.

Ending: That's Just How It Is

Ending: That’s Just How It Is

Unlock Condition: Don’t view all the memories, but encounter Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in the Otherworld.

Fluttershy took a deep breath as she stared at the dark creature before her. The presence of the creature no longer crushed her, she could stand before it fine, but the being still sent a chill down her spine.

However, she had already decided, she had to do what was needed of her.

Fluttershy slowly walked towards the dark creature, it staring at her as if in odd curiosity.

“Father…I…know that…a lot has happened…between us…” Fluttershy hesitated slowly, drawing nearer, “But…everything that has happened is behind us now. I’ve…moved on with my life. I’ve gained friends I care about deeply, I live happily in a house I own, I found love…” Fluttershy smiled softly. The dark creature didn’t move as Fluttershy drew closer, now right before the creature.

“And…I guess I wouldn’t have found all that if it hadn’t been for you.” She looked up at the dark creature with a smile, “You’re a part of my life…and I have to accept that.”

The dark creature only seemed to glare, its red eyes glowing as it stared into her soul. The silence filled the air between them, as the white mouth slowly formed into a grin.

The creature’s mouth opened wide, the sickly grin spreading across its face. Fluttershy could only smile as she saw the creature rear its head up. She closed her eye as the dark creature brought its mouth down.

The rush of darkness came crashing down, engulfing everything she could understand. There wasn’t pain, but a disorientating confusion. She felt her body churn and sway, as if being dragged along by a current in the water, though she could still breathe. She tumbled and rolled through the waving darkness all around her, before something snapped.

With a thud, she found herself back in reality.

“Ugnnn…” Fluttershy moaned softly rubbing her head. For some reason she was now laying on the ground. She slowly picked herself up, opening her eyes. Twilight stood before her, rubbing her forehead as well.

“Ugh…is every pony okay?” Twilight ask, opening her eyes to look at her friends.

“I feel…fine actually…” Fluttershy said a little surprised. She reached around her body, trying to feel the parts of her that would be bandaged, but the bandages were gone and her injuries were healed.

‘…They must’ve only existed in that place…’ Fluttershy thought to herself as she carefully placed a hoof against her face.

“…Yea…I’m…okay…” Pinkie’s voice said next, though it wasn’t her usual happy-go-lucky voice. Fluttershy turned her head and saw Pinkie’s hair was straight still, she was looking at the ground with sorrow, “But…everypony made it out alright, didn’t they?” Pinkie lifted her head to look at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

“…Yea…” Was the only thing Rainbow Dash said before standing up. She turned towards the door and walked straight for it.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash, where are you going?” Twilight asked, blinking confused.

“…I’m…going for a walk…” was all Dash said, before opening the door and walking out of it.

“Hey…Dash, wait, we need to talk…” Fluttershy said standing up and quickly following after Dash out the door.

Twilight blinked in confusion as she watched two of her friends leave.

“Pinkie…what exactly happened?”

Pinkie let out a soft sigh as she looked up at Twilight seriously, “Twilight…you have to promise me something…”

“…What is it?” Twilight asked confused.

“Promise me you’ll never, EVER use that spell again. No matter the circumstances.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash walked silently through the town of Ponyville. They didn’t say anything, the silence would’ve been deafening if not for the sounds of Ponyville going through its normal day around them. Dash was leading them towards her cloud home slowly.

The two of them walked for what seemed like ages, before Dash finally stopped just outside of Ponyville on the road to her home. Fluttershy stopped as well, looking at Dash with concern.

“Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash finally spoke up, as if she had been thinking this whole time, “I think…it’s best if…we stopped dating…”

Fluttershy felt the jab to her heart she had known was coming.

“…Because…you’re going to try out for the Wonderbolts in two months…right?” Fluttershy responded weakly.

“Well…more than just that…” Rainbow replied, “I don’t think we’re right for each other…and I’m certainly not deserving of love.”

“But…” Fluttershy spoke, trying to think of a good rebuttal to Rainbow Dash, but any words that would’ve been the right ones to say got stuck in her throat. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

Fluttershy lowered her head a little, tears beginning to burn at the edges of her eyes. She knew this was going to happen, yet it still hurt more than she thought it would.

“But…we’ll still…be friends…right?” Fluttershy managed to choke out finally.

“…I suppose we will be…for as long as I still have my friends here.” Rainbow Dash muttered softly.

“Dash…we…” Fluttershy lifted her head up, “We won’t stop being your friends just because you leave us for a while.” Fluttershy let her heart talk now, “We’ll do our best to go to see you perform when you’re nearby, we’ll want to visit you when you’re on break…we’ll be your friends Dash, no matter what happens.”

Dash was silent for a moment, not sure what to think or to say to Fluttershy’s words.

“…You’d want to be friends with somepony who abandons the ponies she cares about?” It was Rainbow’s turn to have her voice crack.

“You don’t abandon your friends Dash. No matter how it may seem that you do, when it comes down to it you help your friends. When they need you, you’re there for them. Nopony can be perfect all the time, loyalty isn’t about NOT needing times to yourself…it’s about being there when your friends need you.” Fluttershy wasn’t sure how she was able to say all of this, but every word felt true.

“…I suppose.” Rainbow Dash shook her head lightly, “But…even if that’s true…I…I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life…and…and I need time to myself to think about everything.” Rainbow said as she spread her wings.

“…I understand…” Fluttershy smiled, holding back the tears at her eyes, “Just know…I’ll always be here for you Dash.”

“…Thank you.” Was all Dash could say, before flying up to her cloud home. Fluttershy waited a few minutes after hearing Rainbow close her door, before lying down on the dirt road as she began to cry.

They’d always be friends…but the pony she had loved for all of her life…no longer wanted to love her the same way back.

Ending: Was it Inevitable?

Ending: Was it inevitable?

Unlock Condition: See all the memories, but don’t encounter Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash in the Otherworld.

“…Father…” Fluttershy spoke softly, “I…understand now.” She made sure she spoke clearly, “I’ve done a horrible thing…and…it’s likely that I can never be forgiven for what I’ve done. I can’t bring the dead back to life…and the blood of my mother is on my hooves.” Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, before she continued.

“I can only apologize for what I’ve done.” Fluttershy walked closer to the dark creature, “I probably deserved all the punishments I received because of what I’ve done…I understand them better now.” She smiled softly as she drew close to him. “If…you’re still not satisfied with what I received…then I’m willing to accept whatever you think is appropriate.”

The dark creature grinned broadly, as if pleased with her answer. It brought its mouth up, ready to strike down. Fluttershy closed her eye, smiling happily as she prepared herself.

With a thud, she found herself back in reality.

Fluttershy blinked slowly, letting her vision return to her. She lifted her head up and saw Twilight rubbing her forehead.

“Ugh…is everypony okay?” Twilight asked, opening her eyes to look at them.

“…All things considered…I feel fine.” Pinkie said surprised.

“…Yea, I’m feeling fine too.” Rainbow rubbed her head.

“…Yes. I feel fine too…” Fluttershy smiled softly.

“So…does that mean the spell worked?” Twilight asked a little confused, looking at Fluttershy.

“…I…I don’t know…” Fluttershy said honestly.

“Do you…do you know what was causing them?” Pinkie asked hesitantly.

“…I do…and…I think because of that I might be able to overcome my nightmares.” Fluttershy gave a soft, sad smile.

“Well…what was it?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“I…I’d prefer to tell you in private Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy turned her sorrowful smile to Rainbow Dash, “Besides…I need to talk to you in private.”

“Uh…sure Fluttershy…anything you need.” Rainbow Dash said a little hesitantly, not sure what to expect from such a conversation. The two mares stood up and headed out of the library.

“…Do you think their okay?” Twilight asked, looking at Pinkie.

“…I…can’t tell.” Pinkie said frowning, “That’s a doozy of a spell, even experiencing it twice I can’t make heads or tails of what exactly happened.” Pinkie rubbed her head, “All I can say is…you REALLY shouldn’t ever use that spell again Twilight. It’s…more trouble than it’s worth.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Trust me on this. The world would be a lot better place if you don’t ever use that spell again.” Pinkie sighed softly.

“So…what exactly do you need to talk about Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked followed behind Fluttershy.

“…No, not here, too many ponies.” Fluttershy said looking around as the two walked through Ponyville. “Let’s get to my house first…”

It seemed to take a while, but the two eventually made it to Fluttershy’s cottage. However, Fluttershy stopped just outside of her door, before turning to face Rainbow Dash.

“Alright…I’m ready now.” Fluttershy said taking a deep breath.

“I’m all ears Fluttershy.” Rainbow smiled supportively.

“Well…that world…I…I don’t know exactly what it is you experienced there…but…I know a lot of what I experienced was…very personal.” Fluttershy closed her eyes as she did her best to explain, “It showed me things that…I believe were meant to make me stronger…so that when I learned the truth…I’d be able to handle it…” she turned her head as she formed a sad smile, “Or, maybe more accurately, it was punishing me for the things that happened in my past…

“But, regardless, the world horrified me, but it revealed to me a truth that I had forgotten on purpose…and…well…” Fluttershy took another deep breath, trying to find her footing.

“Dash…tell me…what do you think of me?”

“What do I think of you?” Rainbow asked confused, “Uhm…well…you’re…” Dash tried to think of the words she’d use to describe Fluttershy. There were a lot of things Fluttershy was, but none of the words seemed to fit her description just right. She couldn’t find exactly what she wanted to say, “Uhhh…”

Fluttershy let out a small chuckle, forcing Rainbow Dash to blush.

“H-Hey! I’m thinking!” Rainbow said a little annoyed.

“It’s okay Dash…” Fluttershy softly gave her sad smile, “I understand. I do…” Fluttershy closed her eyes and smiled,

“I enjoyed our time together. You made me the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I don’t know what I would’ve done without Dash.” Fluttershy gave a soft laugh, “You’ve done so much for me…did I make you happy?”

Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion.

“Fluttershy? You’re talking like everything is in the past now…are you sure you’re alright?” Rainbow Dash looked concerned now.

“I’m fine Dash.” Fluttershy seemed to force a smile this time, “I just…I realized something while I was there and…I’m having a hard time telling you.”

“…You can tell me anything Fluttershy, you should know that.” Rainbow Dash explained.

“…Your right. Please forgive me then.” Fluttershy said taking another deep breath to calm herself, “I think…we rushed into our relationship…and that…I might not have realized what I wanted when we did.” Fluttershy closed her eyes, “I think…we shouldn’t date for a while…so that I can clear my head.”

Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion for a moment. She thought the words over carefully in her mind.

“…Is this what you want?” Rainbow asked next.

“…It is…is that alright with you?” Fluttershy gave a weak smile.

“Of course it is. You need to be happy for us both to be happy right? So if you need time to yourself, I can understand.” Rainbow Dash smiled comfortingly back.

“…Thank you Dash.” Fluttershy smiled genuinely back. “I’m sorry…I’d invite you in, but I need time to myself. If you wouldn’t mind telling the others that I just need some alone time, that’d be great.”

“…I understand.” Rainbow nodded, before turning around, “Feel better alright?”

“I will.” Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash fly off with a smile. Once she was out of sight Fluttershy walked into her cottage.

She walked across the house, going straight for her kitchen. Angel stirred from his bed as he saw Fluttershy come home. He hopped out of his bed and followed her.

Fluttershy dug around her kitchen draw, procuring a piece of paper and a pencil. She carefully trotted over to the table, placing the paper down and putting the pencil in her mouth, began to write.

Angel rubbed his eyes as he awoke from his sleep, but he stared up at the pony with a mix of strange curiosity. Something didn’t seem right to him, something about her mannerisms had changed.

Once Fluttershy had finished writing, she put the pencil down and stood up from the table, before looking down to see the white rabbit.

“Oh, hello Angel, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” She smiled as bent down and gave the rabbit a quick nuzzle. He grumbled a little, but took the nuzzle peacefully. He looked up at her with worry, and she only seemed to smile back at him, “Oh…don’t look at me that way Angel. I’d hate for you to think of me like that now.”

Angel’s ears flopped back as he stared at the mare that walked past him. She had said that in a weird way. He quickly jumped up onto the table, before scampering over to where the note lay. His little eyes quickly scanned the page, when he heard a door close in the house. His face grew dark as his heart fell. Not wasting a moment longer he ran straight for the door that had closed.

Fluttershy locked the bathroom door, just in time as she heard the small hands of her friend beating against it furiously.

“…I’m sorry Angel.” Fluttershy said softly, trying to be as apologetic as she could be. She walked over to her bathtub and began to fill it with water. It didn’t take long to fill with the warm water. She heard the incessant banging the entire time.

“I hope you’ll forgive me.” Fluttershy said to no one in particular.

She stepped into the small tub, feeling the water wash over her entire body. Then, without taking a breath, she lowered herself to be completely submerged into the water. She curled up into a small ball at the bottom of the tub as the last of her air escaped from her list.

An image of her father appeared before her, as she smiled. No matter how much her body or mind screamed, she wouldn’t give it the air it needed.

Fluttershy slowly slipped away, disappearing into a quiet, dark, watery world.

Please forgive me my friends, but this is all I can do to make amends for what I’ve done. I have blood on my hooves that I can never be forgiven for. I loved all of you, you were the closest ponies to ever be in my life, and while I’m sad to be leaving you I can do nothing else. This is my only option left now.

Dash, I’m sorry I lied to you. I won’t be coming back, but know that I did love you. You allowed me to live this long with the pain that filled me. Please be happy knowing that the pain is gone now. You meant so much to me.

And please take care of the animals for me while I’m away. Mr. Mouse will need his cast changed on Thursday, he should be able to have it off by the end of next month if he’s stayed off of it. Margret’s wing should be healed by Wednesday, she can be flying at full strength before she knows it. Daisy will need her medicine, she has a terrible cold and I’ve left the medicine on the cabinet. And finally Catalina should have a full bill of health by the time you find this, so you can send her on her way.

With that…Goodbye my friends. Thank you…

For everything…

Ending: UFO

Ending: Face Your Fears

Unlock condition: View all the memories and encounter Pinkie and Rainbow Dash in the Otherworld.

Twilight was doing her best to understand what the three pictures before her meant. Each picture was a distorted mess of color and shapes. At times she thought she had been able to make out the vague shape of a pony or some other shape that she could identify as an object, but it quickly moved back into being a distorted blob.

“I can’t make heads or tails of this.” Twilight as groaning as she looked back and forth, “How exactly does this spell work? This is my second time doing it and I’m STILL confused.” The book didn’t explain any further than how to perform the spell and its purpose. Was it supposed to be easy to figure out? Should something have been obvious to her? There were no instructions on how to interpret the pictures, or what she could do to help!

It really seemed like she was purposely being kept out, as if she wasn’t allowed to see what each of her friends were experiencing.

“If I had something to write with I could maybe take better notes…but I have nothing to compare this to! I only have the other two pictures! Ugh! I can’t learn like this!” Twilight groaned sitting down as she stared a little frustrated at the pictures. She wanted nothing more than to figure this out and learn so she could help her friends better, but without a frame of reference it seemed pointless.

Just as she was getting frustrated, each of the pictures began to radiate with a bright white light. Twilight tried to look at this development, but the light became too much for her to bear. She covered her eyes just as she felt the familiar tug of the spell ending.

She was dragged backwards, out of the spiraling darkness that carried the three paintings, before finding herself thrust back to reality.

“Uuuggghh…” Twilight groaned as she rubbed her forehead, it was an unsettling feeling to be pulled about like that. “Everypony okay?” She asked, opening her eyes to look at her three friends.

“Yay! It worked! We’re back!” Pinkie said excitedly jumping up, smiling happily as she looked around.

“Haha! Take that you creepy world you!” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“That was…really eye opening.” Fluttershy smiled softly, putting a hoof to her chin in thought.

“So…the spell worked? You were able to figure out why you were having nightmares Fluttershy?” Twilight asked looking at her friend curiously.

Fluttershy felt herself become the center of attention as every mare looked at her in anticipation. She blushed softly.

“Uhm…yes…I found out the reason.” Fluttershy admitted slowly.

“Well, don’t leave us in suspense, what was it?” Rainbow asked eager to figure it out.

“Whoa, hold on Dashie!” Pinkie said stepping closer, “If it’s anything like me finding out I lost my sister, we shouldn’t force her to say it if she isn’t ready…though I admit, I am really curious as to what it was…it’s probably something hug worthy.”

“Oh…uhm…” Fluttershy rubbed her leg awkwardly with her hoof, “Well…I…” Fluttershy stumbled in thought, “T-Tell you what…there’s…something I need to do…something I need to take care of…then I can tell all of you…I hope…” she said the last part quietly.

“And that’s completely understandable.” Pinkie said embracing Fluttershy into a big hug, “Just know that whatever it is, we’re always here for you.”

“Yea, sorry, I didn’t mean to sound pushy. Tell us when you’re ready.” Rainbow smiled supportively.

“…Thank you…all of you.” Fluttershy said smiling, with tears at the edge of her eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you girls.” She embraced Pinkie Pie back.

“Well…I’m glad I could help.” Twilight smiled.

“…Yea…about that…” Pinkie said letting go of Fluttershy and looking at the other two.

“…I think we’re in agreement here Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow said nodding at Pinkie.

“Yes, I do think we are.” Fluttershy nodded as well.

“Twilight…” Pinkie started.

“Huh?” Twilight asked confused. The three mares before her each took a deep breath, before in one big cry, they unanimously shouted,

“DON’T EVER USE THAT SPELL AGAIN!”

“So…why are we going to Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously looking at Fluttershy as the two of them were flying towards the city in the clouds.

“Well…I guess I can tell you.” Fluttershy said before letting out a soft sigh and smiling, “I’m going to see my father.”

“Your father?” Rainbow asked curiously, “I don’t think I’ve ever met him…heck, you haven’t told me much about your family. You always avoided the subject when I asked.”

“That makes sense.” Fluttershy said softly.

“…Does…this have something to do with that freaky nightmare-version of Ponyville?” Rainbow asked hesitantly, the gears turning in her head as she thought.

“…It does.” Fluttershy said softly, trying not to alarm Dash. She wasn’t ready to say too much about what she saw, not until she’d at least confronted her father. Rainbow looked at Fluttershy as they flew quietly; waiting for her to say more though she realized it wasn’t coming. Rainbow let out a soft sigh.

“You ARE going to explain things right? Pinkie didn’t explain anything more than she lost her sister to some serial killer…she didn’t mention the monsters in that town. I…I really want to know what happened to you Fluttershy. After you got separated from us, I was so worried…” Rainbow said, still feeling guilty about having yelled at Pinkie Pie.

“…I…I promise Dash…I’ll tell you everything…” Fluttershy looked down sadly, “Just…promise me you won’t…you won’t think I’m a monster…”

Rainbow looked shocked, as if she was almost offended at the idea.

“How could I ever think THAT!? You’re the nicest, kindest, most gentle pony in all of Ponyville! Heck, maybe in all of Equestria! How could I think you’re a monster?” Rainbow shook her head confused.

“…Thank you Dash.” Fluttershy held back a tear from spilling, “We’re almost there…” Fluttershy said as they were now flying close to the cloud city.

Cloudsdale was busy with its normal buzz of pegasi ponies all around. Some were working on new construction, some were delivering packages, other were simply out enjoying the weather while others seemed to be in a hurry. It was a normal day for Cloudsdale.

Fluttershy looked at the school house in the distance as they flew past it. She could hear the familiar bell ringing from there as the school house suddenly poured out with excited young foals that were eager to be out of school for the day and go off to play. It brought smile to Fluttershy, seeing all the happy faces of youth seemed to lift her spirits.

“There it is, the place my father works, Cloudsdale General.” Fluttershy said after a few more minutes of flying, pointing to the large white building with the large red cross on it. It had several pegasi flying in and out of the building, some healthy, some sick, some with bandages on their limbs. There was an emergency vehicle that sat parked next to it that would be pulled by a team of pegasi should an emergency call be made.

“Is your father a doctor?” Rainbow Dash asked as they set down just outside the front doors before walking inside.

“…You could say that.” Fluttershy said smiling softly. The lobby was large, very large. There was a huge open space above their heads for pegasi to fly around, a large fountain in the middle that seemed to have a few bits floating at its depths, a receptionist desk that had lots of ponies checking in, a waiting area for ponies to fill out paperwork and wait for them to head where they were needed, and the most noticeable part of the room was a very large picture over the receptionist desk of a light amber Pegasus with a dark red mane in a white lab coat with imposing blue eyes. Underneath the picture was a plaque, though it was difficult to read from affar.

“Well that’s a large photo.” Rainbow said chuckling at the size of it, “They must really like that Doctor.”

“Well, he has saved hundreds of pony lives. He’s the best doctor in the whole hospital.” Fluttershy stopped where she was walking, making Dash stop and look back at her curiously. “His name is Lance…Lance Strongshy…and he’s my father.”

Rainbow’s mouth hung agape, before looking quickly at the large picture, then back at Fluttershy, doing this several times in disbelief.

“You…You mean your father is THE Lance Strongshy!? I…Oh my gosh…he’s the most famous doctor in ALL of Cloudsdale! Even I’VE heard of him! It was said that when a terrible lightning storm broke loose from the Weather Center and injured at least thirty ponies, that Lance was able to save ALL of them, when all the other doctor’s couldn’t have saved them!”

“Yes…I’m familiar with that day.” Fluttershy said nodding slowly, all of her memories from her foalhood had returned now. She could remember almost everything about it.

“He’s always been one of the best Doctor’s! I heard he only got even better when he poured his passion into studying medicine after his wife died of a disea-“ Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks as realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She was speaking about Fluttershy’s mom.

“O-Oh…Fluttershy…I…I had no idea…I’m…” Rainbow started to apologize.

“It’s okay Dash.” Fluttershy said with a sad smile as she walked past Dash, heading for the counter, “There’s…a lot I have to tell you…you’ll understand soon.”

“Hello, welcome to Cloudsdale General, how can I hel-“ The nurse behind the desk began to say, having been nose deep in paperwork before looking up to shock, seeing Fluttershy standing there.

“…Hello Nurse Soft Cure, covering for the receptionist today?” Fluttershy offered as genuine a smile as she could looking at the white coated Pegasus with a blonde mane, after all, it was the first time she’d seen her personal foalhood nurse since she’d last visited the hospital so many years ago.

Nurse Soft Cure narrowed her eyes immediately, giving Fluttershy a rather nasty glare.

“…What are YOU doing here?” The nurse almost hissed. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the nurse’s behavior. This seemed very rude, considering she was talking to the daughter of the best doctor in the hospital.

“I’ve come to see my father today…if he’s not busy, that is.” Fluttershy explained simply.

The nurse’s hooves banged hard against the desk. Almost everypony turned their heads to look at this, not having expected a loud bang in the middle of a hospital. Nurse Soft Cure looked around quickly before offering a weak smile and a soft laugh, as if it had been an accident. The other pegasi just seemed to shrug before continuing with their own duties. Once she was sure nopony was paying full attention to them, she went back to glaring at Fluttershy.

“…So what…after all these years you just come waltzing in here, not only expecting an audience, but expecting me to believe that’s all you’re here for!?” Soft Cure was trying to yell, but her voice came out in a harsh whisper.

“Hey! Who do you think you’re talking to!?” Rainbow Dash said, feeling her fur start to stand on end, but was stopped by a hoof put out by Fluttershy.

“I swear to you Ms. Cure…I’m only here to talk with my father.” Fluttershy smiled in the face of the hate that was coming from the nurse.

“Oh, yea, like I believe that.” Soft Cure growled, “You’re just here to smear Lance’s good name aren’t you? Try to interfere with his life-saving work because of some bitter vengeance you want.”

Again, Rainbow Dash went to speak up but was stopped by Fluttershy.

“You can accompany me if you want…I really want nothing more than a chance to talk to my father. I won’t say a word to anypony else, I promise.” Fluttershy explained calmly.

Nurse Soft Cure just glared at Fluttershy, but seemed to be thinking the situation over in her head. Her eyes wandered over to Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be giving her glaring daggers back. It took a while, but the nurse finally responded.

“…Fine…I’ll escort you to his office.” The nurse got up from her sitting position behind the desk before spreading her wings. She began to fly down one of the hallways, towards the air paths to fly to upper levels.

“Yeesh, what’s HER problem!?” Dash growled as the two of them followed after the nurse.

“It’s…a long story I’ll tell you later.” Fluttershy smiled softly. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem pleased, but listened to Fluttershy as they flew. The nurse directed them up several stories, before stopping at the ninth. She flew down a long hallway that barely had a soul in it, they only passed a single other pegasi as they drew closer.

“Here. His office.” Soft Cure stopped outside one of the doors, turning to face the two mares, “I’ll let him know you’re here to see him.” She explained, before turning to knock on the door.

“Come in.” came a gruff voice. Nurse Soft Cure opened the door and walked in before closing the door behind her.

“…I don’t like the feel of this Fluttershy…” Rainbow whispered his displeasure with the situation, “Something doesn’t feel right…”

“I understand Dash…I promise, this’ll be over soon. Just…let me talk to my father in private for now please…if I need you, you’ll know.” Fluttershy said nuzzling against Rainbow Dash for support.

“…I’d rather go in there with you…but…if you say so.” Rainbow said softly nuzzling her back.

The door opened once more, nurse Soft Cure coming out.

“He’ll see you now.” She said standing next to the door, glaring at the two of them.

“Thank you.” Fluttershy smiled softly, before walking up to the door. She took in a deep breath to draw strength, before carefully opening the door and walking inside.

The office wasn’t too different from the last time she’d seen it. There was still the desk, with books lining the walls, many of the books stacked on top of each other around the office as if recently read. One book lay open on the desk as it was currently in the middle of being read.

There behind the desk, looking up at her with tired eyes was the familiar amber coat and dark red mane of her father. He looked up at her, almost as if in disbelief that she was actually there, standing before him after all these years.

“Hello…Father. It’s me…Fluttershy.” Fluttershy said as nicely as she could.

“…So…so you’re here.” Lance let out a soft sigh, moving out from behind his desk and walking around to get a better look at her, “You’ve…certainly grown a lot since I last saw you.” He looked her up and down, scanning her, “You resemble your mother so much now…”

Her father turned his head away from her, closing his eyes, “…Why are you here?”

“I…I came to talk.” Fluttershy spoke softly, “About…what happened between us.”

“…What’s there to say? You killed your mother…and I hurt you because of it.” He said the words coldly, as if he didn’t care to say them, let alone think them. “You remember all that don’t you? So what’s there to say.”

“…I guess…I came to apologize.” Fluttershy smiled a soft, sad smile.

“…Apologize?” Her father said looking almost confused as he turned to his daughter.

“I’m…I’m sorry I killed mom…” Fluttershy lowered her head softly, “I can never take back what I’ve done, and no amount of apologies will bring her back…but I…I did kill her…and so…I’m sorry.”

There was silence in the room. Fluttershy could feel the cold stare of her father as he looked at her, as if trying to figure out what was going on.

“…Are you trying to seek redemption now?” He finally spoke up in his cold voice, “Trying to make up for what you did so long ago? After all these years…you came back for this?” Anger was starting to rise in the back of his voice.

“…I guess…that’s not all…” Fluttershy admitted, lifting her head up and smiling, “I also came…to let you know that…I forgive you as well.”

This seemed to stop the older stallion where he stood.

“You punished me for what I did to mother…and I still feel…that it was a worthy punishment. I did a terrible thing, so it only is befitting that I had a fitting punishment…and I don’t hold any anger for what you did to me. In fact…I was able to find a wonderful life thanks to what you did. I have so many friends who love me so much now…I take care of the animals in Ponyville you know, I put the knowledge I learned from your medical books to use.” Fluttershy smiled happily as she thought back to her life in Ponyville.

“I…was even able to find love in Ponyville. I don’t know where it’s going to head, but it’s a journey I’m going to enjoy all the way…and I wouldn’t have met my love if you hadn’t done what you did. I owe everything in my life to you Father…and…I want to thank you.” Fluttershy gave a small bow.

“Thank you for everything.”

Lance just stared at his daughter. He could still remember the night his wife was taken from him, the monster that had ended his wife’s life. He remembered how much pain and suffering he had inflicted on that monster, how after that he had put so much work into studying medicine and practicing his craft so that he could save anypony, regardless of their condition or disease…

But now that monster was bowing before him, thanking him for everything that happened in her life, apologizing for taking the mare that had brought him the greatest amount of happiness he’d ever known.

He grit his teeth as he felt anger swelling inside of him. He stared at her with maddening intent. He saw her slowly lift her head to look at him with a smile. That smile…it felt like it was digging into his very soul.

He took a step forward, as he took a deep breathe out of his nose, raising his hoof into the air. He wanted to strike her, he wanted to make her hurt more, and he wanted her to know that what happened still tore at his soul as he looked into the face of every patient he ever had saved…

Fluttershy smiled softly, looking at her father. She closed her eyes, ready to be struck. She would take any punishment he seemed befitting for her as she always had, it was the only thing she could do to make amends for their past, for having taken her mother out of this world.

She waited for the blow, expecting it to come.

But the strike never came.

Instead, what Fluttershy felt next surprised her.

Her father gently placed his hoof down on her back, drawing her in close to embrace her, wrapping his hooves around her. She blinked in surprise, when she felt him start to shake. She wasn’t sure how to react, when she suddenly felt something cool and wet hit her back.

He was crying. Her father was crying as he embraced her.

Fluttershy couldn’t help herself, she moved her hooves up around her father and hugged him back, closing her eyes as she let him cry into her as he needed.

The two of them stood there in that embrace for what seemed like an eternity, when her father finally broke away from it, rubbing his face as he turned away from his daughter.

“…Fluttershy…” He finally said after clearing his throat.

“Yes?” She asked curiously.

“…I think…it’s best if we never see each other again…” He muttered quietly, “Please…don’t ever come visit me again.”

“…Alright…I understand…” Fluttershy slowly nodded her head, “Just know that…I love you Dad…”

“…I…I love you too…” He choked out, “Now…get out of my office.”

Fluttershy didn’t need to be told twice. She gave one last bow before moving to his door and opening it, heading out.

“…Well that was a quick visit.” Soft Cure said looking at Fluttershy curiously. Fluttershy’s emergence was the only thing that had stopped the constant glare battle between Soft Cure and Rainbow Dash.

“Yes…but don’t worry Ms. Cure, you won’t ever be seeing my again.” Fluttershy smiled to her nurse.

“…What? Really? You’re not going to smear his name?” The nurse said surprised.

“Ms. Cure…I understand now…you did what you did because you didn’t want anything bad to happen to my father. If something had happened, he couldn’t save all the lives he’s saved over the last few years.” Fluttershy smiled, but Soft Cure just turned her head, almost as if she was being stabbed by Fluttershy’s words. “I don’t blame you…he’s saved so many lives, the one he hurt seems insignificant in comparison.” Fluttershy chuckled softly.

“…Get on with it.” Soft Cure growled.

“I’m sorry, I just needed to say it.” Fluttershy smiled, “Please, have a wonderful life…and look after my father.” Fluttershy gave a bow, before walking off.

“…Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash spoke up after a while, “What the HAY was that all about?”

“…I guess I can explain to you now Dash.” Fluttershy smiled happily, “But…let’s go somewhere more private first.”

Rainbow and Fluttershy landed at the top of a hill in the middle of a large field that expanded far out into the horizon. One could see the mountains in the distance and the flowers blooming in the field bellow, it was a beautiful sight, one that was tranquil, without another pony around to be seen.

“This seems like a good place.” Fluttershy smiled as she laid herself down, turning to look over at the nearby forest, “You know…over there is where I fell from Cloudsdale and learned my special talent of taking care of animals.” She gave a soft chuckle.

“Huh…it is, isn’t it?” Rainbow Dash sat down next to Fluttershy looking at the forest. The sight did bring back fond memories, but that’s not what she was concerned about at the moment.

“Okay Fluttershy, will you tell me now that we’re alone? That nurse was glaring daggers at you and I didn’t like it one bit. Also, what did you see in that other Ponyville that warranted a trip to Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash quickly asked, wanting answers.

Fluttershy could only offer a sad smile as she felt the wind blow through her mane. She closed her eyes as she began to speak.

“I suppose you know that my mother died of a disease, right?” Fluttershy asked, just wanting to double-check what Rainbow knew.

“Y…Yea…I was too young to remember it but it was big news one day. And of course everytime I heard ponies talking about him, they almost always mentioned how he tragically lost his wife and it made him want to become an even better doctor.” Rainbow explained slowly.

“Well…then here’s the truth Rainbow Dash. My mother didn’t die of a disease.” Rainbow looked at her curiously, “It’s true that she was sick with a disease to which we had no cure, and it likely would’ve killed her eventually. But that’s not what killed her. For, you see…I killed her. I killed my own mother Rainbow dash.”

Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open once more as she stared at Fluttershy. Fluttershy wasn’t even looking at her, she was just staring out into the field with the soft, sad smile. Any question of doubt that ran through her head was hit by that sad look. She wasn’t lying, Fluttershy had actually done what she said…

“…But…But…why? Why would you…” Rainbow stuttered trying to process it, “What…what would drive you, the kindest pony EVER to…to kill your mother?”

“…She asked me to.” Fluttershy replied slowly.

“Whu…” Rainbow said in shock once more, “You mean…your mother asked her young daughter to KILL her!?” Fluttershy just slowly nodded her head.

“Fluttershy…that doesn’t make YOU the killer here!” Rainbow stomped her hoof, “You were too young to know the difference! If she made you kill her then you had no ability to stop yourself! You didn’t kill your mother! She kill-“

“But I did kill her Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy closed her eyes slowly, “Even if she told me to and as a child I had to listen to her, I still had enough sense in me to know that what I was doing was wrong, that it didn’t feel right…but I choose to not want to disappoint my mother. I took the knife she gave me and I stabbed her repeatedly.

“No matter how you look at it, the motives or the reasons, my mother died because I stabbed her multiple times. If I hadn’t had the knife, if I hadn’t moved my legs in the stabbing motion, if I hadn’t listened to her, then she’d still be alive today.” Fluttershy’s smile stayed on her face, that sad smile that said she was forcing herself to be okay with everything she said.

“I’m simply a monster Rainbow Dash.”

“NO!” Rainbow shouted stomping the ground before grabbing Fluttershy by the shoulders, much to her surprise, and turned the sad looking Pegasus to face her, “You’re not a monster! You’re mother forced you to do that Fluttershy! As the most gentle pony in all of Equestria you’re not capable of murder unless you didn’t know what you were doing! You’re not a monster!” Rainbow breathed heavily as she ranted.

Fluttershy looked in shock for a moment, before smiling gently. She was so happy that Rainbow cared for her so deeply, despite having admitted her monstrous truth to her. She could feel tears burning at the edges of her eyes, but she held them back as she closed her eyes.

“Well…my father told me I was.” This seemed to shut Rainbow Dash up again as she stared at Fluttershy in shock, “He didn’t just tell me I was a monster…he punished me as the monster I was. After all…you don’t argue with the best doctor in all of Cloudsdale…he knows what’s best for you. I don’t have any scars because he knew what he was doing, but I visited the hospital so often because of his punishments.” Fluttershy let out a small laugh; she apparently found that statement to be funny.

“That’s where nurse Soft Cure comes in…she was my father’s head nurse. Whenever I came in for one of my ‘accidents’ she was the one who helped me. However, she was loyal to my father…if I tried to tell her that my father was the one who had been doing all this to me, she only hurt me in return, forcing me never to speak the words that said my father was a horrible person.

“And I understand why now…she was protecting the people my father was caring for. I remember passing by the rooms of his patients one day…at the time he was attending to a cancer patient who all the other doctors said they had no chance of healing her, but my father said he wasn’t going to give up on her till the very end. Another patient needed a complicated organ replacement that other surgeons were too afraid to perform because one wrong move would kill her, but my father took it upon himself and saved her life.”

Tears were beginning to flow down Fluttershy’s cheeks as she spoke of the deeds her father had accomplished,

“There was a little filly with a weakened immune system…she had given up on life and was dying when my father gave her a hope she hadn’t had before…she made a full recovery. There was even a time when he was able to help a mother who was going to kill her baby in labor, but because he was there and knew what to do the baby came out healthy as could be…”

Rainbow could say nothing; she was staring at the crying mare before her as she poured her heart out about her father.

“These were all patients I saw with my own eyes Rainbow Dash…I saw him smile and laugh and help them all. Even after I had killed my mother he never once showed that sign of sorrow to them…so what else can I be but a monster Rainbow Dash? I deserved everything that happened to me. I did the unforgiveable and killed my mother.” Fluttershy closed her eyes, giving a small laugh as tears continued to stream down her face.

“…no…no…no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!” Rainbow Dash began to scream as she lowered her head. Fluttershy looked at her in surprise. Rainbow Dash began to shake as she felt the tears burning at the edges of her eyes.

“Fluttershy…YOU’RE NOT A MONSTER!” Rainbow Dash looked straight into Fluttershy’s water-filled cyan eyes, “Even if it’s true…even if you DID kill your mother, that doesn’t make you a monster! You could never hurt a fly unless you were given no other choice, no other option! Unless your back was to the wall you’d never do anything to harm another living being!

“So…so stop saying you are…” the tears ran down Rainbow Dash’s cheeks unhindered now, “Stop…speaking like your some…horrible pony that deserves to be punished…when you’re not…when you’re the nicest, gentlest, kindest pony whose ever lived.” Rainbow’s shoulder shook as she spoke.

“…Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy muttered quietly, looking at her through sorrowful eyes. The two sat on the grassy hill, looking into each other’s eyes as they sat there crying. There were no words to be had at that moment, just the bond that was between the two mares set up.

As the sun began to set in the horizon, between two breathless mares, they shared a deep kiss on that hill. Each mare could feel the passion that radiated from the other through the kiss; it wasn’t just a kiss out of longing or lust, or of a simple understanding or care…

It was a kiss out of deep love, a love that was rooted in their hearts.

The night sky began to become visible when the two finally broke apart their kiss, Fluttershy nestling herself into Rainbow’s coat.

“…Thank you Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy said quietly. Rainbow Dash just smiled at her marefriend, petting her coat softly. The two stayed that way for a short while. It was Fluttershy that broke the silence between them.

“…We’re not done yet though…” She said softly.

“Huh?” Rainbow asked curiously as Fluttershy sat up.

“This time…we need to talk about you.” Fluttershy wiped her face as she smiled, “About…your dream to be a Wonderbolt.”

“Oh…” Rainbow Dash grimaced, not wanting to have brought the topic up just yet. She looked up at Fluttershy, who was smiling at her, then up to the sky, then down to the ground and gritted her teeth as she closed her eyes before letting out a soft sky.

“I’m…not going to-“

“I want you to tryout for the Wonderbolts.” Fluttershy smiled happily.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion, “But…but I told you before…if I join the Wonderbolts…I’ll be abandoning my friends, the ponies I care about…” Rainbow Dash felt like she was shrinking as she spoke, “That I’d be abandoning you…”

“I’ve been thinking it over despite my own thoughts.” Fluttershy smiled, “And…there’s a one year training program right? Well…as far as I know, they’re not allowed to keep you away forever. By law, they must give you opportunities to rest, breaks from working. You get sick days, vacation days, rest days, holidays…and even once you’re part of the main flight team; they don’t do shows during the winter. And not every team member flies during every show. All that down time you’ll have, you can use to spend with us.”

Rainbow Dash blinked.

“How…How do you know all this?” Rainbow said, flabbergasted at Fluttershy’s level of knowledge about the Wonderbolts. Fluttershy could only laugh.

“I’ve been listening to you rant about them since we were fillies Rainbow Dash, I’ve remembered most of what you said about them. I just took important details from each rant and brought them together.” Fluttershy nodded slowly, “Just because you’ll be gone for a while at a time doesn’t mean you’ll be abandoning your home or your friends. And you especially won’t be abandoning me.”

“…I…I hadn’t thought about it like that…” Rainbow said thinking it all over in her head now. In that other Ponyville, it had been presented to her in such a black and white way that she couldn’t help but feel what she was shown was true…but here was Fluttershy mixing that black and white line, causing it all to be an ambiguous gray blur.

“…You’re right Fluttershy…you’re absolutely right!” Rainbow Dash said as her enthusiastic grin came back to her face, “YES!” She cried out, jumping into the air, doing a flip and pumping her hooves into the air, “The dream is alive! I’m going to be a Wonderbolt!” Rainbow cheered.

“That’s wonderful Dash!” Fluttershy laughed happily watching Dash, “I’ve come up with my own dream too…one I want to make come true very soon.”

“Oh? What’s your dream Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash flew down to Fluttershy, smiling happily.

“I’ve decided…that I’m going to be a mother.” Fluttershy explained.

Rainbow Dash’s wings stopped moving as she fell to the ground before Fluttershy.

“B-But…what…I…I can’t’ give you a child!” Rainbow Dash cried out in a panic. Fluttershy couldn’t help but laugh.

“I meant, I’d like to adopt a little filly or colt of my own.” Fluttershy explained more clearly.

“…Oh.” Rainbow Dash sat up, understanding now. “I don’t know Fluttershy…a foal is a LOT of work…a lot more than trying to be a Wonderbolt is...plus with me being your marefriend you know I’d have to help take care of it…” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head in thought, “I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of responsibility…”

“It’s okay Dash, I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” Fluttershy smiled happily.

“…Ugh…you have a way of twisting my heart.” Rainbow put a hoof to her face, before smiling, “but if a foal is what you want…then I can’t do anything but say to go for it…just uh…let’s consider our options first.”

“Options?” Fluttershy blinked, tilting her head a little.

“You know…ah…we could…” Rainbow Dash thought about what she was going say, “…Well I WOULD say we could ask Twilight about…you know…pregnancy spells between two mares…but I think I want to avoid Twilight’s spells for a little while.” Rainbow grimaced. Fluttershy couldn’t help but laugh at this as well.

“It’s alright. Whether its from you or from someone else, all I know is…I want to give some little filly or colt a wonderful foalhood, one I didn’t have growing up.” Fluttershy nuzzled up against Rainbow Dash.

“…I know.” Rainbow let out a soft chuckle as she embraced her marefriend, “Hey, it’s getting late, we should probably head back to Ponyville.” Rainbow said, as a cool breeze blew through her mane, reminding her of the time.

“Alright, let’s go.” Fluttershy smiled up at Rainbow.

The two of them soon took off from the hill, flying back to Ponyville together.

-End-

Ending: And That's When the Meteor Hit

Ending: And That’s When the Meteor Hit

Unlock Condition: You must find several unusual items during your second playthrough of the game.

-The Book of Basics in the Tunnel Labyrinth
-The Ninja Mask in the Abandoned House
-The Odd Shaped Red Shirt in the Hospital before finding the Second Eye
-The Broken Sword Handle in the burning house where Rainbow Dash was
-A Playing Card with a Brown Haired Colts Head in The Study of Fluttershy’s Old Home

She carefully pushed the door open and walked through the door.

On the otherside was a large open room, almost like a small gymnasium. She walked forward to the middle of the room, when she stopped.

Fluttershy stared at the creature. She didn't feel a heavy, overbearing presence this time. The creature was still drawing fear from her heart, but it wasn't overwhelming her now. She could stand before this creature now.

However, before either of them could move or speak, a light burst forth from her saddlebag.

Fluttershy jumped back in surprise as from her bag rose up the five seemingly random objects, each glowing in a white light as they began to circle the worried mare.

Then, in a second surprise, the five objects burst up to the ceiling of the room, combining together in a magnificent bright light. Fluttershy tried her best to follow it, but the ball of light came shooting towards the ground with a blinding speed.

With a large explosion the object crashed between Fluttershy and the Dark Creature, sending dust, debris and a huge blast of wind around the gym. Fluttershy was amazed she somehow had stayed on her feet through the ordeal.

Through the clouds of smoke and dust, a loud cough could be heard.

“Agh! Dammit Brad! You’re supposed to warn me when these things happen!” Came a strange voice.

“Hey, I had to get in here myself!” Came a separate voice. With a second burst of wind from seemingly nowhere, the dust and smoke cleared. There before Fluttershy stood a brown coat and haired earth pony standing next to a green pony in black and green ninja gear.

“But…but…my story!” The brown pony groaned putting a hoof to his face.

“We’ve got plenty of time to fix it later Sam; I need to have my fun!” Brad grinned, “But its time for this guy to meet my secret weapon!” Brad reached into his outfit before pulling out a master ball. He gave it a quick toss, as from it appeared a large humanoid, wearing torn white rags, wielding a gigantic metal sword and a large metallic pyramid on his head.

“…Didn’t someone more famous make this joke?” Sam raised an eyebrow at Brad.

“Yea, but he didn’t do this! Pyramid Head! Use ultimate distraction!”

The Pyramid head seemed to move slowly before the Dark Creature. The Dark Creature raised its eyebrow curiously.

Then, the Pyramid Head reached to the ground, picking up a top hat and cane. He placed the top hat gently against his head, before suddenly, from out of nowhere; music began to play as he danced.

“Hello, my baby
Hello, my honey
Hello, my ragtime gal

Send me a kiss by wire
Baby, my hearts on fire

If you refuse me
Honey, you'll lose me
Then you'll be left alone

Oh baby, telephone
And tell me I'm your own”

The dark creature seemed to open its eyes wide in shock as it watched the horrendous creature dance before it. There was no describing what it was that was before him

“Gotcha now!” Brad cried out, appeared above the dark creature, before rushing downwards and slamming down onto the dark creature, the creature letting out a loud roar as an explosion seemed to rock his being.

“Ugh…” Sam groaned as he got up and walked over to Fluttershy who was just staring at the spectacle with her mouth agape, “My apologies Fluttershy, I’ll get this story back on track as soon as my editor is done having his moment.”

“Wha…” was the only word that escaped Fluttershy’s mouth. Then in a weird sensation, she felt a warm, gentle pulse fill her body as her wounds seemed to escape her. The brown haired pony was unwrapping her bandages before she could realize it. However, when the bandages fell to the floor, she felt fine. Whatever he had done, he had fixed her body.

“You feel alright?” Sam asked curiously.

“Uh…y-yea…” Fluttershy looked at Sam, blinking again.

“Again, sorry, my editor Brad there…he refused to let me get away without him having his fun.” Sam rolled his eyes a little when another explosion was heard from the other-side of the gymnasium. Suddenly, before the two of them a Brad appeared.

“Hey, this is all non-canon anyways, let me have my fun!” Brad laughed.

“Non…canon?” Fluttershy was in shock.

“Brad…I think we’ve put Fluttershy into catatonic shock now.” Sam said poking the young mare before him, which didn’t seem to generate a response.

“That’s alright, we’ll fix her up as soon as we’re finished here, and I thought you’d be the most appropriate to deal the final blow to this blob.” Brad seemed to grin behind his mask.

“…What did you have in mind?” Sam asked raising an eyebrow at Brad.

“Use an old trick of yours!” Brad said before suddenly moving quickly. Sam wasn’t sure what he did, but suddenly his hoof felt very hot. He lifted it up and looked at it, to find that Brad had set it on fire.

“Oh…I get it…” Sam said, as the searing hot pain began to tear at his nerves.

The bloody mess of the dark creature was crawling forward as best it could, letting out horrifying whines at the damage Brad had done. Sam suddenly appeared before it, as the creature looked up at the fire burning on Sam’s hoof.

“I’m doing this for Brad. So now!” Sam held his hoof over his head, “Here I go! This hoof of mine is BURNING RED! Its loud roar tells me to GRASP VICTORY!” He pulled his hoof back, “ERUPTING…BURNING…HOOF!” Sam thrust his hoof down onto the head of the Dark Creature, “AND NOW…THE END!” The Dark Creature roared out as it suddenly erupted in a huge explosion. The fire on Sam’s hand extinguished at this.

“Excellent Sam!” Brad laughed happily.

“Are we done now?” Sam said looking at Fluttershy, who seemed to have become a white statue, “I think we need to get back to the computer and fix this trauma.”

“Hold on! There’s ONE LAST THING I need to do while we’re here!” Brad laughed.

“…Oh no…what’re you doing Brad?” Sam winced a little, not ready for what Brad had in mind.

“Oh, something that’ll make the fans VERY happy!” He said standing up on his hind hooves before clapping his hooves together.

Lance was busy writing down notes in his office about his latest patient. He was going to have to remember to increase her medication by about 50 milligrams for it provide better results, though he’d have to add a liquid portion to her diet to substitute the increase nausea the medicine would add as a side effect.

Suddenly there was a knock at his office door and he groaned softly to himself.

“Come in.” He called out.

“I can’t.” Said the voice behind the door.

“Why not?” Lance growled, displeased with having to break from his studies.

“I have something for you that I can’t get through the door at the moment; I need you to open it.”

“…Fine.” Lance grunted as he got up from his desk. He carefully maneuvered around the piles of books that lay stacked around his office as he approached the door. He lifted his hoof up and opened it, looking down into what seemed to be a black hole.

“Hey, yea, I couldn’t stop by here without dropping you a visit. And I figured what better way to show you how I feel about your ‘canon’ then by showing you my cannon?” Brad sat atop a huge cannon that somehow he had managed to fit into the hallway.

A loud explosion rang out, rocking the whole hospital at its very foundation as the cannon was fired at point blank range.

“…Yea…I apologize for this again.” Sam said looking at Fluttershy who stood next to him in the hallway looking at the cannon as best they could through the wrecked hallway, filled with smoke and debris. Though admittedly the floor was now given a good view of the sky.

“…What…” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Uhm…this is all a bad dream?” Sam smiled awkwardly.

“…Yes…yes this was all a bad dream.” Fluttershy murmured to herself.

"And so, once again, the day was saved. The ponies Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy can go on living happily, with none of the trauma, cause I said so, Lance Strongshy got torn to pieces by a cannonball, And everything was better forever, thanks to that dashing editor Brad"

"Are you done ruining my story yet?"

Chapter 4

Fluttershy let out a soft sigh as she lay on the floor of the examination room. A towel was draped over her head as she breathed slowly, trying to calm herself down and feel better. She had redressed her wounds; her cuts had reopened in the water and were slowly healing again. Her muscles still ached though the Health Drinks had helped a lot. Her shivering had gone away as well, a sign her body temperature was returning to normal.

She had made a makeshift fire with some of the leftover gauze and bandages using a small bit of the lantern oil to help it burn. The fire had provided her with a gentle comfort, warming her body and calming her mind as the flames danced before her. It wouldn’t last for long, but it was serving its purpose.

She had hung her bag to help it dry quicker, as well as getting all the water out of the music box. She was surprised she hadn’t lost the Doll Key in the watery mess, though the map of Ponyville hadn’t fared as well. It was drying as well, though it wouldn’t ever quite be the same.

“…I wonder what Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are doing right now…” Fluttershy asked herself staring into the flames. She was feeling lonely without her friends, and she was starting to worry about their safety. This place wasn’t welcoming, already she had brushed with death twice…and both times she had been saved thanks to Rainbow Dash.

“…Rainbow Dash…” she muttered quietly, closing her eyes to think about her marefriend.

“THIS IS IT! THIS IS MY CHANCE!” Rainbow dash squealed happily, as she held up a poster to Fluttershy, “The Wonderbolts will be having OPEN AUDITIONS in THREE MONTHS! This is the first time they’ve EVER done this! Apparently they’ve been so amazed at the talent of upcoming fliers that they want to see and personally invite the best of the best to join them!” Rainbow Dash let out another squeal as she was practically dancing for joy.

“That’s wonderful Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cheered happily for her, “You’ll finally be able to make your dream come true!”

“I know! Oh, I’m going to have to pick up my practice sessions! This is going to have to call for some new tricks too, tricks nopony has ever thought of! The most death-defying and out-of-this-world tricks any pony has ever SEEN!” Rainbow Dash instantly contemplated anything and everything she could do.

“You shouldn’t forget about using the Sonic Rainboom either, you’re the only pony in all of Equestria who can perform it! They’d let you in for sure after they see that.” Fluttershy happily said.

Rainbow stopped her musing when Fluttershy said that, lowering a hoof she’d had raised eagerly to the ground.

“…The Sonic Rainboom huh…” Rainbow scuffed her hoof against the ground looking a little anxious.

“What’s the matter?” Fluttershy asked, noticing the instant change in behavior.

“Well…to be honest…I haven’t been able to perform the Sonic Rainboom since the best young fliers competition.” Rainbow Dash seemed to grimace at her mentioning failing to do a move.

“Really? Do you not remember how you performed it?”

“It’s not that I forgot how I did it…just for some reason things seem to get too real just as I’m about to perform it. The ground gets too close or I start to panic about not controlling my speed or I think that it must be something to perform only on critical occasions or-“

Rainbow Dash’s frantic rant was interrupted when Fluttershy’s lips found their way to Rainbow’s. Rainbow’s face lit up in a blush at this.

“I know you can do it Rainbow Dash, I believe in you.” Fluttershy smiled warmly at her marefriend.

“Well…I suppose I can always give it another try.” Dash said grinning as she blushed heavily. She spread her wings and shot into the sky at a mighty speed. Fluttershy smiled as she watched her, always loving the way Rainbow flew.

Rainbow perched herself high-up on a cloud, looking over the world. With a quick breath she sprang up into the air once more, flying around as she began to pick up momentum. Fluttershy watched her fly around, realizing Dash was getting a feel for the air first, before Dash stopped high up in the air, almost invisible against the sun.

Then she saw the descent. Rainbow was racing straight for the ground at a tremendous speed. Fluttershy watched in anticipation, as she could see Rainbow begin to form the cone of air around her body. Fluttershy almost held her breath.

For a moment it seemed Rainbow hesitated, Fluttershy could see the change in her flight, she put a hoof to her mouth out of hesitation that she might go flying backwards as she had so many times before…

But at that last moment it seemed a last ditch determination fired in her eyes and her body stretched forward and suddenly-

BOOM

A huge explosion ripped through the sky, a circle of color spreading out as a rainbow shot towards the ground, turning right before it would impact with the ground and rocketing into the sky, spreading a giant rainbow across the sky.

Fluttershy cheered, jumping up and down at the amazing sight.

“…Wait a Moment…an explosion…” Fluttershy’s head popped up from where she had been laying it on her hooves. “The one that woke me up earlier…that sounded a lot like the Sonic Rainboom!”

Now she was worried. What reason could Dash have for doing the Sonic Rainboom here? Unless…

“Oh no…was Dash being chased by the Dragon again?” Fluttershy’s heart started pounding, “She could be hurt, or trapped, or…or worse!” Her heart lodged in her throat as she stood up quickly, shaking her head trying to clear her mind as her towel fell to the floor.

“No, I can’t think that way! Rainbow Dash is okay…and I’m sure Pinkie Pie is too. I just have to find them…” Fluttershy looked at what remained of the fire before her, it was flickering with its last embers, and it would die out very soon.

“Okay, I should be dry enough and my things should be dry enough as well, it’s time for me to find a way out of here. I have to find my friends.” Fluttershy quickly placed her things back into the slightly damp bag. She made sure to pack some of the extra gauze, bandages and health drinks as well, making sure she’d have more medical supplies with her should anything happen along the way.

This would have to do for now as she closed it up and placed it back on her back. She then returned the lantern to around her neck and turned it on, making sure it still worked, before walking out into the hallway.

Instantly the music box began to hiss and wail with the sound of buzzing bees, as the air seemed to become thick. Fluttershy instantly had to struggle for breath as it felt like the air itself was pressing down hard against her body, trying to strangle the life out of her. Her body felt almost frozen as the pressure felt like it was trying to crush her body. Her head slowly turned, looking down the hallway from where it felt like the pressure was emanating.

Her eyes grew wide and her pupils shrunk as she could see two piercing red eyes staring back at her. It was a tall pony-like creature, one that easily overpowered her. It’s body was covered in darkness that seemed to flow and crawl all around it, almost like dancing flames. As it stared at her its mouth began to open revealing a white mouth in stark contrast to its black body, its jagged sharp teeth bared for her to see. It was grinning at her.

It began to walk towards her, each step echoing with a loud thud through the hallway. As it drew closer the air grew thicker and its presence seemed to crush her further, the very air pressing down on her, making her legs shake and her breathing stop as her heart pounded heavily in her chest.

As it grew closer, a word began to echo through Fluttershy’s mind.

Pain.

This creature would bring her pain.

She had to run from it, she had to get away, but her hooves felt glued in place.

Pain. Pain. Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN.

Why couldn’t she run? She had to run. She was going to die if she didn’t run but she was paralyzed by fear. Fear of what? The wrath of this creature? That’s what she had to run away from!

“I need you to be strong right now, alright?”

Fluttershy’s mind snapped back to reality, instantly turning on her hooves and running as fast as she could.

She was finally able to get air into her lungs as she quickly ran past the doors around her. The hallway was quickly coming to an end though and before her she could see the staircase to the second floor. She couldn’t stop now, she had to run.

Her hooves hit heavily against each step as she ran up the stairs. She seemed to be getting farther away from the creature, the air was breathable and she wasn’t feeling the soul crushing presence, the music box was slowly growing more quiet.

She reached the top of the stairs, panting as she took in the stale air. The world still smelled of mildew and rotting materials, but it was better than being in that creature’s presence.

She quickly began to walk down the hallway of the second floor, when her music box suddenly began to hiss again. She stopped in tracks, expecting that black creature to appear before her, but slowly coming into the view of her lantern wasn’t the black creature…it looked like a nurse…

It was wearing the standard Cloudsdale Hospital nurse uniform, a pink hat with a red cross and a pink coat that fit well around the body but ended just short of the flank so that the cutie mark could be seen, with white stockings on the hind legs and special-made hoof-sandals to keep their steps quiet for patients.

However, that’s where the similarities ended, for the face of the nurse was covered in bandages, hiding its eyes and face, but around its mouth was a metal muzzle with holes for air, but looked like it had been placed to keep the creature quiet. It’s uniform was covered in spots of blood as if it had attacked something, while its white tail seemed spotless.

But most striking of all, was that around its neck it wore what looked like a black necklace of living flames, as if it had come from the body of the creature from before.

Her music began to hiss louder as the creature grew closer. Her head looked back and forth, looking for a way out that didn’t involve going back the way she came.

Her eyes fell upon double doors just in front of her to her right. She jumped at the doors and pressed on them, praying they were open. The door swung open and she ran inside, closing the doors behind her.

The hissing of her music box died down as she could still tell the creature was nearby outside the door. She hoped it wouldn’t come breaking the door down, but she now realized she had just set herself up in a trapped room.

She had jumped into what looked like a supplies closet. However, most of the supplies had fallen to this world’s rotten disrepair. Moths flew around the ceiling of the room, as she could smell blood in the air but couldn’t see any. She looked around, seeing if there was anything that could possible hide her or keep the creature behind the door away from her.

Something glinted against the glare of her lantern on one of the shelves.

“Huh?” She slowly walked over to the glint of light.

It was an orange gem stone in the shape of an eye. It was the only thing in the entire room that hadn’t fallen into a state of rotting; in fact it looked pristine, as if it had been taken care of while everything else fell apart. Something about the gem drew Fluttershy to it, as if it was hypnotizing. The jewel itself seemed to be watching her.

She gulped down her beating heart and placed the gem carefully in her bag. She’d hold onto it, she felt it was important.

She slowly walked back over to the door and placed her ear against it, trying to hear anything. The hissing of her music box had gone silent and she didn’t hear anything past the door.

She opened the door carefully, peeking outside and looking around. The nurse had left, it didn’t seem like it had tried to chase after her and break the door down. Fluttershy let out a soft sigh in relief realizing this.

She exited the supply room and continued down the hallway from the direction the nurse had come, she felt very strongly about not returning the way she had just come from, moving forward was her only option now.

Fluttershy looked around carefully at the doors in the hallway. Many had been boarded up with wooden planks nailed to the frames, making sure no one could enter or exit the rooms. Many looked like they had been sealed with some kind of building material, while others just looked like the locks and handles had been broken for ages and wouldn’t open.

The hallway ended abruptly with a turn, Fluttershy turning with it to continue down the hall. Something immediately struck her eyes as she walked down the hall. She drew closer to it, to get a better look at it, when she stopped and stared in surprise.

On the wall opposite the doors was a giant mural of Princess Celestia. She was facing the pony looking at the mural, with a hoof raised and her wings spread out with an imposing look about her. Above the mural, in large letters looked like a quote she had said once,

“Life is the right of every Pony, may we all bask in the light together.”

Fluttershy blinked in awe at the mural. She had never seen it before, not in all the years that she had been to the hospital at least. Not to mention, something struck her as being odd about the mural, as if something was missing…

Her eyes! Her eyes were missing. In their place were indentations in the wall, looking as if something was supposed to be placed inside of them.

Fluttershy carefully pulled out the orange stone she had found in the supply closet and carefully fit it into the right eye socket. The stone fit in with a click and stayed in place. Now Celestia was only missing one eye. It was likely that the other eye was somewhere in the hospital.

Suddenly, the note from the front desk made sense to her. They had locked away the other eye somewhere because Celestia’s staring was judging them, as if the mural itself could see something that they didn’t want it to see.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin in thought, ‘So I have to find where they locked the gem away, and the only hint I have is the word Hide’.

Fluttershy looked around the dark hallway once more, before quickly setting back down the way she was heading. She looked even closer at the doors now, looking for any door that might have some sort of keypad or be open for her to check and see if it would reveal some kind of locked item.

Even after another turn in the hallway, none of the doors revealed any answers, before opening up to another staircase heading back down to the first floor.

She treaded carefully, expecting another creature to start heading for her if she wasn’t careful.

The world remained quiet though, as she came upon a hallway that she recognized from when she was a filly. It was the testing wing of the hospital, one she remembered frequenting with her mother as she was getting help.

In a quiet nostalgia, she began to check some of the doors in the hallway. One door opened for her, as she walked inside.

“Mother!” Came the voice of a little filly. Fluttershy stepped back in shock as she looked at what was happening before her. A ghostly version of her mother was lying on the bed in the room, as a filly version of herself ran up happily next to her bedside.

“Fluttershy, you came to visit again.” Her mother chuckled happily, leaning down to pick up the little filly, hugging her close as she lay in the bed.

“Of course mother, you know I’ll always visit you.” Fluttershy chuckled happily as her mother’s hair tickled her. “When are you coming home mother? I miss you…”

“As soon as the doctor’s finish there testing today.” Her mother smiled happily.

“Really!?” Fluttershy’s face lit up happily.

“Really.” Her mother chuckled happily at her daughter’s enthusiasm, “They said unless it’s serious, I can head home today since I’ll have your father at home to take care of me. We’re so lucky to have him.” She smiled.

“Dad’s the best doctor in the whole world! He’ll make you all better in no time.” Fluttershy smiled happily.

“Indeed he will.” Fluttershy’s mother smiled happily, before turning her head and coughing into a hoof, away from her daughter.

“You really should be resting.” Came a deeper voice. The two girls turned to see an older Pegasus with a doctor’s coat walk into the room.

“Daddy!” Fluttershy smiled happily.

“Hello dear.” Her mother smiled happily.

“Hello you two.” He smiled and walked closer, “How’re you feeling today?”

“Better, my stay here helped, but I’m eager to get home and be with my little one.” Mother smiled, rubbing Fluttershy’s head happily.

“You’ll be resting there too you know, you may feel better but you’re not cured yet. But we’ll find the cure, don’t you worry.” Her father smiled. He looked tired, like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a long while.

“I know you will dear. We’ll be a happy family again before too long.” Her mother said happily, before the images faded away.

Fluttershy didn’t know what to make of the images. After they had gone the room had returned to the state of decay as the rest of the hospital was in, the furniture and cloth was destroyed and old, with the smell of mildew hitting her nose.

“Mother…” Fluttershy said quietly. She remembered that memory now, though when she had tried to remember it before it was hazy, but now it was coming in clear as could be. She wondered why, what reason her memories would have for hiding her mother till they showed up like this.

She took a closer look at the room, but nothing else seemed to pop out to her. She frowned a little, hoping she’d find a little more to remember, but it didn’t seem she’d be offered any. She slowly turned back to the door and walked out back into the hallway.

She let out a soft sigh as she tried to gather her thoughts and try to calm down. She walked further down the hall, before her eyes caught the sight of a sign that was lit up above double doors. The sign read ‘ER’.

She hesitated for a moment, she hadn’t been in the ER section of the hospital before and she was worried about what she would find. However, she gulped down her fears and quickly entered the double doors.

She looked around, not seeing any creatures, but the scent of blood caught her nose. She looked down on the ground and saw a trail of blood leading down the ER’s hallway, as if something had dragged a pony’s body down it. Her gut told her that following the trail was the right way to go, but she dreaded what she would find. She didn’t want to see a bleeding corpse.

With another gulp, she began to follow the trail of blood. The trail lead under a door at the end of the hallway, a door that looked like it was used for surgery. She carefully pushed the door open, walking into the room.

It was indeed a room for surgery, torn apart privacy curtains hung from rusted metal rails, a window for observation was broken on one side of the room, a tray filled with rusted medical items lay near a broken table, various machines and devices lay in various pieces around the room, the disinfecting sink was coated with a layer of blood.

The blood trailed ended in the middle of the room, leading to a large pool of blood that lay just underneath the surgical table. On top of the table was a wooden bloodstained box with a padlock on it. The padlock had a dial on it for turning numbers to open it.

Fluttershy carefully walked up to the box and examined it, before noticing a bit of extra blood on the table that had been formed into words.

Turn, turn, turn, the letters into nhmblyrs

The last word was smudged, but it had all been written in blood, she was surprised it wasn’t all more smudged.

She carefully placed a hoof against the padlock and looked at the four dials on it. Each dial went from one to nine, creating a four digit number code to unlock the box.

“Hmmm…the note said that the code was the word hide…and the words here say something about ‘turning the letters’…” Fluttershy thought quietly for a moment, trying to tell her brain what it meant.

Suddenly it seemed to come to her, as she placed her other hoof against the dial and began to turn the numbers.

“Eight…Nine…Four…Five…” She said out loud as she turned all the numbers to what she thought must be the right combination. The padlock clicked, releasing its iron grip on the wooden box. Fluttershy smiled happily at her own ingenious, before carefully moving the padlock aside to open the box.

Inside she saw what she expected, the other gem that was Celestia’s eye, though this one was a dark shade of blue instead of the orange that her other eye was. Fluttershy carefully put the jewel inside of her bag, ready to leave this surgical room.

She turned and exited the room, only to be met with the loud hissing of her music box once more.

Her head instantly looked down the hallway, seeing the same kind of nurse heading towards her, blocking off the path of the hallway. Fluttershy looked around, not sure what to do, not wanting to get attacked but having nowhere to run. She did the only thing she could thing to do and pressed herself up against the wall. With that she very slowly began to walk towards the nurse, hoping the nurse would ignore her and let her slip by.

The nurse’s head turned to snap and look at Fluttershy as she got almost side by side by it. Fluttershy stopped in her tracks as the nurse stopped as well.

The nurse seemed to be staring at Fluttershy through its bandaged face. Fluttershy couldn’t see the eyes, but she knew they were staring deeply at her. Fluttershy stared back in return, as she could feel a cold sweat beginning to form on her forehead.

The two of them were in a standoff and Fluttershy didn’t want to be the first pony to make a move. The tension was thick, only cut by the hissing of the music box telling Fluttershy that she was in danger.

The nurse finally, but slowly, turned its head away from Fluttershy, before walking past her, heading for the surgical room Fluttershy had just left from.

Fluttershy let out a soft sigh from the air she had been holding in from the tension.

The nurse turned around instantly, as it suddenly let out a wailing, ear-piercing cry. Fluttershy jumped, running out of the ER hallway as fast as she could. She turned down the testing hallway, running straight for the stairs to the second floor, when her music box hissed even louder as she hit a wall of thick air that squeezed down on her as if trying to suffocate her.

She skidded to a stop as her whole body felt terror. The dark creature was standing before her once more. It roared at her as its white mouth opened, the jagged teeth coming down swiftly.

Fluttershy’s instinct reacted as she raised a hoof to defend herself. The jagged teeth bore down into her leg and Fluttershy let out a scream in agony as it felt like her flesh was on fire. The dark creature twisted its head before quickly snapping it back, picking up and tossing Fluttershy by her leg. Fluttershy slammed into a wall, the air escaping her lungs as pain soared through her.

She coughed and gagged on the thick air as the dark creature began to walk closer to her, wanting to strike out once more.

Fluttershy scrambled to her legs, her injured leg slipping causing her to crash face first into the floor, eliciting another yelp as her bruised face was struck. She managed to turn her head to look at the creature through blurry, tear-filled eyes. It was drawing too close, she had to escape, she had to get up and run.

Instinct struck again as her wings spread out and she flapped them desperately, trying to pick up her body and get away, get away quickly, she had to get to the mural of Celestia.

Jagged teeth bore down into her wing. Fluttershy screamed even louder than she had before, her sensitive wing being puncture in several places. The dark creature twisted its head again, though this time a loud crack was heard as the bone in her wing snapped.

Fluttershy’s body flailed once more as her screams echoed through the hallway. The dark creature let go of the maimed wing, seeming to grin happily at its accomplishment.

As tears streamed down her face, her legs finally found traction. She put all of her strength and focus into running, wanting nothing more than to put distance between her and the dark creature. Her vision was blurred with pain and tears, making it hard to see where she was going.

She smacked into the end of the hallway, crying as pain shot through her body from the force of the impact. She shakily looked down the hallway, seeing the blurry outline of the dark creature heading straight for her, continuing its slow pace.

She reached her good hoof out in front of her and found a door before her. With haste she opened it, stumbling out. She quickly blinked, whirling her head around. She was on the other side of the lobby, she knew where she was, she could go through the other door, make it up the stairs, and then she could get to the mural.

Her music box had yet to cease its hissing, as a figure came into her blurry vision. Fluttershy turn and ran, only looking back to see the blurry outline of a nurse that had been walking towards her.

She tripped against the receptionists chair that lay scattered behind the desk. She didn’t have time to let the pain settle in, she had to get up. She scrambled back to her feet and reached the other door.

The moment she entered the hallway to the patients rooms, another ear-piercing wail cried out. Fluttershy turned just barely in time to see a nurse raised up on her hind legs, as the front legs came rushing straight for her.

Fluttershy felt the hooves strike her face as she was sent tumbling back into the wall. She panted as she got back up and tried to look around. She could no longer see out of one eye, only half the world came to her vision.

She made out the image of the nurse walking towards her, barely even giving her time to realize she’d been hit. Fluttershy pushed off against the wall and ran past the nurse, the nurse wailing at her as she ran by.

She could barely see, her hoof hit the staircase with a thud sending her face into the stairs once more. Her head was throbbing so much she wasn’t even sure what was happening to her body anymore. She only knew she had to get up and keep running, she had to get to the mural, it was her way out, it had to be her way out.

She climbed the stairs to the second floor. She wasn’t even sure how she did it, but she had managed it. She kept running, she wasn’t even sure how she was keeping up pace with her body, but her legs were running. She made the turn down the second floor hallway, and the blurry image of the mural was in her sight. She ran straight for it, skidding to a stop right before it.

The music box let out a loud hiss as the air began to feel thick. Fluttershy reached into her bag and pulled out the blue eye.

The air began to feel like it was pressing down on her, going to crush her body. She fumbled with the eye, fumbling to put it into the right slot. It nearly fell from her hooves, she shifted it hastily into place.

She couldn’t breathe, the air and pressure was too strong. She swore she could feel breath on the back of her neck as the blue gem clicked into place.

The two gems let out a bright light as a loud cry came from her side. The mural began to move, disappearing into the wall. In its place was another dark hallway. Fluttershy ran for it, she ran through the hallway, ran away from the pressure and the thick air.

It was chasing her, the creature was following her down the long hallway. Her chest was once more on fire but she couldn’t stop.

An office opened up at the end of the hallway. A simple office, a desk, a filing cabinet, chairs, office space. Fluttershy crashed into the desk, throwing her hooves over it as she panted in desperation. Her vision was impaired so much now, she could only make out the outline of the furniture in the office.

The air grew thick once more, she turned her head in fear, watching as the dark creature was drawing closer. It’s blood-covered white smile and jagged teeth shone underneath its red glaring eyes. She couldn’t see anything but its face. Her breath sounded loud, her panting was as loud as the beating of her heart in her ears.

There was no escaping it this time. The mural had led her to a dead end, there was no escape now. Her vision was filled with the dark creature, it was going to kill her, she would die here and her friends would never know what happened to her.

She muttered an apology under hear breath as her face continued to be drenched with her tears. The creature was upon her and her breath stopped. The pressure of the creature’s presence was enough to feel like it would stop her heart.

It opened its mouth as it was going to bore its fangs down on her one last time.

It stopped. The creature had stopped moving. Something had forced the creature to not kill her. Fluttershy meekly stared at the creature, not understanding what was happening. It had the opportunity to kill her, why wasn’t it taking it?

Her ears twitched as she heard the reason. Somewhere in the distance a siren was going off.

The dark creature before her began to disappear, as if the siren had called it forth, than summoned it back. The darkness that surrounded the creature’s body seemed to burn up, the entire creature went up in a black fire before her, disappearing before it could finish her. The music box ceased its hissing as the creature vanished, leaving her in the office by herself.

A loud click could be heard, before the sound of something crashing to the ground.

Fluttershy’s mind was hazed over, she could barely see, she couldn’t understand what was going on, but she dragged herself over to where she had heard the sound. Her body moved on its own now, without her guidance.

Her body stepped on top of a platform; one she was sure hadn’t been there when she entered the room. She felt her body collapse on top of it, laying herself down as she panted.

The platform began to move, she wasn’t sure how or why, but she didn’t care. It was moving up, it was taking her away from the hospital. The platform was moving into the ceiling, through a dark path that she couldn’t see what was around her, but she knew she wasn’t around danger anymore.

The pain was becoming real to her now. Her face came to her attention first, she could feel the swelling around her eye, she was probably also bleeding a lot from her face, but it was hard to tell.

Her leg was no longer useful. Using it so heavily in her panicked state while it was injured, it had gone completely numb to her. She had probably done irreversible harm to it; it probably would never work the same way again. She could barely make out the blood pouring from it.

Her wing…the creature had snapped her wing, broken it. She couldn’t help but remark at that, Pegasus wings were strong and sturdy, one could not normally break it with a twist of the head. They weren’t’ like bird wings that were fragile, they were strong enough to lift the entire body a pony, but hers was now broken. She wasn’t sure how if it could be fixed or not, the one thing she knew about broken wings, was that they could break two ways, a way that they could be used again, or a way that they’d never be useable again. There was very little in leeway.

Her thoughts were distracted when the platform came to a stop. It had reached its destination.

She panted heavily. Her body wanted to stay collapsed, absorb the pain…the pain that was trying to drive her mad. The only thing that was keeping her sane was the thoughts of what damage had been done to her and what she could do to fix it.

But she knew she had to at least get up. If she didn’t get up she couldn’t start fixing her wounds.

She tried to stand up, she put energy to her legs, but they refused to stand her up. She carefully blinked her one useable eye, trying to open it more than it was, but it refused against her actions. She tried to flap her good wing, but it was pressed hard against the platform by her body.

She panted, but she was too tired to panic anymore. She was yelling at herself at get up, but her body was refusing now.

“Hahaha, oh man, that was a good one!” Pinkie giggled happily.

Fluttershy’s eye closed tightly, wanting to escape the pain with sleep, but she forced it open.

“Hahaaaah, man you pull the BEST pranks Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash laughed alongside the pink pony.

Her good front leg lifted weakly off of her body, as she very carefully placed the hoof against the ground.

“…Heehee, that was pretty funny.” Fluttershy giggled, covering her mouth with her hooves.

Her leg started to lift the front of her body up. Her body jerked in refusal, but she held herself up. Her back legs began to weakly move now.

“I told you you’d enjoy yourself!” Rainbow said grinning, putting a hoof over Fluttershy’s shoulder.

Her back legs slowly moved, placing their hooves against the ground. She lifted herself up, she was standing again, she could feel herself dripping. She was losing blood.

“It’s all in good fun after all!” Pinkie laughed, bouncing up to Fluttershy, “After all, who DOESN’T love to share a good laugh?” She grinned brightly.

On three legs she slowly began to walk. She didn’t know where she was going yet, but she could feel the need to go forward.

“You’re right, I’m still not sure that I’m that good at them, but I love doing them with you two.” Fluttershy smiled happily. She loved being around her friends, they gave her such strength. She didn’t know what she’d do without her friends.

Fluttershy stopped before a mirror. She could see herself now. She could see the bruised half of her face swelling around her eye, the maimed wing, the bleeding leg. She was a mess. With very careful precision, she dropped her saddlebag onto the ground. Using her good hoof, she opened the bag and pulled out a health drink.

She very carefully swallowed its bitter contents before placing it down. She then grabbed the bandages in her bag, and very carefully began to wrap the wound on her leg.

“I think that’s enough for one day, but we should totally do this again!” Rainbow Dash grinned at Fluttershy.

“Oh yes, I’d love to. Doing this again would make me happy!” Fluttershy grinned happily. She could ask for nothing more…

Than to spend another day in the loving care of her friends.

Ending: Game Over

Unlock Conditions: Die at any point.

Fluttershy screamed in agony as the monster tore into her flesh. She screamed and cried, but it was to no avail. Her heart stopped and her body began to drain of life. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she closed them.

‘I’m…sorry Dash…’ were the last words she thought as she left this world.

Twilight was sitting, staring at the three different pictures that were morphing before her in the infinite swirling darkness around her. She still didn’t understand what the pictures meant, but she could only assume that each represented the psyche of one of her friends going through the mind delve.

Suddenly, the one in the middle began to grow dull, the picture slowly growing black.

“Huh?” Twilight said, not sure what to make of the scene. The picture was growing darker within its frame.

Then, from the center of the picture, a black fire erupted. The black fire spread across the foundation of the picture, burning it away. It engulfed the entire middle picture, before the fire jumped and started to burn the other two pictures.

“What…what’s going on!?” Twilight said in a panic, not knowing what was happening. The fire quickly began to engulf the other two moving pictures, wrapping each in the burning inferno of the black fire. Soon, all three pictures had disappeared, devoured by the black fire that had appeared.

Twilight felt herself being pulled, dragged out forcibly from the swirling darkness back to reality.

Twilight groaned as she rubbed her forehead.

“What just happened?” she asked opening her eyes to look before her.

Laying on the ground were her three friends.

“…H-Hey…what’s the matter?” She said getting closer to her friends, putting a hoof against Fluttershy. “Fluttershy?” She asked shaking her a little, “Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash?” Twilight shook each of them repeatedly.

“Hey…t-this isn’t funny! Wake up!” She called out, shaking them harder. But no matter how hard she shook, they didn’t move. “Come on! You guys are fine, right!? You’re playing a bad trick on me! Come on! Wake up!”

Twilight stopped shaking them, her mouth quivering. She carefully lowered a hoof against Fluttershy’s neck.

Her heart sank as she felt no pulse.

She quickly checked Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They were the same.

“Oh no…oh no…ohnoohnoohnoOHNO.” Twilight said backing away, feeling the panic swelling inside her, “What…what have I done!?” She cried out as tears began to fall from her face.

Somehow, someway, she had just managed to kill three of her best friends.