The Great Fall
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash photos rested pinned to the walls of Shy’s cottage. Shy had finally made her long dream to marry the mare she loved since she first met when she was youngest.
Though something wasn’t right today, something felt off in the atmosphere of the mare’s cottage.
Four years in a relationship and that the two ponies spent being married. Fluttershy laid on the couch in her cottage, staring at a note that was left for her again tonight. Though the shy little pony usually was happily humming to herself while at home waiting for her partner, today was not one of those days that she looked forward to seeing Dash. The night before was anything but love-filled for her. No sound emitted from her as she lay on the couch, her ears were flat against her head and her eyes were red, stains of tears against her coat.
Dash was late one night and the night before. She’s been coming home later and later and her only excuse for the time she came home was that work got her hung up. Then, the night before it was almost three in the morning that she hadn’t arrived home. Shy had gotten worried, eventually, her worry taking over, Shy going out to look for her late lover. It was almost unlikely that work had gotten her caught up, work never lasted this long. The first thought that came to her mind was, ‘Maybe she had gotten hurt.’
After almost an hour though, no luck of searching. Every crevice, every tree, every cloud, not a single stone unturned that she didn’t find her in. It had gotten her increasingly worried but eventually, there was no more she could do. Well, not exactly. Even her visiting the Wonderbolts and trying to ask for Dash didn’t work, as their main facility was closed.
Just as her search ended her ears picked up a sound of that familiar mare’s voice. It was almost like the world lit up. Shy’s ears perked up and she looked to the sky, where she knew she’d be, following the sound of the voice with tears in her eyes. It had been almost an hour’s search that she hadn’t found her. Though, what she saw was not what she was searching for.
Laying together with a stallion, kissing and giggling, lay the blue rainbow maned mare. The colorful mane, tail, and soft blue fur. Fluttershy’s ears gently pressed against her head and her lips curled up into a shaky smile. A small crystal blue-colored tear slowly strolled down her cheek. With that sight, Shy headed home with a small smile riddled with quickly drying tears.
And now she found herself here. On her couch staring at a small note that read;
‘I won’t home tonight so don’t stay up for me, Shy. I’ll be out doing late work with the rest of the Wonderbolts. Try and get some goodnight’s sleep while I’m out, see you tomorrow morning.
Love, Dash’
Her eyes gently pushing out little tear droplets that seeped into her soft yellow fur. She started up her usual hum, upbeat and full of joy, despite her teary eyes being anything but joyful. For months now, Shy remained on this couch till Dash returns and puts on the facade that nothing is amiss. Though at this point, crying while Dash was away and hiding it was just a daily chore for Shy.
Shy stood up from her couch and placed the note on the table which she found it on. She slowly walked around her cabin, the animals she allowed inside, the birds, Angel the bunny, the little mice, and the bear that stood outside all watching her. Shy hadn’t fed herself for almost a week, then she would eat and throw up at the end of the week, her steps were shaky like an unstable Jenga set that had just received a little whiff of air. Angel quickly hopped over to her, his ears pressed up against his head.
Shy looked down at the little bunny and smiled, petting his head and walking past him. Ignoring his sad expression and the concern that slowly began to worsen every day she didn’t eat. She noticed it, but she was too depressed to care. Shy sat down at her lonely kitchen table, holding a small necklace given to her by Dash, her eyes looking into the pink amethyst that was expertly shaped like her cutie mark.
Angel hopped onto the table and crossed his paws as a mother would do in disappointment. He grabs the necklace and quickly runs away, Shy swiftly standing up and in her usual quiet tone.
“Angel, no give me that back! You’re being a very bad bunny!”
Angel turned around, Shy looking at the bunny’s eyes. She saw it, the destroyed sense of safety and happiness in the little bunny’s teary eyes. Shy slowly walked over and picked up the bunny, petting his head and smiling warmly for him.
“I-I’m sorry, Angel. I’m sorry for worrying you and the rest of you. I’ll eat, ok?”
Angel dropped the necklace and nodded. The necklace fell to the ground, only just after it hit the ground did the front door open. Shy perked up and looked in the direction of the front door. Even the animals stopped what they did just to focus on the door. Shy spotted the rainbow hair and the blue cyan coat of the mare she fell in love with.
“Oh hi Dashy, how was work today?” Shy asked, her eyes a little red.
Dash focused on Shy’s tear-stained cheeks and reddened eyes and then sighed.
“Well… We need to talk,” Dash responded, looking down at the floor, her eyes evading Shy’s eyes.
“Of course,” Shy walked over to the couch and laid down, patting the seat next to her, “Come sit.”
Dash cleared her throat, Shy looked up at her and tilted her head, curious as to what she had to say, unbeknownst of what she had in store for her.
“I’m… I just… Well…” Dash stuttered before giving up, pulling out a pregnancy test from her bag. Shy looked at it and didn’t say a word. Simply staring at it with an empty gaze.
The entirety of the cabin was silent, not even the birds tweeted, none of the bats squeaked, not a sound. Shy looked up at Dash with a light smile, tears streaming down her face as she said, “Get out.”
Silence returned and laid its heavy burden upon everyone in the cabin and around it.
Shy’s tears gently trickled down her cheek.
Three years later.
After the fight in the cabin all those years ago, the revelation, the tolerance, and the pain and heartbreak that she had to go through. Shy still decided to stay with Dash, kept the little filly, and remained a somewhat stable family. Now here they were. Dash had run off to see that damn stallion. Meanwhile, Fluttershy sat on a bench, a little filly running around in front of her, resembling Soarin a lot. She had a couple of rainbow streaks in her mane but the rest was just a simple dark blue. Her coat was grey and her cutie mark was a simple tornado.
Shy stared at her with a blank expression, Dash had left her with this little filly as she went off to go talk to Soarin. She stood up and walked over to her.
“Stargaze, let’s go.” Shy said with a stern voice.
The filly looked up at Shy and let out a disappointed, “Awww.”
With one swift movement, Shy grasped the fillies hoof and started to walk, forcing the filly to follow quickly beside her. Stargaze looked up at her adopted mother and gulped, afraid she was in trouble for something she had no idea she had done.
“D-Did I do something wrong m-mommy?” Stargaze solemnly said.
Shy looked back at the filly, sighing and smiling at her, “No, of course not, you know what, let’s play a little game of hide and seek. Ok?”
Star hopped up and down, flapping her wings, “Y-Yeah! Who goes first? I can hide first!”
Shy giggled and pet her, gently running her hoof through her mane, staring into her eyes. Emerald green, just like Soarin’s eyes. She felt a swirling hole in her heart as she stared into those damn eyes.
“Go ahead, sweetie.” Shy said in a monotone voice.
Shy’s stare upon the filly alongside her smile looked sinister, the filly letting a small bead of sweat drip down her forehead to her chin. Shy looked down at the filly with her snout looking over her. Stargaze simply folded her ears and walked alongside Shy.
“M-Maybe when we get h-home,” Stargaze said with a shaky tone.
Shy put on a false sad expression before turning to walk home, not bothering to wait for the filly.
A silent walk home later, they were inside the house, and Shy closed and locked the door, the locking mechanism growing louder every day. Dash had her keys, she could open the door if she needed to.
“Hey, Star? Can you wait right here for me? I got a present for you, honey,” Shy said endearingly.
Catching the attention of Stargaze, she patiently plopped her rump and sat there looking up at Shy with a happy expression. Shy smiled sadistically, turning to walk over to her furnace, and slowly picked up the sharpest knife she had sitting on top. She gently ran it against her hoof, slicing a bit of her fur apart and letting a gentle river of blood seep from it.
Stargaze looked on in horror as the blood gently ran from her hoof to the knife, down the blade, and eventually, the blood began dripping to the ground. Shy turned and pointed it to Stargaze.
“I’m going to gift you the best eternal sleep, my dear.” Shy said with her stare searing through the fillies’ very soul.
Based on the fact the filly sat there with her eyes darting around and quickly standing up, she knew what her mother had in mind.
“M-Mommy, d-don’t hurt me! I’m sorry I-I wanted to play today, I-I won’t do it again I swear!” Cried the filly, tears swelling around the edge of her eyes.
Shy saw as the filly stretched her wings, flapping them a bit attempting to create some sort of a lift to help her run away. She failed however and Shy simply smiled as she approached, only getting closer and closer.
Shy lifted the knife, flipping it over so the tip pointed the ground, and tilted her head a bit.
“This’ll only hurt for a bit, so close your eyes and I’ll take care of you. Brat.” Shy brought the knife down, the filly pulling her wings in front of her to protect herself.
Though amongst the commotion Shy hadn’t paid attention to Dash’s whereabouts, hardly paying attention to the front door. Within seconds, Shy was on the ground and the knife in the wall. Shy coughed as she touched her side, where she had been kicked by Dash in desperation to make her stop.
A ringing in Shy’s ears began, quietly at first, but then eventually it would just drown out all sound, even the yelling of the blue mare who stood in front of her and front of the filly, her right wing covering Stargaze’s eyes.
Shy looked at the filly and then up at Dash’s moving lips, spitting fire and ice but not being able to hear anything come from it. The ringing was all she could hear as she came to her senses and realized what she was just about to do. Shy looked around, even Angel was hiding and he wasn’t the main target. Shy tried to stand but flinched as her sides continued to ache. The ringing wouldn’t stop.
Dash turned and walked, heading for the front door, Stargaze looking back at her injured mother. She locked eyes with Shy’s eyes, the hate she had in them was gone. Tears streamed down Shy’s cheeks.
An hour had passed since Dash and Stargaze had left. Shy stayed on the ground with her tears had dried and her eyes still fixated on the area in which Dash stood last. In shock. Angel eventually gently rubbed her side and it brought Shy back to reality. She looked down at Angel and gulped down her sorrow.
Shy stood up, her body aching from pain. She couldn’t hear a thing, the ringing had stopped but no sound flooded her ears. Not a single chirping bird, no rustling leaves, not even the embers that were dying out in her furnace. Silence. Shy stood there distraught as her hoof still bled, but not nearly as much anymore. The wound had begun to develop a scab against its self-infliction.
Shy now standing with her whole world collapsing had only one way to release her emotions.
She let out a scream, no, a wail of distress and anger. She couldn’t even hear herself as she began to weep and continued to yell. Her body felt nimble and fragile to herself.
Though light began to seep into her home. Brighter than usual, like the sun was directly outside of her house. Shy slowly limped outside, the ringing in her ears resuming as she found herself in front of a white gateway, a rectangle-shaped gateway seeping light. Shy slowly stepped forward, Angel looking through the window as he spotted her slowly entering the gateway. Disappearing before his eyes.
Shy stood in a large area full of windows and screens of memories and images of her past and future self. She looked back in front of her and in front of her stood a podium holding a small hammer and an orb that glowed red. Shy looked into the orb and it was like staring into all of the wrongs in her life. From her failures and misdeeds and shame mixed with anger, it all came back every time she stared into it.
She grew an urge to break it, grabbing the hammer and staring further into the orb. She felt the pain and sharp stabs at her heart she had felt when she had seen Dash and Soarin that night. The pain of it all going wrong since then and the anguish and distress of losing them all to her own emotions.
She brought the hammer down and smashed the orb, all those emotions exploding into the area, shattering several screens as the orbs let out loud fork on plate screeching. Shy dropped the hammer and cover her ears with her wings. The room went silent once the screens all had shattered and the orbs had all found a memory to destroy.
Shy felt like a weight off her chest was finally gone, her wounds felt healed. Though, the feeling of sound had gone away again. Her eyes wandered the space as the darkness began to envelop the room, another regular wooden door opened before.
A new room? What was inside this one? Would it take her back? Why didn’t the ringing go away after that?
She asked herself as she stepped through the door, her eyes blinded by the light as she did so. Once she opened her eyes she noticed the room was not like the other. No screens or orbs, simple tools, and statues surrounding her on podiums.
Shy looked around, counting about 9 podiums. Only a three stood in the center taller than the rest.
She walked to the first podium and inspected the knife it held, she wanted to grab it but had the feeling if she did she would get booted from the room.
“A… Knife. It looks older than what we have in Ponyville.” She said in a hushed tone.
She didn’t think that would help get the ringing to go away, let alone make every last memory of her mistakes to go. She turned to the second podium. On this one was a little vial that held a green liquid. A label marked it with skull and bones.
“Poison? It must be very deadly… I-I don’t think I’d like to go out drinking this stuff.” She said swiftly stepping towards the third podium.
On this podium, it held a statue. The statue was of Fluttershy except she looked to be in a pose those who were falling would be in. She felt drawn to this one.
“A fall… Seeing the sun one last time would be my last wish.” She said solemnly.
She looked around and yelling out, “H-Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I? What is all this?”
She got no response.
She looked back at the statue and then at the door. It couldn’t be a death room. She didn’t want to die! Right?
Shy felt the ringing return, she yelled again, nothing in particular just a scream of pure distress. She ran through the door again and just like that. She was on the ground outside of her cottage.
She stood up and with the ringing subsiding but no sound was yet to be heard of her animals or Angel.
With that Shy went into her house and locked herself in her room. Not letting anypony, even the mailmare, check in on her.
Two months passed.
Fluttershy had gotten plenty of letters. She had gone out to grab them all and read through some of them. She had eaten the minimum to stay alive and drank only enough water to ease the pain.
Too many letters asking her what she attacked the filly for if she hated her so much why not just divorce. What pushed her to such extents and lack of morals? Shy was sick of it. She was sick of feeling this way, acting like she cared, acting kind, and reading so many letters asking her what was wrong with her.
Then the final letter sent her crashing to the ground. Soarin had sent her a letter, a letter informing her that she needed to get a grip of herself, a letter telling her she was insane for attacking a filly, a letter reminding her that the marriage had failed long before this either way.
Even reminding her that Dash would stay over with him, not her all the time. She only wanted Shy to keep the filly to herself.
She didn’t know if this was true, how could the element of Loyalty do something so cruel? Unless it wasn’t true? Who could say? Not her that’s for sure.
Shy ripped the letter to shreds. The door reappeared again.
She stepped in and stayed inside for an hour total. Angel sat outside the door, his little ears lowered to meet his head.
After a time, Shy came out of the door, the ringing in her ears beginning to start up again. Shy knew what she had to do.
She dropped the little statue on the ground. The statue of her falling back first. Angel picked it up and looked at Shy as she stepped outside the cottage and began to walk into the forest, towards the great ravine.
Angel ran outside following closely, trying to get in her way, trying to stop her in any way he could. Angel desperately held on to her hooves each step she could, trying to get her to stop. Shy paid no mind as she continued walking, looking dead ahead. Nothing would stop her, not even the only companion that was loyal since the beginning.
Angel ran off, Shy simply continuing to walk with constant thoughts running through her mind. Would it hurt? Would it all end in the blink of an eye? Where would she go next? No matter. She would get answers once she did it. Once it was done.
She was giving up.
Angel ran between the feet of ponies rapidly, jumping off their backs to the top of some outside vendor shops, even riding the wings of a pegasus as he headed to an undisclosed location.
Multiple ponies yelped and nearly tripped and dropped whatever they carried as they made way for the bunny. Angel was going to act like his name suggested and try and save a life. He only saw one pony that could be fast enough to stop Shy. It had to work.
After a bit of running, hopping, and riding on pegasi, Angel had eventually made it to Dash’s cloud. The bunny had the pegasus he caught a ride with to stop in front of Dash’s house. Angel threw the statue through one of her windows and once Dash looked it over, saw Angel’s frantic state and worried expression, she caught the hint.
“Fluttershy.” She spread her wings and quickly flew out of her home, grabbing Angel and thanking the stallion that brought Angel to her.
“Where is she? Point to the direction she’s at!”
Shy stepped over a large tree log that had recently been tampered with, her wings gently hovering her off the ground as she got only closer and closer to her destination.
It was what would rid her of her ringing ears, her pained sharp stabbed heart, the injections of sorrow given to her by the venom of the snake that took her lover.
Shy gently let her hooves touch the ground as her eyes looked past the ravine. She had made it to her final destination. Her last view of the wondrous sun that her Goddess Celestia had granted her permission to lay her eyes on. Her life and dreams were made possible by her mother and father.
Though, it was because of her life being conceived that she was about to do what she promised to do to finish it all. Put an end to every last bit of pain, get some final closure on what life could be like during the final days of your life. Finally, she started to feel her tears gently form at the rim of her eye, small liquid drops only growing stronger and stronger. Shy heard the sharp ringing in her ears only intensify as she grew closer to the edge.
She felt them screaming at her to step away, to not do it, to go look for the true solution to her issues. Shy lifted her right front hoof and hovered it over the space in front of her that led her to her 200 ft drop. The 61 meters that would lead to her freedom.
Shy slowly walked off the edge, her wings spreading as she allowed herself to flip roll onto her back, following down into the ravine. Her eyes wide open as she stared up at the sun, time feeling like it had slowed down. The shadow of a pony above her reaching out to her growing closer and closer. Shy reached out, the ringing in her ears fading into nothing letting the sound of the rushing air invade her ear space.
The words, “I love you, Fluttershy!” yelled Dash as she attempted to grasp the yellow mare.
Shy simply said her final words as she brought her hoof closer to herself, Dash narrowly missing grasping her. Failing to save Shy.
“Liar…”
Author's Note
My part of a trade that I think came out somewhat well. There will be no continuation to this unless I find the time or if people demand it.