Darkness Rising Beneath the Butterfly
The fall of the Butterfly
It was a beautiful sunny day, just as the weather forecast had said it would be. Fluttershy was trotting down the pathway of the New York Central Park, humming a sweet little tune to her.
She was looking out for the park’s wildlife, as she would always do, when it was a sunny day. Completely lost in her thoughts she didn’t notice that the weather was changing.
A short while after, she was trapped under a tree, unable to return to her apartment, without getting soaked by the heavy downpour. Luckily a nice stranger with an umbrella passed by and offered to walk her home. She happily agreed and slipped under the umbrella, starting to trot towards her apartment.
Soon enough the silence between the two of them was getting more and more uncomfortable for Fluttershy and she was starting a conversation.
“How come you were walking out here in the rain? I… I mean only if you want to answer. If you don’t want to its ok with me. I mean it’s not like…eeep. I’m talking too much am I? Oh sorry.” She said, growing quieter with each spoken word.
“Oh no, it’s no problem. I’d love to talk to you. To answer your question, I like to go out on rainy days like this one, listening to the raindrops fall to the ground and the peace when no one is around, chatting and disturbing these beautiful moments of silence, but talking to a timid pony like you is also enjoyable every now and then.” He responded, smiling politely.
“My name is Vincenzo Trobonara, but you can call me Vinnie. What’s your name?”
“Um…my name is Fluttershy, nice to meet you.” She said, stretching out a hoof in his direction.
He kneeled down, took her hoof in his palm and made a hoof kiss, causing Fluttershy to blush furiously.
“Why did you do this?” she asked, cheeks glowing in a rosy color.
“I think that, when I’m with a lady, I should treat her like she deserves to be treated.” He replied, making a sly grin.
“Sorry. I’m not used to this. I came through the portal a few months ago.”
“Oh don’t worry. I was also a bit shocked that the earth like planet, the scientists discovered in another solar system and named Keplar 51, was in fact Equestria. No one would have ever thought that your world was real all the time. Not before we sent that portal to you to explore your planet.” He said.
“Yes. It was a shock for us as you came out of that thing the first time, but the technology you brought us was very useful.” Fluttershy said, warming up further to Vinnie.
“Hey, don’t praise us like that. Your kind brought us advantages too. We never had mages here on earth. Not until they were able to go to Equestria and study magic. These abilities do come in handy for us.”
They kept talking about themselves, until they reached Fluttershy’s apartment.
“Thank you for walking me home. If there is anything I can do for you just say it.” Fluttershy said, more confident around him now.
“Oh. Really, it’s not necessary that you do me a favor just for walking you home.” Vinnie replied, lifting his free hand in defense.
“No. I insist. You walked me home and now I owe you one and don’t think that I’ll forget about it just like that. If I can’t do anything for you now, then I’ll return the favor later. You only have to ask me.” Fluttershy said, using a bit of her trademark stare on him.
“Ok, ok. I got it. If I need your help I’ll come back to you.” Vinnie ensured her.
“Good. If you got something for me to return the favor, meet me in the park. I’ll be there most afternoons.” The yellow Pegasus mare said, smiling softly.
They bid their goodbyes and went their separate ways.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
A few days later Fluttershy was trotting through the park again, helping every little critter that came her way. She was setting a baby bird back in its nest when she noticed someone, who was sitting on a bench, waving at her. She sat the baby bird back in its nest and flew, or to be more precise, glided over to him.
“Hello Fluttershy! Nice to see you again.” Vinnie greeted the yellow Pegasus.
“Oh, hello Vinnie. Nice to see you too. Is there anything I can do for you?” she asked happily.
To tell you the truth, there is something you could help me with. You see, I have this friend of mine. He is really sick and refuses to take his medicine. Unfortunately I can’t just give it to him, because it is a special soup he needs to eat, but he is hallucinating and thinks that every human being wants to harm him.” He said in a worried tone. “So I thought with you being a pony and all, he would probably reason himself and will eat it. I’m seriously worried about him.”
“Oh my. This is bad. I’ll help you with him. I just can’t stand it when someone is sick.” Fluttershy replied, concern in her voice.
“Great!” Vinnie cried out in joy.
“Come to my place later and get the medicine. I’ll give his address to you too.”
He gave Fluttershy his address and told her to meet him there the next day at nine o’clock in the morning, so he would have the address and the medicine for his friend ready.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The next day Fluttershy arrived at the address, given to her by Vinnie, at ten to nine. She stood in front of a big mansion with massive iron gates standing fully open. She was still staring at the size of the building, when Vinnie came walking out of it.
“Hi Fluttershy, you are early.” He greeted the mare, smiling.
“Here, I have the medicine and address ready for you.”
He passed Fluttershy a map with a little post it attached to it, showing off a street name, house and apartment number. He also gave her an already opened and resealed cup soup, which was clearly replaced with other ingredients.
“Thank you Vinnie. I’ll come back later and tell you how he’s doing.” Fluttershy said, waving him goodbye.
“Take good care of him.” Vinnie said, going back to the mansion.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The yellow mare was nearly trotting through the whole city as she reached her destination. It was an old, rocked down building, nearly falling apart just from the looks Fluttershy gave it.
“Now I know why his friend is sick.” She said with a frown. She then approached the front door and rang the bell with the name of Vinnie’s friend written on it.
A very rough and tired voice answered. Coughing all the while.
“Who is there?”
“Umm…um…hello my name is Fluttershy and I heard you were sick, so I brought you some medicine.” She said, timid as ever.
“I’m not letting any…” he started, but stopped as realization hit him.
“Wait. You are a pony, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am. More precisely a Pegasus.” Fluttershy nearly whispered into the speaker.
“Oh. Sorry I was so rude. Come on in.” he said, buzzing the door open. “I’m in the third floor, apartment 8a.”
Within a few minutes she was up in his apartment, facing him.
“Thank god that you are a pony and not one of those guys, trying to kill me. I have a nervous index finger sometimes when I’m around them.” He said.
“Oh no. I would never do such things. I love every creature in the whole wide world.” Fluttershy said fearful.
“I brought you some medicine. It’s a soup. You only have to warm it up, eat it and soon you should be better.”
With this he grabbed the cup, placed it in the microwave and heated it up.
“I’ll let it cool down a little bit. I’m burning my tongue every time I try to eat hot soup.” He said and turned on the TV. Fluttershy sat down next to him and enjoyed the little distraction.
As soon as the soup was cold enough, he ate it and gulped down the leftover fluids on the bottom of the cup. But the moment he sat the cup on the table next to him, he started gagging, cramping, coughing violently and fell to the ground. He held his throat with both hands and suddenly let loose.
He wasn’t moving anymore. Fluttershy witnessed the whole scenario with a look of horror plastered on her face. He was dead and she knew it, but her mind refused to accept the facts. She closed up to him, her muzzle nearly touching his nose.
“Please stop this, it’s not funny.” She begged the dead man. She hammered her hooves on his chest in a fruitless attempt to bring him back to life, shaking him again and again. Nothing. She could do nothing to bring him back to life.
Just when she was about to back away from the corpse, she smelled it. Almonds. She knew this smell. It was one of the best indicators for potassium cyanide.
They tricked her. Vinnie tricked her. He tricked her into killing someone for him, because his victim was aware of the danger he was into, but hadn’t guessed that a pony would deliver the dead to him.
She was furious, she was raging, but most of all she was afraid. She killed someone and that was like Tartarus for her.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
She galloped back to Vinnie’s mansion, the pictures of the corpse lying on the floor, eyes wide open, mouth agape and a look of pure shock and pain painted on his face.
The last moments of him were also running through her mind like an endless film. His gagging, cramping and coughing flowing through her thoughts like cursed words she wasn’t able to forget.
The closer she came to Vinnie’s mansion, the more the fear of herself was growing inside of her.
She was enjoying the memories more and more. The power to take a life just like this.
It was scaring her at first, but soon she was enjoying it. Her fear, her rage and her fury were all fainting away, replaced by a pleasant feeling of power and confidence and as she reached the mansion, she wasn’t galloping anymore, but trotting, with a wide grin on her face that would make Pinkamena look like an innocent puppy.
Vinnie came walking out to her, offering her a bright smile.
“Hey Fluttershy. How’s my friend doing? I sure hope he is fine again.” He greeted the yellow Pegasus mare, leading her into the mansion.
Once inside he offered her some tea, which she gratefully accepted. They then sat down in the living room, placed on two sofas, facing each other as Vinnie started again.
“Sooo. How’s my friend doing? Did he say something to you?”
“He is dead.” Fluttershy answered, not a single emotion crossing her face.
“Oh god! That’s horrible!” Vinnie cried out. “How did it hap…”
Fluttershy was raising a hoof to silence him. “I know that the soup was poisoned.” She said flatly.
A few drops of sweat were rolling down Vinnie’s forehead, trailing down to his nose and finally dripping off onto the ground.
“I smelled almonds when I was hearing after his heartbeat. You put potassium cyanide in the soup.” The usually timid mare went on, while Vinnie looked like he had run for miles in the middle of a desert.
“At first I was furious that you tricked me into killing someone for you.” She said, using her trademark stare on him. “I wanted to scold you for what you have done and galloped half the way. Tartarus! I was even ready to buck you in the guts!”
By the Vinnie was as pale as a corpse, trembling and sweating as if he had the mother of colds.
“That was until something turned a switch inside of me. All the way I was thinking of that poor man and his desperate looks as he struggled to stay alive. His eyes nearly popping out of his skull as the poison started pulsing through his veins, making its way to his heart, killing him fast but painful. The horror of the memories faded away and a pleasant feeling was replacing it. I didn’t felt sorry for him anymore. I felt great, knowing that I was the one sending him to Tartarus and enjoyed every second again and again, replaying the memories over and over again in my mind. It was the best feeling I ever had.” The yellow mare announced, licking her lips.
Vinnie stopped sweating and trembling, the color returning to his face, now showing off a dumb folded look.
“You what?!” he asked in disbelieve.
“I was enjoying it.” Fluttershy responded grinning. “I never felt this good in my life before. You showed me a side of myself I didn’t even know existing. Now I ask you. Do you have another ‘friend’ I can take care of?”
Darkness Rising Beneath the Butterfly
Preperations and the Family
A wide grin was spreading all over Vinnie’s face. All his worries and panic was washed away by Fluttershy’s change in her attitude.
“So you liked it.” He said, grinning still.
“Tartarus yes! I loved it! The power I felt as he was cramping on the ground, struggling to stay alive. I never felt more alive than in that exact moment.” She replied, grinning like a mad mare.
“I have indeed another friend you can take care of. He lent a lot of money from us, insulted us and tried to rob us on top of that; so we are teaching him a lesson he will never forget, by visiting his family.” He said.
“Alright. What do I need to know and how should I do it?” Fluttershy asked, anticipation glimmering in her eyes.
“Well, you will go to the outskirts of New York to a high society area. We are granting you full access to our arsenal and even our new prototype pony weapons. We entrust you with a very important job. I hope that you are aware of this.”
“I am fully aware of the importance of this job and I really appreciate, that you entrust me with such a big job. I will do my best.” The yellow Pegasus mare responded.
They got up from the couches and left the living room, reentering the lobby, going straight down a hallway, leading to the left wing of the mansion.
Going down the hallway, Vinnie asked Fluttershy if she was really truly ready for entering the depths of the life of an assassin. The dark side she will have to hide from her family and friends and never reveal it, no matter what. And once again she approved her choice, by giving him her trademark stare, to what he froze up in the middle of the hallway.
“Ok, ok. Forget that I asked in the first place.” He said shuddering.
They continued their little journey down the hallway, until they reached the picture “The Scream”.
“At least I know where it went now” Fluttershy stated, giving him a disappointed glance.
“Hey you know what sort of man I am and by the way, I purchased it legally from an auction, so don’t look at me like that.”
“Oh.” She said surprised. “But let me guess it was a black market auction. Right?”
“You got me.” Vinnie said grinning, sliding the painting to the side, revealing a num-pad.
After dialing a code in the num-pad, a wall, five feet away, was opening up, revealing an entrance with steps developing deep into the ground, probably going deeper than the actual basement of the mansion.
They were going down the steps for a least six minutes now and not a word was spoken, but Fluttershy got a bit antsy, taking in a deep breath to ask a question, when she heard something. It wasn’t much, just a bit less noise than the time she met Twilight for the very first time and was asked for her name.
It was nearly only the idea of a sound, but as she listened carefully, the noise was growing louder with each step, until they reached a thick steel door, which Vinnie opened with an ID-card and a retina-scan.
Once they were inside, Fluttershy was amazed to say the least.
People and ponies were working hand in hoof, creating devices everywhere. Wizards were making their full body ammunition invisible, looking like every other normal random guy out on the street.
Pegasi were hovering in the air, suddenly bolting forward to mannequins, cutting off their heads with blades hidden in the feathers of their wings.
Earth ponies wearing saddlebags were going by some mannequins, dropping some pastry, which blew up and shredded them into pieces, as soon as the pony was out of range, or opening up them up with a timed muscle contraction, revealing flame throwers or machine-guns, slaying their way through the mannequins.
In some special sound proof rooms ponies and humans even taught each other the strengths and weaknesses of their own race, in order to improve their assassination skills.
As they were going further into the underground complex, every-pony and –person were nodding their heads as a sign of acknowledgement, that they are there and to greet them.
Fluttershy, knowing that her timidness would cause her much trouble among those who were working there, kept her face straight and without emotion, and nodded back.
They went on to nearly the end of the complex, as they turned right to face a little black door with a sign on it. It read “Conference-room”.
Vinnie went on and opened the door. He held it open for Fluttershy to go through and she followed him in.
The room was painted black with a big black conference table in the middle and twenty black chairs around it. Overhead hung a large oval lamp, illuminating the area around the table and two figures on the head-end of the table.
Vinnie lead Fluttershy around the table to the two of them. As soon as they were close enough, Fluttershy saw who the two figures were. An elderly man with greyish hair, a black suit, necktie and a cigar resting in his left hand.
Right next to on his right side stood a mare with black bubbly mane, a black camo-suit, a black bubbly tail, dark grey goggles and a necklace with a little box attached to it on her throat.
Her fur was not visible and she was standing still like she was a statue. Was it not for her slow and constant breathing, one would have easily thought, that she is a statue.
“Here is the newest member of our organization my Don. Her name is Fluttershy.” He said to the old man with respect.
“Fluttershy. This is the Don. The head of our organization and his partner Page.” He introduced them to the Pegasus mare.
“Nice to meet you.” Fluttershy said, giving both of them a soft smile.
“Well Fluttershy,” the old man started. “I’m sure Vinnie told you what we are doing, so I will skip that part. I know that he already told you about your first job and you are free to choose with whatever weapon, poison or other thing you want to do it with. I also welcome you in our family as well as my partner Page.” He said in a raspy voice, nodding in the direction of the disguised pony, which herself, nodded in Fluttershy’s direction approving.
“Nice to meet you.” The yellow Pegasus mare said, outstretching a hoof to the disguised mare.
“It’s nice to meet you too, but I think you have more important things to do.” Page said in a nearly as raspy and old voice as the Don, just more feminine. “You have a job to do and no time to lose.”
“Alright. I will get some equipment and head out.” The timid mare said, lowering her hoof, turning around and leaving the room.
She left the room with Vinnie in tow, turning her gaze to the guys and colts testing the equipment.
“So, what sort of equipment do you prefer?” Vinnie asked the Pegasus mare, a sly grin forming on his face.
She didn’t say a word, her face showing the emotionless mask again, but trotted in the direction of the hidden blades for Pegasi, leaving the human behind.
“Gentleman and gentlecolts, would you most kindly attach a pair of these fine blades to my wings?” she asked the staff working on the hidden blades, confusing them with her sudden appearance. “And please be careful. I’m mighty ticklish.” She added, giving them a wink, which made them turn crimson in an instant.
They kept the crimson color on their faces and didn’t move one step, too shocked by Fluttershy’s behavior, until Vinnie approached them and nodded his agreement, what pulled them out of their shocked state.
They got to work, attaching the blades to Fluttershy’s wings, careful not to damage the fragile looking pegasus’s wings with the blades.
Their faces were full of concentration and they had their tongues sticking out of their mouths for support as they closed the last clasps and stepped back from the yellow mare.
She tried unfolding her wings and found it easy to do so. The blades had barely any weight, sitting smooth and hidden underneath her wings.
When she decided to fold her wings once again, the guys from the testing team told her how to use the blades properly and how she can make huge damage on any enemy or just right away kill them.
As she listened to their explanations, she memorized every detail about the blades and the way to use them.
Once they had explained everything to Fluttershy, she thanked them for their help and trotted off to the poison rag, grabbing different potions, various in effect, strength and time to fully hit.
Balancing them on her wings with ease she went over to the saddlebags, taking one with a flamethrower, dropped the potions inside and put it on her back.
Looking around for other useful items Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide and she slowly walked over to a big machine. Not really sure what to do with it or what purpose it may serve, she spoke up to Vinnie.
“What is this?” she asked him over her shoulder as he stepped behind her. “What does it do?”
“Oh this? It’s one of our newest inventions. You can simply say that it is a full body scanner with an attached printer. You go in and it scans your whole body. After it calculated the three-dimensional measurements of your body, it will print out stickers matching your cutie mark.” Vinnie said, pride swinging in his voice and a big grin running all over his face.
“Huh? It is only printing stickers? That’s not very useful.” Fluttershy said flatly, giving him an outright bored to death glance.
“Oh don’t you worry dear. These are not just ordinary everyday stickers.” He responded, taking a skin colored one, placing it on a big box made of iron. He then stepped behind a massive shield, what Fluttershy copied, and pushed a little button which was lying in his palm.
The sticker detonated with such a force, that the box was nearly completely peeled and pieces were lying all over the floor.
Fluttershy’s jaw hung open like a barn gate and her eyes were shimmering.
“These are high explosive stickers. We discovered a way to concentrate the power of four kilogram C4 in such a little sticker and it weight less than a post it. It is matching your cutie mark perfectly and no one will be able to spot the difference. But the best part is, that, when your side against any object, the sticker will go off your cutie mark, attach itself to the surface you pressed yourself onto and will instantly take over its color scheme. That means it is nearly invisible. The trigger is placed under one of your hooves and is activated when you twist it to the left. Oh and don’t worry about the stickers that are still attached to your body. They will not explode. They have a mechanism that stops them from it, when they are in range of your body and could be possibly harmful for you.” Vinnie stated, grinning more and more with every sentence.
“Interesting, very interesting.” The yellow pegasus mare said, stepping in the machine, observing it.
“Mind turning it on for me?” she asked sweetly.
“Not a problem my dear. So let’s take your measurements then.” He pushed some buttons and the machine sprung to life.
