Fluttershy opened her eyes.
It was only marginally less dark in the room than it was behind her eyelids. Stiff sheets wrapped around her body, practically pinning her to something that passed for soft--a hospital bed, she realized, as the low beeping filling the room finally resolved itself into something sensical.
Beep… beep… beep…
Her heart sounded so calm, but the longer she listened, the more squirming anxiety festered in her gut.
Fluttershy closed her eyes.
This darkness didn't feel safer, exactly, but at least she could control it. She could feel in control. Instead of…
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep–
She flinched at the increased cadence, but even that small movement was stopped by the vice-like sheets. She pulled on her hoof, tried to yank it free.
It didn't move at all.
Fluttershy's eyes snapped open.
"Why can't I…?" she tried to ask, but her jaw wouldn't move, like it was locked shut, trapped beneath a stone. Her gaze darted around the room--the window, shut, but with the curtains open wide enough to let in the moonlight. A wardrobe looming on the wall opposite the bed, with a sink and mirror near the door.
The door! Fluttershy tried to turn her head. It was resting at an angle, one that hadn't been awkward until she'd realized she couldn't change it. But try as she might, she couldn't budge, couldn't move.
But the shadow cast by the wardrobe could.
No, no, no, nonono–
"Hello, Fluttershy," the darkness murmured, smoothly resolving itself into a facsimile of a pony. Its coat was shadowy, almost the same shade as the darkness itself. It tilted its head back, predatory yellow eyes piercing the gloom.
Fluttershy flinched, or tried to.
Go away, she moaned to herself. Go away, go away, go away–
The pony tsked. "That's no way to treat a friend," it purred. And then it was crawling with skittering, unnatural speed, its legs spidering along the wall and ceiling, grotesque and spindly and wrong, until it hung above her.
"Shall I give you a hug?"
A dream, Fluttershy thought wildly. No, a nightmare, the very worst kind. This couldn't be real–
"I assure you, I am all too real," the monster murmured. And then it opened its mouth.
Luna! Fluttershy screamed, fruitlessly trying to yank her limbs free from the sheets, to get away, to move at all, to do anything other than lie here in placid, docile silence–
The monster's mouth widened to a gaping maw, razored teeth gleaming in the moonlight. A long, dripping tongue oozed out, only to immediately morph into a thorny vine. It shot forward like spider web, wrapping around her neck. The wicked thorns, sharper than any Everfree bramble, pressed against her skin, but didn't break it, not quite, not yet. Fluttershy's breath caught in her chest, afraid that even such a small movement would change that.
"You don't like my gift?" The monster impossibly asked. "But I worked so hard, and I made it just for you, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy's vision blurred as tears brimmed over. Luna… please, a-anyone… Discord… Discord!
"Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy slammed her eyes shut.
Not real, not real, not realnotreal, just a dream–
"Fluttershy?"
She opened her eyes. The door creaked open, a shaft of yellow light cutting across the room. The dark monstrosity holding her captive dissipated, each blink blotting the shadow out of existence until it was gone.
"Are you alright, dear?" A familiar face loomed into her line of sight. Discord.
"You came,"she wheezed past burning lungs. "Y-you really… you really…"
"Shh," he hushed, snapping his claw to raise the head of her bed. "I'll always come for you." His tone was uncharacteristically somber. "Now. What can I do for you? What can I get you?"
Fluttershy stared at Discord for a long time. Tears streamed down her face, tackying her fur, but Discord just calmly wiped them away with a handkerchief every few moments. She'd embroidered it for him, a gift for Hearthswarming. She had made one for everyone.
"...friends," she finally eked out past dry lips.
Discord snapped his claws again.
Fluttershy was sitting, now, in a wheelchair with one of her quilts from home folded delicately across her lap. She looked up.
Six beds lined the room, only one of them occupied.
"Twilight," she murmured in the direction of the lump. It only continued breathing, chest rising and falling with calm diligence.
"The rest of your little friends are off getting tests or scans or whatever have you," Discord offered without prompting. "Twilight has not woken up since… the other night," he concluded darkly. He glanced down at the top of Fluttershy's head, a movement she felt and heard more than saw. "Would you like to see them too?"
Fluttershy shook her head, or tried to. Something stiff blocked the motion entirely–a neck brace? She sniffled, but otherwise stayed quiet. She had cried enough for one day, Fluttershy thought. The silence spanned between them, broken only by the consistent beats of Twilight's heart monitor. Fluttershy watched her friend's pale face for a long time.
"Discord?"
"Yes, Fluttershy."
"Why…" She swallowed hard. "Why can't I move my legs?" she whispered.
The silence stretched again, even longer than before. Fluttershy stared out the window, sightlessly tracking the moon's slow, downward arc across the sky and counting the spaces between Twilight's heartbeats.
"You can't move your legs… because I failed you, Fluttershy."
“No–" Fluttershy tried, again, to shake her head, but again, the motion aborted almost immediately. She opened her mouth, tears suddenly brimming up and threatening to fall again. She bit her lips and willed words to come instead. “You didn’t fail me, Discord, it’s not your–”
“Fault?” Discord finished, chuckling darkly. There was a menace to it that Fluttershy hadn’t heard in several years, and a shiver tried to cascade down her spine; the sensation was strange, being almost unable to feel it.
“Don’t you worry, Fluttershy,” Discord continued, his claws gripping the handles of her wheelchair, hard. “I won’t fail you again.”
Author's Note
Thanks for reading!
