We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
So we commit this body to the ground,
Ashes to ashes...
Dust to dust...
These hallow words repeated themselves within the head of the yellow pegasus, echoing as if to forever engrave the phrase into her thoughts. Following these horrid, morbid words that Fluttershy can only seem to recall being recited during somepony's funeral she once attended, a loud thump was enough to force her eyes open. Though, that was for naught, as she awoke to darkness. Before this could even register, Fluttershy began swaying. Or at least, whatever it appeared she was in was swaying. She could feel the texture of whatever that was under her shaking hooves. She was frightened, yes, but she could tell what she felt was; silk.
As suddenly as she remembers it starting, the swaying ceased. Fluttershy's breathing began to pick up into gasps for air as she suddenly realised exactly where she was; she was in her coffin. The very moment this registered, thumps where the only sounds that filled the confined space she was in. Beads of sweat rolled down Fluttershy's forehead, fear overtaking her and choking out her cries that she desperately required to release.
What happened?
Why was this happening to me?
Is this happening to me?
Her mind flew in many different directions until she was finally able to let forth a deafening cry for help. Tears poured from her eyes, making a bigger mess of her sweat-covered face. Her heart felt like it needed to be puked up, as the rate it was beating at felt inequine.
With difficulty, Fluttershy managed to get her hooves into a position to begin pounding at the lid as she screamed, desperate for a saviour to come to her aid.
"HELP! PLEASE, HELP!"
No response, not even the thumping of dirt hitting the coffin.
"NO! PLEASE, NO NO NO!"
The pounding of the coffin lid turned into tearing, soon. Tears squeezed out of her ducts at an even quicker pace once the realisation that she was doomed to this hole in the ground for good hit her. Blood poured down her forelegs as her fragile hooves had simply had enough of the tearing. All that was left for Fluttershy to do was cry and wait for her time. She begged, though in muffled breaths while she cried, mourning herself.
"I-is... Is this h-happening to... to me...?" she asked. Of course, no answer, but silence was answer enough.
Snivelling and whimpering in her box, Fluttershy's mind began to wander to try and take her mind off of the situation. The question popped up again, What happened?
The frightened pony panted as she thought. She wasn't running out of air, though her situation hardly called for calm breathing. She remembered being in the air, going fast. Really fast. Rainbow Dash! What were they doing in the sky? Fluttershy couldn't quite recall, but she knew something went wrong.
Am I dead? Is the afterlife waking up inside your coffin? B-but...
More tears, more fearful cries of sorrow.
"I want oouuuut!"
Her wishes were left unanswered, which forced nothing but despair from the yellow equine.
Minutes passed, but they felt like hours to Fluttershy. She had been crying for ever second of the time, but it was finally ceasing as she seemed to run out of tears to cry. Or at least, it felt like it. Fluttershy hadn't cried so badly ever, nor had she ever been so scared. She'd prefer a dragon to this. In fact, there were many times she begged to be facing a dragon instead of this. They were nothing but hopeless pleas, though.
Air was still plentiful within the space, but Fluttershy didn't wish to live another moment of this. Feeling a little calmer after such crying, she shut her eyes. She just wanted to be anywhere but there. She wanted to sleep this out. When she wakes up, she'll be in bed. With her animals all nestled safely with her. Or maybe in a hospital bed, slowly on the road to recovery. Surely she'd be somewhere that wasn't that coffin. Sleep gripped her, and her eyes shut for the final time...
This sleep was not a restful one, Fluttershy's conscious was plagued with fear of the afterlife. What her fate is to be. Old stories of demons came to mind, mostly told to her by her friend Twilight Sparkle. Baphomet, Mendes, Cerberus, they all awaited her death. A nightmare illuminated by the fire of Tartarus, Fluttershy was trapped as demonic antagonists took turns destroying her, stabbing her, everything she feared come to life. Her time decided to cease itself in her mind, deep into her fearful mind.
She just wanted this to end.
In the morning it is green, and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.
Fluttershy woke up soon, the silk underneath her body felt familiar... Like home...
It wasn't silk, she noted. She knew the feelings of clouds anywhere as a pegasus. They had such a unique texture. Almost like grass that was wetted with dew, only feeling more as cotton. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, she was too afraid to open them just yet with her troubled dreams and memory of where she had been still fresh in her mind., but it appeared as if a light was on the other side of her eyelids. She silently hoped it was not flame causing that light.
She felt a breeze across her face next, and it carried a familiar scent. A scent that forced her eyes to shoot open once more.
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy lunged forward, free of her prison, the horrors of her nightmares forgotten, and wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow Dash tight, not wishing to relent for fear of not seeing her again. The cyan pegasus weakly hugged back, tears flowing from her eyes as she held her dear friend close.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Fluttershy cheered quietly, her heart now beating with newfound excitement. She squirmed a bit in Rainbow Dash's hold, happier than she ever could recall herself being. She was ever so eager to see the rest of their friends when the two of them got back to Ponyville, to see all of her animals, everything there was to her life! She was alive!
Rainbow Dash, rings around her eyes and above her head, looked down, still crying.
"Not quite, Fluttershy... Not quite..."
