Fluttershy and Me: Remastered

After that night, the Darkness didn’t leave me.  Every night was the same.  My dreams were haunted by his presence.  He wouldn’t always talk to me, and I would just escape from the blackness of his abyss, but when he spoke to me, his words wouldn’t leave my mind.  The nights when Fluttershy and I shared dreams were the worst.  He always spoke to me then, and when we awoke, Fluttershy was always in tears, and we were both always covered in sweat.  He became a part of me, as much as that makes sense.

His torment was relentless, and he would always become harsher and more cruel with his words, sometimes opting to insult my father or myself, or even my friends or Fluttershy.  This got me angry.  Well, one night, he pushed me too far, and I let go, of both myself, and him.

It was thankfully a night that Fluttershy and I weren’t sharing our dreams.  If we did, I don’t know what would have happened.  I fell asleep, and entered my dream.  I was greeted by the same abyss that had been haunting my dreams for the past three months.  I decided tonight we were going to chat.

“Get out here Darkness, I wanna talk!” I demanded, and sure enough, he appeared to me.

“Eager to finally hand over your soul, or do you still want to rattle off the question as to why I torment you so relentlessly?” he questioned me.  His voice was mocking, and it angered me so much.

“For three months now, I’ve had to put up with your shit!  THREE FUCKING MONTHS!  WHY?!”

“I’ve told you already you pathetic excuse of matter, I want your soul, and it shall be mine.  All I need do is wait for you to lose yourself completely, and I will have what I want.  Perhaps I shall move on to Fluttershy when I’m done,” he said mockingly.

“My soul is staying with me, and if you so much as even try to invade her mind, I will tear you apart, no matter how long it takes,” I responded, my voice filled with anger.

“Hahahaha, such fury!  You are losing yourself quicker than I thought you would, Matthew.  Your father opted to keep it inside, to not let go.  He ultimately escaped me, by means I still cannot comprehend, but I tormented him so much worse than I have you,” he said.  His deep, menacing voice ate away at me, but not as much as his insults towards my father.

“LEAVE HIM OUT OF THIS!  THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!” I shouted back at him.  I was giving in so easily, and that’s just what he wanted, but I didn’t care.  I started to feel power growing inside of me.  It was either that, or he was taking hold of me.

“Yes, give in, let the anger fill your body, and let me consume your very soul.  Your father was weak.  He did indeed hold it in, but he came so very close to letting go of everything.  He managed to rid himself of me before you were born, lucky for you.  But did that stop me from coming back, no it did not!  I haunted his dreams, but he held it inside, keeping it away from you and your family.  He ultimately broke free in the end, but he was weak.  He didn’t have the strength to face me, to let go.  YOUR FATHER WAS A PATHETIC FOOL, JUST LIKE YOU!  WHEN I AM FINISHED WITH YOU, YOUR PRECIOUS FLUTTERSHY SHALL SUFFER JUST THE SAME!  DO YOU HEAR ME BOY?!” he shouted at me, his words sinking in like nails in my skin.

I was going into a full on rage mode.  I shouted and charged at him, but he disappeared before I could get to him.  I swung anyway, but kept my balance after I missed.  When he reappeared, he whipped me across the floor with a tendril of pure shadow.  Just the mere touch of it stung my body.  He hit me across the chest, and it burned so much.

“FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!” I demanded of him.

“As you wish,” he said, and he drew a sword of shadow.  Suddenly, my tomahawk appeared in my right hand.  He charged me, but I quickly caught his sword.  I flung it away from him and chopped him right in the head.  I smiled at my accomplishment, but it was a pointless effort.  His eyes stared me down, and he laughed in my face.

“You are just as weak as your father,” he said, and he blasted me away with a burst of shadow energy.  He pulled my tomahawk out of his head, and snapped it in two.

“You will die a slow and painful death, and when you have left the world of the living I shall drag your soul into the Abyss of the Darkness, where you shall never see the light again.  When I’m through with you, everyone you have ever known shall follow, not just Fluttershy, but everyone you know.  They shall suffer, and you will watch it all unfold.  Your mother, your sister, your brother, your friends, EVERYONE!  YOU SHALL ALL SUFFER!” he shouted at me.  I was ready to burst with rage, and so I let go.

“Get out of my head!  GET OUT!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.  With those words, a burst of energy overflowed the abyss, even causing the Darkness to fall backwards.  Light overcame the darkness of the nothingness, and the Darkness himself started floating upwards.

“IMPOSSIBLE!  NOOOO!” he shouted, being sucked upwards into the sky.  I watched from the floor, but suddenly, I found myself on my back, arching upwards.  I felt like I was being possessed.   And suddenly, I awoke from my dream.

I awoke in the same position as I had been moments ago in my dream.  I was arched on my bed, but something was different.  Flowing out of my body was a black mist.  It was the Darkness.  I was ridding myself of him.  But, out of the corner of my eyes, which felt like they could have been pulled out at any moment, I saw Fluttershy.  She was standing up against the wall in fear of what was happening before her.

“MATTHEW!” she shouted to me, her voice filled with fear.  I could only expel the Darkness from my body, nothing else.  I couldn’t move.  It felt like he was trying to stay in, but I wouldn’t let him.  With one final effort, I eliminated him from my body.

I fell onto my bed, breathing heavily.  Fluttershy didn’t come close to me, she only stayed against the wall in terror.  I lifted my head to see a cloud of black mist hovering above the front of my bed.  It soon moved to the door, pushing it open.  I opted to follow it.  It went downstairs, and soon after, out the door to the world of Equestria.  Before the Darkness left, he formed his body on my front lawn.  He stood there, menacingly.  He laughed at what had just occurred.

“You are a fool Matthew.  You may have expeled me from your body, but now, I shall make this world suffer.  And guess what, it’s all your fault.  Remember that promise you made to Celestia before you came here, well you just broke that very promise.  I hope you are ready Matthew, because a war is coming, and Equestria shall fall,” he said.  He turned into a cloud of mist again, and floated away into the Everfree Forest.

“What have I done?” I asked myself.  I had walked outside, but I turned around to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway.  Her face was full of tears.  I couldn’t help but start to cry as well.  She ran to me, and I ran to her.

“Matthew, what just happened?” she asked.

“I’ve just unleashed a powerful evil upon Equestria.  I can’t believe it.  How could I be so stupid?” I said.  I didn’t even try to down play anything.  I was straightforward about everything.  I told Fluttershy what occurred in my dream, and how I couldn’t take it and unleashed the Darkness from my body.

“Matthew, we need to tell Celestia,” she said to me.  I honestly couldn’t agree more.

“Damn right we need to tell Celestia, but… Damnit.  He was right, I did just break my promise.  I promised never to hurt any of the ponies or do anything that could cause them harm.  I just unleashed a powerful evil upon the land.  She won’t be happy.”  Fluttershy just stared into my eyes.  She gave me a kiss, which I gladly returned.

“She’ll listen to us Matthew, she has to.  Don’t worry, we’ll go in the morning.  Let’s go back to bed,” Fluttershy said, trying to calm me down.

“I’m not so sure that that’s a good idea right now Fluttershy.  I don’t want that thing getting back into my mind.  Let's think about what we’ll tell Celestia, huh?” I said.  Fluttershy nodded.  We were really going to need a good excuse for the Princess if I was going to have any chance of staying with Fluttershy.  So, we went back inside and thought of what we would tell the Princess.  Ultimately, we decided to just tell her the truth.

We waited for the morning.  As soon as the sun rose, we ate breakfast, got ready, and left for Canterlot.  It was a quiet train ride, but Fluttershy held me close.  Some ponies were looking at her.  I guess they hadn’t seen the human Fluttershy yet, but that wasn’t really important at the moment.  We arrived at Canterlot, and headed straight for the castle.  The guards didn’t give us too much trouble, and before we knew it, we were standing before the Princess.

“Hello once again Matthew, and hello to you as well Fluttershy,” she said, her voice calming and soothing to hear.

“Hello Princess.  You’ll have to excuse us interrupting your day, but I have some news that you may want to hear.  Oh, and it’s bad news,” I said, trying to say it delicately.

“What do you mean?  What has happened?” Celestia asked.

“Princess, after that day when I died from the tree branch, something got into my mind.  He calls himself the Darkness.  He haunts those who have faced death, but I was saved by my father from his grasp.  He tried to take my soul, to drag it down into his Abyss.  He has been haunting my dreams for three months.  Last night, he went too far, and he broke me.  I unleashed a power in my dreams that allowed me to expel him from my body, but now, he is out in Equestria, in the Everfree Forest.  He swore he would make Equestria suffer, that he would see it fall.  I promised to not harm your ponies or do anything to cause them harm, and last night, I broke that promise.  I’m sorry Princess,” I said.  Celestia took a moment to take in everything I had just told her.  She seemed quite surprised by everything, but also quite calm at the same time.  After a moment, she spoke.

“Well Matthew, it seems as though you have indeed brought upon a great danger to Equestria.  For that, I am disappointed.  But, I will not send you home.  I know that I made you promise to bring no harm to my little ponies, but after everything you have been through in the past years here, I cannot bring myself to send you home.  I forgive you for what you have done, but I ask for you to help us fight off the Darkness.  Please, if not for Equestria, then for Fluttershy.”  When she said that, my eyes beamed open.  I took in everything she had said, thought for a moment, and nodded my head.

“Celestia, I cannot thank you enough, and of course I shall help you fight off the Darkness.  I don’t know when he will attack, so I suppose we will have to wait and see what he plans to do.  But rest assured, I will not abandon you.  I am at your service.  No, I am at the service of Equestria,” I said, and she smiled.

“And for that, you have my thanks Matthew.”  We discussed what I knew of the Darkness after that.  Celestia was amazed by what he could do, but she didn’t seem too phased.  She had, after all, faced far worse than this (so I hope).  When we were finished, Fluttershy and I said our goodbyes to the Princess, sure that we would be keeping in touch in the coming weeks.

When Fluttershy and I got home, Fluttershy took me into the living room of our home.  We sat down and had a little talk.

“Matthew, are you sure you can do this.  From what you told the Princess, the Darkness seems really scary and dangerous,” she said, her voice a little fearful.

“Fluttershy, you know firsthand what the Darkness is.  You’ve seen him in the dreams that we have shared.  You know I can do this.  We will have an army at our side too, but still, I can fight him.  I know I can.  I would fight anyone or anything if it means keeping you safe.  I love you, and you know it,” I said reassuringly.

“I love you too Matthew, and I’ll be with you the whole way through this,” she responded.  We shared a kiss and a hug, and before we knew it, the night came.  For the first time in three months, Fluttershy and I shared a dream that was not corrupted by the evil of the Darkness.  It was just like going to heaven.