Fluttershy and Me: Remastered

When summer finally ended, it was time for Fluttershy and me to head to college.  The ride didn’t take too long.  It wasn’t so bad because Fluttershy was with me the whole time.  I drove myself, but I saved enough of the foot space of the second seat up front for Fluttershy.  She stayed down there the whole ride, which kept her well hidden.  She kept me sane for the duration of my drive.  We hit traffic at one point, so having her there with me was a lifesaver.

And so, my freshman year of college began.  I was majoring in acting, and I was doing pretty well for the most part.  Fluttershy was a huge confidence booster for me for that year, and she would be throughout my college career in general.  My freshman year was a bit more eventful than the years following though.  Why?  Well, for my first year, I was forced to room with someone on campus.  My roommate was a cool guy though, we didn’t have any problems.  We became good friends actually, but I couldn’t leave Fluttershy hanging.  So once again, I had to find a place for her.  And, once again, I actually found an old warehouse.  It was smaller than the previous one, but that was fine.  We got it furnished and made it into a fine living space.  Joey even moved in with her.

This wasn’t the eventful part of my year though.  That came about halfway through the year.  It was an ordinary Friday night, and my roommate was going to be out for the weekend visiting his family, so I had nothing to worry about.  That’s what I thought at least, until I arrived at Fluttershy’s.  When I arrived, I found that the main door had been opened, and the couch I had gotten for Fluttershy had been thrown out into the dirt.  My heart stopped for a moment.  I rushed inside.

“FLUTTERSHY!?  WHERE ARE YOU!?  FLUTTERSHY!?” I screamed, trying to find her.  I got no response.  But then, I noticed something moving under a blanket in the corner.  I slowly moved towards it, hoping it was Fluttershy.  I removed the blanket to unveil Fluttershy, crying with her head down.

“Please don’t hurt me!” she said, startled by my presence.  Then she looked up and saw it was me.  “MATTHEW!”  She jumped up and hugged me.  I held her close to me, telling her that she was safe now.

“T-two men came in here and started r-ruining everything.  I don’t know if they were l-looking for something, but I just stopped moving just like you told me a year ago.”  It had been about a year at that point since I found Fluttershy (she was now fifteen), and that she still remembered what I told her about staying hidden didn’t surprise me.  She had actually almost gotten caught by my mom once, but she was smart enough to get out of her sight quick enough.  But anyway, back to what was going on.

“Did you see what they looked like?  Did they hurt you?” I asked.  Fluttershy took a step back and unfolded her wings, revealing that her left wing had been wrapped in bandages.  She told me she was violently tossed against the wall, and that her wing had been broken.  At first, I was shocked at the sight of it.  I held her close to me, finding myself once again brushing her hair with my hand.  Then, I became filled with rage.  I got up and started walking back to my car.

“Matthew, where are you going?” she asked me.  I think she could tell I was angry, asking with a deep amount of concern and fright in her voice.

“I’m going back to my place to get my weapons.  I’m staying here tonight,” I told her.  A surprised look came upon her face.

“Couldn’t I just stay with you at your place tonight?  I mean, I know that it would be dangerous and I could be spotted, but, it’s just that this place doesn’t seem safe now.  I’m scared Matthew.”

“I know you’re scared, believe me I do, and I understand that you being seen wouldn’t be as bad as you getting hurt.  But now that I know these jackasses did in fact hurt you, I’m not letting that go.  I’m staying here tonight, and that’s final.”  I was furious right then.  She could tell, even backing up a bit.

“Are you going to… kill them?”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, until I confidently said yes.  Her head dropped and she sighed.

“Come on, I need to go get my things.  You can stay in your hiding spot in the car.”  I was in a hurry, and now Fluttershy was getting pretty scared, not even by what had happened, but by me.  She had never really seen me this way.  This was my violent side, the side of me that made me Fluttershy’s opposite, the side of me that brought about the irony of our love.

We drove back to my dorm, which was a short drive from the warehouse.  I went to my room to gather my weapons from the hiding spot I had made for them.  I grabbed my tomahawk and my left hidden blade, testing it to see that it still worked.

“Perfect.  Those assholes are gonna regret what they did.  Too bad they won’t actually live to regret it though.”   The hate in my voice was scaring me now.  I had spoken aloud, but no one was around to hear me.  I left my room, keeping my weapons hidden, and headed back to my car.  We drove back to the warehouse, where we would wait.  I hid up on one of the horizontal beams that held up the roof.  It was almost six o’clock.

‘Come on you fuckers.  Death awaits your arrival,’ I thought in my head.  I stared at the door intensely.  Fluttershy was watching me.  My peripheral vision caught her gazing at me, but I never looked back to her.  She was frightened.  She was truly afraid of me.  But honestly, if you saw me at that moment, you’d probably be scared too.

Time passed slowly while I waited.  Not once did my vision move from the door.  In my mind, I was planning tactics that I could use for different scenarios.  Would these guys have guns, would there be more this time, how big were they?  It didn’t matter.  They were going to die.  The bloodlust that was eating away at me just grew.  I couldn’t believe that I wanted the death of someone so badly.  This wasn’t even my violent side anymore.  This was a beast that had emerged from inside of me.

After three hours, they finally arrived.  Two middle aged men, wearing bandanas and biker gang-like shirts.  Both of them were pretty strong looking, and armed well enough to rob a small bank.  One of them had what looked like a Beretta pistol, the other armed with an army knife and a decently sized rifle.  I was a little taken back by their weaponry, but it didn’t matter.

The goon with only the pistol moved further into the warehouse, leaving his partner closer to the door.  I would attack him first, giving him no chance to use that rifle.  No one beat me at hand to hand combat, and with that shitty little knife, he would be cake.

I dropped down from my perch, fully braced for the decently sized fall.  I landed on one knee, and after a second of recovery, I fully stood up.

“Who the hell is this guy?  I thought you said we weren’t bein followed,” one of them said.  I was too focused to care which of them had spoken.

“We weren’t followed, I told you.  This asshat dropped from the roof.  Who the fuck are you?” he questioned me.  I didn’t answer.  I was just breathing.  I was wearing my sweatshirt, unzipped and with my hood up.  I pushed back the right side of my sweatshirt, allowing me to draw my tomahawk.  I slapped out my hidden blade, turning it into a knife.  I assumed a combat ready stance.

“Oh, we ain’t got time for this shit.  Waste that fucker!” the one further away ordered.  The one closer to me gave out a cry and charged at me with his knife.  I smirked.  Too easy.  As he brought his knife down, I blocked with my knife, pulled him past me, and slashed down his back with my tomahawk.  I had cut him really deep, and blood gushed out of his back.  The other guy was caught off guard and pointed his pistol at me.  I quickly turned my head to see him.  He jumped and fired off two rounds.

I dodged right for the first round and ducked down under the second round, advancing towards him with both movements.   He was pretty damn surprised.  This gave me a great opportunity, because he was clearly slow.  He was close enough that I could tumble in past him, and, with him being so off guard, he was unable to turn around fast enough to stop me from chopping him clean in the lower back.  He cried out in pain.  I pulled my weapon from his back, and blood poured out.  He fell on his back, still screaming in agony.  I had had enough, so to end his suffering, I plunged my bracer mounted hidden blade into his throat.

I removed my blade and went over to the other guy.  He was crying in pain.  He was lying on his stomach.  I turned him over to find he was coughing up blood.  I gave him a sick smile.

“Go to hell you piece of shit!” he yelled at me.  I chuckled a bit at his suffering.

“The sign said no trespassing, asshat.  Illiteracy is a problem I find is truly plaguing our country, wouldn’t you agree?” I said with a hint of evil in my voice.  He stared into my eyes, and I stared into his soul.  I gave him one more smile before I plunged my tomahawk into his skull.

“Justice,” I said aloud.  I stood up, removed my tomahawk from the man’s skull, and wiped off the blood on his shirt.  I stood over his body for a minute, and then it hit me.  I had just murdered two people, in a matter of about one minute no less.  In shock I dropped my tomahawk on the floor, stepped back from the body, and fell to my knees.  I was breathing heavily now.

“What have I done?  Fluttershy, why did I do this?  Why?” I asked, getting no response.  I stood up and removed my hood.  Afterwards I looked at my hands, my blood covered hands.  I had no words.

“Fluttershy,” I started, “what have I become?  You shouldn’t have had to see that.  What… what happened to me?”  I was scared.  The fear emanating from my voice brought me to tears.  I tried getting up, but my body wouldn’t let me.  “Fluttershy, I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry.  I don’t deserve you, not after what I’ve just done.  This is something I need to live with now.  God damnit I just murdered two people.  Why the hell should I deserve love?  I’m a fucking monster.”  I was beside myself, truly.  I was breaking down.  Who wouldn’t after killing two people?  My head fell to the floor.

Fluttershy walked over to me, placing her hoof on my back.  That got my attention enough to look at her.  She was sitting on the ground, her head at my level.

“Matthew, I don’t care what you’ve done, or what you may ever do.  I love you, no matter what.  Just because you wanted to protect me doesn’t mean you don’t deserve love, especially my love.  I mean, yes, you did kill them, but it was out of love.”

“But it wasn’t Fluttershy, that’s just it!  I wanted revenge, revenge for them hurting you like this.  This was something personal, even when it shouldn’t have been.”

“But even still Matthew, you’ve shown that you will do anything for the ones you care about, whether it be me, or maybe someone in your family.  You did this because you care about me.  I don’t think there is anyone else more deserving to love me than you, and I mean that.”  Her voice was so calm and soothing.  I stopped crying and lifted myself up.  I wiped off my hand of the blood before trying to wipe out my eyes.  I took a deep breath.

“You really think I deserve your love?” I asked her.

“Yes, I do, and nothing will change that, I promise you,” she responded, her voice free of any fear or worry.  I smiled at her, and she kissed my cheek.

“Come on.  Let’s go get you cleaned up.  You look awful,” she said, her voice flowing with concern for me.  As she started to get up, I pulled her into an embrace.  She returned the hug.

“I love you Fluttershy, and I’m sorry for how I’ve acted.”

“There, there, it’s ok now.  I love you too Matthew.”  We held our embrace for a minute before getting up to go get me cleaned off.  And truthfully, all the doubts that filled my mind had disappeared, destroyed by the loving words of Fluttershy.  She truly was the Element of Kindness.