Paranoia Ingredient

Paranoia Ingredient

{-----[[[[[-Wish You were Here-]]]]]-----}

That scene left me a little...cautious, for a reason that didn't come to mind.

"Put a stop to what?" My voice rose in volume as I tried to figure out a puzzle that I probably shouldn't have even begun to. However, I tried as best as I possibly could to decipher the ominous...warning. Upon expectance, a blurred sequence of images flew through my mind.

The experience I shared with that beautiful mare (from what I could tell) was brought up in my little invisible cloud bubble. "That...thing, out there? What did she mean?”

I hate to have applied my thoughts to this genre, especially considering the owner of the warning was aged with knowledge, but that elderly pony was probably letting her senile attributes get the best of her. But then again, all that knowledge accrued over the years could have led to an answer.

Taking that possibility into consideration, I simply put aside the thought and placed it in the back of my head when I realized that I just walked into the chamber of the castle where I heard my friends' oh-so familiar voices.

This was the main hub, the aorta, of the entire castle; or at least, it's been treated as such over the years. I entered the rendezvous point from an angle.

Square in the middle of the premises, heading towards an enormous stained glass wall (that, by the way, depicted the fall of the aforementioned God of Chaos, Discord), rose a very wide stairway, decorated with a lustrous fabric of red.

The fabric actually made its path from the intended entrance to the aorta and manipulated itself, splitting itself into two products upon reaching the forked path at the top of the stairway.

And through the clearest windows I've ever seen; only darkness was invited inside, but thankfully without the malicious force from before. However, the faint light of the candles placed all around every visited chamber of the castle made my mind assume that their effects were all accumulating in this very room, which was definitely a good thing, considering my fear of darkness still exists, only dramatically lesser now.

And even though I somewhat recovered from a sudden, split-second flare of pain that threatened to burn in my things, all while simultaneously scanning the room twice from the adrenaline of the sharp pain, I still couldn't read any signs from my friends (judging from how faint their voices were when I first heard them.)

And I didn't physically see them, concluding the fact that I was slowly, and quite possibly, losing my mind.

"No." I stopped for a while, building up a familiar emotion.

I stopped thinking and progressing through the castle altogether. I let the emotion take me over.

"NO!" I suddenly lashed out verbally, regarding a series of things that I felt I regretted. "I knew I shouldn't have believed, even believed, that they would be here! What's the matter? Is harmony in Equestria dead or something?!" In association with that last thought, I knew how I put that into words couldn't be true.

No. Not at all.

Never.

After (again) realizing that this very fact was true, I let all of my frustration go; I had let it get the better of me.

................

Dammit, I keep reminding myself of Dashie.

From what I absolutely know, my friends, all of them, would be here, somewhere. But I also knew I didn't have time to play hide and seek with them, especially if they decided to all be scattered around the castle.

I shut my eyes groaned in displeasure. "Uuuugghhhh...

...And when I opened them...I saw her again...

The somewhat valiant pony who stayed by my side throughout the whole ordeal where I secretly thought I, as well as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, were going to die. She...more or less stayed that way until the very end, when we were taken here by princess Celestia.

Random thought, how did the princess know that we were in trouble? Is it possible that what my 'friend' was doing out there is the reason? Does the princess know this mare personally? I ceased to ask myself another question when I saw the mare looking in my direction.

Almost immediately upon grabbing my attention, she called out my name.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy. What's up?" She knew my name thanks to Sweetie Belle's little mouth. "Can you come over here for a second?"

"Maybe she knows where the girls are, or...everyone!" True, my friends and I were given the national title 'The Mane Six' upon the defeat of Nightmare Moon, as well as the true definition of a hybrid:

Discord.

Nightmare Moon, as I've learned from reading that particular story countless times, was, in fact, princess Luna, the bringer of the night. She was unfortunately consumed by the resentfulness and incompetence that she placed upon her beautiful name.

Princess Luna ruled Equestria alongside her sister, princess Celestia; her role was to raise the moon to begin the beautiful night she would bestow upon the land.

I really wished that the current, starless night would be the same as all those previous to it.

However, as time progressed, she observed how all the residents of Equestria were active and energetic during Celestia's time of the day, but shunned and slept through the night she brought forth.

Why am I repeating myself when I know the tale by heart? Princess Luna confronted her sister about her seemingly pointless role, pointing out her findings. The eldest sister Celestia, tried to reason with her (scorn me for plagiarizing 'The Elements of Harmony: Script 3' if you must, I certainly do), but the bitterness in Luna's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of Darkness.

Nightmare Moon.

The one who made a promise to all of Equestria; the one who threw Equestia onto the threshold of Eternal Night.

And that's where the Elements of Harmony came into play...but I was getting sidetracked.

...Highly.

I decided not to increase that particular action and go see what the mare in the distance wanted.

I approached her, walking as fast as I could. I completely forgot about my back legs and how badly injured they were; I just noticed them.

Again, I groaned in displeasure as I contemplated under my breath.

"Awwgh...why did I have to remember my back legs?" For the most part, it was with ease for me to block unpleasant thoughts from entering my conscious mind. But I was reminded of this particular problem, simply because it hindered my forward movement dramatically at this point in time.

I stumbled only slightly while progressing to the mare, whose attention seemed to be divided by something else; I didn't want to give her the impression that I was in a weakened state.

I could hear her voice very easily; remember, the room was completely empty, aside from our two presences.

I had just crossed the red line of fabric, and it could have been a late hearing of an echo, but something was heard after she herself spoke.

"She looks hurt, don't do it." she said under her breath. She must have taken caution into mind; voices do carry a long way through means of an echo. "I'm telling you...

"Nngh...sorry..." I was truly in pain, its worst experience I've gone through in a long time. It all just decided to ignite at the worst possible time.

Despite the tragedy befalling every single cell of my brain, I, at least, tried to think of something even remotely uplifting and cheerful.

"This reminds me of when my friends all dogpiled me on my birthday..."  I didn't know what to think anymore. Should my spirits have been uplifted from the thought of even a small recollected memory that may never promote another similar event to carry the same atmosphere to it?

The joy of having others to share your entire life with, until the very end?

Tensing myself up even more from the prolonged pain in my back legs, I was feeling...uneasy, though I shouldn't question why. It was obvious to all Equestria's ponies, who were all gathered here, in Canterlot.

"DOGPIIIIILE!!!"

Well, I guess premonitions aren't the only thing I'm good at. This was, in fact, the very place where my friends ambushed me the first time.

At the Grand Galloping Gala last year; that very day...was my birthday.

I knew my friends were here! However, Honest AppleJack was the first of the five ponies to surprise me with a friendly tackle, taking me down to the floor with her. Then came Generous Rarity, wailing as she fell from her leap.

"You don't know how much we've missed you!" She seemed as if she was in the air for three whole seconds.

Rarity was the kind of pony who wouldn't dare get herself dirty, even a bit. I also thought that she would never be the pony to cause me to scream out in agony.

Actually, both of their weight built up, and the sound of something shattering soon followed.

"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

I-I think my left rear leg...just broke.

All I could think of at the moment was to scream more. "NOO!! NO, STOP IT!!! "NO MORE NO MORE NO MOOOORRRE!!!"

AppleJack and Rarity reacted to my pain immediately.  "Now hold on, Girls!" AppleJack directed her command to an unusual collection of pink fluff. Like cotton candy, just...an unusual clump. Rarity turned her attention to something else.

And why would she, of all ponies, be talking to that thing? She's not completely random like-

Random...

My friends... they were all here. I knew what this was, all of this, although the appearance of the red-eyed mare was different.

Pinkie Pie suddenly became extracted from the big...pink thing, for it was herself alone that conjured it up. I swear, that Earth pony is completely (and somehow), immune to the effects of natural physics.

As you can tell, I managed to forget about even the second to most insufferable experience that I've ever hope to live through.

And it was all because...

"SurPRIIIIISE!!!!"

I was reunited with the spirits of the Elements of Harmony, and it felt so invigorating to see them again after Celestia knows how long.

"FLUTTERSHY!!!!"

Upon my second notice, Rarity was still under the influence of a trace, or at least it seemed that way. However, she then gasped slightly under her breath, as if she forgot something.

"My dear Fluttershy." She paused after beginning her sentence quite lazily. "Let me help you up."

Alright, Rarity was acting pretty strange, but an immediate explanation for that probably would have been because we haven't seen each other in such a long time.

She proceeded to lend me her right leg, which I so absentmindedly accepted. I rose to three out of four hooves, trying not to let the pain of the broken leg invade my mind. Rarity went back to staring out the window, what she was doing when I first saw her.

"Th-thanks...Rarity." Too late, she was lost in the very same trance as before. I wasn't going to waste any more breath than that on her (no offense to Rarity) when I could have been using what I had left to recover from my desperate pleads from before, when AppleJack and Rarity 'dogpiled' me at the worst possible time.

I switched positions and turned around, only to be greeted by a big, smiling face.

It just happened to be pink.

"Oh, Fluttershy, I missed you so so so so so sooooo much!" She grabbed hold of me; she stood on her hind legs and actually lifted me from the ground! "How's my FAAAAVORITE Pegasus doing on her birthday, huh?"

I think Pinkie was overdoing it.

She threw me atop her shoulder and continued to grin, according to how well I know her. She must have just been extremely happy to even embrace me, and I was happy for her too, but the thrust that Pinkie used to lift me was excruciatingly painful; all I felt like doing at that moment was vomit and cry.

"I'm...perfectly fine, thanks Pinkie."

I thought she would; she sensed the weakness in my lie.

"That's GRRREAT!!" We should play some party games! Like the Pony Pokey! Or Pin the tail on the pony!" She said all of that in less than four seconds.

"Really...I'm-"

I fell out of Pinkie's questionably friendly hold and onto the cold, linoleum floor, weakened from a condition I could easily identify, despite my current state.

Derived from recent observations, I saw that I was losing excessive amounts of blood, heavily seeping from my fucked up rear leg. It wasn't only shattered, unusable, and lubricated with blood, but it, the whole appendage, was turning black.  I was losing so much blood in so little time that I myself was blacking out and fast.

And in the little time of consciousness I had left, I saw Twilight Sparkle, princess Celestia's personal student, and my friend. She looked sad, head turned to the left. She then looked at me with the swiftest movement of her head, with devastatingly piercing red eyes, red dots actually.

"Good night, Fluttershy..." I was terrified.

Not that I could escape if I wanted to, for reasons need not be said again, but I was frozen to the core of my heart. The zalgofied image of the Unicorn with no color, only drenched in black.

It was a nightmare. Never in my life have I been lost in the gaze of something that I feared so much. I couldn't escape her-its gaze. I kept on staring at...it.

Then, all went dark, and all of my senses shut down entirely.