Last moments.
To any, walking in to the scene before her would have been traumatizing. Broken glass littered the carpet of her family home's living room, and things had been thrown and now lay shattered against walls and furniture. Fluttershy shrugged; this being something that she had quickly grown used to.
Fluttershy's mother had given birth to her when she was little more than a filly herself. She was still in high school when the night that was eventually lead to the birth of a butter-colored pegasus nine months later took place. She had been out on a night with her coltfriend and some of his older friends. "Nothing will happen! It'll be fine!" he said. If only she had known then just how wrong he would've been.
Her mother blamed Fluttershy for all of this; unable to see any fault in the man that was Fluttershy's father. Never having met him herself, Fluttershy enjoyed listening about him. That was, when her stepfather wasn't around. She gazed around the room, picking out all of the finer details. After a few quick scans, she found a few things on the counter that she hadn't before. Namely: A bottle of Vicodin, a bottle of Valium, and flask filled with (what smelled like) cheap tequila. Surely they wouldn't notice if her prescriptions were gone. She worried a little about the flask, but eventually opted out of caring.
"...And she was abused constantly...". Fluttershy jolted back to attention with a lurch. It had been a few hours since she had come back to her broken home; a few hours since she had started her meal of pills and tequila. Her self-organized farm party had been in effect for a while now, and she was starting to come down. She looked at the laptop in front of her, trying to decipher more of the grisly story that was being told. It was about a mare, quite like herself, that had gone through many hardships. Eventually however, she became a famous and best-selling author, simply because she worked at and followed her dreams.
This was something that the young Fluttershy kept on an almost constant repeat loop. That was, when her parents weren't on her case. It was a nice change from the usual "You dumb bitch. You'll never amount to fucking anything!", that she usually received from her loving family. She liked that there was the chance for her to succeed. It gave her something she had very rarely gotten to experience:
Hope.
She tried to chuckle, but found herself physically unable to. Her body had grown weak and unresponsive, probably due to the cocktail of pharmaceuticals and cheap liquor that she had been ingesting for the better part of three hours. She slowly raised her arm; each slight movement was like trying to move fifty pounds of bricks. She slowly undid the lid to the bottle of Vicodin that she had been 'munching' on, taking out two more pills and re-securing the top. She looked idly at the pair of large, white pills that seemed to swim atop her hoof.
The pills went down with practiced ease; the strong liquor sloshing them down into her waiting stomach. She exhaled and winced at the strength of the drink that she had been sipping from. She put the bottles back under her small table; her focus returning to the screen before her. "I haven't even cracked the Valium yet..." she thought to herself, before completely losing her train of thoughts.
It didn't take long for the hyper-potent cocktail to get to work; the effects of which washed over her in waves. It suddenly became very challenging to focus, and her body became all but unresponsive. Her vision blurred as she stared ahead; the screen now becoming a writhing mass of muted and dull colors. She reached a hoof out; her attempts to catch some of the color that was flying around. It was at that moment that she noticed the small green prescription bottle sitting next to pair that she had recently put back.
"Oooh... What's this..?!", she slurred; her voice clearly indicating the level of intoxication that was now screaming through the young pegasus. "Benzo... dia... zep..ine..?", she slurred out; trying desperately to sound out the medical jargon that was written along the side of the bottle. She noted to herself, "Oh wait! This is my prescription! I have to take these!". She fumbled with the lid for a moment; trying as hard as she could to undo the filly-proof lid.
As it was to her mind's eye, Fluttershy fumbled with the lid for what felt like ages; eventually managing to get the bottle open about five minutes later. She poured the majority of the bottle into her waiting maw, opening the flask and taking another long draw from it. She repeated this process, eventually finishing both the liquor, and the bottle of Valium. She burped quietly; almost gagging on the taste of stale pharmaceuticals and cheap tequila. She leaned back, her gaze turning to the dark ceiling above.
Her mind heavily intoxicated and unresponsive; Fluttershy didn't even notice as her heartbeat began to speed up. She enjoyed the pallet that the world had taken, the dull and blurry colors entertaining her dying mind. To anyone that wasn't her, it would have been simple to tell that she had overdosed heavily, and was now dying from the pills that were supposed to make things more tolerable. She might have laughed, had she seen the irony. Perhaps this is why her mother said that her father always hated pills.
She fell back; her body physically giving out underneath her. She didn't notice her breathing become raspier; didn't notice the fact that breathing was getting near impossible. What was once a fast beating heart, was now pounding at a dangerously slow pace. She could feel the steady throbbing in her chest, but didn't pay it any mind. She was on cloud nine as her body slowly shut down; the combination of drugs and liquor making even her final moments a menagerie of colors and sensations.
Her heart stopped moments later; finally giving in to the copious amounts of toxins that had terrorized her body. She hummed a small tune as her last breaths escaped her, breaking the silence of her small room. A wide smile sat upon her face; as dull and lifeless as her eyes, that had now taken on a glassy shape. Fluttershy felt the very life that she had clung to for so long slip away, all the while noticing another thing that was almost alien to her:
Happiness.
Happily ever after.
The young pegasus sat up; her eyes opening slowly to the world around her. She was met with five equally blank stares; all coming from mares that looked a little worse for wear. They smiled at her, wordlessly welcoming her to her new home. One of them, a blue pegasus, was the first to speak.
"Hey there, my name's Rainbow Dash. Fastest flier in Equestria. At least, that's what I always wanted to be. My dad always wanted a son, you see... I guess I was kind of his replacement for one. Not that I minded or anything...". She gave a short pause, a sad look befalling her face. "But a year ago, when I was fifteen, my mom actually had a son. And I was... forgotten. I wanted to prove to the both of them that I was still the child they had always desired, so I started to overwork myself. My grades fell, and eventually, I took to using... Illegal performance enhancers... What we didn't know, is that I had a problem. Y'know, like... one in my heart? And the things I took just made that worse. It ended up giving out at the race that would've gotten me into the wonderbolt academy...". A quiet sob escaped her, before she began to speak again.
"All of us here had a shitty time growing up. Did you too? I can't imagine how hard it must have been. We come from abuse, and rape, and neglect. Pinkie here even came from murder. We want you to know that, you're safe here. Nothing can hurt you here. This place? This is kind of like our happily ever after. This is out second chance. So please, whatever you do: Just make the best of it, alright?"
"Alright Dash, I think... I think I can do that... You know, I've always had a thing for animals..."
