Chapter Text
Turning the page of her recently borrowed book, Fluttershy smiles at the gentle atmosphere of Twilight’s castle. When the structure had first erupted from the ground, the silence that echoed in every hall of the large building had been stifling. The shiny crystal felt icy and empty; the walls sustained by raw power rather than the old oak that had been filled with life.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long after her friends’ redecoration surprise for Twilight—and some time to get used to it—for Fluttershy to find a new appreciation for the impressive home.
She even finds herself thankful for the magic she can feel thrumming in the walls, now reminding her more of the strength of their friendship rather than the terrifying power that comes with it. She’s even more thankful that Twilight appears increasingly comfortable here by the day.
It must help that Starlight and Spike are around, often alongside spontaneous visits from friends in town. Fluttershy can’t imagine how Princess Celestia managed so long in Canterlot on her own, with Princess Luna banished to the moon.
Unlike a few of their friends, Fluttershy avoids showing up without warning. Even with their pre-set Book Club meetings, she likes to at least let Twilight know when she’ll be arriving a day in advance. They typically take some quiet time with tea to read through the many new books in Twilight’s expansive library.
At least, it started out that way, before Twilight ended up being such a fast reader that she’d go through five by the time Fluttershy finished one.
They ran out of new library books to read very quickly.
Now, Fluttershy brings her own, and Twilight… Fluttershy isn’t actually sure where Twilight gets hers, but she knows that the purple alicorn somehow never runs out of her mysterious supply.
Fluttershy takes another sip of her chamomile tea, gently placing it back in the saucer that’s resting upon a thick blanket. Twilight sits across from her, using her magic to hold her own teacup aloft. She positions the book almost ridiculously close to her face, but still turns the pages every minute or so.
Fluttershy idly muses if sticking your face in the book helps you read faster.
A quiet thud fills the silence as Twilight shuts her book, looking delighted. Her purple feathers rustle at her sides while she readjusts herself, before she opens the book right back at the start and begins re-reading it.
The yellow pegasus smiles, then looks back down at her current novel. She’s about halfway through, and it’s not really a story she’s invested in so far. Twilight would likely get a kick out of it, though. Fluttershy thinks she’ll lend it to her once she gets to the end. Twilight will probably be finished re-reading the book she currently has by the time she’s done, anyway.
Fluttershy turns another page.
Her left ear twitches slightly. Fluttershy blinks and focuses her attention back onto the words, re-reading the sentence.
Her ear twitches again.
Then, she hears very faint clacking sounds, getting progressively louder. She lifts her head up from her book, frowning pensively and swerving her ears to better listen.
Twilight is too engrossed in her book to do the same.
Fluttershy instinctively glances towards the library window, checking to see if a bird is tapping on the glass with its little beak. The window is void of anything other than a lovely view of the colorful afternoon sky.
The clacking gets louder as it approaches, eventually becoming identifiable as hoofsteps. Fluttershy looks away from the window and instead towards the closed doors. The hoofsteps get louder, and louder, and Fluttershy’s brows furrow. Is something the matter? Who would be running through the halls right now?
The sound builds up as the pony approaches, then stops some distance away from the room. Twilight pauses mid-sip of her tea and looks up from her book.
Their gazes meet in idle confusion, before being broken by the hoofsteps resuming and clacking thunderously down the library’s hallway. Twilight eyes the door inquisitively, as if trying to predict who’s about to burst through. Then, after a moment, she nods at Fluttershy. “That’s Pinkie. Though she’s being a lot quieter about it than usual.”
Fluttershy blinks. “What?” she replies, eloquently, as the hoofsteps approach the room. She stares at Twilight, effectively confused. “How can you—”
Pinkie Pie throws herself through the library doors, wildly looking around the room before spotting Twilight and Fluttershy. “Twilight!” she gasps, trying catch her breath. The two reading ponies turn their heads to look at her. Pinkie’s mane is disheveled, even more so than usual. Her expression is alert and urgent, and her body is spasming at random intervals.
It doesn’t take Fluttershy long to realize that it’s her Pinkie Sense that’s vibrating her entire body. The pink mare’s ear is twitching frantically, and her back right hoof is rebounding off the crystal floor.
Immediately, Fluttershy’s concern grows. Can she decipher Pinkie’s strange ability? No. But usually she can recognize which combination Pinkie is experiencing from prior situations.
These are reflexes that Fluttershy doesn’t remember seeing before at all. And Pinkie looks… frazzled. “Pinkie?” Fluttershy prompts worriedly.
Across from her, Twilight’s brows furrow in similar concern, and she closes her book once more. “What is it?”
As soon as she collects enough air, Pinkie starts pacing back and forth in front of them. Her back right hoof continues rapping at the floor behind her, following her movements. “I-I don’t know. Something’s off. My Pinkie Sense…” Pinkie bites her lip nervously.
The confirmation makes Fluttershy shuffle awkwardly on the woolen blanket, no longer relaxed.
Twilight rises to her hooves. Fluttershy does the same not long after. “What is it… saying?” Twilight asks carefully.
Pinkie pauses in her pacing and shakes her head. “I have no idea. It’s—this one is new. It’s like the kind of doozy that I had when you were trying to do all that wacky science, but it’s—more.” The pink mare moves from hoof to hoof, looking around the room like something’s going to jump out at them.
It does nothing to settle Fluttershy’s nerves. “…More?” Fluttershy remembers that day. Pinkie’s entire body had been vibrating non-stop. How could this be more of a doozy? If anything, Pinkie’s movements just seem increasingly… erratic.
Pinkie looks at her and nods rapidly. “More! Like—like the last one felt like at any minute I would explode, but this one feels like everything else is about to explode!”
Fluttershy pales. “What?”
“Or, um, no,” Pinkie backtracks. “More like… the sun is about to explode.”
“The sun?” Twilight’s expression looks like a painful mixture of confused and distressed. The alicorn cranes her head to peer outside. “But… it looks fine?”
Pinkie gallops towards the window and scans the afternoon sky, staring directly at where the sun is just starting to dip down to begin the evening. She stares long enough at the glowing sphere that Fluttershy feels her own eyes burn sympathetically.
Pinkie squints and studies it, as though she’ll be able to see an answer in the blinding golden rays if she looks hard enough. “It seems… normal,” she says, slowly. She takes a few steps away from the window and looks back at her thumping hoof with a frown. “…Maybe the moon then?”
Fluttershy’s ears press flat against her mane. “…It’s not like a meteor is about to hit Equestria, right?”
Twilight shakes her head. “No, that’s not something that Celestia would let happen.” Twilight picks up the pacing where Pinkie left off, moving at a more thoughtful, leisurely pace. “I still don’t have much information about your Pinkie Sense, and the tests before… well. ‘Inconclusive’ is an understatement. Just, what does it feel like? Is it bad?” Twilight cringes. “…Is it another hydra?”
“No, no, nothing like that, you silly billy,” Pinkie waves her off. Then, her back hoof stomps the ground so hard that it shoves Pinkie a foot forward with a yelp. Fluttershy meets her halfway and braces her with her wing.
Pinkie blinks twice. Her left ear twitches thrice, and her expression falls. She looks at her back hoof, and her words are quiet when she speaks next. “…It’s not good.”
Fluttershy’s frown deepens, and she shares a worried look with Twilight, who has stopped pacing to listen to Pinkie’s subdued voice.
Pinkie’s head is bent down. Fluttershy can’t find her words. What could it be that’s gotten Pinkie so worked up?
How bad is it?
Twilight’s wings shuffle nervously. She seems to be thinking along the same lines as her. Their combined dread hangs in the air between them, and suddenly the castle walls are more stifling than ever before.
Eventually, Twilight shakes her head. “And you can’t identify anything else about what it is? What it might be?” she tries, prodding Pinkie’s already limited information. “Do you know how bad? Are we talking… Discord turns the clouds into ice cream, or another Tirek situation?”
Pinkie’s eyes lift from the floor. She thinks long and hard about the question. Her erratic twitching has calmed somewhat, but Fluttershy still feels tremors under where her wing is resting upon Pinkie’s shoulder. The furrow in Pinkie’s brow seems uncharacteristic. Fluttershy has a sinking feeling that Discord turning weather into ice cream is a very minuscule problem in comparison to whatever Pinkie’s sensing.
“It’s, it’s bad. It’s really bad,” Pinkie finally says. “But not like that. It’s a different kind of bad. It’s—” Pinkie’s entire body shivers, but her fur is warm to the touch under Fluttershy’s feathers. “I don’t know. But it’s coming.”
“When?” Fluttershy’s voice comes out shaky.
Pinkie bites her bottom lip and looks at her nervously. “…Soon?”
That seems to be the final straw for Twilight. “I’m going to go find Spike,” she states, marching towards the door. She pauses in the threshold and glances back at them. Her eyes are determined. It brings a small amount of comfort to Fluttershy’s tight chest. “If this is something serious, and it’s getting closer as we speak… the Princesses need to know.” With that, she disappears down the halls of her home.
Fluttershy and Pinkie are left with silence as the sounds of Twilight’s hooves taper off. Pinkie leans into her wing. Her gaze lowers back to the floor, downcast, and her ear is twitching again. Although this time, Fluttershy can’t tell if it’s because of her Pinkie Sense, or just anxiety.
It must be terrifying to know something bad is coming, but be unable to pinpoint what. Fluttershy doesn’t think she could stand it if she had a Pinkie… well, a ‘Fluttershy Sense’ of her own. It sounds silly even in her head, but Pinkie has done a lot of good with it.
Fluttershy tries to push her nerves to the side, something she wouldn’t have been able to do so easily a year ago. She nudges Pinkie gently. The pink mare looks up.
Fluttershy’s lips form a small smile. Pinkie’s shoulders slouch ever so slightly.
“Remember when I first saw you use your Pinkie Sense?” Fluttershy muses.
Pinkie tilts her head pensively, then nods. “Muffins was flying above you with this big bucket of water, and you were buying carrots for all of your cute critters—” The pink mare uses her hooves to animate the memory as she speaks. “—And my tail started going all shaky-wakey when I was walking by, so I yelled ‘take cover!’ because you never know what kind of crazy things can fall from the sky, and we were in the marketplace, for gumdrops sake,” Pinkie is rambling now. Fluttershy smiles. “I’ve seen more than a few snakes fall down over there. And after I shouted, you…”
Fluttershy nods. “I screamed and jumped into a bush. You were only about two feet away.”
“Yeah! Sorry,” Pinkie gives her a sheepish smile. “You did good though! That bucket stood no chance.”
Fluttershy giggles. “I’m glad you were there. Even if it scared me a little.”
Pinkie beams at her. Then, her expression falls, and she averts her eyes. “…It’s different this time. Dangerous.” Her back right leg jolts, kicking at empty air. “It’s… never been this bad before.” Her voice is solemn. Small.
Fluttershy’s heart sinks. She’s not used to hearing Pinkie sound like that. Her gut swirls nervously. “B-but we having a warning, right? If we prepare for it, how bad can it really be?”
Pinkie grimaces.
Fluttershy purses her lips. She’s always been better at comforting animals. “…Okay, yes. But… maybe the bucket will miss.”
Pinkie’s blue eyes meet her own. She looks contemplative. “…Maybe the bucket will miss.”
Fluttershy nods. Pinkie offers her a small, thankful smile, even though the lines on her face are still doubtful.
…Fluttershy really hopes it does.
Over the next two days, Fluttershy can’t help but send paranoid glances at the sun. If she’s outside feeding the chickens, or tending to her garden, or even mixing mud for the piglets—she’s watching it in her peripheral vision, ignoring the strain on her eyes.
If she’s managing the winds around the birdhouses, she’s looking up as if to check it’s not coming any closer, no matter how unlikely the possibility. Pinkie’s fixation on it whispers in the back of her mind, and the worry gnaws at her.
It’s spring, so there’s plenty of work to do around her cottage; collecting honey, harvesting herbs, fulfilling her animals’ needs, all of it. Still, she takes time to check in on Twilight at least once a day.
She’s also popped in at Sugarcube Corner a few times, but Pinkie always has the same strained smile whenever she walks in.
The Princesses haven’t replied to Twilight and Spike yet. Fluttershy can tell that it’s putting the purple alicorn on edge. Fluttershy can’t blame her. Pinkie’s spasms have been recognized across Ponyville, and there are whispers of what the mare’s Pinkie Sense is predicting this time. As far as she knows, Pinkie hasn’t told anyone else that some horrible thing is happening ‘soon’, but her distinct avoidance of addressing it almost seems more suspicious to the townsponies.
Fluttershy sneaks another glance at the sun, but nothing’s changed. The longer Ponyville goes without some great catastrophe, the more Fluttershy dreads its inevitability. Pinkie’s senses have never been wrong. As far as the yellow pegasus knows, at least.
She fights the urge to go and visit Twilight again, and instead continues to lay out carrots around the rabbit habitats bordering the Everfree Forest. As she does so, she passively wonders if Zecora would know anything.
The telltale flapping of feathers is what alerts her to Rainbow Dash’s approach. Fluttershy looks up when Rainbow Dash calls her name from above, watching as the blue pegasus glides down to hover beside her.
Fluttershy smiles, setting down another carrot before walking towards the other dens. “Hello Rainbow Dash,” she greets pleasantly.
Rainbow Dash grins back, following after her. “Hey Flutters! That time of year?” Rainbow Dash motions vaguely towards the basket of carrots.
Fluttershy’s lips quirk at the corners. “Yes, Rainbow. The time of year has come where I feed the rabbits just once.”
Rainbow Dash snorts, amused. “Need any help?”
“That’s very kind of you,” Fluttershy digs through the basket and offers a few carrots to Rainbow Dash. “Just place them around by the burrows. They’re the little holes in the ground.”
“Don’t worry Flutters, I may not know a lot, but I know what burrows are.” Rainbow Dash salutes her, then blazes across the green terrain in a multicolored flash. A second later, she’s right back where she began. Fluttershy hadn’t even had time to take another step. “All done! Anything else?”
“You can hold this basket while I place the rest down?” Fluttershy suggests. “Walk and talk?”
“You’ve got it!” Rainbow Dash wraps her hooves around the outstretched basket and idly follows Fluttershy through her maze of greenery, watching as she reaches in to grab a carrot or two and place them around the more camouflaged dens.
Fluttershy waits patiently for Rainbow Dash to string together whatever she came to talk about. She’s known Rainbow Dash long enough to understand that dropping by to help with feeding rabbits isn’t typically done without a reason. In fact, after being witness to multiple interactions between Rainbow Dash and Angel the bunny, Fluttershy wouldn’t be surprised if Rainbow Dash has a grudge against most rabbits in general.
“Did, uh…” Rainbow Dash finally starts. “Have you noticed that Pinkie’s been a little… off?”
Fluttershy pauses while reaching for another carrot. “…Has she told you about her Pinkie Sense?” Fluttershy asks hesitantly.
Rainbow Dash puffs a large sigh of relief. “Yes. AJ and I were with her earlier. She’s so freaked out, it’s… kind of freaking me out too?”
Fluttershy frowns and grabs the next carrot, returning to her task. “She told Twilight and I about it two days ago. She ran right into the library during our Book Club meeting. Whatever it is…” Fluttershy shuffles her wings nervously. “She said it’s dangerous.”
As if sensing her nerves, a small bunny hops out and nuzzles her hoof. The gesture makes her feel a little lighter.
“Dangerous?” Rainbow Dash’s voice pitches.
Fluttershy places the final carrot down and faces the blue pegasus fully. “I’m… Dear Luna, I’m really worried about it,” Fluttershy exhales harshly, her shoulders slumping at the relief of finally speaking it aloud. “She insisted it’s bad, whatever it is. I’ve never seen her so frantic about something that hasn’t even happened yet.” Usually that’s Fluttershy’s thing. “And the Princesses haven’t gotten back to Twilight, either.”
Rainbow Dash grimaces. “Twilight must be tweaking out.”
Fluttershy sighs, glancing again at the sky. “She’s not the only one.”
Rainbow Dash follows her gaze. Slowly, she folds her wings in and lands on her four hooves. She rubs the back of her neck nervously. “Speaking of… do you know what’s up with the moon?”
Fluttershy tenses. “…Pardon me?”
“The moon. Have you, uh, have you seen it lately?” Rainbow Dash frowns at her. “AJ mentioned that it isn’t doing that… cycle, thing, whatever Princess Luna does. Just a full moon. Also, it’s… turning black?”
“It’s what?” Fluttershy blinks. Maybe she’s been paying too much attention to the sun. She supposes it’s not the first time that has happened.
“I don’t know!” Rainbow Dash exclaims. “I noticed it the other day going back to my house. At first I thought it was just clouds, but—clouds don’t do that. I know what clouds do. It’s the moon. It’s being burnt or something.”
Fluttershy does not like the sound of that. “Oh, dear. Have you told Twilight?”
Rainbow Dash shrugs. “Haven’t seen her. I mentioned it to Pinkie, and she looked like somepony just stomped on her birthday cake.”
Fluttershy really does not like the sound of that.
She’s supposed to be doing several chores around her cottage today. She really can’t put anything off, but that sounds like extremely important information that Twilight might need to know. Fluttershy reaches out and takes the empty basket back from Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I don’t mean to be rude, but…”
“Don’t worry, Flutters,” Rainbow Dash salutes. “I’ll go and tell Twi.”
Fluttershy smiles back at her, relieved. “Thank you. Be careful?”
“Always am! A little bit. Mostly.” Rainbow Dash spreads her wings and rises back into the air. “I’ll be going out around the orchard with AJ later tonight, if you need us. Or if Pinkie gets anything else.” The blue pegasus waits for Fluttershy’s nod, then speeds off.
Fluttershy watches her go.
She eyes the empty basket, then begins walking back to her cottage, her thoughts swirling like a tornado. Her animals greet her cheerfully as she passes, but the knot in her stomach stays consistent throughout the rest of the day.
When Fluttershy glances at the sky now, it’s to check how much longer she has until the moon rises in the sun’s stead.
By the time Fluttershy finishes her tasks, it’s late in the evening. The moon is rising over the horizon—Fluttershy can’t tell if she’s imagining it, or if it’s rising slower than usual—and lo and behold, Rainbow Dash hadn’t been exaggerating.
The sight of the dark tendrils spreading across the once luminescent surface of the moon makes Fluttershy feel sick. She doesn’t know why she hadn’t thought to look at it before, considering that the sun wasn’t the only thing that Pinkie had mentioned.
The anxiety pokes at her chest. She finds herself unable to sleep, even dressed up in her fluffy night robe as she is.
Instead, she sits on her couch and gazes outside.
She’s too nervous to eat, and she’s too nervous to sleep. Everything is off. There’s about a quarter of the moon untouched by the spreading darkness. Fluttershy can’t tell if it’s steadily creeping along the surface or if she’s merely been staring at it for too long.
Either way, it makes her uncomfortable. Looking at it feels like it’s sapping away her energy.
Angel hops up onto the couch beside her, kicking her hoof with his furry paw.
Fluttershy tears her gaze away from the moon and looks down at him. “Angel?”
As soon as she’s facing away from the moon, Angel jumps to the top of the couch and closes the blinds. It shrouds the room in darkness, save for Fluttershy’s multiple nightlights. Angel falls back and nuzzles into her long nightgown.
Slowly, Fluttershy relaxes.
She can forget about the moon for tonight.
Tomorrow, she’ll go and meet up with Twilight first thing. Hopefully she’ll hear something back from the Princesses by then.
Fluttershy leans against the cushions, snuggling against Angel.
Tomorrow. She can worry about the moon tomorrow.
The sun hasn’t risen by the time Fluttershy is startled awake by screams.
-o-
“Ah hear yah spoke with Twi?” Applejack raises a hoof to push a whittled branch aside. Rainbow Dash lands on the grass and ducks under to follow her path.
“A little, yeah.” Rainbow Dash kicks away another loose bramble, squinting her eyes to adjust to the dark wooded area. “Are we in the Everfree Forest?”
“Nah, not yet.” Applejack tips her hat. “Just nearing the side of it.”
“And this is what you want to clear out?” Rainbow Dash grimaces as a twig snags in the feathers of her folded wing. “It might clear you out first.”
Applejack chuckles. “Ah got no pesky feathers, remember? Big Mac and ah could get this cleared out in a season’s time. As long as it’s not too close to the Everfree, that is.”
Rainbow Dash snorts. “How in Equestria can you even tell the difference between this and the Everfree? Looks like trees and mud to me.”
“Well, for one, the Everfree has more mud.” Applejack lifts her hoof as if to show Rainbow Dash how much less mud she has in her fur as opposed to what she’d have if they were in the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash has to lean her face in so close to see it that for a moment she thinks she’s about to stick her nose into a hoof-full of dirt.
They’d left the organized fields of the Apple family’s apple orchard a while back. Apparently, the new section they’d added for the fruit bats is costing them some bits, so the Apple family has been strategizing new land placements to organize more rows of trees. Where they currently are, though, is so heavily wooded that the almost monstrous branches fold out above them and block out any and all views of the sky.
The observation makes it seem far too dense to clear out, but it offers Rainbow Dash some semblance of relief. She doesn’t think she’d be able to focus with the weird moldy moon hanging above her head right now.
“Secondly, the Everfree has a whole different type of tree. These ones—” Applejack knocks her hoof against one of the tree trunks as she speaks. Rainbow Dash’s eyes have adjusting well enough that she can actually see it. “—Have grown for colder weather. More brittle, easier to knock down.” Rainbow Dash, personally, did not hear anything brittle about the thudding sound that Applejack’s hoof just made, but she chooses not to voice her thoughts. “The Everfree is humid, though. More mud, more heat, more moss, more vines, a lot harder to clear out. That’s one of the reasons why we can’t grow too close to that area.”
Rainbow Dash frowns. “But Fluttershy lives just outside of it.”
“Fluttershy ain’t growing nothin’ but a small garden,” Applejack shrugs. “She takes care of critters, and the Everfree is full of them. That’s what all that heat gets yah, a load of stray animals. And if we keep our distance, they won’t go out of their way for our apples, either.” Applejack frowns at the thought. The crickets around them are so loud that Rainbow Dash almost misses it when Applejack bitterly mutters, “Unless they’re bats.”
Rainbow Dash ducks under another branch and finally finds enough space to stand beside Applejack rather than following extremely close behind her and getting hit by all of the flying twigs.
“What’d Twilight say?” Applejack mentions again.
Rainbow Dash thinks back. “She was almost worse than Pinkie. I’d say the calmest one about this so far is Rarity, and that’s saying something.”
Applejack shrugs. “She’s been busy lately. When ah visited her, she was tuckered out. She’s got a few fancy projects in the works. Yah know how she is when she’s all held up in dresses.”
Rainbow Dash nods. “She mentioned something about that last week, I think. Anyway, Twilight got all worried. She thinks whatever’s going on with the moon has delayed the Princesses’ response. She looked like she was about to fly up to Canterlot herself.”
“One more day without a reply, and she might,” Applejack whistles.
“Starlight wasn’t overly worried, but I don’t think she’s seen Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense in action yet,” Rainbow Dash recalls.
Applejack nods. “Everyone doubts it at first. Until her tail twitches and a piano falls from the sky.” The earth pony shivers. “…That was a terrible day.”
At some point they must have switched directions, because the trees are looking a little more familiar. “Are we getting closer to Ponyville?”
“Sure as a sugar stack we are,” Applejack tilts her head to the left. “We were walking on the path to the Everfree. We only need so much land, so ah’m hoping not to cut down any more trees than we need to. We’re seeing how far it goes out this way.”
Rainbow Dash shakes her head. “Not a lot. It clears up soon, some recreational areas. I used to take naps around here.”
Applejack stops moving.
Rainbow Dash takes a few more steps before noticing that Applejack is no longer beside her. “AJ?” she cranes her head back. There’s a line between Applejack’s eyebrows. Her ears are swiveling. “It’s kind of inconvenient, yeah, but we don’t need to stop yet—”
“No, Dash, listen a moment,” Applejack cuts her off.
Rainbow Dash frowns, but pricks her ears as requested.
It takes a second to hear it. Deep inhaling and exhaling nearby, almost labored.
“Is that… breathing?” Rainbow Dash asks quietly, her brows furrowed.
The heavy breathing gets louder and more prominent. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stand frozen in place. Rainbow Dash has to mentally stop herself from shuffling her wings or her hooves, since Applejack doesn’t seem to want to draw attention to them. Eventually, they can hear hoofsteps too, but whoever it is, they’re stumbling and tripping over themselves every second or third step.
Applejack clears the distance between them in two short strides, dragging Rainbow Dash back. “Duck,” she hisses, taking cover behind a bush.
Rainbow Dash follows along, but frowns. “Why?” she whispers back. “That pony sounds hurt.”
Applejack shakes her head. Her expression is hard as stone. “Something’s wrong. Keep quiet.”
No sooner after she says it, a spindly figure covered in dark mud comes stumbling out from the path leading to Ponyville, uneven on their hooves and concerningly thin. Rainbow Dash and Applejack carefully peek around the bush.
Rainbow Dash squints to try and find out who it is, but she’s never seen somepony like this in Ponyville before. Or, at least, she’s pretty sure she hasn’t. She’s no Pinkie Pie.
Applejack inhales sharply beside her, prompting Rainbow Dash to look closer.
The blue pegasus’ stomach drops.
What she had previously thought was mud splattered across the pegasus’ body is instead blood, knotted in the fur around his neck and mouth. His jaw is hanging wide open, and a tar-like liquid dribbles out like he’s gotten a mouthful of ink. His malnourished body is unnaturally bony, and the skin is tearing in spots around his legs where it’s been stretched too thin. His wings are unfurled and hanging slack. Rainbow Dash can’t tell if he’s missing his eyes, or if they’ve just been layered in the same black substance that’s currently mixing with the blood leaking from the stallion’s mouth.
Rainbow Dash casts a mortified glance over at Applejack, who’s staring with wide eyes and a tense jaw. She makes a face as if to ask, ‘what’s wrong with him?’, but Applejack slowly shakes her head, clearly stating she doesn’t know.
They’re both ripped back to attention when the stallion makes a sudden movement, throwing himself at a nearby rabbit that Rainbow Dash hadn’t even seen and clamping his jaws around its fluffy head like a wild timberwolf. A sickening crunch rebounds against the trees, and Rainbow Dash watches in horror as the stallion twists and rips the rabbit’s head off in a shower of blood and bone.
Pony mouths aren’t made for that kind of stress. Despite this, the stallion gnashes his irregularly sharp, once herbivore teeth through the rabbit’s skull, leaving the rest of its body to lay limp in a puddle of its own blood.
They both watch as the stallion stumbles another few times around the clearing, before moving far enough away that Rainbow Dash is confident he won’t hear them whisper. They can only barely catch his labored breathing, but his haunting figure is still visible through the brambles. He’s left a trail of blood in his wake, not just from the rabbit, and Rainbow Dash has an unshakable, nagging feeling that it’s pony blood.
Applejack’s brows furrow into a hard line, like she’s just come to the same conclusion. She adjusts her hat and stands a little straighter. “You go right, ah’ll go left?” she whispers.
Rainbow Dash nods, eyeing the path of blood that leads backwards towards Ponyville. “I’ll go right, you go left.”
-o-
Fluttershy needs to see Twilight.
She knows that for a fact. She doesn’t know exactly what’s happening right now, but she knows she needs to get to the castle as soon as possible. Or—she needs to at least find out why she can hear screaming in Ponyville all the way from her cottage.
She chews her lip nervously, pacing in her long night robe that blankets almost all of her body save her front hooves, face, and wings. Her animals have been roused by the commotion and are huddled around her living room anxiously.
After five minutes of steeling her nerves, Fluttershy takes a deep breath. She carefully peeks outside at the full, pure black moon. It has to be the reason for whatever is happening. But how?
Fluttershy looks back at her scared animals and makes up her mind.
She closes every curtain in her cottage and locks every door and window.
When she makes it back to the living room, she addresses every single inhabitant. “I need to go see Twilight and find out what’s going on,” she says quietly. She doesn’t hide how her voice wavers. “I need you all to stay inside. I know it’ll be hard, since it’s spring and many of you are nocturnal, but… I can’t guarantee that it’s safe right now.”
Various animals make a few disgruntled grunts, but they all seem to accept the situation as it is.
Except for Angel.
The small white rabbit hops up to Fluttershy’s hoof and kicks it rapidly. Fluttershy looks down at him regretfully, but firmly. “You can’t come, Angel. It’s no place for little rabbits, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
This must be what Pinkie has been predicting for the past three days.
Angel pouts and squeaks at her angrily, but Fluttershy is certain in her decision. She gently picks Angel up and sits him on the couch. “I’ll be back as soon as I can be. You all know where the food is incase I’m not back by morning.”
Fluttershy offers them all a wobbly smile, then mentally prepares herself to step out from the safety of her cottage and walk towards the screaming. Which is something she never thought she would do.
But her friends are in Ponyville, and something is wrong.
She takes one more deep breath, then opens her door and steps out of her cottage. She gently shuts it behind her and locks it. She looks up and comes face-to-face with the night sky. She’s thankful that she decided to keep her warm robe on, as the breeze on her fur nearly makes her shiver.
The sight of the moon unnerves her.
Fluttershy averts her eyes and starts walking towards Ponyville. She spreads her wings in an attempt to fly there, only to feel gravity pull her down.
A spike of panic hits her.
Her body feels… heavy. Trying to use her wings has somehow tired her. She’s never been a strong flier, but to only make it about a foot off the ground like this…
Fluttershy shakes her head and folds her wings back against her sides, breaking into a gallop towards Ponyville. She pushes the thought to the back of her mind instead of dwelling on it.
She doesn’t live far. The screams have died down slightly, but she still grows wearier the closer she gets. Silently, Fluttershy wishes that her night gown was any color other than pink. With her long pink mane, fluffy pink robe, and bright yellow fur, she sticks out like a sore thumb—even when she slows down and carefully begins peeking around corners.
Just as she’s approaching the outskirts, Fluttershy freezes at the sight of a pony walking by up ahead.
For a second, she thinks it’s Lyra Heartstrings, but she looks… wrong.
Her limbs are gangly and stretched, and her mane is disheveled and… bloody.
Fluttershy stifles the horrified gasp building up in her throat.
The cyan mare’s mouth has turned into a rotting snarl, under so much stress that Fluttershy can see where the muscle has begun to rip. Her eyes have a black tint to them, and her pupils look glassy. From her eyes, black tears run down her face in streams. Saliva is dripping from her open mouth, pink with blood, and unnaturally sharp teeth are hanging from her maw. Her cheeks and gums are covered in gore.
The most distressing of all, though, is her cutie mark.
Or the black veins climbing across her body and reaching towards it like outstretched claws. They appear to be branching off from a bloody gash in her back left leg that looks like a bite from a pony.
Fluttershy takes a shaky step back, and dives behind the corner of a house to hide. Her instincts are screaming at her to freeze, hide, run.
As soon as she moves, she hears Lyra’s head snap to look in her direction with a sickening pop. Fluttershy’s breaths come out fast and shallow, and she prays that whatever monster is wearing Lyra’s skin can’t hear her.
A minute passes. Then another. To Fluttershy, it feels like an eternity.
Then more screaming ripples across the town, and Fluttershy feels like her heart is about to pound out of her chest.
Finally, Lyra starts to walk away. Fluttershy waits until she can no longer hear the mare’s unstable hoofsteps before relaxing.
The yellow pegasus slouches against the wooden wall of whoever’s house she’s hiding behind. She takes a moment to catch her breath and calm her racing heart.
Another round of distant, blood-curdling screams makes Fluttershy flinch.
She presses herself tighter against the wall and gives herself two options.
- Go home.
- Run towards Twilight’s castle as fast as she can.
Both options are unappealing. Fluttershy doesn’t want to move ever again. But she isn’t safe.
She was right not to let Angel come along.
Fluttershy looks up at the darkened moon. She isn’t sure how long she slept for, but she swears the moon should’ve set by now. In fact, it looks like it hasn’t even moved from where she’d seen it in the sky before she’d fallen asleep.
It reminds her of Nightmare Moon’s eternal night.
It’s also what leads her to make a decision.
Fluttershy carefully shuffles around the corner and takes a second peek.
Disturbingly, there’s blood smeared across the dirt and grass, accompanied by mysterious puddles of black liquid. Thankfully, there’s nopony around. It makes sense, since she’s closer to the outskirts of Ponyville. Unfortunately, though, that also means that she’s further from Twilight’s castle.
Fluttershy looks longingly at the towering form of the crystal walls, not far in the grand scheme but also so painfully far that Fluttershy is worried she might pass out from anxiety on the way there.
Despite this, Fluttershy takes one last deep breath, psyches herself up, then turns the corner and starts sprinting as fast as she can towards Twilight’s home. The wind blowing in her face immediately makes her eyes water, and she feels even heavier on her hooves for reasons still unknown. She sees shadows and figures jumping out at her from the corners of her eyes, but she doesn’t double-check to see if they’re real. She knows for a fact that the screams around her are, and that’s plenty of motivation to not stop.
She just keeps running.
Fluttershy is turning a final corner to make the home stretch, when she’s rendered frozen and gasping at the sight she’s greeted with.
There are two ponies in front of her that she can’t distinguish underneath the gore. One of them, a chestnut-furred mare, sits over a grey stallion with her bloodied mouth buried deep in his stomach. The stallion’s blood is splattered across both ponies and is pooling beneath him. Fluttershy is so close that his blood seeps around her hooves, warm and thick and red—
Fluttershy feels vomit climb up her throat. The sharp tang of metal is heavy in the air, entwining with rot and death and—
She makes a deep, strangled sound, like a scream trapped in her lungs. She clasps her mouth shut, but the damage is done.
The mare’s dripping black eyes lock onto her. She raises her head from the corpse, a piece of intestine hanging out of the side of her jaw. Tiny, white, wild pupils bore into Fluttershy’s own.
When the mare fully faces her, Fluttershy sees the large bite mark gouged into her lower back.
The mare makes a growling sound. Fluttershy stumbles backwards, her body trembling and her breathing unsteady. The bloody mare rises to her full height, and her unnatural, monstrous form towers over the yellow pegasus.
Fluttershy scrambles away, turns around, and runs back in the direction she came from.
She takes about two steps before she collides headfirst with Twilight Sparkle.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight cries, reaching out to steady her. She looks perfectly okay. Messy and stressed, but she isn’t covered in blood, or black tar.
Despite rapidly processing all of this, Fluttershy screams.
Thankfully, Twilight’s horn flickers, and they’re both encased by a brilliant, violet hue. In a bright flash, they’re transported away from the nightmare that’s become of Ponyville.