//------------------------------// // The Beast Within // Story: Fear from the Heart // by Dragon Heart //------------------------------// Twilight and Fluttershy had just entered the Everfree Forest. The trees grew tall, they creaked and groaned as they were weakly bent by the winds, and almost completely blocked out the sun, save for small rays of light shining through the leaves. The grass was also tall, about legs' height of a Pony, unkempt like a wild hairstyle. Small animals scurried about the forest floor, foraging for vegetation and fruit or hunting for meat. But the bigger, more dangerous beasts are rumored to reside deeper within the jungle. Fortunately, Twilight and Fluttershy were walking along a beaten path carved by previous expeditions into the forest, and they were not going off the path unless they had no other choice. "Um, Twilight, how will we know when we find the marble?" Fluttershy asked as she looked around wide eyed. "Well, it should feel very cold and smooth." said Twilight. "So smooth that we can't stand on it without slipping and falling." "Oh, okay..." said Fluttershy. A loud snap of a branch made her flinch and stare at the general location she thought it came from. The sound of a hissing snake made her stare towards another direction. A flock of crows cawed and flew over her. Fluttershy's heart began to beat hard against her chest. She was on the verge of screaming in fear. But then she remembered that Twilight was still with her. She caught up with her friend and continued on. Twilight scanned the ground for any signs of the mineral, but all she could find was just plain, ordinary rocks. "Ugh, this is getting nowhere." She groaned, then turned to the partially trembling Pegasus. "Fluttershy, don't freak out or anything, but we're gonna have to go off the trail." Something akin to a pane of glass shattered in Fluttershy's head. "W-what?" She said, her eye twitching like a squirrel's tail. "I said we're gonna have to go off the trail." Twilight repeated. The words made Fluttershy feel like she had the wind knocked out of her as she could not say another word, or barely even breathe. She knew this was going to happen, she just had no idea when it would happen. The world went silent and a dull ringing grew in her ears, but Twilight putting both hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders and shaking sense into her helped her snap back to reality. She screamed out of pure terror. Twilight had to fold her ears down tight and press her hooves on them just to keep herself from going deaf from the sudden scream. Soon, Fluttershy ran out of breath and started panting slowly like a dog. Tears leaked from her eyes. "Fluttershy, please!" said Twilight, trying to be as assuring as she could. "You have to trust me on this." "I just don't know." Fluttershy said with a quivering voice, her lips were waving like the ocean when they were closed. Twilight thought about putting her hoof onto Fluttershy's back in sympathy again, but instead pulled Fluttershy in for an empathetic hug. "Look, I know you're scared, I am too, but I really need your help with this. Okay?" She kept her grip on her friend as she pulled away and looked at her. Fluttershy sniffed, trying to not burst into tears, even though the feeling is very overwhelming. But when she looked at Twilight's face and saw how caring her look was, she took in a deep breath and managed to calm down. "Okay, Twilight." She said, "I'll try." "Thank you." said Twilight. They broke apart and headed into the foliage. Twilight formed a makeshift machete out of her magic and chopped at the plants like a safari explorer, and Fluttershy followed behind. She continued to stare at the trees and other plants. Even though the Everfree was a dangerous place, its tropical greenery, foreign-looking flowers, and vine-laced trees are just breath-taking. Twilight ducked under a low branch, but Fluttershy was so preoccupied with sightseeing that when she turned her gaze forward, her head hit the branch with a hard conk. She blacked out and fell to the ground. When she woke up a few seconds later, she could not have been in any worse situation than what she had just gotten into. Twilight was gone. She did not have anyone to guide and protect her. She was all alone. Panic began to creep into her head and heart like a virus. But when she noticed the sliced plants before her, she knew she just had to follow them and she would find Twilight. She trotted quickly along the carved path, thinking this was simply easy, but the difficulty level raised when she came to a fork in the road. There were now two paths, and none of them were carved, simply natural. Fluttershy had to keep calm and think. "Most ponies usually take the left path a lot." She thought. "So I'll go right!" And the right path she took. But was it the correct path, she would have to find out. She trotted along the path she chose for nearly a whole minute, until she found what appeared to be a wall of moss-covered rocks. At the end of the path, there was what looked like a cave. Fluttershy mentally slapped herself in the back of her head for picking the wrong path. She was so frustrated, she wanted to stomp the ground. She lifted her hoof and lightly planted it back down, making a little dust wave. It was not a heavy stomp, but at least she had gotten it out of her system. She was just about to turn around and retrace her steps, but something about the cave was catching her curiosity. She knew it was risky, but felt it had to be done. She approached the rock wall and entered the cave. But upon entering, she found out it was merely a deep hole in the wall. When she reached the other end, she had found what she could consider a hidden habitat of some sort. Fluttershy could not help but gaze at the scenery before her. The rocks were covered with roots that sported beautiful flowers of many sorts. The trees were short and seemingly alive as their leaves danced in the gentle breeze. Birds flew about the luscious air. Small woodland critters moved around far off near the other end of the area. There was a large waterfall that poured into a large pond below, and fish were swimming around in the crystal clear water. Fluttershy wanted to go in and say hello to the animals. She took a step forward, but felt something warm and wet when her hoof touched down. Fluttershy looked down to see she had stepped in something dark. She brought her hoof to her face to examine it. She then sniffed the odd liquid. It smelled like iron. Fluttershy's eyes grew wide as she realized she stepped in something's blood, but whose blood was it? Her question was answered when a large creature lunged from seemingly out of nowhere and tried to climb onto the rock wall. Fluttershy jumped back and nearly had a heart attack from the creature's sudden appearance. It clawed at the rocks, but ended up falling backwards down to the ground below and landing with a loud thud. Fluttershy looked down to see it was a Dragon. Her eyes grew so wide, they were as big as dinner plates, probably even bigger. If there is one thing Fluttershy suffered from the most, it was Dracophobia; Fear of Dragons. Little Dragons, like her friend Spike, she could handle. But larger Dragons, that was a different story. It was not as big as the one she gave a serious lecture to, but it was still pretty big, and fierce-looking with all those horns and spikes. It must have been the one that roared a while ago, she thought. Fluttershy's heart was beating as fast as a hummingbird's wings, she was so frightened. She never would have guessed that this huge pit would be the home of a vicious Dragon. She peeked past what little cover she had to see what the Dragon was doing. But when she looked again, she noticed something strange about the Dragon in the pit. It only had two legs, and its wings were where a pair of arms would usually be. But it did have what appeared to be hands on the joint of its wings. "Why does it keep trying to climb out?" Fluttershy thought. "Why doesn't he just fly out of there?" When the Dragon stretched both wings out and roared, she had gotten her answer. There were no membranes between the fingers. What was left of them were bleeding, which explains the drop of blood she stepped in. It jumped and clawed at the rocks again, but inevitably fell down to the ground, again. It stood up, shook itself off, and growled in anger. A large beetle slowly flew around the Dragon and flew away, but the Dragon shot out its tongue. It pierced the beetle like a spear and brought it into the Dragon's jaws. It crunched on the insect, but apparently did not taste very good as it spat out what was left of the chewed up bug. Fluttershy could not help but feel bad for the Dragon. It was one thing to fear something as dangerous as it, but when you see it in pain and helpless like this, it was a strange motion to go through. Fluttershy brought her unstained hoof to her mouth and tears of sadness began to leak from her eyes, but her other hoof slipped from beneath her. Her natural instincts kicked in, and her wings flapped to keep her from falling, but her little tumble had kicked off a few pebbles. The Dragon's super hearing picked up on the sound of rock against rock and looked up at the hole in the rocks. It spotted the Pegasus and gave a mean look to her: Lips curled, teeth bared, and furrowed eyes. Fluttershy knew she had been spotted, and was still as a statue while still flapping her wings. The Dragon kept looking fiercely at her, but the ferocity on his face slowly turned into a look of confusion with a raised brow. Fluttershy slowly flew back into the hole, landed on the rocky ground, and trotted back the way she came. She left the hole in the rocks and trotted back towards the intersection of the path. As she made her way, she could see something moving past the foliage. Something lavender. Much to her relief, it was Twilight, who apparently also had the idea of going back. Twilight could also see Fluttershy moving past the plants. "Fluttershy, is that you?" She called. "Yes." Fluttershy complied. They regrouped as the crossroad of the path and they both hugged each other in absolute relief. "I'm sorry I didn't stay close, Twilight." said Fluttershy. "No, Fluttershy, I'm the one who should be apologizing." said Twilight. "I didn't even know you weren't following me until minutes after it was too late. I'm sorry for leaving you behind." "Well, then, I guess we're both sorry for wronging the other." said Fluttershy, trying to settle an even agreement. Twilight gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I still couldn't find the marble." "Me, neither." said Fluttershy. "Though I did stumble upon a..." She stopped herself mid-sentence. "A what? What did you find?" Twilight asked, curious. "Um... a, uh..." Fluttershy's mind began to cycle through a list of random back-up words, until it finally stopped. "A nest of Phoenix eggs!" She said with a cutesie smile that could fool anyone who was easily affected by much an adorable charm. Sure enough, it was enough to fool Twilight. "Wow! Amazing!" She said, "Can you show me?" Fluttershy kept the cutesie smile, but her eyes formed a look of nervousness. Her mind pulled the lever and jumbled through a random thought processor until a good excuse dispensed. "Oh, uh, sorry, but the eggs hatched, and the family flew away." Fluttershy said, still sounding very convincing. And Twilight bought it like a book on sale. "Oh, well, that's a shame." She said. "Better luck for me next time, I guess." They both giggled, but then their front hooves slipped from beneath them, and they bonked heads. They back away from each other before standing upright. "What just happened?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes still slowly spinning from the collision. "I don't know." said Twilight. She shook her head and regained her senses. She looked down and noticed they were just standing atop a white rock. Twilight gasped and used her magic upon the rock. It did feel rather cold when they hit the ground, and it was so smooth they both slipped on it. Twilight grunted as she tried to pull the rock out of the ground. Soon, it fully surfaced, and it was big. Jackpot! "Awesome!" said Twilight, "Now I just need to take a decent sized sample and we'll be done." She form what looked like a large hammer and chisel out of her magic aura and began to chip away at the large hunk of marble. After about ten hefty taps, a hoof-sized piece came off. Twilight picked up the chunk and dropped the large marble rock back into the ground. "So, does this mean we're finished?" Fluttershy asked. "We can leave and go back home?" Twilight gave a proud look to her. "Yes, Fluttershy, yes we can." Twilight trotted down the path she had previously made, and Fluttershy could barely contain her relief that she would no longer need to be in the jungle anymore. But as she followed Twilight back home, she could not help but think about the Dragon that was trapped in the pit. But what could she do to help it? It was a predator, and she was technically prey. Still, she felt she had to do something.