//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: Razor Sharp 
// Story: Scars of Suppression 
// by Harold Chaplin 
//------------------------------//

	After around an hour from leaving Twilight's castle, Fluttershy has finally arrived in the heart of Ponyville at around twelve o'clock. The town square was a bustling place today, with crowds of ponies gathered around shops and crowding the dirt streets all around the center of town. Fluttershy doesn't much care for crowds, but Twilight had sent her and her friends on a mission to spread the lessons of friendship throughout Ponyville. And she wasn't about to let her down, so she mustered up her confidence and set out to ask the townsponies if anyone needed help.

She walks up behind the nearest mare that wasn't hurrying around with the crowd and asks "Um, hello... I was wondering if you've had any trouble with..." Fluttershy stops as the back of the mare she was talking to walks away into the sea of ponies oblivious she was ever being spoken too. "Never mind then."

"Um... maybe she could use some lessons?" Fluttershy thinks as she slowly walks over to another mare admiring some fudge at a shop nearby.

"I'll make sure she knows I'm here this time." Fluttershy reaches out a hoof and taps on the mare's shoulder. The mare looks behind her and notices that, it's Fluttershy! She quickly spins around as her face lights up and brightly exclaims "Well what do ya know! It's Fluttershy, one of  the heroes of Equestria!"

Fluttershy blushes with pride and turns away "Oh I don't know about that."

"Oh, you are just the cutest thing! So what can I do for you ta-day?"

Fluttershy blushed a bit more "You don't have to do anything for me. I was just wondering if..." in the distance a stallion can be heard screaming to someone.

"What!?" Fluttershy jumps back from the mare's yell and nervously repeats herself, "Um... I was just wondering..."

The mare looks up and focuses in on the direction of a stallion jumping up and down trying to get the attention of the mare over the sea of ponies. He seems to be shouting about some item at a shop.

"No! I don't want that!" The mare answers back as he shouts back something else. "What!?... WHAT!?!?"

Finally the most audible words of the stallion's in the whole conversation are heard. He clearly manages to scream across the busy market street "GET OVER HERE!"

"AH' RIGHT! Sweet Celestia that man has no patience. Anyways I'm sorry Fluttershy for leaving so soon, but it was nice talking to you." the mare then quickly disappears into the crowd after whoever she was yelling back and forth too.

"It was nice talking to you too!" Fluttershy quietly yells into the crowd hoping the mare would hear. She lets out a short sigh in the thought of how ponies never listen to her. "Don't feel bad, you've only asked two ponies and there are hundreds more to ask here. Like him over there." Fluttershy looks over to see a green unicorn with a light grey mane and tail. He looks just as lost as her, trapped in the crowd of ponies. As Fluttershy makes her way over to him through the crowd the green stallion sees her and smiles trotting closer.

"Hey there Fluttershy!" he says overly excited. Although he seems nice enough, something about him gives out an aura of creepyness. Perhaps it's the unwavering smile he holds as Fluttershy asks "Um... hi there. I've been sent on a mission from Twilight to..." Fluttershy pauses and looks away slightly to gain back a bit more courage, that was quickly being drained by his gaze. The stallion seems to realize this, his smile slowly dissipates as he tries to hold back the excitement he's feeling talking to the real Fluttershy!

She continues "... to spread the, the lessons of friendship to the, ponies of Ponyville." Fluttershy looks back to see the stallion in a much more timid demeanor. He answers "Oh well that's cool, I take it you want to help me improve on my friendship habits?"

"Yes... if you think you need any."

"Um..." the stallion pauses for a long time in thought but quickly answers back "Nope."

"Oh, well ok. It was nice talking to you."

"You too. Oh Wait! I know somepony that could use some assistance with friendship."

"Oh... Who's that?"

The stallion looks into the sky and scratches his chin to reassure his memory. "Well I don't exactly know her, but I hear talk about a really weird mare that moved into town recently named, Razor Sharp."

"What's weird about her?"

"I dunno? But I know she hardly ever leaves her house and doesn't have any friends. Perfect for what your looking for!" proclaims the stallion with a grin.

"Oh, well... Do you know where she lives?"

"I think she lives in a house near the road toward Cloudsdale?" he points a hoof in the direction he believes to be correct, though neither of them could tell which direction anything was in the crowd.

"Well, thank you for your help."

"Anytime!" announced the stallion as Fluttershy begins to walk away.

"Goodbye!" She calls back waving at him.

"Seeya later!" "Well he was nice." The stallion then resumes looking around lost, like a foal forgotten by his parents. "I wonder if he's looking for somepony, maybe I should ask?" Fluttershy looks back but the crowd of ponies had swallowed another victim. "I'll ask if I ever see him again."

Around half an hour later she finally squeezes through the crowd of ponies and walks down a few streets to arrive on the road toward Cloudsdale. It's a lot less crowded here but the noise of the market can still be heard around the bend. "Maybe I should have asked him to be more specific on which house she lives in?" There are several houses around and anyone of them could be Razor Sharp's. So she trots up to a nearby pony hauling items he had gotten from the market into his home. "Sir, do you know which one of these homes could be Razor Sharp's?"

The pony lets out a disgusted shutter as he points his hoof at the two story, lightly dilapidated house furthest down the road towards Cloudsdale. "There." he intones and continues carrying his heavy saddlebags into his home.

"Thank you." Fluttershy obliges and heads off in the direction of Razor's house.

She draws nearer to the house all by itself at the end of the empty road. She notices that it's paint is chipping fairly bad, vines have nearly encased all of one side all the way up the second story to the sagging roof on top. Even stranger, all the shutters look as though they have never once been open to let in the sunlight. The whole house gives off an aura of loneliness that would tell most ponies to steer clear of it. "It seems abandoned, but this was exactly where he pointed so... I might as well knock." Fluttershy slowly approaches the decaying pink front door and looks in through the cracks in the window shutters nearby. Not a single light is on, not a single move is made and not a single noise is heard besides the wind blowing through the forest nearby.

Fluttershy doesn't feel safe in the presence of such a haunting place but proceeds anyways. Knock knock knock... even Fluttershy's almost inaudibly soft tapping still chips paint from the door onto her hooves. She wipes off the chips "Hello?" Knock knock knock... "Is anybody home?" The only response that comes is a cold wind from under the door sending chills up her spine. 

"This must be the wrong house... I'll just ask around for the real one and leave." Fluttershy squeaks out and quickly turns around to trot away.

Crreeeeeeaak... Fluttershy freezes in place and feels more of the cold air from the house rushing past her. The creaking of the door subsides as she hears it come to a halt and an eerie silence fills the gap between her and the house. She slowly looks over her shoulder, into the dark entryway that now looms behind her. Suddenly, the sweet smell of spaghetti hits her nose as an angelic voice calls out "Hello, who are you?"

Fluttershy stands, frozen in place as she tries to think of what to do. Suddenly like exiting from a pond of black water, out from the darkness comes the head of mare. A deep ocean blue colored mare, with a long wavy violet and maroon streaked mane. Her bright yellow eyes squint from the sun as they stare at her, waiting for a response.

Fluttershy, still shaken from the mysterious door opening, answers back "Um... my name is Fluttershy." she turns around to face the mare and continues "Are you Razor Sharp?"

Fluttershy receives a sad but lovely "Yes... unfortunately." Razor walks a little further into the sunlight and squints even harder trying to adjust her eyes to the outside.

"Why is it unfortunate?" Fluttershy asks trying to get a look at Razor's forelegs a little more closely. Something about them seems off, like the fur grows darker in strips all over them.

"It's a long story." Razor mutters out.

"I'd like to stick around and hear it, if that's ok with you?" "And your voice sounds wonderful!"

Razor looks at Fluttershy confused, thinking "Why would somepony want to hear my story?" Although she doesn't fully understand why Fluttershy is here, she's thankful to know that not everypony out there wants to avoid her. Her confused disposition turns into a happy one at the thought and offers heavenly "Would it be alright with you if we talked inside? My eyes hurt from all this sun."

"Ok..." Razor slips back into the darkness smiling and rubbing her eyes. Fluttershy follows behind her into the doorway, she pauses once the darkness envelopes her and looks around waiting for her eyes to adjust. SLAM! Fluttershy jumps from the sound of the door quickly closing behind her. 

"Sorry the wind must have caught it, I didn't mean to startle you." Razor's voice whispers from the darkness eerily close behind Fluttershy. She frantically looks around trying to figure just where she was "Uh... It's fine... But, is there any lights around you can turn on!?" 

From in front of Fluttershy now some distance away, Razor embarrassingly answers back "Oh yeah, sure." The darkness slowly disappears as a very dim dome light in the middle of the hallway they both are standing in flickers to life. Fluttershy looks all around the entryway that appears around her. The inside is in much better condition than the outside, the carpet she is on feels very clean and looks to be an orange color. The walls surrounding them are a bright grey with large dark openings on both sides and at the back, leading into other rooms. Across the entryway on the other side next to a staircase stands Razor Sharp with her hoof on a light switch. Fluttershy can see she is an Earth pony clearly now, but still can't make out her cutie mark.

"Sorry about the smell, I had spaghetti earlier." Razor says with the embarrassment now obvious on her cheeks. She quickly trots off into the dark opening to the left of Fluttershy and opens up a drawer, pulling out with her mouth a box of matches. She pulls one out and strikes it on the drawer and lights a floor candlestick that Fluttershy couldn't make out in the darkness before. Razor continues to walk all around the living room that slowly lights up as she lights all the different types of candles scattered throughout the tables in the room.

"Wow, this is a wonderful collection of candles you have!" compliments Fluttershy stepping into the red carpeted and pink with gold trim walled living room. 

"Thank you! But its not really a collection, more of a necessity." Razor walks out of the room and through the dark opening of another. In the dark she turns on a wall light over a sink and throws the smoking match into it.

"Well it definitely smells lovely in here!" Fluttershy sniffs taking in the smell of lavender scented candles.

"Thank you, you can have a seat if you'd like." Razor calls out from the kitchen as she rummages through some cabinets.

"Ok" Fluttershy walks over and sits down on the couch against the back wall underneath a few closed windows. Razor walks in holding two plates with cookies on them in her mouth and sets them down on the coffee table. She then jumps up onto the couch on the opposite side of the table and smiles asking "So... my life story. Oh wait! Do you like milk?"

"Yes."

"I'll be right back." she hops off and goes back into the kitchen to grab a few glasses. When she leaves Fluttershy gets a clear look at her cutiemark. "A cooking knife? What special talent does that represent?" Razor walks back in balancing two glasses of milk on a tray and places them down on the table.

"Thank you." says Fluttershy reaching down to hold a cookie between her hooves.

Razor smiles back at her and jumps up on to the couch again. Razor takes in a deep breath and prepares to tell her story when a thought comes to her "Why is... uh... Fluttershy, yeah that's her name, here?"

Feeling like a rude host Razor decides to ask about it anyways. "Sorry for asking this Fluttershy but, why are you here?"

"I'm here because, I heard you didn't have any friends... So I'm here to help."

"Oh, I'm surprised anypony even cares..." Razor looks at Fluttershy with sad yellow eyes and pleads "What can I do to make ponies like me? I haven't had a conversation like this for months and it's killing me." 

"Months? But I thought you just moved here?"

"I did... but even back where I used to live, nopony ever talked to me."

Fluttershy can't bear to hear her talk. Her voice is like a fallen angels singing her sad tale of how she fell, but Fluttershy has to know more "Why didn't they talk to you at your old town?"

Razor reaches down and grabs a cookie, Fluttershy gets a good look at her legs when she moves. "What's wrong with her fur?" She thinks staring at the dark lines all over them. She looks up and sees Razor watching her.

"Oh! Sorry I was just..."

Razor takes a bite from her cookie "It's fine, I'll tell you about those once I've... explained about my old town."

Fluttershy relaxes and nibbles on her cookie as Razor clears her throat and begins...

"It was a backwards rundown swamp! I don't even know how it qualified as a town, but it had a name... Dense Lilly."

Fluttershy has never heard a town name like that, and it shows.

"I thought it was a stupid name too, but I loved it... used to love it. I was born there and raised by my mommy Water Lilly and daddy Jocund Provenance. I should have had a sister but she died on her way out..." 

Razor sets down her cookie and whispers "Sometimes when I'm reading a book in here, I think I can hear her."

Fluttershy's eyes go wide as she looks around the room for the little ghost foal waiting in the darkness.

"Don't worry she's not real... and I know that... but when you've been in the dark so long, I guess your mind plays tricks on you."

This didn't calm Fluttershy's nerves one bit! But the milk was helping, so she continues listening to Razor.

"Anyways, so I used to go flower picking on the boat with my parents or play with my dolls out on the jetty... and things were great! Until school started... I made a few friends there, but once I was old enough my dad taught me how to hunt."

"Hunt?" Fluttershy asks.

"Yes, we killed animals and... ate them."

"OH!" Screams Fluttershy, eyes wider than ever before as terrible thoughts pass through her head "Why would you ever eat another animal!?" Fluttershy begins to sob at the sickening thoughts of Razor eating... meat.

"Fluttershy, please don't be sad." Razor pleads getting up off of the couch. She walks over to Fluttershy who now has her hooves over her teary eyes.

"Fluttershy?" She hears how close Razor is and quickly backs away into the opposite side of the couch in fear. Razor backs away as well, "I'm sorry Fluttershy... this is the reason why nopony would ever talk to me though. Because of me a rumor got out when I was seven that my family and I went into the woods and brought home animals to cook. Everypony since then either beat me up or completely ignored me."

Fluttershy calms down a bit but still sobs on the far end of the couch. "My parents still got along with the other adults because... none of them would believe a rumor started in a school. So for the longest time the only people I ever talked to were my parents... until one day."

Razor climbs back on to her couch, her eyes glistening as she tells her story.

"One day... About a year later, my mom found out about all the kids at school hating me... since then she just kept getting sadder and sadder... A few more years later our neighbor saw us eating and told the whole town about us. We became the freaks of the town after that. Dad chased off vandals every week and mom cried herself to sleep every night."

Razor pauses letting out a long breath as her body begins to quiver. "The worst time of my life happened in the middle of all this, when I finally got my... cutiemark." It pains Razor to say the word.

"One night I was sitting on the jetty playing with my old dolls I used to have back when I was a filly. I thought about my life and what it was going to be for me in the future... the thought made me so sad I couldn't stop the tears. I quietly laid on the pier looking at the ripples I was causing in the water, when I saw a loose nail sticking out of a board beside me. I looked at it thinking about how much of a freak I was, how ugly my eyes were, and how because of one little mistake all this started... I was the one that started all of this."

"So I took my leg and hit it against the nail, as hard as I could." Razor bangs her leg against the couch replicating her action. "Again and again... I didn't feel as sad after that, I still thought I needed more punishment though. So I walked inside, grabbed a knife in my kitchen and... cut myself... all over my legs."

Fluttershy is now terrified realizing what the dark lines on her legs are. She was considering leaving, but she had come there to help Razor and that's what she would do.

"After I was done the tears stopped and I almost felt a little better about myself. Then from behind me a flash of light shined. When I turned around there it was... my horrible morbid knife, cutiemark. I absolutely hate it now, but when I got it I rushed upstairs and... showed my parents."

Razor becomes angry as she recalls the events that unfolded. "I will never forgive myself for what I did. When I woke up my parents to show them..." Razor points to her flank "...This. They screamed! They screamed at the sight of their thirteen year old filly covered in blood, with a knife on her flank. 'What happened to you?' mom shouted jumping out of bed to hold me tight." Razor holds her violet hair in her hooves staring at the dark red streaks in it.

"Dad ran downstairs to kill whoever had broken in and done this to me, he didn't even notice my... cutiemark. 'Are you ok? Are you hurting? Let's get you cleaned off!' she said and rushed me to the sink downstairs. I told her I was fine and how I did it... to myself, and that's when my cutiemark appeared."

Fluttershy is scared of Razor but also deeply sorry for her, she isn't sobbing anymore and now looks at her with concern. She wants to get up and hug her, but her fear is to overpowering.

Razor's body begins to shake and her breathing becomes heavy as she looks away from her hair and into the darkness of the kitchen. "My mom was already so sad... and I guess, she reached her limit... She left us after that." Razor's eyes begin to tear up and her breathing becomes really hard.

"She didn't leave us for long though... one day, when I was..." Razor pauses and quickly jumps off the couch and runs into the kitchen.

"Wha... what are you doing?" Fluttershy whispers from her couch. From here she can't see the sink that Razor is at, but can here the sound of a knife unsheathing. A small squeak of pain can be heard from in the kitchen and the sound of paper towels being unraveled. Fluttershy knows what's happening but is to afraid to leave her couch. Razor walks back in with fresh red cuts on her blue legs. Tiny amounts of blood still trickle out of them as she asks "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Nothing... you were about to tell when your mother came back?" Razor jumps back onto the couch.

"Oh..." Razor looks at her wounds and sighs. "One day when I was looking off the jetty into the water, I thought I saw her... in the water." Razor starts to quiver again but holds it back. "Then I got my dad and he also saw her... in the water. So he jumped in and pulled her out of... the water."

"She was buried on top of a hill by the swamp... we had her grave face away from it, since that's where she wanted to be. Away from the swamp."

Razor lays her head down on the couch, letting out a long sigh as she stares at her scars.

"When me and my dad finally got enough money he decided to move to Manehattan. He insisted I come, but I wanted to start my own life... he understood and lent me enough money to move here."

"I'm sorry Fluttershy... You can leave if you want to."

Fluttershy sits up and contemplates the idea "She is a terrible pony! But, she has had such a sad life because of it." She sits sadly watching Razor from across the room. Her brain conflicting with thoughts "She eats animals! Deer, ducks, maybe even bunnies!"

"But she is a nice host, and seems to tidy up regularly."

"What if one day Angel ends up in her freezer?"

"She is a nice pony with a lovely voice, I'm sure if I asked her not to eat Angel she wouldn't."

Razor looks up at Fluttershy staring at her "Will you stay?"

"She is an evil pony, you can tell by her eyes!"

"Everypony deserves a friend, even her." Fluttershy looks almost angry from the thoughts battling in her brain.

She slides off her couch and walks over to Razor, staring at her the whole way. Razor stares back at her and becomes worried not knowing what she will do. "Fluttershy, what are you doing? she sits up and turns to face Fluttershy, now standing in front of her.

"Everypony deserves a friend, especially you." Fluttershy stands up and wraps her forelegs around Razor. Razor returns the hug, thoughts race back of how her mom used to hold her when she was sad. Those thoughts coupled with the actually feeling brings back a happiness Razor forgot existed. A smile runs across her face and tears begin to form in her yellow eyes. 

"Thank you..." Razor sniffs.

"See, she's just like any other pony."

Fluttershy leans back to look at Razor. Her hair was wavy and frayed, her mouth was happily grinning, and her watery eyes could barely contain there excitement. She smiles back at her knowing she did the right thing to stay.

"Oh, Thank you! Thank you so much!" Razor pulls Fluttershy back in for a big hug.

She can barely speak from Razor's constricting hold "Well it was... Oof!... my pleasure." 

Razor quickly lets go and leans back "Oh no! I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you."

Fluttershy laughs "Don't worry, it's fine."

"Oh, ok!" Razor sits back on her haunches smiling. Fluttershy smiles back and hops up next to her on the couch. 

"This might sound stupid..." Razor asks hesitantly "...but, are we friends now?"

Fluttershy looks at her "Yes."

Squee! Razor jumps up and down with excitement squealing like a school filly. Fluttershy watches and can't help but laugh at how silly she looks. Razor stops bouncing and asks "So what's first? Wanna play tag? Or maybe hide and seek?"

"Um..." Fluttershy looks down at her legs.

"I think I might have a board game or two?" Razor looks up the stairs in the dim entryway behind her.

"What if we talked about those?" Fluttershy points at the wounds on Razor's legs.

"Right now? But, I'm happy now." Razor's smile turns to a frown looking at Fluttershy beggingly.

"We can play a game... but right now, I want to talk about your legs."

"Don't screw this up Razor! You haven't had a friend this good in your entire life!" Razor berates herself in her mind.

"Ok, we can talk about my scars if you want to."

"Ok..." Fluttershy pauses thinking of how rude she must be. "Wait, if you don't want to right now... we can play a game."

"She wants to talk about them!"

"No, we probably should... what do you want to know about them?"

Fluttershy leans down to look closer at them. The old scars look deep and damaging, while her fresh cuts don't look as bad. Both look incredibly painful though and Fluttershy is puzzled as to why Razor would do this to herself?

So she asks "Why did you do this to yourself?"

Razor crosses her legs and looks away "Well, whenever I get sad... pain stops the sadness."

Fluttershy looks confused "How?"

"I'm not sure how? But whenever I feel really sad, like I'm about to cry... the pain felt from cutting stops my tears and calms myself down. It can make me almost happy if I do it enough, or hard enough." Fluttershy's face fills with dread as she thinks of Razor cutting herself.

"No..." Razor whimpers "Don't be scared again, please?" she hugs Fluttershy again "Please don't hate me."

Fluttershy's terrible thoughts flee her in Razor's embrace "I don't hate you, don't worry."

Razor relaxes a bit "Do we have to talk about my legs now?"

"Fluttershy your tormenting her, let's talk about it some other time."

"There are still a few more things I want to know... but we can talk about them some other time."

Razor sighs with relief, relaxing herself "I have a board game upstairs I've never played. Would you like to try it out with me?"

"Sure!"

Razor perks up again "I'll go get it!" She jumps up and over the back of the couch and races upstairs. Fluttershy is surprised she doesn't fall practically galloping up the dark staircase. When she reaches the top she runs into the darkness to look for her game.

"Couldn't she find the board game easier if the lights were on?" Fluttershy wonders. "Oh, she probably knows this place inside out by now, if she can walk around without the lights on."

Fluttershy sits quietly, listening to Razor's hooves rushing about upstairs to find her board game. She looks down at the half eaten cookie on Razor's plate. She is reminded of the taste of cookie in her mouth from this and hops off the couch. She walks around the coffee table to her glass of milk and picks it up with her snout, but is disappointed when only a single drop runs down.

"I'm sure Razor wouldn't mind if I got just a little more."

Fluttershy holds the glass in her mouth and walks into the dark kitchen. Only half of the kitchen is visible from the white light overtop of the sink, and luckily the fridge is in the visible half. Fluttershy sets down her glass on the counter and walks over to the fridge. She opens it up and the bright light inside flicks on, hurting her eyes. She pulls back rubbing her eyes with a hoof, a peculiar smell hits her nose.

"What is that smell?"

Her eyes adjust after a brief moment and witness a gruesome slab of animal, skinned and soaked in it's own red juices. It sat dead center in the fridge headless and limbless, covered in a tight compressing cellophane. It's body had a familiar shape to it... like a bunny's.

Fluttershy closes her eyes backing away screaming in horror "Aaaaaaaaahh! Uh!" Fluttershy's watery eyes look back at the oven she ran into. The oven Razor cooks in.

"Fluttershy what's wrong, I heard a scream or something?"

Fluttershy shutters hearing Razor and the sound of evil hooves clomping on the floor above her. With her vision blurred from the tears beginning to form, she sees her escape. Through the dimly lit entryway is the front door, if she can make it out she'll be safe. She takes a wobbly step forward, then another and another. 

Her eyes look back to the fridge, to the hideous cut of meat inside. She quickly closes them ,whimpering trying to feel her way to the dim entryway. Tears stream down her face as she feels the couch brush by her.

"Just a little further..."

Fluttershy presses on slowly walking through the darkness, thoughts roll through her mind of Razor torturing all of her animal friends. She feels her side brush against the railing of the staircase.

"No! The door is on the other side of the room."

"Oh... ya..." Fluttershy quivers out in response to her own thoughts. With her eyes closed and cheeks soaking, she slowly starts walking the opposite direction to the door.

"Fluttershy?" She looks behind her, up to the top of the stairs where two soulless eyes loom over her. Two yellow poisonous eyes.

She shoots off, opening the creaky wooden door and bursting out into the sunset sky. She feels safe again in the cooling afternoon air, but bloody thoughts linger in her mind. She can't stop running until she's home, until she knows all of her animal friends are safe. Meanwhile Razor stands in her doorway calling out...

"Wait! Fluttershy! Why are you going?"

"Why was she crying so much?"

Razor looks back into her home, into the kitchen. 

"Oh no... I ate that yesterday didn't I?"

Razor runs into her kitchen and looks inside the fridge "No, I had ... spaghetti." Razor feels her eyes fill and closes the fridge. She grabs the still bloody knife she used earlier out of its rack and walks back to the door.

She stabs the knife in the wall and stares out the doorway. Regret in her eyes she whispers "I'm so sorry Fluttershy... this is for you."