Act One, Part Two
Fluttershy opened her eyes to find herself in her bed. The sun shined through the window onto her bed just shy of touching her nose. She sat up and breathed deeply. The air in her home smelled of flowers. She noiselessly got out of bed and went to her mirror to find a picture perfect mare greeting her. No brushing would be needed today.' Where did my brush go anyway?' Her brush was still on the other side of the room where Angel had thrown it. Fluttershy had almost forgotten about that.
‘Did all that really happen?’She thought to herself as she remembered the surreal events of the other day. It seemed so much like a dream. ‘Of course it was a dream. To think that a giant snake with magical powers had given her some kind of power to make ponies do whatever she wanted was ridiculous. She must have dreamt it after- Then it occurred to her that her real memories of the events yesterday were not coming to her. ‘it had to be a dream. Then how did I end up here?’ She saw a note on her dresser and trotted over to read it.
Fluttershy.
After we talked at the library I got everypony else to help find you and cheer you up. We found you at the edge of Everfree, asleep, so we brought you home and put you in bed. Angel seems to be sorry for what he did. As far as we can tell anyway, we don’t speak bunny. I hope you feel better and come to sugarcube corner later for some special cupcakes Pinkie made.
Twilight.
Then it was officially a dream. There was no Slither and she hadn’t been given what she wanted. ‘I guess that’s a good thing really.’ Looking back at the other day, she realized how silly most of her accusations were. ‘I don’t need any powers.’ She thought to herself as she headed toward the stairs and Realized the confrontation that lay before her. ‘On second thought…’
When she reached the bottom of the stairs Fluttershy saw Angel bunny sitting across the room. He was giving her a blank look and she mirrored it. She really didn’t know what she wanted to say. One part wanted to make him go without food for the whole day while the other wanted to snuggle with him and tell him she forgave him. What she did was sit through a long and awkward silence. Angel blinked and nervously presented a bowl. Fluttershy was annoyed.
“So that’s all you can think of. No apology?” Angel quickly dropped the bowl and threw himself at Fluttershys feet, shaking. “Um, I guess that counts.” Angel was hugging her leg and sniffling. All her reserved feelings of anger toward the creature were dismissed. She picked him up in her hooves and began to rock him back and forth. “Oh, I’m sorry to. I didn’t mean to be so mean.” Angel looked at her with a smile. “What do you say we get you breakfast.”
- - - - -
Fluttershy wrapped her scarf around her neck as angel opened the door for her. This was strange behavior for Angel, although he did have a lot to make up for and it was a nice change of behavior. “Thank you Angel bunny.” She said as she exited her home. The leaves were almost all on the ground by now and the air was chilly. Fluttershy felt warm despite the weather and hummed to herself as she trotted down the road toward Ponyville.
The sun was shining bright on the fields of Sweet Apple acres as Fluttershy passed them. She saw Big Macintosh bucking the apples off a tree a few feet from the fence. She waved and called to him. “Good morning Big Macintosh.” He waved back rather vigorously. ‘Must be a good day for him.’ She thought and continued walking along the side of the path. She stopped before she almost walked right into a puddle. Before she could begin to move around the rather small puddle, Macintosh was already there next to her. He lay down on his belly in the muddy water in front of her. Fluttershy just stood there looking at this strange pony as he looked back expectantly. “What are you doing?” Macintosh blinked and jerked his head toward his back. “Um. Thank you?”
“Eeyup.” Said Macintosh as Fluttershy tentatively walked on top and over him and continued down the road. ‘Well that was sweet…and strange.’ She looked back to see him standing next to the puddle and watching her. She hurried her pace a little bit.
- - - - -
The Ponyville market was buzzing with ponies buying or selling at the diverse and numerous stalls set up along the street. On any other day Fluttershy would have been fighting the crowd to gain an inch in the correct direction. That is, she would be asking the crowd nicely to move and she would in turn accidentally get thrown to the ground by a clumsy passerby. Today was different though, nopony seemed to get in her way today. She was an icebreaker ship sailing steadily through the tundra and she found it unsettling. She was happy that everything was going well today but something seemed wrong. The ponies seemed to be purposefully staying out of her way. ‘What is with everypony today?’. In her deep thought she accidentally ran into a blue unicorn and his bags fell to the ground, dropping assorted groceries everywhere. “Oh my goodness. I am so sorry mister Blu.” She knew the pony as Gordan Blu, The head chef at Stallion’s delight. On any other day he would have been angry at her, but this seemed to not be any other day.
“My most sincerest apologies Fluttershy.” He said in his strange accent, as he began to pick up all the assorted vegetables on the ground. “I should have been looking where I was going.”
“No need to apologize. It was my fault.” Her words seemed to have no affect on him.
“I tell you what huh? I will give you a free meal at my restaurant sometime.” Fluttershy didn’t know what to make of this. All this because he bumped into her? She couldn’t just turn him down could she? Before she could decide what to do he had gathered up all his things and left in a hurry. Once more the thought entered her mind. ‘What is with everypony today?’ Fluttershy let all this strangeness drift to the back of her mind as she continued her trek to Sugarcube Corner.
- - - - -
The bell rang as Fluttershy entered Sugarcube Corner. The ginger bread house was the most well known sweets shop in Ponyville and was run by the Cakes and the even more well known Pinkie Pie. Looking to her right, she saw all of her friends sitting at a table by the window, sharing assorted cupcakes of many different colors. They waved and said hello as she walked up to them and sat down.
“So are you feeling any better Fluttershy?” Twilight said.
“I am. I’m sorry about the things I said yesterday Twilight.” Twilight smiled and nodded at her. She was forgiven. “I was just so a-“Pinkie cut in between the two, holding a tray of steaming cupcakes.
“Who wants another Very berry blazing bonanza cupcake?” She said in her sing song voice. Fluttershy glared at Pinkie Pie. How dare she interrupt her? Pinkie Pie saw the look Fluttershy was giving her and slowly backed down onto the ground. Suddenly her eyes flashed red and without a word she slammed her head against the ground like somepony had stepped on it. Pinkie fell unconscious to the floor as the others stared in disbelief. The tray of cupcakes clattered to the ground. Fluttershy stared, dumbfounded, at the pink pony on the ground as Twilight and Rarity got out of their seats to see if she was alright. ‘Did I do that?’ Of course she didn’t, how could she have? Once again her dream entered her mind. ‘No, no, it’s not possible.’
“Yes, yes, it is possible.” Said a familiar voice. Fluttershys heart nearly stopped.
“Oh no.” She said aloud. Her friends were now all gathered around Pinkie Pie.
“She’s bleeding. We need to get her to the hospital.” Twilight spoke to the others. Applejack turned to Fluttershy with a terrified look.
“Shy, what happened?” Fluttershy simply looked back in fear. ‘I didn’t do anything, at least I didn’t mean to.’
“Are you so sure about that?” The voice sang in her ear.
“I didn’t do anything!” she was screaming at the voice nopony else seemed to hear. To them she was responding to Applejack.
“ah don’t mean ta’ say that you did it Shy. I just wanna know what you saw.” They now had Pinkie Pie on Rainbow Dashes back. Her forehead had been ripped by the impact with the ground. Blood was trickling into her eyes . Fluttershy couldn’t handle the sight and fled to the bathroom. She ran past Applejack and slammed the bathroom door behind her. She leaned against the door, hyperventilating, as Applejack banged on the wood. “Fluttershy, what in the hay is wrong with you?” Fluttershy locked the door and ran to the stall across the oak wood room. She threw the door open and lowered her head into the toilet bowl. Her stomach heaved violently and pushed what food she had in her system up her throat and into the toilet. Every time she thought she was done the picture of her friend entered her mind. Pinkie, her face covered in her own blood. She heaved until there was nothing left and then heaved some more until her tears substituted her breakfast as the substance raining into the porcelain bowl.
“Oh my, I suppose that’s the nausea kicking in.” She knew that voice. “Did I mention that in the list of side effects?” She didn’t bother to look at the serpent leaning into the stall.
“What did you do to me?” She said.
“Simple. I did exactly as you asked. You wanted to be the boss and you got your wish granted. If you couldn’t handle having awesome powers you should have told me before hand. You’re hardly even using them anyway.” He spoke to her like an adult scolding a child. As if he had given her a toy and she had stepped on it.
“You made me hurt my friend.” Fluttershy had almost stopped crying now but still hung her head over the toilet bowl.
“I gave you the means to hurt your friend, I didn’t do that to her, you did. Besides, I think she was great practice.” Fluttershy slowly turned toward him.
“Practice?” Slither’s face bore a look of annoyance.
“You’ve gotta step on people to reach the top, kid, and damn my soul if you aren’t going to reach the top.”
“No. I don’t want this anymore. I made that deal when I was angry and stupid. I want out.” She said and stomped her hoof on the floor. Slither only laughed.
“Sorry sweetie, your contract is for life.”
“What?!” Fluttershy exclaimed. Slither made the contract appear in a burst of flame and floated it over to her. She took it in her hooves and read it over. There was hardly even a full paragraph on it.
He or she who signs this contract shall be granted their greatest desires and be subject to alteration by the contractor. The contract expires at the date of the contractees death or when the crontractor and contractee reached a mutually beneficial agreement.
It had her signature on it.
“I might understand if the rule were in the fine print but as it stands you obviously didn’t read it or didn’t care at the time.” Fluttershy stared daggers at Slither.
“And what the buck do you get out of all this?! Do you just like watching ponies suffer?!
“Well I do get your signature, which I would guess is going to be worth big money a hundred years from now.” Now he wasn’t making any sense.
“What in the hay are you talking about?”
“Well I’m just saying that ponies pay a lot for things like that. You should have seen how much my contract with Nightmare Moon sold for.” This snapped Fluttershy out of her rage and sobered her.
“N-n-nightmare moon?”
“Of course. You don’t think Luna just up and became Nightmare Moon overnight did you?” Fluttershy began to feel as if she was sinking. “Nightmare Moon, Discord, Star kiss the Impaler. I own them all. They all wanted something and they all got it, and in return they served me.”
“So you mean you-“
“Yes Fluttershy. Bad guys don’t grow on trees you know, and that is where I come in. I am the maker of villains.” Her head was spinning. ‘This can’t be happening, it can’t be.’ She looked up to see Slither looking at her with a victorious expression. It was all his fault, he. Would. Die.
“You bastard!!!” She screamed as she launched herself at the reptilian beast. She went right thru him and hit the mirror across the room. She landed on the ground with a thud and held her hoof to her head. Now she really felt dizzy. She looked into the cracked mirror and saw Slither sitting there calmly.
“I suggest you start thinking about an alias. Make it something regal, big boss.” He disappeared in a burst of flame and maniacal laughter. Fluttershy stared at the mirror in absolute terror. Her irises were blood red.