Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

Laughing at a Funeral

Two days after Twilight Sparkle learned of Fluttershy's death, a funeral was held to commemorate her. Twilight and all of her friends came…

...all of them but one…

Rarity.

"Rarity didn't show up…" an upset Twilight said in her mind. "Discord isn't here either...is this for real?!"

It was the afternoon, and some of Equestria's residents had gathered at a burial site dressed in black clothing. A service leader was standing on a podium preparing to speak a eulogy. Adjacent to the leader from the side was an open coffin containing Fluttershy's body and in front of the leader were three rows of metal folding chairs, with fifteen in each row. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike were sitting in the front row. All of the other attendants were sitting in either the middle or the back, and both were mostly full. No one else wanted to sit up front despite there being ten open seats, and most of them were either looking at their phones with looks of boredom or whispering to each other and chuckling. Twilight took notice and became more displeased than ever. And unfortunately, "ever" wasn't even going to be the end of it…take a guess who was leading the service?

"We are gathered here today," said Tree Hugger, "to honor the memory of a rocking dude named Fluttershy. Often afraid to stare life in the face, but never afraid to stare death in the face, Fluttershy truly was an inspiration to us all."

"...Amen?" said one guy amongst a confused crowd.

One guy with his phone began using it to record this...

"For many of us," continued Tree Hugger, "this is a day of sadness. But for Fluttershy, let us hope that this will be a day of happiness. May the gods of nature reincarnate her as an owl to watch over us while we sleep."

"Flutterowl?" Pinkie Pie thought.

"What in Celestia's name is going on here?" Twilight asked.

"And while I'm sure that none of us consent to their union," commented Tree Hugger, "we must accept that Fluttershy's body and the soil will become one. That's your cue, my electro soul brother."

Take a guess who was in charge of the musical arrangements? Vinyl Scratch was on her DJ machina spinning a sinful beat, her own dubstep remix of Here Comes the Bride, yo. Multi-colored lights were beaming everywhere as Vinyl and Tree got down to the beat. Ponies in the middle and back row began grooving to it too, and Twilight and her friends were left astonished.

"The shit in the hay?" Applejack said.

"I don't get it." Rainbow Dash remarked. "Did Fluttershy have some kind of request for everyone to come to her funeral stoned?"

"This is a disgrace…" Twilight said with a growl of anger. "Are they TRYING to mock her?"

As soon as the music stopped playing, the dancing ponies all sat back down...and the ones who had been looking at their phones and talking immediately resumed doing so. Twilight was about ready to blow her stack.

"These bastards…" Twilight muttered under breath, grinding her teeth. "Selfish, uncaring, cold-hearted…"

It was then that Pinkie Pie noticed that Twilight had a red aura glowing around her. Unsurprisingly, Pinkie could feel that it was an aura of anger and hatred. Not only that, Pinkie saw that Twilight's teeth had become sharp and jagged...what was happening to her?

It's very simple, really. The magic of the page combined with the power of her negative emotions is bringing out her inner demon. The first step towards insanity is submitting to your inner demon…

At least that's how I see it.

"Moving on," said Tree, preparing to end the speech, "would anyone like to say a few words to the groom? Speak now, so that forever we may leave Fluttershy in peace."

Twilight's red aura subsided and her teeth went back to normal as she and her friends walked over to Fluttershy's open coffin, ready to say goodbye to their fallen comrade.

"I wish I had gotten to know you better…" Spike said, hopping on Fluttershy's corpse, looking at her face and rubbing it lightly with his left hand while crying. "I really did like you. I hope that you're happy, wherever you are now."

"I should've spent more time with ya…" Applejack said regretfully, coming close to Fluttershy after Spike hopped off of her. "You were one of the sweetest ponies I'd ever known…"

Applejack grabbed Fluttershy's right front leg and gripped it as a sign of respect.

"Take care, y'hear?"

Next, Rainbow Dash flew over to Fluttershy and began to caress her left wing with a crestfallen look on her face.

"Some time…" she said. "I...wanted to teach you how to fly really well. I think you could've been great. I would've loved for us to have flown together side by side, with both of us soaring through the skies amazingly..."

Dash grabbed Fluttershy's left front leg out of respect just like Applejack did.

"I'll see you again some day, champ."

Twilight Sparkle came over to Fluttershy after her, but unlike the other three, she said nothing. With her magic, she lifted both of her front legs up and slid a note written on a piece of paper ripped from a familiar book under her front legs as she lifted them back down. She then gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Finally, Pinkie Pie walked over to Fluttershy...with a cake in hoof. It was yellow with pink frosting and icing.

"Fluttershy…" Pinkie said with a sob. "I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to have more birthday parties. To make it up to you...I made you this cake. Please, never stop smiling…"

Pinkie put the cake on top of Fluttershy's front legs, having not noticed Twilight put the note under there. Twilight, however, saw Pinkie put the cake on Fluttershy and came over to Pinkie with a frustrated look on her face.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?" Twilight asked. "You can't just leave a cake on top of Fluttershy's body, they're not going to bury her with a cake!"

"Bury her with it?" Pinkie responded. "What do you mean? It's not for her to be buried with, it's for her to eat!"

Twilight facehoofed.

"Are you serious?" she said. "She obviously can't eat it!"

"Why?" Pinkie asked, honestly confused. "Is Fluttershy on a diet?"

In response, Twilight just gave her a look that said, "This conversation is not happening…"

"I...think what Twilight means," said Applejack, "Pinkie, is that Fluttershy can't eat the cake because she's in heaven now."

"So she's not an owl…" Pinkie said, giving Tree Hugger a suspicious look before she turned back to the cake and began thinking. "Well, I know you wouldn't lie to me. Does cake go to heaven?"

"Uh…" Applejack replied, pausing while turning her head the other way. "Yeah?"

"I see…" Pinkie said as she pulled out a long cake knife from a random and unknown place. "Then I'm very sorry cake, but it's for the best…"

"Wait...what in tarnation are you doing?" Applejack asked.

Pinkie didn't answer. She put her left hoof on Fluttershy's stomach to gather her strength and took the knife in her right hoof…

"PINKIE, NO!" Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow called out.

It was too late though. Pinkie stabbed the cake. In her swift might, she unintentionally caused the knife to go far further than just through the cake, piercing the note and Fluttershy through her front legs and chest...and the bottom of the coffin.

"Whoops…" Pinkie said as she saw what she had done. "I forgot my own strength. Sorry Fluttershy."

Everypony was speechless. After a while, a lot of ponies in the crowd began laughing at the dark irony of it all. The one who had been recording everything was very satisfied with the footage he had captured. The laughing echoed in Twilight's ears, and looking back at the crowd, Twilight began to cry.

"Everyone is laughing at my friend dying…" Twilight told herself in her mind. "A friend of mine being torn away from me...is just a joke to them…"

Spike, Applejack, and Rainbow tried to comfort Twilight while Pinkie looked upon the scene with a feeling of guilt. Unbeknownst to her, blood trickling from Fluttershy's body had caused the note Twilight had left for Fluttershy not to become illegible...but to become more durable. Even the cake frosting couldn't damage the note or make the writing on it unreadable. On the note, it said this…

Tree Hugger shall see the Goddess of Death before she begins to gather her four souls.

"Huh?" Tree Hugger suddenly said as she saw an unfamiliar figure wearing a black robe with a hoodie that covered their face standing in front of her. "Who...who is that?"

"Who's who, Brother Blue?" Vinyl asked.

"So you don't see him…" Tree replied. "But I don't just see him...I can feel Fluttershy's essence coming from him! She didn't become an owl after all...she's…"

Yeah, I feel this a good place to stop for now. In the meantime, let's go somewhere where it will be a good place to start for now…

The night before the day of the funeral, at Princess Celestia's castle…

Inside Celestia's castle, Celestia was in her bedchamber sleeping. Two armored guards wielding spears were minding the door of her bedchamber when suddenly, they were approached by a mysterious figure with purple hair styled to stick up. He was a ninja wearing a black garb, a cape that was white on the back side and purple on the other side, and a white bandana around his mouth. He was also brandishing a katana with the initials, "E.M.", engraved on the hilt in his left front leg and a silver claw on his right front leg. Seeing the unfamiliar ninja figure, the guards readied their spears and prepared to interrogate him.

"Halt!" the guards declared. "Who goes there?"

Just then, the ninja vanished, leaving the guards surprised and puzzled.

"Who goes where?" the ninja suddenly said as he appeared behind the guards and wrapped his right front leg around their throats and put them up against his body, causing their helms to fall off. The guards struggled to break free, but alas, it was in vain. The ninja's strength was insanely powerful. The ninja then put his katana up to both of their throats.

"Scream…" the ninja told them. "Call to Princess Celestia for help as loud as you can or I'll kill both of you."

It was soon that the princess of the sun was awoken from her slumber by "YOUR MAJESTY!" being called by the guards followed by sounds of them both getting smacked on the head and a loud beaming noise.

"?!" Celestia had an expression of shock on her face when she woke up. "What's going on?!"

Getting out of bed, opening her bedroom door, and entering the hallway, she saw exactly what was going on...the ninja had opened a portal to another dimension. The two guards laid knocked out alongside their helms beside the swirling white vortex.

"What did you do to my men?!" Celestia asked the ninja angrily. "How did you break in here? Who are you?"

"Aah, questions." the ninja replied. "Whenever someone sees a sight like this, they always ask questions...not realizing that finding out the answers shouldn't always be their number one priority."

"Don't play mind games with me…" Celestia demanded as her horn lit up and she pointed it at the figure. "Explain yourself this instant before I hurt you!"

"Woah, don't hurt me, baby." the ninja taunted. "I'm only prepared to die for a cause."

"Cause?" Celestia asked, finding it hard to take this guy seriously. "Since you seem to enjoy joking around, would you please kindly humor me by telling me about your greater motive?"

"Heh," chuckled the ninja, "I normally hate answering questions, but since you asked nicely, I'll at least explain my regular motive...I've come from an immortal world...to do my part in the plan my superiors have devised to recreate this world and end the age of mortal life."

"How despicable…" Celestia berated. "I suppose your greater motive is to have your detestable superiors promote you to their number one bitch boy once they've destroyed us all."

"And this is why I hate answering questions…" the ninja said as he sighed and put his left hoof on his face. "They always get the wrong idea…"

"Wrong idea?" Celestia asked.

"I wonder what you would think…" the ninja said. "If I told you that both my superiors and I were once mortal…"

"What?" Celestia replied.

"I also wonder what you would think if I told you that Fluttershy has been put down for a nap…" the ninja said humanistically. "Her soul has been taken by The Goddess of Death. If you ever want to see her wake up again, you'll do as I say. If you help me, your work won't go unrewarded. I'll tell you about who you really are...and about your half-daughter and son..."

From out of the portal the ninja created, a familiar pony in a red coat came out...

"..." Celestia had no idea how to respond.

Or maybe she did? Anyways, that's another story for now. Let's get back to Twilight and friends…actually, just her friends for now…