Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

Maud's Story

After the ponies departed the throne room of Princess Celestia's castle, Maud Pie led them to a place that Twilight Sparkle and her friends had never been to or even seen before...it was a large, twenty-story, mechanical construct surrounded by five equally high mechanical towers.

"This is the technological tower called Starcatch." Maud explained. "While the meaning of the name is a mystery to the citizens of Equestria, the purpose of its existence is well-known, even to the general populace. Its purpose is to collect important information from the world and convert it into digital data so that it may be eternally preserved. Vague, I know, but it's the info the general public got..."

"How come we didn't know, then?" Rainbow asked suspiciously. "I'd say we're a pretty good and accurate representation of the general public!"

"THE GENERAL PUBLIC!" a handsome stallion hunk doing a movie trailer voice announced as Rainbow and friends did their best pose.

Maud just stared at them with her best dull stare before going…

"That's debatable."

"How did this get here?" Twilight asked. "Even with all our advancements in magic, technology, and magic technology, I can't imagine a place like this being built on such little notice! I'm a princess, why wasn't I ever told about this? Heaven in Tartarus, where were Princess Celestia and Luna in all this?!"

In response to that...Maud smiled...a sinister-looking smile.

"How do you know…" Maud began to ask. "...if they had anything to do with this at all? Don't you think it's possible that something...or someone else was behind this place's appearance?"

Twilight didn't know exactly why...but she felt irked.

"Don't be an idiot…" Twilight said with a scowl. "That's ludicrous! Are you trying to suggest that it fell out of the sky? What are you hinting at by "someone"? Who is the one? God?! Did God just shit out the next step of the technological revolution?!"

"...God?" Applejack thought in confusion. "First Celestia, now her?"

"Woah, Twilight." Rainbow said in intervention. "Take it easy, she was just suggesting something to keep us open to another possibility."

"No," replied Twilight, "she was suggesting something to try to get us to accept an impossibility! She just wants us to believe a bunch of goddamn crap!"

"Hey, cut it out Twilight!" a displeased Pinkie exclaimed. "This isn't like you! Maud didn't say anything to try and upset you, be nice!"

"Thanks you two," said Maud gratefully, "but there's no need to defend me. Twilight knows."

"So do we…" Applejack said as she, Pinkie, and Rainbow each gave Twilight a disappointed look.

Twilight knelt her head in shame.

"I'm sorry." she apologized. "I don't know what came over me."

"It's fine." Maud replied, still smiling. "I know you'll try not to do it again. After all, you absolutely hate making mistakes. I know that you want to be a perfect being without error."

Maud Pie chuckled to herself as all the others became puzzled. Twilight began to feel odd. She looked down at her front legs and saw green zeroes and ones briefly flash throughout them. She then looked at Maud suspiciously…

"I don't know what it is...but I don't like whoever this Maud Pie is now…" Twilight said in thought. "Something about her...just bugs me!"

Ooh...the suspense! I hope you guys like campfire stories, because this is where things are going to get spooky…

Later that night, Maud Pie had invited the others to stay over at her house. Even though it was only 9:30 P.M., Twilight had decided to go to bed early. After apologizing again for how she had acted early and saying that she needed some sleep, she retired to a guest room on the second floor. Little did Twilight's friends know, Twilight wasn't planning to go to sleep right away…

"Oh...OH!" Twilight moaned and groaned.

I think we know what she was doing...

She was reading the black book with a white star on it, the one with the page that had magically appeared inside it again.

"Ooohh...this book is driving me crazy!" she wailed. "It's like reading a bad erotic novel!"

Uh...let's see what the others are doing. This isn't what I meant by spooky…

Maud Pie and the others had gathered around a fireplace in the living room. Maud sat on the floor, in front of the fire that was roaring in the fireplace, while the others sat on the couch, facing Maud.

"We've gathered around the campfire…" Maud called it that. "But not to sing our campfire song."

"Oh, are we going to sing Kumbaya with boy scouts instead?" Rainbow Dash asked jokingly.

"That can be arranged." Maud replied, also joking, taking it on herself to be the sarcastic one. "But for right now, I want to tell all of you a scary story...a true scary story."

"Ooh...these are always good!" Pinkie exclaimed, shaking with excitement. "I still haven't gotten over that one about the demon fairy pirates! I didn't want to believe that one...but I had to…"

Pinkie looked over at the staircase leading up to the second floor worriedly, and through the staircase pillars, she could see a demon fairy pirate, who looked like Tinker Bell with an eyepatch, hook, and devil horns, giving her an evil stare while pointing her right index finger at her menacingly…

"No," said Maud Pie, shooting the fairy pirate an apathetic stare that scared her into teleporting away, "you didn't. I'm serious. After I've told this story, I'll have you two convinced that I am who I say I am."

Maud had said that last sentence while turning to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and in response, Applejack and Rainbow just smiled nonchalantly.

"Listen Maud," said Applejack, "we like you, and though we may find some of the things you've said and done strange, we believe that you have good intentions and have been as honest with us as possible. We trust you all the same, story or none."

"Mhmm...basically what Applejack said," said Rainbow, "but to add to it, I doubt you'll be able to scare me."

"Let's see about that…" Maud responded. "Storytime commences now…"

Decision #5: What kind of scary story should Maud Pie tell?

A. One about a serial killer! (Myra Michaels)

B. One about Rainbow Dash's ghost! (Ghost Rainbow Dash)