Why Did Equestria Shrink?

by Monsieur-Flatterer

Day 8

Tonight it ends...

Tonight everything changes...

Tonight...

Fluttershy had promised herself not to sleep again. But she barely had any rest the night before and the poor mare was growing drowsy, the land of the sleeping getting more and more attractive as her eyelids slowly dropped... Eyes half-closed... No... He wasn’t going to get her tonight...

She was holding the silver fox plushie close. No sleep. He won’t get anywhere near her as long as Spera was by her side. She had all her trust in the fox. All her hope... In Spera...

A loud yawn emitted through the room, but Fluttershy quickly slipped a hoof over her lips. Oh no, she hoped no one heard that. She hoped... But her hope was placed wrong. The door to her room opened slightly, casting in the light of the hallway. Her walls and the ceiling were still covered in writings from which she still persisted the fact that she had written those down.

“Fluttershy...?”

The pills Fluttershy was prescribed made her slow of thought and action, because they really worked on her brain. So the idea of quickly diving down and pretending to be asleep didn’t course through her line of thought before the nurse stepped inside. The pegasus still attempted to do so, though, throwing herself down and slipping the covers over her fragile body quickly. But it was too late.

“You need to sleep, Fluttershy...” The nurse said with a sigh, walking closer. Fluttershy just kept her eyes closed.

“I don’t want to... He’ll grab me...” She whimpered. She felt a hoof perform a reassuring stroke through her pink mane. The nurse was male, but from the way he moved and treated her, she was absolutely sure it wasn’t nurse Grunt. Maybe just a stallion that works night shift.

“He isn’t real, Fluttershy. And your medication should help you forget him...” The nurse spoke, but Fluttershy shook her head persistently. She didn’t want to risk it. She heard the nurse sigh in frustration, the pegasus not turning to look at him. She heard him step away, before returning shortly after. he offered a glass of what seemed like fizzy water.

“Have a drink, dear...” He said. Well, she was quite thirsty, so she figured why not? She sat up and grabbed the glass, slowly downing it. She took a breath once she was finished. the water tasted a little... Off... She gave the glass back to the nurse, looking up at him for the first time...

Brown coat, black mane and deep, hypnotizing blue eyes...

“Now... sleep...” He cooed, the pegasus breathing rapidly in panic. her eyelids started slowly dropping, Fluttershy struggling to keep herself conscious. But as she faded into the darkness more and more, she could see a grin spreading on the nurse’s lips... Before venturing off into dreamland...

-

Fluttershy opened her eyes and gulped, staring up at what seemed to be the night sky. It was full of stars, winking towards Fluttershy as she lay back on the cushion of grass. The pegasus just lay back to examine the sky and soon she spotted cutiemarks of her friends resembling that vast nothingness of space. It felt weird to Fluttershy. Almost as if they were saying goodbye… As if she was going to go for a very long time…

Fluttershy looked around, rolling herself on her belly before standing upright. She was stood in a field, a tall grass field, and in the distance she saw Ponyville. Although, somewhat different. She saw that the windows of the houses were broken, some were even boarded up. The whole place was a ghost town. As if everypony had just suddenly decided to leave. The pegasus looked to her left and saw… Her cottage. Abandoned, boarded up and very old. She didn’t understand. This wasn’t Ponyville… This wasn’t even the Ponyville that the brown-coated stallion had shown her a couple of nights ago. This town was much, much older.

The mare kept in thought what she saw last time she opened her house, so she decided to steer clear from it. The mare started off towards Ponyville. She was scared. Terrified, even. She kept her head low, slowly walking into an abandoned Ponyville. What she probably found the most nerve-wrecking was the fact that she was alone. Completely and utterly alone. No Spera, no stallion, only her. Only poor little Fluttershy.

The silence gave Fluttershy time to think. Tomorrow her friend Cobalt would visit. After his departure from the hospital he had been on her mind quite a lot. And well, she looked forward to talking to him again, she really did. As she walked into that desolated town Fluttershy could not stop thinking about what she could do with Cobalt when she was fired from the hospital. She could only dream…

The first thing that Fluttershy walked towards was Twilight’s library. Where her and her friends regularly met up. She walked in with a soft smile, opening the door and peeking her pink-maned head inside. It was abandoned, most of the books gone, cobwebs everywhere and dust layering on the furniture. Fluttershy sighed and stepped in, glancing around. It felt so weird being in that library again, although it was empty. She missed the place…

However, the library was strangely familiar. Fluttershy felt like it was her home. She looked around to look at everything, why did she feel that strange urge to call this place her home? Everypony knew Twilight lived here, not her… She shook her head and headed for the door again. However, she halted and froze on the spot. Out of the corner of the eye she saw a shadow move in one of the dark corners of the room. She quickly turned, only to hear the door of the library go open and slam back shut.

Somepony was in here with her…

This world just made no sense at all. Everything felt out of place. Fluttershy was in conflict, follow the figure or just ignore it? She was pretty sure it was just that brown-coated stallion… She sighed and stepped outside, seeing how he ran up to her cottage. To her own house. It made her frown. What could he possibly need there? The pegasus was afraid to enter that house again, because last time she entered there she saw something horrifying…

But she gathered all her courage and took a deep breath, starting towards her house. She had noticed that she could see the cutiemarks of her friends around in the sky. It made her smile. As if somehow they were still watching over her, even inside her dreams… And with that smile she made her way to he rhouse, gulping as her hooves treaded in the grass. She felt nervous. Looking behind her, she saw how the town was succumbed in darkness, like it was being swallowed by a black void. it was disappearing! With a yelp, she opened the door to her cottage, and leaped in…

The house was completely empty. Well, empty except for one brown-coated pegasus, standing in the middle of the room. He gazed at Fluttershy, door locking behind her.

“Game’s over Fluttershy.” He spoke, his voice harsh. “I’ve played with you far too long… It’s time all of this ends. For you. It’s time that you wake up.” Of course, Fluttershy was terrified. She didn’t know what to say! At all! This was all so sudden! “I’m not any of the names I have given you in the past few days. I’m not just some pony like you. It’s time that I properly introduce myself to you, Fluttershy…” He said, his lips curling up to form a creeping smile.

“I am Phobia… The embodiment of fear itself, created by an innocent mind. And you, Fluttershy, are my creator.” He told her. Fluttershy was tugging on the doorknob at that time, yelling and screaming to be let out, the pegasus slowly approaching as his eyes started to glow red, his voice gaining a demonic echo. “Accept your fate, Fluttershy. I thrive to corrupt the weak and drive them to insanity. You have been persisting for too long, and I’m running out of patience. This is the end for you. It’s time to wake up!” He yelled.

But just as Fluttershy was about to lose all hope, the door busted open to show a silver fox, growling at Phobia as Fluttershy quickly climbed onto the vulpine’s back. She ordered the animal to return to Equestria as quick as possible. With that, the fox leaped up, but Phobia flew after them. Fluttershy closed her eyes, wishing to wake up. She HAD to wake up. But when she opened those eyes, she saw how Phobia was already climbing up Spera’s tail, his wings gone to show a horn on his head instead.

“Stop spending your energy in running! This isn’t even your dream, it’s MINE!” He yelled. “Making your planet shrink was just a way to distract you from seeing the truth! You kept breaking your head over a stupid question while I chipped away at your sanity like some cheap stone!” He yelled at her. Fluttershy whimpered and cried, clinging tightly to Spera as she flew through space.

Why did Equestria shrink? She asked herself that again. he had given the answer… But it wasn’t really what she expected. She felt a hoof on her hind leg, and her first reflex was to kick out. She felt her own hoof kick a face, obviously Phobia’s face. She looked behind to see him snarling at her.

“Give up already!”

Fluttershy looked ahead and saw hope. She saw Equestria before them. At first it seemed like it was quite a distance away, but her eyes widened when Spera’s paws made contact with a tiny globe. It had shrunk so much that when her paws made contact with a basketball sized planet, it shattered into a thousand pieces. Just like the first planet she visited. Fluttershy watched how her home shattered, while feeling an arm wrap around her waist.

But then she woke up, in the middle of a nightmare. She was being held by somepony, no one less than the stallion that claimed himself to be Phobia. And suddenly, everything moved so slow. She was pushed towards the window of her room, where she was pressed against the glass. She screamed out, everything still happening in slow-mo as the glass shattered against her back. it was exactly that moment that Phobia disappeared, just as she fell through the empty gap that used to be the window. As she fell backwards, she saw her life flash before her eyes as she slowly made her way down.

She remembered that she was a pegasus, however. But her reaction time was too slow. Just as sh fully spread her wings and tried to turn and fly away, her back hit the floor…

...And she too, shattered.

-

Fluttershy blinked. She couldn’t see anything. Didn’t she just fall out of a window? What’s going on? She struggled on her where ever she was placed on, but couldn’t remove herself. Like she was glued on it. The pegasus was scared. Terrified even. But then a cold voice started chanting. From in front of her.

“Waking up it’s four o’clock, darkness still outside.
Sneaking down the stairs in silence
‘till I’m out of sight

I’d like to think that no-one knows
and no-one ever will
Yet every time I try to tell myself to quit,
but still.

Telling all my secret stories
to my Dreamcatcher Tree
Wrapping his old branch around me
just to comfort me.”

After that, a single light casted itself on Fluttershy and her surroundings. She was seated at a table, across the brown-coated stallion. Or Phobia, as he called himself. He carefully sipped on a cup of coffee, Fluttershy just too petrified to say anything.

“Now, Fluttershy, I know what you’re thinking.” He said to her. “No, you’re not dead. You’re waking up. It’s time for you to realise things aren’t what they are. Even yourself.” Now what did he mean with that? As far as she knew, she was still shy little Fluttershy, caretaker of animals. “All those things I said before, though, were true. I am fear incarnate. Created by an innocent mind. A confused, innocent mind.” He explained, adding some sugar to his coffee.

“I’ve been looming inside your mind for ages. Since your first memory. Where did I come from? That’s for you to figure out. Even I don’t know. A child doesn’t know where it comes from until its parents tell it, isn’t that true?”

“I-I’m not your mother.”

“You are a lot of things you think you aren’t, girl. You’re also not a lot of things that you actually do think you are.” He snapped. He idly stirred in his coffee, sighing heavily. “Why did Equestria shrink, Fluttershy?” He asked. “Because Equestria isn’t what you think it is. So it made itself disappear, to make room for the real Equestria.”

“N-None of this makes sense…” Fluttershy whimpered, shaking her head.

“It will in due time, but it will be too late. Your… ahem, ‘death’ has set me free. I will spread from pony to pony like a plague and make sure they all undergo the same treatment I gave my sweet mother. Equestria will know nothing but fear and insanity. Even Celestia.” He said, sipping his coffee. “But enough chit-chat. I have work to do. You have waking up to do.” He said, double clapping his hooves. The lights went out…

She gasped audibly, jumping up from her bed. She blinked and looked around, still in her room at the hospital. She looked around quickly. Her blanket seemed to be more poorly sewn together, the picture of her friends was gone and the silver fox plushie seemed more tattered. The room was still covered in her own writings. She jumped up and looked at the window. Still intact. She turned to the door just as it opened, showing Nurse Redheart with a big smile.

“Good morning Twilight.”

To be continued...

Comments

[heavenlyRaid]

What a twist!

[Azure Sandora]

What? So all this time "Fluttershy" was Twilight?! I am so confused right now...

But I saw that the story is "to be continued" so that's exciting.

[BBkat]

'To be continued' does that mean there's going to be a sequel since it has a 'completed' tag?

[Monsieur-Flatterer]

3189327

Yes, there will be a sequel.

[Farseer]

3189332

You. You will go write the sequel to this story now.

Go. And have a Spikestache for your efforts!

And I wish I would've found this sooner...

[Fanskapet]

lol that ending
fuck she just entered silent ponyville it seems

[Ivo]

Okay...Congratulations!

I am even more confused now than I was after reading Metanoia.

Anyway, great chapter as always. Can´t wait for the sequel, where (I at least hope so) finally some questions will be answered.

[manguyhuman]

Holy s**t, twilight is the one in the hospital not fluttershy! Twilight thought she was fluttershy!

[Nightyarn]

3846646
3189302

I was more under the impression that when Flittershy 'suicided' the part of her that was Phobia became free, and made a vow to corrupt everyone in Equestria, Twilight being the first. Unfortuantely, Fluttershy's consciousness seems to have come along for the ride.

[ThatOneHybridFusion]

...I understand slightly... all the names that "Fluttershy" heard are things she fears but in different languages.... Or maybe I'm just looking at this too hard...