I've spent the majority of my life tilling the desolate land in which I live. Every day, I wake up to move useless rocks from one location to another. This is an archaic line of work that my family has clung to for generations. It is a dull, grey existence.

Today, I have woken up in a strange room, lying in a bed that isn't mine. I'm surrounded by five mares whom I've never seen in my life. They claim to be my friends, and expect me to bring joy to the hearts of everypony.

Joy? I don't think I've ever experienced this for myself, so how am I supposed to thrust it upon others?

My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, and I'm not sure what to make of this situation.

We all know how the story goes. About how Twilight found and united the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon, preventing the world from going dark and giving Luna a chance for redemption.

However, what if one of the Mane Six hadn't been a normal pony but a monster that was shunned and feared by others? How would the story have gone?

Follow us now as we tell the same story, only this time Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness is not a normal pegasus, but instead is a gorgony. A creature with snakes for a mane and can turn any creature to stone with a glance.

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Out of all the mythical creatures I have read about my top favorite are vampires and gorgons. So I was greatly dismayed when I saw how few stories there were that had actual gorgon ponies in them, here on FiMFiction. Thus I decided to write this little fic. I hope you all enjoy.

While I only intended to cover the first two episodes of the show (the pilot episodes), if enough people are interested I may try to create some more stories with Gorgon-shy based around other episodes in the series.

---Credits---

Proofread by: Nadus
Edited by: Nugget and Link4

I ended up writing this story for the Augest Longfic contest, hosted by: SPark

This story is a part of my: Gorgony-Verse.

The cover art is something I created using GIMP.

Upon being discovered that Twilight Sparkle of Crystal Prep had been unwillingly harvesting magic from the Rainbooms at Canterlot High, the rest of her peers at Crystal Prep decided to seize the opportunity and make her unleash all of that gathered magic against their opponents.

However, magic is an untamable oddity, and when she released it all against the Canterlot High Wondercolts, Twilight became consumed by it and changed drastically.

In more ways than one...

Hybridization of MLP:FiM and Inception.

Twilight Sparkle has learned a new trick; a spell that allows her and her friends to enter realistic dream worlds within the margin of their subconscious. But these dreams are as malleable as they are dangerous, and each additional trip they take into the mind to study this new magic threatens to cause them serious harm and skew Twilight's perception of reality.

Meanwhile, Spike is beginning to struggle with an old demon of his again. Only this time, his greed is more tempting, more malicious, and sentient: scheming to consume his every thought like a virus until there is nothing left of him but avarice.

In danger of watching their friend become their new nemesis, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy must travel deep into Spike's subconscious and plant a thought in his mind that will forever make him contradict his dragon heart's innate inclination for greed. However, their mission will not be easy, their journey will not be safe, nor may their intentions even be justifiable in the face of their actions.

But sometimes, to save your friends, you must change them.

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Note: Story operates on season two canon. Secondary Note: Yes, this story is that old.

Entries from the prelude to chapter six edited by Vimbert The Unimpressive.
Additional editing from the prelude through chapter six and editing on chapters seven through eleven provided by PresentPerfect.

Featured on Equestria Daily on Thursday, May 15th, 2014