//------------------------------// // Fear // Story: Abuse // by Hazel_Hester777 //------------------------------// Shadow Kirby watched Hysteria as she slept on the couch. It had been a month since they got her out of the hospital. She slept for long hours despite going to bed early. He had a guest bedroom for her, but she sometimes would go downstairs to go on the couch. He turned away when Serene entered the room. “Hey, how’s she doing?” Serene asked. “She’s been sleeping for twelve hours. That’s normal, right?” “A month ago, she barely escaped a crazy house that striped her of who she is with her life and when she got out, she was in comatose. Today she’s here with us and has amnesia. Not sure if normal applies” “Whatcha got there?” “The people who are giving rave comments about your story, ‘Unnatural Existence’. You’ve inspired so many who are like you. You even got people to see the gentle side of Pinkamena. By the way, some are even excited about the next chapter” “I’d rather not spoil it. But, we still need to find out what kind of substance those Antis injected Hysteria with every day to make her forget every memory” “Well, she’s intact and here, she’s okay” “Serene, just a month ago, we got several of our comrades out of a mad house run by Antis. One was tied to a contraption that regularly dunked him in a weird liquid and electrocuted by Tesla volts. The second one was tied to a table that had her insides exposed and shocked her regularly. The third was hanged from the ceiling by large wires that gave her an amnesia substance and now reacts in hysterics when it comes to electricity. The first two are in the hospital, the third is here, and the facility has been burned down. And now that we got out of that whole ordeal, I want to help fix one of them since the other two can’t even think. So, did you get a sample?” Serene sighed before grabbing her bag and reaching in to pull out a small, corked vial with a yellow fluid inside. She handed it over to Shadow before she walked off to go find what it was. Hopefully, to also find a cure for it. As soon as the door closed, Hysteria began to stir. She opened her eyes and began to look around. Shadow noticed and went over to her with a warm smile. “Hey, how are you feeling?” Hysteria looked at him for a few seconds before finally speaking. “Intact, I guess” she whispered.   Serene turned into her Pegasus form and flew away to the Canon area. She looked around until she finally made it to Twilight’s Castle. Once there, she knocked with a hoof. Twilight herself then answered. “Oh, hello Serene Breeze. What brings you by?” “Hello Twilight. I need some help” “Oh, what kind of help? A Friendship problem? You need a proofreader? In need of voice actors?” “No, I need you to look at this” she then pulled up a vial of the yellow amnesia substance. “You heard of those comrades who Shadow Kirby and I rescued, right?” “Yes?” “Well, one of them was injected by this serum the whole time they were trapped there. I took a sample before we left. Can you run a test on it? I need to know the effects and how to reverse them” Twilight took the vial with her magic and then eyed it. “Sure, come inside and follow me” She then gestured for the young Pegasister to enter her home. Serene took a deep breath before going in and followed the Alicorn through the halls of her Castle.     Hysteria nibbled at her salad in silence. She was still trying to take everything all in. She was finally free from her torture, just scarred physically and emotionally. She was already in the special boots that would enable her to walk on her own. She looked at Shadow when he got in the room. “Looks like somepony ate a lot of salad today” Shadow said. “Relax, it’s fine. So, how are you feeling?” “Fine, I guess. You’re Shadow Kirby. The Equestria Girl you were with when you saved me and the others was Serene Breeze. I don’t who I am, but you named me Hysteria because of my reaction to electric shocks. And we’re in the war” “Let’s not worry about those right now. It may take some time for your memories to come back” Hysteria smiled a bit. “Thanks for the salad” “No problem” Hysteria then held her head a bit as she bit her lip. “You okay?” “Yeah, I’m fine” she then noticed the mark on Shadow’s arm. “Was that from one of their devices?” “Yeah, don’t worry, it’s just a scratch” Hysteria just held the scratched hoof. “The Dagger Doors, you never get by one of them without a hit. I heard that laced they laced it with something called with boiling serum. I should know; I got hit once when I was still able to walk. Do you have any White Flower bottles?” Shadow sighed. “Medicine cabinet, in the bathroom” Hysteria nodded as she left to go get the bottle. She tried flying, but her wings let her down. She really hated it. She was a Pegasus unable to fly. Picking herself up, she walked with her head low to the bathroom. Shadow sighed and shook his head sadly.   “Well, I got the results” Twilight spoke up as she went over to Serene, who was sitting on one of the couches for any guests or visitors. “Well?” “Let’s see” the Friendship Princess then looked over them. “It seems to say that this substance was an amnesia-causing serum. It induces memory loss into the one who gets injected with it” “Is there a way to reverse its effects?” “I’m not so sure yet. I’ll try and find a way. In the meantime, you may go. I’ll summon you if I find anything” “Thank you, Twilight” “My pleasure”   Serene Breeze managed to return to her and Shadow’s dorm room. She was sitting on the couch with him, explaining what she found. He explained about how things were going for Hysteria. The said filly was digging around in her room to find her hat. She finally did find it in the closet. By then, her two caretakers had gone up to meet with her. “You want to get some fresh air?” Shadow Kirby asked. “Maybe a little walk around will bring back some more things” When he didn’t get a response, he looked over at her. Hysteria held her hat. The Pegasus just kept holding it, feeling through it, as though trying to recover something. That hat was the only thing they may have a clue about her since she got it back from the torture. “It’s nice hat, isn’t it?” he asked. Hysteria nodded. “Does anything on it ring a bell? We never saw something like that around here” “One, when I run my hoof on it, that pops in my head, the number one” “The number one, huh?” Shadow asked as he approached the Pegasus. “Anything else?” Hysteria was about to respond when she heard a lightning flash. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she jumped to the ceiling and held on to the lamp on it. She began to hyperventilate and wouldn’t come down. “Hey, guys! I…whoa!” a cyan Pegasus said as she saw the filly on the ceiling. “Rainbow Dash, please!” Serene said as she hurried to the window. “This is not a good time” “Hysteria, calm down” Shadow whispered in the filly’s ear as he got her down from the ceiling with a ladder. “It’s alright” “Hysteria? Is she new here?” “We don’t know for sure. Shadow adopted her, she has amnesia so don’t tell anypony about her yet. She’s as timid as Fluttershy” “Then how did she know her name was Hysteria?” “We don’t know her real name so we called her that because of her reaction to electricity and its sounds. Apparently your dashing around made her think there was thunder” “Right, sorry. I’ll be on my way. Just came to check on you. Have a good day, and I hope you can show this kid around sometime. If she’s old enough to fly, I could help her” “FLY?!” Hysteria screamed as she began to freak out again. “PLEASE, SIR! DON’T DO THE ZAPPER! IT HURTS TOO MUCH! I’LL DO ANYTHING! JUST DON’T GIVE ME THE ZAPPER!” she began to sob as she cried in Shadow’s hooves. Rainbow gave one more look before she left. “I’m gonna go. Have a good day” The dash sound sent Hysteria into another scream.   Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of Twilight’s Castle. It was answered easily by Spike. “Oh, hey Spike. Is Twilight here?” “Yeah, she’s down in the basement” “Great. Can I come in? I need to have a word with her” “Sure” he then allowed some space for the Pegasus to fly in. He then led the way for her. Despite the fact that they were around the Castle many times, on the off-duty in Wonderland, there were hidden rooms used so as to help file records about the latest details and events of Wonderland. Once they were at the basement, where Twilight held several experiments, Spike allowed for Rainbow to go in on her own. “Hey Twilight!” the cyan Pegasus greeted her friend. “Hello Rainbow, what brings you by?” the Alicorn spoke as she scanned over the vial of the serum Serene gave a while back. “Oh, nothing much. What are you up to? You look pretty busy” “Yeah, Serene Breeze gave a vial of some serum to me for me to analyze what it was. She said that it was used on one of those she and Shadow Kirby rescued” “Well, what does it do?” “Causes amnesia, I think. I’m just trying to find a way to reverse it” “Oh, alright. Well, I just stopped by Shadow Kirby and Serene Breeze’s place, and I can’t believe I just bumped into a newcomer. Though, I don’t think we should spread the word about her yet, she’s so shy” “Ooh, what’s the newcomer’s name?” “Hysteria, I think. She’s yellow with a brown mane, and blue eyes. She’s also a Pegasus. And she’s scared of electricity. My dashing sound really set her off. And she’s got amnesia” “Oh, poor thing” “Yeah” Twilight sighed as she documented the current information in regards to Hysteria. She felt sorry for the poor child. Once she took down the documents, she looked back to her research on the matter involving the serum that Serene gave her a while back. She was looking under the microscope, a sample of the vial in the clips.   Hysteria slept quietly in Shadow Kirby’s embrace as he stroked her mane to keep her in a soothing slumber. She slept so peacefully in his embrace. She felt so safe. He had sure to keep her safe. She had enough traumas already, she didn’t need any more. “She really likes you” Serene commented. “Yeah, I just hope she will get over her trauma soon. I don’t want her to be scared for the rest of her life” he looked down at her. Serene nodded. “Yeah. But one thing I don’t get: What would they want with a filly like this? I mean, when we found her, she was in a separate room, away from the others. Why would they keep her separated?” “Well, she did just lunge at them for attacking us” “Maybe, but still, it’s like there’s something else about her that they wanted. But what?” Right then, they heard a loud thumping coming from the door. It sounded hostile and unfriendly. “I’ll go get it, you guard Hysteria”   “Hmm, that’s a little odd” Twilight spoke as she looked at the sample. “What is?” Fluttershy asked when she came in the room to drop off Owlicious back from grooming.   Shadow put Hysteria on her bed gently. He then went and guarded the door to her room. He heard loud thumps coming from downstairs and Serene screaming. He knew what that meant: Antis had found one of the safe areas. How they found them, he didn’t know. He didn’t want to risk showing himself to avoid Hysteria getting hurt as well. He just went at her door, and locked it from the outside to hopefully keep her safe.   “It’s this sample’s main target” Twilight looked at it harder. “It’s got one target that’s more of its signature”   Shadow fended off the Antis as much as he could. But he could never really bring himself to bite them. They managed to hold him down as they searched the house for any more occupants. He just prayed that they wouldn’t get anywhere near the door where Hysteria was. No doubt that if she were awake now, she would be terrified.   “And what is it?” Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion.   Hysteria felt fear suddenly surge through her body. Why was she suddenly so afraid? That was when she heard it: the sounds of Shadow Kirby and Serene’s struggling. She felt danger suddenly came to her area. That was when she suddenly felt another burst of adrenaline pump into her body. It felt so…strong. Let me out, and I will stop them, the voice of her head spoke. She was no longer able to contain it. She let her darker half take over. Her mane turned orange again, while her eyes turned red, and her fangs sharpened. She felt so numb like she had lost all emotion in her heart. All the pain, the helplessness, the love, all gone. All that remained was her anger, her desire to kill, her insane passion of watching Antis die as she bit into their flesh. She grinned maniacally as she got up from her bed and eyed the door.   “It’s set for Hidebrit” Fluttershy gasped at that. Twilight did too. But the lavender mare seemed more surprised at the yellow one’s. “What is it, Fluttershy?”   “Get her” one of the Antis smirked as they kicked the door open. But they were surprised to see an empty room. Where were the guests? One stepped inside, before something jumped down from the ceiling and bit him on the neck. He screamed in agony as he writhed in the filly’s grasp. But she locked her fangs strong. She didn’t let go until he feel to the ground dead. The others just tried to get her off, but ended up hitting themselves in the process. They got hit by Hysteria’s kicking. Those boots she was wearing weighed a ton so it killed them from the impact. As she got off her prime victim’s body, she ran off and began to attack the others in the house. Shadow and Serene were soon free after her attack. She relentlessly attacked all of her enemies and did not cease until they turned to dust. At one point, Shadow managed to get up and go to her after she killed the last one. “Hysteria, calm down! They’re all gone now!” That just made her hiss at him. He flinched from that. But when he looked at her eyes, he knew there was something different about them. They were cold and cruel, like there was another person inhabiting her body. The eyes then reverted back to normal as her mane and teeth followed suit. They returned back the frightened, traumatized version. Hysteria just shivered under fear as she realized what just happened. “I’m sorry…” she sobbed, falling to the floor, and covering her face. “Shh, it’s okay” Shadow hugged her to calm her down. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked, looking at him directly, eyes filled with tears and insecure. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure this out, together, okay?” he looked at her calmly. She nodded before collapsing into the hug. “Th-thank y-you…”