//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: It Follows // Story: The Following // by AusFlick //------------------------------// Fluttershy ran like there was no tomorrow, fast enough that staying off her injured leg was impossible. The pain was in was astronomical, and it only increased each time she placed even the tiniest amount of pressure onto it. Something wet and thick trickled down her leg. But she didn't care. She ran as fast as her three good legs could carry her, crying quietly. And not just because of the burning sensation of her injury. Those two evil, red, glowing eyes staring into her soul. The eyes that looked like they belonged to some beast straight from Tartarus. What was that thing? Why was it staring at her like that? Fluttershy's hooves continued to pound on the ground as she pushed herself to avoid slowing down, no matter how exhausted she was, or how badly her leg hurt. She continued to sprint for the forest’s exit, refusing to look back. The last thing she wanted was to find out that thing was following her. Her leg throbbed dully, her heart beating at a million miles an hour. She was panting uncontrollably, and her tears were blurring up her vision. But despite the darkness of the forest, and her teary eyes, Fluttershy could see something in the distance. Something bright. Something orange and yellow. She squinted at it. It was a campfire, set up roughly fifty feet out of the forest. Sitting around it were a bunch of blurred colours—white, pink, orange, cyan, and lavender. Recognizing them immediately, she felt a wave of relief flow over her, and quickened her pace. Her friends were waiting for her at the fire! Barely even noticing a jolt of pain as she accidentally stumbled over a fallen branch, she bolted towards them without hesitation. "Weird." Twilight glanced up at the forest canopy, which was only a couple yards away. "The sun went down about an hour ago, and there's still no sign of Fluttershy." "You seem to be worried, darling," said Rarity. "I am worried," Twilight replied. "I expected her to be back by now. I sure hope she's ok." "Look on the positive side, sugarcube," said Applejack. "Maybe Fluttershy just got all caught up with Zecora and so she's just running late." "I sure hope so," said Twilight, casting another anxious glance at the trees. "I just don't want anything bad happening to her. I'm starting to think somepony should’ve gone with her." "Relax, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash, who had just returned from her own scan of the forest’s treetops. "If she isn’t still at Zecora’s, she’d probably have flown out by now. She probably just lost track of the time. I'm sure she's gonna be alright." While the others were talking, Pinkie had been staring at something in one of the narrower paths between the trees. After a moment, she began jumping up and down excitedly. "Look! There she is!" The other ponies looked. She was right. To Twilight's delight, Fluttershy was galloping towards them. But something was very wrong. "Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, concerned. Fluttershy was running, but also limping. Her foreleg was bleeding. Badly. And she was sobbing. She’d only made it about halfway between the forest and her friends before her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, crying and hyperventilating. "Fluttershy!" Without thinking, Twilight rushed over, her other friends not far behind. Within seconds, she was able to see her distressed friend up close. She looked terrible. Her mane was a complete mess, her hair sticking out everywhere, and full of grass and dirt; her eyes were bloodshot, soaking with tears, and had black marks under her eyelids. Fluttershy wasn't just crying, she was having a panic attack. Twilight knew that Fluttershy was always a very timid pony, but never had she seen her so destroyed. Something terrible must have happened in that forest. Twilight placed a comforting hoof around her. "Fluttershy," she said softly, making sure to sound completely calm. Fluttershy did not need her friends exacerbating her anxiety. "Why are you crying? Can you tell me what happened to you? ?" Fluttershy's eyes widened. "It saw me!" she gasped under her breath. "It saw me!" "Fluttershy, what happened?" Twilight asked again, motioning Rainbow Dash to keep quiet. The pegasus, who’d been about to interrupt, nodded quickly and moved to their friend’s other side, supporting her bad leg. Unedited: Fluttershy couldn't answer. She was breathing uncontrollably. She gagged and coughed, gasping for air. A tear slowly ran down Twilight's cheek. Watching her friend suffer like this was painful. She was now looking for ways to tackle the situation. The first thought that came to her mind was trying to calm her down, since panicking herself would probably just make the situation worse. Twilight lied down to meet Fluttershy's eye level, and took a deep breath. "Breathe," she said as calmly as possible. Fluttershy just kept gasping uncontrollably. If she remained like this for much longer she was likely to pass out. "Breathe in," Twilight slowly breathed in, setting Fluttershy an example. With some difficulty, Fluttershy was finally successful in taking a large gulp of air. "Breathe out." Nopony else dared to speak. They didn't want to intervene. There was nothing they could do except watch as Twilight tried to comfort her. Over the span of what felt like a few minutes, Fluttershy's crying went more quiet, and her breathing slowed down. She was now taking big, long gulps of air as supposed to hyperventilating. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to ask Fluttershy what was she so frightened of, but Twilight glanced her a look indicating that now wasn't a good time. Dash was able to stop herself from asking the question. There was an awkward silence between the six ponies. Nopony knew what to say. "Are you alright, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy looked up at Twilight's concerned face. She closed her eyes as another tear generated from her eyelid, before launching at Twilight, grasping with all her might in a tight hug. Twilight returned the hug, and said nothing. Just behind her ear, faint crying could still be heard, although it was nowhere near as intense as it was before. This crying had a different tone to a few minutes ago. While earlier it was a cry in terror, this was a cry in relief. Twilight just sat there with her forelegs wrapped around Fluttershy, giving her all much time she needed to let her emotion out. Without saying a word, Fluttershy managed to answer Twilight's question. She was just glad to see her friends again. Nopony knew how much time had passed when Fluttershy was able to come back to her senses, but she eventually was back to her normal self. "How are you feeling?" Twilight asked. "Better," said Fluttershy. She looked up to her other friends. "Thank you all so much for being her for me." "Everything alright, sugarcube?" said Applejack. Fluttershy glanced back at the forest. There was nothing there but trees and pitch black darkness. While she couldn't see anything, she still had a dreaded and unnerving feeling that she was being watched. Unable to see anything, she turned back to Applejack. "I'm fine," she lied. She didn't want to tell her friends about what had happened. She probably lost that thing somewhere in the forest, so she was most likely completely safe, and it wasn't worth scaring her friends over it. Fluttershy glanced at the moon, which glowed in the very deep blue sky full of stars. Despite the nearby fire, the air, while nowhere near as cold as it was in the forest, still had a cool breeze. "It's getting very late." "Fluttershy's right," said Twilight, addressing everypony else. "We should all be heading for bed." After saying goodnight to each other, Twilight cast a spell defusing the fire, and they all left for their homes. Fluttershy slowly started to walk home, but hesitated after just a few steps. She didn't want to, and she felt like she had no reason to since there was nothing there, but she couldn't resist. Fluttershy turned her head back towards the forest. She immediately regretted that decision, as for what she saw next sent her shivers down her spine. At the very edge of the forest, right from where she came out, were two cold, glowing, blood-red eyes staring directly at her. The next morning, Fluttershy headed over for Sugarcube Corner, remembering her promise to Pinkie Pie. Her walk through Ponyville that morning was quite pleasant. It was beautiful weather outside. The sky was very bright, a very warm but pleasant ray of sunshine was beaming on her back and face. She also enjoyed the peaceful whistling and singing from the birds that were flying nearby. While everypony was just walking around going about their day to day lives, everypony was still smiling and looked like they were having the time of their lives. Needless to say, Fluttershy was in a great mood. It helped that she slept like a log the night before. Her sleep was very peaceful, with no interruptions. She also had no nightmares, instead of dreaming about a horrific and terrifying creature chasing her through the everfree forest, she dreamt about having a peaceful picnic with her friends on a beautiful day just like today. Between her sleeping, and the gorgeous scenery, Fluttershy was almost able to forget about what happened to her last night, and by this point she just saw it as a harmless nightmare that she had. Fluttershy's mood immediately deteriorated upon a sight that made her stop dead in her tracks. Far in the distance within the crowd of ponies trotting back and forth, was a pony that was completely black. He... she... or it, was silhouetted by the light of the sun. Aside from being the shape of a pony, presumably an earth pony since there were no visible horns or wings, its only distinct feature were two familiar red glowing eyes watching her. Fluttershy's stomach dropped. But then a thought occurred to her. Was it staring at her? Was she positive that it wasn't just looking at somepony else, or something behind her? Fluttershy shifted several feet to the side. The eyes followed her. She shifted back to where she was standing. The figure continued to eyeball her. She slowly lifted herself into the air, and its eyes followed her as she took flight. Fluttershy crashed back onto the ground. There was no denying it. It, whatever it was, was undoubtedly watching her. One thing Fluttershy found perplexing, was how absolutely nopony was reacting to it. There was this incredibly creepy looking pony in the middle of Ponyville, and everypony was casually passing it without even giving it a glance. Could everypony seriously not see this thing? "Hey, Fluttershy!" called a voice. The voice was loud and sudden, making her jump, startled by the sudden attention. It was coming from Fluttershy's side. She turned to her side to see who it was coming from. Looking at her with crossed, but perplexed yellow eyes was a grey pegasus with blonde hair. "Oh, hi, Derpy," said Fluttershy. "Are you alright?" Derpy asked. "I saw you fall." Fluttershy chuckled to herself, slightly embarrassed. "You saw that?" she said. "Yeah," said Derpy. "I'm fine," said Fluttershy, looking up to where the figure was standing, only to realise it was gone. How did it disappear so quickly? Where did it go? "What are you looking at?" said Derpy, raising an eyebrow. Fluttershy snapped out of her train of thought, shook her head and turned back to Derpy. "Nothing," she said. "It's just nothing." Derpy smiled for a brief second, but her eyes scrolled down and she frowned. "What happened to your leg?" she asked. Fluttershy looked at her injured foreleg. It was now wrapped in a bandage that she had applied the night before, and it had a small patch of blood seeping through it. The bandage certainly helped, and her leg wasn't hurting anywhere near as badly as it did when she first scrapped it. "Oh, this?" she said, lifting her leg in the air for Derpy to see better. "I just scraped it against a rock." "Ouch," said Derpy, wincing. "I hope it recovers soon." "It should," said Fluttershy. After exchanging goodbyes the two pegasi separated and Fluttershy continued down the road towards Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy had now spent roughly an hour at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie, helping her make as many muffins as possible. The bench was covered with bags of baking powder, dough, butter, sugar, milk, eggs and muffin trays. The room was warm, and was decorated with bright and inviting colours and pictures that hung from the walls. The muffins were making great progress, almost ready to place the first batch into the oven, and they smelt wonderful. Pinkie Pie had spent the whole hour with Fluttershy being her usual upbeat and occasionally eccentric self. However, despite all of this and Fluttershy's attempt at putting on a fake smile for Pinkie's sake, all Fluttershy could think about was that thing. She tried to enjoy herself and focus on baking, but many questions she had, and the paranoia she was experiencing with the possibility that it could be following her was too distracting to enjoy her time with Pinkie. "So," said Pinkie Pie. "All we need now is just to add some chocolate chips to the muffins, and then they're ready to put into the oven. Can you get them for me please, Fluttershy?" It took Fluttershy a couple of seconds to realise she was being addressed. "Huh?" she said. "Sorry, what was that?" "Chocolate chips," Pinkie repeated. "Oh yeah," said Fluttershy. "The chocolate chips. Sure Pinkie. Where are they?" Pinkie Pie pointed her hoof at a small cabinet with a mirror door hanging from the ceiling. "That pantry over there, top shelf," said Pinkie. "Ok," said Fluttershy. "Thanks." Fluttershy flew over to the pantry Pinkie pointed to, opened the door, and saw a plastic bag full of chocolate chips sitting on the top shelf like Pinkie said. She grabbed it with her hoof and shut the door. What she saw next made her drop the bag of chocolate chips. In the reflection of the mirror on the door of the cabinet, was that damn figure with the glowing red eyes, sitting in the corner of the room. She dropped to the floor and turned around to the corner where the figure was sitting. There was nothing there except an empty chair and pictures of the Mr and Mrs Cake with their fillies. "You didn't have to drop the bag, silly!" Pinkie Pie giggled. Her words just went in one ear and out the other. Fluttershy slowly approached the corner of the room. Pinkie Pie picked up the plastic bag and sprinkled some chocolate chips to each of the muffins sitting on the tray. Fluttershy took no notice. She was staring intently into the corner. She could have sworn she saw it sitting there in the mirror. Fluttershy's thoughts were interrupted by a voice. A voice that felt like it was coming from inside her head. A voice that absolutely chilled her to the core. It was quiet, almost as if it was whispering, it was very low, and quite raspy. It did not sound friendly. "I'm watching you," it said. Fluttershy instantly turned around behind her, to see the figure outside the window, staring right at her. "Fluttershy!" Fluttershy froze. How did it know her name? Why was it watching her? What did it want from her? "All done!" said Pinkie Pie, looking very pleased with herself. "Can you please place our first batch into the oven, Fluttershy?" Fluttershy didn't respond. As far as she was concerned Pinkie wasn't even there. Her voice was muffled, and soon was completely muted, only replaced with a loud ringing noise. The voice was flooding Fluttershy's head as it kept talking. "I'll always be with you," it continued. "NO!" Fluttershy cried. She fell onto the floorboards as her vision went cloudy. "No?" said Pinkie Pie. "What's wrong? It's just putting muffins in an oven." Fluttershy shut her eyes tight and tried to block out the voice by covering her ears with her hooves. This didn't help in the slightest, in fact, if anything plugging her hooves into her ears only made the voice louder. "Everywhere you go," it said. "I'll be watching you, Fluttershy. Always watching! Watching!" The word 'watching' kept repeating over and over in Fluttershy's head so clearly she swore it was being said aloud. It was all she could hear. "No!" she cried again. "Please! No! Stop! Please make it stop!" Fluttershy's sudden change in behaviour finally caught Pinkie's attention. "Fluttershy?" said Pinkie Pie. The voice continued to repeat in Fluttershy's head. "Watching! Watching! Watching!" "Please! Get it out of my head!" Fluttershy continued, now on the edge of screaming. "Make it stop! PLEASE!" "Watching! Watching! Watching!" "Please! Shut up!" Pinkie's eyes widened and her mouth dropped at Fluttershy's sudden language. There had been very few occasions where she heard somepony say 'shut up,' and Fluttershy was the absolute last pony she ever expected to say it. Yet here she was, on the floor with her eyes shut tight, her hooves in her ears yelling it. Pinkie Pie looked around the room looking for a sign of anypony she could be talking to. They were completely alone, and nopony else was in the building except for the two of them. Not even the Cakes were home. Why Fluttershy was acting like this was beyond her. Pinkie Pie's ears twitched as she listened Fluttershy continue to panic. Pinkie Pie walked over to her and watched, not knowing how to tackle the situation. She placed a hoof on Fluttershy's cheek. She didn't notice her. "Fluttershy," she called. She waited, but received no response. It was like she didn't even know she was there. Pinkie Pie cleared her throat, and tried again, only louder. "Fluttershy!" she yelled. Still no response. Pinkie stomped her hoof onto the ground, startling Fluttershy as she finally jumped up to her hooves, eyes bursting open staring at Pinkie Pie. "Snap out of it!" Pinkie shouted. The voice had stopped. Fluttershy's eyes rolled as she stood there dazed for a brief second. She blinked a few times, shook her head, then rubbed her eyes with her hoof. "Sorry, Pinkie," said Fluttershy, as her vision came back into focus. "What happened?" "What happened?" said Pinkie. "I was going to ask you the same question. I asked you to put the muffins in the oven, and then you completely lost it. Covering your ears with your hooves, crashing onto the floor, yelling out things like 'stop,' 'please' and 'no'. And you did all of that over nothing. It was really freaky." "Over nothing?" asked Fluttershy. "You seriously think I was flipping out over nothing?" "Yeah," said Pinkie. "I mean, we're the only ones in here." "You seriously saying you didn't hear that?" said Fluttershy, astounded. "Hear what?" Pinkie asked. "You seriously didn't hear that incredibly creepy, and really scary voice, telling you that it's always watching you?" "No." Pinkie Pie placed a hoof over Fluttershy's forehead, raising her hair, as if she was checking her temperature. "Are you feeling ok?" How was this possible? How did she not hear that incredibly creepy voice? Fluttershy rushed over to the window and leaned outside, looking for any sign of the black figure. "What are you looking for?" said Pinkie. Fluttershy didn't answer. Why couldn't Pinkie see it? Why couldn't she hear it? Was it even real? Or was this just in her head? That just begged another question. If this thing wasn't real, then why could she see and hear it? Was she going insane? "Are we going to finish these muffins or what?" All Fluttershy wanted at this point was to take her mind off her current situation. "Coming," she said, leaving the window and getting back to her baking. After several hours of baking muffins with Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy left Sugarcube Corner and headed straight for her cottage. Her walk home was nowhere near as pleasant as her walk to Sugarcube Corner. The cheerful crowd, the beautiful greenery, and the warm sun went unnoticed. She was visibly shaking, and was turning her head in all directions as she slowly walked. Her head and ears twitched at any insignificant sound, and at the slightest sign of movements. The silhouette of a pony disappeared behind a building right as it caught Fluttershy's eye. Fluttershy bolted to the edge of the building to see if it was what she thought it was, only to realise that it was just Lyra out on a walk with Bon-Bon. Fluttershy sighed and continued walking with her head hanging low. Fluttershy decided to take a short break from walking by resting next to the water fountain near the town hall. Fluttershy enjoyed the sound of the water splashing in the fountain, as she found it quite relaxing. Fluttershy sat there in complete silence trying to decipher what was going on. Was this thing real? Was it actually there? Or was this thing just a fragment of her imagination? If this thing was real, then why couldn't Pinkie Pie, or anypony else see or hear it? If it was just her imagining things, then why could she see and hear it so distinctly? That voice was so loud and clear in her head that it simply must have been real. If it was just a fragment of her imagination, did this mean she was going crazy? Fluttershy hung her head down feeling defeated, not knowing what to do, or who to ask for help. As some tears formed from her eyes, Fluttershy rested her chin onto the edge of the fountain. In the water she could see the reflection of a sad looking yellow pegasus hiding behind her pink hair, lost and alone. Upon staring at her reflection for a good minute, in the reflection, Fluttershy spotted a black figure with red glowing eyes emerge from behind her. "I'm watching you, Fluttershy!" said the voice in the same terrifying voice that flooded her head. "Always watching!" Fluttershy jumped and looked behind her. "Why are you following me? What do you want?" she cried as loud as her shaky voice would allow her. She looked right where the figure had been standing in the reflection, only for the figure to be completely gone. Fluttershy was taken off guard by everypony, who were once casually going their day to day lives, now all stopped dead in their tracks, staring blankly at Fluttershy. She quickly realised how that must have looked from everypony else's point of view. "Um, sorry everypony," said Fluttershy as her ears dropped. "I'll just, go home now." Fluttershy made her way back to her cottage. When she got home, she locked the door, and closed up all of her windows. She spent the rest of the day spending time with her pets like Angel, and quietly reading books on her couch. With the peace and quiet, the company of her pets and the warm cosy environment of her home, Fluttershy was finally able to relax and enjoy a peaceful afternoon. After all, if she was locked up in her home, she was safe... Right?