In the upper west side of Canterlot, a figure paced across the room of one of the most high end apartment buildings one could get. With a doorman who stood outside in all sorts of weather to greet residents, modern art in the hallways that changed every year as the art world changed, employees to help the residents to bring their bags to their penthouse apartments, and so forth it was seen as the envy of anyone who didn’t own a mansion. That same modern charm carried into this figure’s room, filled with modern day furniture that looked expensive (and not at all comfortable) to sit on. On the walls were pictures of the figure, standing alone while blowing kisses at the camera. The ‘hip’ lamps were all turned off despite the hour of the night, allowing only the weak moonlight to guide the figures steps as well as the light of her phone. Said phone sat on the glass coffee table by a stack of letters that read ‘Final Notice’ in big red letters with the icons of various banks and credit cards on them.
Yet the figure was not focused on these important looking letters. Instead it was the phone that commanded all of the attention much like how a hawk eyes a mouse. Or rather, what was on the phone’s screen. It was MyStable. That figure’s account displayed. And it didn’t look good. Pictures and comments were getting very few likes now, only slightly above the number of views they were receiving. The number of followers having shrunken drastically over the course of a few months all because of one group.
The figure stopped for a moment, staring into the darkness as visions of their demise flashed about. All of them reduced to nothing, out on the streets and having to wear garbage. Seeing all of them behind bars for some reason. Death? Well, wouldn’t have been the first time the figure thought about the end to another existence without caring too much about it. The figure had even stated it didn’t matter to one of the Rainbooms.
A ding caught the figures attention, causing the daydreams to end in a flash. There was a message! A direct message after so long! Moving quickly, the figure moved to pick up the phone to see that it was from GloomySiren. Whoever he or she was, the figure didn’t care, opening up the private message with a single well trained finger. The message was…interesting to say the least. Scanning the words quickly, it promised the figure a second chance. A chance to return to the top of the social media scene while getting some payback. The where and how were all neatly detailed, going after the weakest of the Rainbooms.
-x-
A few days later found Fluttershy hard at work within the Canterlot Animal Shelter. While the day was bright and sunny, a perfect day to spend with her friends, the things needed to be done at the shelter were far more pressing to her. Since arriving at the wee hours of the morning she had already cleaned all of their cages, fed all the animals, refilled their water, checked to see if any of them were sick and taking care of the ones who were feeling a little under the weather, cleaning up their droppings in the backyard, mopping the floors, cleaning the counters, and doing all of this by herself. Well, that wasn’t entirely truthful. Ever since she got her magic, she had been able to ask some of the animals around the shelter for their help. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she did this without any human help. The only other person she usually saw was not the old man who ran the place but rather it was the local vet who stopped by once a day to check up on old Teddy, a boxer hound who needed more attention than Fluttershy was legally able to give. Beyond that, she was here all alone.
Which was fine with her. While Fluttershy did love spending time with her friends, there were times when they became too hectic for her tastes. Like when Pinkie Pie would go all out with her parties and noise making or Rainbow Dash trying to turn everything into a contest. Not to mention when they went out to crowded places that caused her to feel a little nervous. And all that was before the magical incidents became an almost weekly thing! Now even Duel Monsters was becoming magical, with its own set of dangers. She still got shivers just thinking about the duel at Camp Everfree where Twilight and Sunset got hurt, receiving actual injuries from it! As for what happened to Pinkie Pie just last week, that caused her to cry most of the night. So it was no wonder Fluttershy wanted to spend time at her happy place. With just her, her animal friends, and songs that escaped from her lips with no one else around. Here she could sing as much as she wanted, by herself, without anyone watching her. Or judging her. Or watching her and silently judging her.
At once, the peaceful world of the shelter vanished around her. Now Fluttershy stood upon a stage with a mic in her hands. She looked at it in confusion before turning to see that she was alone. Her friends were not there to back her up or to distract everyone from her presence. Turning her head forward now, the young teen saw that there was a crowd unlike any she had seen before. It wasn’t the reasonable size of the school but instead millions upon millions of people staring at her. Trembling, Fluttershy began to back up as they all seemed ready to boo while their eyes began to glow.
A soft bark brought her back to reality, pulling her away from the nightmare and back towards the creatures that needed her help. “Ok Fluttershy,” she breathed as she headed toward the back room were all the dogs were kept.
This room was one of the larger ones on the facility, with large gated off areas for the big dogs as well as a series of smaller cages for the medium to small dogs. All of them sat obediently, wagging their tails at the sight of their favorite caregiver, knowing what was in store for them. As Fluttershy walked towards them, she took extra special care to slow down by the drain in the middle of the room. The other day she had been a little too excited to let her friends out for their daily exercise time and had slipped on a puddle near the drain. The result was her falling on her behind which became soaked in something that required a new blouse being delivered to her from her friends. Needless to say, she was taking extra special care not to allow it to happen again.
Within the span of five minutes, Fluttershy had moved all over the room letting the dogs out one by one until she had a mass of furry love bouncing around her. A few jumped into the air, trying to lick their caregiver as she walked to the door in the very back. When the door opened, they sprang out into the well kept yard to run around and play with the chew toys Fluttershy herself had purchased for them out of her own paycheck. For a moment, she stood there at the door, leaning against the frame as she took in the sight. Everything seemed like paradise to her. The only thing that could make this moment even more perfect was if her boyfriend were here, arm draped around her shoulder. Perhaps that might happen one day in the future but for right now she needed to-
Fluttershy froze with her hand on the handle, noticing something for the first time that day. It was a series of small, but clear scratches on the doorknob. After bending her knees to get a better look she noted how deep and thin they were, ruling out one of the dogs. What’s more was the fact that many of these scratches seemed connected to the keyhole. Did…Did someone try to break in?
“Oh dear,” whispered Fluttershy as she got to her feet while looking around nervously. She, of course, would have noticed if any of the animals had gone missing or had been hurt. But maybe she should do a double check just to make sure. If some mean person did break in and steal one of the innocent creatures under care and she failed to notice then she knew she would never forgive herself.
For the next half an hour, Fluttershy went down the checklist of all the creatures at the shelter. She started with the cats and kittens, checking each and everyone before letting them into the cat play room. Following that Fluttershy headed towards the area that held the smaller animals. Mice, guinea pigs, hamsters, and so on were examined with the greatest of care while Fluttershy asked them if any had gone missing. One baby mouse was missing from its family, but the little one was quickly found in a corner nibbling on some food. The reptiles were next followed by the birds, all of whom were there and accounted for. Once that was finished, Fluttershy let in the dogs while making sure she had every single one of them.
With that done, Fluttershy moved to check their limited medical supplies. While they didn’t have anything that could be considered too powerful or dangerous, what they did have was always kept under lock and key. Before opening the medicine cabinet the caregiver did check to see if the lock had been tampered with. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she proceeded to check with a calmer heart. Every bottle was checked, Fluttershy examining the pills just in case they had been switched. Once she was satisfied all of the liquid medicine was put to the side so she could ask the vet to check on them when he next came over.
“That’s strange,” Fluttershy said to herself as she closed the cabinet. “Nothing seems to be out of place or taken. Maybe whoever tried to break in failed and gave up.” That did make sense to her, however she could not stop feeling like something was wrong.
As Fluttershy moved to return to her work, she heard the ring of her phone. “Fluttershy,” came Rainbow’s voice as soon as she answered, her impatient friend not waiting for a ‘hello’. “This is an emergency!”
“Oh dear, what happened?” asked Fluttershy, wishing there was a cord attached to the phone she could nervously twirl her finger around. “Is Tank not feeling well? You weren’t feeding him pies again, were you?”
“NO!” shouted Rainbow. “It’s much, much worse! I’m sending you a link right now. I’m just glad I found out about this before you found it on your own.”
A moment later, the link appeared in her text box. Feeling nervous about all this, Fluttershy touched the screen which took her to the YouTube section right away. As the screen began to load, she noticed the title which read: Messy Falls. Why would Rainbow Dash want her to watch something like this? Sure, Rainbow liked to watch people making a fool of themselves on camera or watching videos people took of ‘funny’ accidents however Fluttershy had told her numerous times that she didn’t find them funny at all. Most of the time when Rainbow was showing everyone a new clip she had found Fluttershy would be turning her head to the side or politely excusing herself. So why send her this?
When the video finished loading Fluttershy’s answer was handed to her. At once, Fluttershy’s eyes widened upon seeing herself within this very shelter slip and fall on the urine. Whoever had made this video had added some splash sound effects as well as a laugh track. The camera, to her horror, then zoomed in on her bottom as she stood up causing Fluttershy’s face to turn a bright glowing red. Then Fluttershy’s eyes noticed the number of views and her heart stopped. Over two million people had watched this.
“I just found out about this from a friend,” Rainbow was saying. “There are a few other clips of you from this user, but this is the one with the most views. I’m so sorry Fluttershy, but I thought you should hear this from a friend before finding out from some stranger. Fluttershy? Y-You there?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer. Instead she began to check the other videos this user had posted while sinking to her knees, tears running down her face. Rainbow was right, there were other videos about her. One had her accidently sticking her elbow in some dog poop while she was cleaning a cage. Another had her on all fours, playing with the animals with her voice being replaced with pig sounds. Then there was one that was just a compilation of her sniffing things. The only way this could have gotten any worse was if whoever posted these also posted videos of her getting changed!
This was beyond mortifying. She felt completely violated. To know someone had recorded her doing all these things and editing them like this before putting them on the web without permission. Oh, how was she going to tell her parents? They would be mortified! And how would she be able to attend school ever again with everyone most likely seeing it, laughing behind her back! She felt sure that once the manger of the shelter found out she would never be allowed back in!
As Fluttershy stared at her phone without really looking at it, she began to think of the Anon-A-Miss incident. She all too well remembered how that MyStable user had posted secrets of her and her friends. It had started small with an embarrassing nickname of Applejack’s, something she had told Sunset the night before it got posted. Then pictures that Sunset had taken of them dressed in outlandish clothing (something that had been just goofy fun between friends) got posted by the same user. Sadly they had all blamed Sunset for it, even when the post kept appearing with more and more dirt after they were ignoring their friend. In the end it turned out to be Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Even though they had apologized and taken down the account, everything that had been posted was not completely gone. Some people had saved some of their favorite posts, keeping it up to ensure these secrets would never be buried. Thankfully the number of people who cared had dwindled and not many people brought it up.
This, however, was much worse. She didn’t believe that those three would do something like this again. So that meant some stranger did this to her. People across the web saw it and were watching her right now, laughing their heads off! Or doing something worse which she really, really didn’t want to think about.
As a teary Fluttershy went to turn off her phone, she noticed something. All of the shots had been taken within the shelter! Though she didn’t want to, she watched all the videos again just to confirm. Yes, everyone of these videos had been a high angle shot from within the shelter. Was it the manager? Could he have done something so cruel to her for no reason? Fluttershy shook her head. No, he used black and white security cameras which were all old and out of date while all the videos she had seen were in color. She doubted that he would have installed new cameras just to make a fool out of her.
Wiping away her tears, Fluttershy stood up and began to look around. She started in the back with the dogs since that was the scene of the first video she had seen. The dogs barked happily for a moment when they saw her but stopped within moments of seeing the state she was in. Many of them began to whine and cry, scratching at the boundaries of their confinements in an effort to get closer to her. To comfort her. As much as Fluttershy would appreciate a hug from all of them, she knew she needed to focus.
Fluttershy knew there was only one camera in this room. It was hard to miss the brick shaped device sticking out of the ceiling. So she started from that point, making it her marker where she would finish. She guessed that whoever had put up the camera did so in a high enough place where nothing would get in the way. Slowly she looked about for anything that looked out of the ordinary, quickly finding something. It was a small black dot up in a corner of the room. Staring at it, she also noted that the color of the wall looked a little off.
Frowning, Fluttershy left the room only to come back a moment later with a large parrot on her shoulder. “Ok, Mr. Crackers,” she said as her gem began to glow. “Would you please do me a favor and retrieve that for me?” As she said this, she pointed at the dot. The parrot agreed, squawking loudly before opening its wings and flying up into the air. Fluttershy wanted as it flapped its wings vigorously in order to stay in the air as it grabbed the spot with its beak.
When it returned to her, Mr. Crackers dropped a wad of a clay like substance in the palm of her hand. After giving the bird a quick treat as well as her thanks, Fluttershy began to peel apart the clay to reveal a small device. It was black, shaped like a gumdrop but smaller with the lens on top. Clearly it was some sort of hidden camera used for spying. She recalled that once or twice Twilight mentioning things like these during their shared lunch breaks at the mall. Twilight worked at an electronic store that sold and repaired all sorts of high end gadgets. According to her, cams like these were normally used by parents to spy on their children, babysitters they hired, and nannies. At the time Fluttershy had voiced how wrong it was to do something like that and this experience had not changed her mind one bit.
“But who put it there?” asked Fluttershy held up the device, her thumb on the lens to make sure it couldn’t record her while Mr. Crackers flew onto her shoulder. As she looked at it, she knew there had to be more. After all, the videos showed her in various parts of the shelter. Should she take them down herself? If she did that then whoever broke in and placed them there might just do it again. She couldn’t work here anymore if she was constantly checking to make sure no one was recording her in secret. Should she call the police about this? She shivered at the thought of having all those people there, watching her and questioning her. It might be too much for her to handle. On the other hand they might be able to track down whoever did this. At the very least they’ll be able to find all the devices.
“Maybe I should call Twilight,” said Fluttershy as she pulled out her phone again. “Her brother is a policeman so she might know what to do.” Mr. Crackers squawked in agreement.
-x-
“I can’t believe this is happening,” cried the manager of the shelter, his hand trembling as it rested on Fluttershy’s shoulder. It had been three hours since Fluttershy had made the call to Twilight, one of many she had done today. After explaining what had been going on to her friend, Twilight had told her to sit tight as she called up her brother. Once she had gotten back, she said that Shining Armor was on his way.
“I tried to ask him if he could come alone to make you feel more comfortable,” Twilight had explained over the phone. “However, since this is an official complaint his partner has to tag along with him. The good news is that it’ll be just them and not an entire police squad. They may want to talk to your boss so you might also want to call him up as well.”
Fluttershy had agreed with her friend and, after hanging up, quickly called up her manager who arrived at the building before she ended their call. The manager was a small, balding man who rushed over to Fluttershy and quickly brought her into his office, believing that it was the most secure room in the building. There he had sat her down and by the time he handed her a cup of tea, the police had arrived. While Fluttershy had met Shining Armor before, it felt somehow different with him in uniform with his heavy black shades on. He just looked more ‘official’ and intimidating. This was not helped by his frowning partner who introduced herself as Officer Silver Shield. She was a slender woman with light orange skin and pink hair tied up in a tight bun.
“I’ll have a look around,” Shining had said before approaching Fluttershy. When he got close enough, he took off the shades before giving her a comforting smile and placing a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find out what’s going on. Just answer all of Silver Shield’s questions.” As Fluttershy nodded Silver Shield folded her arms.
Once Shining had left the questions began. If Fluttershy was being honest, she got the impression that Silver Shield thought this was a waste of time. She began simply by asking if the manager had set that camera up. After receiving a no, she asked Fluttershy to walk her through her day, how she found out about the camera, how she found the first one, and so on. All of it done in a dull and uninterested tone. Then things became uncomfortable. Silver asked if Fluttershy had bought the cameras. Why she thought this, Fluttershy had no idea and she quickly said no. Before Silver could ask anything else, Shining Armor had returned with an armful of equipment.
Which brought them all to the present.
“I checked the door and there are signs of tampering,” said Shining as he laid his spoils on the desk. Each of the cameras were in individual plastic baggies along with small, cylinder like objects that were just as small. “Someone must really have it in for you Fluttershy. I counted at least fifteen of these cameras that must connect to the WiFi. I suggest you change the password immediately.”
“We,” began the manager who paused to gulp loudly. “We don’t have a password on the WiFi. It’s free.”
Shining let out a sigh before taking off his hat to scratch his head. “Well then that might have to change,” he said. He then picked up one of the cylinders and held it up. “These things here are a different matter. I found them under counters, besides cages, and all sorts of places. If you look at the tips they resemble microphones. I’m guessing that it’s some sort of separate recording device. And a cheaper one at that.” As he said this, Silver picked up one of the baggies containing the recorder to examine it.
“You might be right,” she said as the bag turned in her grasp. “Guess whoever bought these pieces of crap blew all their money on the mini cameras. You can see the spot where you stick them into the usb port.”
“So what does that mean?” asked the manager, his hands trembling.
“It means that someone wasn’t just recording everything that happened but also everything that was said,” stated Shining Armor as he began to gather everything on the table. “The good news is that since whoever placed them around here needs to come back to find out what was recorded. I would highly suggest that the locks get changed.”
“Of course, of course,” said the manager. “They’ll be replaced before the end of the day. But what about those recorders? What about the videos online?”
“We can’t do anything about the videos,” stated Silver in a firm tone, her head jerking to look at Fluttershy. “You can issue a complaint to the site and hope they get taken down, but more than likely they’ll be back up by some other user. That is, of course, if Miss Fluttershy wasn’t the one who-”
“As for these these things here,” interrupted Shining Armor, stepping in front of his partner as he did so. “We can track down who sold them and go from there. Might take a couple of days tops. I’ll let you know if we find anything.” With that, Shining Armor turned around, frowning at his partner as he did so and headed out the door.
-x-
“I don’t think she liked me very much,” said Fluttershy several hours later into the phone. She was still at the animal shelter, watching as two men installed a brand new lock into the door. While the manager had suggested that she take the rest of the day off, Fluttershy had insisted on staying to both take care of the animals as well as to see for herself that the new security to her sanctuary was in place. Then she could come back the next day feeling safe.
“Well technically it’s not that she hates you,” said Twilight slowly on the other line. “It’s more that she just doesn’t trust people all that much. I know, Shiny has complained about her plenty of times before.”
“Why? What happened to her?” asked Fluttershy. There was a pause, one that Fluttershy knew all too well. It was the pause someone did when they were debating to themselves how much they wanted to tell. Or if they should say anything at all. Fluttershy knew that feeling for it was one she had far too often.
“She’s…had a few too many false cases,” said Twilight after a moment. “People claiming something was stolen just so they could collect the insurance money. Cases where someone pretended they were in trouble for the attention and-”
“Wait,” said Fluttershy suddenly. “Are you trying to say that she thinks I did this to myself? But why?”
Twilight let out a sigh. “Fluttershy, I don’t think you did that and nor does Shiny. He’s right now putting in overtime trying to find out who did this to you. But Silver, she stuck out her neck for people she thought were victims too many times and ended up getting burned. Right now she’s trying to tell Shiny that you probably did all this yourself to fame or something like that. But that when you got second thoughts after see the comments you made up the whole thing.”
“Well I didn’t!” stated Fluttershy, her tone becoming far more firm than before. Her eyes hardened a tad as she looked at the door. How could anyone think that anybody would enjoy that sort of embarrassment?
“I know Fluttershy, I know,” repeated Twilight. “Just don’t worry about her.”
However, Fluttershy couldn’t as a new fear began to race through her body. If stuff like that had happened to her, how long would it be before they believed that Fluttershy was lying to them? How long would it be before Shining Armor’s boss told him to drop it? Or worse, began looking at her? She knew she didn’t do anything wrong, but the thought of having the police looking at her like that was not a very comforting thought.
With her grip on the phone tightening slightly, Fluttershy knew what she had to do: catch whoever did this as soon as possible.
-x-
Late at night, when the moon was high in the night sky, a figure crept towards the animal shelter under the cover of darkness. This figure knew that the placed spy cams had been found. That the police had been called. It was hard to miss when a blue haired man had been removing them, cutting out the signal. So, normally, it would be a considerable idiotic idea to head back to the scene of the crime. However, the figure didn’t know if the voice recording devices had been found. The figure needed those for without them, none of this would have been worth it!
Sitting by the door and noticing the new lock, the figure’s head shook before taking a knee. Quickly pulling a phone out, the figure opened up the YouTube video ‘Lock Picking for Newbies’ and played it. As it played, the figure went to work on the door pausing every once in a while in case something was missed. Eventually the door made a clicking noise signaling that it was now unlocked.
Smirking the figure stood up before opening the door. At once dogs began to bark wildly, causing the figure to frown. What’s more the light turned on to reveal Fluttershy standing at the other side of the room with a look of surprise on her face.
“Vignette Valencia?” she gasped.
“Oh great,” said Vignette as she glared at Fluttershy, eyes darting around to see if anyone else was around. To see if anyone else would be jumping out of the shadows to grab her. Seeing no movement, she relaxed a bit. For a moment, she considered trying to tell a lie…but it felt sort of mute at this point. Who in the world would believe she broke into a building by accident? Maybe the hyper pink idiot but that’s about it.
“I can’t believe you would do something like this to me,” said Fluttershy as she took a step forward.
“Well, believe it darling,” snapped Vignette as she went over her options. There was only Fluttershy there. Last time they had been alone like this, Vignette had been able to send her away with just a press of a button to some other place. She should be easy to take out…if she still had her magic that is. Without it, they might be on even ground. Plus she didn’t want to step inside and get caught on camera. But she needed to get past her to get her prize! Damn it, why had she gone all out on the cameras and not enough on the recorders? Or why hadn’t she waited until after she had everything to put that stuff online? Then she wouldn’t be in this mess!
Fluttershy sighed, getting Vignette’s attention. As she looked upon her, Fluttershy looked away while holding up one of the voice recorders. “I believe you’re looking for this,” she said. “I found it after the police left.”
Clenching her fists, Vignette snarled at Fluttershy. “Give it to me!” Of course, there was a part of her that chided herself. Of course Fluttershy wouldn’t give it to her. Not after everything she had done to her! Now that she thought about it, it would have been smarter just to arrive at the shelter and pretend to be looking for some stupid animal as she grabbed the recorder.
“I will,” replied Fluttershy, much to Vignette’s surprise. “But only if you beat me in a duel.” As Fluttershy said this, she pulled out a duel disk from behind her back with deck already in place. “If you win, then I’ll give you this recorder device and allow you to look around for any more. I won’t even tell the police I spotted you breaking in again.”
“Well, aren’t you generous,” said Vignette as she place her palms on her hips. “And what may I ask will happen if you win?”
“Simple, you tell the police everything that you did,” said Fluttershy.
Vignette fought to keep herself from grinning. The poor little pushover was trying to be tough. Didn’t Fluttershy know that Vignette was a skilled duelist, more than capable of taking down some trembling animal girl? And even if she did lose, Fluttershy might just take her for her word giving Vignette time to get out of town. That or she could just tell Fluttershy that she still didn’t have any friends or something like that, get her to feel sorry for her, and then just let her go again. Honestly it was too easy to manipulate these girls! But she would save that for after she lost so she would appear at her weakest.
“Very well,” said Vignette as she pulled out her own duel disk. “Let’s do this.”