One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
- Khalil Gibran, unicorn -
Chaos, pain, sadness, regret.
Fluttershy no longer felt any of this, trapped in a world of darkness that had savagely ripped her of her memory. But perhaps she simply had never felt these emotions.
Fluttershy was lost in an ocean of confused dreams, without any memories and without the slightest reminiscence, however vague and incomprehensible it may be, which could give her a clue as to her presence in this gloomy place, empty of any trace of life.
The pegasus cast a dull glance at the landscape. A greyish and dense fog lazily floated everywhere behind her. So dense in fact, that it was almost solid, threatening. It was omnipresent in this mysterious place.
Yet, in front of Fluttershy, stood a forest of different shades of grey and black. It extended over the entire horizon in an infinite straight line, to get lost, much, much further, in the fog that surrounded the forest.
As Fluttershy quietly approached the trees, she began questioning herself about the total length of this strange forest. It gave her, curiously enough, a vague feeling of guilt.
The trees at the edge of the wood slowly, quietly, created a gaping opening, like the mouth of a huge nightmarish creature that was about to eat her.
A path opened at her hooves. Fluttershy thought it was similar to the monster's tongue that she imagined hidden, lurking in the branches. It was inviting her to enter, obediently, towards her death.
She wasn't afraid, not really. She was vaguely anxious, certainly, but no more. She wondered however if the decision to follow the trail was her best choice.
But after one last look at the mist behind her, Fluttershy had to admit there was absolutely nothing left interesting enough to make her stay any longer in that place. So she set out on the path, unaware of what the future had in store for her.
As soon as she had walked a few dozen steps under the black foliage, the mouth of the invisible beast closed, cutting off the pegasus from any retreat to the world outside.
A rather unusual fact that the fragile yellow pegasus noticed almost instantly in her new prison was the silence. No rustling of leaves or twigs interrupted the monotonous atmosphere of this place. Everything was calm and vaguely scary.
Another surprising detail was that she didn’t see or hear any creature. It gave her a strange feeling of emptiness.
Was it because she loved animals?
Maybe.
She didn't know anymore.
Uncertain, she turned her attention to the forest, on the lookout for the slightest noise of a rodent running or an acute chirping of birds. Unfortunately, without success.
Fluttershy quietly resumed her journey, her heart loosely tightened.
On both sides of the small dirt road, tall twisted trees with night-black trunks silently stretched their long branches in the wild hope of grazing the little yellow pegasus that wandered, head down, among them.
Fluttershy felt a slight sense of unease as she walked there, without memories, through this dark forest of obscure intentions. She hoped to be able to trace back the events that had led her to that point soon.
At that moment, like a gift to answer her prayers, her memory graced her with a distant reminiscence. One name, only one, came back to her, a name that accompanied her all along her journey even she didn’t understand its meaning: Everfree.
Fluttershy sighed.
More like never free, she thought.
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Far behind Fluttershy, at the entrance of the woods, the dense mist was slowly spreading through the forest.
Voracious, the fog seemed to swallow up the trees as it slowly moved. Driven by its own will, it followed softly in the footsteps of the little pegasus, greedily consuming everything in its path until there was nothing left.
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Fluttershy was trying as best she could to put her confused thoughts in order. She was unable to remember anything about this place. Was it the first time she came here?
Probably not.
She still had that distant sense of guilt that grabbed her chest whenever she looked at the trees along the path she was following, her mind still haunted by the name Everfree.
A name that sounded like a prison.
Every time that name came to her mind the same feeling of vague sadness filled her heart. Fluttershy could not repress a shiver at the thought of being trapped in this strange forest.
Will I ever leave this place? wondered the anxious pegasus.
Only the deafening silence of the forest answered her.
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Time did not matter here.
Fluttershy was unable to estimate the number of hours spent walking under the dark grey and, most recently, slightly greenish foliage of the trees. As soon as she tried to count the minutes, her mind would fog up. She couldn't think clearly. Soon after, she didn't even try anymore.
It may had been forever since the pegasus wandered aimlessly through the infinitely wide forest, it was impossible for her to know.
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The path suddenly widened, opening up to an unexpected vision that broke the monotonous atmosphere of the pegasus journey.
In front of her, at the end of a clearing, stood a gigantic wall of black flames. High as the tallest trees on the forest, it was dominating the clearing. Its light illuminated the dead pale flowers and rocks scattered all around, all engulf in flames.
Columns of greyish smoke escaped from the fires and rose to the sky to get lost in the dense fog. A cloud of bad omen, that floated everywhere above the forest.
The little pegasus advanced towards one of these flames. She was unable to feel the slightest fear at the sight of these black fires, scattered everywhere. She was fascinated by them. The black flames danced in the eyes of the hypnotized pegasus and, closer up, she could see a weak but captivating dark red glow within them.
Fluttershy was under their spell.
An infinite amount of time passed before she was able to avert her gaze away from these dark bonfires. A feeling of imminent danger was ringing alarm bells in the pegasus brain. She looked frantically at the clearing in search of a potentially deadly threat hidden across the landscape.
There, Fluttershy observed with horror as she notified the path, the same one that had allowed her to enter the clearing, disappearing into a thick mist. A mist whose threatening shapes, vaguely reminiscent of wolves, were avidly devouring the last trees at the edge of the clearing.
Fluttershy didn't like that mist.
A single glance at it was enough to convince the pegasus to be very careful. She had the unpleasant conviction that she would disappear for eternity if that fog covered her completely and she certainly did not want to disappear like the forest that was already being gradually swallowed up.
Condemned to wander endlessly through the misty meanders of this forest, what a tragic fate!
Soon, the pegasus began to look for another way out that she easily found, without being sure, however, that this was her best escape route.
At the end of the clearing, behind a wall of high black flames, another path went deeper into the forest, free of any threat.
Cautious, Fluttershy carefully approached the wall of flames. She was caught in between the fog wolves and the burning wall.
Frightened at the thought of being the foggy monster’s next meal, and without thinking about the possible consequences of her choice, Fluttershy crossed the curtain of fire. She would rather feel the temporary bite of the pyre instead of the fangs of the fog’s creature.
The flames threw themselves at her and wrapped her on the spot, slipping on her body, drowning her in darkness, until she managed to come out the other side, intact. She was not burned, the fire being strangely cold, even icy.
Fluttershy, despite being intrigued by this phenomenon, had to put her curiosity aside in order to leave the mist behind and keep on walking further down the path.
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Fluttershy looked at the strange trees along the road. Unlike those on the other side of the gigantic black wall of flames, which seemed to have no malicious intentions, the trees on this side were oozing with unconcealed malice.
They were twisted and grinning. They wore cruel faces with scary smiles but it was the yellow-green gleams in their empty orbits that awakened a distant sense of terror in Fluttershy’s heart.
These impure sparks stirred a distant memory buried in her mind. An unpleasant memory, no doubt. This was a feeling that she was hardly able to explain to herself at the time, since she had no memory left, even though the lights vaguely reminded her of a terrifying and gigantic monster with a body covered in branches and moss.
She postponed the vain exploration of her memories until later because of the greater danger lurking over her shoulders.
What made her extremely uncomfortable, for the time being, was not far behind.
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The mist had resumed hunting, having finally consumed the clearing and smothered the gigantic wall of fire. It had rushed into the trail following Fluttershy and was floating about a hundred meters from the pegasus, eating away at the distance between them.
Threatening, it seemed to be catching up with Fluttershy little by little, making up for the lost time.
_________________________
Once again, notifying the mist, much too close for her taste, Fluttershy tried to extend as much as possible the distance between the dark fog and herself.
Once done, Fluttershy began to consider the conflicting emotions that had plagued her since the beginning of her journey in the forest. She made two observations.
The first was that many of her feelings were felt in a very vague way, as if suffocated by the thick air of this strange world. Since each of them evoked lost memories, far away in her consciousness, she associated these emotions with echoes of sensations related to her past experiences, before her arrival in this place.
Thus her vague uneasiness towards the forest and the absence of wildlife as well as her feeling of stifled terror at the gleams in the trees and the image of the wooden monster were related in some way to her past. The vague guilt she felt when the name "Everfree" was mentioned must therefore also have been related to her past.
Interesting. But does this mean that the name of this creature is Everfree? she thought.
The second observation of the pegasus, on the other hand, was that she felt very well the emotions related to this strange world.
She still had this poignant uneasiness about the mist that was running around and the flames of the clearing had properly seduced and captivated her. What she felt in that place was very intense. Her emotions were a hundred times more intense than the vague echoes of her past.
This world is really strange... Strange and dangerous, Fluttershy admitted, thinking about the fog that was lurking somewhere behind.
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The path that Fluttershy followed, for a little over two hours, according to the uncertain estimate of the pegasus, led to a small wooded area, smaller than the previous clearing.
Open to the sky still overcast with mist, the place emanated a spectral aura. Not without reason, because in the middle of the woods, a ray of light, coming from an invisible star in the fog above the trees, illuminated the skeleton of a pegasus whose broken wings littered the ground.
All around, in the clearing, small pink butterflies flew here and there, peacefully. Their flight amazed Fluttershy who raised a hoof on which one of the small insects came to rest a few moments later. The pegasus was fascinated by the peaceful creature, the first one she encountered in this wood.
The butterfly was light, with transparent pink wings bordered by golden circles. After a short break, he resumed his flight to land on the skeleton, at the level of the back thigh bone. This vision somewhat upset the pegasus who associated this emotion with an experience related to her enigmatic past. She felt as if she knew the pegasus that lay there, with broken wings and her heart told her that the butterflies were the silent guardians of the burial place of the skeleton.
Fluttershy lowered her head to say a silent prayer for the poor soul who had taken her last breath in this dark place. She was really and purely saddened by the unfortunate fate of the stranger.
But as the mist reappeared in the distance, Fluttershy set out again on a path that the forest had just created for her, uprooting trunks that moved away to replant their roots further away, freeing a passage just wide enough for the comfort of the pegasus.
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It didn't take long, no more than a few minutes, before the fog took over the place.
As soon as Fluttershy had left the small clearing, the mist poured into it, preceded by its monstrous foggy wolves.
Together, the monsters quarreled with the prey, devouring the butterflies that withered instantly upon contact while the mist, with a growing appetite, absorbed the skeleton of the pegasus, reducing the bones to powder and swallowing them to the last grain of dust.
It quickly wiped out the rest of the small clearing and resumed hunting with its pack.
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Fluttershy walked a short distance, barely an hour's walk according to the still nebulous estimate of the pegasus, before arriving in front of a new landscape, a large bridge that extended over a wide gorge.
The footbridge connecting the two sides of the precipice, strangely circular and made of solid braided straw, rose abruptly on the sides of the structure to bend gently once at the top.
Apart from the unusual shape of the footbridge, a curious thing caught the attention of the little pegasus.
The bridge had no safety parapet.
Fluttershy tried to fly to the top of the bridge, certain to find something related to her lost memories.
But for some reason, her wings denied her this option, remaining firmly attached to her sides. She made several unsuccessful attempts to open them, but her wings, far from being painful, remained tense.
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, she would do without her wings if necessary. Trying to look for clues about her body's strange behavior would plunge her once again into the mists of her brain. She didn't risk it.
Without further ado, because the fog was probably not far behind, Fluttershy began to clumsily climb the structure to the highest point. She took care to stay in the center of the bridge so as not to fall. Once perched at the apex of the bridge, catching her breath, she took a look below and witnessed a surprising revelation.
The structure on which she was standing was not a bridge, far from it.
It was the handle of a giant light brown wicker basket.
Vertigo suddenly seized the pegasus when her mind was being assaulted by a bunch of diffuse memories. She had already seen this basket, she was sure of it.
At the bottom of this large basket, the ground was shaking under a waving sea covered with small plants that rocked to a breeze that Fluttershy was unable to feel. Through these plants, yellow and pink ribbons fluttered everywhere, flapping their curls in the same way that a bird would flap its wings to fly.
Admiring the surrealist landscape created by this collection of lively things, Fluttershy almost failed to see the last element that completed the picture.
Lost in the middle of this canvas of green, yellow and pink, stood a single blue spot. By paying attention to this splash on the global landscape, Fluttershy distinguished a small pegasus with a blue coat and rainbow mane.
Perched on top of a flat rock across the ocean of grass, the blue pegasus stood motionless, her eyes closed, insensitive to the chaotic charm of the world around her.
Looking at her more closely, Fluttershy saw that the body of the little blue pegasus was covered with hideous scars. However, her deep wounds did not prevent her from sleeping soundly as evidenced by her chest rising and falling gently to the rhythm of her peaceful breathing.
The scene before her brought back a distant pain in her heart. All this was sadly familiar to her and the vision of the poor blue filly, covered with so many scars, plunged her into a diffuse confusion.
Another experience from her nebulous past estimated Fluttershy, slightly afraid that one day she would discover the truth at the source of her unhealthy feelings. It seemed she had been through a lot before she ended up in this forest and she was no longer sure she wanted to know what had happened to her in the past.
She felt a deep outpouring of affection, a strange feeling in this strange universe, for her comrade in misfortune.
Maybe she's lost, just like me, the pegasus began to hope. Maybe we can help each other.
She took a deep breath and tried to shout to attract the attention of the blue pegasus and warn her to flee the threatening mist.
“…”
She was unable to make a cry, not even a coherent word, not even a pitiful squeak.
Fluttershy was simply unable to speak in this strange universe and she was frustrated.
Wake up... the mist will be here soon... please wake up, did she growl, internally angry at the situation, tears of helplessness running down her cheeks.
_________________________
The fog wolves silently entered the clearing with a murderous mood. Their prey gradually escaped them and they hated it. However, they were unable to get too far from the mist, their mistress.
They spotted Fluttershy, who was standing high up on the handle of the basket and rushed to gnaw at one end of the handle.
The pegasus was now shedding bitter tears, forced to cross over the precipice and carry on the path that plunged even further into the heart of the forest.
As the wolves saw their prey, who was slipping further and further away, they opened their mouths wide and shouted silent howls of frustration.
They calmed down instantly when their mistress arrived. They lowered their heads, in a position of submission, and prepared, as always, to carry out her desires. The order didn’t take long to come, they had to make the chaotic landscape disappear. It was going to take a long time and the wolves sighed collectively at the magnitude of the task.
Then, they notified the blue pegasus, sleeping at the bottom of the basket. They exchanged a dark smile without any warmth. A carnivorous smile.
Their hunting instinct took over, and with fierce joy, they threw themselves into the pit. For the first time since the hunt began, they temporarily forgot the yellow pegasus in favor of another prey.
_________________________
Fluttershy, safe in the small dirt path, tried to wipe away the tears that ran down her face, but to no avail.
She had thought about going back to the cliff, trying once again to attract the attention of the pegasus. Then she stopped, mortified when she saw the wolves rushing into the pit. From then on, she could do nothing but hope that the intriguing blue filly had the chance to escape the monsters.
She quickly gave up hope.
The blue pegasus hadn’t flown away.
Fluttershy would have seen her fly out of the pit, otherwise.
With her hoof, she wiped a few more tears and then decided to continue on her way, after a short prayer for the poor victim of the fog.
Poor soul, she will never be free again... regretted Fluttershy.
_________________________
The wolves impatiently scraped the ground, facing the dirt road, fangs uncovered.
The fog had almost consumed the entire clearing, hunting would resume any moment now. It was necessary because the track leading to the pegasus was getting cold by the minutes, as was the pack's patience.
Proceed, my beloved, find her and trap her. But don't kill her... yet.
The order resounded in the heads of all the animals. They rushed into the forest as far forward as possible while remaining on the periphery of the invisible link that connected them to their mistress.
_________________________
Fluttershy looked curiously at the trees along the side of the road.
These were no longer twisted or frightening. They displayed shapes of various horses. Pegasus, unicorns and ponies, the entire equine race was represented in all its grandeur in the hardwood trunks of this part of the forest. The frozen sculptures seemed to tell silent prayers at Fluttershy, enjoining her to continue her journey.
The wooden statues evoked a slight feeling of familiarity, hope and friendship but also nostalgia for the lonely pegasus who was struggling to understand these feelings in her heart.
One of the sculptures had a pair of wings proudly opened, evoking to her the image of the blue pegasus of the previous clearing and her heart tightened at this memory. Two other statues, unicorns this time, reminded her of two fuzzy shapes. The first, white and violet, the second, two shades of purple and one of pink. The next two other statues, simple ponies, evoked two other fuzzy shapes, one all pink and the last one orange and yellow.
Without knowing why, these sudden visions warmed her heart. She continued on her way with the feeling, for the first time since her arrival, that she was no longer alone. She hoped that this was the case.
_________________________
After a half-hour walk, Fluttershy, noticing that the distance between each of her halts was decreasing, rightly thought she was getting closer to the heart of the forest. She didn’t know, however, that her next stop would be her last
Since the beginning of her journey through the forest, Fluttershy had also noticed the subtle and increasingly bright color changes.
At the beginning of her journey, everything was dull, drowned in demoralizing shades of white, black and grey.
Now, as she ventured further towards the heart of the forest, the colors seemed to add to the picture, to embellish themselves, becoming more radiant, more alive.
However, the fog acted like a fuzzy filter permanently applied to these colors, which always remained a little cloudy, refusing to be fully displayed in this dark world.
Fluttershy began to dream about what this forest would look like with full, honest and joyful colors.
She didn't have to wait long because as soon as she had passed the last of the horse sculptures, the impressive view that opened up to her at the end of the path took her breath away. A bright, almost unreal explosion of colors painted the inside of a gigantic clearing.
The first thing that stood out in this plain was a majestic and colossal stone arch that stood in its center. It was impossible not to notice the dazzling architectural masterpiece that dominated the landscape.
Made of rocks, flaring bronze and silver and a multitude of gems shining with a thousand fires, the sculptures that ran across its surface told the story of the creation of a world that Fluttershy did not recognize. The last sculpture, at the very top, represented a proud alicorn, its wings wide open as if to welcome Fluttershy into her domain.
The stone arch, of tremendous size, was twice as tall as the tallest trees in the area. Hundreds of navy blue, white and black flowers stretched out at the foot of the arch and everywhere else on the plain, delighting Fluttershy with their beauty and sweet scent.
And above this fantastic landscape the sky opened up in a royal and dark blue, without any unhealthy fog, dotted with millions of bright stars surrounding a magnificent full moon whose craters formed the abstract profile of a serene alicorn that contemplated the clearing below.
Everything in the plain evoked peace and tranquility. Fluttershy was charmed.
_________________________
Not far behind, on the path that the pegasus had taken to enter the plain, the fog continued to advance inexorably, sucking in the carved trees.
Unlike the young yellow pegasus, the mist had a perfect knowledge of the ponies depicted in the trunks. Still, it did not prevent her or her wolves from destroying each of the trees while heading towards the only exit still existing in the forest.
The next clearing, by its symbolic nature and eternal function, was the only place in the forest free of the fog.
The only place left where the pegasus was safe.
For now...
_________________________
The moon was caressing Fluttershy with its soothing rays while the stars of the sky pulsed in rhythm to the sound of a melody impossible to hear for the ears of the pegasus. Dozens of shooting stars of different myriads of colors occasionally crossed the landscape to imprint their way into Fluttershy's seduced eyes.
When the pegasus finally stopped contemplating the magnificent sky, following a hunch, a bad feeling, it was already too late.
Fluttershy, having caught a glimpse of the mist slowly heading in her direction, was reluctantly about to leave the clearing when she noticed the trap she had fallen into. The fog covered the entire edge of the forest.
She was trapped in the clearing, with no way out. She tried flying out but once again, her wings refused to cooperate.
The fog surrounding the plain was no longer moving forward, simply blocking the way out for the pegasus who knew she was trapped. The path that the pegasus had taken to enter the clearing closed last, destroying Fluttershy's ultimate hopes of escape.
Fluttershy took refuge near the arch, frightened by the fog’s wolves who were impatiently scratching the ground, waiting for the fateful order of their mistress to attack.
Now she waited, worried, but nothing could foresee the terrible vision that the pegasus then had, which froze her blood so much so that she temporarily forgot the threat of the fog’s wolves.
A tiny part of the mist broke away from the fog and entered the plain, metamorphosing into an elegant vaporous alicorn that, despite its neat appearance, gave off an impression of cold intelligence in perfect harmony with an icy heart.
The creature walked slowly and came to meet Fluttershy, coming to a halt a few meters from the shaking pegasus.
When she spoke, Fluttershy heard two distinct voices speaking to her. One was gentle and compassionate, the other was authoritarian and full of bitterness.
”Welcome Fluttershy,” said the voices. ”Welcome in the invisible world, a country that very few ponies had the honor to visit.”
Fluttershy did not feel particularly honored at the thought of being in this forest. She preferred to remain silent while judging her host with a suspicious look, trying to determine what she was.
“I am the nothingness and I am the whole” replied the alicorn with both her voices after reading Fluttershy's thoughts. “I am the eternal guardian of this arch and, if you want to associate myself to something more concrete, look up bearer of the element of kindness.“
With its misty hoof, she pointed the top of the structure representing the gigantic alicorn with its wide-open wings that watched over the stone arch. From where Fluttershy was, the moon formed an immaculately white halo around the head of the statue, giving it a mysterious and royal air.
A true princess, thought Fluttershy.
“Princess Luna,” confirmed the alicorn. “Mistress of the night, dreams and death. I am an ethereal replica of this princess, created by her very own magic. I guide the souls in their long journey to the great beyond, the country of the eternal dream. But it happens sometimes that a soul, just like yours, Fluttershy, finds herself trapped here. Trapped in between the realm of Celestia, queen of the sun and life, and the realm of Luna, her sister, queen of the moon and death. This is the invisible world. A chaotic world in the perpetual changing state, built upon the last memory of the soul that is journeying across.“
The news upset Fluttershy.
She was dying if it wasn't already done.
She felt that the alicorn didn't mean her any harm, yet she didn't want to stay here, lost in the fog forever. She had no memory of her past that had led her into this world and she thought it was unfair. The idea of dying seemed unbearable to her. Not here, not like this.
“Your case is a special one, young Fluttershy,” said the alicorn who was reading the pegasus thoughts.
“Your demise can be avoided. Your mind is keeping you in a comatose state over there, in your world, but you can return to it, at any time. This arch, behind you, hold a lot more mysteries than you can imagine. It possesses a divine power, to bring life back to somepony. It opens only for those who can, like yourself, return to the world of Celestia. Let me show you its power.“
At these words, the alicorn rose two meters above the ground and then opened two large luminescent white eyes and, as if echoing this signal, a white dot of the same intensity appeared in the center of the arch. The point widened to become a horizontal line that touched the sides of the two pillars of the arch, then widened in height to encompass the entire structure.
The arch had become an impressive gateway to the other world.
The bright white light of the big door dimmed to reveal a blurry world on the other side. A bright, colorful, joyful world. Fluttershy only had to cross the curtain of liquid light between the two to return to the living.
A breath of hope invaded her as she prepared to enter the veil of light. But the alicorn landed on the ground behind her and started talking again, forcing her to turn around.
“Fluttershy,“ severely said the shadow with her two voices. “Here you are confronted with an important choice which allows no step backward. I recommend you to consider attentively both the options that will be presented to you. By crossing this arch, you will return among your kind, back to the realm of Celestia, the land of the living. On the other hand, I offer you to stay with me. I will erase definitively all of your painful memories and shall lead you to the realm of Luna. You will leave behind any sadness and wounds and you will begin a new life there.”
She stopped only to ensure Fluttershy understood her options.
“Here are the proposals which are offered to you. Now, make your choice. But know that you have nothing to fear about death, it is only the beginning of the eternal dream.“
Once the alicorn solemnly concluded her speech, the darkness of the starry sky had faded to announce the incoming dawn.
However, before giving her final verdict, the yellow pegasus wanted to know one last thing. Obsessed and harassed from the beginning of her journey, she now wanted to know what the name Everfree meant. She thought it was the name of the beast she had briefly glimpsed among her diffuse memories.
“Everfree is a forest,“ corrected the alicorn with her two voices, one expressing sadness, the other anger. “Everfree is the last place you have visited, the place which saw the tragedy which brought you here Fluttershy.“
Dawn was dangerously close, but Fluttershy had made up her mind.
To live rather than die.
She was about to politely decline the offer of the alicorn, ready to turn her heels and cross the liquid curtain.
“Wait!“
The alicorn had suddenly spoken with its two voices, one authoritative and the other supplicant, in such a low tone that Fluttershy had no choice but to come closer to hear the rest.
“Fluttershy, my duty is to guide the souls towards their final destination, somewhere free of worries, pain and sadness. As the element of kindness, you have been through so much.“
I… I have?
The lyrics were haunting, the voices were both seductive and manipulative, and Fluttershy was finding it becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate. Her thoughts became confused and she took a few awkward steps towards the unicorn, under the spell of her charm.
“Yes! Yes you have! And I can take all of this away. The land of the eternal dream is way quieter, peaceful, the perfect place for someone like you.“
I… I’m not sure... I should go.
“Why not? Do not be so modest Fluttershy, you deserve your place there. Don’t you feel the call of the eternal dream, this sweet feeling of fatigue? Wouldn’t you like to sleep to make everything go away?”
I… do.
“Then come to me kind one, let us go on our way.“ whispered the alicorn as she reached out her misty hoof to Fluttershy.
Moving forward as if in a dream, the pegasus was almost within reach of the alicorn's embrace.
It was at this moment that Fluttershy fleetingly recalled the image of the blue pegasus. The charm vanished with every blink of her eye. In a flash of lucidity, Fluttershy realized the horror of what she was about to do. She sharply withdrew the hoof she had unconsciously stretched out to the alicorn.
You tricked me!
Fluttershy was outraged when she realized that the fog wolves had sneaked up on her while the alicorn used its charms. The closest ones were standing back a dozen meters from the pegasus ready to jump to devour her.
All the charming sweetness of the alicorn suddenly vanished and its two voices became icy.
“Poor Fluttershy, you almost made the right choice, but your stubbornness just made everything worse. I don’t understand how one could choose to go back to Celestia’s chaotic realm and deny herself the peace that mistress Luna’s dream world can provide. I can’t let you go. No! I won’t allow it!“
It is still my choice!
“Not anymore!“ hissed the alicorn, then she gave the fateful order to her wolves. “Get her!“
The wolves threw themselves forward with their mouths wide-open as Fluttershy turned around and ran towards the big gate.
At that moment, the first rays of sunshine lit up the Arch. The curtain of light flashed furiously and the brightness began to fade. The door was closing.
About twenty meters separated Fluttershy from the door. Most of the pack was behind her, but some wolves went around the arch to trap her viciously. She was surrounded. About ten wolves were now standing between her and the gate. Fluttershy increased the pace, not wanting to give the wolves a chance to swell their ranks.
The first wolf threw himself too hastily at Fluttershy and just missed her. But the second wolf managed to claw her as it passed. Although the fog paw passed through her flank without leaving a physical trace, excruciating pain tore Fluttershy's entrails, forcing her to slow down.
The sudden slow saved her from the claws of two other predators that had thrown themselves into her path with too much hasty momentum. But the fifth and sixth wolves managed to injure the pegasus.
One hurt her hoof and the other bite the flank of the pegasus. The seventh threw himself towards another of Fluttershy’s hoof and she managed in extremis to avoid the predator's mouth.
Only three wolves still stood between Fluttershy and the flashing door, but already the pain was physically incapacitating the pegasus. She was struggling to maintain a steady speed, tortured by her wounds.
She continued to run, however, frightened at the thought of disappearing in the middle of the tide of ravenous wolves.
One of the remaining wolves threw himself on Fluttershy’s left wing. His jaw closed on the wing and bones of the pegasus, which silently screamed in pain. Fluttershy fell out and rolled on her side, barely avoiding a bite to the throat from the second wolf. His jaws snapped in the air, but one of his paws still tore across the pegasus shoulder.
Fluttershy, shaking, quickly straightened up, more injured than ever, and began to run with desperate energy towards the door, which had become incredibly dim.
It would only remain open for a few more seconds.
The gigantic pack was gaining ground and Fluttershy could feel the predator's jaws snapping near her thighs. Two other wolves had rounded the arch and the new trio stood just in front of the door, three meters in front of the pegasus.
There was no more time to lose and, without any finesse, Fluttershy threw herself towards the door in a prodigious leap. The three wolves pounced on her and Fluttershy felt every bite and claw as they went through her.
The pain reached a frightful peak and Fluttershy uttered a long, silent cry as every fiber of her being convulsed with pain. She lost consciousness, but her momentum threw her into the last remnants of the curtain of liquid light.
She heard none of the fog wolves who howled their fury as the door closed on the invisible world.