It was beautiful.
No, more than beautiful, this was heaven.
Everything was beyond perfect. The flowers sang in harmony, the grass was waving happily at her, and the sky was so cool and inviting. Her eyes were spinning as she tried to take in all the beauty around her. But then, her eyes had been spinning for a while now.
As she floated by a row of dancing houses, she felt her lips start to tingle with a pleasant electricity. Giggling she lifted a hoof and started to flick them idly. She even made a babyish buzzing sound as she did so; almost giggling as the vibrations of her voice made her lips tingle even more.
She couldn’t remember what she had been doing before all this wonderfulness had started, or even who she had been. All she knew now was that she simply was. Or rather wasn’t. At times she seemed to be everywhere at once; watching, listening, drinking in and even breathing the beauty that surrounded her, while other times she seemed to be nowhere at all. Just a blissful thought in a sea of marvelous void. It didn’t matter to her. Whether she was here or there wasn’t relevant as long as she still surrounded by this amazing wonderfulness.
As she continued to float along with no real destination, she came across something not entirely beautiful. It looked dark for one thing, nothing like the amazing palette of pastels and neon’s she was enjoying, and it was also moving slowly, dragging its feet with its head down. How could it look so sad? Didn’t it notice all the amazing things around it? Why was it ignoring the pretty cloud hovering over its head that was showering it in deliciousness? Whatever it was, it was weird, and it would probably be best to just ignore it.
As she passed by the strange creature she continued to play with her lips, trying to lose herself in that funny electrical feeling. She tried not to look at it, tried focus her attention everywhere but on that odd grey thing that was ruining the scenery, but as she drifted away from it she felt something stir in her… whatever that thing was that connected her neck and forelegs together was called. It was a strange sort of feeling. A bad sort of feeling. It was telling her to go back and try to help the weird creature, make it feel better and take care of it. She felt warmth on her flank and she slowly turned her head to look at her cutie mark. It seemed blurry, indistinct; as if something were trying to smear it up so it looked like something else. She frowned pushing away the bad feeling until her flank was clear and cool again, showing proudly the screw and baseball that adorned her plum colored coat.
Just as it should be. Shouldn’t it?
She shook her head to clear away the doubt, and after a minute the word “doubt” fell right out of her ear and scurried away on tiny feet. There, all better.
Her mind free of distractions again, she continued to lazily float along, passing houses and fountains and other pretty things.
Life was wonderful
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Life was terrible.
Something was wrong. That grey thing from earlier was back, and it had changed. She had seen it come out of a very ugly house a week ago (or was it an hour?), and it was no longer grey. It was also very dangerous. It wasn’t like her beautiful world. It was ugly and cruel. She had seen it change other grey things like it had been into monsters like it was now, and they terrified her. The monsters radiated with something, something bad that tarnished her world’s beauty.
Her bicycle pump, (or was it called a heart?) froze as she realized that terrible thing was coming closer. She could hear the sounds it made over the music around her like the crash of thunder. She could make out at least two or three more of those things with it, too. Fear rushed through her. What if they were coming for her? Coming to turn her into one of those awful things? There was nowhere for her to hide, and nowhere for miles, (or was it inches) that she could run to. Going off of base instinct, she turned herself into a potted shrub. The perfect disguise for an open country road.
As she complemented herself on her ingenious plan, she heard the creatures coming near.
“I just can’t possible apologize enough to you, my dears,” one of the things was saying. “I was simply monstrous, especially to you Applejack! I do hope you can forgive that kick I gave you.”
The thing with that hat laughed, its voice harsh and resounding like a line of cannons being fired.
“Aw, don’t worry none about it, Rare. None of us was acting right in the head, ‘cept Twilight here.” The purple monster turned slightly red as the orange monster gestured at it with one of the terrible clubs it was walking on. “Cides, Ah’ve had worse in my little scuffles with R.D. Though Ah’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed. Maybe I ought’a have you help out with applebucking season next year?”
The thing with the hat laughed horribly again as the eyes of the white creature rolled sickeningly in their sockets. As they passed by her hiding place, the fourth monster, a fearsome looking yellow thing with wings, stopped to look at her pot. The other three stopped quickly too.
“What is it Fluttershy?” the purple thing asked, looking back at its fellow and the slightly trembling potted shrub.
“Oh, um, I’m sorry,” the yellow thing said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to hold everypony up.” The creature quickly rejoined its fellows and together they continued on their way. As soon as they were out of sight, the potted plant dissolved instantly back into the shape of a pony, which rolled onto the ground clutching its potato sack, (or was it its head?) The yellow thing’s voice echoed through her mind, burning away at the wonderful bliss she clung to like a dragon’s flame. Memories tried to surface, memories she fought with all her might to push back. She didn’t want to remember anything before the beauty, but that terrible, echoing voice dragged something to the surface.
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“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help, Fluttershy,” the white earth pony said, her voice sincere as she watched the timid pegasus close her saddle bags. “I’m afraid that’s just all we can spare right now. This season is always a bad time for chest colds and flu for ponies, but I didn’t know it was a dangerous season for rabbits too.”
The veterinarian smiled weakly back at her. “Oh, Angel’s always gotten bad allergies in the spring. At first we thought that’s all it was, until… until he started to have trouble breathing. I tried hot soup, steam baths, he even tried some of my special herbal tea, but he just keeps getting weaker and weaker… He couldn’t even get out of bed when I left to see you…”
Fluttershy's voice cracked as the tears began to flow. The nurse was over her desk and had her hooves around the sobbing pony in a second.
“Shhhhh, Fluttershy, you can’t fall apart now,” the mare whispered to her friend, her voice just barely audible over the sobs of the pony in her hooves. “You’ve got a very important patient who needs you right now, and you can’t help him if you’re crying too hard to find your way home.” The earth pony pulled away and took the vet’s face gently in her hooves. “Come on now, you have to be strong.”
The pegasus blinked at her, sniffling and wiping her nose. “You’re right,” she agreed, trying to clean herself up and make some attempt to seem brave. “You’re right. I can’t fall apart now. I need to get this medicine back to Angel right away!”
“Remember, just two drops at most,” the Nurse cautioned. “This is powerful medicine for a foal, and I’m not sure how much can safely be used on a rabbit.”
Fluttershy nodded and went to hug the earth pony one last time before leaving. “Thank you, Nurse Redheart. You’re… you’re a real friend.”
As the pegasus pulled away and flew out the door towards her home, the Head Nurse of the Ponyville Medical Center watched her leave with sad eyes. She waved weakly at the beautiful retreating form of the kindhearted vet as she disappeared into the fading evening light.
Nurse Redheart let out a defeated sigh as she let her face and head drop. “Just let her go, Serenity,” she mumbled to herself, using her first name. “She’s probably not even into mares anyway.”
As the Head Nurse stood up and went back behind her desk to finish her paperwork, she didn’t notice that a third pony had been watching her from just around the corner. Mostly out of sight, but still close enough to have heard everything that had been said. The plum colored earth pony stared with one quivering blue eye peeked around the corner as she realized that the love of her life, her secret crush and boss for two years, had eyes for another mare.