“Aunt Red. How was your trip to Manehattan?” Hardy asked. He was curious about how his aunt and uncle stayed in Manehattan. It seemed to be simalar to Canterlot as it was busy, bustling, and big.
“How about I tell you in the morning, Hardy? We’ll both be well rested by then.” Replied his aunt before yawning.
“Good idea, aunt Red.” Hardy agreed before letting out a yawn. “Good night, Aunt Red.” He added before giving her a hug good night.
“Good night my dear.” She replied before returning the hug and turning off the lights.
Hardy fell fast asleep because it had been a very busy day for everypony.
“Well... This is it. The final memory and why Fluttershy’s mother had passed.” He said out loud before approaching the only door labeled ‘Final Memory’ it opened as soon as he approached it and a bright light greeted him. When he opened his eyes...
“Mother?” Filly Fluttershy called out, walking into her mother’s room.
Her mother sat on the bed, a knife in her hoof as if she was playing with it. Her hair was messy, unkempt and uncared for. Bags were under her bloodshot eyes and she seemed to be glaring at the knife, as if unhappy with it.
“…M-Mother…” Fluttershy whimpered, walking further into the room, “W-What would y-you like to eat tod-”
“Hahahahahahaha!” Her mother suddenly burst out laughing. Fluttershy halted her movements forward, looking up at her mother in shock. The older mare just seemed to have found some funny.
“Oh…yes…that’ll do nicely…” The older mare smiled once she’d finished laughing, turning her head to grin at her daughter. Fluttershy couldn’t move, afraid of what her mother was about to do.
“Come closer my daughter.” Her mother said, twisting her body closer to the edge of her bed. Fluttershy began to hesitantly move closer to the bed.
“W-why does she have a knife?” Hardy thought.
“I SAID CLOSE-” Fluttershy’s mom began to yell, but suddenly fell from the bed, hitting the ground with a thud.
“Mother!” Fluttershy cried out as she ran to her mother’s side, trying to ensure she was okay.
Her mother groaned, but slowly rolled over onto her other side so that she was facing her daughter. Once she could see her face, a wicked smile crawled onto her face.
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“R-Really!? O-Oh mother, t-that’s good news! I-I have to tell fathe-”
“No, you can’t tell your father yet.” Her mother hissed.
“W-Why not?” Fluttershy asked confused.
“Because…only you…can administer the treatment right now.” Her mother laughed, carefully holding the knife up to Fluttershy, “And you’ll need this to cure me.”
Fluttershy gingerly took the knife in her hooves, staring at it confused.
“I’d do it myself…but I’m far too weak to administer the treatment properly…but you…oh, you can do it just fine.” Her mother laughed, “And you want me to be cured right? Cured…and happy?”
“…O-Of course I do…b-but…w-what do I…” Fluttershy began to ask in confusion, but her mother seemed ready to answer.”
“That’s simple my dear child…You take the knife…and you strike me with it.” Her mother smiled.
'This has to be a side effect of the medicine.' Hardy thought as he couldn't believe what Fluttershy's mother just said.
Fluttershy froze. That didn’t sound right at all. She knew that something as sharp as a knife hurt when you grazed its edge, why would striking her mother cure her illness?
“B-but…mother…that…”
“Are you questioning me?” Her mother glared at her. Fluttershy’s skin jumped at the glare.
“N-No b-but-”
“That SOUNDS like you're questioning me!” Her mother growled. If she could move with any decent strength she’d have smacked her daughter, “I need you to do this for me! Only you can do it right now! You do love me right?”
That pulled on Fluttershy’s heart.
“O-Of course I do mother…”
“Then strike me!” Her mother demanded.
Fluttershy took a gulp as she shakily raised the knife up over her head. She didn’t want to bring it down; her mind was telling her that doing this was wrong; the knife hovered in the air, unable to strike it down.
“Fluttershy…” Her mother spoke quietly, coldly.
“Y-Yes?” Fluttershy whimpered still holding the knife up.
“You said you loved me…but you haven’t struck me with the knife yet…so you lied to me…” Her mother said bitterly.
“N-No, I-I do-“
“Then strike me!” Her mother yelled at her, making Fluttershy almost jump, “Strike me! Love me! You’re going to LOVE ME!” Her mother’s head snapped up off the ground, her mouth open as if to bite down on Fluttershy.
The knife sailed through the air, imbedding itself into her mother’s side.
Hardy could do nothing but look in horror.
“Yes! YES YES! DO IT AGAIN!” She demanded with a yell.
Fluttershy pulled the knife out and slammed it back down into her mother.
“DON’T STOP.” Were the last words Fluttershy heard from her mother.
Hardy muffled a scream of horror by putting a hoof over his mouth.
The knife rose and sank down into the body before her, again and again. Each strike sent blood flying, her fur was being coated, and her mane was drenched.
Each strike sounded deafening, yet it was one of the quietest sounds in the world. It was as if the very knife was screaming at her, but only she could hear the screams of the blade.
She plunged the knife in one last time. She panted, she cried, she shook. Her mother wasn’t moving anymore, she wasn’t speaking, she wasn’t breathing, and she wasn’t warm anymore.
Fluttershy didn’t know what this meant, had she cured her mother like she had asked? Hadn’t she put her through a lot of pain? Was she going to be alright?
“Fluttershy, haven’t you gotten that answer from your mother ye-” Her father walked into the room.
Fluttershy slowly turned, tears streaming down her face, still holding onto the knife, covered in her mother’s blood, sitting before the corpse of her mother.
The air was silent.
Then, her father drew closer.
“F-Father…I…” Fluttershy hiccupped, trying to say something, anything to explain the sight before her father.
However, she was silenced. Her father’s hoof struck her, hard. Her small body was sent sailing across the room and smashed into the wall. She let out a yelp of pain before hitting the ground.
Hardy gasped in shock, he just witnessed the death of Fluttershy’s mother, and Fluttershy being abused.
Her father picked up her mother’s head in his hoof as he began to cry.
There was silence as her father scrubbed away at her coat, washing away the blood that had begun to cake onto her fur. The hot water was managing to get most of it away, but some of it was being stubborn.
He was being hard with the brush, harder than he had ever been before. Fluttershy didn’t speak up though, she couldn’t speak up against it, her heart felt like it was in a million pieces.
“…Do you know what you’ve done?” Her father finally asked.
Fluttershy whimpered her response, she couldn’t say any words.
“…You took your mother from us.” Her father said, as if he was breathing was becoming more ragged, the brush stopping its cleaning. “You took…the most wonderful mare I’d ever known…out of this world…” Her gripped the brush harder, he started to speak through gritted teeth, “You did it so quickly too, I sent you in to help her…and you killed her.”
Fluttershy’s eyes burned with tears. Her father’s words made her heart sting worse.
“…You’re a monster.” He growled.
Without warning he pushed her head down under the water.
Fluttershy scrambled at the unexpected movement, her mouth and nose filling with water as air escaped her lungs. Her hooves flailed as she tried to push herself up out of the water, but the hoof holding her down was too strong.
The air escaped her quickly and her lungs began to burn. She reached for air but it wouldn’t come.
Suddenly, she was lifted up into the air. Instinctively, she took in a big gasp of air, only for her head to be shoved back under the water. She lost her air almost instantly again, her whole body beginning to feel like it was burning from the movements.
This repeated several times, getting a short breath of air only to have it painfully taken away by the water once more. Her struggling had lessened and now she was too weak to push against the water, too tired to try and get air.
The hoof was holding her under the water for good now. Her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as her limbs stopped moving. She couldn’t stay awake any longer.
She was pulled out of the water. Her body gasped and took in the fresh air, before coughing up water that had filled her lungs. She puked slightly as her body tried to reject the water that had attacked her body.
“…No…no just killing you would be too easy.” Her father growled, watching her sputter and gasp for breath, “You need to understand the misery you’ve caused with your love.” Her father let go of her mane, Fluttershy instinctively catching herself on the edge of the bathtub, still recovering as her father walked out.
“I can’t wake up until this is all over.” Hardy managed to say after being at a loss for words.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?” Her father yelled loudly.
Fluttershy dropped the box of cereal she had picked up from the top shelf of the counter, her wings snapping shut to her sides as she fell a few feet before landing on the ground with a thud.
Her father was furious, as he stormed up to her, Fluttershy trying to back away out of fear. Her grabbed her hoof and forced her to eye-level with him.
“What have I TOLD you about FLYING without permission!? You’re NOT allowed to do it! NOT even in the house!” He yelled at her, gripping her hoof hard.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She cried out as tears streamed from her eyes, her hoof hurt like crazy as he gripped it hard.
“I’ve told you before! Bad fillies who DON’T listen to what their told get eaten by Dragons! Do you WANT to get eaten by a dragon!?”
“No! No!” Fluttershy cried out, struggling against his grip.
“Well you’re ATTRACTING a Dragon by flying as a bad filly! You MUST want to be eaten by a Dragon! Why else would you be flying without permission!?” His screams made her ears feel like they wanted to burst.
“No! I don’t want to be eaten by a dragon! I’m sorry!” She cried harder.
“Well, you know what? I think I can HEAR a dragon! He’s already pretty close because you’ve flown! Maybe I should just throw you outside so he can eat you right now!” He hissed and growled.
“NO! NO DADDY PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO BE EATEN!” Fluttershy wailed, afraid for her life.
“Well, if you don’t want to be eaten, then there’s only one thing I can do.” He said tossing his daughter to the ground. The wind escaped her body as she tried to scramble to her feet, only to have her father’s hoof step on her holding her down.
“NO! NO DADDY PLEASE! STOP!” She cried out as pain shot through her back. But it was too late, he wasn’t going to stop.
CRACK
Fluttershy cried louder than she ever had before as her father snapped her wing.
“There, now you won’t be flying for a while, and you won’t attract any dragons.” He simply said stepping off of his wailing daughter, “I snapped it carefully; you’ll be able to fly once it’s healed, but we’ll have to get you to the hospital to put a cast on it.” He said though a grin formed on his face, “Though, only once the Dragon has left.”
Fluttershy barely heard her father’s words past her own screams of agony from the burning pain that echoed from her wing.
The moment that Fluttershy’s father broke her wing, Hardy felt like he could just shout at Fluttershy’s father until his voice was gone.
“…Where did you get that?” Her father asked as filly Fluttershy walked through the door, carrying a candy bar in her mouth.
“Oh…a colt at school gave it to me.” She said quietly, “He said he liked me and wanted me to have it.” She said gently chewing on the end of the bar, savoring the sweet taste.
“Oh…he did, did he?” Her father said walking up to Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked up at her father, taking a step back from him getting so close.
Fluttershy fell to the ground as her father’s hoof hit her hard across the face. The candy bar slid across the room.
“Let me tell you something about boys loving you.” He growled, grabbing Fluttershy by the mane and picking her up, eliciting yelps of pain from the filly, “Colts will only hurt you. They only think of themselves and they want nothing more than to see you suffer.” He grinned wickedly, “After all, look at me. I love you and here I am hurting you.” He said before tossing his daughter across the room, her landing hard against the floor.
Fluttershy cried as she tried to curl up into a ball, not wanting to be hurt anymore.
“But I suppose you must really like being hurt, if you’re going to let a colt like you.” Her father grinned walking up to his daughter, kicking her in the back, causing her to cry out in pain, “Any colt that gets close to you will do nothing but hurt you. So I hope you enjoy this for the rest of your life. I’m sure you’ll find a colt who loves you even more than I do.” Her father laughed before walking off to his study.
Fluttershy whimpered and cried where she curled up, remembering the colt from school who had given her the candy bar.
Hardy was extremely furious he wanted to make that Fluttershy’s father suffer and beg for forgiveness.
Suddenly, her mind filled with anger, hate for the colt who had given her the candy bar. All he wanted to do was hurt her, he wanted to get close to her so that he could make her cry and suffer, just like her father did.
“I…I hate colts…” Fluttershy whimpered out loud. She vowed to herself that she would never like a colt, or let a colt like her, for as long as she lived.