~✩~ Chapter 3 ~✩~
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~✩~ Feeding the Hungry ~✩~
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The doors leading to the castle's map room slammed open and the trio of enraged ponies shoved Rainbow Dash inside. The doors were slammed shut with enough force to make the floor vibrate once they were all inside. A light blue magic corona engulfed Rainbow and threw her into the crystal throne with her cutie mark engraved into it.
“Ow! What the hay was that for?” Rainbow grunted while righting herself into a proper sitting position.
Rarity stomped a hoof on the castle's crystalline floor with a frustrated huff. “You know the exact reason it was for! You're just lucky I didn't make it even harder, you –“
“That's enough, Rarity,” stated Twilight sternly while throwing a wing out in front of Rarity to stop her advance toward Rainbow.
“Thank you, Twilight. At least somepony is actually –“
“You stay quiet. I'm just as angry with you as everypony else. I just don't want anypony to do anything more they will regret,” Twilight cut Rainbow off while making her way to her own throne as the others did.
Applejack unceremoniously dropped herself into her throne after Twilight and Rarity took their seats. She shot another glare towards Rainbow, the same one she had been carrying the entire trek back from Fluttershy's cottage. Though she chose not to speak right then, she made sure not to hide just how angry she was as it almost tangibly radiated off of her.
Twilight gave one more glance around the table. Rarity and Applejack still had their angry glares aimed right at Rainbow who merely stared down at the map in a manner almost akin to a foal caught doing something she wasn't supposed to by her parent. The sight put a small twinge of guilt into Twilight's heart, but she forced herself to push through it. She knew this was necessary, even if she hated getting mad at her friends.
She took in a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, so I suppose the burning question on everypony's mind right now would be –“
“Why in all of bloody Equestria would you think a prank such as that would be a good idea? Tell me what was going through your mind that requires such a powerful lapse of judgment!” Rarity all but demanded while striking the map with a hoof. “Honestly!”
Rainbow flinched at the sound of hoof against crystal in a manner more akin to Fluttershy than herself. Though the angle made her colorful mane block the majority of the top half of her face, a collection of tears in the corner of her right eye were more than enough to see her reaction. Her mouth slowly opened before shutting again without a single word or sound.
Rarity stood on her throne with both of her forehooves on the map with added frustration at being ignored. “Answer me, Rainbow Dash!”
Twilight flashed her magic corona in preparation to pull Rarity back into her seat if she was forced to. “Rarity! Calm down! We won't get anywhere by –“
“She really was dead.” Rainbow's voice was barely audible over Twilight's own, but it was enough to make her pause.
Twilight turned her attention back to Rainbow once Rarity was back in her seat. “What was that?”
“She was dead, I swear it,” repeated Rainbow, shaking as if every muscle in her entire body was clenching at once.
That prompted another strike at the table, though this one was stronger than before. Applejack was leaned forward with a hoof holding her front half up. “You can cut that out right this minute! We saw her with our own eyes! All of us did! Now how about you just come clean and admit y'all were lying already?”
In an instant, all of that fear that had been showing on Rainbow vanished to be replaced by rage. She rose from her seat and slammed both of her hooves down on the table in front of her at a force that made Twilight worry she may have left some chips behind. “I'm not lying! She was dead! Fluttershy was dead! I was holding onto her to try and help her and she died while lying against me! I haven't felt anything like that before and I don't want to ever feel it again!”
Applejack matched Rainbow's position, once again prompting Twilight to prepare for a separation. “Then explain to us just how she's up and walking and talking and being her usual self!”
The response broke whatever eggshell-thin mask Rainbow had just put on, her expression turning closer to neutral as the tears in her eyes started to roll down her cheeks in full. “I don't know. I really don't know, but I swear I'm not lying.”
“Rainbow,” Twilight started, pulling all eyes towards her rather than just those of the one she addressed. “You can't possibly believe Fluttershy was dead at any point between Applejack last seeing her and when you came to get us, can you? Somepony's heart doesn't just start beating on its own again without assistance.”
“Not to mention, she's looking much healthier today than when I stopped by last night,” stated Applejack in a calmer tone after Twilight appeared to set a level-headed approach to the conversation. “and last time I checked, dying isn't good for your health.”
Rainbow dropped, face pressed into the map while her forelegs wrapped around her head. “I know what it looks like and I'm so happy that she's somehow not dead, but I know what I saw. You just have to believe me.”
The sight of her friend looking so defeated made Twilight deflate a little. She allowed a silence to hang in the air while searching her mind for any proper way to respond. Instead, she let a sigh escape. “I don't think we're going to be able to get anywhere while all of our emotions are running so high. Rainbow, go home. I'll talk to you on my own later, alright?”
Rarity almost spoke up, but a raised hoof from Twilight made her begrudgingly close her mouth again. The three who would stay in the room all remained silent while watching Rainbow slowly pick herself up and drop to the floor. Her head hung low as she slowly walked for the door rather than fly like she usually did. The moment as one of the double doors opened and closed made the silence all that more deafening.
Twilight turned her gaze back to Rarity and Applejack once they were left alone. “As for you two, stay here. I'm not going to let you two go storming through town. I want you to stay in this castle until you cool off a little, okay?”
Once the object of her rage was no longer in her sight, Rarity began to steadily deflate with what at least appeared to be a mixture of realization and regret taking the place of her previous glare. “Understood.”
“I understand,” stated Applejack despite her anger more stubbornly sticking with her.
Twilight nodded. “Good. Though what Rainbow did was completely uncalled for and we've all been pretty tense lately, she doesn't deserve to be screamed at like that. I'm sure I'll be able to find her reasoning in time.”
* * *
Applejack grunted once the final crate was in place, tucked away in the back end of the barn for safe keeping. She took a few steps back to look over her work and nodded in approval. Zap apple jam season was always a pain, but it at least helped distract her from the memories of that meeting in the castle earlier that week.
“Alright, I think that's all of it. Thanks for the help with keeping everything organized, Twi,” Applejack said with a smile while turning her eyes to her friend seated on the floor off to the side with a clipboard and pen held in her magic.
Twilight offered a smile in return. “Of course! I know how important the zap apple harvest season is for your family. If I can play some small part to help make things run more smoothly, then I'll gladly do what I can.”
Applejack kept the smile, though it was admittedly forced to stay there. She cantered over to the barn's door and closed it tight before letting the facade fall once she was sure no pony else could see her. Trotting back over to Twilight, she sat her flank down on the ground next to her with a sigh. “Hey Twi, while you're here, can I confide something in ya?”
Twilight lowered the clipboard amid what was most likely her third re-checking of the information on it and gave a curious stare. “Of course you can. Is something bothering you?”
“Well, yeah. It's about Fluttershy,” Applejack admitted. “I'm happy she's all mostly back to normal now, but something just doesn't feel right about all this. It just feels like she's been getting better too quickly.”
Twilight blinked. “Well, spontaneous recoveries are a thing that can sometimes happen. Like the body somehow shored up all its strength at once.”
“That's just the thing, Twi. I saw her myself back before that incident with Rainbow. She could hardly even speak, let alone move.” Applejack scratched at the side of her head. “I just can't see how somepony can be all up and walking around just the day after looking like that.”
Twilight frowned, setting the clipboard on top of a nearby crate. “Are you saying you'd rather still have her bedridden?”
Applejack could feel herself freeze up at that particular question. “No, of course not! I'm just saying that it's feeling just a bit unnatural to me is all. I don't know how pegasi handle being sick and all that, but whenever I or one of my family members has been sick, it takes a while.”
“I suppose you're right,” Twilight admitted with a little sigh. “I'd be lying if I said I thought the same thing at first, but she made it all the way to sundown today with Rarity watching her with no urgent calls, so she must be alright. Let's just be thankful for that.”
Applejack shook her head, but relented. “Alright, I'll try not to get too worried about it, I guess. Maybe she was just running herself too ragged and she finally got her energy back.”
“That's the spirit!” Twilight said with a smile that got Applejack to give a more genuine one in return, even if it was small. “If you need to talk about anything, the castle's always open. Speaking of which, I should probably get heading home since it's getting pretty late and I want to stop by the boutique to ask Rarity how Fluttershy's doing since she should be back by now.”
Applejack nodded. “Thanks again, and stay safe out there. Not sure why, but something about the air at night lately has been making me a slight bit uneasy.”
Twilight chuckled and rose to her hooves. “I'll make sure I'm careful. See you around!”
Applejack gave a friendly wave as Twilight left through the door. She sighed and leaned against a crate of jam. “Maybe Twi's right and I really am fretting about nothing.”
* * *
Fluttershy waved a hoof to see Rarity off, soft smile on her face. The moment her friend was out of sight, she slammed her door closed and hurried for her kitchen. She threw open her refrigerator and grabbed as many of the vegetables inside as she could hold at once. Unable to wait long enough to even take the few steps requited to get to the table, she sat herself down in the middle of the floor to start shoveling her procured foods into her mouth. Even what would normally be saved only for her animal friends were devoured as quickly as she could.
No matter how much she desperately ate, she couldn't get the hunger to go away. Despite the wonderful dinner Rarity had made for her, the hours after it were mostly spent by her trying to ignore the feeling that she needed more. She hardly even remembered a word of their conversation as she sat there desperately forcing vegetable after vegetable into her mouth.
Not long after she began her desperate binge, she was forced onto her side from a sharp pain deep inside her belly. Her stomach had reached all it could take and she could no longer add any more in as her body screamed at her to stop. Despite the new screams, the old ones continued just as loudly. Even as she lay there in pain and stuffed like a Hearthswarming pie, she still felt hungry and it only got worse with every tick of the clock coming from her living room.
Cold tears borne from pain and frustration rolled down her cheeks. She should have told Rarity what she was feeling, but with what she had just been through before, it would only put even more stress on them. At least all of the animals were asleep so they wouldn't have to see her in such a pathetic state. She had just gotten better from one problem and now had to face an even worse one. At least when she was sick in bed, she could sleep through it. Now, she could hardly sleep at all with the constant need to eat.
“Well, if this isn't a familiar sight.”
Fluttershy's ears shot up. With how painfully full her stomach currently was, sitting up to look around proved to be its own struggle. Once she got there, however, she could only stare in confusion. Standing in the little archway leading into the kitchen from the living room stood a familiar white and gray mare.
She could only manage one word in that moment as she blinked away the tears blurring her vision. “Scarlet?”
Scarlet Rose took a few steps closer, though all Fluttershy could focus on was the look of morbid amusement that replaced the kind smile she had come to grow familiar with. “I came to see how you were faring, my dear, but I can already see that for myself.”
Fluttershy could only shrink away from Scarlet when she drew closer. Other than the clear expression, she couldn't put her hoof on what was different, but the almost grandmotherly air typically around Scarlet was completely gone. Instead, a much heavier feeling followed her.
“Up.”
Fluttershy paused. “What?”
“Get up, let's get all of that out of you so I can give you what you need.”
Before Fluttershy could react, a pair of hooves were already forcing her up off the ground with much greater strength than should have been possible for the older mare in front of her. Due to the pain deep in her belly, she couldn't find any of her own strength to fight back and she quickly found herself pinned against her counter, staring down into her kitchen sink. It only took a second for her brain to register what was about to happen, but even that single second was too late and a powerful strike came to her midsection.
Despite her body's natural reflexes to keep everything inside, all of the half-chewed vegetables and what was left of her dinner with Rarity, rushed back up to the bottom of the sink. With pained gasps and gags, she doubled over onto the ground and curled into a little ball. Even when the pain inflicted to her faded surprisingly quickly, she didn't loosen her posture.
“I apologize for that, my dear, but you can't afford to wait for the longer option,” stated Scarlet in a cold tone that felt foreign coming from the mare who had only shown Fluttershy care up to that night.
Fluttershy didn't speak in response. Instead, she merely tried to hide behind her mane and hope she wouldn't get struck again.
Scarlet sighed. “I should have come to you sooner, but I knew a pony as soft and kind as you would need more than just my words to convince you to hunt for what you need.”
Fluttershy flinched away from the words. All she could see were images in her head of herself saying the wrong thing, only to get struck by another angry hoof. She just hoped her silence would make Scarlet leave.
“Please stop hiding like that, dear. I have what you need to solve that hunger you're feeling,” Scarlet stated in a calm tone of voice that made Fluttershy's ear swivel towards the direction of the voice. “That's right, I know about that and there's only one thing that can take care of it. I can give it to you, but you need to sit up and look at me.”
Fluttershy hesitated, but the pain in her stomach, the one not caused by a hoof, forced her to comply with the promise of making it leave. With shaking limbs, she slowly uncurled herself and sat with her back against the counter for support.
Scarlet gave an approving nod. “That's a good dear.”
Before Fluttershy could ask what would solve her hunger, Scarlet reached into one of the saddlebags at her side and dropped a clear pouch in front of her filled with something red. It only took Fluttershy a moment after reading the stamp of Ponyville's hospital to realize it was an IV bag and even less time after that to figure out just what was inside of it. Once she did, she scrambled into the corner right up against the cold metal casing of her refrigerator to get as far away from the pouch of blood as possible.
“That's exactly the reaction I expected out of you. It really was for the best I waited,” stated Scarlet in the relaxed tone of a pony who hadn't just dropped a pint of blood on the floor. “It's far from fresh, but it will stop you from feeling the pain you feel.”
Fluttershy kept her eyes on the bag with wide, terrified eyes. It took all of her strength just to patch up wounds on her animal friends, but seeing that much blood just sitting in a bag on her floor overwhelmed her. The only things that kept her from fleeing the room entirely were the promise of relief for the all-invading hunger within her and a sensation of attraction towards it itching at her from the deepest reaches of her mind.
“You can either drink that, feel better and grow stronger, or you can leave it there and die again before the night is up. I'll leave the decision up to you, my dear,” said Scarlet plainly as she turned away to take her leave. “I have another I must visit now. Take care, and I hope you make the right choice.”
Fluttershy turned her eyes up and away from the pouch to watch Scarlet disappear behind the wall. Only when she heard the front door open and close did she look back at the bag filled with blood. She tried to stand up to get away from it, but the growing cramp deep inside of her forced her back down to the tile floor.
A new voice began to creep in from the back of her mind. She tried to scratch at her head to get it to stop or hold her hooves over her ears so she wouldn't have to hear it, but what started as a whisper in the wind steadily grew into a demanding yell that forced her to pin her forehead to the ground just so she wouldn't have to see that red pouch just a couple feet away from her in hopes that would somehow help.
Her hind hooves scratched at the floor below her while her forehooves gripped her head even tighter. “No! I can't do something like that! It's – I can't!”
“You must! It's for your own good. No pony will have to know.”
Fluttershy jumped and frantically looked around for the source of the voice, but she was still as alone in the room as she had been when Scarlet left her. She only continued scratching at her head after. “No! I can't! I'm not, I'm not a monster!”
“A monster? Is a snake a monster for eating a mouse to stay alive?”
Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut in some vain attempt at blocking out the voice coming from within her own head. “No.”
“Then you are no monster for doing the same. You have simply become the snake. There's no reason to act like a mouse anymore.”
Fluttershy could feel the walls she had been attempting the build up start to crack and crumble around her. The voice in her head and the pain radiating from her core steadily seeping out in all directions worked in tandem to corner her. She could feel her safe bubble pop from within.
In that singular moment of weakness, the desires burning in the back of her mind raced in to take over everything inside her. She threw herself forward and pulled the blood bag into her hooves. In that moment as she rolled the bag around in her hooves, it felt as if her body was moving on its own, like she was an observer rather than the one actually performing the actions herself.
She held the pouch closer to her face, and with an instinct she didn't fully comprehend, she chose to bite it rather than using the spout at the end. A pair of sharp teeth she had sworn weren't there just moments prior pierced the thin plastic making up the blood bag and steadily took the cold liquid into her mouth. The coppery taste wasn't entirely unfamiliar to her as memories of lost teeth from her foalhood came to mind, but instead of feelings of pain and discomfort, the taste this time brought a shiver of morbid joy that ran through her entire being.
The pain and hunger that had been with her for days steadily vanished the more she drank, and once the blood bag was drained of every little drop inside of it, she lowered it back down. The feeling of her body moving on its own no longer filled her, and instead she felt just like her normal self again. Tiredness, hunger, pain, weakness, all of it gone and she finally felt like she should: completely normal.
It was only then in that moment of calm that her heart sank and a different feeling came from the pit of her stomach. She slowly looked down at the emptied blood bag in her hooves and as the realization of what she had just done crept in, she let loose a scream louder than she ever had in her life. She threw the plastic remains as far away from herself as possible and returned to the corner she had been cowering in before. Scream after scream erupted from her throat, even as once-sleeping animals rushed into the kitchen to try and calm her.
None of the little paws or wings batting at her made her flinch. At least the ones that even registered with her mind at all. Instead, the world slowly faded around her until everything turned to black and the shock to her mind caused her to fall onto the floor unconscious.
* * *
Fluttershy sat up with a heavy gasp, letting the blanket that had been on top of her fall away. A quick scan of the room revealed she was no longer in her kitchen and instead in a bedroom surrounded by walls made of a smooth blue crystals, rougher purple crystals acting as columns in the corners. In the center of the room, laying on the rug and a collection of pillows lay four of her friends, each having fallen asleep at some point during her own slumber. The fifth, Rainbow Dash, remained awake, though her eyes were currently focused on the Daring Do book she was using to keep herself awake.
“How did I...” She allowed her words to trail off, though the little bit of noise got Rainbow's attention to shoot up from the book.
Rainbow hurriedly set the book aside and stepped around their sleeping friends to get to the bed. “Oh thank Celestia you're okay. Angel hopped all the way into town and managed to catch Twilight while she was still outside and she said she found you out cold, so she brought you here to keep you close by in case we need to call the hospital again. What the hay happened?”
Fluttershy stared at Rainbow. Anything that may have been said after that went right past her as the memories of what she had done returned in full. She opened her mouth to speak, to confess to everything, but no words came out. As hard as she tried, as much as she wanted to admit to drinking that blood and tell Rainbow and the others what she did and who had made her do it, the words died in her throat with each attempt. Instead, she allowed those sad, frustrated tears fall once again.
“Whoa, hey! Don't cry! Did I do something wrong again?” Rainbow groaned, awkwardly shifting as if she didn't know what to do with herself.
Fluttershy allowed herself to fall forward where Rainbow caught her in a loose hug. She didn't answer the question and instead continued to cry into her friend's chest as nervous little strokes of a hoof ran over the back of her head.