Fluttershy’s eyes shot open as she was abruptly awoken by the entire world violently shaking and a loud boom in the distance. With her eyes now wide open, she noticed just how bright it was, as if the sun had intensified tenfold.
What’s going on?!
She thought frantically to herself before being knocked out of bed by another violent tremor. After gaining her footing she galloped over to her window and when she peered out her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Instead of another nice summer day like she was expecting, she was greeted with what could only be described as absolute Tartarus. The sky was this horrible mix of blood-red and orange, as if the sky itself were on fire. It matched very well with the Everfree which actually was on fire. What was left of it anyway. Most of the forest was just gone, being replaced by hundreds of craters, some larger than her entire cottage, with what trees that did remain being burned to charcoal.
Then there were the animals.
There were hundreds, strewn all across the ground. It was an absolute bloodbath. Some had been burnt to a crisp while others were just indistinguishable pieces of flesh and bone, but most of them were simply lifeless corpses, still twitching as if the world were playing a sick joke on her. The smell of burning flesh and blood was nearly enough to make her vomit. She couldn’t handle looking at it anymore. She backed away from the window and plopped down hard on her rump. The tears were now flowing freely and she became a hysterical mess.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
She was brought out of her bawling by harsh slamming on her door. Even though it had brought her tears to a stop, she was still shaking horribly, and this time it wasn’t from the tremors that continued to come in waves. Her mind was swirling with ideas. What if whatever had caused all of this death and destruction was there for her now? She cowered in the corner until whatever was at her door slammed on the door again.
“Fluttershy! Come on, we need to go NOW!”
Silver!
Recognizing the voice of her older sister, she bolted down the stairs and opened the door, “Oh Silver, I’m so ha-”
She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the state her sister was in. Silver looked like she was at death’s door. She was wearing her armor, at least what was left of it, and it looked like it had almost melted to her body. Half of her mane had been burned off and her scalp was a charred mess. It looked like her wings had been completely ripped off, the stumps still leaking blood. In the place of her left eye was an empty socket, though she barely noticed it past the blood covering that side of her face. Her right front leg had been broken so badly that the bone was jutting out of the skin. Fluttershy had gone so pale that her coat had practically become as white as Rarity’s.
“Silver, w-what’s going on? What happened to you? Where’s Iron?” Fluttershy was starting to get frantic, her mind unable to process anything at the moment. Her sister looked at her with tears streaming out of her good eye.
“Iron’s dead Fluttershy. Whatever that thing was, it completely destroyed us and ripped Iron apart. He’s nothing but a pile of flesh now!” Silver started screaming in sorrow, she was only being held up by pure adrenaline at the moment. She forced herself to refocus, though the tears were still flowing like a raging river.
“Fluttershy, you’re the only one I have left and I had to make sure you were safe so please, just come with me and let's get out of here.” she was practically begging at this point.
“O-ok, Silver, I’ll go but what about my friends? Maybe we can get the Elements and-” Fluttershy tried to say but was interrupted by Silver’s quivering voice.
“That won’t work.” her voice was trembling and Fluttershy was only getting more concerned. She had never seen her sister this scared before. “I don’t know about Rainbow or Rarity, but Applejack and Pinkie are piles of ash and Twilight is spread all throughout town.” Silver was barely able to speak at that point. Fluttershy was doing so much worse. She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t scream, she just stood there completely frozen.
“Please Shy, let’s just-”
BOOM
They were interrupted and sent flying by Fluttershy’s cottage suddenly exploding by a fireball crashing into it. At first Fluttershy felt nothing, and then she was overcome with unimaginable pain. The blast had sent her crashing hard into the ground. Both of her wings were completely shattered and she had the clear taste of blood in her mouth. When she tried to open her eyes she found that one of them had swelled shut and she could feel large splinters embedded all over her body. She looked and found that her flank had a nasty gash right across her cutie mark.
With a monumental effort she was able to stand back. She slowly made her way to the crater that had once been her home, but when she looked into the center of the crater she finally emptied the contents of her stomach. There in the center of the crater was a charred pegasus corpse. It was burnt so badly that it was almost unrecognizable. Except for the few strands of rainbow colored mane that were left unburnt.
“Fluttershy…” she barely heard the soft whisper and remembered that she wasn’t the only one caught in the explosion.
She started searching as frantically as her injured body would allow her but it didn’t take long for her to find who she was looking for. She almost wished she hadn’t.
“No…”
Silver was sprawled on the ground before her, also having splinters embedded in her body. Her previous broken leg had been completely ripped off by a combination of the explosion and rough landing and was absolutely gushing blood now. None of that was what caught Fluttershy’s attention. What caught her attention was the massive shard of glass in her neck.
“No, no, no, no, no…” she frantically tried to deny the state her sister was in as she rushed to her side, adrenaline subduing her own pain. She tried frantically to stop the bleeding, the only sound she could hear was the gurgling breaths of her dying sister.
It was no use. Fluttershy could only break down into more tears as she saw the life finally leave Silver's eyes.
“Why?! Why are you doing this?!” Fluttershy screamed to the heavens. Her grief had turned to a rare instant of pure rage for the shy mare. She was ready to fight whatever had done this to her loved ones and her home, not even caring for her own life anymore.
“Hmhmhmhmhm.”
She could hear a low, menacing chuckle and suddenly everything was absorbed into an endless black void. All the dead bodies and apocalyptic landscape were gone, yet Fluttershy felt this place was somehow worse. Before her very eyes a massive shadow formed that was somehow even darker than the void itself. In the shadow were two piercing yellow eyes that peered straight into her soul.
“Poor little pony,” the shadow spoke in a malevolent voice that was low but distinctly feminine, “I show you your future and you repay my gift with rage? For shame.” The shadow didn’t actually sound disappointed, if anything it sounded amused.
Fluttershy’s grief and anger were forgotten, as they were replaced by a truly primal fear. Something in the deepest depths of her mind told her to run, to fear this shadow, or more specifically what hid within this shadow, above all else.
“W-what are you?” she was somehow able to mutter out through her fear. Suddenly six silver scythes shot out of the shadow, three on each side.
“Death.”
It shot forward at Fluttershy and she could only scream.
Terra’s eyes shot open at the sound of an ear-splitting screech coming from down the hall from what he could only assume to be Fluttershy’s room. Not wanting to waste a second of time, he shot out of the bed and rocketed his large frame down the hall. He made his way to the room the screaming had come from, though at this point it had devolved into equally hysterical crying. He crashed through the door like it was a piece of wet tissue paper on a humid day, any thoughts on politeness left at said shattered door.
“Fluttershy, what’s wro-” He stopped before he could finish the sentence.
It was still a couple of hours until Celestia brought the sun up so it was almost impossible to see anything in the darkness. Yet, somehow, he could see Fluttershy as clear as day as if her body was softly glowing, and the sight made him freeze. She still had tears streaming down her face, though his sudden and maybe just a bit bombastic entrance appeared to have shocked her into silence. He could see her teal eyes were now red and puffy and her nose had been rubbed raw, most likely from her constantly trying to clear it.
“T-T-Terra?” Fluttershy finally spoke out.
Hearing her soft voice broke him out of his shock and he quickly made his way over to her. When he got to her he wrapped her in a tight and comforting embrace, though he was careful with her broken wing, while whispering comforting words in his warm voice.
“Hey, hey, it’s ok, I’m here. Nothing is going to happen.”
As he talked she buried her face into his chest and her crying began anew. Even with the traumatic nightmare still fresh in her mind she was able to find some comfort and safety in his strong embrace and warm voice.
He knew it was probably pointless trying to ask what caused her to become so distressed at the moment, so he set himself to just keeping her in his comforting embrace. He figured she would talk when she was ready.
After a little bit she seemed to finally run out of tears and her shaking died down to a light tremor. He decided it was safe to talk again.
“Fluttershy, what happened?” he asked in as soft a voice as he could manage.
She pulled away a bit from him so that she could look into the only soft part of his gigantic body; his large silver eyes that seemed to glow like two full moons in the darkness. Her bottom lip trembled as she spoke in a shaky voice.
“O-oh Terra, i-it was just a-awful,” she managed to stutter out, “there was fire and bodies everywhere, my friends were all dead and Silver… she tried to help me but then…” she buried her head in his chest once more as the tears returned in full. He didn’t need her to finish her thought. He had a pretty good guess of what had happened.
“Then everything vanished and I was in this dark void that just felt wrong. And that horrible shadow…” she shuddered, “it was like death itself.”
Fluttershy suddenly felt Terra tense for the briefest of seconds. She looked up to see him staring vacantly into the distance with wide eyes. This was a look she hadn’t expected to see on him and it was enough to shock her a bit out of her distressed state. She was about to try and get his attention and ask what was wrong but before she could get the words out he shook his head vigorously and looked down at her. She could see the familiar warm smile but she could also see a great deal of worry in his eyes.
“Fluttershy, did that shadow… speak to you?” he asked and she could see his smile waver a little.
“Actually yes, why do you ask?” she asked, more than a little confused.
“Did it sound like a female with a low, menacing voice that felt almost like ice?” he asked.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “How did you know that?”
He took a very deep breath before answering, “Because I heard the same voice during my nightmare yesterday.”
He began telling her about his nightmare again, except he didn’t leave out any details. As he talked her face only became more shocked. She went a little pale when he explained that she was actually the one he was unable to protect, though he thankfully didn’t go into detail at just how gory said death was. Tonight had been traumatic enough for the poor mare.
Fluttershy was actually handling the information quite well. That’s what it looked like on the outside anyway. On the inside her mind was moving a million miles a second. She had a feeling he hadn’t told them all of the details earlier but now that she had been proven right she understood why he hid the details in the first place.
“What does it mean?” she finally said after a minute.
“I don’t know, but it can’t be a coincidence.”
Even Terra’s stoicism was starting to crack a bit. He thought his nightmare, as horrible as it was, was just that. A nightmare. However, after what Fluttershy just told him about her own nightmare, he was starting to see some similarities. And he didn’t like that. Memories aside, he still had instincts and they were screaming at him that something was very wrong with all of this.
He then felt a light trembling and fresh wetness on his chest that broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down to see Fluttershy softly crying into his chest again, the stress of everything getting to her once again. His face softened at the sight and he gently tightened his embrace, having decided that the canary mare had gone through enough for one night. It didn’t take too long for her soft sobbing to subside only to be replaced by light breathing.
“Fluttershy?”
Not getting an answer he looked down to find that she had fallen asleep. He smiled at the sight and went to leave, but was stopped when she tightened her grip. He was still surprised by the strength of this mare.
“Please don’t leave.” she softly muttered, still asleep.
Her voice was as soft as a light breeze but it was like roaring thunder to Terra’s ears. He looked down at the butter yellow pegasus snuggled closely against his chest and he could feel the softness of her coat and the warmth emanating from her body. She looked so small the way she was curled up and even though her mane was a mess, at that moment she finally seemed to be at peace. He couldn't help but find her soft snores kind of cute. As the moonlight reflected off her seemingly glowing body he found a warmth in his heart and he couldn’t help but smile before tightening his embrace.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
A small, unconscious smile began to crease the sleeping mare’s face.
As the two succumbed to slumber they couldn’t see that the subtly glowing light surrounding Fluttershy hadn’t been a figment of Terra’s imagination and that it spread to surround the red giant’s body before dissipating. Darkness once again filled the cottage, the soft glow of the moon the only source of light.
As the sun began to peak above the horizon a train rumbled on the tracks to Ponyville. On that train was a familiar young alicorn with a lavender coat and a penchant for making friends.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was staring out the window at the lovely landscape traveling past her at a hundred miles per hour. She was usually an early riser and liked her mornings and how the sun’s light touched the landscape in a warm orange. They usually brought peace to her constantly working mind, but it just wasn’t doing the trick this time. The last few days, and the horrible things she witnessed, were still fresh in her mind.
Celestia asked her to investigate a small town in the south that had been attacked. This wasn’t the first odd attack to happen, there had been many in the Crystal Empire recently, but it was the first to happen in Equestria proper. Twilight had been sent, bringing a couple of her guards, to the site and had immediately gone pale as a ghost.
The town was in complete ruin. Houses had either been burned down or completely shattered by something of incredible strength. She would have thought it was attacked by a rogue dragon if it wasn’t for one detail.
Dragons didn’t leave bodies like this.
It was a massacre. Dead ponies were everywhere, some in multiple places at once, and blood forever stained the dirt. One of her guards, a unicorn mare named Vital Rose who had only recently joined the guard, had vomited at the sight and Twilight couldn’t blame her. She was surprised she hadn’t done the same. She remembered clearly how many of the ponies had been ripped apart into unidentifiable chunks, almost as if attacked by a massive bird of prey.
They spent the first few days doing nothing but identifying whatever bodies were still intact enough to be identified. They tried to find the town's mayor, a mare named Starlight Glimmer, amongst the bodies but couldn’t find her and assumed she was one of the dozens ripped apart and unidentifiable. They did however come across something that did spark their interest.
They found that one of the ponies, a mare they would come to find was named Sugar Belle, didn’t have the gruesome injuries like the others and seemed to have just dropped dead for no reason. This seemed odd to Twilight and she decided to more thoroughly examine the body, a job that she did not enjoy. It didn’t take too long for her to find several puncture wounds in the mare. Due to the similarities the wounds had to those caused by stingers or fangs, Twilight theorized that this mare had been killed by venom. She took a few blood samples to bring back with her as all her equipment was in Ponyville.
After burying the bodies, and giving them their last rights, they got to work trying to find out just what the hell happened there. It was no mystery that whatever did this was powerful but that’s about all they could figure out. Anything else, even if there was more than one attacker, was left completely in the dark. That is until they found…
“Attention all passengers. We will be arriving at Ponyville Station in approximately 30 minutes.” Twilight was brought back to the present by the train's intercom.
“Almost home.” she muttered to herself before tearing her gaze from the window and looking at the small metal box next to her. It contained blood samples she took from Sugar Belle and was enchanted to keep the blood “fresh”. She scowled a bit at the box that seemed to mock her, showing the heavy bags under her eyes.
“I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t like it.” she whispered to herself. She then let out an exhausted sigh, quickly followed by a yawn. She hadn’t gotten a whole lot of sleep in the last few days, for obvious reasons, and took the opportunity to get some rest before arriving home.
She hoped things would be calmer in Ponyville.
The sun had officially risen past the horizon and its warmth felt good against Spike’s scales. The young drake was joined by Silver Lance at the train station as they prepared to greet Twilight. Spike had already been awake for several hours. It might have been Twilight’s influence or him just getting older but he found he enjoyed being an early riser, it also helped him complete his duties as both Twilight’s royal advisor and head of the castle staff. He loved his job immensely, even if a lot of the nobility didn’t take kindly to a dragon holding such an office.
He creased a small smile at the tongue lashing Luna had given some of them.
He truly did find joy in helping Twilight, even if it did end up making him a bit of a clean freak. However, right now he was just incredibly bored.
He looked over at his unexpected company. He had planned on coming alone but Silver caught him and asked to join. She had the day off so he didn't see any problem with it. Something special about Silver is that she actually liked wearing clothes whenever she got the chance and today she was wearing a simple teal sundress while having her mane tied up into a tail. It all really brought out the natural beauty that she and her sister were known for. Even the bored expression on her face didn’t detract from said beauty.
“So I noticed you left with Fluttershy last night, how did that go?” Spike decided to pass the time with some conversation. Silver gave a Fluttershy-esque eep having disassociated and not expecting Spike to say something.
“Huh? Oh, it went wonderfully. We caught up a bit and I even got to meet our big red mystery.” she said, causing Spike’s eyes to widen a bit.
“Really? Well don’t keep me in suspense, what was he like?”
Silver chuckled at the drake’s excitement. It was hard to believe sometimes that the tall, handsome drake before her was the same dragon as the pudgy little hatchling that barely came to her knee, but moments like this proved that it was still the same Spike. It was these moments that made her long for a foal of her own.
“I’ll tell you this, Fluttershy and Rarity’s description did not do him justice. The guy’s huge! He’s probably got more than a foot over you and twice the girth. He was also very polite, though a bit rigid. I’m pretty sure he has military training.” She then gave Spike a coy look that he recognized all too well.
“I think little sister likes him~” she said in a sing-song voice, causing Spike to roll his eyes.
“You just met the guy and you’re already trying to hook him up with Fluttershy. You have a problem, Silver.” Spike playfully admonished her. Silver put a hoof to her chest in mock offense.
“It’s not my fault I have an eye for romance and getting ponies together.”
“Like with me and Rarity?” Spike said sarcastically.
“Ok, so I was wrong about you two, but I guessed Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich right.”
“Yeah, you and everypony else.”
Silver huffed and looked at him with a pout. “At least Terra’s better than that Red Horizon character.”
“Wait, who’s Red Horizon?” Spike asked.
Silver was about to answer but was interrupted by a loud whistle signifying that the train was arriving. They both perked up as the train pulled in and ponies started getting off, including the royal guards that accompanied Twilight who saluted Silver as they noticed her. It didn’t take long for them to find a very tired looking alicorn exiting the train.
“Twilight!” Spike shot toward his older sister and enveloped her in a bone crushing hug. As tired as she was she couldn’t help but crease a small smile.
“It’s good to see you too Spike, but I would also like to breathe.” she said as her face started to turn blue. Spike, realizing his mistake, released her with a sheepish smile and blushing from embarrassment.
“Sorry Twi, I guess I still don’t know my own strength.” he said in a sheepish tone.
“It’s ok, it just means you give really good hugs.” Twilight said before noticing the tall mare standing beside Spike. “Oh Lieutenant, I wasn’t expecting you to be here, how are you?”
“I’m doing fine Twilight, and you know you can just call me Silver. I mean really, you ask us not to use your title, I think it’s fair to ask the same.” she said in an overly dramatic tone, causing Spike and Twilight to laugh. Silver eventually joined in on their mirth and they began to make their way to the castle.
As they made their way through the small town, Twilight looked around and took in the atmosphere she loved so much. It was early so the only ponies out were the merchants and guards, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone else got up to begin their days. They were walking past the little stone houses when Twilight suddenly froze.
The quaint little town disappeared and it was instead replaced with death. Houses were rubble and painted red with pony blood. Bodies were ripped apart and all over the place, and right before her was a massive three-toed footprint.
“Twilight!” She was brought back to reality by Spike and Silver’s frantic screams. She looked around and everything was back to normal. She was hyperventilating and she realized her cheeks were moist from tears. She jumped a little when she felt a big, leathery wing drape across her withers. She looked up to see Spike with a concerned look in his eyes.
“Twi, what’s wrong, you kind of just froze up there.”
“Yeah, it’s almost like you saw King Sombra or something.” Silver added, being concerned herself. What Twilight just did reminded her of when new recruits would freak out seeing their first violent crime, and she knew how unpleasant an experience that was.
“Sorry, I guess I’m still just exhausted from these last couple of days. It was a lot of work.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. That little cat nap she took on the train did next to nothing for her exhaustion, it was a miracle she was even standing, but she wasn’t ready to talk to Spike about the horrors she witnessed. She was even less ready to relive them.
Spike, having seen Twilight overwork herself more times than he had claws to count on, simply nodded in understanding. Silver, however, was less than convinced. She had been in the guard for a long time and she recognized when somepony was reliving a traumatic experience. She had seen enough recruits, and even veterans, go through it to know. She decided it would be best to confront her about it once they were in private and she got some rest.
“So did I miss anything while I was away?” Twilight asked, hoping to bring the attention away from herself. Her two friends tensed up a slight bit and Spike cleared his throat before answering.
“Actually, something did happen yesterday. You know how you asked Fluttershy to grab those weird flowers?” Spike asked cautiously, not sure how the lavender alicorn would handle the information.
“The Dragon Lilies? Yeah, why? Was there an issue?” Twilight asked.
“W-well you see, while harvesting the flowers she may or may not have…” he was sweating nervously now, “…gotten attacked by a hydra.”
“SHE WHAT?!” Twilight screamed, accidentally channeling the Royal Canterlot Voice and bursting the eardrums of all nearby and waking those who were still asleep. Silver wasted no time as she rushed to calm the alicorn down.
“Twilight it’s ok! Fluttershy is fine.” she said frantically, which seemed to work somewhat.
“S-she is?”
“Yes. Aside from a broken wing she’s perfectly fine.” Silver reassured her. Twilight took a sigh of relief before something occurred to her.
“Wait, not that I’m not glad she’s ok, but… how?” Twilight asked which caused the other two to give her confused looks.
“How what?”
“How did she get away from a hydra? No offense to Fluttershy but that seems like a bit of a stretch for her.” Twilight explained.
“Well that’s the other thing we needed to tell you.” Spike said before looking at Silver, who gave him a nod of approval. He looked around to make sure there was no one listening in and went on to explain what happened. He explained Fluttershy’s meeting with Terra in the Everfree, his strange powers and appearance, and his amnesia. Silver chimed in saying that she actually got to meet him and explained how he was in person as well as her theory of him being a soldier of some sort.
Twilight was completely enthralled with what they were saying, having completely forgotten her exhaustion and trauma for the moment. She was astounded with the power this creature apparently possessed and her scientific mind was in complete overdrive. There was a part of her that was cautious but Silver gave her mark of approval and she trusted her lieutenant’s judgment. She was curious as to what this new arrival could be, though she was concerned for him as well. Losing one’s memory was a hard thing to go through, and even more difficult to fix.
“You said this ‘Terra’ is at Fluttershy’s right?” she asked, getting confirming nods, “Alright, I think I should speak with Fluttershy about this.” They finally made it back to the castle and after greeting the guards in front made their way inside.
“Spike, take a letter.”
As the doors closed none of them realized that they were not as alone as they thought. Somepony had been listening and heard their entire conversation. Somepony with a red mane and blue coat.
As the morning sun snuck in through the window and tickled her face, Fluttershy snuggled into her bed with a satisfied sigh. She couldn’t remember the last time her bed felt this comfortable. It was so soft yet firm, and had a warmth that she might have thought uncomfortable any other morning but only felt relief on this one. Her favorite part was how it rose up and down at a steady pace, as if it were breathing.
…
…
…
This wasn’t her bed.
Fluttershy’s eyes shot open to see what exactly she was sleeping on but her vision was completely obscured by crimson scales. It was at that moment she realized what, or rather who, was wrapped around her and her whole body did a lovely imitation of the same scales she was staring at. Memories of last night came flooding back. The nightmare, the crying and Terra bursting into her room and comforting her. She recalled his firm yet comforting embrace and smiled fondly. He had only known her for a day and he was so quick to comfort her, make sure she was ok, make her feel… special.
“Thank you.”
She whispered, snuggling deeper into his large chest. She was kind of surprised at how peaceful and silent he was while sleeping and giggled when she noticed his tail wagging a bit. She didn’t want this moment to end. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be as green flames burst in front of her to reveal a letter. She screamed at the surprise which made Terra shoot up and smack his head into the ceiling, leaving a large crack.
“Oh my goodness, are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, her face bright red from embarrassment.
“Y-yeah, just got a little spooked.” He said while rubbing the top of his head. He cringed a bit when he saw the crack he left in the ceiling, “Sorry about that.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle a little bit, “Oh it’s ok, it’s kind of my fault for overreacting,” she grabbed the letter and read it out loud.
Dear Fluttershy,
I just got back to Ponyville and Spike and Silver informed me of the situation with you and your special houseguest. I have to say, the whole thing interests me greatly and I would like you to come to the castle as soon as you can to give me more details.
I would like just you to come for now, I will come to the cottage to meet Terra personally later. While he has my thanks I’m not quite ready to bring him into Ponyville proper just yet. I hope he understands.
I hope to see you soon.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle.
Fluttershy was happy with the news. She wasn’t expecting Twilight to message her so quickly but hoped that she may actually be able to figure something out about Terra and his situation.
Terra also seemed pleased by the news. He wasn’t really heartbroken by having to stay behind again, it was a weird situation they were in, but after what he heard about the Princess he was excited to eventually meet her. He unwrapped himself from Fluttershy, much to her disappointment, and looked over the door which was still all over the floor in pieces. The sight made him visibly blush from embarrassment as he remembered who was the cause of said destruction. None of this went unnoticed by Fluttershy.
“I may have gone a little overboard last night, I can fix it while you visit Twilight.” he said. He looked over to see Fluttershy barely holding in her giggles at his flustered state. “What’s so funny?”
“Sorry, it’s just,” she tried to say in between giggles, “something about watching the same stallion who scared off a hydra being flustered by a broken door.”
Terra put a foot to his chest in false offense, “Well I’m sorry that I care about your doors.” His face then transformed into a devious smirk that immediately made Fluttershy worried. Unbeknownst to her he had begun to reach his long tail toward her.
“Um, Terra, w-what’s that look for?” She asked nervously.
“Oh nothing, just curious about something…”
“What are you…” Was all she was able to say before he started relentlessly tickling her ribs with the tip of his tail, causing her to burst into full-blown laughter.
“Ahahahaha, T-Terra stop! Ahaha, that’s not f-fair!” She could barely get a word out between her laughter. He eventually stopped his tickle torture when he nearly fell to the floor himself from laughter.
As her laughter subsided, she walked up to Terra and playfully shoved him but only managed to move herself backwards while he didn’t move a single inch.
…
They burst into even louder guffaws, tears now forming in their eyes.
“Well I guess you are ticklish there.” Terra finally said as his laughter died down.
“Y-yes I am.” She said, still giggling, before looking back at him with a devilish look, “You know, I’m going to have to get you back for that.”
He brought his head closer to her with his usual warm smile on his face, “I look forward to it.”
She felt the heat rise in her cheeks at how close her face was to his, but still kept her own smile. They stood there for a second just staring into each other's eyes when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something and came to a realization.
“Oh goodness, I should really switch those bandages with some clean ones before I go.”
Terra looked down at his side, having also forgotten it was covered in bandages, before giving her a questioning look.
“Are you sure you have time? Twilight did say she wanted to see you as soon as possible.” He reasoned.
She shook her head before answering, “She would understand, and I would feel a lot better knowing you were healing correctly,” she shrunk down a little, “though if you don’t want me to…”
“No, you make a good point.” He then gave her a sly smile, “I have to say, it feels kind of nice having an angel as a nurse.”
Fluttershy’s coat did a wonderful imitation of Big Mac’s. There it is again. She thought to herself before shaking away the blush and saying in a flustered voice, “O-of course, you’re my friend and have already done so much to protect and comfort me, it’s only right that l do the same for you. Now please lie down.” She sounded far more confident as she finished her statement.
Terra complied with her request, though he did so while trying to hide his surprise at her change in tone. He made a quick mental note not to argue with her on things of a medical nature. He also had the sneaking suspicion that he probably shouldn’t make her legitimately angry either.
Fluttershy, oblivious to what was going through her patient’s head, went to work removing his bandages when he was settled down. They weren’t as bad as she originally thought, but many were still soaked in enough old blood to warrant replacing. As she cut away more and more of the bandages she couldn’t help but feel that something was off. It wasn’t until she unwrapped the largest wound, the only one that had required stitches and worried her the most, that she realized what was wrong and fell back on her haunches in surprise, dropping the dirty bandages.
“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” Terra asked.
She pointed a shaking hoof at his large barrel, “Y-y-your injuries… t-they’re gone!”
He raised a brow at her statement before craning his neck back to look for himself, only for his own eyes to go wide in surprise.
“What the hell?” Just as she said, the same deep cuts and slashes that only yesterday threatened to end his life were now no more than barely visible scars that would probably disappear completely soon. The only injury that could still be called that was the massive gash along his barrel, and even that had healed to such an extent that the stitches probably weren’t necessary anymore. It shouldn’t have been possible. What should have taken weeks to heal had somehow taken a single night. He looked back at Fluttershy, who was still frozen in shock, when he took notice of her bandaged wing. A question popped into his head.
“How does your wing feel?”
The seemingly random question jolted her out of her surprised state. She gave him a confused look before moving her wing around as much as the bandages allowed her to and her confusion only got worse. It still stung quite a bit, but not nearly as much as it should have. It should have taken about six weeks for her wing to heal completely but the way her wing felt at the moment was as if she had jumped forward about two weeks in the healing process. None of this should have been possible, even unicorn magic couldn’t speed up the healing process this much.
*ahem*
Terra cleared his throat, bringing her out of her thoughts, a slight blush came to her face as she realized that she hadn’t actually answered his question.
“Oh, um, it s-still hurts and I probably need to keep it wrapped up for a little longer, b-but it’s definitely better than it should be.”
“Hmm, interesting…” He settled into a contemplative look that slowly contorted into a look of frustration.
“Do you have an idea of what could have caused this?” she asked, hiding her concern over his seeming frustration.
He let out a frustrated sigh, “I feel like I should but nothing is coming to me. I guess this is just another mystery to figure out later.” He then gave her a playful smirk, “Now, I do believe you’ve kept your friend waiting long enough.”
She let out a little squeak, “Oh goodness, you’re right! I should get going.” As she turned to head out she thought of something and turned back to Terra, “A-are you sure you’re ok with staying behind again?”
He gave her that same warm smile that seemed to cause her heart to beat ever so slightly faster. He had to admit, the way she hid behind her mane and slightly stuttered her speech when she was nervous was kind of… cute. Even so, he shook his head.
“It’s fine, as was pointed out yesterday, even without being injured I do have something of an intimidating presence. While you, Rarity and Silver accepted me rather easily, there is no guarantee that the townspeople wouldn’t just panic at the sight of me. I think for right now it would be best for me to stay here.”
She was a little disappointed by his answer, but she had to admit that he had a point. “O-ok, well if you want to get some fresh air while I’m gone I live far enough away from town that you shouldn’t be seen if you go outside.”
“Thank you Fluttershy, but I really think you need to head over now.” He gave her a very light push toward the door.
“R-right, I’ll be back later with Twilight and Spike so that they can meet you.” With that they said their goodbyes and she made her way to Ponyville. As he watched her leave his smile fell a bit. He couldn’t figure out why but he had the sudden feeling that today was going to be a bit more eventful than either of them expected.
He shook the thought out of his head and decided to get to work on the destroyed door. He was probably overthinking anyway.
Fluttershy trotted into Ponyville with a large smile on her face. She couldn’t help it, she had been thinking about the events of the morning and just felt so happy. Even if it created more questions, she was glad that Terra’s injuries had healed, but what really had her in such a good mood was how he acted toward her. He treated her like the grown mare she was instead of the timid, fragile filly everypony else seemed to treat her like.
As that thought crossed her mind her smile gained a hint of sadness. She loved her friends dearly and appreciated what they did for her, but a secret she never told anypony was that a little bit of her resented how they treated her like the slightest gust of wind could shatter her. She wasn’t an idiot, she would be the first to admit that she was scared of a great many things and she couldn’t always handle things on her own, but then again neither could any of her friends. They seemed to forget that she was capable of great things too. After all she did stare down a cockatrice and win. She was the one that reprimanded a full-grown dragon and it was the dragon that fled in tears. She was even the only one that didn’t get corrupted by Discord and in fact turned his manipulation around on him and put the first spark of reformation into him. Now they weren’t all bad about it, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the worst about it while Rarity was probably the best about not treating her like glass, but it was still there. Even her sister fell into treating her like that on occasion.
She took a quick breath. She appreciated Terra comforting her last night, she really did, but there was something in the back of her mind that feared that he would treat her like all the others did. That fear had greatly diminished this morning. He had treated her with care but also respect.
He even joked around with her!
Only Rarity really did that and even she usually kept it tame around her, and she had overheard Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash talking once about how she was apparently off limits when pranking because she couldn’t handle being pranked. Her friends seemed so afraid of hurting her that it made her feel like a burden, and yet Terra actually tried to have fun with her!
Her smile returned with earnest. Maybe if the rest of her friends saw how Terra was treating her, and that she was enjoying it, then maybe they would stop treating her like she was a glass figurine so much.
She was so deep in thought that she stopped paying attention to where she was going, which meant she didn’t notice the sky-blue stallion before bumping into him.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” she yelled out, a tint of red on her cheeks.
“No worries mi- Oh, Fluttershy! I didn’t realize it was you.” Red Horizon said in mock surprise. He had seen her coming earlier but figured this would be a convenient way to talk to her.
“Oh, Red Horizon, how are you?” Fluttershy said, happy to see her new friend.
He gave her a smile, “Well I was doing pretty well, but now that I’m speaking to such a beautiful mare I think now I would have to say I’m doing fantastic.”
She smiled and blushed at the praise, “Oh my, t-thank you.”
Seeing her reaction he decided to take the opportunity to try something that might be more simple.
“Actually Fluttershy, while I have you here, may I ask you a question?”
He subtly readied a spell as he asked his question. Unlike most unicorns, whose field color generally matched their eye color, his was completely clear and practically invisible unless a pony actually knew to look for it.
“Of course, what did you want to ask?”
This of course meant that Fluttershy was completely oblivious to him casting a mental spell on her. However, he didn’t notice that her eyes glowed slightly, and it wasn’t due to the spell.
“Well I was wondering if you wanted to grab lunch with me later.” He said confidently, he knew what the answer would be and he would be one step closer to his prize.
“O-oh, I’m sorry Red, but I’m afraid I can’t. I have far too much to do today, I hope you understand.” she said, trying not to hurt his feelings.
Red Horizon, however, had barely heard the second half of her response. He was just standing there slack-jawed. He had never had a pony not only resist one of his mental spells but pretty much nullify it completely. It was impossible! His magic was strong enough to bend a freaking alicorn with some effort, yet some timid pegasus from Hicksville pushed through it like it was nothing!
No. No, he must’ve just cast the spell wrong! While he’d never done that before either, it was still more believable than some backwater mare nullifying his spell. He just had to recast the spell…
“FLUTTERSHY!?” a raspy voice suddenly yelled out, breaking Red Horizon out of his thoughts and also causing him to cancel his spell. In an instant there was a cyan pegasus mare with a rainbow mane between him and Fluttershy. She was a short mare, probably about 5’, but the clearly defined yet lithe muscles were clearly those of an athlete. This mare clearly spent a great deal of time training.
She was also very clearly angry.
“R-Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said, just as surprised by the sudden appearance of one of her best friends.
Rainbow Dash gave her timid friend a glare before pointing a hoof at her bandaged wing, “What the hell happened to your wing!? Did something attack you? Did somepony?” she spun around and directed an accusatory look at Red Horizon, “Was it you? I swear if you were the one that hurt her…”
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy screamed before pushing her way in front of her irate friend, “Red Horizon didn’t do this, we were just having a nice conversation.” She softened her features a bit, “Now if you’ll just calm down a bit I’ll tell you what happened.”
Rainbow Dash kept the scowl on her face but Fluttershy’s words seemed to have calmed her enough to at least listen. Red Horizon sat back and watched the interaction with great interest.
Fluttershy took a deep breath before beginning, “I was in the Everfree looking for some special flowers for Twilight when I was attacked by a hydra. I got away, but I took a tumble over a small cliff and that’s where I broke my wing.” She decided not to mention Terra. With the state Rainbow was in right now she probably would’ve bucked first and asked questions later. She could always tell her later.
Rainbow Dash was still fuming even after the explanation, “You went into the Everfree ALONE!?” Seeing Fluttershy shrink back from her angry tone, Rainbow shook her head and took a calming breath before continuing in a softer tone, “Why didn’t you ask one of us to go with you?”
“W-well the part of the forest I went in wasn’t supposed to have any of the large monsters in it.” She explained, then under her breath so Rainbow couldn’t hear, added, “I still got out safely anyway.”
“Well apparently there were. Listen Shy, I’m really glad you’re ok but next time just ask one of us to come with you so you don’t get hurt.”
“Ok…” Fluttershy relented, hiding her irritation from Rainbow Dash’s blatantly condescending tone.
Rainbow Dash wrapped her front leg around Fluttershy’s withers, “See that wasn’t so hard. Anyway, I have to go. I was on my way to do some training before I saw you but now that everything is ok I gotta make up for lost time!”
With that she was gone in a rainbow colored blur.
Once Rainbow Dash was just a cyan dot in the distance, Fluttershy turned to Red Horizon, “I’m sorry about Dashie. She means well but she tends to overreact to things.”
“It’s quite alright but I should also probably be going. I’m sure you have places to be as well.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she let out a gasp, “Oh goodness, Twilight! Oh I’ve kept her waiting so long.” She said her goodbyes and then galloped off to Twilight’s castle.
Red Horizon watched her go and smiled. He was still concerned as to why his spell had failed, but that was never the main plan anyway so he decided to forget about it for now. His face fell as he thought about what he overheard earlier. Fluttershy had something powerful in her corner. Something he had to get rid of, no loose ends and all that. Something that was currently all alone and vulnerable.
A wicked smile began to crease across his face as a plan started to form. A plan that involved a certain prismatic pegasus with anger issues.
By the time Fluttershy got to the castle she was out of breath. She didn’t really use her wings that often but she really wished they were in working order at the moment. In any case, as soon as she was able to breathe correctly again, she greeted the guards on duty and knocked on the doors. She was expecting Twilight or Spike to answer but was surprised to actually see her sister at the door.
“Silver? I thought you would be at home today.” Fluttershy said. Seeing Silver had immediately brought back the memory of last night's nightmare, and specifically her sister’s fate.
“I thought it would be more worth my time to be here, considering the information you plan on sharing with the Princess. That and since Iron is still on duty it's kind of boring at the house. Come on, she’s actually in her lab at the moment.” Silver said, gesturing to Fluttershy to follow her inside.
“Ok, sorry I’m late, this morning has been a bit more… eventful than I was expecting.” As she said that she found herself staring at Silver’s neck, the image of a large shard of glass protruding out of it seared into her mind.
If Silver noticed her staring, she gave no indication, “Nah, it’s fine. Twilight’s been busy in her lab pretty much since she sent the letter, and it’s not like she gave a specific time anyway so technically you can’t actually be late.”
“I guess…”
While she had to agree with her logic, she still found herself feeling a bit guilty for leaving them waiting for as long as she did. She didn’t have long to think about it though as they quickly made it to Twilight’s laboratory and there standing next to Spike in her lab coat and safety goggles was the lavender mare herself. She was currently studying a couple of vials filled with red liquid. When Twilight noticed Fluttershy walk in she immediately shot up with a wide grin on her face.
“Fluttershy, it’s so good to see you!” She embraced the canary pegasus in a tight hug, careful to avoid the bandaged wing.
Fluttershy gladly returned the hug, “It’s good to see you too, Twilight.”
As the two mares separated, Twilight gave her friend a more serious look, “I’m sorry to kind of cut to the chase but Spike was telling me how you came across a strange creature yesterday. His name is Terra right?”
“Yes, that is correct.” Fluttershy confirmed.
“Right.” Twilight levitated over a quill and parchment. “Spike told me a little bit, but what can you tell me about him?”
Fluttershy proceeded to tell Twilight everything from the previous day, doing her best not to leave out a single detail. As she was explaining, Silver made her way to Twilight’s side while Spike was listening intently just in case she said something that he missed yesterday. Fluttershy unconsciously glanced at Silver’s neck every so often, but Twilight was so engrossed in her note taking that she didn’t notice. Once Fluttershy had finished reciting yesterday’s events, Twilight spoke up.
“So did you find anything in that book Spike lent you?” She asked, this whole situation being very interesting to her.
Fluttershy’s face fell a bit, “Unfortunately, while we found some creatures that were similar, we couldn't find anything that matched him completely, but we did discover something surprising this morning.”
“Oh?” Twilight said, gesturing for her to go on.
“W-well you know how I said he was heavily injured yesterday? Well when I went to change his bandages this morning we found that his injuries had almost completely healed.”
Every pair of eyes in the room, aside from Fluttershy’s, widened at the statement.
“Fascinating.” was the first thing to escape Twilight’s mouth, “Healing of that speed is unprecedented! I’m pretty sure that only alicorns have magic powerful enough to do something like that, and even that’s a long shot. This Terra seems like a real interesting sort.”
Fluttershy smiled to herself before quietly agreeing, “Yes, he really is.”
“Well unfortunately, from descriptions alone I can’t really say for sure what he is.” Twilight said.
“Oh, ok, what about his memory problems?” Fluttershy asked, though she didn’t have too much hope at this point.
“Well, amnesia and memories are tricky to work with, not to mention that I’m a little rusty with mental magic, so it will probably be a while before I can really do anything to help in that regard.” Twilight said sadly. She wished she could help more but there was just too little to work with at the moment. “Was there anything else?”
Fluttershy let out a dejected sigh before looking over at Silver, who gave her a curious look in return. This was the part she was dreading the most.
“W-well actually there was one other thing.”
Fluttershy then proceeded to tell them about her horrible nightmare. She didn’t leave out a single detail and she noticed Silver go noticeably pale as she got to the part about her grisly demise, with Twilight and Spike not being much better. They became even worse when she got to the part about the shadow creature with six scythes and a malicious voice. By the time she finally finished Twilight looked like she was about to empty the contents of her stomach while Silver was subconsciously rubbing her neck with a pained look plastered on her face and Spike just stared off in the distance with a blank look. Twilight, keeping her breakfast inside her gut, was the first to speak.
“That was…”
“Highly disturbing?” Spike interrupted.
“Extremely horrifying?” Silver added.
“All of the above. No offense Fluttershy, but what did any of that have to do with our conversation about Terra?” Twilight asked.
“The thing is Terra actually came to calm me down, which I thought was really sweet, but as we talked about it we realized that he heard the same horrible voice as I did in his nightmare." Fluttershy explained, "I was wondering if it meant anything."
Twilight thought about it for a second before answering, "It's definitely interesting, and I want to know what that shadow could possibly be, but there's just too little information for me to say any more about it than that."
"O-oh, ok." Fluttershy said in a slightly dejected tone.
Twilight was deep in thought. She had just been given a large amount of new information and the scientist in her was absolutely ecstatic about the prospect of making a new discovery. That same part of her also realized that the information she had wasn't really sufficient to make any real theories. Then there was the other part of her. The part of her that was Princess Twilight Sparkle, one of the four rulers of Equestria. That part of her was concerned about the sudden appearance of a strange creature, even one that seemed to be peaceful, especially with everything that had happened to her as of late. Not to mention she had a bad feeling of what that nightmare shadow creature could entail.
"Twi? You good?" Spike asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"Hm? Oh yes, I'm fine, just thinking."
"What were you thinking?" Silver asked, also concerned about all the information given to them.
She turned to all of her friends and smiled, "I'm thinking it's time that I finally met Terra personally."
If anypony were to watch Red Horizon at the moment they would think he was just taking a nice, relaxing stroll through Ponyville. Nothing could be further from the truth however. He was a stallion on a mission and had a very specific goal in mind, and the path to that goal started with an athletic pegasus with a rainbow mane.
He had been caught off guard earlier when his spell had failed to influence Fluttershy but he still chalked that up to faulty casting on his end. Even the best of mages made mistakes now and again after all. In any case, he now found that mistake to actually be a blessing in disguise. When that other pegasus, Rainbow Dash he remembered her name being, had shown up something became apparent to him.
Fluttershy had friends, very protective friends.
He really shouldn’t have been surprised, even from their first meeting he could tell she was a fragile mare, of course her friends would be protective of her. It was irritating. Friends were always the biggest hurdles to his goals.
Then there was whatever that creature was that Fluttershy had at her home. Irritating friends he could deal with but this thing was a wildcard and that was something he couldn’t stand for. He had overheard that it was injured somehow and considering Fluttershy was at the castle it was probably alone at the moment. It was too much of a risk for Red to take care of it himself, but that’s where Rainbow came in.
He smiled. He had noticed something about the prismatic mare during her conversation with Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was obviously a very emotional mare, one that when riled up probably wouldn’t think her actions through too much.
She was a mare that could easily be manipulated.
It was honestly perfect. He could easily get the angry mare riled up with his magic and with a little acting get her to take care of the creature. It was a win-win situation. Either she takes out the creature or it takes her out. Either way, that’s one less problem for him to deal with.
He had seen the direction Rainbow Dash had flown off in and was quickly off to find her. It actually didn’t take him long to find her, though honestly it was hard to miss a mane like that. She seemed to be practicing some sort of high speed maneuvers or something, it didn’t really matter. She hadn’t noticed him yet and he took the opportunity to prepare a spell, making sure he didn’t mess it up this time. Time to stretch his acting chops.
“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” he started yelling frantically.
His yelling caught her attention and she spun around to find out who had interrupted her practice.
“Huh wh- oh hey you’re the stallion from earlier! Hey listen bud, I’m sorry about earlier but I’m kind of busy right now.” she said while rubbing the back of her neck.
“You don’t understand, it’s an emergency! Someone spotted some sort of large monster coming out of the Everfree!” he said all of this with false fear before subtly firing his spell. He knew it worked this time because he saw the barest hint of red appear in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. This one was different from the one he tried to cast on Fluttershy earlier, it simply took an emotion, this case anger, and intensified it. He also casted a secondary spell that would cause her to be unable to remember seeing him as a precaution.
He had caught her attention, “What!? Where!?”
He pointed in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. He had taken the time yesterday to ask around and find out where she lived, thinking it would be useful later. He was right.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened for a brief moment before narrowing. She could feel rage boiling within her, unaware that it was rising much faster than what was normal. She remembered Fluttershy saying she was attacked by a hydra, it must have followed her. She grit her teeth. It was going to try and hurt her friend again, but this time she would be there to stop it. She looked back at Red Horizon.
“Thanks for the info. I’ll take care of it.”
Before he could say anything in response she zoomed off. She was going to make that monster wish it never left its stupid swamp.
As Red Horizon watched her disappear in the distance a smile creased across his face and he chuckled.
“Too easy.”
Terra quickly figured out that there was no hope in repairing the door as it was so he was outside looking at a tree that he thought would serve him well. It was a relatively large oak with strong wood. It would make a strong, sturdy door. It was also large enough that he figured he could use what was left over to replace the bird house he destroyed yesterday.
He walked up to the tree and pushed on it with one of his front feet. He had looked around and found some basic carpentry tools in Fluttershy’s shed, but no ax. However, that would not stop Terra.
He stood up on his back legs, using his powerful tail for support, which gave him a sort of tripod stance and left his front legs completely free. He came down on the oak and with a mighty push was able to easily topple the arborious titan. He and the tree both came to the ground with a boom, shaking the earth a little. He smirked at his handy work, proud of his strength, and then got to work.
As he started removing the branches and stripping the bark his thoughts were brought to his situation. He would admit that he was a bit frustrated not being able to answer any questions about himself, and the only one who seemed to know even a little bit wasn’t exactly helpful. At least he had new friends that were willing to help him.
This brought his thoughts to Fluttershy. He knew without a doubt that she was special, the ‘angel’ as Lulu had called her, but aside from that he didn’t know what that actually meant. She was a wonderful mare, he was sure of that, and she had shown him incredible kindness and hospitality, but there was something more to her. Something he felt was even more important. Something ancient. He shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts and went back to enjoying the peace of woodworking.
A peace that was interrupted by four hooves slamming down in front of him.
Before him stood a cyan pegasus mare who was significantly smaller than Fluttershy, but with more pronounced and lithe muscles. This was an aerodynamic mare that was built for speed and agility, but what caught his eye the most was her mane. Unlike Fluttershy or Rarity, this mare had multiple colors making up her mane, giving it the appearance of a rainbow.
What also caught his eye was the pure rage he could see in her eyes. He wondered what could have possibly set her off and why she was here of all places. He also thought he could make out a tint of red in her eyes, just adding to his confusion.
Before any other thoughts could come to mind, the angry mare spoke, well more growled, at him in a raspy voice.
“Listen asshole! If you know what’s good for you you’ll crawl back to whatever swamp you came from and leave Fluttershy alone! I’m not afraid to fight a hydr-” she cut herself off as she took a closer look at him and realized something was off. “Wait a minute, you’re not a hydra, what the hell are you?”
Terra, for one, was even more confused now. Whoever this mare was she obviously knew Fluttershy but how did she know that he was here? As far as he knew the only ponies that had seen him were Fluttershy, Rarity and Silver. Twilight and Spike knew about him but he highly doubted the angry mare was either of them. It didn’t really matter anyway, if he didn’t pacify this mare the situation would quickly get out of hand.
“Listen, I think there has been some sort of mistake. I’m not here to harm Fluttershy.” he tried to explain.
Rainbow Dash was taken aback a bit, but not for the reason he thought, “Holy shit, you can talk!?”
He gave her a deadpanned look.
She hadn’t expected this thing to speak and it caused her no small amount of confusion. Her eyes flashed red and suddenly anger overrid her confusion and she growled back, “Who cares if you can talk, just tell me what you are? And what the hell are you doing at Fluttershy’s cottage?!”
“Well she brought me here, and to be, um, honest I don’t really remember what I am. I don’t ha-” He was interrupted by spiteful laughter.
“You expect me to buy that crap?!” she shouted incredulously, “Fluttershy’s afraid of her own shadow, there’s no way she’d bring something like you here! And ‘I don’t remember’ has got to be the worst excuse I’ve ever heard!” She flared her wings, “I’ll give you one more chance to leave before I kick your ass all the way back to whatever swamp you crawled out of.”
Terra let out a defeated sigh before standing to his full height, which was nearly twice as tall as the raging mare. He stared her down with a hard expression.
“I do not wish to fight you, but I will defend myself if I have to. Please, walk away before someone gets hurt.”
Rainbow actually smiled at his declaration, though there was no happiness in it, “The only one getting hurt here is you.” With a flick of her wings she bolted forward at an unprecedented speed, her front hooves pointed forward. In less than a second she collided with Terra’s large chest with a thunderous crack.
However, as soon as she made contact with him she was overcome with a splitting migraine and her body was glowing slightly. For a split second some sort of power dispelled the rage spell on her, just long enough for Terra to notice the change, before it took control again just in time for her to notice him trying to grab her with his tail. She quickly flew out of his reach, only for her jaw to drop when she saw that her attack had done absolutely nothing to the titan.
Terra, meanwhile, was staring at her curiously. The glowing did not go unnoticed by him, not to mention the red fading from her eyes for a split second. He had a suspicion earlier but now he was positive that this mare’s angry state was not natural. There was foul play afoot.
He was brought out of his thoughts as Rainbow, who’s shock had morphed back into anger, yelled through gritted teeth, “So what if you made it through that one attack unfazed. Let’s see how you handle a hundred!”
With that she became a rainbow maelstrom, swirling around and striking Terra all over, each hit striking with tremendous force. She kept up the onslaught for a couple of minutes while he tried to catch her the whole time, but he found that she was just too fast and nimble.
As she kept on the onslaught he found himself getting frustrated. He hated to admit it but it was obvious that his injuries were still slowing him down somewhat and while he was tanking her hits well, there were a few times she hit his stitched gash and caused him to nearly cry out in pain. He didn’t want to hurt the mare, as he knew she was being influenced by something else, but if he wanted to end this he would have to get a little rough.
He glanced behind him and saw that the fallen tree was still there and had an idea. He noticed that she would occasionally take larger arcs to gain more power and on one of these arcs he wrapped his tail around the trunk of the tree and, timing it right, swung it down on her like an immense hammer. She hadn’t expected him to hit her with a freaking tree, and was just lucky that a lifetime of training accidents had made her durable enough that the hit didn’t kill her, though she was unaware that he had purposefully held back enough for that not to be an issue in the first place.
As soon as she was on her back he threw the tree to the side, causing another small tremor, and used his foot, as well as his tremendous weight, to hold her down. He made sure to not use so much pressure as to hurt her but she was definitely not moving out from under him any time soon.
He was shocked and disturbed at what he saw below him. She was frothing at the mouth like a rabid animal and her eyes, which had only been tinted red earlier, were now a solid, glowing crimson. He needed to end this now.
“Please, this is just one big misunderstanding! Let’s stop this and just sit down and talk. I don’t want to hurt you.” he pretty much begged.
“SHUT UP!” she roared, before spitting right in his eye.
“Damnit!” The surprise had caused him to lift his foot from her chest and she took to the air.
Her rage had boiled over and she could only see red now. She suddenly flew up higher into the sky until she was a barely noticeable cyan dot. “LET’S SEE YOU STAND UP TO THIS!” she screamed before going into a dive.
As she gained speed a pressure cone started forming around her body.
Fluttershy, Twilight and Spike were on their way to the cottage. Silver decided not to join them because as much as she would have liked to see Terra again she did have a few things she needed to take care of at home while she had the opportunity. Fluttershy didn’t mind though. She knew her sister was a busy mare and was just happy that they spent the time they did together.
As of right now they had just left Ponyville proper and were on the trail to the cottage. That was when they heard a familiar voice.
“Darlings, wait!”
They turned around to see a familiar alabaster unicorn galloping toward them. Once she caught up they could see she was panting a bit.
“Rarity, what are you doing here?” Spike asked.
“I was actually going to meet all of you at the castle but on the way I ran into Silver and she told me that you were going to Fluttershy’s cottage. I thought it would be nice to see our special guest again.” she explained, having caught her breath.
“Oh I’m sure he’d love to see you again too.” Fluttershy said excitedly.
“The more the merrier, well let’s get go-”
CRASH CRASH BOOM
Twilight was cut off by a loud commotion in the distance.
“My goodness, what was that?” Rarity exclaimed.
“I don’t know but it came from the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage! Come on, let's go!” Twilight said before they all started galloping full speed. It didn’t take long for them to make it there and they were surprised by what they could see.
Terra was standing in the yard, looking somewhat tired, next to a fallen tree. It looked like there had been a fight as dirt had been turned up all over the place. They then noticed that Terra was looking up into the sky and followed his gaze, only to find…
“Rainbow Dash?!” they all exclaimed, though Fluttershy noticed something about Rainbow that made her eyes widen.
“Oh no.”
She knew exactly what Rainbow was about to do and panic took over. She shot forward, her injured wing ripping its way out of its bandages, and flew as fast as she could to get in between the two fighters, adrenaline dulling the pain in her wing. Her friends tried to stop her but she ignored them.
“Rainbow Dash, stop!” she yelled out, but it was too late.
The prismatic mare was too far gone.
All other pleas were silenced by a tremendous boom and a rainbow colored explosion.