Things That Go South in the Night
The Completely Unnecessary Alternate Ending
...“Now you're just stalling for time, Twi! Give her the darned medicine!" Applejack shouted in response and cringed in pain. She covered her mouth with a hoof as a pained cough escaped from deep within her chest. As she pulled her hoof away she could see it was spattered with bright red specks. After the worst had passed she continued, much softer this time.
“I–” Tears started flowing down her cheeks, dripping down onto the sheets. “I feel like my insides are turning to soup, and I'm scared. I honestly am, Twi. But I know what I'm doing... and if you don't realize that I wouldn't have it any other way, well, then I guess you don't know me very well at all. But I think you do.”
Applejack sighed. Twilight had never heard her voice shake the way it did when she continued:
“If this is to be it, then this is it. I have no regrets. And I won't have her life on my conscience, I won't live with that kind of regret. Now get to it!”
There was an absence of sound in the room, one could hear a pin drop. A meek voice broke the stillness, but it was still too quiet to make any words out.
“Fluttershy? What was that?” Twilight asked.
The pegasus had stood up again, her legs and breathing still shaky. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, but there was something else in them. The look made Twilight shiver.
“Fluttershy?” She asked again, her tone cautious.
“Not this way,” the pegasus mumbled, her wings flaring. “This is not the way it ends.”
Was it fear? Anger? Regret? Twilight couldn't tell. She took a step towards her friend, who seemed to be bordering on falling into psychosis.
“Fluttershy...” That was all she managed.
“Not. The way. It. Ends,” Fluttershy said, a pound of her hoof emphasizing every word. One of the floor tiles actually cracked. Before Twilight could do anything, her wings had flared to their full reach and she darted into the air, crashing through the window. Broken glass rained down onto the street below.
Twilight raced to the broken window, along with Big Macintosh. Both stood slack-jawed, gazing after the pegasus as she disappeared into the horizon. For a moment no one said a thing.
“Goddammit Fluttershy...” A weak voice spoke from behind them. “This was supposed to be my grand emotional moment.”
Zecora was reorganizing her shelves, though it was more busy work than anything else. The news from earlier were weighing heavy on her mind. It hadn't been too long ago that she hadn't had anyone to call a friend, and now she was going to lose one of them. She hadn't had the heart to say it out loud, but Twilight seemed to have understood. She found an errant tear rolling down her cheek at the thought.
Her mourning was interrupted by an unexpected knock on her door. Or not really a knock, more of a faintly wet smacking sound. Not one to be frightened easily, she walked to her door and pulled it open.
Her face went pale.
There, in the doorway, stood a a fearsome creature. Even in the light of day it was clear that this was a being of darkness, all black scales that the light did not illuminate and claws seemingly designed with the singular purpose of tearing prey to shreds in mind. A fear inducing shriek reverberated through the cottage and Zecora found herself huddled underneath her bed.
“Oh, shut up already.”
The sound of a familiar voice coupled with the distinct feeling of not being eaten alive gave Zecora enough courage to take a peek from her hiding spot. Another shriek cut through the air as the creature and its captor crashed in the room. Zecora hid herself once again.
“Now, we talked about this, remember? I just need you to– OH WILL YOU CUT IT OUT ALREADY?!”
A sickening crack echoed through the room, powerful enough to drop a couple of jars from the shelves. Opening her eyes again Zecora could see that Fluttershy had slammed the creature's face against a table and was now pinning it down. The beast didn't seem too happy about it, but there was little it could do as the pegasus held it in what was possibly the world's nicest choke hold.
"Are you going to give nice Zecora what she needs, or is Fluttershy going to have to smack a monster!?"
She pressed her hoof hard against the back of the creature's neck for emphasis, eliciting a pained and somewhat alarmed grunt. Her eyes gleamed like those of a madpony.
“Good that we finally understand each other," Fluttershy said, easing some of the pressure exerted by her hoof. "I'm going to let go now, but don't you dare and try anything stupid. I'd be more than happy to smack you around some more after what you've done, mister!”
Zecora had finally mustered the courage to come out from her hiding spot and now stood next to Fluttershy. At a quick glance she could see the pegasus was in a state: The feathers on her wings were ruffled, her coat marred with Celestia-knows-what and she had small nicks and cuts all over her face and sides, almost as if she had crashed head-on through a window recently.
Zecora's face was one of bewilderment.
“Fluttershy dear, uh...” the Zebra trailed off. Try as she might, rhyme didn't come, and she had to resort to her alternate character trait:
“What the fuck?”
...Which, it turned out, was cursing.
“I have my contacts in the forest,” Fluttershy explained. “A nice cockatrice owed me a favor. It wasn't too hard to get a trail on this big meanie.” She released her grip and the creature got up slowly. It sat still, rubbing a claw against its chin, not daring to look up from the floor.
“Go get a vial. Mister Monster here has decided to give a little donation.”
It only took a few minutes to get another sample of the venom. Fluttershy kept her end of the bargain, letting the monster loose once it had given the sample. It stopped in the door frame, looking at Fluttershy pleadingly and pointing a claw at its missing fang. It let out a soft growl.
“Oh walk it off, you pansy,” Fluttershy said before slamming the door in its face.
Disclaimer: Don't cross Fluttershy, or she'll end you.