BANG BANG BANG
The sound of a very hungry bear’s bowl colliding with the floor, repeatedly, was grating on Fluttershy’s last nerve. However, he was not the only protester in the little cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville. More than a dozen of Fluttershy’s animal friends were squeaking, shrieking, screaming, or roaring defiantly to be fed. She knew her animals would have been hungry after she’d dedicated all of her time to helping her friends, but they were far more unforgiving than she would have thought.
“Alright! Alright…” Fluttershy said in exasperation as she headed towards the cupboard in the kitchen where she kept nuts and berries. She held a small brass key in her hoof and placed it into the lock on the cupboard, turning it to the side to allow her access. She hated the idea of locking food from her animal friends, but what else could she do? Angel, and some of the other forest creatures, would often attempt to raid her stash of food, and gorge themselves until they were sick. This left nothing behind for any creature else.
“I’ve fed you three times already since I’ve come home, I don’t know why you’re all acting like you’re starving to death.”
The animals didn’t respond, snatching the portions of food she’d pulled out of the cupboard, before she could even lower her hooves. Fluttershy sighed in a mixture of annoyance and relief, seeing her ravenous animals quiet at last as they satiated their hunger. She knew they were all very capable of hunting and gathering food for themselves, but they refused. She wondered, regretfully, if they had relied on her for too long, and lost the ability to do so. She turned back to the cupboard, locked it, then made her retreat from the over-crowded kitchen.
Fluttershy’s hooves felt heavier than she remembered them being. She poured over the day’s events in her head, wondering how it could have dampened her spirits so significantly. She knew Rarity had an issue with perfectionism, yet her constant ‘requests’ for slight changes had whittled down Fluttershy's resolve. Twilight certainly didn’t help with her long list of tasks, which only a small fraction Fluttershy would deem important. She found herself with a pang of bitterness too, at Rainbow Dash’s sudden appearance at the end of the evening. Fluttershy had worked so hard, for so long, just to have Rainbow casually show up and decorate twice as much in 10 minutes, than she had in 5 hours. If only she could stand up to Rarity. If only she could rationalize with Twilight's demands. If only she could turn away Pinkie’s stomach-churning desserts. If only she could avoid the waves of guilt and pain she felt seeing that ice sculpture of Applejack. If only.
Fluttershy’s thoughts were far more negatively charged than she would have liked, and it gave her pause.
“I think I’m just exhausted.” Fluttershy muttered aloud to herself, dragging those tired and near-useless hooves towards her bedroom. However, before she could take a single step inside the doorframe, Fluttershy’s ear swiveled around to an unfamiliar sound: slow, drawn-out hoofsteps. She wasn’t sure why, but the sound instantly filled her with fear. Fluttershy snapped her head to look behind her, but found nothing.
Fluttershy shook her head and pressed a forehoof to her temple. She massaged the skin to try and calm herself, but found little relief. She went to move again, and the hoofsteps returned, louder this time. She was sure she hadn’t made it up in her delusion, so Fluttershy briskly walked back down the hallway towards her living room.
“Hello?” She called out, hoping no pony would answer.
“Whatcha been doin’ to them animals, Fluttershy? I ain’t never seen a more frenzied pack of wild vermin.”
Fluttershy’s fears roared to the forefront of her mind when she came face-to-face with the only mare who had ever broken her spirit, and faith, in ponykind. Though her face was obscured, the familiar orange hue, apple cutie mark, worn stetson, and gathered blonde mane and tail were unmistakable. Nevertheless, she didn’t linger too long on Applejack’s overall appearance, but looked instead to the sharpened blade atop a thick shaft held firmly in her grasp. It only dawned on her when she saw the stains of old dirt, that this was once a shovel. Now, though, it resembled much more of a weapon.
“Eep!”
Fluttershy’s wings flared and she soared to the ceiling of her living room to put as much distance between herself and Applejack as possible.
“Ya never were one to mince words, were ya?” Applejack added with a dry, coy chuckle.
“H-how did you… WHERE did you come from?” Fluttershy demanded in a meek voice that wouldn’t have intimidated a flea.
“That’s not the right question to ask, Fluttershy.” Applejack said, calmly wiping the end of the shovel with a handkerchief like a chef cleaning a knife before carving into meat.
“W-what?”
“What ya should be askin’, is what I’m gonna do while I’m here.” Applejack added, tilting her head towards the ceiling and locking eyes with Fluttershy for the first time. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank in horror when she saw the eerie, unholy red glow of AJ’s irises. It was so prominent, a crimson illumination tinted the rest of her face, making her smile all the more terrifying.
“What HAPPENED TO YOU!?” Fluttershy screamed, pressing herself into the farthest corner of the ceiling, praying that AJ wouldn’t make a move in her direction.
“Oh, I’ve got all KINDS of new tricks. Wanna see?”
Fluttershy didn’t reply. She could tell by Applejack’s intonation that whatever she would have shown her, would have been a terrifying sight. Instead, Fluttershy darted from the room to the kitchen. She knew better than to waste time trying to appeal to somepony who was obviously gripped by terrible, dark magic.
Fluttershy’s first priority was the same one she’d had most her life: saving the animals. She was almost surprised to find them all still busily chomping their third dinner, despite the unwelcome visitor only a room away.
“Go! Go little friends! Get out of here!” Fluttershy screamed, gesturing her hooves wildly while checking over her shoulder for Applejack. Only some of the animals looked up at Fluttershy when she shouted at them, and even the ones that did, eventually turned a cold cheek to resume feeding. Fluttershy didn’t have time to calmly explain why it was so dangerous for them to stay in her cottage. She had to act fast, and efficiently. Fluttershy scooped up a pair of chipmunks and flew to the window, gently tossing them onto the tree branch outside. They rolled into each other in confusion, before getting up, and shaking their fists angrily. Fluttershy was getting an earful of their squeaky objections.
“Run! Now!” Fluttershy hollered back at them, before scooping up the next group of critters and pushing them out of the doggie door. She moved faster than she had ever moved before, determined to save them from some unknown fate. Harry, the bear, was the last one she had to move, and he was far too large to move on her own. Despite her pleas in desperation, he refused to budge. With no other options, Fluttershy sucked in a breath and bore her stare down upon him with no mercy. Harry stared blankly, slack-jawed, before scrambling to leave the kitchen through the door, where many of her other animals were attempting to sneak back in. Unfortunately for them, they were steamrolled by a retreating bear instead. Fluttershy immediately slammed, and locked the door. She pressed her body against it, and squeezed her eyes shut in fear.
“There you go again. Putting the lives of pests and vermin above pony folk. Guess it was too much to ask to keep faith with your friends, when it’s them animals you really give a damn about.” Applejack said, walking slowly and calmly towards the kitchen. The shovel in her grasp was dragging across the wooden floorboards, and the scrape of metal felt like it was carving into the inside of her skull.
Fluttershy ventured a look at the mare again, and the red glow seemed only to brighten the longer she stared. Eventually, Applejack stood between Fluttershy and her way out; the pegasus knew she was trapped. She closed her eyes again, silently vowing she wouldn’t dare look a third time into those deep, horrifying, red irises.
“Then again, you’re swayed one way or the other by any pony with an opinion, ain’t ya? I don’t even know if there’s a single thought in that empty head of yours that is truly your own. You know who takes orders and does what they're told without question? Critters. That’s all you are, huh? An over-sized, dumb critter.”
Fluttershy’s eyes brimmed with tears. She’d been called many horrible things over the years, but this one especially hurt. Did other ponies see her this way? How exactly WAS she different from just another blindly loyal pet? Fluttershy’s careening thoughts were interrupted when the animals on the other side of the door slammed themselves into it defiantly. They were screaming, chirping, chittering, and demanding to be let back in. How was she going to convey what was happening? Was there even any danger? All Applejack had done was berate her... But those eyes, those glowing ungodly orbs; Fluttershy was sure they could only mean danger. She braced herself against the door as best as she was able, withstanding the repeated blows from her misguided animal friends.
“Wanna know the thing about critters, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy’s eyes were still squeezed as tightly shut as she could get them, but she could tell Applejack was getting closer. Still, she didn’t respond. What would have been the point? If somepony wanted to frighten, berate, and debase her, there was little she could do to stop it. Fluttershy could hear the shovel scraping closer and closer, as her whimpers swallowed her screams. When the sound stopped, Fluttershy held her breath, willing her body to come to a complete stand-still as if it would somehow shield her from what was to come. She felt a hot breath of air on her snout, and could smell a horrendous unknown stench that followed. The shovel moved again, this time it sounded like it was being held aloft. In a voice no louder than a whisper, Fluttershy heard the words:
“It ain’t a crime to kill a critter.”
Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open and she screamed, darting away from the shovel poised above her. She wanted to make a break for the front door, but she caught sight of Angel bunny in the corner of her eye. She gasped, and lunged towards him fearfully, the pair tumbling across the kitchen to land under the table, and against the wall. It knocked the wind out of Fluttershy, keeping her disoriented and slumped to the floor. Once she’d taken a few deep breaths, she twisted her body to the side, just as a soft whirring zipped past her ears. Before she could see what it was, she heard the thud of Angel bunny next to her.
“NO!” Fluttershy screamed, seeing that the weaponized shovel had effortlessly sliced through her beloved pet’s flesh, splaying him out before her. She turned away immediately, puking violently on the floor amidst a cascade of tears. Her sobs were loud, but they didn’t completely drown out the sound of Applejack simply, and stoically, opening the door to the animals waiting outside. The sound of the handle clicking and the old hinges squeaking, was enough to snap Fluttershy out of her grief. She sucked in a frightened gasp. Her animals! She had to save them, so she clambered her way out from under the table in a frenzy.
Fluttershy was so convinced that Applejack was going on an animal killing spree, that what she actually saw, momentarily, stunned her into place. AJ wasn’t attacking the animals at all. Her hoof was gingerly cupped to Harry’s ear, and she whispered something Fluttershy couldn’t catch from her distance away. Fluttershy didn’t understand what she was seeing; Harry was calmly staring straight ahead with a glint of recognition and understanding in his eyes. Her breath caught in her throat when AJ’s gaze moved to lock on hers. Even so, Applejack didn’t stop whispering to Harry. But… this wasn’t logical. It just didn’t make sense. Applejack couldn’t speak to animals…
‘Unless… that glow… it IS dark magic!’
Fluttershy’s gaze detached from AJ’s long enough to see Harry’s new pair of glowing red eyes. Something deep inside Fluttershy was awoken the second she beheld his new, unnerving, and evil, illuminated face. It was like an erupting volcano, red-hot anger that had been kept dormant for too long finally unleashed. A few dark whispers from Applejack was all it took? Mere words and her animals could be swayed? Just like Fluttershy when her friends told her to feel one way or another, they’d just succumbed. Pushovers, all of them. Useless, mindless animals with no real capacity to make their own decisions, or come to their own conclusions.
The pieces were slowly falling into place. Applejack wasn’t going to get her own hooves dirty. She had something far darker in mind for the pegasus and her demise. Fluttershy took one final look at Angel’s mangled, soulless body, then let out a guttural scream that could have shaken the cottage’s foundation with its magnitude.
Harry roared defiantly back at Fluttershy as the pair raced towards each other. Fluttershy’s mind was in a frenzy, no clear thought could penetrate the anger radiating from the tips of her wings to the base of her hooves. She had always been grossly underestimated when it came to speed, agility, and strength. She used that to her advantage now as she zipped around Harry, landing blows to his torso and head as he swung wildly at her. His claws were bared, and he was able to get a good swipe of Fluttershy’s left flank in the struggle. She screamed out in pain, glancing to see the damage, and only finding a dark representation of how she felt. He’d sliced into her cutiemark, marring it with blood. It was soon soaked through, invisible from the spreading crimson. Animals don’t have cutie marks anyways.
“Animals kill other animals all the time! Survival of the fittest, Fluttershy!” Applejack called out from somewhere within the cottage, following it up with fiendish laughter.
Other animals started to enter the fray, their glowing red eyes unforgiving as they bore down on the mare they had once viewed as a saint, and a mother. A final pang in Fluttershy’s heart echoed through her chest at the sight of her animals turning on her as they did. But these weren’t her animals anymore, Applejack had seen to that. Fluttershy couldn’t comprehend how she had the capacity to meet each of their blows with one of her own. Her thoughts, her feelings, her pain; all pushed out of mind for the will to live. Even through the screeching of birds, screams from forest critters, and roars from Harry, Fluttershy could hear Applejack’s whispers. More and more of her friends were turning on her, intent on the kill. Fluttershy kicked and swatted the smaller creatures away from her as she focused on Harry. His attacks were the most volatile, after all. Applejack’s laughter grew more thunderous and reverberated with each animal Fluttershy had to fight away. Finally, Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around Harry’s neck and pulled hard. The sickening snap was jarring enough for the other attacking animals to silence themselves temporarily. Harry made a soft grunt, like the last gust of air leaving his lungs, as he collapsed hard onto the ground.
Reality was slow to set in, creeping up inside Fluttershy with each swift heartbeat. She had done the unthinkable. The remaining animals looked upon her with the same fear she had shown Applejack minutes earlier. Fluttershy saw reflected in their glowing eyes a tiny glimmer of their old selves, stuck in shock. It was Applejack’s voice coming from behind her that finally broke the silence. It was not to Fluttershy that she spoke, but to the animals she had corrupted.
“Finish her.”
The words, sickly sweet and sinister, erased any hope Fluttershy had to leave her cottage without more death by her hooves. She gave into her outpouring of rage, induced by heartache, as the sweet cottage on the hill turned into a house of horrors.