//------------------------------// // Foreboding Events // Story: The Incredible Flutterhulk // by spideremblembrony //------------------------------// Cookie Crisp entered through the doors of the local gas station. She had stopped for a beer and something to snack on. She had been searching through the city for a whole afternoon. It wasn’t easy. She knew that Fluttershy had a record. That ponies would be on the look out for her. She knew it would be a needle in a haystack. Regardless, she wouldn’t give up. She would find her. If the news was right and the creature did head towards Hoofington, Fluttershy was somewhere nearby. She placed the beer that she had picked up from the cooler onto the counter. Out of the corner of her eye, towards the ladies room, she saw a yellow Pegasus appear from the doorway. Normally, Cookie wouldn’t have given her a second look, but there was something oddly familiar about her. The pony’s pink mane hung out of one side of her face, under a green baseball cap. She quietly minded her own business as she made her way to the exit of the store. Cookie continued to stare as the Pegasus started to pass by. Before she left the store however, Cookie ripped the baseball cap straight off the yellow pony’s head. The pony gasped as she turned in a panicked frenzy. She began to back away slowly, breathing heavily. Cookie studied the pony’s face very carefully and noticed that this was the pony she was looking for. “I was hoping I’d find you in a place like this,” Cookie said. The Pegasus meets eye-to-eye with the other pony. At first, she started to tremble, but when their eyes caught, she stopped quivering. Instead, she smiled. “Cookie?” Fluttershy asked. Fluttershy then leaped onto Cookie giving her a great, big hug. Cookie was caught off guard and lost her breath for a second. “Geez, for a little pony, she can take the wind out of you.” “Yeah, great to see you, Flyshy.” “Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you, Cookie.” Fluttershy hugged her friend even tighter. After a long awkward pause, with Fluttershy’s hug turning into a vice grip, Cookie finally asked to be let go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The two made their way outside and started to wander away from the gas station down towards the city. Fluttershy had been asking Cookie about her life. She was asking questions so quickly that Cookie had barely anytime to ask questions about Fluttershy about her own life. Fluttershy had never been happier to see any pony in her life. Cookie Crisp was a pony she had saved during her travels around Equestria. She was a good pony, even if she didn’t know it herself. “What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked. “Looking for you,” Cookie replied. She started to dig through her bag. “I’ve got something for you.” She revealed a folder with several pieces of paper inside. She placed it in Fluttershy’s hooves. As Fluttershy flipped through the pages, her eyes widened with glee. “My father’s notes!” Fluttershy shouted in joy as loud as she could, which was still no more than a whisper. The only piece that remained of her father’s memory was in these notes. The chance to get her life back and she was holding them in her hooves. It was like a Faust-send. “Where did you get these?” “Well, I got them when your old man...“ Fluttershy’s smile disappeared from her face at the mention of her father. As much as she wanted to move on, it was very hard to do. Cookie couldn’t blame her. She had only met her father for a few minutes, but his only concern was protecting his daughter. Something, she envied of Fluttershy. Cookie changed her story, “When you saved my life, I snagged them when you-“ Fluttershy turned away with a sad frown on her face. She didn’t like being reminded of the day her father died or of the monster she became because of it. She could tell Cookie wasn’t trying to hurt her feelings, but so far, it wasn’t working. “Anyways, you saved my life. I owed you,” Cookie finally stated. Several seconds past. Several long seconds. “Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me,” Fluttershy finally replied. “Yeah, well, forget it.” There was silence in the air. As if neither one knew what was the right thing to say next. As if they were strangers met on a normal day, desperately trying to strike up a conversation. Cookie turned down the road back towards the gas station. “Well, see you.” Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide open. “Wait, you’re leaving?” Cookie stopped in her tracks and turned towards Fluttershy. “Um... yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” Fluttershy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This pony had been searching for her for five years to give her back her father’s notes and that was it. “But I thought we were friends,” Fluttershy thought. “I need your help. I can’t do this on my own. I really thought I could, but... I just can’t be alone anymore.” Cookie scoffed, and turned back towards the Pegasus. “Look, I can’t help you. Besides, I paid my debt. We’re even.” This almost brought a tear to Fluttershy’s eyes. It was one thing for a stranger to be rude; it was another thing entirely for some pony you thought was your friend being terrible. But if she wanted to go, Fluttershy couldn’t stop her. “I guess you have. It’s okay, I’ll be okay alone,” she whimpered. She tried to hold her tears back, but when they started to swarm her face, she quickly turned away. She then started to trot down the road towards the city, her head lowered to the ground. Cookie was silent as the yellow Pegasus walked away. She finally spoke back, “Yeah, okay then. Cool. I’m glad we...” she couldn’t stop but think about what she had said. Had she paid her debt? Fluttershy said she had, but why did she feel so bad about this? “...agree on that.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Cookie made her way back to her bike, trying not to think about Fluttershy. Cookie thought she had made up her mind, but every second her mind wondered, she thought about the yellow Pegasus. After several minutes, she arrived at her bike’s side. “Come on. Just drive off. Flyshy’s good, right? I mean... she’s fine. She said she was.” She mounted her bike and looked down the road. It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to reach the edge of town back towards her apartment. Once there, she would never have to worry about Fluttershy again. But, no matter how she tried, something inside her told her to go back. To help the pony who saved her life. “I guess... She did save my flank. But I gave her back her old man’s notes. That should be enough. Shouldn’t it?” She tried to block the image of the desperation of Fluttershy’s eyes, but it was in vain. She couldn’t stop thinking about how she had just left her there, like a puppy with an injured leg. How she had just left her to her fate. “Damn it, just drive off! Damn you! Just go! Go! It ate away at her until she finally gave in. “Faust, what am I doing?” she asked herself as she headed back into town to find the yellow Pegasus. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cookie and Fluttershy entered the small apartment of Cookie Crisp. It was a very small place. In front of the doorway, just a few feet forward, Fluttershy could see where Cookie kept her bed. To her right, was a simple dresser. The handle was broken off on one of the two drawers. She looked to her left to see her reflection in the closet door mirror. Beyond the bed was a balcony. She almost smiled. She wanted to get a great view of the city. As she looked again, she saw only the side of the building next to them. Her faced made a frown. She wouldn’t have minded see the city from above. It was probably beautiful. Cookie threw her keys on the dresser. “Make yourself at home.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but see the dresser as Cookie’s keys jingled into it. There were several envelopes, some of which said, IMMEDIATE RESPONSE. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what that meant. What could they want she wondered? She hadn’t seen mail much before. In fact, when she sent the package to Hot Rod Wheels containing her blood sample, it was Monsieur Pabul who taught her how to do it. She missed Monsieur Pabul. She missed Blackberry. She missed all the circus folk. She wondered how they were doing. Were they okay? What about Bertha and Tommy? And Alex? She hoped they weren’t in too much trouble because of her. It pained her to think of what might have happened to them. She hoped that striking up a conversation with Cookie would help keep her mind off it. “This is a wonderful place you have,” Fluttershy commented. “Yeah, right. It ain’t a four star hotel, but at least it’s a place to sleep.” “You don’t know how much this means to me, Cookie.” Cookie plopped her self down on her bed. “Forget it.” Fluttershy made her way to the window. She knew the view wasn’t much, but it felt nice to feel the breeze. The way it flowed against her hair, the way it brushed against her face. It was like being back in the meadows she had traveled when she was a filly. The days before all this madness began. She was brought back from her thoughts when Cookie spoke, “So, what happened?” Fluttershy was confused. What happened? A lot of things had happened. It was hard to know exactly what Cookie meant. Cookie was able to pick up on her silence. “What happened when you... changed?” Fluttershy’s heart sank. Changed? She hated that word, but was there any other way to describe what happened to her? Changed. She had changed all right. From a sweet, loving pony into a raging beast. She didn’t want to say anything at all. She just wanted to forget everything, but Cookie did offer to help her. Cookie let her into her home and gave her shelter. She deserved to know. Fluttershy sighed, a tear nearly building up in her eye. “When I was hit by the gamma bomb, something happened.” Cookie’s eyebrows rose. Then she turned towards the timid pony. “You mean this hadn’t happened before?” Fluttershy shook her head. “No, I didn’t even know it happened until four months after.” “So, why does that thing come out?” Thing. It wasn’t even a pony anymore. It was just a monstrous, terrible, raging... thing. Tears started to dwell in Fluttershy’s eyes, but she held them back. She looked down towards the street below. “It only happens when I’m angry. When I lose control.” Cookie could sense the sorrow in her words. “What in Tartarus has she been through?” Fluttershy turned around back towards the room and slowly trotted inside. Cookie saw Fluttershy’s eyes. They were red, probably from crying. Cookie bit her lip. She knew what she had said upset her. “Flyshy... I’m sorry,” she thought to herself. And with that, that they said nothing for the rest of the night. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The night presented a difficult time for Fluttershy to fall into sleeps deep embrace, as was the case every night. It wasn’t because the floor was uncomfortable. She had been sleeping on the ground for years. It didn’t bother her anymore. In fact, when she had a bed to sleep on, she found it... synthetic. It felt as if she wasn’t really a part of the earth anymore. She would often find herself on the floor asleep, much to her parent’s confusion. The night was unpleasant because she hated to dream. She would often dream the same things every night. She would be a filly. A filly like any other except for two things. She would have her mommy and her daddy. She would laugh, they would laugh. She would be picking flowers with her mother or hugging her father after she had learn to make a fire all by herself. Her mother singing her sweet lullaby to help her fall asleep or her father’s voice as he spoke about the wonders of science. They were the most wonderful moments she could ever have. And then, as if some pony had cruelly slapped her, she would wake up in pain and sadness. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thunderbolt marched past doorway after doorway of the Las Pegasus State College. The bell just sounded over the heads of every student, signaling their day to be done. Hordes of students came from every direction passing the general. Most of them didn’t even give him a glance, but the few who did stared for a time. Most of them probably thought he was there for recruiting. He didn’t care what those kids were thinking, he was here for something much more important. Important, and only one pony had it. He made his way to the office of Professor Steel Smolder. He stood at the doorway as the dark blue unicorn was in a discussion with a bright pink Pegasus. They were discussing something to do with math, of that Thunderbolt was sure. What it was, he couldn’t care less. The blue unicorn finally took notice of him. A flash of resentment crossed into his eyes. He drowned it out as he smiled towards the young mare. “We’ll discuss this again another time, Miss Pepper.” The Pegasus nodded with a smile and gathered her books. She politely made her way past the general, leaving the two alone. The general shut the door behind him as he made his way into the room. “Have you come to kill me, General?” the unicorn asked sarcastically. He turned his chair away from the doorway and pushed himself towards the window. He sat silently as the sun continued to beam onto his face. He had been stranded in that chair for years. It was his curse and it was all Thunderbolt’s fault. “Because that would be a blessing compared to what I’m doing now.” “Nice to see you haven’t lost your personality,” Thunderbolt remarked. “Cut the crap. What do you want?” Professor Smolder snapped. The general’s eyes cut towards the professor. Smolder had always had a mouth on him, so he wasn’t surprised by his tone. Still, he would not be disrespected. “I’m here for the formula.” Smolder raised his eyebrow. “Are you still on about that?” He turned his chair towards the general. “I thought the government had scrapped that project.” “Your partner seemed to think it would work.” “Let me tell you something about my partner; his serum didn’t work, it never worked, it never will work.” He emphasized his words by sharply tapping on the arm of his chair. Thunderbolt took several steps towards the professor. “Then how come Fluttershy is still alive?” “If you had gotten me the notes that I requested, I could have told you!” He pointed his hoof towards the general. “But because of your incompetence! Your bumbling-!” “I’d be careful how you speak to me, doctor,” the general said with as much patience as he could muster. No pony, whoever they were, would disrespect him, especially not this failure of a scientist. “You’ve already lost so much.” He stepped towards Smolder, towering over him. “Your son, your wife, your legs.” Smolder took a look down towards his legs. The ones cursed to be trapped in a chair. Thoughts of rage filled his mind. If he could lash out all his rage against the general he hated so much, he would have. “Can you really afford to lose any more?” Smolder glared at the general. A second later, Smolder made his way to a locked safe behind his desk. His horn started to glow bright blue as it magically turned the lock on the safe. The door opened to reveal a small vial with a clear liquid and a few scraps of paper. A blue aura surrounded the vial as it floated into the air. The vial finally found its way to Thunderbolt’s hooves. “Here’s your damn formula.” The general started to make his way from the room when Dr. Smolder’s voice stopped him, “Be careful with that. I don’t need to tell you the unfortunate side effects.” With that, the general exited the classroom, leaving the raging unicorn to his lonely thoughts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy wandered through the seemingly endless desert, alone and forgotten. The sun was harsh, even in the earliest hours of the day. But at the very least, it was bearable. This place wasn’t where she wanted to be, but she couldn’t stay near civilization. Not with the soldiers following her. She felt as if she had been walking for days. Her supply of water was running low and food was scarce. Her mouth was dry and conjuring a small amount of saliva was difficult. Her stomach roared in pain, desperate for food. Even the sand across the desert floor looked delightful. She would need to find someplace to gather supplies, but that seemed an impossible feat. The sun was slowly driving the animals into hiding and there was very little vegetation. Even with her knowledge of plants, she wasn’t sure which plants in the desert wasteland were edible for ponies. Maybe none of them were. Fluttershy continued to walk, the sand ravaging her hooves as she trudged through it. Her hooves were aching. Walking on them hurt. Tartarus, even standing on them hurt. There were many cuts on the bottom of her hooves. Some of them still fresh with blood. The sand filling up the wounds would only cause her to brush the bottom of her hooves clean, only to be burdened with the pain moments later. It felt like an endless cycle of misery and pain. Something she couldn’t escape. A bright light then assaulted her eyes, causing her to turn her head in a vain attempt to shield them. “The sun?” she thought to herself. “But the sun rises in the east, doesn’t it?” She turned her head, trying to ignore the glare in her eyes. After focusing her vision, she noticed that the bright light wasn’t the sun at all. It was a giant metallic dome. The metal reflected the light of the sun into the mare’s eyes, casting the illusion of the sun. “What is a metal dome doing here in the middle of the desert?” she asked herself. Fluttershy carefully studied the magnificent construct. It was very smooth in it’s design with only one visible entry point. It was a long narrow gap on the side of the dome. That gap was wide enough to see through and inside there seemed to be ponies. Fluttershy focused her gaze on the dome’s interior and saw a single pony looking out upon her. A Pegasus pony with a light green coat and short black mane looked out onto the desert. He was a very well kept stallion, but that wasn’t why Fluttershy was eying him. There was something oddly ... familiar about him. But she couldn’t seem to recall where. Suddenly, she heard the revving of some type of vehicle. She quickly turned around to see a pony on a motorbike. She had just taken off a steep hill into the air. Fluttershy took a step back as the bike started to come towards the ground. She was terrified of it and the pony that was riding it. Of course, she was afraid of a lot of things. As the bike landed on the ground, it swerved out of control. The rider attempted to regain control of her ride, but was thrown aloft instead. The bike jetted off several yards before tumbling to the ground, uncontrollably. “Damn it!” the mare shouted. She lifted herself off the ground and dust herself off. Fluttershy was worried that she had hurt herself. “Oh my, that pony really shouldn’t be riding something so dangerous,” she thought to herself. Fluttershy made her way to the mare with short red hair. She stepped in front of the mare’s path. “Um... excuse me. Are you okay?” The mare turned, her eyebrow raised. “Who the Tartarus are you?” Fluttershy’s head sunk into her shoulders and she started to quiver. “Well... I-I ... just.” “Do you mind getting out of my way?!” the mare shouted as she rudely trotted her way past Fluttershy. “I’m...I’m s-s-sorry,” Fluttershy finally said. Fluttershy started to walk the other way, listening to the mare speak profanity under her breath. Just as the pair started to leave each other’s personal space, a siren started to wail all around them. They stopped dead in their tracks as the siren continued its foreboding cry. They then heard a voice calling to them from the distance. “You need to get out of there!” Their eyes diverted themselves to the metallic dome. The pony with the dark hair was shouting at them. He looked terrified. Frightened. “There’s only 30 seconds before the gamma bomb explodes!” “Bomb?!” Fluttershy began to panic. “We’re in the middle of a bomb zone?!” Fluttershy looked behind her and several hundred feet away, a large towering metallic structure stood proudly in the distance. “Was that... the bomb?!” Like runners hearing the sound of the gunshot, the two mares burst into a frantic dash to the metallic dome. Fluttershy was certain that metallic dome would be safe. If she was right, it was the only place she would be safe. Her hooves began to carry her the seemingly incredible distance. Pain throbbed through her legs. The burning nearly caused her to collapse, but she pushed through. She needed to get to safety. She took a look to her left and her thoughts of self-preservation change. She saw the other mare that was in the same death trap she was in. The biker who had been so mean to her, called her a ... well, she wasn’t going to even think such a word. Still, how could she be so selfish? “How could I have only thought about myself?” Fluttershy thought. “She deserves to live as much as I do!” As they approached the metallic dome, they noticed the narrow opening was much higher off the ground then either of them was expecting. The brown mare jumped up to the opening and caught the ledge with her hooves. She struggled to pull herself up, but couldn’t find the strength. Fluttershy, sensing time was growing short, decided to act. She placed her front hooves onto the bottom of the mare’s hind hooves and began to push up as hard as she could. It took all of her strength to help lift the mare, but eventually she fell, headfirst, into the complex. Now, it was her turn. Fluttershy started to flap her wings as hard as she could, attempting to bring herself to the opening. When she finally came to where the opening was, she noticed the entry point was much narrower and growing even more so. The only opening was sealing itself shut. The light green stallion urged her to hurry, but it was too late. The stallion disappeared behind the metal panel. Fluttershy slammed her hooves on the doorway, hoping it would open. However, no matter how hard she hit the metal, it wouldn’t even budge. The yellow Pegasus then heard a huge explosion coming from behind her. She turned her head to see a green wave of light coming straight for her. Her mind raced with thoughts of avoiding such a wave, but the light was traveling so fast and with so much power, what hope did she have? She closed her eyes, her wings slowly giving out to slowly place her hooves on the ground. “I’m coming... Mommy... Daddy,” she whispered to herself only a second before the green light engulfed her. The only sound she heard after that was her own blood-curdling scream. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy’s eyes burst open. Awoken by her own scream. She had hardly gotten a wink of sleep. As she feared, she would dream. Dreams created from her worst memories. The days she lost the ones she cared about. The events that changed her life forever. They never seemed to stop and they were getting worse every day. She looked towards the cabinet where she had placed her father’s notes. She picked herself up and combed through them again, being very careful not to wake Cookie. Of course, she had slept through Fluttershy’s own nightmare; maybe even Bertha would have a hard time waking her up. Fluttershy could understand some of it, but there was a majority she didn’t understand. It was biology and chemistry beyond anything Fluttershy had gotten from her books. Her father was as brilliant as she remembered. Even after five years of reading and studying for her condition, she was still nowhere in the league of her father’s intellect. Her only hope was her mysterious friend. She had to get these notes to Hot Rod, whatever it took. Cookie groaned as she pushed herself off her bed. Fluttershy greeted her with a smile. “Good morning, Cookie.” Cookie rubbed her eyes, still groggy. “Hey, Flyshy.” She stood up and stretched her front legs by leaning back on her hind legs. “So, what are you doing up? Fluttershy placed the folder back on the desk. “I was just looking at my father’s work.” Cookie opened her closet. “You make any sense out of it. All it did for me was make my brain hurt when I tried to read it.” A small chuckle came from Fluttershy. “Some of it.” Cookie grabbed her biker jacket from the closet and closed it behind her. “What now?” Fluttershy thoughts revisited the night before. She had stayed up most of the night thinking about it. A pony that could help them. Somepony that would have the information she would need. She had her father’s notes on the growth serum he injected into her, but it wasn’t enough. She still needed the data on the gamma pulse. She remembered the pony she knew worked on the project. “I need you to help me find some pony. If I remember right, he used to live here. I mean, if you can.” “Okay, why?” “He might be able to get me what I need to cure it. To get rid of it forever.” Cookie took a deep breath. Fluttershy was hoping that she wouldn’t storm out on her like yesterday, but she didn’t. “This is the only way?” Cookie asked. Fluttershy simply nodded. “Okay, just let me shower first,” Cookie replied as she headed out of the room. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Crumble sat at his home after a long day at the school. His warm tea helped him relax after the stress of radiation testing, tapping into the hidden strengths that all ponies naturally possess, and dealing with the typically brilliant, but often distracted college student. He sat peacefully as the fireplace continued to silently warm the vicinity. He started to close his eyes as the silent air began to consume him. A knock suddenly came at the door, driving him from his relaxation. He exhaled in frustration and slowly got up and headed for the door. The knock came again. Who ever this pony was, they were certainly impatient. “Alright, I’m coming,” he shouted. He opened the door to see a brown mare with a short red mane, in a jet-black biker jacket. “Can I help you? “Are you Crumble Bristle?” the mare asked. “I am,” He replied. His eyebrow rose. He wondered what could this mare want with him. “Who are you? Do I know you?” “Sort of. We met briefly.” She then stepped to the side to reveal a yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane. “Crumble?” the Pegasus asked. He took a look at the Pegasus. He was silent for a long time. He had seen this pony somewhere before, but he couldn’t remember where. He racked his brain, but couldn’t give a reason why he knew her. The Pegasus spoke again, “When you were a little colt, there was a filly you would always play with in the park. Her mom would always be a few yards away. One time, you two played on the monkey bars. She fell off and she’s been afraid of heights ever since.” His mind went back to that day so many years ago. He remembered the Pegasus who tried to climb the monkey bars. She was very, very shy. She said she didn’t have many friends. That didn’t stop them from playing together. The more his mind thought of this filly, the more the images of her and the mare in front of her became the same. His eyes spoke volumes of fear as he slowly realized who was at his front door. “Fluttershy?” he gasped in panic, unsure of what was about to befall him.