Chapter 2: Furious Wings
It had been like this for three days now. Fluttershy would leave baskets of varying kinds of fruit and whatever other treats her friend might appreciate at the edge of the forest, asking one of her animals to stand guard until he took them. The colt would still not leave the forest edge while she was watching. And when Dawn came to take the food, he finished and was gone so quickly that Fluttershy never got a chance to speak with him. She was beginning to wonder if she could ever coax him out of his seclusion.
She realized that in a sense, her role had been reversed from what it had been before. Around the ponies of Ponyville, Fluttershy had always been known, and was still known in fact, as a reclusively shy pony, terrified of even minor surprises. Her friends were constantly working with her in attempts to coax her out of her shell and to get Fluttershy to experience things outside of her comfort-zone. And now, here she was, trying her hardest to convince a young colt that there was no harm in coming to spend time with other ponies.
Of course, she suspected that their respective reasons for their shyness lay at opposite extremes. Fluttershy was frightened at the prospect of the unknown and the unfamiliar. She dreaded things that she didn't have any experience with, including ponies she hadn't met yet. But suspected that the colt had the opposite problem. Given their ever-so-brief conversation in the Everfree, Fluttershy suspected that he had experienced a little too much of the outside world and was determined to keep himself away from those things. It was fairly clear that he saw Fluttershy's kindness as setting himself up for some kind of grand disappointment.
And yet, he stayed. Even when she couldn't see him, Fluttershy could feel Dawn's eyes following her from their place of concealment. Any other pony might have felt a bit nervous at the prospect of being watched like that, but Fluttershy held out hope that if he continued to watch her, Dawn might one day take the chance to come out of his hiding place. In fact, she now spent her time dreading the idea that his watchful gaze might slip away and leave her alone.
"Hey Fluttershy!"
The timid, yellow pegasus let out a startled squeak as Rainbow Dash's voice sounded out from above. Looking up, she spied her friend standing on top of an unusually large cloud. Given that a clear day had been scheduled, she expected that all the small clouds that drifted in from the Everfree, as well as the leftovers from their most recent rainstorm, would have been dispersed by now. But instead, her friend had apparently gathered up all the clouds in an area and hoarded them together. This wasn't how Rainbow Dash usually cleared the skies.
"Oh hello, Rainbow. That's a big cloud you have. Are you planning some kind of prank?"
The blue pegasus shook her head. "Nope. There've been some...problems at the Weather Factory at Cloudsdale. I just got told that our next shipment of storm clouds is gonna be behind schedule. It's no big deal, but to be on the safe side I've started up some water-conservation measures. I'm having everypony on the weather team gather up their clouds instead of breaking them up and bring them to a holding area. We need to be ready in case of a drought."
"Oh dear, that would be terrible," agreed Fluttershy as she looked around. She could indeed spy several other pegasi at work throughout Ponyville's skies, rolling clouds together and pushing them towards a single point. "I hope that everything works out okay."
Rainbow let out a small sigh. "Yeah, it's no big deal, I'm sure. But I'd like to play it safe."
That made Fluttershy blink. That was uncharacteristically cautious of her rainbow-maned friend, even where Rainbow's job as Weather Manager was concerned. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing.
"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you about something," continued Rainbow Dash, "You've been buying a lot more stuff at the market than you usually do. Is everything okay?"
Fluttershy nodded, trying her hardest to keep a blush from rising to her cheeks. She didn't want to find out what kind of assumptions that Rainbow Dash might make if she found out what Fluttershy had really been up to. "Oh yes, everything is going swimmingly."
"You sure?" Rainbow sounded suitably skeptical. "Angel isn't bullying you again, is he?"
Fluttershy shook her head vigorously. "Oh no! Everything is fine, really. And Angel's been, well...an angel."
"Well okay then," said Rainbow Dash, still looking a little dubious, "By the way, has Flash Spark been giving you any more trouble."
Again, Fluttershy shook her head, relaxing a little now that she could give a full truth at some point in this conversation. "No, he hasn't. In fact, I haven't even seen him since the other day."
"Well that's good," muttered Rainbow darkly, "If he tries anything, you come to me as fast as you can, got it?"
Fluttershy gave her friend an agreeable nod and proceeded on her way.
Flash Spark let out an angry growl as he strained against the mass of clouds he was pushing towards the gathering point. He was more than a little angry at this unusual assignment. Gathering clouds together and then herding them around was a lot more work than simply bucking them out of existence. He couldn't understand what had gotten Rainbow Dash so concerned that she felt the need to save all the clouds they could find, rather than simply get rid of them. So the next storm was a little late, it wasn't like they couldn't make up by making it extra big like they had done before.
Herding clouds like this was the worst job. Pushing them together meant condensing all that moisture, which meant one wrong move could trigger a rainstorm, which was not what Rainbow wanted since the whole point of the exercise was to conserve water. Because of that, they couldn't be merged together too completely. But that meant that if you pushed too hard, a few clouds might break off from the mass, or worse, the entire thing might fall apart. Most pegasi, even Rainbow Dash herself, compensated by not trying to push too many clouds together at once and making multiple trips to their areas. However, Flash Spark wanted to get this irritating job over with. So he had found every cloud in his zone and grouped them all together before pushing them towards the holding area.
Unfortunately, this meant that it was slow going. If Flash tried to push too hard, the entire mass could come apart, or he might accidentally cause it to rain, which would make a number of ponies unhappy with him. At this concentration, there was even a chance that he might accidentally knock out a lightning bolt with an ill-placed hoof.
Pausing for a moment, Flash Sparked stopped his push in order to take a breather. Looking around, he spotted Rainbow Dash on one of her clouds, chatting with a friend down bellow. Typical, she works me like a mule, but she can drop whatever she's doing for some chitchat. A low growl escaped the stallion as he watched. He was too far away to hear any of their conversation, but he could see that the pony Rainbow was talking to was that fine piece of flank he had been trying to hook up with the other day.
Originally, Flash Spark hadn't been very interested in the shy, pink-maned pegasus, too preoccupied to spare a thought for a pony too shy to do anything but quiver behind her mane. But then there was that modeling business with Photo Finish. Fluttershy had become a household name throughout Ponyville. And once she had been coaxed out of her shell, Flash Spark had to admit that she was gorgeous. But then, Fluttershy had quit almost as quickly as she started, crawling back into her shell like nothing had happened. Ponyville had quickly forgotten their all-too-brief star and resumed their regular lives.
Flash Spark, however, was still interested. Getting a model, even a former one, as his mare would be a pretty big gain for him. It would also make up for Rainbow Dash's rough rejection of his advances. Flash had planned to try his usual trick (meaning the trick that he had tried exactly once before), but cornering the shy recluse alone was proving more difficult than he had anticipated. When Fluttershy was out and about, it was usually with her friends, or in open spaces, surrounded by witnesses. And when she wasn't with her friends, or within sight of some other pony for that matter, she was locked inside that cottage by the Everfree Forest, which would have made it perfect for Flash's purposes, excepting that it was infested with animals.
To make matters worse, just when Flash Spark had been sure that his time had finally come, he had been found out by none other than Rainbow Dash. It had been the perfect opportunity. An area of town light on witnesses, Fluttershy, trotting along with an earth pony known for being a total loser; it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up. Nopony who mattered would have been there...except for Rainbow Dash, as it turned out. And now that she knew that Flash Spark had been aiming for Fluttershy, she was watching him even more closely. And her threat the other day made it perfectly clear that she wasn't fooling around either.
She was even angrier that I was going after Fluttershy than when I was going after her... Flash Spark's mental voice crawled to a halt as the realization hit him. So if I get Fluttershy, I'll have her and give Rainbow Dash some long-overdue payback at the same time. It's taking out two clouds with one buck!
A malicious grin on his face, Flash Spark got back to the task at hoof. It wouldn't do for Rainbow to realize that something was up after all. Now he wanted to get this job over with even faster. He had plans to make.
"Hey, come on in Fluttershy," said Spike as he opened the door to the Ponyville library and ushered her in, "What brings you here today?"
"Oh, um...I was wondering if...that is...if it's alright with you...if I could ask Twilight Sparkle about something, um...if you don't mind too much."
The little purple dragon listened patiently as Fluttershy stammered out her request. When she finished, Spike grinned at her. "Sure thing." To the stairs leading up to the room he shared with his caretaker, he shouted, "Twilight! Fluttershy has something she needs to ask you about."
The two heard a muffled exclamation from above, followed by the sound of somepony tripping. Several crashes came next, like stacks of books falling. For a moment, there was silence and then a groan as Twilight finally hauled herself over to the edge of the balcony overlooking the rest of the library. She directed a sullen glare down at Spike, who was looking just a little too pleased with his handiwork.
"How many times have I told you not to startle me like that," she growled.
"Heh, sorry Twilight," replied Spike, using a clawed hand to stifle a snicker before it came out of his mouth. Moments like this were his little bit of revenge. Twilight took down entire piles of books at once when she was in one of her study moods. Sometimes, she didn't even end up using all of them. But when she was done, she let them lay there and clearly expected her Number One Assistant to pick them up for her. And she often got angry when she found that he hadn't. And when Spike did, it was usually just in time for Twilight Sparkle to come storming in for another session, ripping a new pile of books off the shelves, sometimes the very ones Spike had just replaced.
"Oh, I'm really sorry about that," said Fluttershy, looking down demurely, completely unaware of the dynamic between the unicorn and her assistant, "I just had something to ask you about."
"Um sure," said Twilight, her previous frustration forgotten as she made her way down the stairs to meet her friend, "What's the problem, Fluttershy? Has one of your animals come down with a strange illness again?"
"Um, no," answered Fluttershy, scuffing a hoof on the floor, "Actually, I wanted to ask something about...Nightmare Moon."
Both the librarian and her assistant paused and stared at their friend. "Nightmare Moon...um, do you mean Princess Luna?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "No! I mean Nightmare Moon!...Well, that is to say...um...Princess Luna when she was Nightmare Moon."
"Ooooookay." Twilight drew the word out. "What do you want to know?"
"Um, I was wondering if you had any idea about, when Princess Luna was Nightmare Moon, why her eyes were the way they were?"
Twilight Sparkle blinked in surprise. Of all the tangents she had expected, this was the most unusual. "You mean, how they were kind of blueish-colored and looked a little like Spike's?" she asked, indicating the little dragon, whose own emerald-green eyes sported vertical slit-pupils.
With a squeak, Fluttershy nodded.
Forgetting completely about the oddity of the question and the pony asking it, Twilight Sparkle settled onto her haunches and began thinking. "Well, let's see... A lot of stories assume that Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon, not just her eyes mind you, but the whole change in her form, was the result of her meddling in forbidden magic in order to bring about eternal night. Some historians even think that the change in her eyes might have been an indication of some kind of possession by an unknown force. There wasn't a lot of substance behind those theories until after we used the Elements of Harmony to purify her, which did indeed seem to indicate that Luna was not herself when she was acting as Nightmare Moon. As for the specific changes to the physical characteristics of her eyes, Aristrotle speculated..."
Both Fluttershy and Spike completely lost track of the lavender unicorn's discourse as she listed off theories, the reasoning behind the experts who proposed those theories and the experts who disagreed with those theories, what books the discussions were listed in and annotations to the works used to support those works and so on.
By the time Twilight finished, the day had advanced considerably. Spike was nodding off where he stood while Fluttershy was dizzy from the bombardment of information.
"... And that's it in a nutshell," finished Twilight, "I had to condense and generalize a little, but that's the basic gist of the answer. There have been a lot of theories about what happened and nopony knows for sure what the answer is. Princess Luna herself might know, but nopony has ever thought of asking her."
Oh I bet they have, thought Fluttershy wryly. "Actually, I was getting at a different question," she said, "I was wondering, have you ever heard of anypony who had eyes like Nightmare Moon, but wasn't...you know, Nightmare Moon?"
Twilight Sparkle blinked and stared at her friend. "The Eyes of Nightmare? Why would you want to know about that old-mare's tale?"
"The Eyes...of Nightmare?"
Twilight nodded vigorously in answer. Turning around, she began casting her gaze over the bookshelves, apparently looking for some specific tome while she talked. "Since you were talking about ordinary ponies having eyes like Nightmare Moon, that's what I thought you were talking about." She turned around and gave the yellow pegasus a dubious look. "That is what you were talking about, right?"
"Oh um...sure, I guess. Is that what they are?"
Twilight Sparkle stared for a moment, evidently confused. "Wait, so you've never heard of the Eyes of Nightmare before now?"
Fluttershy slowly shook her head. "Oh, um...I don't think so."
"Ooookay." Again she drew the word out as she resumed her search. After a moment, Twilight let out an excited "Aha!" and pulled a heavy old volume from the shelf, levitating it towards the table in the center of the space. The book landed on the table with a booming thud, startling Spike out of his dazed slumber.
"Huh whazzat!" he slurred.
Ignoring her assistant, Twilight flipped the book open, her magic turning through the pages at blinding speed. "Here it is!" she shouted, jabbing a hoof at the page before her.
Fluttershy came to look for herself. Hovering over the beginning to fine text was an illustration of two slit-pupil eyes glaring out from the page and straight at her. Forgetting briefly that it was just a picture, Fluttershy let out a frightened squeal and fell back.
Ignoring her friend's outburst, Twilight had already started reading. "According to legend, the Eyes of Nightmare are a symptom of demonic possession by evil spirits in the service of Nightmare Moon. It's said that the spirits inhabit the bodies of stillborn foals at the moment of their birth to make it look like they were born alive. These foals are then raised as regular ponies, completely indistinguishable from normal ponies until they reveal their true nature in order to do Nightmare Moon's wicked work."
Fluttershy said nothing for a moment. "So they look like normal ponies most of the time?"
"That's right. According to this, a possessed pony's eyes look completely normal until he or she has to perform some specific deed for the sake of Nightmare Moon. Then he or she will show their true nature and their eyes will transform into the same kind that Nightmare Moon had. After the deed is done, their eyes are supposed to revert back to normal so they can stay in hiding."
"Hmm..." Something was off about that explanation in Fluttershy's mind. Something sounded distinctly off about that explanation. Then she realized that, from the moment she had met him, she had never seen Dawn's eyes as anything but greenish-blue with those pupils. Even those flashes she had seen whenever she looked for him had been the same color and shape.
Ignoring the yellow pegasus's reverie, Twilight Sparkle was reading ahead feverishly. "The author goes on this tract about their habits and abilities. He's even written out a full classification system for the kind of demon responsible for the possession based on certain cosmetic traits and features. It's a whole load of horseapples if you ask me."
Her eyes wide, Fluttershy slapped a hoof over her mouth, shocked by Twilight's use of a casual swear. "Is it really that bad?"
Twilight turned to look up at her and nodded. "Yeah. This whole thing is rooted in superstitious speculation. A lot of it is the product of the Cult Solar and other related groups. They advised killing anypony that might even be suspected to have been possessed, even if there was no solid evidence, which there never would be, because the Eyes never existed to begin with."
"Um...how can you be sure?" asked Fluttershy, beginning to feel a little nervous.
"Well, Princess Celestia herself put a stop to the Cult Solar and confiscated most of their works. This volume isn't one of theirs, but it does reference their writings. I only have this because I have express permission as the Princess's personal student. I've heard that some branches of the cult remain active in rural communities and in secret enclaves in more urban areas. But they should be widely discredited."
"Oh." Fluttershy wished she knew all the things Twilight Sparkle had been referring to, but didn't want to ask, afraid of getting yet another long-winded lecture.
"Anyway, was there anything else you wanted to know?"
"Well..." Fluttershy looked around nervously, "No, not really."
The lavender unicorn raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"I think I do have something I'm not sure about," said Fluttershy, "But I'm not quite sure what it is yet."
"Well, feel free to come back whenever you figure out what that question is," said Twilight amicably. Closing the book, she turned around and trotted towards the stairs to resume her studies in her room. Grumbling, Spike went over to pick up the book Twilight had left sitting on the library table.
He turned to look at Fluttershy, a concerned look on his face. "Is everything okay, Fluttershy?"
The shy mare gave him an encouraging smile. "Yes, everything's fine." Turning around, Fluttershy left the library a little more quickly than she came in.
Shrugging to himself, Spike turned around to look for a ladder.
Flash Spark smacked the glass down on the bar. He was enjoying a nice buzz after a hard day's work, which would hopefully be the prelude to a hot night's activities. Most ponies would assert that a state of inebriation would not be an effective time to plan. But Flash Spark didn't listen to most ponies.
He had seen Fluttershy head into the library a while ago. Having observed her often enough, Flash knew that it could be several hours before she came back out. If he was lucky, night would be falling and it would be even easier to get her alone and make her his.
In a more sober state, Flash might have been worried about being discovered anyway, but he wasn't overly worried. Even if Fluttershy proved to be a screamer, he was willing to bet nopony would be able to hear it anyway.
Chuckling, the green stallion tossed a hooffull of bits onto the bar and headed out the door.
Fluttershy found herself with more questions than answers as she made her way home. On one hoof, she now knew what Dawn had been talking about when he mentioned ponies not liking his eyes. But on the other, she couldn't imagine him as some kind of demon. The little colt had saved her life after all. She wondered if there was some other explanation behind the Eyes of Nightmare that was responsible for his eyes looking the way they did.
"Hello Miss Fluttershy, heading home?" Caramel's unexpected voice once again startled Fluttershy and he had to spend a few seconds calming her down after talking to her while she was distracted.
"Oh, yes," she replied, blushing that she had been surprised by him again.
"Do you mind if I join you?" asked Caramel, a note of concern in his voice.
Fluttershy mentally noted that she had been seeing more of him after their close call with Flash Spark. He frequently appeared while she was wandering the market and had walked her home every night since then, even though it was substantially far out of his way. Fluttershy had to admit that she was growing quite fond of the tan stallion's company.
"Are you alright, Miss Fluttershy?" he asked tentatively, "You seem to be distracted a lot lately."
Blushing, Fluttershy looked down. "Oh, I'm fine. It's nothing important."
"Are you sure?" he asked gently.
"it's not that anything's wrong," explained Fluttershy softly as she struggled the right words to describe her situation without giving too much of the actual problem away, "It's just that...I've met somepony."
"Oh." Caramel's head drooped a little. He dreaded what the answer might be, but found himself asking anyway. "Is he somepony special?"
"Oh no!" replied Fluttershy quickly, "He's much too young for that. He's actually a colt."
Caramel blinked and tilted his head. "A colt?"
"Yes. He's been living by himself for a long time. So I've been trying to convince him to stay with me. But he's had some difficulties with trusting other ponies."
"I...see..." said Caramel, a little confused by the vague answer. But still, it was more than he had been expecting.
"I'm sorry I can't tell you more," said Fluttershy, "It's just that I don't know his situation very well and I don't want to break his trust or violate his privacy. So for now, I've been trying to help him get used to being around me more."
"Oh, is that how you felt babe? I knew you were playing hard to get."
Both ponies jumped at the familiar voice. Before they could react in any other fashion, something impacted with the back of Caramel's head with a crack. The tan earth pony toppled to the ground while a familiar neon-green pegasus landed in front of Fluttershy.
"I've been looking for a chance to get you all to myself," he sneered, the look in his eyes reminding Fluttershy of the timberwolves that had nearly killed her the other day. "I've been looking at you for a while and I have to say that you look good enough to eat."
"Please don't," whispered Fluttershy, backing away from him frantically, "I'm sorry, but I don't feel that way towards you."
"Aww, that's what they all say," growled Flash Spark, "But they start saying different things before I'm done with them. You will too, I promise. Why don't you just sit back and enjoy it. I promise I'll make you feel good."
Fluttershy continued to retreat from the pegasus stallion as he advanced. Unfortunately, she misstepped and stepped on her own tail, taking out her balance and causing her to topple over backwards with a barely audible shriek.
Before she could recover, Flash Spark was on top of her, his hooves pinning her forelegs to the ground. Slowly, deliberately, the stallion lowered his head towards her, grinning evilly. Fluttershy shivered and grimaced as his hot breath, stinking of cheap booze, washed over her face. "Let's get started."
A tan blur slammed into Flash's side, knocking him off of Fluttershy. Panting Caramel stood over the prone green pegasus. "Fluttershy! Run!"
Not needing any further encouragement, Fluttershy picked herself up off the ground and galloped as fast as she could in the direction of her house.
Caramel turned to look back at his opponent, only to find that Flash Spark was no longer there. Looking around frantically, he spied a green blur just as the pegasus stallion slammed his front hooves into Caramel's barrel. Biting back a yelp of pain, Caramel spun about in an attempt to try and intercept Flash Spark's next attack, but he was already gone. Then Flash's rear hooves came down on top of Caramel's skull, driving his chin straight into the ground. Flash Spark touched down lightly in front of Caramel, grinning savagely.
"You should learn your place. This is where you belong, eating dirt with the rest of your kind. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be going to help myself to some sweet pegasus flank."
Still grinning, Flash Spark turned and took a few steps in preparation for getting airborne. However, he stopped with a yelp as something yanked on his tail, holding him in place. Turning around, Flash's eyes widened in shock when he saw Caramel laying there, holding Flash's tail clenched in his teeth.
"You little piece of manure!" snapped Flash Spark, enraged. He pushed off the ground with his back legs, heedless of the pain this caused him as Caramel's head was dragged off the ground and into the air. Flash snapped his back legs out, his hooves colliding with Caramel's head. Blood splattered around, but still Caramel clung grimly to his prize.
I need to hold on. Even if it's only for one second more, it's another second Fluttershy has to get away.
Snarling, Flash Spark repeated the process. "Get...off...you...little...mule!" he snarled, punctuating each word with a kick. Finally, Caramel went limp, his jaws releasing Flash's tail. The earth pony sank bonelessly to the ground, out cold.
"Finally," snapped Flash, turning around to give Caramel a kick in the ribs for good measure. He spat on Caramel before taking to the air in pursuit of Fluttershy.
Fluttershy's breath came in gasps as she rushed along the road. Once again, her wings were too cramped with fear to aid in her flight. Instead, she merely ran as fast as her legs could carry her, fighting hard against the feeling that she had done this before all too recently. In some ways, it was worse than last time. Timberwolves weren't evil, they were merely hungry predators that ate other animals for food. Fluttershy had learned that there was nothing inherently evil in that a long time ago. But for another pony to send her running like this...
Fluttershy lost her train of thought as she came over a hill and saw her cottage a short distance away. Just a little farther and I'll be safe, she thought. Unfortunately, that was when she was tackled from behind, the force of the impact throwing her off the path and onto the grass. Once again, her hooves were pinned to the ground, this time from behind as the stallion on top of her pressed his entire weight down on her.
"Now then," he hissed straight into her ear, making a shiver run through Fluttershy's body, "Let's have some fun."