Angel watched, frozen by fear, as the creature lunged towards Fluttershy's neck. As soon as it reached her, biting down on her exposed skin, the mare went completely rigid. After a second, it released her, pulling its teeth out from her neck and launching itself backwards up into the sky. A few seconds later it disappeared, lost against the blackness of the horizon.
As it flew off, the mare stood upright for a second before falling over away from Angel, landing with a dull clunk. She didn't move after that, she just lay staring sightlessly ahead. Angel hopped up onto her body, racing over to her neck. Blood was continuing to pour out, trickling down the mare's yellow fur. A small puddle had formed beneath her and was growing every second. Not wasting any time, Angel put his paws on her neck, over the wounds, and began exerting pressure. They weren't that big, only about half an inch long each, but despite that they were bleeding profusely. More specifically, the right cut was bleeding profusely, as it had cut into her Jugular vein.
Angel didn't know all of this, of course, but he'd watched Fluttershy with injured animals enough to know that pressure slowed the bleeding. Still, some blood seeped past his paws, staining his fur a dark red color. He pushed with all of his strength, although considering he was a bunny, that wasn't too much. Still, it slowed the bleeding, keeping it to a minimum.
Behind him, the bats flew in circles, chittering to each other. Angel barely recognized their existence. Beneath his paws, the lifeblood of his best and only friend spilled out because he'd been too cowardly to warn her of the creature. He sniffled, then shook himself angrily. That wouldn't help Fluttershy- only actions would. He pushed down with renewed force. He didn't notice when a group of bats split off from the main crowd, flying off through the forest.
After a few minutes, he felt the blood start to slow, slowly coagulating. He pulled his paw off the cuts, one at a time, and saw to his relief that they were no longer bleeding. It was only then that he noticed the sheer volume of the blood that coated his and Fluttershy's fur, over a litre of spilled out on the ground.
He slowly stepped off her body, his eyes widening at the amount. He'd heard Fluttershy talk about blood loss, and although he didn't know how much blood set the limit for something to be called serious, he got the feeling that this was more than enough.
Suddenly, Angel's ears picked up the sound of large pawsteps coming from behind. Turning, he saw a massive grizzly bear slowly approaching, looking tired and slightly irritated. A group of bats fluttered around the bear, directing him forwards. Angel let out a sigh of relief.
Harry was massive, two times taller than a pony and more than a hundred times larger than Angel himself. Despite that, he was a real softie, preferring to eat berries over other animals and always willing to help Fluttershy out. In return, she'd give him a massage every few weeks. He was one of the only creatures besides Fluttershy that Angel liked or respected (the other ones being the princesses and Opalescence, Rarity's cat).
Harry froze upon seeing Fluttershy's prone body, letting out an anguished growl. Angel stepped back as the bear made his way forward. Harry scooped up Fluttershy with his front paws, lifting her off the ground. As he did so, blood drained out of the mare's fur, dripping to the ground.
Moving as quickly as he could, Harry began to make his way back to Fluttershy's cottage, Angel hopping behind and a crowd of bats following.
v---v
For a moment, Fluttershy was frozen in shock and fear as the bat-like creature sank it's fangs into her neck. Then the pain and poison set in and the mare's muscles locked up completely.
Dimly, she was aware of the creature flying away, and then of herself falling over. Then she lost the ability to think as the pain flared. It wasn't a burning pain as much as the pain of cold, of ice, of desolation and heartbreak and misery.
From the pain, the mare found a memory, buried away, one she hadn't thought about for years. Suddenly, she remembered a time years ago when her parents had taken her camping right before Hearths Warming Eve. It had been freezing outside, but her father had insisted on going, saying that it would be a good time for the family to bond.
They'd hiked out to the site, a small campground by the side of a frozen lake. There was a few inches of snow on the ground and the branches of the pine trees that surrounded the site, but that hadn't intimidated her father. He'd seen it as a challenge, to find wood and get a fire going when everything was either drenched or snow-covered.
Fluttershy had been too young to help out with carrying logs and her mother had flat out refused to, saying that it was her husband's ridiculous idea to go camping in the middle of winter. It hadn't dissuaded the stallion, though, and he had half ran, half flown around the woods searching for wood as his wife and daughter set up the tent and then sat in it watching him try to light the damp logs with a flint and steel, without much success.
After a while, though, he did manage to light the wood, and the three of them sat around it for the rest of the night as they talked and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. They'd actually ended up having a pretty fun time, with Fluttershy's father telling funny stories and her mom wrapping a wing around the filly for warmth.
Later on in the trip, though, her father had decided to teach Fluttershy how to ice skate. After strapping on his own boots and helping the filly with hers, he'd taken her out on the surface of the frozen lake. Her father was an expert ice skater and an excellent teacher, going over the basics with her and practicing them slowly until the filly was able to do them as well.
Fluttershy had been wobbly at first and would have fallen over countless times if her father hadn't been there to steady her, but after an hour of practice she was able to skate on her own without falling to the ice.
She'd made her way to the other end of the lake, unsteadily skating over as her father had tried to convince her mother to join them. When he'd turned around and realized where she was, it was too late.
All at once, the ice had broken beneath her hooves, sending her careening into the frigid water. Her parents launched themselves into the air at the same time, reaching the filly a few seconds later pulling her out, teeth chattering and shivering. She'd been fine in the end, drying off next to the fire with three blankets wrapped around her body.
But for those few moments that she was been in the water, she was in utter agony. Her breath was stolen and the frigid water cut to the bone, searing every nerve in her whole body. She thrashed around, crying for help, but the pain remained, still searing...
The memory faded out as the pain came back full force, burning her up. Desperately, the mare searched for something, anything to grasp to keep the pain away. And at the edge of her perception, she felt something- a dim sense of something, far away but still strong. She reached for it, trying to find shelter from the icy pain.
As she moved forward to meet it, the sense grew even stronger, until it resolved into a feeling of total and absolute betrayal. The force of it almost knocked the mare away from her refuge, but the pain had diminished somewhat, so she kept moving towards it.
Suddenly, she was in a large stone room, the full moon visible through a stained glass window to the side. Before her lay of Celestia, prone with her head on the ground, looking utterly defeated. A loud laugh echoed inside the room and a feeling of triumph surged through her veins. Fluttershy recognized it as the laugh of Nightmare Moon just as she realized she herself was laughing.
In the image, Celestia looked up. She didn't look like the kind and wise Celestia Fluttershy knew. Her face was a mask of sadness, and tears rolled down the side of her face. Still, she got to her feet, slowly, cringing as she did so as if each step pained her.
"Luna! Give up, please!" she cried out. For a moment, she felt herself waver. Then she remembered Celestia's betrayal, and her resolve firmed.
"My name," she said menacingly, charging up her horn, "is Nightmare Moon!" The beam shot out and struck Celestia directly in the chest. The princess flew backwards, slamming into the wall behind her. A trickle of blood came out of the side of her mouth. Fluttershy smiled at the sight, even as she tried to rush forward to help the fallen princess.
Celestia looked up. "You give me no choice," she said, ducking her head. "I'm sorry sister."
She raised her head then, and her eyes glowed white with power. Six stones appeared around her, and they began spinning around her head, steadily increasing in speed. As they spun, magic bleached off, turning the air around her into a rainbow of colors. The rainbow shot up, spiraling in the air, before slamming straight at Fluttershy, crashing into her chest.
The last thing she felt as she was thrown out of the memory was Nightmare Moon's feeling of disbelief and pain, that her own sister would use the Elements of Harmony against her. Then the pain washed over her again and her thoughts scattered to the wind.
v---v
Angel sat beside Fluttershy, holding her hoof in his paw. Harry had managed to get Fluttershy back to the cottage with little difficulty, and with Angel's help had been able to get the mare up the stairs and into her bed. The bunny had pulled the covers up around her and closed her eyes with his paw, and now she was tucked in, looking for all the world like she was sleeping.
In the corner of the room, Harry was sleeping in a large, furry pile. The bats had returned to their nest, all except two that hung from the room's rafters and watched over the mare. Angel felt the steady throb of Fluttershy's heartbeat through the fur of her hoof, and it had started to lull him into falling asleep as well.
Suddenly he felt it change, slowing down. In an instant, he was awake, hopping upright on the bed. He hopped over to the mare's neck, putting his head down on the uninjured skin and listening for the heartbeat there. As he feared, it was slowing down as well, and the mare's skin was getting colder as well. Her fur paled a bit, becoming a slightly lighter shade of yellow.
As Angel listened, her pulse dropped from a beat a second to once every five seconds, and then finally one heartbeat every twenty seconds. It continued at that rate for four more beats, and then it stopped all the way.
Angel kept listening, hoping it would beat once more. When it didn't he stepped back, his eyes wide with shock. He looked at the face of his friend, companion, and caretaker, now looking completely still.
And then her eyes flashed open.