Author’s Note: I don’t own MLP or Amnesia: Justine
A Sort-Of Flashback
Twilight Sparkle sighed in contentment, in her humble opinion there were few things in all of Equis that were better than doing research, the intake of new knowledge was something that she loved and it definitely helped that the assignment that she had been given had come from Princess Luna, whom she hadn’t seen since Nightmare Night.
Twilight felt a twinge of guilt when she had read the letter, Luna must be so lonely she thought afterwards, I know there are a lot of ponies who don’t want anything to do with her because of the Nightmare Moon incident, even though we cleansed her and she’s back by her sister’s side. Twilight felt the guilt increase when she realized something: she herself hadn’t done anything to rectify that situation.
Twilight looked back at the book that she was reading with determination burning in her eyes, I’m going to make it up to Luna and the first thing I’m going to do is research the hay out of this whole “red meteor” thing.
Five hours later Spike came down to find his big sister/boss with her head buried in a massive tome, Spike warily approached her
“Uhh… Twilight?” he asked, “are you okay?
Twilight raised her head and let out a long groan.
Spike chuckled, “That bad huh?”
Twilight groaned again, softer this time.
Spike wandered over to her and comfortingly patted her on the back, “There, there now, it’ll be alright” he said in his best calming tone, one that he had nearly perfected over the years, Twilight raised her head and Spike saw that her eyes were bloodshot from barely blinking, Spike sighed in faint annoyance at the sight, “Twilight, you promised me that you wouldn't do stuff like this anymore.” he said in a scolding tone.
“ But I need to do this” said Twilight, sounding more like a filly than her usual self, “Why?” asked Spike, “ Because Princess Luna gave me an assignment and I feel really bad for not being there for her when I should have… I have to do this.”
Spike scratched his head with a talon, “Why don’t you just invite her to a party?”
Twilight’s eyes widened, Uh-oh, he didn’t just say the “P-word” did he?, before she could so much a blink a familiar pink-maned head popped in through a window, “Did somepony say ‘party’?”
“Hi Pinkie Pie.” said Twilight with a smile, Pinkie Pie may have been more than a little odd, but she was still one of Twilight’s best friends and one of the few things, or ponies, that Twilight considered better than research.
“Whats this about a party? *GASP* is there somepony new in town? Because if it is then I’ve gotta get home, get the party cannon, make cakes, make cupcakes, m-” Pinkie was silenced by an orange hoof being placed over her mouth, Applejack entered the library with a tired smile on her face.
“Sorry ‘bout that sugarcube, she’s been like this the entire day and Ah have no clue why, it’s like she’s extra excited or somethin’”
Twilight’s eyes widened, “EXTRA excited?! Is that even possible?”
The orange earth pony shrugged “This IS Pinkie we’re talkin’ about.”
Twilight nodded her head knowingly, “I just hope this isn’t like that time when I tried to figure out her Pinkie Sense.” she said with a shudder.
Applejack chuckled and patted Twilight on the back, “Ah’m sure no hydras will be involved in any ‘o today’s activities.”
When Twilight gave her a quizzical look Applejack groaned in annoyance, “Oh Sugarcube, don’t tell me that ya forgot about the picnic?”
Twilight blinked owlishly before giving her friend a weak smile, “Eh heh heh, ummmm…. no?”, Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Twilight d’you know which one of the Elements Ah am?” she said in a slightly teasing tone, Twilight blushed and looked at the floor, “You’re the Element of Honesty…”
“Sorry what? Speak up, Twilight.”
Twilight sighed, “You’re the Element of Honesty.”
“Eeyup, and d’you think that Ah would still be the Element of Honesty if Ah couldn’t detect a lie?”
Twilight looked her in the eye and said “Okay, Okay, I forgot about the picnic, but Princess Luna sent me an assignment and I have to do it because…. well, because I kinda haven’t been there for her and I want to make up for it.”
Applejack smiled and Pinkie Pie, who had been talking at Spike about something, looked at her and beamed, “Awwwww… that’s so nice, you really are an awesome friend!”, Twilight blushed deeply.
“So did ya find anything?” asked Applejack.
Twilight shook her head, “No, she contacted me about the meteor shower last night, she said that she saw three red meteors moving slower than the rest, she wants me to see if there’s anything weird about that.”
“IS there anything weird about it?” asked Applejack.
“Well… yes, actually there is something odd about it, I mean I’ve checked all of the records, but so far there’s nothing about red meteors, it might be something entirely new” Twilight’s voice grew more excited with each word, “I only have one more book to read and, if nothing shows up, then I can tell Luna that she discovered something new! I bet that’ll make her happy.”
Applejack nodded and gestured to the door, “Why don’t you take that book ‘o yours with ya to the picnic, Celestia knows you’ve done it a couple bajillion times.”
Twilight nodded and levitated the book into a nearby satchel, which she then slung around her shoulders, Pinkie Pie whooped and zoomed out of the door, leaving a Pinie-shaped cloud of dust behind her, Applejack chuckled and trotted out the door as well, Twilight turned to Spike and opened her mouth to say something, but the little dragon waved her off.
“I know I know, I’ll stay here and make sure no one breaks in or something like that.” he said.
“You can come with us if you want.” said Twilight, there was another zooming noise and Twilight saw a dragon-shaped dust cloud where her assistant/friend used to be, “Hmmm… Maybe he and Pinkie are more similar than I thought, I may have to do some tests, maybe it’s a mood thing.” she thought aloud as she set off.
Fluttershy lay on the grass, surveying the beauty of the clearing that she and her friends were picnicking in.
The grass was emerald green, the sky was cloudless and the surrounding woods were teaming with life, Fluttershy sighed in contentment as she lay her head on the blanket that she and Rainbow Dash had set up, she let her mind wander and thought of her pet bunny, Angel, she hoped he was doing okay while she was away, he was pretty mischievous, but she knew that he loved her enough to not cause too much trouble.
She thought of her friends and how far they’d come: they’d purified Princess Luna of Nightmare Moon’s wicked influence, they’d destroyed King Sombra and ended his fearful reign once and for all, the same year they had also defeated Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army, they had even defeated and reformed Discord, the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.
Fluttershy felt sadness creep up on her, it had been nearly a month since she had seen her newest friend, Celestia had sent him on an assignment that she hadn’t told them about, Fluttershy knew that the Princess had her reasons, but she wished that she could at least have some way of contacting him.
Something made Fluttershy’s ears perk up: it sounded like…. rustling? She looked at her friends to see if any of them had made the noise; Pinkie Pie was happily gorging herself on cupcakes and fritters, Spike was fast asleep, Applejack was arguing with Rarity about proper etiquette again and Rainbow Dash was trying to get Twilight’s head out of a book, a shadow crossed the sun and Fluttershy looked upwards to see a dozen birds fly past, all of them different breeds, yet all of them flying together.
Fluttershy turned her gaze to the treetops; every few minutes she saw a couple of birds leave their nests and every time they did it seemed like the location of the nests were getting nearer to the clearing.
Fluttershy felt the hair stand up on her neck, something was wrong, she could feel it.
Fluttershy turned her attention to the others and found them to be deep in a discussion about signs and portents and Luna, Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak up when she heard something coming from the woods, it was too soft to make out, but it was there and it was getting closer.
Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak, but Pinkie Pie beat her to the punch, “ Wait a second, twitchy tail, knee cramp, scrunchy ear and… wonky eye!”, everypony gave the pink mare a quizzical look before she elaborated “that means that there’s somepony watching us!”
Fluttershy perked her ears up and listened, to her terror she heard the noise from before, but it was much clearer; it sounded like the clinking of chains.
Fluttershy and the others got to their hooves and backed up until their flanks were practically touching, Rainbow Dash flared her wings and hovered a good ten feet from the ground, she placed her hooves to her mouth and shouted, “Alright bub, come outta wherever you’re hiding and maybe, just maybe I won’t decide to thrash you.”
The silence that followed seemed like an eternity, Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to call out again, but then the thing that had been watching them decided to step into view at that very moment and Dash’s words died in her throat.
The thing was not a pony, not even close, it was taller than they were, it lacked any hair on its emaciated body, chains encircled its arms and legs and wound their way around his torso, there was a massive wheel or collar around its neck that seemed to be digging into its skin, all of that was scary enough, but the hideous scars and hollow sockets where its eyes should have been made it almost too much to look at.
Everypony screamed and backed away, everypony, that is, except for Fluttershy, whose eyes were glued on the poor creature and his numerous wounds.
The creature raised its thin hands in what she assumed was a placating manner and said, “Wait!” he said in a thin voice “I mean you no harm, I just want to-”
“Eat our brains?!?!” asked Rainbow Dash accusatory, her eyes narrowed, Fluttershy started to protest, but Rarity cut her off by whimpering “Turn us to stone?”, Fluttershy turned to reprimand her posh friend, but Applejack added her own accusation with a frightened “Swallow our souls?”.
Fluttershy huffed and looked at Applejack, this was getting out of control fast, then Pinkie put the final nail in the horseshoe by screaming out “Eat our brains, turn us to stone AND swallow our souls?!”, this egged Rainbow Dash on and, with a yell of “Don’t worry, I’ll protect ya!”, she darted at the confused creature, who seemed to hear her wing beats and raised its arms over its bald head, the cyan pegasus prepared to launch herself again, but the creature had already ran away.
Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and adopted a smug smile, “That’ll teach that… whatever the hay that thing was to hurt MY friends.”
“Rainbow Dash!” said Fluttershy in her best scolding tone, “That poor creature was hurt and you ran it off!”
Dash gave her a shocked look, “Are you serious?! Didja see that thing?”
“It looked like a Diamond Dog.” said Rarity with a small shudder, “but So. Much. Worse.”
“Did ya see that thing’s eyes? They were all black.” said Spike.
“Ah don’t think it HAD eye’s sugarcube.” said Applejack.
“ It was obviously hurt” said Fluttershy “and you tried to attack it before it could say what it had to say.”
“Oh? And what d’you think it was gonna say?” asked Rainbow Dash angrily
“It was probably going to ask for help because it was hurt badly, it even told you that it meant no harm!” said Fluttershy with a bit of pre-Stare anger creeping into her voice, without another word she turned towards the spot where the creature had vanished and bolted after it.
Everypony stared at her retreating form in shock, then they ran after her.