This was not her house. She was in a room with no windows and a very dim light hanging overhead, the bed she was lying on was simple and plain, a dark timber bed head and blue bed sheets. The walls were a factory style brick that lay exposed between piles of books and documents of varying genres. There was the faint sound of music coming from the hallway outside the closed door opposite her.
Fluttershy pulled the sheets around herself trying to remember what had happened. The last part of her dream came to mind... Perhaps that had happened. No. She was certain it did happen, but something had stopped those colts from getting their hooves on her. She felt a shiver run down her spine.
******
It was past eleven when Fluttershy had received a summons from Celestia to report immediately to the Stone Tower, a prison in Fluttershy's district which, unbeknownst to most ponies save the ultra elite, held the 'troublesome Princess Luna captive.
Luna had been causing some issues that night, and it was Fluttershy's job as the element of kindness to keep 'rebellious necessities'- as Celestia called them- in check.
The streets were unsurprisingly bare. Curfew had passed an hour ago and the streets were officially the domain of the Magic Colts. They were sworn in under Twilight as defenders of ponykind and keepers of the peace, but it was an in-disputed fact that most disturbances caused at night were directly linked to these so-called heroes. Fluttershy didn't think that she would need to worry under such circumstances, being on an errand for the Princess. But she forgot that unlike the other elements, she did not flaunt her position and her timidity had kept her out of the spotlight. At times this had been a blessing, but Fluttershy felt nothing but regret over it now.
They had approached her from a side alley, an evil glint in the ringleaders’ eye. The words they spoke had become a blur, drowned out by the absolute terror that Fluttershy felt. They circled her, and she tried unsuccessfully to escape them. In a final moment of desperation, Fluttershy fell to the ground clutching her hooves above her head as if to block them out merely by wishing it.
But they never did reach her.
A commanding voice snatched out at the miasmic scene surrounding Fluttershy. She didn’t catch the words it spoke but she noticed that it diverted her attackers attention.
"Who goes there? Show yourself!"
The voice laughed for a moment, a surprisingly lighthearted chuckle considering the situation. Perhaps he intended for his laugh to catch his opponents off guard for this was the effect that it had. Each of the Magic Colts gave a cautious side-glance to each other, and Fluttershy saw one of them begin to shake a little at his knees. In curiosity she too glanced up. In the shadows only a few feet away stood a pair of menacing red eyes, their whites were a dirty shade of yellow and spoke of a deep seated malice. Fluttershy felt that moment of safety slip away from her and took a deep gulp. She wasn't sure who should be more afraid of...
"My apologies, gentle colts..." the voice trilled playfully and they all gasped as a dark pony stepped forward from the shadows, his coat was charcoal and his mane a deep brown.
"Hands up scum bag!" Shouted one Magic Colt with a slight stammer; he raised a pistol up in the stallions direction.
The dark stallion only laughed again, this time he closed his eyes as he laughed, as though the hilarity of the situation was building. Fluttershy made as though she were about to move only to be pushed back down again by the Magic Colt standing nearest her. Her face hit the floor with a thud and she felt a trickle of blood run from her muzzle.
"I fear", the dark stallion growled as Fluttershy cried out in pain, his eyes narrowing," that you have just made a mistake that you will quickly regret, good sir."
In an instant the stallion produced a shining dagger that he hurled swiftly at the Magic Colt responsible for Fluttershy's injury. She did not see the rest of what happened for she fell upon her face again with a cry of terror and lay flat against the cold ground.
The Magic Colts fired their pistols off, round after round, but Fluttershy could hear them trembling and knew that they were unsuccessful as she heard two fall to the floor with stifled shouts, the sounds of a blade making a quick and deep incision before being pulled back ruthlessly echoing through the night.
"Please no! Don't kill me! I didn't want to hurt anyone! H-honestly..." She heard the last colt backing up against the side of the alley as he begged for his life to no avail. With a single slit his pathetic existence wiped out along with his comrades.
Fluttershy did not dare to lift her eyes. She was shaking uncontrollably as she sensed the dark stallions hoof steps approach. As he came closer, Fluttershy whimpered almost noiselessly and continued to tremor. A steady hoof fell upon her left shoulder, stopping her trembling in an instant. His hoof felt so soft against her coat, almost as if it were padded...
"You have nothing to fear any longer. You are quite safe, mademoiselle!" The stallion uttered dramatically.
Fluttershy lifted her head cautiously and caught the stallions eyes. They seemed to smile for an instant and then went oddly misty, as though the stallion were recalling some sad memory. He quickly turned his head away and made to leave.
Fluttershy sat dumbfounded. Was that it? He really just came in to save her from the Magic Colts and was going to leave? Perhaps her hopes were to be realised! Perhaps kindness still existed in the hearts of ponies!
"Wait!" She cried out suddenly, not knowing where that cry had come from.
The stallion stopped in his noiseless tracks and turned back to her, his eyes filled with curiosity, despite the fact his face remained unchanged. His eyes... Something seemed so familiar about them...
"W-who are you?" Fluttershy asked nervously, again, she didn’t know where her voice was coming from, but something in her heart drew her to those eyes. Where had she seen them?
As she asked him this, the stallion seemed to relax a little, although Fluttershy could not fathom why he would be tense around her. "Who am I?" He repeated, chuckling playfully again. "I believe you meant to truly ask what am I?" Fluttershy did not understand this and her confused look made him step closer to her as if in answer to her query. She now saw why his hoof had felt so soft against her shoulder and why his face had not changed expression. His charcoal fur was not a coat at all, but rather a suit, which lined his whole body, this only became apparent as she saw the way it ill fitted his mouth so that it barely moved as he spoke.
He laughed again as he saw her eyes widen. "Yes, I'm afraid there is not much use in asking a stallion who is masked as to the nature of his identity. If I had wanted ponies to know, would I not have simply worn my own skin?"
Fluttershy tried to grin a little at this, but it was awfully strained.
"What I am is perhaps much easier to reveal...” the stallion continued jovially, he paced back a step again. "I fear we live in times when to have an ideal is tantamount to suicide, that is of course, if you are idiotic enough to couple that ideal to your true self. Your identity." He clarified glancing sidelong at Fluttershy, "so that is why I have chosen to disassociate myself from who I am and become that which I would have the world be... Do you not agree that our world needs change?" He raised his voice at this question, which made Fluttershy flinch. She knew that at every turn a microphone listened in on what was being spoken at any given time, and such a question was considered utterly radical.
The stallion noticed her flinch and his gaze settled upon her curiously. "No, I don't suppose I could expect an answer to that." He whispered with a pause. Fluttershy caught a nasty glint in his eye as he spoke his next words proudly, carefully annunciating each syllable, "particularly not from the element of kindness herself, eh, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy bolted up, her pupils dilating as she felt the most terrible urge to pounce upon this masked stallion. Did he realise what he had just done?
He didn’t seem to care, "Why do you look so frightened Fluttershy? Because of Celestia!? Because of what she might do to you?!" His voice grew shrill and wrathful as he spoke her name. "Damnation upon that disastrous despot, devoid of all devotion and diaphanous to all. It is well past the day when I was due to denounce her disgusting diatheses and diatribe the dictum of a nation determined to remain dyspeptic!
The time for dubitativeness must be deposed for the desquamation of our destructive darling..." The stallion paused here and caught his breath, his chest heaving as the fury he felt burned through him. He sighed audibly and drew in a deep breath bringing himself up proudly and striking a thespian pose, he continued dramatically, " If harmony is dead and disharmony rules, then standing for disharmony is standing for harmony, and so I stand. For distrust, for dissent... For discord."
Fluttershy felt dazed at his outburst and a little lightheaded. All that he had said was true. Celestia was a terrible ruler, and harmony had not reigned in Equestria for so long... But did that excuse speech like that? Murder? Anarchy?
Fluttershy paled and went weak at the knees but the stallion moved forward swiftly and caught her in his hooves. Her eyelids twitched open after a few seconds and she gazed at him drowsily. Her mouth moved as though she were about to speak, but no words came.
"You may call me D." The stallion said after a moment. D helped Fluttershy to her hooves gently, holding her upright while she checked her balance. In the distance, the sound of hooves could be heard galloping towards them. A siren burst out through the silence of the night. " It was only a matter of time," D sighed with annoyance. He glanced at Fluttershy who was still looking slightly dazed. "You had best come with me, my dear."