//------------------------------// // Chapter one. // Story: Fluttershy's way home. // by PsychopathOfTheYear //------------------------------// In the newly built cemetery altar, the gentle flickering of candles and the lovely smell of roses added to the grim scene that played out before a group of assembled friends. One of them was dead. Fluttershy sat in the open coffin, seeming as if she were simply asleep. Her friends knew she wasn’t. She was dead, and there was no hiding the truth. Pinkie's mane had long ago fallen flat. Rarity's make-up dripped down her face in a black mix of tears and eyeliner. Twilight openly let tears run down her face as she sobbed hysterically. Rainbow Dash was curled in a small ball, thinking in the loneliness of her mind over and over again that it was her fault for her friend's death, and Applejack just sat there with a blank face, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “I-I can’t believe that she would do this.” Twilight managed to stammer. “I suspected she was depressed... but suicidal? I never would have thought it would come to...” she paused as she gestured wildly at her still friend before her, “this.” Recently, Fluttershy had plummeted into a deep depression when her pet bunny, Angel had died. Her life had constantly went down a cliff. Her friends were always worried about her and constantly checking in on her to try to cheer her up. All futile. They all seemed to just make her even worse. Applejack had made her apple fritters, Rarity tried giving her a makeover, Pinkie Pie had tried throwing a party, Rainbow dash did another sonic rainboom, and Twilight tried Psychology. Nothing was working. When they got the news of Fluttershy’s suicide, they were all together in the library. Initial reactions were that the message was just some kind of sick joke. Eventually, however, the reality of the situation dawned on them. It seemed obvious that things had been coming to this. Just this one awful, devastating act had shattered the seemingly unbreakable bonds of friendship. There was a strained silence, broken by a brief, strangled sob from Rarity. Applejack put an arm around her friend, their shared misery no easier to bear, but an attempt being made to do so anyway. Finally, Princess Celestia spoke. “Words cannot describe the grief I feel for your loss.” Pinkie Pie had flashed a glare of hatred and greif at the princess before staring at Fluttershy's lifeless face, missing how she talked, how she acted, and how she was still the element of kindness. “I do not expect you to believe me, Pinkie Pie.” The princess spoke loudly enough for her to hear. “A life as long as mine has seen the doors close on more than a few dear friends. None of them have been easy for me. I wish I could make this easier for you.” She then focused her attention on her student. “Twilight, is there anything I can do to help?” “Help? Well... there is one thing you could help with.” "Anything" “Is there any way that you could, well... bring her back?” Twilight said, her voice dropping to a low murmur that still managed to echo through the silent mausoleum. "Y-you mean ressurect her?" the princess asked, initially shocked by her request. "I'm terribly sorry, Twilight but you know I can't do that. She needs to rest in peace and we musn't disturb that. The young mare opened her mouth to argue, but Celestia looked at her meaningfully, and her mouth snapped shut again. She saw etched on her mentor’s face the sorrow of countless sins, optimistic experimentation and vague hopes dashed by hard-lived experience with something that she had only just begun to consider. Perhaps words would never be able to describe the pain death brought with it. The blank, white room seemed like it would never end. The little pony stalked through the empty corridor, her eyes wide with fear as she wondered what fate awaited her at the end. “Um... He-Hello? Is anypony here?” Fluttershy said as she trotted through the seeming never ending white room she was in. “What is this place? Umm... Is anypony there? I-I don’t know where I am." Fluttershy never felt so lonely in her life. She had no clue where she was, no memory of how she’d come to be teleported to such a bizarre land. She just wanted to see her friends. Perhaps if she just kept walking, she would find her way out. So she kept walking... and walking... and walking for what seemed like days. Just when the small pony was about to just give up, she spotted a speck of darkness in the distance. The first glimmer of hope showing at last, it slowly began to be replaced by that of fear as she began to make out the features of a gargantuan door with shades of black and dark crimson with a bright orange star that was spun upside-down and perfectly fitted inside a ring, with intricate carvings that went all around the marble door in a language unknown to the small, yellow mare. It read: Αυτό είναι το βασίλειο των κολασμένων, το μόνο που τίθεται εδώ θα είναι πλέον τα μέσα των βασανιστηρίων για όλη την αιωνιότητα. Αυτό είναι το βασίλειο της κόλασης και ο Σατανάς. She was terrified of the thing before her, but decided she would never see her friends again if she let her cowardice get the better of her. She touched the door with her hoof. A world-shattering screech wrenched at her, causing her to hunch down to the ground and put her hooves over her ears as the door slowly scraped against the hard bedrock under it. A dark opening loomed before her, prompting another shudder of terrified inaction from her. Several minutes later, she poked her head out from between her hooves, looking into the black abyss beyond the door. If she was ever going to see her friends again, she had to go through this. She stepped through the door. Suddenly, it seemed as if she’d stepped through a portal. The ground materialized under her, causing her to stumble in surprise. The entire place was covered in a dark shade of crimson similar to the colors of the marble door. There were sharp rocks all around that seemed to have magma in the cracks of them. Fluttershy saw a stairway that seemed to branch off in random directions, spidering along the walls as far as she could see. There was another upside-down star encircled by a ring embedded in the floor in front of her hooves and a sign with the same unknown language. This one said: Είστε στο βασίλειο της κόλασης, αυτό είναι όπου θα μείνετε για το υπόλοιπο της όλη την αιωνιότητα. Οι τιμωρίες σας έχουν αποφασιστεί από τις προηγούμενες Κύριός σας, ο Θεός. Μπορείτε τώρα ανήκει στον ηγεμόνα του βασιλείου, ο Σατανάς. When the yellow mare decided to stop looking around, she had seen something in the corner of her eye. It looked to be some black creature like a dragon, yet it had three heads, definitely not something she’d seen with any dragons. Not that she’d seen many dragons. It was flying toward her. Fluttershy sat there, frozen in fear, the dragon diving down and swoopin up from the edge of the cliff by Fluttershy while letting out a haunting wail that made brought her hooves up into her ears once more. Then the strange creature said something in a language unknown to her, it being the third time she couldn't understand the same language. "Τι κάνεις εδώ; Πηγαίνετε στα pits της φωτιάς ΑΜΕΣΩΣ ή θα αναγκαστώ να σας βάλει εκεί για σένα," the three-headed dragon growled angrily at her. All she could do was sit there, paralyzed in fear, as the fearsome beast opened its jaws and three reptilian heads lunged at her.