“Fluttershy, open this door or I’m gonna break it down!” Rainbow leaked pure hatred toward the wooden surface blocking her path.
“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity pleaded, “you’re only making matters worse.” She wrapped the cyan mare in a magical grasp in an attempt to hold her should she charge.
“Sorry,” they heard from behind them, and turned to see a lavender unicorn approaching them, “I had to get something from the library.” She gestured toward her back, from which was hung a set of bags. Twilight walked forward and tapped gently on the door with one of her hooves. “Fluttershy? Could you open the door? We really need to speak with you.”
“I… I’m not feeling too well right now. Come back tomorrow?”
“Fluttershy, please,” Twilight pressed her forehead gently against the door, “We’re your friends, and we love you. Please just give us a chance to speak.” For a moment, she stood there listening, waiting. Slowly, the door began to creak open. Twilight took a step back to avoid falling. Before progressing, she glanced quickly back to the other two.
“Before we go in, I need to know that you can control yourself, Dash. Trying to drag her away from the edge will only push her closer to it. We’re here to talk, and if you can’t do that, you’re staying out here.” The cyan pegasus scoffed and crossed her forehooves as she sat, illustrating her already apparent frustration.
“Dash. For Fluttershy.” Her muzzle rose into the air, but quickly drooped as she let out a sigh.
“For Fluttershy,” she echoed, “But you’d better make sure he stays out of the way. If I so much as sniff his rotten hide… well, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”
Twilight quickly poked her head inside and looked about. She turned to Fluttershy, who shook her head.
“It’s alright, Dash. He’s out. C’mon.” She led the others inside and used her horn to gently close the door behind them. As she stepped into the small home, she gave a curt nod to their host.
“Thank you, Fluttershy. We won’t be long. There are simply a few things we feel we should discuss.”
Fluttershy squirmed, obviously uncomfortable. “If this is about my eye, don’t worry. I merely tripped.” Twilight shot her a ‘not buying it’ look. Fluttershy sat and focused on the floorboards. “I-I really did…” This elicited a groan from the unicorn.
“Fluttershy, you’re not the first I’ve talked to. I’ve heard all of the stories.” Before Fluttershy, countless others were left at the mercy of the short-tempered prince. Twilight took a moment to recall the scenes in her mind. Shattered windows, with reflective shards strewn across the grass. Thick red splotches here and there, staining the carpeted floors. A weak, innocent mare, huddled in the corner. She rocked, back and forth, singing a sweet melody silently, washing reality away. She would search the recesses of her brain to find an excuse. ‘I fell down the stairs’. ‘I tripped and bumped my head’. Her fear of the beast is what chained her to it.
Always, it was the same. But not this time. Twilight would not allow it. With a flash of her horn, the bags lying upon her back slowly lifted. The drifted through the air and came to rest at her hooves. The flaps swung open freely, allowing the contents to display. Photographs. Dozens of them assembled and organized. She pulled one and held it for all to see. A pink unicorn could be seen, lying in bed, a large gash on the left half of her face. Her muzzle seemed off-center and her hair was singed.
“I took a photo each time one was hospitalized. Fluttershy, there are 42 photos in these bags.” The yellow pony’s gaze shifted to the bags in question. She pondered over the stories they told. Stories of lives ruined; of innocence lost; of pain undergone. As Twilight shifted through the photos, they became progressively more gruesome. One, a much older image, of a turquoise filly with bothe forehooves broken. Next, a yellow mare with a small chunk taken from her ear. What followed was an orange mare with a completely dislocated jaw.
Fluttershy couldn’t bear these images. Though try as she might, she could not look away. Her eyes were affixed to these horrible sights. After several agonizing moments, she broke free from the spell cast upon her by the pictures, and looked up to regard her friend.
“I know you’re only trying to do what you think best, Twilight,” she said in almost a whisper, “But you don’t need to worry. Blueblood actually cares for me.” Rarity, whom had remained nigh invisible during the course of this visit, stepped forward to offer her two bits.
“Fluttershy, no one who cares for you would do something like that to you.” The white unicorn lifted her hoof and straightened it towards the dark spot surrounding Fluttershy’s eye. Rainbow flinched at the sight of the mark, though continued to remain silent, lest she say something they all regret.
“I know he has his problems, Rarity, but I can help him move past them. I can help him change.”
Twilight was finished. Her hoof plunged into the depths of the cloth container and resurfaced with one final photograph.
“Do you want to see what happened to the last pony who said that?!” She raised the picture high, allowing it’s message to wash over the misguided little pegasus. It was a white earth pony, eyes closed as though sleeping. Fluttershy examined the image carefully. Here and there, were small red spots died into the mare’s coat. Fluttershy assumed the coat had an odd polka-dot design for a moment, before the realization hit her that the spots were dried blood.
“Three shattered ribs. Minor depression in the skull. All limbs broken. She’s been comatose for two and a half years. If you don’t listen to us… THIS IS GOING TO BE YOU!!!” Fluttershy jumped at the sudden outburst. She drooped to the floor and began quivering as though a large draft had just passed through.
“I swore I’d never let this happen again, Fluttershy. I always tried SO HARD to warn them. They never listened to me, and look what happened to them. I can’t see you like that. You have to come with us!” She grabbed the trembling yellow puffball and began trying to pull her out through the now open door. Fluttershy let out a yelp of surprise and attempted to drag herself out of the unicorn’s grasp.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy shrieked in a panic, “Twilight, stop! Just get out! Go home!”
“I am! And you’re coming with me!” The crazed lavender unicorn began to charge toward her target, but was stopped short as the room’s other occupants gripped her tightly and started dragging her outside.
“Wha-? No. No, what are you doing?! Let go!” She looked into Dash’s eyes. Why would she be stopping Twilight from trying to help Fluttershy? Dash had always looked after the timid little pegasus, since they were fillies. Rainbow’s expression was hard, serious.
“It’s like you said, Twilight,” Rainbow responded to her inaudible question, “‘Trying to drag her from the edge will push her closer to it.’ If we force her out, she might lose all faith in us and become completely reliant on him.” Twilight saw something in those cerise eyes. Something resting in there. Something that had never inhabited her space before. Twilight saw true hatred in the cyan pegasus. She saw her friend contemplating the many awful, painful things she would do were that prince to cross paths with her right now.
Rainbow had a valid point, Twilight was willing to admit. But she didn’t care. She had seen too much pain and suffering at those polished royal hooves. Now she was not only witnessing it again, but to a very dear friend as well. She couldn’t let it continue this way.
She pulled power into her horn, emitting a flash of violet around herself as she tossed her friends aside as delicately as possible. In an instant, she was practically nose-to-nose with her prey. She attempted to grab Fluttershy and teleport back to the library, but Rainbow had already recovered and pressed her against the floor until she and Rarity had managed to recover their advantage over her. Once more, they slowly hauled her to the doorway; and, once more, her horn began to energize. Rarity connected her horn to Twilight’s and absorbed all of the power she was attempting to contain. She became frantic, thrashing about this way and that. Her tears washed down her cheeks like waterfalls.
“No! Let me GO! Please! I CAN”T FAIL HER, TOO!!!”
As they walked away from the house, a figure moved in through the back door from the Everfree. His white coat was stained with mud from the boggy area. He had an enraged expression etched on his face. Fluttershy took a step back as the door closed, locking the coming events away from the world.
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As she heard the hoofsteps receding, Fluttershy slowly rose to her hooves. She felt a small drip of liquid oozing from her mouth. She felt around with her tongue, thankfully realizing that no teeth had been knocked from their places. The blood came instead from a small cut on her lip. She walked into the restroom, careful not to disturb Blueblood. She started simply examining her lip to find the wound. Immediately, she widened her gaze to the entirety of the image displayed before her. She looked to the dark black circle outlining her eye, then to the fresh separation of her lip.
Her vision became blurry as liquid drained from her pupils. Her legs began to tremble, weak, and she felt over onto the sink. Her eyes scanned the copy once more, noting something she had at first overlooked. A square, white as the clouds in the sky, nestled itself in her hair. She motioned one hoof upward and grasped at the alien object. Pulling it into her range of vision, she once again was confronted by that white earth pony, deep in her peace-less sleep.
Carefully, she inspected it, noticing a few details she had overlooked initially. A dark circle surrounded the mare’s left eye. Fluttershy’s left eye was bruised. On her bottom lip was a small, barely noticeable cut, uncomfortably near to where Fluttershy’s lay. Fluttershy felt a pang of terror surge through her. She began to shake violently, but steadied herself. She needed to be quiet for what she was about to do.
She gently eased the door open, trying to avoid the creak. When she was through, she thoroughly began scanning the house for her little friend. It wasn’t long before the small white rabbit had hoped up to her and gripped her foreleg sympathetically.
“Hello, Angel. If you wouldn’t mind, I could use a little help.” She inched closer and spoke, just above a whisper, in his ear. Ever the valiant soldier, he gave a salute of respect before darting up the stairs. Meanwhile, Fluttershy made her way to each of the many cages and pens scattered across the ground floor.
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The clock ticked the seconds away as they sat in the deafening silence. Rarity, being the only one amongst them with a level mind, offered her voice to break the unbearable stillness.
“The mares at the Gala spoke to me about Blueblood. They never gave any indication that he was… like this.”
Twilight’s eyelids fell over her eyes. She allowed herself a deep, slow breath as she prepared to reveal her biggest, darkest secret. One she had hoped never to tell another living being.
“That’s because they don’t remember.”