//------------------------------// // Foregone Conclusions // Story: Flutterlich // by NTSTS //------------------------------//                     Fluttershy opened her eyes the next morning to feeble rays of sunlight creeping in through the shrouded glass of her bedroom window. The view was enough to make her wish she could have kept them closed forever. The tendrils hanging from the ceiling had fully enacted their ownership of the room, snaking over every piece of furniture and lighting fixture, save for the bed on which Fluttershy slept. The tips of the root-like appendages simply curled up at the edge of the bed-frame, layering the floor of the bedroom like a disgusting black carpet.                     It was early. Fluttershy felt like she could have slept for hours - and as a result, whatever amount of sleep she had gotten overnight seemed woefully inefficient. The bags under eyes made her look years older - and when coupled with the new midnight black shade of her hair made her look like an almost entirely different pony. She felt tired, all the time now, though her perspective was marred beyond reconciliation. If she slept, she wouldn't have to deal with any of this. She could simply close her eyes, and never wake up...                     Angel's head peeking from her door way was enough of a reason to finish opening her eyes. The white rabbit looked more timid than she could remember seeing him. He was peering into the newly decorated bedroom with a mix of fright and concern - more of the latter when his gaze fell on Fluttershy at the center of the bed. He made his way into the room with caution, touching as little of the dark growths as possible. The sheets flew up as he landed, and Fluttershy allowed herself a small smile. Angel questioned her wordlessly, to which she responded with a nod.                     "The sooner the better, Angel. I need you to go get Twilight."                     Angel nodded back. He turned his head to survey the room before leaving, his look of determination cracking slightly as he noticed the presence at the head of Fluttershy's bed. The chickens were there again, looking even less animate than the day before. Most of their feathers were completely gone, and the skin had begun to fall from them in patches, some of it collected at their feet in disgusting clumps. One of them was solid, walking bone. Angel shuddered. He almost stopped Fluttershy as she turned around, and immediately wished he had done so as she gasped, and drew her hoof to her mouth. He didn't want to stay to watch the tears, so he hopped from the bed and made his way down the stairs as fast as he could move.                     The sooner he could bring someone who might be able to fix all of this, the sooner things could go back to normal, and then he'd be in a world where all of Fluttershy's fears and sadness would be something he could allay. Right now, he was awash in a tumultuous sea of unexplainable horrors and forces beyond his imagining. If anyone was the type to help get things back to the status quo, it was Twilight. Though, given the state the house was in, not to mention Fluttershy, Angel wondered if she might just turn and run as soon as he showed her the situation.                       The sight awaiting the pair as they returned wasn't one Angel had taken proper time to assess. Invested in the tumultuous events that had taken place with Fluttershy at the forefront of his mind, Angel had been too immersed to take notice of what the cottage and its surrounding area might look like to an outside observer.                     The grass outside Fluttershy's house faded to brown and then black about thirty feet from the door-way. The yard was a perimeter of dying vegetation, including the expanded hoof-prints of ash and scorched earth left from the night previous. Angel noted he could see several splintered boards and fragments of wood from the remains of the chicken coop peeking out from the side of the cottage towards the forest. As well as several patches of now decaying grass stained a bright red...                     Angel noticed an absence of hoofsteps beside as he neared the door of the cottage. He paused and turned his head to see Twilight Sparkle standing several feet behind him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open as she took in the full extent of the changes to Fluttershy's previously cheerful housing. Even the house itself had changed... the wooden framework looked withered and sinister, and the whole thing seemed to have been tinted with darkness, like a stage light shone through a black gel. Instead of a smoking chimney from a cosy fire, the brickwork was overgrown with the far-reaching tendrils of black vines that seemed intent on overtaking the entire home. Twilight took the site of the whole thing in at her stopping point, her breathe stopped as the aura of the house washed over her. Nothing she could remember in her time at Ponyville had ever looked like this. Nothing had made her feel this uneasy before.                     Angel could feel Twilight's apprehension. Even for a dedicated student of strange magics, the energy at play was alien, and horrifying. Angel wasn't sure what he would do if his only hope turned and ran back to the safety of Ponyville. Fluttershy had told him to fetch Twilight because she was the most knowledgeable and industrious unicorn in Ponyville, and in Fluttershy's mind, possibly all of Equestria. So, if she was already having apprehensions, even just in her approach, what hope was there that she might be the one to provide a solution?                     Twilight shook her head in an attempt to clear the instant mental cobwebs onset at the vision of death and decay in front of her. Her eyes shifted to the side anxiously, trying in vain to avoid letting them fall on any part of the blackened conversion around her. It was an impossible effort - everywhere she looked was darkened. It sent a shiver up her spine. The air felt heavy. It made her feel weak and helpless simply from proximity to the house that looked like a vision from her nightmares. She simply stared at the ground, unmoving for a minute. Off in the distance of the forest, a tree shook, and a flock of dark birds soared into the air. Twilight felt a chill run up her spine. Regardless of the intent that she had set out with when Angel had knocked insistently at her door, her resolve was rapidly draining. Everything in front of her seemed composed to drive her as far away as possible.                     Twilight looked down. Even the ground at her feet was unwelcoming. The thought in her mind was pervasive - she shouldn't be here. She needed to go. Her legs tensed as she readied herself to turn and run, back to the safety of town and away from whatever horrible thing Fluttershy had immersed herself in. As Twilight's gaze shifted with the turning of her head, she caught a glimpse of the first speck of hope and life since she had set her eyes upon the decayed landscape. A bright ball of white, looking up at her with pleading eyes.                     The two locked eyes for a moment. Twilight broke the staring contest by raising her head. After a second of thought, she lifted her hoof and began to walk again towards the blackened wood of the cottage's front door. Behind her, Angel breathed a sigh of relief.                     As Twilight approached the cottage door, her horn glowed brightly and the wooden portal creaked open. Angel bounded inside, but took pause as he remembered Twilight. He turned to find her making her way timidly over the doorstep, her horn now shining with an intangible light, which she used like a candle to illuminate the darkened corners of the house as she entered.                     "Oh my goodness...” she said to herself in a barely audible whisper. Her eyes were wide as she surveyed the extent of the changes to the house's interior. While the physical shift was slight, the aura of uneasy silence and overall unpleasantness was invasive. It made her thoughts drift back to the nightmares of her youth, when she had felt alone, and completely helpless.                     Angel didn't feel the same sense of dread. The reason, in his mind, was evident. While Twilight was nothing if not a good friend, she could never have anticipated what would be waiting for her after an urgent beckoning from Angel to follow to Fluttershy's. She had weathered the staunchest obstacles for her friends, including the timid yellow pegasus... but that devotion was a simple familiarity. To Angel, it was much more than that. Despite any difficulties or misgivings that might arise, Angel and Fluttershy were closer than words could describe. They had a friendship that spurned the omnipresent aura of dread and darkness surrounding the changes that had followed them from the forest. That friendship was what had kept Angel confident in his actions - and after the moment of hesitation the night before, it was clear in his mind that going forward, he would do whatever it took to get his dearest friend back to her proper self. He just hoped that Twilight was the pony to help with such a thing.                     Again, Angel found himself pausing, this time half way up the stairs to Fluttershy's bedroom as he waited for Twilight. She paused every few steps to analyze something, shining the beam of her horn onto a piece of dejected furniture, or a painting on the wall that looked as though it had been bled with dark ink, or burned in a fireplace. Angel understood Twilight's analytical mind was what made her an asset, but the urgency of the situation weighed heavily in his mind. Hoping to draw Twilight's attention, he tapped his foot on the wooden step with a mild thump. Twilight's head snapped up like a shot, her eyes even wider than before in sudden surprise.                     "Oh! I'm sorry, Angel. This is... I don't understand. Is all of this why you wanted me to follow you? What happened here?"                     Angel gestured towards the top of the stairs insistently, before hopping up the final stretch to the hallway before Fluttershy's bedroom. Twilight followed him with nervous hoofsteps.                     The path to the bedroom was the worst part of the house yet. The floor was pocked with bulges at random intervals, like bloated soars on a diseased pony's body. Wooden boards swelled outward, and the walls were covered in the creeping tendrils of black vines. Twilight walked down the hall with hesitance in every step, pausing above a particularly noticeable bulge in the flooring. Her hoof hovered over it for a moment before finding a nearby section of wood that seemed more accommodating. Eventually, the arduous journey down the short hallway came to an end. Angel was waiting at the door to the bedroom.                     "Fluttershy...?"                     Angel nodded. He gestured towards the door with one paw.                     Twilight swallowed with a dry throat, then pushed the door open. The hinges creaked ominously as the door swung open in no particular hurry. Where there had been tiny sprinkles of light creeping in through the windows in the main room or streaming down the hallway, the room beyond the door was utterly black. Twilight peered around the door, the light from her horn shining into the corner of the room, though she willed herself not to see what it might be illuminating.                     "Fluttershy?" she whispered. Her voice was shaking with anxiousness as she scanned the room. She hadn't visited Fluttershy much, and certainly not enough to memorize the layout of her bedroom, so she continued to sweep the lilac beam of light across the uninviting blackness. The first comprehensible object revealed itself at the room's center - the foot of the bedpost, covered in the same black growths that had coated the walls along the highway. Twilight lifted the beam upward, finding the wooden frame, and further up, the pale bed sheets that appeared to be the only thing inside the darkness with even the slightest hint of brightness. This was the bed. And Fluttershy was...                     Twilight screamed as her violet light hit the center of the bed. It faltered and vanished as her wail shook the vined walls of the bedroom. Eight red eyes stared back at her from the center of the bed, all of them on tiny beaked faces standing in a circle around the middle of the bed. Amidst the group, there was one missing space, red specks replaced by a blank two-eyed stare in a skull of bleached bone.                     Fluttershy was there at the center of the stares with her blanket drawn up to her face, peering with her bright teal eyes overtop the faded fabric. Traces of violet sparked across her irises. She blinked, and lowered the blanket from her mouth.                     "Twilight," she said in timid tones to the frightened unicorn standing in her doorway "I need your help."                         The two ponies had made space at the dining room table, unused as of late but a suitable place for a discussion - or at the very least, a more pleasant place for doing so than the smothering darkness of Fluttershy's bedroom. Angel was milling about the floor of the table, trying to herd the chickens away from the conversation as it went on.                     "So, explain to me again exactly what happened," Twilight directed, and furrowed her brow. Her eyes were narrowed in concern and concentration. Despite having heard every word of Fluttershy's first-hoof account twice, the situation wasn't one to assume she had all the details about, regardless of repetition. Fluttershy sighed, but launched into an exhausted explanation regardless. She brushed her dark hair out of her eyes and began the story again in her perpetually diminutive voice.                     "I was going into the forest because Sir Roostington had gotten lost, and I knew I had seen him wander in that direction-"                     Twilight raised a hoof to interrupt, the same way she had done so at various pivotal points in the telling of the events leading up to now in their previous detailing.                     "The Everfree forest?"                     "Yes, the Everfree."                     "The forest teeming with magic and horrible creatures that nopony in Ponyville ever sets a hoof into?"                     "Twilight, please!" Fluttershy tilted her face down to hide the beginnings of tears in her eyes. She needed Twilight here, being the only pony she could possibly imagine helping her fix what had happened since her mishap two days ago. But what she was hearing now sounded more like admonishment than an offer to make things better, and her mind was in enough of a state of stress already.                     Twilight buried her face in her hooves, shutting her eyes in an attempt to corral her thoughts into their usual uniform organization. The whole sordid tale of events was a lot to take in, and her typical method of absorption was failing her.                     "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, I don't mean to sound harsh... but you had to have known that wandering into the Everfree all by yourself was a bad idea."                     Fluttershy recoiled slightly, leaning back in her chair. Angel hopped up onto her lap from his place herding the now more than half-dead poultry, and she responded with a pat on the top of his head.                     "I wasn't by myself... Angel was there too."                     "Right. But even still..."                     "Twilight, if I had known what was going to happen, of course I would have acted differently... but I couldn't just let poor Sir Roostington wander into that terrible scary forest all by himself! Who knows what could have happened to him?"                     Twilight tilted her head to the side as she mused. "Probably nothing worse than what's already happened..."                     Twilight's eye caught a glimpse of Angel's face in the corner of her periphery. The white bunny's usually stoic expression was contorted into an even more reprimanding frown. Twilight raised her head and sighed.                     "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, I'm just very overwhelmed. I've never encountered anything like this before, in all my studies."                     Fluttershy's face fell. The light in her eyes dwindled, save the latent flashing of the occasional streak of violet lightning. Angel's expression did the talking again, saying more than anyone at the table could have hoped to with the use of words. Twilight saw such a deep pleading in the rabbit's gaze she almost felt her heart break. This might be out of her scope, but there was no way she couldn't at least try.                     "I think I might know where to start looking though," she said, and the glimmer of hope in Fluttershy's eyes managed to eke out the tiniest smile, even in the dilapidated hovel of dark magic that had become Fluttershy's house. "It's going to require a lot of research though... wild magic is an area of study that not many ponies have touched on. I'll do my best to dig something up, but if I can't find anything, I might have to ask Princess Celestia for help."                     The monarch's name made Fluttershy's irises shrink. She remembered how worried she had been when she'd errantly snatched the Princess's pet bird in a misguided effort to nurse it back to health. Ultimately, her fears had turned out to be baseless, but the idea of admitting to a millennia old alicorn that she'd foolishly gotten herself mixed up in a mixture of dark magic and horrifying creatures was enough to frighten her almost as much as the ethereal voice haunting her when she slept.                     "Twilight... if we could, I'd really prefer not to bother the Princess with my problems."                     "Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled, waving her hooves in the air at the absurdity of Fluttershy's objection. "This isn't something little that we should sweep under the carpet! For something trivial, like an animal being pouty, or somepony at the market overcharging you for pears, then yes, I agree, the Princess doesn't need to be bothered. But this is a big deal. A huge deal. We're talking about dark, probably ancient magic entering your body! Not to mention whatever that horrible creature is that you've said is tormenting you. I'm worried about you, more than you seem to be about yourself, and I'm not about to let one of my best friends suffer or die because she's afraid to bother the Princess with her problems."                     The Angel and Fluttershy sat in stunned silence as Twilight concluded her rant, panting heavily with the force of her delivery. If Fluttershy had been uncertain before about Twilight's concern, her fear was allayed now, though the way Twilight had emphasized that Fluttershy's life might be in danger had done little to calm her other concerns. The enormity of the situation was overwhelming, and the whole of it was beginning to weigh on Fluttershy's mind. With a squeak, she receded behind her almost completely black bangs. Angel pet the timid ball of a pegasus on her side while Twilight stared on.                     "Look... Fluttershy," Twilight began while leaning forward, reaching out one of her hooves which Fluttershy timidly met with one of her own. "I'm not trying to frighten you. I'm just trying to say that this whole thing is... weird. Really weird. It's not something I've ever heard of or seen before, and I don't know if I can fix it by myself." Fluttershy made a motion to recoil again, but Twilight grasped the pegasus' foreleg between her two hooves, looking her dead-set in the eyes with a look of steely determination. "But - I promise I'll try my best to fix this. If I can't, the Princess will know what to do. No matter what, we will manage to make this better. Okay?"                     Fluttershy nodded, peeking out from her veil of black drapery as Angel continued to rub his paw along her side.                     Twilight rose from the table, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before speaking.                     "Okay. I'm going to need some time for research. I don't know how long it will take me... but I promise as soon as I find anything out, I'll be back as fast as possible, okay?" Fluttershy nodded again, trying her best at a weak attempt to smile. Twilight gave a curt bob of her head in response, and without further fanfare, turned to the door of Fluttershy's cottage.                     "Just tell Angel to come get me if anything else happens, okay?"                     "Okay."                     The sound of the door closing provoked a chorus of haunting clucks from the gaggle of undead poultry, save for the one chicken completely void of flesh, who simply clacked its beak, staring into the distance with empty eye sockets.                     "I hope Twilight can find something soon..." whispered Fluttershy, resting her head on her forelegs which were she placed on the table in front of her. Angel hopped to the table and ran his paw along Fluttershy's hair. As his paw moved back and forth, he thought he saw a single strand of pink still remaining in the weave of black.                         As the rest of the day went on, Fluttershy found her anxiety increasing. The onset of the night was an ominous bellwether of oncoming tragedy. Every day since the forest, the sunset had meant nothing but horror and distress. The sky was just fading to dusk now. Fluttershy shut the curtains to the cottage window with a swish, darkening the interior of the house save for the meager light provided by the small fire Fluttershy had set up in the living room. She wanted nothing more than to convince herself everything was fine, and to spend an evening curled up with Angel on the couch, basking in the warmth of the crackling logs, not having to worry about what unspeakable horror might be lurking in the nearby forest waiting to destroy her property and torture her animals.                     Fluttershy normally spent most of her evenings quietly in her house, so any attempts to feign conversation would have felt additionally artificial. Instead, Fluttershy tried to calm her nerves in front of the fire, closing her eyes and letting the warmth of the nearby flames soak through her body. Angel was beside her, joining in the uneasy relaxation in the hopes that pretending might bring the pair closer to a real sense of calm. The snap of the fire every few minutes was enough to send a jolt up Fluttershy's spine, and Angel found himself roused on a regular basis from the pegasus's jerks. In addition, the flock of chickens made the atmosphere inside additionally unsettling, staring at the pair on the couch unwaveringly. Once in a while one of the chickens would announce its presence with a choked warble or cluck, which was also enough to shock Fluttershy from her attempt at convincing herself everything was alright. She wasn't sure which was worse - the dying attempts at animation from the now almost completely skinless birds, or their completely silent stares, gazing through her soul and the world at large.                     The hours passed slowly. Fluttershy kept catching herself glancing towards the curtain covered window, expecting a shadowy mass to run past, or maybe even burst into the cottage in a spray of glass and furious roaring. But the clock ticked its hands down to ten pm, and still the only sound was the crackling of the now fading fire, and the occasional unearthly cluck from one of the chickens. Fluttershy's startled response to the sudden noises had mellowed since the beginning of the evening, and now she barely caught herself moving at all when an errant spark popped from the fire. The heat washing over her, as well as Angel's fuzzy form nestled against her body made her feel almost safe for the first time in days. She spent several minutes struggling to keep her eyes open, taking longer and longer with each blink, until she finally closed her eyes completely. Angel, who was still awake, gave a long nuzzle into Fluttershy's side before hopping up from the chair the two were sharing. He made his way upstairs, intent on finding a blanket, leaving Fluttershy asleep in front of the fire.                       ‘We are disappointed in you, holder... you seem to have regressed since our last encounter...’                     Fluttershy tucked her body inwards instinctively. That voice again, like dry raspy leaves carried by a dying breeze. Where was she? Fluttershy scanned around, turning her head rapidly. She found nothing, the relative comfort of her living room replaced by complete blackness.                     "Angel?" she called out to the void surrounding her. The sound faded into the distance, and met no response. She was alone.                     Fluttershy remembered the last time she had heard that voice, and she wanted no part of it. She wanted to be back home, to the way things had been before she had trudged into the forest, cozy and safe and free from creeping black tendrils and ominous voices and giant monsters tormenting her. Fluttershy could feel tears coming on as she started to cry, falling forward onto the insubstantial black emptiness that was the ground. She buried her face in her hooves and sobbed, her crying echoing out into nothingness. Her crying was the only sound for minutes, alone but for the ethereal presence that had spoken upon her arrival. At last, it spoke again, beginning with a long hum, as though in contemplation.                     ‘We do not understand... are you not with the power you have been beset with keeping? The ability for complete authority over life and death, and at last over your own existence... does this not make you happy?’                     "No, it doesn't!" Fluttershy screamed, raising her tear stained face as she hollered in defiance. The shout cascaded into a fading echo as her words before had done. Though there was no body in front of her, Fluttershy thought she sensed the voice of the darkness recoiling ever so slightly.                     “Of course I don't want this... I don't want any of this! I want everything to go back to the way it was. No more magic, no more horrible creatures, just me and Angel and the other animals, happy and peaceful-“                     ‘And weak, spineless, miserable in your own shell of a soul?’ the voice answered back, almost taunting her. ‘We are not unaware of how you lived before you found our gift, holder. We have seen the spark within you that beckons to the most powerful of magics, and we know there is a part of you that wishes nothing more than the power it offers...’                     Fluttershy shook her head rapidly, sending tears falling from her cheeks onto the ground where they vanished into the dark.                     "No, no, no! I don't want that, I just want my life back!"                     The darkness was silent again for a moment longer.                     ‘Upon deeper reflection, we believe you may reconsider, holder. We know you were chosen for a reason, and we have faith that you will not fail in your pursuit. There is much more to life than banal pleasures and simpering complacency... you wish to be stronger than that, and we have felt it.’                     Fluttershy clenched her eyes tightly, still shaking her head, her cheeks stained with tears.                     ‘Do not distress. We are confident you will understand soon...’                       Fluttershy awoke with a start. The fire in front of her was still burning, though the flames had begun to dwindle in size as the logs faded to embers. The house was silent save for the gentle crackling of the fireplace, and the quiet shuffling of skeletal chicken legs on the floor. Fluttershy took a deep breath, turning to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Almost midnight. She sighed, and sat back in her chair, shifting one of her forelegs to bring Angel closer. Her motion only moved the air.                    Instantly, Fluttershy's eyes widened with panic. "Angel?" she called, standing from her chair and scanning the room. Everything was dark, and the only motion was the gallery of chickens, staring at her from nearby the windowsill. On her gaze's second pass, Fluttershy stopped on the front door to the cottage. It was swinging wide-open, and a grey mist lingered in the door frame. The door was swinging slightly in a strong night breeze, which also carried wisps of the ominous fog with its passage.                     "No..." Fluttershy's whisper faded into the howl of the wind, and the fog crept further through the air, entering the house like smoke from an unseen fire. Fluttershy's eyes were locked on the open door, staring out into the night. Through the fog, she could see stars twinkling in the sky overhead and the Everfree Trees waving in the distance. She stared out the door for a minute, holding her breath subconsciously, remembering the last time she had rushed out the open door of her cottage at night.                     The familiar roar from outside made her bones shake. The creature was already close. It sounded feet away from the door way, maybe circling the house. The memories began to play in her head. Flashes of black and red. Electricity coursing along her body. The sight of the bug-eyed monster, cowering on the ground as she raised her hoof. All of them things she wanted gone, never to remember. The final scene blinked in her mind's eye. Her lips moved silently, mouthing the word 'Angel'.                     She couldn’t let him go too.                     Fluttershy dashed out the door, flapping her wings to give herself extra speed as she lifted off the ground and flew along the side of the house, hoping to find the white ball of fur before the creature.                     At the top of the stairs to the bedroom hallway, Angel tumbled down, a pile of blankets scattering on the steps as he descended. His head spun immediately, scanning the room for Fluttershy, but finding only the five chickens staring at him from afar. The roar had brought him back from his quest for bedding, and the open door was the first thing to draw his attention. It was still waving in the wind, the grey fog that had seeped inside now hovering over top the house like a cloud of smoke.                     Without hesitation, Angel ran outside, his hind legs pounding the ground as he began his circle of the house in search for his missing companion.                     As the bunny left the cottage, the fog overtop the door twisted into a curve, and the sound of dry leaves from a dying throat crackled underneath the wind, sounding ever so slightly like a laugh.                           Fluttershy could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she hovered over the ground. She snapped her head from left to right as she glided, searching for some sign of Angel. The thoughts in the back of her mind were a tumult of fear. IF she didn't find him in time, or worse, if she found him just in the clutches of that thing - she didn't know if there was anything she could do. The parts of her mind clashing against each other, one of them urging reminding her with the aid of the eldritch voice that there was a great deal she could do, and the other screaming at her, telling her everything that had happened was rooted in that first event, the first time she had done anything like that; doing it again might only make it worse. She didn't want it to come to that - but she could feel her stomach drop before she crested the corner of the house.                     The thing was there, waiting for her. It sniffed the air distractedly, towering over her even in her flight above the ground. Fluttershy's wings locked up almost instantly, every reminder of fright and helplessness surging through her mind and body, and she fell to the ground, landing on the dying grass. The impact knocked most of her breath away, and the sharp exhale caught the creature's attention.                     She couldn't see Angel. Maybe that meant-                     The grotesque bear sniffed at her again, this time pointing its horrifyingly misshapen face downward, searching for its target. It didn't seem blind, just unaware. Its uneven nostrils sent steam into the air as it breathed; a hot sick sounding groan with every intake before spewing it out as a hot fog. Fluttershy hadn't studied it this close before. The thing was huge. It could have crushed her in a single step, or even worse, grabbed her in one of its paws and shredded her body with its serrated claws. And she couldn't move.                     The bear seemed to notice her, finally. Its bug-like eyes were gleaming in the moonlight, sparkling a little extra with the excitement of finding the delicious morsel in front of it. Fluttershy squealed and pulled her body in close as the thing leaned towards her, showering her body in a veil of its disgusting steam. Its face was inches away from her. She couldn't move. She couldn't make a sound. It was there, great and horrible and monstrous; and she was there, meek and scared and worthless. Everything she had been capable of was pushed away, replaced by an all consuming sense of dread.                     Why had she thought herself anything more than what she had always been? Poor pathetic Fluttershy, living in the shadows and debt of everyone else. Sudden illusions of power and strength had only brought her misery. Maybe this was right. It was right that she should be here, cowering the same way she had done all her life, waiting for forgiveness for what she had done to her friends, and to nature. Wherever Angel was, he would need to forgive her to. This could be penance.                     The bear seemed almost uninterested in Fluttershy's quivering misery as the tears began to stream from her face. It raised a paw almost leisurely, as though compelled only out of obligation, and threw it down, aiming the razor sharp set of elongated spikes directly at the huddled pegasus. Fluttershy couldn't make the sound to scream. She had convinced herself that if the way she had dealt with her problems all her life was to bring her here, then this was the fate she would meet. The set of blades gleamed in the moonlight as they crested their arc towards her body. Fluttershy shut her eyes.                     The impact sent her flying. Instead of barbed talons digging into her side and ripping her wings to pieces, she felt a firm but insistent shove, toppling her body into the dirt. The force of the shove made her body roll in circles along the grass, the way a filly might roll down a hill in a youthful frolic. The spinning took a while to stop - she'd been pushed hard. But the thing hadn't killed her. As the world stopped its spinning, Fluttershy opened her eyes, wings still clutched tight against her body.                     Angel was there, his white coat glimmering against the moon. He was panting, a foot away from Fluttershy in the grass. The creature was several feet away from both of them. It looked confused.                     Fluttershy couldn't find the words. Thank you, she wanted to say. Angel, I was so worried. I'm sorry, for everything. This is all my fault. I never should have dragged you into the forest. She opened her mouth, but nothing came.                     The bear-monster had noticed its target had moved now. For something so unspeakably horrifying, its brain worked quite slowly. The white and yellow standing out against the darkened grass and black of night would have been hard to miss though. Exhaling with a loud groan, the thing turned its head towards Fluttershy and Angel. It considered the pair. Angel, despite being several hundredths the size of the beast, spread his stance wide, extending his tiny paws and backing up to stand in front of Fluttershy.                     The creature seemed almost amused. Its horrible clustered needle-mouth twisted into a bone-chilling approximation of a grin. Without further thought, it raised its paw again, and swiped.                     Fluttershy didn't have time to shut her eyes before Angel moved, jumping backwards and bringing Fluttershy with him. Despite his size, the kick of his hind legs against the ground was strong, and more than enough to move both himself and Fluttershy out of the range of the giant claw aimed towards their bodies. Not by much though. Fluttershy clenched her eyes tight as the knife-pointed tips sailed through the air just inches from her face. They made a noise as they flew like a blade through a thin sheet of paper. Angel kept his stance, unwavering.                     This wasn't going to work. Even if Angel could move Fluttershy without her body cooperating, the creature's swings were effortless, and Angel, while plucky and determined, was small. He would run out of strength. The creature's stamina didn't seem to be a factor, if it was even properly alive.                     Fluttershy was sobbing now. Her face was matted with the river flow of tears cascading down her cheeks, falling onto the blackened blades of grass underneath her hooves. Angel kept his eyes locked on the beast, ready to evade when it moved next - but he had to look back at the pegasus behind him. Fluttershy cried even hard. Finally, the words came.                     "Angel, I'm sorry! I'm sorry for this, for all of this... I can't do anything! I'm weak and useless and this is all my fault... please, just leave me here. Let me..." she couldn't manage the last word. Angel's eyes were wide. He didn't need her to finish. He didn't want her to. She'd given up, and that was all that needed to be said.                     In the depths of his heart, Angel didn't consider blaming Fluttershy for a second; but, that meant things were on his shoulders now.                     Logistically, it was hopeless. The creature might be slow, lumbering, and dim-witted, but it could still tear either him or Fluttershy without so much as a thought. Angel was never the type to give up in the face of a challenge - but this might be beyond that. Like hurtling himself into a brick wall coated in serrated knives.                     But he couldn't give up; not with Fluttershy like this. If he gave up, then everything was gone. And no matter how bad things had gotten, with the shambling chickens and decay everywhere - he couldn't lose his closest friend that way.                     Angel was done thinking. He ran forward faster than the creature had time to notice, and jumped into the air, springing off with a burst from his powerful hind legs. The height from his leap was admirable, putting him at about waist level on the bear. His momentum was good, and he collided with the things stomach in seconds, his face screwed up in determination as he slammed his feet into the lumbering hulk with all the strength he could muster.                     The creature noticed him, but it didn't seem particularly distressed. It let out a small grunt, noticing what must have felt like a tickle on its stomach. It raised one of its claws and swung it lethargically inward, trying to saw the annoying white thing away.                     Angel was immeasurably faster than the creature's response, and by the time its malformed claw was resting on its belly, Angel had jumped off and landed on the things arm, pounding down with his hind legs and biting at the things fur. The teeth must have been noticeable, because the thing let out a louder groan this time, sounding distressed.                     Fluttershy was hypnotized by the sight in front of her. Still, her body was locked in place, cemented firmly in her patch of dirt and dead grass. Angel was fighting the thing, a hundred times bigger than either of them. He was gnawing and thrashing at it like a bunny possessed, and all Fluttershy could do was watch. He was fighting for her.                     'You can end this much quicker,' a voice reminded her in the back of her head. Fluttershy shut her eyes tight and shook her head, trying to clear it away.                     "No! I can't..." Fluttershy couldn't explain through the tears that were still coming. She didn't need to. She knew the voice understood exactly what she meant. What it was responsible for, alongside her own actions.                     'This can only end two ways, and one of them involves your adorable friend in a heap on the ground...'                     "No!"                     Angel evaded another swipe from the creature, this one more insistent. He darted up the bear's arm, making his way to its head and daring around behind the neck while avoiding the things gnashing maw of teeth. The creature roared this time as Angel kicked, searching for some sort of weakness in the thing's grotesque bone structure. The bear's face was contorted in its first glimpse of emotion, an evident frustration at the tiny white blur hopping around its body.                     'Your weakness is sickening. We know you have always yearned to be stronger, to be greater than your old pathetic self - you have the chance now, if you will take it...'                     "No!"                     The creature was moving faster now, discarding the restraints of its leisurely movement. Angel narrowly dodged the creature's mouth as it turned its head, chomping down only onto air as Angel sprang across the creature's side.                     Fluttershy did want to move. She wanted to fly away, to grab Angel somehow and float away from the world, from the darkness seeping into her mind and her soul. She wanted to be away from the voice taunting her. Every jab was a memory. When she had cowered before. Flashbacks. And Angel was moving again, running across the things back and delivering as powerful a blow as he could muster to its elbow, before darting again.                     'Take control...'                     "No..."                     Angel gave a small yelp as the thing scraped the very tip of his tail with one of its claws. The bear was thrashing itself around rapidly, tearing up chunks of earth with its gargantuan feet as Angel scurried across its body.                     'You are the holder for a reason. Reach out and take what you have always wanted.'                     "No..." Fluttershy was grasping her face between her hooves. Her mind was a black flare, burning with ancient whispers and tortured memories, and the flash of Angel's white fur as she glimpsed it each time, running across the moonlit landscapes of the creature's disgusting matted fir.                     'Do it.'                     "No..."                     'There is no choice left in the matter...'                     No...                     Words were gone. Fluttershy was paralyzed. Her heart was stopping as the last of her will to live, to do anything was sapped. The blackness of the night was comfort, it would wash over her and take away everything, all the sorrow and misery and the way she hated herself now, the dark would make everything better.                     Two words came.                     "I'm sorry..."                     Angel turned his head to see Fluttershy collapse onto the ground, her eyes barely open. He paused.                     The creature's claw caught him from behind, tearing him off its other limb and dragging him upward. Angel squeaked in natural response, a sound he had never made before, having no reason to be so afraid. Movement was impossible. He kicked his legs against the creature's paw, hammering away at its thick skin in an attempt to dissuade its grasp.                     The creature let out a low, satisfied groan. It tightened its grip.                     Fluttershy's eyes widened from the ground as the razor sharp blades crossed. She shut them as she saw Angel's face.                     There was no sound for a moment, save the creature's laboured breathing. After several seconds, a soft tearing noise broke through the night, followed by a crunch. Fluttershy opened her eyes again.                     With a soft thump, the remains of Angel's tattered body landed in front of her. His eyes were still wide open, bright and beady against the moonlight. His skin was torn below the nose. A trail of red was on the grass behind, a line of entrails sprawled across the ground. The creature chewed idly.                                              Nothing. Nothing left.                                            Fluttershy screamed. She screamed wordlessly, devoid of articulation and depth but compact with all the meaning in the world. Her scream shook the windows of her cottage, and the glass began to crack. Her scream turned the creatures head, and it raised its paws to its ears to block out the sound of shattered hope. Fluttershy screamed. She screamed with the weight of a dying soul, her being exhausted and burned and torn apart and delivered to the air in a single, drawn-out sound. The air curled around her scream, burning away in her anguish. Fluttershy screamed. She screamed for lost dreams, and unimaginable despair, the whole of her existence falling apart inside her at that moment. Fluttershy screamed. Her mind cleared.                     The voice was gone. It was no longer necessary.                     A darkness spread from her feet. The grass, where it had been blackened and sickly before, disintegrated completely now, into a fine gray ash. The ground where it had been pulsed and glowed, and black tendrils emerged from the earth. Lightning sprawled from the touch of her hooves, arcing out hundreds of feet in every direction, turning the soil and scorching everything in its path. The forest in the distance lit ablaze, several trees bursting into flames.                     The creature could feign no ignorance. It looked up, and saw Fluttershy. Its eyes filled with the first proper fear it had ever known.                     Fluttershy did not speak.                     Her stare was black and empty as she raised herself from the ground. Her wings were spread, wider than they had ever been, spreading out from her body like a blanket of night, shrouding the moon from the creature's eyes. Her hair stood on end, coiling out from her head like a mass of black vines, waving softly in an invisible breeze. The creature moved, attempting to turn, already readying itself to run.                     Fluttershy did not speak. She extended a single hoof, and a beam darker than night extended, cutting through the air like a blowtorch. The air died around it, depleted of life and all the light that had ever been there, falling away from the energy like dead skin from a wound. The beam hit the creature before it could lift a leg, and it froze in place. It let out a sound like an ancient tree falling from centuries of life, bows breaking and collapsing with its last throes of effort.                     The creature fell to its knees, and then to its stomach. Its legs didn't bend but fell apart. The sound of its bones shattering cut through the night, and the cracks and splinters gave way to a sound like sand pouring through a sieve, going from firm to cracked to splintered to powder, and then into nothing. It roared in anguish as its limbs dissolved from the inside.                     Fluttershy floated towards it effortlessly. The creature lifted its head on the last vestiges of its strength to face her. Fluttershy's face burned into its mind.                     With a flare of her wings, Fluttershy flew. She flew forward, through the creature's body. She cut through its head, cutting it clean in two as she soared forward, bisecting its body like a cleanly hewn rock. The energy around her body sliced it neatly, sending a circular arc of blood sailing into the darkened sky. Its death cry died before its body could voice it. Fluttershy's wings stopped perfectly as she reached the thing's feet. She wasn't done.                     Without turning, Fluttershy reached her forelegs back and pointed both hooves at the creature, now split in two. Another dark energy crept out, interwoven with crimson lightning. The beams hit either end of the creature, and where they touched it, the skin melted away into nothing. Dark fur and powdered bone remains and organs and blood and flesh congealed together into a homogenous pile of bright, red gore, which spread across the ground, coalescing into a large pool. Fluttershy lowered her hooves, and the energy stopped. She floated to the ground.                     Her breath was soft in the night air as she stood. The ground spread at her hooves, rippling away as it died. After a moment, the energy of her body faded away. she lowered her eyes to the ground.                     Fluttershy looked different. Her body's transformation was complete, her yellow coat now only the occasional spot amongst the arcane runes spiralling through her fur. Her mane was all but pure black, a pink highlight or two amongst the thin strands of night. Her soulful eyes were empty.                     She had failed.                     In every regard, she had failed. She had started something horrible, and she had forced it to its worst conclusion. she had given in to the darkness brewing her in her soul... but what was more, she had given in to late. And now, despite her revenge, she had nothing. Angel was dead.                     A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye.                     There was nothing left. She had control over her own failure, now and forever more.                     what had the voice said, days ago?                     'You will come to learn, that death is merely an inconvenience...'                     Fluttershy's eyes lit up.                     She raised a hoof, and as if it was second nature, extended another tendril of dark energy into the night. The black beam found its target immediately, snaking and separating and touching every part of Angel's scattered body, dragging the pieces together effortlessly. Fluttershy closed her eyes as they met, and clenched them tight as the shadowy flare burned across her eyelids. She opened them again.                     Angel was there. She saw his ears bob in the night, facing the other direction.                     The dead ash around her feet blew away with the force of her wings as they carried her there, only feet away but an immeasurable distance. She tackled Angel, grabbing him with her forelegs and rolling into the grass, this time with only the best remembrance of hillside rolling as a child. Fluttershy laughed.                     She had control over something more.                     "Angel, Angel, Angel, I'm so happy you're okay!" She smiled and held the bunny close to her body as she tumbled, rubbing him against her chest and giggling. The darkness of the night was a sphere she couldn't see outside his bright white coat.                     "I'm sorry Angel, so sorry for everything. I never meant for anything like this to happen... but you're okay, and I'm okay, we're both okay! And as long as we have each other, we can figure this out, and everything will be better."                     Angel, of course, didn't speak. It was never his habit to do so. Fluttershy clutched him closer, hugging him hard with both legs.                     She didn't feel the warmth of his fur that she was accustomed to.                     "Angel? It's okay, I made you all better. You're alright, aren't you?"                     Fluttershy held Angel at arm's length, letting the bright silvery moonlight wash over his body as she stared up at him.                     Angel blinked. His eyes were empty, and he made no move to gesture his reassurance.                     "Angel?"                     An image flashed across Fluttershy's mind. A row of chickens, hollow and dead, staring at her from her bedroom window.                     No.                     Fluttershy's legs held Angel in place for a moment more as he stared back at her. Her newfound strength couldn't keep her in place, and she dropped him, letting him fall to the ground as she followed suit, legs collapsing under her body. Angel didn't brace himself against the fall, and simply tumbled awkwardly like a doll as he hit the ground. Fluttershy didn't watch him land. She shut her eyes, and buried her face in her hooves.                     She couldn't bring herself to cry anymore.                     Angel sat quietly next to her, staring into nothingness.                               The sun crested over the hills in the distance, spreading light through Ponyville and most of Equestria. Twilight ran up the path to Fluttershy's cottage, a book jostling in her saddlebag as she moved. She had found very little. But any help was something, and something to allay Fluttershy's worries before involving the Princess would certainly be beneficial.                     "Fluttershy!" Twilight called as she reached the cottage door, pounding on it loudly with her hoof. "Fluttershy, wake up! I found something I think might help..." Twilight didn't mention outright that the few materials she had unearthed gave very clear indication about the nature of the magic at play. Still, again, any information was better than nothing. Twilight pounded on the door again.                     "Fluttershy!"                     After a minute of pounding and yelling, Twilight sighed and closed her eyes in concentration. A burst of magic from her horn sent the house door flying inward, creaking loudly as it bounced on its rusted hinges. Despite the invasive entrance, Twilight made her way inside timidly, poking her head inside the unlit entranceway.                     "Fluttershy? Are you here?"                     Silence was her answer. Twilight stepped inside, treading cautiously over the now almost completely rotted floorboards. The cottage seemed to have deteriorated drastically since the day prior. Where the furniture and cabinetry had been at least vaguely recognizable, now they were broken and decayed, fallen away in places and grown over by the disgusting black vines in others. Twilight kept herself away from the walls as she made her way over to the stairs, which sagged under the touch of her hoof.                     "Fluttershy?" she called out again as she walked upstairs. The only sound in the darkened house was her hooves on the wood.                     She didn't bother knocking at Fluttershy's bedroom door. Pushing the splintered remains of wood caused them to fall to the floor, giving Twilight a glimpse into the entire room proper. It was complete with everything Twilight had seen yesterday; but no Fluttershy.                     "Where could she have gone?" Twilight asked to the empty house.                         Fluttershy lay back in the grass, rubbing her head and mane against the soft bristles and sighing softly. Around her where her body touched the ground, lines of lightning and bright violet and crimson sparks arced in every direction. The trees of the Everfree loomed overhead, blocking out the sun, and glowing in their own dimmed light, added to by the glow of Fluttershy's magic.                     A chicken, completely bones, rattled as it walked over to her, and Fluttershy picked it up with her hooves and giggled.                     "Do you want to play a game, Sir Roostington?" The chicken made no move to answer, but Fluttershy gave the tiniest, almost imperceptible dip of her head and its demeanour changed instantly. The animate skeleton apparently known as Sir Roostington clicked its beak enthusiastically, and flapped its featherless wings. Fluttershy giggled again, and set the chicken on the ground.                     "Okay then. Let's play tag. Are you ready?"                     Fluttershy nodded, and the chicken mimicked her, giving an undead click of approval.                     "Okay then. One, two three - oh, wait!" Fluttershy turned, as though remembering something suddenly, and locked her gaze on the ground several feet away. Angel stared back at her. His eyes were sunken and hollow, and his skin was hanging loosely on his body.                     "Angel, you have to play too." Angel gave no response, and Fluttershy sighed and floated over to the rabbit, flapping her wings effortlessly and sending leaves out from her lift off. She grabbed Angel in her forelegs and scooped him off the ground, cradling him like a foal.                     "Now Angel, I know you're having trouble adjusting... but there's no reason to be so grumpy. You'll see just like I did that this really is for the best... we have the whole forest to ourselves if we want! No more scary things, no more being afraid, no more anypony telling us what to do..." Angel blanched. Fluttershy tipped one of her hooves up, and a thin, almost invisible black tendril flashed through the air for an instant between her limb and Angel's body. His eyes sparkled for a moment, and he gave a reluctant shrug. The gesture matched his usual composure, but it looked different, like a puppet mimicking a pony. Fluttershy hugged him close and squeaked regardless, then lowered him to the ground and clapped her hooves together.                     "I knew you'd come around. Now, come on, we're going to play tag with Sir Roostington."                     Angel nodded without a trace of emotion, and followed Fluttershy to the center of the forest grove. On either side of the clearing, burning walls of black fire barred the only entrances.                     Fluttershy smiled. She had been wrong, about a lot of things. Most importantly, her journey into the forest had been anything but a mistake. It had simply been a very painful, very important stepping stone onto a path she had never realized was where she belonged.                     The darkness wasn't frightening - nothing was anymore. Because she was.                     "One, two, three, go!"