And SCREAMING And SCREAMING And SCREAMING And SCREAMING

by eLLen


And SCREAMING And SCREAMING And SCREAMING And SCREAMING

The pegasus set down on the grassy plain as she gave a last flap of her wings, steadying herself.

“Mm… nice,” Fluttershy said, once sure of her landing. Her eyes set off, surveying her unfamiliar surroundings. Though barren plains like these all have the same features—that they were, well, barren and plain—the pegasus still felt exposed. It was far from her usual spot, literally as well as figuratively. Nonetheless, she beat back the anxiousness crawling up her spine.

After taking a deep breath of the splendid fresh air, Fluttershy dropped her saddlebags to the ground to fish through them, but not so much as to ruin her organization. Her care for its order may have been misplaced, however, considering she only ever took one thing out of it; the rest were “in case of…” supplies. After snatching up her canteen, she wasted not a second in washing down a few gulps. Celestia knows she would need it.

Estimating it to be half empty, Fluttershy returned it to its place in her bags. She couldn’t help but steal another glance around her. The field may have been miles from her home, but the paranoia that someone would see her always nagged on her mind. Every time. And like every time, she cast it aside.

Closing her eyes, Fluttershy set her hooves apart, drew in a breath of the air, and then let it out in the form of a soft hum. She repeated her little cycle of breathing and humming for a minute, each variation slightly different from the rest. One would be as soft as the first, another much deeper and harder, and another harsh. Simply harsh. She opened her eyes.

With a nod to herself, she filled her lungs full of air, much more than the last times. Then she opened her mouth and screamed.

Far from the beauty of her singing voice, her scream became the harsh hum, only this time unrestrained by closed lips. As soft as her natural voice may be, Fluttershy shoved all her strength into her raw shriek. If it didn’t echo across the plains, it was no good.

She ran out of breath in… six? Seven seconds? Her personal best currently stood at nine, but she had no idea how she ever managed that. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d just counted wrong in her head. Still, she considered wailing like a mad banshee for seven seconds to be impressive on its own.

Fluttershy let a few giggles fly before she stole another breath of air and screamed again. This time, she let herself be a bit tamer, but that didn’t scratch the rough surface of her shout. Then she screamed again, then again, then again, time after time. Mirroring her humming, she made different yet connected variations of her voice

As she bellowed out the next scream, her voice caught, causing her to hack for a few seconds. After it passed, Fluttershy let out a sigh, knowing that was her cue to stop. The last thing she needed was to damage her vocal chords.

Gulping down the rest of her canteen, the pegasus stuffed it into her saddlebags and spread her wings, ready to set off on the flight home. Even as she left behind her little field, Fluttershy couldn’t help but darn a soft smile.

Sometimes you just needed to scream.