//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Amnesia: Fluttershy // by Yukito //------------------------------// Fluttershy opened her eyes slowly, and found herself in a dark, cold room. It was difficult to see anything, since the only light source was a small bit of light from the dumbwaiter shaft. The room was like most of the mansion that Fluttershy had seen so far; it was made of dark stone blocks, that were very cold. Except that there ones were also wet. Looking up, Fluttershy could see small droplets of water dripping from the ceiling. She stood up, and shook her body, trying to wake herself up. She was wondering how long she was out, but after remembering what kind of encounters she had had so far, she didn’t want to stay for too long. Fluttershy walked around the room slowly, taking great care so as not to trip over anything in the darkness. When she came across a torch on one of the walls, she lit it up using one of her tinderboxes, giving herself some light so that she could check herself for injuries. Once it was light enough inside the room to see, Fluttershy checked her body closely. There were a few scrapes here and there, but nothing serious. She heard the sound of the wind passing through the hallway outside of the room, which spooked her a little bit. But she was able to regain her composure quickly enough. “I…I’d better get going…But…What if there are more of those things out there?” A sudden gust of wind extinguished the torch that Fluttershy had just lit, leaving her in complete darkness yet again. She yelped out as loud as she could, ducking down and holding her head in her hooves. ‘I can’t stay here! I have to keep moving!’ Deciding that she had no other choice, Fluttershy took a deep breath, and stepped outside of the small room, entering the hallway of the storage area. She decided that now would be a good time to use her oil lantern, since the hallway was just as dark as the previous small room. She checked its oil content, seeing that it was almost completely full. She turned it on, and held it in her mouth as she moved forward. She passed by plenty of rooms on her way through the hallway, most of which contained nothing useful. Some would occasionally contain tinderboxes and vials of oil. When she stopped to examine one room, she noticed quite a bit of food stored in a pantry. Her stomach was rumbling, and she decided that she should probably stop to eat. She took a few vegetables from the pantry, examined them, and determined that, although they were a bit dirty, they were still edible. It wasn’t like she had much choice in this situation. She lit a nearby candle, and turned off her lantern, wanting to conserve her oil. She sat back against the wall of the room, and started to eat a few carrot sticks. She then moved on to some lettuce, and then some apples and oranges. She was enjoying her peaceful meal, until she looked towards the door and saw a shadow passing by. She froze in place, watching as the shadow drew closer, and closer. She then started to hear the sounds made by the previous Grunts that she had encountered, and had to force herself not to make any sounds. She held her breath in, watching as the shadow was eventually replaced with the monster it belonged to. The Grunt stopped moving just outside of the door, and stared straight ahead of it. Fluttershy had to tear her eyes away from the grotesque creature, the very sight of it sending chills down her spine. She couldn’t hold her breath any longer, and started to take slow, heavy breaths through her nose. Eventually, she heard the creature start to move again. She looked towards it, and saw it turning around, and heading in the direction that it had come from. Once the shadow was no longer visible outside the door, Fluttershy let out a huge breath, and started taking long, regular breaths, and tried to calm herself down. She shakily put the fruit that she as holding down on the floor, no longer feeling hungry. Deciding that she had rested long enough, picked up her oil lantern, turned it back on, and inched her way closer to the door, slowly peeking her head outside. She couldn’t see any sign of the Grunt, and, after debating it in her head for a while, decided to proceed on ahead. She moved slowly and quietly through the hallway, taking cover in the many rooms as she passed by them, in case that Grunt came back. She eventually came to a fork in the road, and saw two signs on the wall, each one pointing in a different direction. One of the signs read “Back Hall”, whilst the other read “Dungeon”. She didn’t exactly like the idea of venturing into a dungeon in this spooky place, and the letter that she found mentioned going to the back hall, so she decided to head in that direction. It wasn’t a long walk; she could see the large double doors just up a small flight of stairs right around the corner of the sign. Fluttershy’s heart sank, however, when she realised that the door to the back hall was locked. She examined the large, double doors, and decided that there was no way to get inside of them. She looked back, and hesitantly started to make her way back to the fork. She looked down the pathway that lead to the dungeon and, after a large gulp, started to slowly make her way towards the dungeon. As she moved through the dark hallway, she started to feel another memory popping into her head. She was starting to hear the same voices as before in her head. “Twilight? W-What’s down t-there?” “Hm? Oh, it’s a dungeon. At least that’s what the sign says. See?” “A d-dungeon?…We’re…We’re not going down there…Are we?” “Of course not. Applejack and I already checked it out…She…Well, anyway, let’s just say that there’s nothing down there. Well, except maybe for the sewers.” “The sewers?” “Yes. If you were to go through those, you could reach the orb chamber with great ease. The trouble is reaching the sewers. Those monsters are all over the place. There’s a longer, but defiantly much safer way, through the back hall. Now come on. Let’s go.” “R-Right behind you.” Once the voices had died down, Fluttershy placed her hoof to her chest, wishing her heart would stop beating so fast, and that her breathing would slow down. It was so quiet, that she was afraid her own breathing and heartbeats would attract the attention of Grunts. She eventually reached a small, rusted, iron gate at the end of the hallway. Behind it, Fluttershy could see a spiral staircase leading down. She opened the gat slowly, stopping for a second every time it squeaked. She heard footsteps drawing closer, and quickly swung the gate fully open, no longer caring how much sound she made. When she looked down the hallway, she saw that nothing was actually there, and the sounds of footsteps had stopped too. Was she just imagining it? Either way, she knew that staying in one spot wasn’t going to help, especially when she only had a little bit of oil left in her lantern. She picked up her lantern, and began descending the staircase, descending deeper into the mansion. As she moved deeper, she could hear some sort of strange moaning in her head, and a quiet banging sound repeating itself. She tried to place her hooves to her ears a few time to drown out the sound, but that only succeeded in making it louder. She started to slow down, realising that the sounds got louder the deeper she went. She reached the bottom after about 5 minutes of walking and occasional resting. She was in a large, brightly lit room, surrounded by 4 pathways, three of which contained large, stone double doors. The fourth passage way was blocked by a pile of rubble that Fluttershy could not move nor climb past. She couldn’t even see past it. So that passage was out of the question. There wasn’t much of interest inside the room; it was mostly the same as the rest of the mansion – a dull stone room with broken furniture and piles of rubble all over the place. Fluttershy turned off her lantern, and took this chance to pour some oil into it, so that it would be ready for future use. She moved closer to one of the doors, after choosing it completely at random, and tried to open it. It opened slightly, allowing Fluttershy to peek inside, although she couldn’t see much down the dark corridor. She heard the sounds of sobbing coming from down the corridor, and debated whether to check it out or not. On one hoof, it was dark down this corridor, and who knows what could be down? On the other hoof, if someone was in trouble…Fluttershy just couldn’t bring herself to abandon them. With a small whimper, she walked into the room, the door closing behind her making the corridor much darker all of a sudden, and causing her to gasp loudly as it banged shut. She travelled through the dark corridor, the only sounds besides the sobbing being the squeaks of rats around her, and the flickering of flames from the few torches that were lit on the wall. She eventually started to pass a few doors, some slightly open, some very badly damaged, and some shut completely. She opened the first door that she passed on her right, and took a quick look inside. She pulled back her head and slammed the door shut as quickly as possible, bringing her hooves to her mouth to stop herself from throwing up. Inside the room, there was a corpse of a pony, lying on the floor, with blood pouring out of various wounds across its body. The head and Cutie Mark were both missing, and the stomach was cut open, allowing the pony’s insides to spill out onto the floor. Fluttershy kept her hooves to her mouth for several seconds, sobbing and panting heavily as she tried to take what she had just seen. She suddenly heard a loud sound behind her. It was the sound of metal being thrown against a stone wall, accompanied by the sound of many objects crashing to the ground. She turned around as quickly as she could, but saw that nothing was there. However, as she stared at the door behind her, she started to remember something. Some memory was trying to force itself into Fluttershy’s head, but it was fuzzy, and hard to make out. “Take that!” …”I won’t go down-”…”-out a fight!”…”You monster! You killed them…YOU KILLED THEM!”…”NO! PLEASE! I DON’T WANNA DIE! PLEASE, SOMEPONY SAVE MEEEE!” The voices belonged to different ponies, none of which Fluttershy recognised. What she did recognise though, was a familiar sound, amongst the sea of screaming, and crying. It was her own voice, letting out small sobs as she pleaded silently. “Please forgive me…” She repeated to herself, wondering what she meant by those words. Once the voices had died down, and Fluttershy’s body had stopped shaking, she stood up, and continued to move forward through the corridor. She decided not to look through any more of these doors until she had reached the source of the crying, not wanting to encounter something like what she had just seen. Fluttershy proceeded down the corridor, slowing down when a sudden tremor caused the ceiling ahead to collapse, blocking off the path. Fluttershy panted heavily, examining the rubble that now blocked the way. As she stared at the rubble, she started to back away with a look of horror on her face. It looked like the rubble was breathing. Dust was blowing into the cracks through the rubble, and then back out, making inhaling and exhaling sounds. She looked around to see if there was anywhere else that she could go, and saw, in the one of the side-rooms were the door was missing, that there was a hole in the wall, allowing her to proceed that way. However, before she could move towards it, something banged loudly onto one of the doors behind her. “AH!” Fluttershy turned around and looked at the door in question, where a cloud of dust could be seen coming from it. Another loud bang caused her to turn and run towards the hole in the wall quickly, and a final bang and a loud crash as the door was smashed to pieces caused her to stop and look back for a quick second. This proved to be a big mistake. Behind her, and Grunt emerged from the room where the door had just been destroyed, and spotted Fluttershy quickly, charging towards her, making horrific groaning sounds as it did. Fluttershy ran as fast as she could, opening the door in the room she was now in to get back into the corridor, and slamming it shut. She galloped down the corridor, not caring that it was getting increasingly dark as she proceeded. In fact, she was thankful, as it meant that it was harder for the Grunt to see her. She stopped once she heard the sounds of sobbing coming from a door that she had just passed, and, despite the fear brought on by being chased by this monster, opened the door and jumped inside, slamming it shut as she did so. She breathed in and out heavily, but stopped once she heard the Grunt walking by, holding her breath, and trying her best not to make any sounds. Once she had heard the Grunt pass by the room, and could no longer hear it outside, she let herself breathe once more. “F…Fluttershy?” Fluttershy jumped when she heard a voice, and then realised that there was somepony else in the room. She looked in front of her, and saw an orange Earth Pony, chained up to some sort of contraption. The pony had a long blonde mane, that was uneven, and soaked in blood, as was the rest of her coat. She had not tail, and her Cutie Mark, like the corpse that she had seen earlier, was cut off. She looked up at the pony’s face, and had to hold her hooves to her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream. The pony’s face was beaten quite severely, and covered in blood, just like her body. The worst part of it all, though, was that one of her eyes was hanging out of her eye socket. It was her right eye. It was still connected the orange pony, but was just dangling in mid-air. The other eye was still connected, but was horribly bloodshot. Tears were running down the pony’s face, and the floor was soaking wet. Not just from tears. Waste excreted from the pony’s body covered the floor, giving the room a horrible stench, that Fluttershy had only just noticed. Looking up above the orange pony, Fluttershy could see some sort of drill pressing into the pony’s skull. It looked like just the tip was in, so it wasn’t in deep enough to kill the her. “Fluttershy…It is you…What’re y’all doin’ down here?” “U-Um…Wh-Who are you?” “What’re ya’ll talkin’ ‘bout? Anyway, you have to go. Now. She’ll be here any minute, to finish me off.” The pony let out a few coughs, and then continued talking. “Hurry. It’s too late for me. Just focus on saving yer own flank.” “Wait, what do you mean “she’ll be here”? Who’s “she?”” “Have ya’ll gone an’ lost yer marbles? Obviously the same one who did this to all our friends.” “I…I can’t remember anything…I just woke up in this place, and I…” Fluttershy let out a few sobs, unable to keep her eyes on the tortured pony any longer. “You…Can’t remember?” The orange pony coughed again, this time spraying blood onto the floor. “Ah, well ain’t that just great? Alright, listen closely. The one who did this…Is a psychopath named Pinkie Pie.” She coughed a few more times. “She was once our friend, but…Something changed…When we found…That object…She…She began…Killing…Every…” Fluttershy heard the pony’s breathing getting heavier, and hesitantly turned to her, seeing that she was struggling to breath at this point. “That object?” She repeated. “Yeah…That…Damn orb…Anyway…You…Have ta go…Just…A little further down this corridor…There’s an entrance…To the sewer…Use it…And get to…Zecora…She…Is working on a potion…To return the orb…An’ appease…The Shadow…” The pony’s voice drew quieter and quieter as she spoke, and Fluttershy had to move close to hear what she was saying. “Hurry…She’s…Coming…” Fluttershy was about to ask what the pony what she had just said, but stopped moving when she heard footsteps behind her. “W-What?” She heard humming coming closer to the room, and her eyes widened in fear. Was this her? Was this Pinkie Pie, the murderous pony who had done this to…Whoever this pony was? Fluttershy looked around the room, and saw a closet nearby. She rushed over to it, and opened it up, gasping as a corpse began to fall out of it. Hearing the door start to open behind her, she quickly jumped in, and closed the closet, not having enough time to toss the corpse outside. She held her breath, and held herself tightly, wishing for somepony to come along and save her. “Hiya, Applejackie! How ya doing today?” “How ya think…You psycho-bitch?” “You know, you really should watch that mouth of yours! Normally, I would wash your tongue with soap, but…Sorry, this is all I have!” The sound of something being cut, followed by a loud scream, that soon became gargled, could be heard from outside the closet. “Whaaat? Dead already? But the party hasn’t even started!” Fluttershy heard a loud sigh from the pony outside. “Oh well, there’s still Fluttershy, I guess!” Fluttershy pressed her hooves to her mouth yet again, a tear running down her cheek. She had never been more afraid of anything in her life. Even with amnesia, she still knew that this was the most terrified she ever been. “Oh! But first, I should go visit Twilight! I haven’t played with her since I got her!” A giggled could be heard, and the sound of footsteps as the pony left the room. “Let’s see…I think she was in the Chamber of Sealing…In the east wing…Yup!” The footsteps stopped for a brief second. “Oh crud, I thought I killed all of these things down here!” The footsteps started again, much faster and louder than before, followed by a second set of footsteps and a new sound that sounded like a cow mooing, only more…Horrifying, was the only word Fluttershy could use to describe it. The sounds were moving the opposite direction to where Fluttershy had entered the corridor, which was also the same direction as the sewer entrance. Unfortunately, this meant that Fluttershy could not risk moving in that direction. At least not right now. She opened the closet door slowly, looking outside to see if it was safe. Looking over at the orange pony who Pinkie Pie had called “Applejackie”, Fluttershy could see half of a tongue on the floor, along with a pool of blood that was pouring out of the pony’s mouth. She was dead. That much was obvious. Fluttershy let out a few sobs, staring at the poor pony, but then wondered…In the state she was in, death was probably paradise for the poor mare. Fluttershy stepped out of the closet, only to be greeted by another huge tremor, and a bunch of pink patches of organic matter began to fill the room. In particular, some of the matter formed where Applejack - as Fluttershy remembered her being called in a previous flashback - was being held. Within second, bother the contraption and pony exploded, leaving metallic parts and blood splatter all over the room. Fluttershy yelped, both from the sudden explosion, and from the burning sensation from the pink matter. She rushed out of the room as quickly as she could, and galloped down the corridor, back the way that she had come from. She had to be quick, as the entire corridor was shaking, and being consumed by this pink matter. Luckily for Fluttershy, there were no monsters in her path as she charged through the corridor, evading rubble as it fell down, and ignoring the water that was bursting out of the wall. She reached the end of the corridor, and wasted no time opening the door and passing through it, slamming it shut as she finally reached the central room that she was in earlier. She took a much needed rest, after being utterly worn out from running from whatever was happening in that corridor. Was this the “Shadow” that kept hearing about? She noticed that this room wasn’t being affected. Why not? Was it unable to reach her? Or was it simply toying with her? Either way, she seemed to be seemed to be safe in here. After taking some time to rest, and use some laudanum to treat some wounds that she had obtained from her little event just now, she got up, and looked around the room. There were three possible paths left, only two of which were accessible. She remembered what Pinkie Pie had said earlier. About how Twilight Sparkle was being held in the east wing. But…“Which one is the east wing?” Fluttershy walked over to one of the doors, and examined it closely, looking for anything that could tell her what it lead to. She was interrupted by the sound of a door opening, along with the sound of frantic footsteps behind her. She turned around quickly, and saw a pink Earth Pony holding the door closed, breathing frantically as she glared angrily at the huge stone double doors. Her straight mane and tail were also pink, and, just like Applejack, they were covered in blood, along with the rest of her body. A pink pony…’Pinkie…Pie?’ Fluttershy wasted no time ducking behind a pile of rubble, watching the pink pony, whilst making sure not to make too much sound. “Damnit! That stupid Shadow! Just let me cut up my friends in peace!” She turned around, huffing in her rage, and walked towards the door at the other side of the room from Fluttershy. “Now then…Let’s go see how Twilie’s doing…” Fluttershy watched as Pinkie Pie opened the door in front of her. The door to the east wing? She guessed that it was, since that’s where Pinkie Pie was going. But that meant that…Twilight was in danger! Fluttershy watched as the door closed, and then came out of hiding. Twilight Sparkle, the pony who Fluttershy had told herself to go to, was in danger, and Fluttershy had to help. But…It was no use…Her legs were trembling. Her entire body was shaking. If she were to go after that pink pony, she could die! Just like her friends. ‘My friends…’ Fluttershy remembered the screams of pain and agony that she had heard whilst moving through that previous corridor, and the suffering the Applejack had gone through, before Pinkie Pie finally decided to let her die…Suddenly, she stopped shaking, and started to move forward. She looked up at the door, fear still overtaking her entire body, telling her to run. But she would not run. Somepony was in danger, and Fluttershy couldn’t just leave them. She had to help. Something inside her was telling her…Telling her that she could not abandon her friend, no matter what. Letting out one final breath, Fluttershy placed her hooves on the door in front of her, and began to open it. “I’m sure I’m going to regret this…”