//------------------------------//
// The Fall 
// Story: The Glasshouse Butterfly 
// by TheShyPegasus 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy walked through the door to her little cottage, nestled on the edge of the Everfree Forest, her head hung low and her eyes full of streaming, hot tears. 'What is wrong with me?' She thought to herself as she walked inside, kicking the door shut with a loud slam, as her sobs began to get louder. 'I'm not even sad! Why am I like this -- What's wrong with me?' It'd been about a month since the incident with Discord and life had slowly begun to return to normal for everpony. Everpony but Fluttershy at least. Every day she seemed to be getting worse, she'd just been so... Tired and sad and angry. Like today, she woke up late, she got to the spa late, and Rarity was just so... Annoying. Every word out of her mouth just made her want to drown herself in the soak! But this... This wasn't her. Sure even she had her limits, but Fluttershy would never, ever think such awful things about her friends, and nopony had even pushed her that hard at all lately, especially not Rarity.

Fluttershy dried her tears as best she could and decided she should try to make herself a nice cup of chamomile tea for bedtime. It always helped calm her down when she was stressed, and right now she definitely needed it for the ache that plagued her poor head. She put the kettle and tea leaves on the stove and went back to the living room where she lit her favorite scented candle as she relaxed on the couch, rubbing her temples slowly in tiny circles to try and ease the pain. It was nice and quiet in the room as she rested her head on the pillow. The only noises were the light breeze, outside, the settling of the house, and the low drone of the boiling tea on the stove top. But then she heard something out of the ordinary. It started out low, but gradually got louder. Was it... giggling? But just as she thought she had heard it the tea pot began to whistle loudly, drowning out the other noises in the house. She decided to write it off as her imagination as she stood up and began to walk towards the kitchen to make her cup of tea. After pouring her tea and adding a bit of sugar she headed back to her spot on the couch, letting the pleasant aromas of the tea and the candle cloud her senses. She let out a satisfied sigh as she sipped slowly on her drink, sinking back into the couch and allowing herself to truly relax. It didn't take very long for her to finish her tea and begin to feel her body getting very heavy. She let out a good yawn and stretched out her back as she cleaned up her mess and ascended the stairs to get ready for bed.

As she reached the top of the stairs she looked in through her bedroom door and saw her favorite little rabbit friend sleeping soundly in his special little bed. She couldn't help but smile at the image as she turned the corner and headed down the hall toward the bathroom. She gave herself a quick once over in the bathroom mirror, still smiling, before getting her toothbrush and a glass of water ready, but when she looked back in the mirror she was in no way prepared for what she saw... She would've screamed had she had the courage to do so, but instead she could only stand in shock as she dropped her glass of water to the ground below, shattering it into thousands of tiny pieces. The figures mouth never moved, but she heard it's words very, very clearly.

"I'm still here..."