Fluttershadow

by Barrobroadcaster

Company

Fluttershy gently took a sip of her tea. "Thank you for coming over today, Exie," she said to her friend sitting across from her.

"Well, to be honest Fluttershy, when you invited me over because you wanted me to 'try something new', tea wasn't really the first thing that came to mind," Exie replied, setting her mug back on the table.

Exie had only been hoping for a date with Fluttershy since she'd first met her. She was gorgeous, friendly and gorgeous, the three things that Exie looked for in another pony. Although the yellow Pegasus clearly had her own little clique of friends(who were also gorgeous), Exie was interested in spending some personal time with the attractive yellow winged mare and she finally had the chance.

"Really? What did you think I meant?" Fluttershy asked.

Luscious, soft, hot, buttery, yellow, "Muffins," Exie answered quickly, avoiding what she was really thinking about. "I thought you were inviting me over to try your... muffins".

"Oh, I don't think I have any muffins. I just picked up this new tea recipe. I guess I could've stopped by the bakery and-" a loud crash came from the room adjacent to the kitchen. Something loud hit the floor and shattered. Fluttershy jolted in response sending the hot contents of her mug into the air and all over Exie.

"Ge-yaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Exie yelped in pain as the scalding hot tea splashed her in the face.

"Oh my goodness," Fluttershy said. Exie's screaming caused Fluttershy to jolt a second time. She dropped her empty mug in response. "I'm so sorry, let me get you something to dry off with."

"Ueeehhh... it's okay, no... it's okay," Exie said, recovering. "Just a little tea, I've got it." She pulled up her napkin and did her best to dry herself. Her mane was soaked and steam rose from her face.

"I think I have a towel in the drawer." Fluttershy hovered out of the kitchen and into her living room.

Ear twitching, lip trembling, still burnt and damp, Exie couldn't take her eyes off of Fluttershy's... features as she got up and went to look for a towel for her. Alone in a house full of animals at the edge of the freaking Everfree Forest, looking like it's been decorated by somepony that thinks it's Spring all year long, Exie was now hot in more ways than one and could do nothing about it.

She watched the yellow Pegasus rifle through a cabinet. Gotdamn tease. EVERY part of her looked like it was... she just wanted to plunge her face into... and take her hooves and... wrapped around so gently... and then the feather duster would... and it made sense because after all, she WAS a Pegasus and could bend like that so... then Angelbunny would... Liam Neeson... Exie frowned, ending her fantasy train of thought. She felt like pouring her own tea in her lap.

Fluttershy fluttered back with a cloth. "I'm so sorry about that Exie," she said, hoofing it to Exie.

"It's all right, Fluttershy. I know you get... excited easily. It's something we have in common. Sort of."

"Really? You get frightened easily, too?" Fluttershy asked, sitting back down.

Exie bit her lip. "Well, umm..." fuck. "Yes," she lied. Exie had in fact enjoyed being "frightened" a lot. There were plenty of mares in Ponyville and she never found herself short of company when she desired it. However, it seemed they all had something going on, something about them that made it hard to get close to them. Though she'd normally been able to get around that, there were some notable exceptions like the one sitting across from her now. She finally had this local girl alone, in her own house and it still didn't seem like she'd be able to get intimate with her. It was enough to drive the sex-starved mare mad.

And Fluttershy was special. She was adorably timid, frickin gorgeous and her personality was sweet. A quick examination of her assets was enough to make Exie get over her general quirks and taste in décor. She vowed: she would get this mare into bed somehow!

Fluttershy lowered her head a bit. "What are some things you're afraid of?"

Now she had to cover her fib. "Zombies... pirates... ninjas..." she listed things from movies she'd seen recently.

"Those things scare me, too. But nothing really scares me more than," her voice got softer, "my shadow."

Exie raised an eyebrow. "You're actually afraid of your own shadow?" The yellow pony nodded.

"I've been afraid of my shadow for a long time."

"What... scares you about it?"

Fluttershy glanced behind her and then leaned in. "It's always there. And... it talks to me, tells me things."

Now, Exie was getting a little scared. This sounded like a deeper problem than just being timidly afraid. "What does it tell you?" she asked, reluctantly.

"It tells me things... it says strange things." Her voice started to tremble a little.

"Your shadow tells you strange things?" This was getting too creepy.

"It tells me things about my friends... and it's always listening."

"O...kay..." She couldn't believe how weird this was.

Fluttershy's voice became a whisper. "It tells me to burn things. Burn them to the ground."

Exie got up; she'd had enough. "I think I'm gonna get going now, Fluttershy. I'll, uh, I'll... see you later." Hot girl living with a bunch of animals was weird; hot girl who might be a potential arsonist/sociopath was insane and NOT something Exie wanted to sleep with right now. It just wasn't worth it.

Fluttershy got up herself. "Oh, please, I didn't mean to frighten you. You don't have to leave early."

Exie continued moving to the door in an uncomfortable haste. "Yeah, uh, it was nice seeing you Fluttershy. Thanks for the t-n-a... I mean, tea." She winced at her miswording.

"Oh... okay," Fluttershy stopped following her in the living room. "Good-bye..." Exie left without another word. The sound of the door closing behind her was followed by silence.

The living room was empty except for the yellow pegasus. She stood amongst the quiet for a few moments, just thinking. Her animals were all outside; even Angelbunny was elsewhere, leaving her completely alone.

It was late in the afternoon. The sun creeping in through the windows cast long shadows across the floor. Fluttershy turned back into the kitchen to clean up the mess. She threw away the broken pieces of her glass and swept up the tea that had splattered everywhere. She hoped Exie hadn't been burned by the accident. Rinsing out the mug Exie had used, she returned it to its place in her cupboard when she heard something coming from her living room, a scraping noise.

Fluttershy turned around quickly, remembering something had hit the floor and startled her in the first place. She looked down at the floor and felt her heart rate increase. All the other shadows cast by the furniture were pointing towards the kitchen. Fluttershy's own shadow, however, was pointing in the opposite direction. The long, dark lines made by her legs stretched out of the kitchen and around the corner into the living room. They moved rhythmically back and fourth as she watched them.

Fear gripped her throat. She swallowed hard and moved her hooves forward. Slowly, carefully, she peered beyond the wall into the living room.

Fluttershy's shadow was cast on the cupboard just beyond the kitchen. Although it stretched from the four of her hooves across the floor, the shadow in no way resembled the pony it was attached to. The figure moved back and fourth on the surface of the wall, floor and cupboard. A broom and dustpan levitated in the air in front of it, as if held by the shadow itself. Carefully, the two objects descended to brush up the pieces of a shattered plate off of the floor.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy," a male voice said.

Fluttershy didn't respond. Her hooves shook and her teeth chattered in fear.

"Did Exie like your new tea?" The shadow wavered as it spoke. The broom and dust pan continued sweeping up

Just go away, Fluttershy thought to herself. Just please go away.

"It's getting close to winter. We might want to start using your fireplace more often. I keep telling you that you don't use it often enough. Why have it if you're just going to use your stove?" the voice asked in a casual tone.

It wanted her to burn things again! Why wouldn't it just leave her alone?

"You're not real," Fluttershy told the shadow, reciting what her friends had told her to tell herself in the past. "You can't talk to me because you're just a shadow."

"Why can't I talk to you? Is this about the plate? Look- I'm cleaning it up, see?" The dust pan full of shards hovered over to her to display its contents. Fluttershy turned away. Her shadow changed position. The figure she cast moved across the surface of the floor like a silhouette into the kitchen along with the broom and dustpan. Her kitchen wastebasket opened and the dustpan dumped the broken pieces of plate into it.

The shadow continued moving through her kitchen. The door to her fridge opened on its own. Fluttershy turned to watch the shadow cast itself in front of the open refrigerator, as if it was examining the contents inside.

"You remember to buy skim milk? I think I put it on the list but I might've forgot," the voice asked. A Tupperware container levitated off of the fridge shelf. "You think this spaghetti is still good?" Fluttershy ignored the question. The lid popped off of the container. The shadow made a strong sniffing noise.

"Still smells all right... hey, seriously Fluttershy, we need like a microwave or something. It uses way too much electricity to use the stove every time we need to reheat something."

Why was this creature obsessed with burning things?! What kind of demon just haunted her house all day, talked a lot and ate her food? Fluttershy just stood and watched it, petrified in fear.

The stove turned on by itself, followed by the kitchen sink. A metal pan levitated down from the covered and filled with a small amount of water before the faucet turned off. The Tupperware container than emptied itself into the pan and floated over to the sink. Finally, the pan set itself upon the top of the stove as it began to heat. The pasta began to reheat.

Suddenly, a high-pitched ringing echoed through Fluttershy's kitchen. The shadow shifted.

"Yo. Hey Craig. Yeah, not much, just heating up some food," the shadow said. Fluttershy noticed it occasionally would talk to itself like this. "Oh really? I must've just missed you! Dude, you gonna come back over? Okay, yeah, see you soon." A loud beep was heard and the shadow wavered again.

"Hey, Fluttershy, that was Craig. He says he was just here and he's coming back over now."

What was this shadowy creature talking about? Who was coming over? Why had it chosen to haunt Fluttershy? Why her?!

"You're... you're not real!" she yelled at the shadow. "You can't be real! This isn't possible! It can't be happening!" Fluttershy shut her eyes and backed away.

"Fluttershy," the shadow said. "We've been over this. It's me, Duncan, remember?"

This prompted Fluttershy to open her eyes. "Shadows don't have names! Shadows don't talk! You can't be real!"

She watched as the shadow continued to approach her, the shape of some other-worldly bipedal creature with its hands on its hips. "Hahaha," it chuckled. "Not real? Now, we both know that's not true." It came closer to her; a dark figure walking in across the floor, bending as its silhouette body touched each surface but still clearly advancing. "Everypony has a shadow."

Fluttershy bolted out of her kitchen. She didn't know where she was going or what she was doing. How could she escape her own shadow? She wasn't safe in her own house! She had to get out of there!

She ran for the door as fast as her hooves could carry her. But before she could even touch the door handle, a knock came from the outside. She slowed down, almost coming to a complete stop, before crashing into the door. She hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the door and opened it.

"Uh, hi," Exie said.

"Exie! You came back!" Fluttershy said in a mixture of surprise and relief. She took a moment to catch her breath.

"Yeah," Exie put a hoof behind her head. "I'm sorry I kinda ran off on you like that."

"It's okay... really," Fluttershy said, panting. She was just happy to see a friendly face. Being alone right now was not something she wanted.

"I know you've got issues but, you know, we all do. And I wanted to let you know I understand that and it was sort of rude of me to just take off like that."

Fluttershy nodded. "No, really Exie, it's okay. But can I ask you something?"

Exie looked puzzled. "Um, sure, what?"

"Would you mind a bit if I stayed at your place for a couple da-"

"Hey Fluttershy, who's at the door?" the shadow called from behind her. Fluttershy turned her head to look over her shoulder. A lump smacked her throat again.

Exie leaned to look behind Fluttershy. Who was she talking to? She squinted her eyes to try to make out something in her living room.

"Who is that?" Exie asked.

"It's... my shadow."

A dark, black figure waved in her direction. Exie felt the sudden urge to turn around and run again but something kept her gaze transfixed on the silhouette in front of her.

"You... weren't kidding were you?" Exie asked. Without turning around, the yellow Pegasus shook her head back and fourth, shaking in place. Exie herself started to tremble a little. "Who is he waving at?"

"Hey Craig!" the shadow yelled, still waving.

Slowly, Exie turned around. But there was nothing behind her. Nothing except her shadow.

Comments

[Regidar]

Shadows are shifty motherfuckers.
That's why I stabbed out my eyes so they couldn't get me.
WHO'S CRAZY NOW, MOM?

[Barracuda cyborg]

who ate my le burger with queso

[Barrobroadcaster]

3009443 I just use one of those vanishing caps from Super Mario 64. So... yeah, I'm sorry about your eyes. WAIT! Those giant eyeballs from the Big Boo's Haunt level! Hold on Regi, we're gonna get you some new eyes!

[Level Dasher]

I have to admit, this is certainly different, but interesting. You got me hooked. BTW I agree with IJAB- Fluttershy is definitely worth it.

[corona320]

This here.I like it. Keep going. Really didn't see that whole Duncan Craig thing coming, foreshadowing just flew over my head. But hey jack keep going. You have my sincere interest.

[Pen Brush]

3009443
lets hope you don't have 2 shadows

[AverageBrony]

3010642 *bu dum tss*

[Barrobroadcaster]

3010642 I'll let you know where all the names come from in the end. Though, if you read some of my other work, especially the more recent stuff, you'll notice I use the same names for human or human-like characters.

If you put them together, it shouldn't be too hard to see where they come from.

[Doc Crowl]

3010871
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgkr9l5LbQ1qh5iszo1_500.gif

[ponyheart07]

i want more of this. when is part 2 comeing?

[Barrobroadcaster]

3016422 This evening.

[corona320]

3010642 the wordplay didn't even hit me until after I wrote it. Lol