Chapter 3: Mare Frigoris
Even with the pegasus hanging onto the heavy sword, Twilight was still barely able to keep up with her as they galloped towards the scream they'd heard. Twilight mentally noted that she needed to add some kind of regular exercise to her normal routine, and maybe not just teleport everywhere she needed to go, no matter how much faster (infinitely, really) it was than walking.
Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped, wings flaring in alarm.
“I think I saw something move!” She whispered, pointing. “There!”
Twilight stepped past her to look. There was something in the gloom of the animal pens, just visible between the bars.
“It doesn't look like the monsters from before,” Twilight whispered. She gently sent a mote of magic ahead, the spell illuminating the inside of the cage with magical light. Her eyes widened as she saw what was inside.
A skeletal form was lying there. Perhaps it had once been a cat or a dog, but neglect and starvation made it hard to tell now exactly what it had been. If not for the gentle rise and fall of its chest, Twilight would have assumed it was merely a corpse. She'd seen dead animals that looked like they were in far better health than this.
“How can it even be alive?” Dash whispered, taking a step back from it.
“It isn't,” Twilight said, firmly. She took a deep breath. “It- it's just part of the dream. It must be something Fluttershy is afraid of.”
“She takes care of animals,” Rainbow muttered. “I know it's been hard on her, with the dark and the cold. She said she was fine, but... I know she lost some of them. It must be tearing her up inside.”
“I can't imagine trying to keep a pet while we're stuck eating old guard rations.” Twilight sighed. “She must care about them a lot. I told her she should get away from this place and come into town, but she didn't want to leave them.”
“Fluttershy would never abandon an animal like that,” Dash agreed. “I've known her since I was a foal.” She kept her distance from the occupied cage as she walked further into the maze, Twilight following. “There are more of them in the cages up ahead.”
“Do you see any monsters, though?” Twilight asked.
“Not yet. I just hope we're going the right way. This place is a maze.” Dash looked around. “I wish I could fly up high enough to see where we were going!”
“And then you'd get into trouble and I'd be too far away to help,” Twilight said under her breath. “I'd be better off taking care of this myself. At least I know what I'm doing.”
“Did you say something?” Dash asked, glancing back.
“Yeah,” Twilight said, narrowing her eyes. “I said that this place is dangerous! Even you knew that you couldn't handle it yourself. It's the whole reason you came to get me! Just rescuing Fluttershy is going to be hard enough, and I have to protect you at the same time!”
“Look, I don't know about how they did things in Canterlot, but where I come from, when your best friend is in trouble, you try to help, no matter how dangerous it is!” Dash poked Twilight in the chest with a hoof, glaring at her. “It's part of being a decent pony!”
“So if she was in surgery you'd kick open the door to the operating room and insist on 'helping' the doctor?” Twilight asked, coldly. “Or would you try to do the operation yourself and ignore everything he said? Sometimes the best way to help is to get out of the way and let an expert-” she pointed at herself. “-Take care of things!”
“I used to have friends who were just like you.” Dash turned her back on Twilight. “They thought because they were so much better than everyone else, it meant they could just do whatever they wanted and people would have to like them. It doesn't work that way.”
“I don't care if ponies like me! I care about saving your friend, and getting out of here, and eventually saving the Princess! Somehow.” She sighed and looked away. “Arguing isn't going to help here.”
“You got that right,” Dash said. “Come on. Fluttershy has to be close, right? I mean this is all inside her cabin so it can't really be as big as it looks.”
“The bad news on that is... it's probably infinitely large in all directions, though the farther we go from Fluttershy, the more it's going to break down.” Twilight cast a simple spell to show a flat image in the air in front of them. “In the books I read on it, the Dreaming is formless and endless.” The image showed almost flat white, with a sensation of movement like fog.
“When a pony falls asleep, it creates a dream world around them.” She added a yellow dot. The white was pushed aside like a strong wind was blowing the fog away, revealing the streets and buildings of a simplified city. “When they move through the dream, more of their world is created around them. Some theories suggest it's at a fixed distance, others suggest that it depends on the pony and-” Twilight coughed as she saw Rainbow's attention drifting.
“Anyway, the point is, in a normal dream she'd always be at the center of it. If you went too far, you'd end up in formless chaos. Though it's all theoretical. I don't think anyone's really tried doing anything with dreamwalking magic in close to a thousand years.”
“So you're saying if she's moving, this whole place could collapse on us?”
“That is one thing that could happen,” Twilight admitted.
“We need to hurry!” Dash ran ahead, Twilight groaning and canceling her spell to run with her. This was one of the many reasons she didn't like having friends. She preferred to do things at her own pace, and the idiot pegasus ahead of her was going to run ahead and get killed. She'd seen it constantly in school, somepony trying to rush ahead instead of planning things out in advance. They thought they might succeed more quickly, but all that ever happened was that they managed to fail in record time, and occasionally hurt themselves and everypony around them.
Twilight ran around a corner and tripped as she stumbled over Rainbow Dash's prone form, falling forwards before something grabbed her by the mane. She squeaked in surprise and terror. An inch from her nose, sharp steel gleamed at the perfect height to slice into her neck.
“J'st... h'ld 'n!” Dash grunted, holding Twilight's mane in her teeth and helping her take a step back from the danger in her face. Twilight held her breath until she was released, falling to the floor with a sudden dizziness.
"That was too close," Dash said. Twilight nodded and examined what was ahead of them. There was a wall of loose dirt, stretching up into the mist and darkness overhead. Curved blades protruded from the walls at random intervals, the steel of the blades filthy and caked with gore and soil.
"These are all shovels..." Twilight noted, as she looked at the shape of them. She touched it with a hoof and quickly withdrew, the edge leaving a cut in the tough hoof even without any real force pressing against it. "That's really sharp, too."
"I don't get it. I mean, the animal pens I get." Dash looked at where the cages ended and the walls of soil began, the last visible row of the metal boxes half-buried in the loose dirt. "But where do the shovels come in?"
"...I know she was having problems with her animals," Twilight noted. "It must be one of the things that's been bothering her most."
"But it changed, so we must be going the right way... right?" Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, uncertain. The unicorn considered for a moment, then nodded.
"I think so. A boundary like this is a good sign. It might mean we're getting closer to her. I was kind of hoping for signs or something, but I guess that was silly. Signs would be there for her to use, since it's her dream." Twilight looked around. "And I don't think there's an easy way. Between the mazes and monsters and this, it's like the dream is trying to keep us away."
"Well duh," Dash snorted. "It's obviously some kind of evil trap thing!"
"Maybe," Twilight said, not really listening to the pegasus. "If we're careful we can get through here without getting hurt. Just watch your step."
She started maneuvering through the sharpened steel, having to almost dance around them. Dash followed easily, her ability to hover making it a lot easier for her to find clear space.
Twilight stumbled as something caught her hoof. Thankfully, she managed to avoid slicing herself open on the sharpened spades as she fell.
She looked back to see what she'd tripped over, and felt her heart jump to her throat. A furry paw had emerged from the dirt, gripping her fetlock. She shook herself free, only to feel a talon reaching for her hooves. Twilight did the only sane thing, and screamed.
Well, that must have sounded like a dinner bell to something, because the moment she did, the ground started to shake, and a menagerie of claws and paws pulled themselves free.
"We gotta get outta here!" Dash yelled, flitting down to grab Twilight and lift her out of danger, though the things were starting to come out of the walls now. As she got away from them, trying to keep her distance, some of the buried monstrosities started to unearth themselves. They looked like animals and pets, but distorted and horribly incomplete, each of them marked by a horrible injury. Many bore the marks of decapitation, the head either missing or just barely attached. Others were marred by distinct bite marks, like something had been eating them alive.
"Whatever has her really doesn't want us getting close," Twilight said, her mind working to rationalize what she was seeing as an attempt to keep her stomach from taking center stage and making a mess of things.
"Hey, I can get higher here!" Dash said, flapping harder.
"Try going up as high as you can! We're basically in a grave, and that's the way out, right?"
"No offense, egghead, but things usually don't get out of a grave."
"If you want to get stuck in a hole, you can do it on your own time!"
"At least admit I'm pretty awesome. If it was just you, you'd be stuck down there getting zomponied!"
"Okay, fine! Thank you for not letting me get eaten!" Twilight yelled, annoyed.
"See, gratitude." Dash rolled her eyes. "Hang on. I'm gonna get us out of here in a rainbow flash!"
"Did you just make a pun with your name? Because that's really stupaaaAAAAAAA!" For the second time that night, Twilight was suddenly accelerated to high speed, Rainbow Dash rocketing upwards, barely avoiding some of the blades coming out of the dirt. Twilight closed her eyes and hoped it would be over quickly, one way or the other.
***
There was a sensation like a bubble popping, and the two went into a spiral as the air pressure changed and Dash lost control. Instead of falling back down to a grave full of rusted shovels and waiting undead, they landed softly on damp grass.
Twilight cautiously opened her eyes. "...This seems less horrifying than before," she admitted.
"Easy," Dash said, brushing herself off as she stood. "And not even a crash at the end. I'm gonna put that in my top three escapes from horrible imminent danger."
"Remind me to never ask you about the other two," Twilight grumbled.
“What the- Twilight, did something happen?” Rainbow looked around. “Fluttershy's house is over there! We got kicked out of the ghostspace!” She flew towards the door before her hoof was grabbed by unicorn magic. She kicked and struggled, but wasn't nearly as strong as Twilight. At least not as strong as her magic. If they decided to hoof-wrassle it would have been a different story.
“Hold on. Something's not right. Look up.” Rainbow flipped over in midair to look at the sky. Where there should have been stars and darkness, there was a wavering light in dark tones of pink and coal-black, shifting and shimmering in unnatural patterns.
“What is that?” Dash asked, whispering as she landed. It looked like she was staring out from the inside of a gem, the sky full of glittering faucets.
“We're still inside her dream,” Twilight explained.
“So wait, that means we're standing outside her house, inside a ghostspace, inside her cabin?” Dash frowned, trying to make sense of it. “Argh! I hate magic stuff!”
“Well that's why you got me in the first place, right?” Twilight asked. “But remember what I said about a door?” She pointed to Fluttershy's house. “I'd be willing to bet a first edition copy of Magical Mustaches and You that she's in there.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!” Dash started running for it, brandishing the borrowed sword in her teeth, her voice muffled. “She's a fragile pony! There's no way she can handle this stuff by herself! We need to get her out of here!”
“Don't run ahead! You're going to get hurt and then I'll have to save both of you!” Twilight groaned. “Pegasai. Are they all this impulsive?” She followed behind, not able to match her speed. Rainbow Dash tried to open the door and struggled with the handle before knocking loudly.
“Let me in! We're here to save you, Flutters!”
“No!” Fluttershy shrieked from the other side of the door. “Don't come in!”
“Fluttershy, it's me! Dash!” Rainbow pounded on the door again. “I know this place is scary-”
“She's scared of you,” said another voice from inside, calmly. “Because she doesn't want you to see.” The door unlocked with an audible click. “Come in, if you want to see what kind of monster you're really trying to save.”
The delay gave Twilight enough time to catch up before the door swung open, blinding both of the ponies with a bright pink light.
***
As it faded, they weren't looking at the inside of Fluttershy's cabin. The entire world had changed again around them, leaving them in the middle of what looked like a graveyard, circles of standing headstones and piles of freshly turned earth set in rings around a central mound as big as a house, the world fading into fog in the distance and the sky that same psychedelic flux of pink and obsidian that it had been a moment ago.
“It looks like she couldn't keep you out after all,” commented a voice, invisible in the gloom before a spotlight shone from an unseen source to illuminate the top of the mound.
“Fluttershy?” Dash whispered, the sword she was holding dropping to the ground. The pony smirked, a mirthless smile that didn't reach her slitted, dragon-like eyes. A streak of ebon blackness wavered through her mane and tail, and she was wearing eyeshadow like a butterfly wing in pink and black. The feathers in her wings were tipped with magenta, and most disturbingly, her cutie mark had turned solid black.
“Well, if it isn't my best friend, Rainbow Dash. Here to save me?” Fluttershy laughed. “I should have known you'd make it here.”
“What's wrong with you?” Dash asked, cautiously.
“A lot of things, probably,” Fluttershy said, shrugging. “But you wouldn't know. I don't let anyone know what I'm really like. Not even you, and you're my closest friend. Really, you're my only friend. If you can even say that when you don't know who Fluttershy is.”
“Don't listen to her!” screamed another voice. Another spotlight appeared, shining on a second Fluttershy, this one ragged, thin, and out of breath from terror. “She's- she's just lying!”
“Oh no. You're the liar,” the dark Fluttershy said, pacing around, the spotlight following it. Somehow, despite the bright light, it didn't cast a shadow. “I'm the one telling the truth, no matter how much it hurts. Then again, I know all about hurt. Like what we did to those poor animals.”
“N-no! Don't- you can't-” Fluttershy started hyperventilating.
"Leave Fluttershy alone, you fake!" Dash shouted, Twilight holding her back.
"I'm hardly the fake. I'm what she's really like on the inside. I'm not even the one keeping her here! She built all of this to keep you out, because she's afraid to let you know who she is!"
“So this nightmare really is under her control,” Twilight said, under her breath. “But it must be all subconscious. Did the other Fluttershy keep the way open so it could reveal itself to us?”
“It was always hard, being Ponyville's animal caretaker,” the dark Fluttershy continued. “Before this eternal night, I was able to manage, with a little help and some funding from the mayor. It wasn't easy. Most of the time I loved those animals. But they trapped me. I had to spend all my time taking care of their needs, and I was too weak to do anything else. What else could I do? I couldn't grow food like an Earth Pony. I can barely fly. I'm useless except for my talent.”
“Fluttershy isn't useless!” Dash yelled.
“Isn't she?” The dark Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Do you know what we did after nightfall? Do you know how many ponies brought their pets to me, because they couldn't take care of them anymore? Like I could!” She shouted. “I'm just one pony!”
“Technically two now,” Twilight noted. The Fluttershies ignored her.
“I tried my best!” the cowering Fluttershy said, her voice barely audible.
“You did, for a while,” the dark Fluttershy agreed. “You tried your best. And then something came out of the woods and ate the chickens. And suddenly you had fewer mouths to feed every day. Then the birds that lived outside vanished, their homes torn apart by claws and fangs. And you were able to stretch your food out just a little more.”
“Don't listen! Don't listen to her!” Fluttershy screamed, terrified.
“And then one day, when the hunger pains were so bad I thought I might faint...” the dark Fluttershy smirked, showing fangs. “I thought to myself, if I just didn't have quite so many animals to take care of, it would be so much easier. If I didn't do something, they'd starve to death! And that's a horrible way to go. I'd know.”
“Please! Don't tell them!” Fluttershy wept, looking up at herself. “Please... you can't tell them...”
“So I took the shovel, and I chose some of the animals who were sick, or old, or who I just didn't like... and I took them outside, and took care of them. It was almost painless for them. Just one quick chop with the shovel. And one at a time they saw me come in, and take one of them, and the screaming. Oh, the screaming!” the dark Fluttershy sighed, as the faint sounds of animals wailing in fear and pain tore through the graveyard with a cold wind.
“No way. Fluttershy would never do something like that...” Dash whispered.
“When I was done, I buried them in neat little rows in the garden. You saw them, Twilight.” The dark Fluttershy leaned forwards and started speaking in a stage whisper. “But you know what? That's not the worst thing I did.”
“No!” the other Flutter stood up, running between her dark self and Dash, looking terrified. Not at her doppelganger, but at Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. “Just go! Leave me here!”
“The worst thing I did, was I was just so hungry. There's almost no food left, you know. I had to put down another animal, somepony's pet. It was even one I'd given to them. I'd raised it since it was just a baby. And you know what I did? I thought to myself, why should I let the monsters outside eat this? I was just so hungry that I decided to take a bite of it for myself...” she giggled with euphoric laughter. “I got so sick that I could barely stand! Of course now the animals are never going to trust me again. And if anypony learned about it, they'd know I was a monster!”
“No! No!” Fluttershy screamed, facing herself. “I'm not like that! It's not true! You're not me!”
The dark Fluttershy laughed, an aura of sparkling navy surrounding her body, the ground shaking. Twilight could feel the magic in her horn, like static electricity before a lightning strike. Twilight started to back up, not sure what was going to happen.
The mound under the laughing Fluttershy erupted in a spray of dirt and thick, sticky mud. Huge jaws, big enough to swallow a timberwolf in one bite, snapped closed around her like she'd been caught in a trap. A skeletal head pulled itself free, the bones somewhere between a pony and a dragon, the empty eye sockets staring with dark purpose at the interlopers.
"Only one of us needs to leave here!" Fluttershy's double yelled, from within the dragon's ribcage. "I'm the real Fluttershy! She's just a mask that she shows you so you won't learn the truth!"
"Rainbow, get her out of here!" Twilight shouted, having to raise her voice to be heard over the din as graves toppled and the earth was in upheaval. Celestia had briefly tried to teach her the Royal Canterlot Voice, but after one incident in the Royal Archives, she had decided that it was perhaps better for Twilight to learn other lessons first, such as invisibility and silence spells, which she would need if she ever wanted to enter the Royal Archives ever again.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Dash yelled, grabbing the other pegasus and carrying her away.
Eventide appeared in front of Twilight, projecting a shield that kept her safe and deflected the tide of dirt. Claws appeared as the skeleton got most of the way out of the ground, tattered wings clothed in rotten leathery flesh spreading wide. Something caught its hips and legs, and with a roar it twisted with a snap, its spine shattering as it freed its upper half, crawling forwards with its forelegs.
"Okay. I just have to watch it, and figure out its pattern, and then exploit it," Twilight whispered to herself. "It should be easy. I'm smarter, so there's no way I can lose."
Twilight started putting a plan together. Then she got punched in the face by a dragon skeleton. Her shield buckled in an instant, and she was thrown back by the fraction of the force that got through, slamming into a headstone hard enough that she couldn't breathe for a moment.
"Definitely strong!" Twilight gasped. "Too strong!" She scrambled aside as the claw came down like a hammer, crushing the grave marker that she had been leaning against.
"What's wrong? Did you expect me to just lie down and die?" Fluttershy laughed. "I hate you. I hate all of you! You threw your starving animals at me and expected me to find a way to keep them alive! They should have been like foals to you, and you abandoned them!"
“What in Tartarus is that?!” Dash yelled.
“It's the Nightmare! Didn't you see her eyes?!” Twilight teleported away as the heavy claw came down again, reappearing behind the dragon. Nightmare Fluttershy flapped her huge wings, rising into the air. Gale-force winds buffeted Twilight, but did nothing to clear the mist rising up out of the ground and swirling around the graves.
“Well you're a big shot!” Dash shouted. “Don't you have, like, some kind of sure-fire one-shot dragon slaying spell?”
“Dash! That would be dark magic! And I barely know any dark magic!” Just one or two spells, really, and none of them were for killing. She'd barely gotten to look at the Archive's copy of Unaussprechlichen Arcanum before Celestia had taken it away and told her to do something more befitting a foal, like going outside and playing in the sun. Of course now that eternal night had fallen, she regretted not taking that advice.
“I was always so nice to everyone that I let them just walk all over me!” Nightmare Fluttershy roared, the sound echoing, like a hundred Fluttershies speaking all at once, just slightly out of phase with each other. “But what I really wanted was to be left alone! I hate how you all use me! I want you all to disappear!”
With that, she swooped down, the dragon's mouth opening, spitting up a burst of blue spheres as big as apples, bursting into ice and cold as they impacted against the ground and graves around Twilight. While her shield had failed before against the direct attack, it was much stronger against magical assault, the spheres rebounding at first, then starting to stick, until Twilight vanished from sight, encased in a sphere of ice.
Nightmare Fluttershy landed hard, the missing back legs and tail throwing it off balance. The creature loomed over Dash and Fluttershy, frost dripping from its fangs.
“Just stay back. I got this.” Dash picked up her sword in her teeth, gripping it awkwardly. It wasn't really designed for a pegasus to use.
“Now that you know my secret, I'll just have to put you down like the animals you are!” Nightmare Fluttershy roared, its spine lashing like a broken-ended tail. Before it could do anything, the ice sphere flashed with light and shattered, Eventide rushing out to put a magical bolt in its back that sent it slamming into the ground. Dash flinched as her sword started glowing, pulled free gently from her mouth before flitting over to Eventide in a blur of steel, gripped in the construct's – in Twilight's magic. The unicorn coughed as she climbed out of the debris of the Nightmare's ice attack.
“That was too close. I really need to research better combat magic. So much for Shining Armor telling me I'd only ever need to learn a shield spell.” Eventide slashed at the dragon's wings, the blade easily slicing through the dry flesh but rebounding as it struck bone, the shock almost knocking it out of her magical grip, Twilight wincing at the vibration.
Nightmare Fluttershy roared and flipped around with a quick flap of its huge wings, stumbling and unable to do more in the air with one of the membranes clipped. Eventide got out of the way, avoiding a claw attack and landing just in front of Dash.
“What is that?” Fluttershy asked, amazed. “It looks almost like her, but-” Before she could complete the thought, huge draconic jaws snapped shut around Eventide, the Nightmare overextending and digging out a divot in the grass with its maw. It reared back in triumph, then growled, shivering, as pink light grew in its jaws.
“Okay, maybe the shield spell isn't so bad,” Twilight admitted, focusing. Sweat ran down her face as she raised her hooves, closing her eyes and trying to visualize her magic. It was much harder to keep spells going with a remote node like Eventide channeling the magic where she couldn't see it.
Eventide reappeared as the shield grew in a sphere, forcing the dragon's jaws apart. Twilight's horn blared with a sudden wash of energy, and the bubble inflated sharply, shattering the lower jaw of the skeletal beast, the bones crumbling into dust before they even hit the ground.
“Nopony beats Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight yelled, opening her eyes. Nightmare Fluttershy stumbled back as Eventide's eyes started to glow with the same energy. “Now stay down!” A mote of light appeared at Nightmare Fluttershy's neck, stars filling the space around her for a brief moment before falling inwards, collapsing like meteors and crushing the thick bones.
Nightmare Fluttershy let out a sorrowful roar as its head separated from its body, both pieces falling slowly down to the ground.
“I was just so scared... of dying...” it whispered, as it collapsed. The arms and wings fell still, and a gentle pink light started to shine from within its ribcage as the sky above darkened to pitch blackness. The ponies started to walk towards it cautiously. The dark echo was gone from its voice.
“It's what a hero would have done...” Nightmare Fluttershy whispered, as the ribs cracked and broke open, revealing her battered form. Her makeup had run in dark streaks from her tears, her wings were twisted at a terrible angle that clearly said she'd never fly again, and a splinter of bone as thick and long as an arrow went through her body, the Nightmare bleeding black ichor, the liquid running thickly down her leg.
“I'm not a hero,” Fluttershy whispered, taking a step closer to her double. “But a hero dies for others, they wouldn't just... kill some so the rest could have a chance.” She started sobbing. “I never wanted anypony to know!”
“Fluttershy...” Dash quietly stepped next to her and wrapped a wing around the mare. “I can't imagine what it's been like for you. You should have come to us for help.”
“I almost did. But by the time it was that bad... I didn't think you could forgive me for what I did.”
Twilight kept an eye on the Nightmare, but it seemed to be fading fast, the ichor pooling under it and being absorbed by the greedy earth below.
“I'd never abandon you, Flutters,” Dash said, quietly. “No matter what. You're the best pony I know. Once we get out of here, I'm going to help you get this sorted out. I promise. You don't have to take care of everything yourself.”
Nightmare Fluttershy coughed, spitting up ichor. “I- I just wanted- I wanted to live.”
“Hey,” Dash said, squeezing Fluttershy with her wing. “I get it. You're more than that thing. Everyone has a side like that.”
“...You're right,” Fluttershy said, quietly, stepping away from Rainbow and up to her dying doppelganger. “I think I understand. You are me. The part of me that I never wanted anypony to see. But you're still part of me...” She looked down, hesitating, then back up
“A side that you couldn't forgive,” Nightmare Fluttershy coughed.
“I'm sorry.” Fluttershy trotted the rest of the way over to her, carefully hugging her double's broken form. “I don't know how long it will take for me to really start to forgive myself for what I did, but I won't hide from it, either. You are part of me. You always were.”
Nightmare Fluttershy dissolved into pink butterflies, the bones of the dragon dissolving into dust as the glowing magical butterflies circled overhead. The darkness in the sky started to clear, and sunshine radiated down from above, purging the cold and the mist from the graveyard. Green grass started to grow, and the soft winds carried the sound of chirping birds.
“I did it,” Twilight whispered.
“You?” Dash snorted. “I guess you did some of the heavy lifting, but Fluttershy had the hard job here. A hero isn't just somepony who's willing to die for another. They're somepony who is willing to be held accountable for their actions, no matter what.”
The butterflies converged in one spot in front of Fluttershy as the peaceful dream was woven. There was a burst of pink light, and a figure hovered before her, a ghostly pony with wide mechanical wings, her mane a rainbow of pink, blue, and red, her coat seamlessly transitioning between burnished bronze and light yellow.
“I will always stand by your side,” the pony said. A golden necklace appeared around Fluttershy's neck, gleaming in the sunlight. Set in the center of the jewelry, there was a pink gem as big as her hoof, shaped like her cutie mark.
“Sky Skimmer,” Fluttershy whispered, touching the necklace. “That's your name? I could hear it inside...” She smiled.
“It's a dream construct,” Twilight said, marveling at it. “Like Eventide. I didn't think it was possible, like she sheared off part of her own personality and gave it autonomy- ow!” Twilight glared at Dash.
“You're ruining the moment!” Dash whispered harshly.
“Everything's going to be better from now on,” Fluttershy said, turning to face Dash and Twilight. “I just feel... like it's okay. And I know I can ask you for help, and you won't abandon me just because I'm a burden.”
“No matter what,” Dash said, nodding her head.
Fluttershy smiled and yawned, the dreamscape wavering. Dash flew into the air in alarm.
“What's that?!” Dash asked, starting to panic. “She's not going to, you know, worst-case scenario?”
“No,” Twilight said. “Now that Nightmare's influence is gone, the subspace is collapsing. But it's controlled.”
“So she's alright? It's going to be okay?” Dash still looked worried. Twilight smirked and sat down.
“Yeah.” Twilight looked at Fluttershy and Sky Skimmer, noting that Fluttershy's construct was casting a long shadow while Eventide wasn't. She frowned, wondering if it meant anything. “Everything's going to be just fine.”
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Wow this was beautiful...
Great storytelling and great character interactions, you keep the characters as themselves even under such extreme situations so no O/C moments and no bias toward one or another (For example, Twilight is an ass but she is right, RD has to slow down and start thinking)
Now, it seems like you will look into the consequences of the mane 6 actions, something not even the original persona game did, so there will be a lot of interesting developments in wait. I have the feeling that Fluttershy last err... victim? was Opal (or Gummy, both work but the first one would be better). That will make for a lot of drama later in the story.
All I wanna say now is "PERSONA!" Cause this whole chapter was very very Persona-y Twi was Yu, RD was Yosuke and Shy was Yukiko. Yet I had Kingdom Hearts music playing in the background and it all fit.
Well, yeah--I didn't figure it would be, given that last time Twi used that phrase Ponyville wound up tangled in Discord's plunder vines...
I could practically hear the boss music start on that line. As Persona ripoffs go, this is one of the more interesting I've seen so far.