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Recoil2,494 words
The arena4,234 words
Fluttershy is going viral1,756 words
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Granny Pie850 words

Fluttershy is going viral

Fluttershy shrieked as a mutant with tentacles growing out of his back was trying to crack open her armor. A second later, he was gone.

"I won't allow them to harm you, Fluttershy", Rarity said.
She was standing in front of her pegasus friend, holding off the attackers by levitating one of them and using him as a club.

Neither she nor the yellow pegasus had weapons of their own. Like Twilight Sparkle, Rarity was using her magic to fight, and Fluttershy... Fluttershy's armor was built in a way that she could curl up like an armadillo. That was all it could do, but that had been the plan anyway. They had designed it together.

What was left of Flutteshy's animal friends had joined the fight, of course. She couldn't bare to watch them get slaughtered, but there was no reasoning with them. She had never felt so use- and helpless in her life. Why couldn't SHE be there for her friends and protect them? It seemed all she was good for was smelling delicious and being in need for rescue.

"Don't worry, darling", Rarity said, "We're here to protect you."

Yes. That, of course, was the problem, wasn't it?

I don't deserve this, she realized. My friends are fighting for me... but I'm certainly not worthy of it.

Her mind was drifting off as she hid deeper inside her armor- and her mind.

Why do they even care about me? Not despite, but because I'm meek, and soft, and useless. Kindness... What does that really mean? I means NOT doing certain things... not reacting... not getting angry, or impatient... being passive... well, I'm certainly an expert in that department.

Why am I here?

She felt that the answer to this was also the very reason her friends bothered dragging her along. And maybe, just maybe, it was the thing that would allow her to save them.

Her mind was drifting even further away. To happier times.

What did I ever do for my friends? What did I DO for them?

She saw herself tending to their wounds. Listening to them when they needed comfort. Carrying their groceries home for them- yes, Pinkie had sweet-talked her into doing that a few times. Yes, they had been exploiting her, sometimes without even realizing it. She was a doormat, they knew it, and they knew that she knew it, but she wouldn't complain, not only because she was bad at getting angry, but because she actually didn't mind most of the time. Of course they were feeling guilty at some corner of their mind, but Fluttershy didn't even ALLOW them to actually feel bad about it.

Maybe that wasn't what a healthy person should be like, but that was who she was.

Nourishment, she thought,

That is my purpose.

Behind Rarity's back, Fluttershy was slowly stripping out of her armor.

"Fluttershy, NO!"

Fluttershy spread her wings and flew right into the centre of the arena. She landed on a pile of corpses so that she would be visible from all sides. Then she screamed, to make sure she got everyone's attention.

Time seemed to stand still as the crowd of cannibals was staring at her.

"...Dinner is served", she said. Her voice was graceful and meek as usual, and yet everyone heard it loud and clear. Never had Fluttershy's suggestive power been so overwhelming.

It was pandemonium.

Desperate, her friends were trying to quell the flood of flesh-hungry monsters storming to the centre of the arena.

To no avail. Fluttershy was torn to shreds in mere seconds. Now the mutants were fighting for the remains or going for the stomachs of those who had been there in time.

This did not just happen, Twilight Sparkle thought.
And at the back of her mind: First Rainbow, and now this... THIS... I made it worse. Sweet mother of mercy, I made it so much worse.

Rainbow Dash, though weakened by her transformation, was pounding the guts out of a mutant who still had a piece of pink mane sticking out of her snout. The mutant didn't even offer any resistance, as she was in a state or absolute bliss, Fluttershy's flavour still on her tongue.

Then, right in front of their eyes, the cannibals started to shudder all at once and began one last mutation.

All over the place, the cannibals turned yellow, only to dissolve into puddles of flesh. And these puddles started moving, with a life of their own.

In a state of terror and awe, the ponies and their companions watched as the puddles were forming a pile, sculpting a shape...

And then it was done.

Rarity stepped forward and touched the nose of the creature with her own. It was a yellow pegasus mare, still coated in slime like a newborn foal.

"Fluttershy...?"

The creature smiled. "... I guess so."

"But how... What did you do... what WAS that?"

Fluttershy- or her reincarnation - was shaking her head. "... I don't understand this any more than you do... Except for one thing..."
She smiled, and it was mischievous enough to put her delightfully out of character.
"...Kindness is not just about being nice... In fact, it isn't nice at all. You are what you eat."

She looked around and giggled. "...Oh girls! You should see your faces! Who wants a hug?"

Oh the crying! Oh the squeezing, and kissing, and "never-do-that-again"ing!

The rest, as they say, was group hug.

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me”, Celestia said, “I really WANTED you to get eaten, and now you’ve ruined it for me. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.”

“Any chance you have come to realize that we’re unstoppable and that you should just let us go before anyone else gets hurt?”, Twilight said.

“Hardly. Maybe you can beat my toys with your little tricks, but over time you are still going to turn into filthy little puddles of molten flesh. All I have to do is sit this out. You really should consider to give up and hand yourselves over to me.”

“Yeah, hehe... Not going to happen.”

Applejack and a few others had started to break down the gates, now that they didn’t have cannibals to worry about.

The arena had fallen eerily silent.

“Celestia...? Guess she’s pouting.”

“She’s right, though”, Rarity said, “We still don’t have a solution for the body melt. I'm trying to synthesize the serum from these plasmids, but that’ll be immensely difficult and we won’t have enough for everyone.”

“...Uhm... Maybe I can help...?”, Fluttershy said.

They were all staring at her, and she couldn’t repress a little squeak. She realized that her friends were looking at her with different eyes now. They were willing to actually listen to her. She was still the old Fluttershy... Only that she wasn’t. That was the whole idea.

“Yes, darling?”, Rarity said, “What do you think we should do?”

Fluttershy was blushing and looked down.
“...IthinkIcanmakeitmyself...”

“What was that?”

Fluttershy gulped.
“...I think I can make the serum myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“...I think I can control it. When I was inside... the sick ponies... I could see it all. I still can. I can see how living things work... I can even change them... I think.”

Applejack was shaking her head. “I still don’t get it.”

Rainbow, who had experienced the joys of excessive plasmid use herself, was the first to figure it out.
“She wants us to eat her. Like the cannibals did.”

Rarity frowned. “First of all, no. That is out of the question. No one is eating anyone. Second of all, no. We all saw what happened to these unfortunate brutes. Even if Fluttershy should survive this, we wouldn’t.”

The yellow pegasus was shaking her head.
“...It will be different this time. I swear I can control it! If you give me a chance... Look...”

They watched in horror as Fluttershy bit her own flank and pulled a piece of flesh out of it. Only that she wasn’t bleeding. The piece was like a perfect little yellow blob, and the wound was closing almost instantly.

She put the little chunk down on the floor.

“...There should be enough for everyone.”

Twilight considered this.
“This is really... sweet of you, Fluttershy, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re truly impressed. With a side-order of totally freaked out of our minds. Still... The thought of simply...”

“Nomnomnom. Mhmmmm... It’s like vanilla pudding! Fluttershy, you’re tasty!”

The ponies were staring at Pinkie Pie, who was licking her lips. The yellow blob had disappeared.

Then Pinkie was making a yellow bubble, as if she was chewing an exotic brand of bubble gum.

“...I’m glad you like it, but could you please refrain from... you know... doing that thing... It feels really strange”, Fluttershy whispered.

“Also, you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full”, Rarity added, her eyes as empty as those of a doll.

Pinkie burped.
“Thi-hi. X’cuse me.”

Twilight was trying hard to put on a dignified expression.
“A-alright... I guess it’s settled, then...”

Later on, Twilight Sparkle was analyzing a fiber of Fluttershy’s flesh under a microscope.

Spike sat down next to her.

“Did you manage to find anything out?”

The purple unicorn sighed.
“I don’t think we’ll ever truly understand what happened here... My guess is that with the plasmids and the nanobots inside the cannibals, Fluttershy has managed to turn herself into some sort of virus. If you can even call that a guess.”

Spike shrugged. “On the positive side, she has received incredible powers. She can cure or destroy people from within, she is near-indestructible... She is making Pinkie Pie very happy...”

Not far from them, Pinkie Pie was sitting on Fluttershy’s back, using her friend as a hop ball.

“Weeeeeh! Weeeeeh! You’re the BOUNCIEST bouncy EVER!”

“...I don’t think I’ve got bones anymore... I suppose now you could really call me spineless...”

Twilight smiled. “Maybe all that happened is that she finally found a way to truly express the powers that had always been inside of her.”

And to herself, she thought: This is not how it was supposed to go. This is perfectly absurd. And you know what? I like it. Buck the timeline, causality, destiny and all of that mumbo-jumbo.
Whatever that was supposed to mean.

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