The Slender Pony

by The Poet of Silence

Chapter 4

For what felt like the longest of times Fluttershy lay curled next to the bush. Her mouth tasted horribly of vomit, and her stomach was rolling and twisting inside of her. Her eyes were tightly clenched shut. Shuddering, Fluttershy managed to drag herself to her feet and walk back into her little house. Angel stood there, as expected, showing a small amount of concern about Fluttershy, but appeared to be more concerned with why breakfast was not served.

Angel thumped his foot on the ground impatiently, nodding at an open recipe book on the kitchen table. Fluttershy tried to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. She gagged when she tasted small bits of leftover vomit still stuck in her mouth. Part of her wished that she had some water to down the foul taste with, but the other part of her knew that eating or drinking could further upset her stomach.

“N-not now, Angel. Mommy’s not feeling so well,” Fluttershy stammered. She walked over and sat down on a chair. She placed her face in her hooves and tried not to cry. The nightmare had been so horridly vivid, so utterly realistic, yet at the same time so unrealistic, it seemed.

Angel glared at Fluttershy and tossed the book into her lap. Fluttershy lifted her head and glared darkly at Angel. Walking over to the kitchen, Fluttershy grabbed a carrot and threw it at Angel. Angel caught it and looked at Fluttershy with a look of frustration. He set the carrot on the table, refusing to look at it. He pointed at the cookbook.

Fluttershy walked over and glared at Angel. “Eat. Your. Carrot.” she hissed, giving him her infamous Stare. Angel was taken aback. Much to his chagrin, he sat down and nibbled the tip of the carrot as Fluttershy trotted back over to her chair. She sat and stared at the floor for a while, the nightmare re-playing itself over and over in her head, like a film on repeat.

Finally, a small amount of strength returned to Fluttershy. She pulled herself off the chair and walked into the kitchen. She swirled water around in her mouth a few times, cleansing her pallet of leftover vomit, and then she drank. The water felt good in her stomach, calming it.

Determined not to let one bad dream chew up any more of her day, Fluttershy decided to take a visit to the local beavers, down at the river. She walked out her door, Angel shooting her a nasty look as she went, and walked along the edge of the Everfree forest. The river was not far ahead, but it would take Fluttershy around ten minutes to walk there.

Despite being a pegasus, a breed of pony that usually felt comfortable in the skies, Fluttershy found herself at her most comfortable around nature, with animals being the center of her love of nature. Since getting her cutie mark and discovering that she had a special connection with animals, Fluttershy had taken it upon herself to be a helping hand to the local wildlife. She helped frogs re-locate to different swamps; safely teach ducklings to fly, and a large assortment of other menial tasks that would serve to help the animals.

The tall trees of the Everfree forest loomed high above Fluttershy. Their dark leaves and needles almost acted as a natural barricade, as if the branches were barring entrance to the forest. If Fluttershy had her way, she would never go into the forest alone and very hesitantly with her friends, and only to visit Zecora.

To Fluttershy, part of her problem with the Everfree forest wasn’t just the terrifying nature of the place, but the sense of anarchy inside. The weather didn’t require Weather Ponies. Instead, it moved all by itself. Animals took care of themselves, and plants grew on their own. Fluttershy had been tending to animals for most of her life; the concept of animals not needing her help frightened her a bit on the inside.

She arrived at the river. Ahead was the beaver dam, which Fluttershy routinely checked for leaks and holes. Mating season was ahead, and Fluttershy would never forgive herself if little baby beavers drowned due to a hole in the dam that she had missed. She poked around for a little bit, testing the branches and occasionally pushing an errant twig back into place. Satisfied with her work, Fluttershy decided that she would check on the beavers themselves.

As she poked her head inside the little twig dam, her heart did little jumps inside her chest. The female beaver was curled up in a corner, breathing softly. Fluttershy loved how cute animals looked when they slept.

Downriver there was a splash. Fluttershy turned and saw fish leaping out of the water, snapping at flies that had been hovering over the water. A Parasprite lazily drifted over the water and was instantly eaten by a hungry salmon. This did not disturb Fluttershy, as she knew that sometimes there was a natural order. Besides, Parasprites had almost caused the destruction of Ponyville, once. If it hadn’t been for Pinkie Pie and her tuba, the town would have been destroyed by the ravenous bugs.

Fluttershy noticed that a fish had leapt out of the water and landed on the ground. The poor thing was flopping and gasping for water. “Oh you poor dear,” Fluttershy said. She hurriedly walked over to the fish. “Here we go, let me help you get back to where you belong,” she said, talking to the fish. She prodded the fish with her forehoof and nudged it back into the water. The fish disappeared into the depths of the river.

Fluttershy now noticed just how deep this part of the river was. It seemed to go down for quite a ways, though that could have just been Fluttershy’s imagination. The river was fast moving, with many rocks jaggedly protruding from the shallower parts of the river. Fluttershy tipped her head back and smiled, feeling the terrible nightmare from the night before slip away.

Fluttershy looked down into the water. She saw her reflection, strangely undisturbed by the flow of the water. She bent down, and the reflection moved with her. She lifted her head up, and the mirror-image Fluttershy did the same. Fluttershy started clapping.

The reflection did not move. The corners of its mouth began to spread in a grotesque smile.

Fluttershy gasped and slashed a hoof through the water. The reflection disappeared, and then reformed. Only now it lacked Fluttershy’s eyes, sporting instead inky-black holes. From these holes came black tentacles, identical to those from Twilight and Dash in Fluttershy’s nightmare the night before.

Fluttershy turned and ran. She had gone no further than four steps when the tentacles shot out of the water and wrapped themselves around her rear legs. Fluttershy screamed as she was dragged into the water by the strange-feeling tentacles.

Her scream abruptly ended as her head was pulled under the frigid waters. The tentacles let go; now letting the current carry Fluttershy. In her panic, she extended her wings to attempt to slow down. Her wings slammed into rocks with agonizing cracks. Fluttershy screamed, letting out the last of the air in her lungs. As she folded up her broken wings, she thought of Angel, and all her friends.

Fluttershy’s body was carried through the river by the current. She was barely conscious when her head slammed against a rock and her vision snapped to black.