• Published 20th Jan 2012
  • 19,240 Views, 478 Comments

Silent Ponyville 2 - SamRose



Fluttershy has been having horrible nightmares and goes to see Twilight for help.

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Chapter 3

Chapter 3



Fluttershy snapped awake when a loud explosion rocked the house. A vase that had been placed next to the couch came crashing to the ground, shattering into pieces.

“What was that?!” She asked, moving quickly to get off of the couch.

She instantly regretted the fast movement, twisting her body in a way it didn’t approve as her chest roared at her in pain. She collapsed on the floor, panting as her chest throbbed. For the moment she had forgotten about her injuries. She groaned as she carefully sat up, making sure not to offend her wound. She inspected her dressing carefully.

Her injuries hadn’t bled any more than expected during her sleep and the recovery was about where she would’ve expected it for a bit of sleep. She carefully got to her hooves and took a few steps. She then stretched her wings before wincing slightly and shutting them back closed. She could move, she could walk, she could fly with a bit of pain, but she still wasn’t about to go flying around.

“…How long was I asleep?” Fluttershy asked aloud. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep; her body had done it almost on its own, as if on instinct. “I…I got separated from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie…I should’ve been looking for them, not sleeping.” Fluttershy felt awful for having left her friends alone, even though it was against her will. They were probably worried about her; they must’ve gone to look for her…

“Oh, I hope you two are alright.” Fluttershy tried to not let her worries hold her back, before moving to the front door of the house she was in. The door was locked; she stared at the door in shock. The door was locked from the inside. Above the handle to the door there was a doll shaped symbol hovering over the lock.

“…W-Why is the door locked?” Fluttershy frowned, staring at the door. She had to get back outside and see what was going on. She turned back around to look at the house in closer detail.

It was a small, quaint little house, but it didn’t look like a house that would normally be built in Ponyville. She hadn’t noticed till just now, but the building material was the kind you would find in a cloud city, material that was made specifically for sitting on clouds.

“Huh? This is…a cloud house?” Fluttershy looked around baffled, “But…the only cloud house in Ponyville is Rainbow Dash’s house...” Fluttershy was confused. She didn’t know whose house this was, as it certainly wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s.

She looked at the vase that lay broken on the floor, noticing something unusual about one of the broken pieces. Getting closer, she could see that it wasn’t really a piece of the vase at all, but something that must’ve been inside of the vase when it broke. She carefully picked it up examining the item.

It was a white coin with the shape of a cloud on it, with tiny writing engraved on the edges that read ‘The Floating Cloud’.

She had never been one to take things from other ponies, but something told her that she was supposed to take this with her. Maybe it was Pinkie’s words about what was going on in this place, maybe it was a gut instinct, or maybe it was just something about the coin looking valuable. She carefully placed the coin in her bag before looking back up at the house.

Her eyes drew to movement she hadn’t noticed before. Outside of a door in a hallway in the house there were several moths flying outside the door. This seemed odd to her, the moths seemed to have no reason to be gathering by the door, unless perhaps there was some kind of food behind the door they couldn’t reach. She walked up to the door and carefully pushed it open.

The door gave way, opening up to what appeared to be someone’s study. The moths didn’t seem to move still, confusing her, but she slowly entered the study regardless. The walls were lined with books on various subjects; she could recognize several different topics. Most of them were about cloud building, some were poetry books while others looked like business books. They all shared the same markings though, they were books from Cloudsdale.

Fluttershy slowly walked up to the desk that sat at the end of the room. There was a book open on the desk. Curiosity got the best of her, and she read what was on the open page;


…patient has shown symptoms of a weakened immune system. The case continues to grow more baffling as this now discredits all prior diagnoses of what was wrong. Every step forward causes two steps back. I have to start going through new tests to determine what the cause of her illness is.

I don’t have much time though. Her heart is growing weaker, the muscles are growing thinner the more time passes. I fear it’ll rupture before too long.

I’ll have to start her on another set of medication. She won’t like being on any more drugs, but we have to prolong this for as long as we can.

June 23, 983
Medical Case #1156 –Entry 14-
Dr. R. K. Mandeus


It was a book recording medical cases through the years. The book was open to one of the last entries in the book, recording the case of an unknown disease that had sprouted up before the turn of the millennium. It seemed the book went on to explain more about it in other entries.

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked at one of the pages; it was indented as if something was lying underneath the page. She lifted the page up to look, seeing a small brown coin with the shape of a house on it. Written in tiny text on the coin were the words ‘The Old Home’.

She carefully picked the coin up, placing it in her bag.

She was curious though, as to why the book was open to that particular page. Or why the coin had been hiding just underneath it. She had always seen a lot of medical books around the house and she’d read a lot of them, it’s how she’d become so good at tending to the sick and injured.

Next to the book she noticed something that looked like a long piece of thick string. It was curled up on the desk in a coil, as if waiting for someone to use it.

‘…Oh! Hey, I think I can use this.’ Fluttershy thought as a light bulb felt like it had turned on in her head. She carefully reached into her bag and pulled out the lantern. Her jaw still ached a little from biting down on it, but it certainly didn’t hurt as badly now. She placed the lantern down on the desk, before taking the string and looping it through the handle.

She carefully tied the string into a knot; with it now looping onto itself she had a makeshift necklace. She carefully placed the necklace around her neck, testing the string. It seemed to be supporting the weight of the lantern just fine, the lantern hung just in front of her chest comfortably.

She carefully turned the switch to test out how hot the lantern would get, the flame coming to life. She let it sit on her chest for a moment, then walked around slowly, then jumped around as best she could without making her injuries scream at her.

The flame danced to her movement, but never made the lantern too hot. It felt warm against her coat. The lantern hanging before her gave her good lighting in front of her, though she’d have to turn around if she wanted to see something that was behind her.

“Oh Fluttershy, you’re so smart.” She chuckled softly at her own ingenious. She turned the lantern off for the moment, since the house had plenty of light for her to see, but now she could still have light and not hurt her jaw anymore then she had to.

Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary though. It was just an average study. She turned around and headed out of the room, leaving the rest of it as it was.

She looked up at the moths that still circled outside the study. She was still confused at their flight pattern. Her study of moths showed that they usually preferred to travel following some source of light or near sources of nectar. These particular moths just seemed fascinated with circling around the air before the door.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind for the moment, seeing that in front of her was now an open doorway into the kitchen. She curiously stepped into it, looking at the small but quaint kitchen. She could smell something sweet, turning her head to look at the table, seeing a pie simply sitting on it.

“Who left a pie here?” Fluttershy asked curiously, walking up and looking at the pie. It smelled like an apple pie, thought there was a particular extra scent to it, as if a special ingredient had been added to its making. The scent reminded her…of her mother…

There was someone she hadn’t thought about in a long time. Besides the dreams, she hadn’t thought about her mother in a long time. She felt guilty about that. Her mother had died of a disease when she was young, leaving her and her father to fend for themselves.

“Mother…” Fluttershy quietly murmured, trying to remember her mother fondly. Images of the pink-haired mare flashed through her mind briefly, though for some reason they all felt hazy. As if she couldn’t focus in on the very memories she had of her mother. If she tried to concentrate harder on a memory she remembered liking, it seemed to just haze out even more.

Fluttershy rubbed her head in confusion. She’d never had trouble thinking about her mother before, what was different now? Was it because she was in this strange place? Was it a side effect of Twilight’s spell? It was the only thing that made sense to her…

She looked at the pie longingly, but though it smelled good she couldn’t bring herself to try it. Something just didn’t seem right to her about it being there. She saw something glint next to it though, drawing her attention. Next to the pie was a gold coin with what looked a young mare on it. In tiny writing the words ‘The Trapped Mare’ was written.

She instinctually added it to her bag alongside the others. She still wasn’t sure what possessed her to collect them. She turned from the table and walked out of the kitchen. The house seemed small; she was already outside the last door she hadn’t checked yet. She carefully pushed the door open peering inside.

It was a bedroom, though she could only tell that from there being a bed pressed up against the wall. The only other furniture in the room was a drawer with a glass case on it, and on the front of it appeared to be indentations.

Fluttershy carefully walked up to the desk, getting a better look at it. The indentations were in the shape of coins, with five holes. On the glass case she could see a note that had been taped down:


Only three of five exist in this world,

In the morning, noon and night the quiet wind blows
Through the world, giving the world its shape.

When the sun beats down it brings its heat,
Cold and water disappear into the sky.

Awaiting for those to arrive so that a home can be built
The world awaits, sitting quietly and empty.

It doesn’t take long, they arrive and they build,
What was once empty if now filled.

But though it is filled, it is not filled with joy or fun,
Instead there is a quiet unspoken misery.


Fluttershy read the note twice, thinking about what the note was saying. The drawer had five spots to fill with coins and she had brought three with her. Her instincts had yielded results, but now she just had to figure out what this meant.

She reached into her bag and pulled out the three coins, looking at each and its shape carefully.

‘Okay…when water is evaporated by the heat of the sun it becomes vapor, which the vapor then turns into clouds…’ Fluttershy surmised as she carefully put ‘The Floating Cloud’ in the second spot, figuring the first slot must be empty, similar to the effect of wind.

‘Next…they build a home in the empty quiet…’ Fluttershy thought leaving the spot next to ‘The Floating Cloud’ empty and placing ‘The Old Home’ in the slot. ‘Then that just leaves this coin in this slot.’ She placed ‘The Trapped Mare’ in the final slot.

The desk let out a loud click, confirming that she had done everything correctly. The glass case on the drawer swung open slowly, revealing a small lever inside of it. Curious, Fluttershy carefully placed her hoof on the switch and flipped it.

Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of something moving. She turned her head and saw that a door-shaped hole had opened in the wall that wasn’t there before. Inside was a dimmed staircase that led down into what looked like a basement.

Fluttershy looked cautiously down the staircase, it was dark. She couldn’t see past a few feet down them. Her music box was still silent, so she assumed there was no trouble just yet. She turned the light on her lantern on and began to make her way down.

The walls seemed to be damp as she walked further down into the darkness. There was the faint smell of wet mildew that emanated from the darkness, but she continued to walk further down. She wasn’t sure what would be waiting for her, but the area had been hidden so her instincts told her something was waiting at the bottom.

The stairs flattened out, before opening up into a wide open basement. Fluttershy looked around, taking in the sight of the gray moldy walls. She could hear the sound of dripping water, spotting droplets dripping from the walls and the ceiling. The floor had small puddles of water from where the water had collected Her eyes wandered the rest of the room before noticing something in the corner.

It was a small pony doll. Worn and torn from years gone by, covered in stitches and rotted with age. Fluttershy felt a pang of nostalgia looking at the doll; it was a very similar doll to one she had as a child. However, the one she owned wasn’t so riddled with stitches or aged so badly. It was sitting in a storage box in her house, waiting for the day she’d pass it down to a little filly or colt of her own one day…

Next to the doll was an opened and messy sewing box, spools of thread and needles were scattered around it, as if someone had dropped the case in a hurry and left it there. She figured it must’ve been the case used to help sew the doll back together.

She turned from the doll and kit looking around further, before noticing something glint on the ground. She carefully walked over to it, noticing a key on the ground. She leaned in closer, noticing that the key had the shape of a doll on the end of it.

“Oh, this must be the key to that door.” Fluttershy smiled before picking it up and placing it in her bag, now she could hopefully leave this house and start looking for her friends.

Her ears perked up as she heard a strange noise far off in the distance. It sounded as if a siren was going off, warning the town about something. The sound sent a chill up her back, but she couldn’t explain why. Something was off putting about the sound of the siren, she felt like she had to get out of the basement right away. She turned herself around and began to quickly walk back up the stairs she had just come down from.

But something seemed off, she couldn’t tell what it was right away, but something about the stairs seemed…different from when she had just walked down them.

The smell of mildew was stronger, the steps seemed more slick than they had when she was coming down; the sound of dripping water grew louder, it almost felt like water was coming from everywhere.

Her ears perked up again at what sounded like rushing water. She turned to light up the stairs behind her, hearing the sound from bellow her. Her eyes widened as she saw that water was rapidly beginning to fill the bottom of the stairs. White froth from the bubbles raged at the surface of the rising water as it filled the stairs.

Without wasting a second longer Fluttershy turned on her hooves and began to run, panic coursing through her body pushing her to run as fast as she could. Each of the steps before her were coated with water almost causing her to slip with each rushed step she took. She could hear it quickly filling up behind her, drawing closer as she ran. If she didn’t get back to the top of the stairs, she was going to drown.

Her front hoof slipped, sending her face into the stairs. She yelped in pain, but quickly stood back up trying to shrug the pain off. Her back hoof touched the swelling water and she burst into full panic, her legs stretching out and forcing herself to climb the stairs faster then she ever thought it would be possible for her to do.

‘I should be out of here by now! The stairs weren’t this long! I should be back in the room by now!’ Her mind screamed as she ran. Her chest was yelling at her, screaming that it was being put under too much strain; her face ached with a dull thud. She pushed all that to the side, trying to make it an afterthought, she couldn’t die here, not drowning in some staircase when she needed to find her friends.

The water began to splash against her back hooves, drawing closer still. She panted heavily as her body was struggling to stay away.

The stairwell suddenly made a sharp turn into a large opening, the stone steps being replaced with a metal fire escape, circling around a large open shaft that reached into the sky. Fluttershy couldn’t see where it opened up at, but she wasn’t about to stop. She began to run up the metal stairwell, having to turn every few feet to go up the square-spiraled staircase.

The water was swelling up even faster now, her hooves were doing their best but she could tell that she wasn’t going to be fast enough. Her heart leapt out of her chest and into her throat as breathing became hard from her forced exertion.

The water swelled, the back of her hooves falling into the water. Fluttershy cried and did her best to run, but the resistance and churning of the water instantly slowed her down. The water level rose up her legs, over her body.

Fluttershy took in one last final gasp of breath before the water rushed passed her head, finally submerging her.

She flailed her hooves in the water, trying to reach the surface. She was panicking, the water current was pushing her body and she was having difficulty orientating herself to follow the direction of the rising water. She put everything she could into swimming upwards, but her body was feeling the strain. Her light had gone out when submerged in the water and she was quickly getting disorientated, unable to tell which direction was the right one.

The water swirled around her; it clawed at her body and mind. She could barely think, the world was quickly being lost to her.

Her burning lungs forced her mouth open, the air escaping from her lungs, wanting to be replaced with fresh oxygen, but only water was awaiting her. She was fading and she could feel it.

She wouldn’t be in this world for much longer…




“Come on in, the water’s fine.” Fluttershy smiled happily as she gently floated around the quiet lake, looking at Rainbow Dash who seemed to be hesitant about entering the water.

“Uh…sure, I’ll be right there.” Rainbow forced a smile to her face as she slowly began to put a hoof into the water. She slowly began to walk into the water, though she didn’t tread too far. She kept herself about half a legs length above the water.

“Do you not feel like swimming? Because we could do something else, if that’s what you want to do…” Fluttershy said, slowly swimming next to Rainbow Dash, looking a little worried.

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Rainbow looked away, as if embarrassed, “I can swim…but I’m not very good at it.”

“Oh, is that all? Well I can teach you how to swim better.” Fluttershy said smiling comfortably as she swam up next to Rainbow Dash before standing up in the shallows.

“Well…I’ve never really been much on practicing my swimming. After all, I’ve always been a fast flyer by nature. Water just seems slower in comparison, it’s too heavy to get a good momentum going.” Rainbow furrowed her brow as she kicked the water.

Fluttershy thought about this for a moment, before smiling.

“Well, I can teach you how to use your wings underwater so that its similar to flying. You can actually get going pretty fast if you do the technique right.”

“Really? There’s a way to do that?” Rainbow said rather surprised.

“Of course, though it takes a lot of practice to get right. There are a lot of subtle movements and you’ve got to position your body correctly so the water will drag less as you swim, but it’s possible.” Fluttershy smiled proudly, feeling good about knowing something Dash was interested in that she didn’t know about yet.

“You HAVE to show me! I could incorporate swimming into my tricks if what you say is true!” Rainbow grinned eagerly.

“Of course I’ll show you.” Fluttershy giggled softly before moving back into the deeper waters, “Now watch carefully.” She spread her wings in the water, as she prepared to show off to Dash for the first time.




Fluttershy’s eyes shot open in the dark waters as she spread her wings out. Her hooves flailed around for a moment, before catching the railing on the metal staircase. She put her hind legs on the rail as her wings adjusted, battered by the current, but she could do this.

She kicked off with her back legs and she moved her hooves forward, flattening her body as she began to move rapidly in the water. Her wings bent and moved as they very carefully moved with the rushing water, moving the water around her wings to give her forward movement. She could feel the water rushing all around her, trying to drag her back down.

She began to flap her wings precisely, scooping the water and pushing against it, thrusting herself forward as she slipped gracefully though the water.

Her mind and body reeled and ached and screamed and tried to tear her apart looking for relief from her pain, from the inferno in her chest, from the wounds telling her she had to stop. Nothing could make her stop though.

She gritted her teeth, she narrowed her eyes, she flapped her wings with every last ounce of strength she could muster as she swam up through the dark abyss, looking, no, needing an exit. A dim light filled the edge of her vision and she spread her wings far, grabbing as much water as she could and powering them down to thrust her to the edge of the light.

The loud gasp echoed amongst the sound of splashing water as her head surfaced from the water. She coughed and gasped, hacking and wheezing as she scrambled for an edge to the water, grabbing hold of a floor. She threw both hoofs on the ground holding her up as her lungs accepted the sweet, sweet relief of air.

Her head was throbbing like mad, her body felt like it had been torn apart and every muscle in her body was telling her she was lucky to be alive.

She coughed up water that had entered her lungs. She grimaced unpleasantly as the pain became more and more apparent to her. Her echoing pants bounced back into her ears, making her realize just how lucky she truly was. For a moment she had accepted death as an inevitability, that she would’ve had no choice but to die in that cold watery hell.

…The water was cold. She hadn’t noticed in her panic, but she could feel herself shivering as she floated in the now calm water. She groaned as she pulled herself up, using any strength left to escape the water.

She managed to drag her legs out of the water, before slowly pulling her tail out as well. She lay on the floor panting, drenched in the cold water, breathing heavily as everything ached. She felt her eyelids slowly closing, wanting to drift off into sleep to calm down.

‘…No!’ Her mind snapped at her, forcing her eyes back open, ‘Fluttershy, you just almost drowned! Not to mention you’re drenched in freezing water. If you go to sleep without anyone around you may never wake up again, the oxygen deprivation may put you into a coma and sleeping in this cold could result in hypothermia. You can NOT go to sleep right now!’

She panted as she could feel the onset of her panic returning. Her medical training was coming back to her now, it was fine before when it was just some lacerations and bruising, but this was much more serious. She couldn’t go to sleep, she had just saved her life and she couldn’t let it slip away from her so easily.

She tried to stand up, get back on her hooves. Her legs shook tremendously; she could barely put any weight on them before they slipped from under hoof. She felt her heart rate accelerating, ‘good…stay awake…panic might just be my friend right now…’ she grunted as she did her best to stand. She had to get up, she had to start walking.

With the last of her strength she found her legs and was standing. Her legs were shaking like mad, but she was standing. She very carefully began to shake her whole body, harder than her body’s natural shaking. The water on her coat scattered as best as she could muster, there was no way she could get it all with her being so tired though.

She tried to look around for something to support her, but the light was too dim to see anything. She looked back at the lantern that was still pressed smartly against her chest. She needed the warmth of the flame right now. She clicked at the lantern, flipping the switch several times. She prayed that despite the water logging that it would still work for her.

By some miracle, the flame appeared once more. Somehow the oil and the wick were still useable.

Her head was groggy, shaky as the world seemed to spin around her, but she did her best to get a look at the world. She was in a small square room with a doorway opened to what seemed to be a lobby outside. A large square hole was in the middle of her current room, filled with the water she had just escaped from.

She carefully began to walk out of the room with the cold water into the lobby. Every step made her body shudder and cry, putting her on the verge of collapsing with each step. She needed towels to dry off, she needed to wrap up in something warm, she needed to put some food and drink in her.

She carefully walked towards a desk she saw in front of her. There were three things on top of it that she instantly took notice of. The first was a map of where she was, it read ‘Cloudsdale Hospital’ in bold letters before showing the layout of the two story building.

“…C-Cloudsdale…Hospital?” She stammered out loud unintentionally. She could hear the frailty in her voice, but she had spoken anyway. This hospital was where her father had worked, the best doctor in all of Cloudsdale. He had saved more lives than most other doctors had combined. It was thanks to him that she had learned all the medical knowledge that she had for taking care of animals and other sick ponies.

If she was in a hospital, she was sure she could find all the supplies she’d need to take care of herself…

Fluttershy quickly took note of where the patient rooms were. She’d have to come back to pick up the map, her bag would soak the map and ruin its use for her at the moment.

The next thing she saw on the desk was a bottle labeled ‘Health Drink’. She remembered them from her visits to the hospital, they were a special type of medicine that helped relax and heal the body. She needed that right now.

She carefully unscrewed the top off of the drink, before pouring the contents into her mouth. She chugged the whole bottle hungrily, the mixture tasting a bit like bitter strawberries but felt soothing going down her throat. She finished the drink and gave it a moment to sink in.

Almost instantly, she felt some of her exhaustion begin to wane, the pain that had been screaming at her began to fade, growing numb. Her eye sight straightened more and her mind lost some of the foggy haze that had been floating around in it. She could tell the drink had a pain killer like effect to it, she wasn’t truly feeling better just yet, but it was alleviating the pain so that she could feel better.

It was now, with her head feeling clearer, that she was able to get a look at the lobby for the first time.

The floor was made of rustic steel that was growing some kind of mold; the walls were falling apart from age, mold and being soaked with water. The roof was caving in in many places, the waiting chairs and tables were falling apart, in pieces and torn into shreds. There were overturned wheel chairs and gurneys, some spots on the floor had blood stains on them. The whole room seemed to scream that it was nothing but a vile place.

Fluttershy turned her attention away. She didn’t want to focus on the state of the room; she had to attend to her body’s needs first.

But before she left she read the last thing of notice on the lobby’s desk, a note that looked like it was written hastily in a red pen:


I locked it away
It can’t hurt us anymore
The staring oh, oh Luna the staring
They erected it but it won’t go away,
It’s judging us,
It knows
But it can’t hurt us without it
I locked it away
But should I need it I have this code

H I D E


The note didn’t make any sense to her at the moment but she felt it must be important. She’d come back for it as well.

She stepped away from the counter, taking in her new vigor to move past it and through the double doors behind it. She appeared in a hallway, one she was familiar with from her childhood. Though the place had aged into despair, she still recognized it.

She quickly made it over to the first room she could find and pushed it open. Inside was an examination room, though the cabinets were falling apart and the table looked like it had fallen to disuse, it was still an examination room.

Fluttershy carefully removed her saddle bag from her back and placed it on the table before moving to the broken counters. She found various supplies, fresh bandages, a few more Health Drinks, towels and gauze pads, everything she’d need to get herself feeling back to her top form.

As she began to work delicately on drying herself and applying fresh bandages, she didn’t notice the soft hissing that began to emanate from the music box in her bag.