Chapter 6
Chapter 6
The hallway was dark and long, it was old, it was covered with mold as it rotted at its core, water fell down the sides of the wall in small streams, the floor had a small pool of water lying all about.
The hair on the back of Fluttershy’s neck stood on end, but she walked forward into the darkness.
Every step echoed off the walls, her hooves splashing against the water on the floor each time she passed a puddle. She didn’t know where she was or where the path was going. She didn’t know what happened to Pinkie Pie, she didn’t know what happened to Rainbow Dash.
She only knew that she had to go forward right now.
The hallway turned, Fluttershy followed it. It turned again, she turned as well.
The water was growing deeper, soon each hoof was splashing through water with every step she took. She stumbled for a moment, adjusting herself to walking through water with only three hooves, but she managed to catch herself.
The hallway turned once more, Fluttershy went along, the long winding corridor seemed to be leading her, guiding her to where it wanted to take her. She almost had no choice in the matter, even if she wanted to she could feel that there was no going back now that she had come this far.
Once she had crossed that doorway, there was no turning back.
Just before her the path opened up and split. A path to her left, a path to her right, and in the middle stood a door right before her.
The door was different though, it wasn’t made of the same rotting material as the other doors she’d seen, or of rustic metal or anything that would fit in with the drenched world she found herself in.
The door looked exactly like the door to her house back in Ponyville, in great condition despite the environment.
She carefully walked up to the door, pushing it open as she walked into the room it led to.
“Well, this is the best place I can think of.” Rainbow Dash said while flying with Fluttershy to the outskirts of Ponyville to a small empty cottage stood close to the edge of the Everfree Forest, an old ‘For Sale’ sign stood before the property. “No one wants to live here since it’s so close to the Everfree Forest, but with your love of animals that might work out for you.”
“Wow…its looks great.” Fluttershy smiled quietly, walking up to the house.
Fluttershy opened the door and looked inside. The house was dusty from disuse, but everything appeared to be in good condition still. It even came with furniture wrapped in cloth, waiting for someone to unwrap them for use once more. Fluttershy wandered the home as Rainbow Dash entered the house after her.
She could see everything she could do with the home, she could make spots for animals to live, she could set up the closet to hold her supplies, she could set up several soft chairs for resting and tables for eating, the kitchen seemed to have everything she’d need to cook the perfect meals and water was still running in the bathroom.
“Oh Rainbow Dash…it’s perfect.” Fluttershy smiled happily returning to the living room.
“You like it huh? Alright, then I’ll buy it for you.” Rainbow grinned. Fluttershy looked at her speechless.
“Oh, no, I could never ask you to do that! It’s so much money…I-I can work to pay for it myself.” Fluttershy fumbled her words.
“Don’t worry about it. This house is like, dirt cheap right now and I make plenty of money from my job here. Heck, there’s even talk of promoting me!” Rainbow waved her hoof at Fluttershy, trying to dismiss her worries.
“B-But…s-still, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me.” Fluttershy frowned, not wanting to take so much of Rainbow’s charity, it was a huge investment just for her, she didn’t feel worthy of it.
“Hey, just think of it as my apology for running out on you at school.” Rainbow weakly smiled, “So in return, you make this house your perfect home, alright? I know you had one in mind, you used to speak about it all the time when I last saw you.” Rainbow chuckled.
Fluttershy stared at the mare before her, still stupefied. She slowly looked around at the house once more.
‘The perfect home…’ she thought to herself, ‘Something I never had as a filly…but…I have the ability to make come true now.’ She smiled softly as she felt tears begin to form gently at the edges of her eyes.
“…I will…” Fluttershy wiped her eyes gently, turning to face Rainbow Dash, “I’ll make this…my perfect home.”
The room dimmed from the bright light that had filled her vision. The memories had flooded her vision before she had a chance to prepare for them. But now that the memories had faded, she could see the room for what it was. The room was laid out similarly to her living room, though it looked like it had when she moved in, covered in dust with cloth covering all the furniture.
Fluttershy was silent. She wasn’t sure what to make of the images she had just seen. It was her memory of moving into Ponyville after she had come to find Rainbow Dash. They had an amazing reunion and when she told Dash she was going to move to Ponyville, Dash helped her so much in finding a place to live.
“…That memory…I don’t…I don’t remember…thinking that…I didn’t have a perfect home before…” Fluttershy speaks softly, surprised by her own thoughts. She didn’t doubt that she felt that way, but she couldn’t remember why she would feel that way about her home.
A glint of light caught her eye as she turned to look at the back wall of the room; something was hanging from the wall.
She quickly walked up to the item, seeing that it was a key with the mark of a butterfly on it. Not sure what to make of it, she carefully picked it up and placed it in her bag.
She exited the room, stepping her hooves back into the few inches deep waters of the hallway. She now had a choice, go down the hallway to her left, or the one to her right.
Taking a guess, she began to walk slowly down the left path, listening to the sloshing over her hooves as she walked. She didn’t walk to far before she stopped, staring at what was standing perfectly still in the path, blocking her movement.
A mannequin seemed to be frozen in place on the path. It was just sitting there, her music box wasn’t making a sound and it didn’t seem to have a desire to attack her, but it just seemed to be waiting for her, blocking her path forward.
She carefully stepped backwards away from the creature, it soon disappearing from her sights once more. She turned herself around and began to head down the right path, wanting to stay away from any path that led to monsters if she could avoid it.
The right path wasn’t that long though, as it came to a rather abrupt end not too far away from the fork. However, at the end was another door, though this one was different. It wasn’t like the door to her cottage, this time the door reminded her of the ones she would see back at flight school.
She took in a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open, heading inside.
“Now you listen to me.” Her father said gruffly as the two of them stood outside of the Flight School in Cloudsdale, “It’s required for you to go to school so you’ll go everyday they have it. You’ll do everything your teachers tell you, and you’ll come straight home unless you ask permission to do otherwise. And if you’re good, I’ll likely allow your request.” He sounded very stern, “But every other rule from home still applies. You don’t talk unless spoken to; you don’t tell anyone anything unnecessary; you obey everything the adults say unless I overrule them. Do you understand?”
“Y-Yes sir…” Filly Fluttershy squeaked her response, never looking her father in the eye, keeping her head low.
“If you understand then I’ll see you at home later tonight.” He said turning away from her, spreading his wings out and flying off. For the first time, Fluttershy lifted her head to look at her father flying away. Even from there she could see the scalpel that adorned his flank as he flew off.
She let out a soft sigh, thankful he had left. She looked up at the school before her. There were lots of young and old pegasi flying into the building, many were hugging and saying goodbye to their parents, many were meeting up with their friends, and many looked reluctant to head into the school.
It was the first day of school. Fluttershy was happy that she’d finally have a reason to be somewhere else other than home or the hospital. But the faces of so many pegasi she hadn’t met before intimidated her. She was scared of them.
She gulped down the lump in her throat and slowly began to walk into the school. It seemed almost every other pegasi was flying inside, she felt like she stood out like a sore hoof walking into the building.
But there was a spark of hope in her heart that hadn’t been there before.
Light faded from the room as the memory came to an end. The room she was left in looked like an abandoned school hallway, though cut off short by a suddenly erected wall. Rusted lockers lined the walls as a broken clock hung over them; the entire area was covered with dust from disuse.
‘…Was my father…always that stern?’ Fluttershy wondered to herself, not having realized her father had talked down to her like that, ‘…and…I was afraid of him…but…why was I…afraid of my father?’ she asked herself unable to find the answer within her memories.
Then she realized what was going on.
“Deep within there are secrets laid to rest…” Fluttershy murmured, remembering the puzzle on the door, “This…This place is showing me…memories I forgot…or…or more accurately…memories I suppressed…” Fluttershy felt a lump form in her throat.
‘If I forgot about these memories…I must’ve forgotten about them for a reason…’ Fluttershy did her best to gulp the lump that had formed in her throat. She walked carefully to the back of the room, noticing that the key was sitting there. She carefully picked it up, examining it. The key had the shape of a cloud on it. She carefully placed the key in her bag, before exiting the room.
Her hooves returned to the water-filled hallway once more. She hestitated for a moment, but she headed down the hallway to where the mannequin had been standing before. It was the next place she had to check, she couldn’t go back now.
She rounded the bend in the hallway, swallowing to keep her nerves as she drew closer to where the mannequin had been standing.
But it was gone now. As if it had been standing guard, waiting for her to see the second memory, it had vanished from its position.
Fluttershy counted her blessings at this; she couldn’t handle any more injuries to her body. She imagined that with the state her body was in, any more damage would possibly cause more serious internal injuries, one’s she couldn’t fix herself. If she got an internal injury now, she’d just die a slow, painful death.
Every step she was taking was draining her stamina, both physically and mentally. She never imagined walking everywhere on three hooves would be so taxing, but it was.
As she continued to follow the curving path of the hallway the water began to become shallower as the pathway drew slowly upward. She was now walking on dry ground as the hallway began to open up. She reached the end of the hallway, the path opening up into a large lobby.
Her music box began to hiss softly, Fluttershy turning her light to look at the room better.
Just at the edge of her light she saw a nurse pacing. It walked on the other side of a table in the middle of the room, before turning and walking back into the darkness. Fluttershy watched the darkness carefully, when the Nurse then reappeared in the edge of her light. It walked the same path it had when she first saw it, before it turned and walked back into the darkness.
The nurse seemed to be walking in a pattern, as if waiting for something to disturb it or ruin its routine. Fluttershy very carefully drew closer to the table, but the nurse didn’t seem to notice her.
Fluttershy’s eye turned to the table the nurse kept walking by, seeing something shine on it. It was another key. She paused carefully, waiting for the nurse to walk by and head away from the table, her music box hissing as it stepped closer to Fluttershy, before growing quieter when the nurse stepped away from her. Once the coast was clear she quickly walked up to the table and grabbed the key, before backing up before the nurse got close once more.
She examined the key carefully, seeing there was the symbol of a red cross on it. She placed the key in her bag and looked around the room.
Other than the circling nurse, there was the usual scenery of broken chairs and rotted walls. To one side she could see an extended wall with a door on it and a bookshelf along the wall past it. Then just past the circling nurse looked to be a small hallway, though what was beyond it was too dark to see at the moment.
She carefully walked around the table making her way to the door she could see. She pushed the door open, heading inside. Her music box became quiet as the familiar light flashed before her eye.
“Augh.” Filly Fluttershy whimpered as the nurse applied the alcohol to her cuts.
“Oh don’t be such a crybaby.” The nurse rolled her eyes a little before pulling away the cotton ball and placing a Band-Aid on the wound. “You really should be used to this by now; you’re always coming in here with some problem. Honestly, I don’t know why your father doesn’t just take care of you at home.” The nurse said begrudgingly as she walked away from the table Fluttershy sat on to the counter.
“That’s…That’s because…” Fluttershy whimpered softly.
The nurse snapped her head to glare at Fluttershy, Fluttershy instantly shut her mouth. She shrunk back into the table, trying to avoid the glare of the nurse. The nurse, once satisfied that the filly wouldn’t say anything, turned back to the counter organizing her items.
The door to the room clicked open, as Fluttershy sat up straight, her whole body turning stiff as her father strolled into the room, before closing the door.
“Is everything fine with my daughter?” Was the first thing he asked. The nurse pony instantly turned to him, her whole face lighting up, as if his mere presence brought her joy.
“O-Of course sir. You know I ALWAYS do the finest work I can when you’re asking me to.” The nurse said, batting her eyelashes flirtatious at the doctor, smiling almost as if her life depended on it. Fluttershy’s father didn’t look impressed by the flirtation and turned to look at his daughter. His daughter sat up straight, shivering as she sat on the table, afraid of what her father might do or say.
“Have you recovered from your ‘accident’?” Her father asked with the stern, overbearing tone, as if he didn’t actually care that she had recovered.
“Y-Y-Yes sir.” Fluttershy stuttered and squeaked, her whole body shaking as she stared straight ahead, not making eye contact with him.
“If you are then leave. You can do as you wish, just be in the lobby by 9 and I’ll take you home.” Her father almost growled.
“Yes sir!” Fluttershy instantly jumped off the table and practically bolted out of the room. Closing it behind her. She panted a little outside the door as her heart beat inside of her chest.
“Oooh…Doctor~” Fluttershy heard the nurse almost moan from inside the room. She didn’t stick around to hear more, she ran away from the room. She’d be in the lobby when her father told her to be there, but she’d be as far away from him as she could be till then.
The light faded away, revealing a room similar to the one she had just seen in the vision, only much like the rest of the world, falling apart, broken into pieces, covered in dust.
A chill ran down Fluttershy’s back as she recovered from the returning memories.
She was scared of her father. She was scared of him…but she didn’t remember what he did to make her scared of him.
But she had an idea.
“Did…my father…abuse me?” She muttered the words to herself. She didn’t want to believe that he did, but everything was falling into place that he did. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, maybe she was blowing it out of proportion, or maybe he’d just punished her too severely once by accident and hadn’t made amends yet…
“…or maybe I’m trying to make excuses for my father.” She sighed out loud as she lowered her head a little.
“I…I have to know the full story…” Fluttershy said lifting her head up, “If I don’t find out now…I’ll…I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” Fluttershy gulped once more. She walked carefully to the end of the room, where on the table she spotted a similar key to the others she had gathered. This one seemed to have the symbol of a needle. She carefully placed it alongside her other keys.
She exited the room, the hissing of her music box returned as the pacing nurse returned to her sight. Fluttershy carefully moved her lantern to get a better view of the room, seeing if she was forgetting anything.
A similar glint caught her eye in the corner of the room, the glint coming from the worn down bookcase that lay against the wall, just outside of the nurse’s pacing range.
She waited for the nurse to cycle through the path once more, then quickly rushed over to the bookcase. Making sure the nurse didn’t turn its attention to her, she looked at the bookcase. It seemed to be filled with rotting medical books, ones she saw a lot as a foal, but they were all illegible now.
Hanging loosely on one of the rotted rows was another key, this one with the symbol of a book on it. She carefully placed it in her bag, before turning to watch the nurse once more.
The only place she had left to go now was the hallway the nurse seemed to be pacing just in front of.
Fluttershy watched the nurse carefully, it seemed she’d just have a few seconds at best to run past the nurse and get to the hallway with her being the farthest away from it as she could. She remembered the last time she got too close to a nurse, it screamed and it had summoned…
A cold shiver ran down her back again. She couldn’t face that creature again. If she faced it, it would no doubt be able to kill her this time.
She took a deep breath and waited. She counted the number of times the nurse walked in a circle before her. She didn’t want to screw up the timing even by a second.
Ten times…fifteen times…twenty times…
She didn’t want to move but she knew she had to. She steeled her nerves, stretched her three hooves, and crouched down as she aimed for the door…
She ran as fast as her hooves would take her past the nurse, stay as far away from it as possible. The hallway came up on her blind side, but she knew where it was. She turned as soon as she needed to and moved down the hallway away from the nurse.
She skidded to a halt as the hallway came to an end abruptly. She had almost run straight into a heavily chained metal door. It took her eye a moment to focus in on the door, but once it did she could see everything.
There were five padlocks holding the chains to the metal door behind it, that seemed to have something written on it but was blocked by the chains. She recognized each of the symbols on the lock instantly; they matched the keys that she had just gathered from around the area.
Being careful but swift, she pulled out each key one by one and placed them in their corresponding lock. Each lock and key fell to the ground, seeming to shatter against the ground. When the final lock fell, the chains fell with it, the chains seeming to shatter into pieces across the ground. The door was now free, and she could see what was written on the door.
Strains of the Heart
Chained up Memories
Will things be the same?
You know what is true
You are not what you think you are
But feelings are strong
They can change everything
Or they can change nothing.
Experience the sins of another
Then perhaps the threads of destiny
Will make their feelings known.
Fluttershy looked at the poem and read it carefully. She read it at least three times, not fully understanding what it meant. A shiver ran down her spine as she read it though, she got this feeling in the gut of her stomach…
It was the feeling that it was trying to warn her about her future, telling her that she had something important to do once she crossed this door.
“…I…I can’t be scared off now.” She said out loud to herself quietly, before reaching a hoof up and pushing the door open.
Fluttershy almost felt blown back. A wave of heat struck her as the door opened. She shielded her eye from the heat. It felt like an inferno was burning on the other side of the door. She slowly moved her eye from where the fire was coming.
The room just before her was undoubtedly covered in flames. Fluttershy’s jaw dropped a little staring into the flames. Fluttershy slowly walked into the room, looking around. She could feel the heat all around her and she was having difficulty discerning the appearance of the room.
The door shut behind her as her vision began to clear.
She was inside what looked like the abandoned house she had entered in Ponyville, only covered in fire. She looked around, the fire was everywhere, it seemed that the house should have burnt down to the ground already, yet it somehow was managing to stay upright despite the flames.
But something stood out in the flames. Her eye turned to focus on the figure that stood in the flames, looking at a picture that hung from a wall.
It was a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane.
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called out, surprised but happy to see her marefriend alive and okay. She tried to draw closer, but a wave of fire seemed to stand between her and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash continued to stand in the same place, staring at the picture as if she hadn’t even heard Fluttershy call out.
“…Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called out once more.
“…It’s all the same, you know.” Rainbow Dash muttered quietly, not looking away from the picture.
“Huh?” Fluttershy responded, confused by her words.
“…I can’t believe I didn’t see it before…but it really has always been like this.” Rainbow Dash closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them again, “Always running away, always getting away when I don’t care anymore.”
“…R-Rainbow Dash…what…are you talking about?”
Rainbow Dash just seemed to pause for a moment, before a small laugh came from her.
“Haha…heh…I’m the Element of Loyalty…what a load of crud that is.” Rainbow closed her eyes as a small smile faded from her face, “All I ever do is abandon. I’ve never cared about my friends or loved ones, I’ve only ever cared about myself. ‘There’s a better life for me out there!’, ‘I don’t want to be held down by your rules!’, ‘I don’t care about clearing the sky for you!’, ‘I don’t care for you as a friend anymore!’, ‘I’m going to abandon you for my own desires!’.” Dash seemed to be imitating herself.
“But…Rainbow Dash…y-you don’t abandon your friends…” Fluttershy offered a meek protest.
“Hah! Are you blind?” Rainbow Dash half laughed, half cried, “After you got separated from us, I abandoned Pinkie Pie to go find you. I yelled at her, I blamed her for getting us into this mess, I said…I said that if you died this would be all her fault.” Rainbow Dash shook her head softly.
“And I’ve hurt you the worst with my abandonment and you still want to say I don’t? I abandoned you at flight school when you needed me, all because I didn’t care to be held down.” Rainbow lowered her head, a sad grin on her face as she seemed to be accepting the truth just as much as she was telling it.
“B-But…t-that was a long time ago…things have chan-” Fluttershy started up, but she was interrupted by Dash.
“You know Fluttershy…when you join the Wonderbolts…there’s a minimum one year mandatory private training you have to go through, to learn all their techniques and flight patterns, to fly with the Wonderbolts successfully. They perform shows year round, all over Equestria.” It almost seemed like Dash didn’t want to say this, “When I make my dream come true…I’m leaving Ponyville. I’m leaving behind my friends…I’m leaving you behind…I’ll be abandoning you once again.”
Fluttershy’s mouth was agape, unable to comprehend Dash’s words. No…more accurately she didn’t want to comprehend her words. They felt like needles trying to jab into her heart.
“But…hey, why should that change now?” Dash lifted her head up and looked at the picture before her, “I ran away from home, I quit flight school, I give up friends just because we don’t see eye to eye anymore, and I’ll get rid of all my friends just for some silly dream.” The sad grin returned to Dash’s face, “I burn all the bridges I’ve made in my life, so that I can never look back at what I’ve done.”
“…Dash…” Fluttershy muttered weakly.
“I’m…sorry you fell in love with somepony like me Fluttershy.” Rainbow’s voice cracked, as if she was holding back tears, “I’m not one who deserves it.” Dash turned away from the picture, putting her back to Fluttershy, “You should forget about me.”
Dash began to slowly walk away, walking towards a doorway Fluttershy couldn’t reach through the burning flames.
“Rainbow Dash….Wait!” Fluttershy cried out.
Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks for a moment, as if she didn’t want to, but she had to hear what Fluttershy needed to say.
“Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy whimpered a little, feeling tears burning at the edge of her eye. She gulped the lump in her throat and lifted her head, summoning all the courage she could muster from her heart.
“I need you to be strong right now…alright?”
Dash didn’t react or move right away. She stood there as if the words seemed to sink in slowly. But, after a time, she finally spoke up.
“…Alright…” Was the only word that escaped from Rainbow, before she disappeared into the doorway before her, being shrouded by the fire that filled the house. For a moment, Fluttershy thought she had seen tears fall from Dash’s face.
Fluttershy lowered her head as tears began to fall from her eye, rolling down her cheek and down her chin. She didn’t care how hot she felt, or that the fires were still burning so close to her.
She just had to cry right now.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
1,068 users online
2,224,768 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I feel stupid
the monster is her abusive father
Really? REALLY?!?!?!
... i knew it... the shadowy creature is her father, the tattered mannequin is her doll, the nurse is... well, the nurse that her father kept taking her to, the zombie... her dead mother? the world is designed to show you the truth about your history... all the missconseptions that you forced yourself to beleive... it shows you what you never wanted to beleive because it would be too painful to realize before the nightmares... it is designed to drive intruders to beleive what they never should... lies... a slight bit of truth, but lies nonetheless... flee... flee while you still can fluttershy...
161041 The town doesn't lie. It just brutally beats the truth into you until you crack. Dash would have been abandoning her, even though she'd never accept that outside of Hill.
i remember that fire scene with Rainbow Dash. its the same as when James meets Angela for the last time...uh-oh. ok so Fluttershy is James, RD is Angela, so Pinkie pie would be...Maria? because she has died at least one but is seen alive later in the 'game'. am i correct?
o.O >w> me see now shoulda known much sooner >3< bleh next chapter!
That fire scene reminds me of the one in Silent Hill 2, where James and Angela say their last goodbyes. Perhaps it is refrence off of that, I do not know. But it is still amazing with this chapter!!
Oh shoot the fire scene was sad.
Must keep reading.
/b]
2436542 I felt the same way too. I just finished replaying Silent Hill 2, and throughout this scene, I swear I could hear the soundtrack that had played during it in my head. Or maybe I'm just insane...
3683994
What about pyramid head? Huh? Any thing about HIM? huh? Wasn't he in silent hill 2? Right? Yeah. I already knew he was. SO WHERE THE FUCK IS HE NOW!?! HUH!?! WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!?!? ANSWER ME BITCH!!!
Sorry. Just my evil side of my brain kicking into gear.
3883355 Silent ponyville REUNION is more based off of two than this. Pyramid head is in that one AND makes more sense for it. Not CALLED Pyramid head though.
4070772 whats reunion?
4136167 reunion is one of the two canon fan additions to this series. There's a link in the description as it's a direct sequel to this one with a vharacter you will most likely hate by the end of this.
This might be really inappropriate under the given circumstsnces but....
...
...
Heeelllloooooooo NURSE!!!!!!
And here's where having Rainbow and Pinkie present holds this story back. This is supposed to be about Fluttershy, but we're going on these tangents. Still, I gather you're trying to accommodate certain elements of the games, which is perfectly understandable. Sacrifices, right?
So GOOD must read FANFIC!!!!??
Crap. Her mom died and this nurse wants to marry her dad, huh?