Beanery

by TCC56

Who We Are In The Shadows

One thing that Fluttershy had learned was that senses are funny and unpredictable things. Her animal friends talked enough about it to teach her many lessons - how cats couldn't see red colors or what an ultrasonic whistle sounded like to a bat. One sense affected the others, and what you couldn't sense was often as important as what you did.

She knew it, too, from her own experiences. How a quiet thump in the darkness was far different - louder, closer, more panic-inducing - than an identical one she heard in the middle of the day. Changing the environment you sensed something in changed all the context about it, even with things you would think were absolute and immutable.

That, of course, didn't help any. It didn't make her hackles raise less when an unexpected something brushed her leg, nor did it settle her stomach when she scented something unfamiliar far too close. Or - in a moment such as this - she heard a scream in the distant dark.

It could have been anything, really. A foal playing on a swingset instead of being in bed, a couple having a night of passion, Pinkie Pie existing… Or it could be the last sounds of a timberwolf ambush, a pony stumbling off a ledge in the night, a nightmare gone out of control…

Or Discord. Who, as much as Fluttershy cared for him, could easily be on either side of the equation.

The doubt would wreak havoc in her mind, Fluttershy knew that. Particularly in the darkness, with so much of her normal senses taken from her? The sound would dwell. It would bleed into the rest as she replayed it in her mind and searched for an explanation. Picking it apart to find a reason behind it until it seeped into more than just a sound. Until her imagination pushed it into a feeling in her stomach and along her spine. Until she could taste the blood on the theoretical timberwolf's jaws. Until she could see movement out of the corner of her eye that wasn't there.

Hiding wouldn't help. Fluttershy knew that from experience. Putting her head under a blanket and cowering would only make things worse - half the problem (most of the problem, if she was being honest) was inside her own mind and there was no hiding from that.

But knowing she had to forge out into the night to try and dispel her imagination's ghosts and actually doing it were two different things.

It was easier to be brave than it used to be. It helped not just to have innumerable friends both animal and pony who would help her if needed, but to have a safety net. A panic button she could hit at any time with a scream of her own - one loud cry of his name and Discord would be at her side in an instant. Possibly earlier, given his mercurial relationship with linear time.

That was a comfort no other could boast, and Fluttershy knew it. She knew that if that sound was truly something terrible, she would be saved. That the instant before a claw landed on her it would be turned from timberwolf to butterscotch pudding.

A tiny part of Fluttershy was actually disappointed by that lack of risk.

The rest of her was fine with it - it helped her find the courage to throw off her sheets and climb out of bed.

She still tread as lightly as she could, each hoofstep placed with the utmost care to move around the floorboards that squeaked (and the mice that also squeaked.) Bit by bit she crept out of her bedroom, ears rotating to catch the slightest hint of another sound.

And it was there, causing her to freeze halfway across the living room. Not a scream this time but the quiet scrape of hoof on stone and dirt. Somepony was coming. Somepony was outside.

Fluttershy's heart sped up, rap-tap-taping inside her chest like a hoof would soon be beating on her door.

She had a safety net, she reminded herself. Even if it was somepony who wanted to hurt her, they'd never get the chance. She was protected. There was nothing to fear.

Fluttershy still had to brace herself with a deep breath - held in and ready to scream into the darkness for her savior.

The door was flung open before the approaching pony could knock. Fluttershy's mouth was already open, ready to scream…

Flitter was already in her face. "Fluttershy! Please!" Her panic eclipsed Fluttershy's own a minute before. "It's Killer, he needs…" She stumbled on her words. "I don't know what he needs, but please!"

That had been it - that sound in the dark. Fluttershy's fears had been right: that scream had been something terrible. A pony in pain, a creature in need. But at the same time, it wasn't so bad. This was a terror she understood. She could deal with it. Her heart and her mark cried out to stare the fear down.

"Take me to him."

Author's Note:

Prompt: A Scream In The Dark
Bonus: Use imagery based on synesthesia (tasting colors, seeing sounds etc.)

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

I'm going to assume that cover image was indirectly Syeekoh's fault. I'm not going to mention why in a T-rated story, but those of you familiar can probably fill in the gaps.

[TCC56]

11284536
Completely and totally unrelated.

The writing group is named after the guy who runs it, Punished Bean. Pure coincidence.

[Stahlseele]

Does the beanis rear its stalky head?