AfterLife

by Chaotic Dreams

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Dead! Fluttershy—she’s dead!!”

“NO!” the ghost yelled, blinking hard in a futile attempt to hold back her own tears. She shook her head vehemently (out of habit, since obviously nopony would see it), some of the phantasmal liquid flicking off of her cheeks and vanishing into the air. Her tears weren’t physical any more, after all. “I’m right here!!” She swooped down and tried to grab her fillyhood friend’s shoulders to shake her, but her hooves simply passed right through.

The library soon filled with the worried murmurs of the intellectual ponies, many concerned glances being cast Rainbow Dash’s way.

“Really is unsightly behavior at such a gathering,” one gentlestallion muttered to his friends.

“You shut the buck up!” Rainbow Dash’s sudden yell echoed through the small room as she flung herself at the startled stallion. The two toppled over one another, the cyan mare ending up on top of him and furiously smacking him over and over with her shaking hooves. Her teeth were grit with so much force, they threatened to crack. “She’s dead! Maybe I should make you dead too if you’re going to be a such a motherbucking disrespectful piece of... of...”

But she couldn’t finish, her blows devolving into weak slaps that faded into her crawling off of him and just lying on the floor, sobbing into her wings. The spirit of her friend tried to give her a comforting hug, but again was unable to make physical contact.

“Miss Sparkle, please do control your companions,” another highbrow scolded, earning nothing but a warning spark of the horn and a heated glance from the lavender mare, as well as every other native Ponyville resident in the room.

“Get off your pedestal, you cigar-chewing snob,” a wealthy-looking Ponyville stallion hissed at the Canterlot ‘elite.’ “Do you not realize how hurt she is?” He scoffed. “Typical Canterlot pony, about as sensitive as a tree stump drowning in his own arrogance. Don’t you know she’s one of The Bearers of Harmony, worth more than a hundred herds of you?”

The other Ponyville inhabitants voiced their agreement, several of them taking a menacing step towards the offending visitor.

“Everypony, please, calm down!” Twilight commanded, placing herself between the two opposing parties and stamping her hoof for emphasis. “Fighting each other isn’t going to get us anywhere. Now...” She turned to her distraught friend. “What’s wrong, Rainbow? Please clearly tell us what happened.”

Fluttershy could see the sweat beading on her lavender friend’s coat, along with the dark, desolate voids behind her eyes despite her controlled (and more than a little forced) smile.

“Are you deaf?!” Rainbow screeched, whirling on her unicorn friend. Every feature on her blue face was torn between anger and despair. She was sweating, but shivering as if she was cold. “She’s dead!”

“RD slipped out during yer lecture ta’ check on Fluttershy,” Applejack explained shakily, trotting forward. “We jus’ wanted ta’ see if she was alright.”

“And what did you see when you arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage?” Twilight inquired, her own voice losing its stability as she turned back to Rainbow. “Did something frighten you? Is Fluttershy missing? W-was there evidence of some kind of struggle?”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she wiped furiously at her eyes with a hoof. All it did was spread the liquid around, disheveling her fur and making her look like she’d been crying for hours. Her worried rosy eyes were bloodshot, evidence of the unfamiliar surge of emotions that were still roiling inside her. “I-I went to her cottage, and I knocked on the door, but Fluttershy didn’t answer, so I went inside and looked for her but I couldn’t find her I-I-I looked all over the place Twilight she wasn’t there b-but then I found her in her bed a-and her face was... her face... it...” She was stuttering uncontrollably, her words brought to an abrupt halt by a knot rising into her throat. She resigned to sinking back into her forelegs, her body wracked with trembles as she hid herself away from the world.

“You mean she was actually there?” Rarity asked, lifting a hoof to her mouth in shock. Rainbow struggled to nod her head, though she still refused to come out from her forelegs. After some obvious effort at self-composure, the white unicorn queried “I understand that she must have looked like she was in serious condition, but I’m certain she’s merely ill. It must be quite serious to have given you such a scare, darling, but I’m sure she’s still very much alive.”

“She wasn’t breathing!” Dash struggled to convey through her coughs. “I checked! She didn’t even have a pulse!”

Rarity gasped, her cheeks beginning to glisten.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was hyperventilating. She would have passed out by then if she was still alive. She almost tried to anyway out of habitual instinct, but the loss of consciousness just wouldn’t come. She wanted to scream, wanted to demand attention, but she knew that it would do nothing.

Twilight was losing the battle to keep her ears perked up, and the corners of her lips seemed to have invisible boulders attached to them. “W-well, Rainbow Dash, m-maybe you were just panicking and y-you didn’t notice that she actually was breathing...” Her voice broke, as did her expression of forced happiness, and her throat swelled almost imperceptibly as a knot rose into it. Her mane swung around as her head jerked to the crowd of onlookers. “I-I’m sorry, everypony, but I’ll be right back... hopefully...”

With a brief flash of violet light and a sound not unlike thunder, five mares went missing from the room. Fluttershy looked around for a moment out of instinct, before she realized what just happened, and how she hadn’t been a part of it.

She also realized where those five mares would be shortly reappearing.

“Oh, no...” she whispered in a cold terror. All her life, she’d been afraid—afraid that something might hurt her, that somepony would judge her, that she would make a mistake. The constant fear had never really left her, but with time and the help of her friends, she’d eventually come to try and stand against it. It didn’t always work, but at least she had a chance to break free, if only for brief intervals.

Now, however, she didn’t have any of those friends to help her, because they were the very cause of that fear. They were the cause because they cared for her, and she wouldn’t be there to meet them and tell them that everything was fine, that she was alright.

Because she wasn’t, and she never would be again.

“NO!” Fluttershy screamed, causing several of the ponies left in the library to look around in confusion. The ghostly pegasus couldn’t have cared less at that point. She launched herself into the air and, not thinking twice about it, flew through the wall.

Even if she couldn’t be there physically, even if she couldn’t actually do anything, it didn’t mean she couldn’t try.

Fluttershy couldn’t feel the wind as it swept past her. She couldn’t feel the trees as she flew right through them. The Hereafter was a blank slate, and to it the Mortal Plane was nothing more than an illusion.

It couldn’t have been more than two minutes, but the lost spirit’s flight seemed to consume several hours. The only thing she felt were her ethereal tears, and even then, they still weren’t real.

She almost overshot her mark as she neared her cottage, nestled on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Her friends were filing into her house one-by-one, led by a very upset rainbow-maned pegasus. Fluttershy dove into the outside wall of the second floor, breathing heavily as she ‘landed’ on the hardwood floor, watching the doorway tentatively.

She couldn’t feel it, but she knew that the woodwork was shaking as her friends scrambled up the stairs, loud thuds and shouts indicating that somepony — probably Rainbow Dash — had tripped on the way up and taken a few of the others with them.

Fluttershy swallowed, chancing a look behind her at the bed, surrounded by... air. Her eyes widened. Her animal friends were gone, and... so was her body! Gasping, she silently galloped to the vacant furniture, taking to the air and performing a few quick circles. Where did it go? Where did it go?! “Dearly Departed??” she called out at the ceiling, her chest muscles instinctively tensing to accompany the volume of her voice. Only five sets of physical hoofsteps answered, her friends piling into the room and flopping over each other like lungfish jumping out of a river.

“What the...” an out-of-breath southern voice began, its owner’s eyes flicking over the empty bedspread. “...She ain’t here?” Applejack pointed at the sheets with an orange hoof, before turning to the pony who had caused her to worry. “...Ya’ll said her body was here.” Her gaze swiveled back to the bedspread, before her head slowly turned to fix Rainbow Dash with an accusing stare. “...Is this some kinda prank, Rainbow?”

Prank? Fluttershy thought worriedly. They’re not going to blame this on Rainbow, are they?

Having known the speedster longer than any of the others, the timid ghost knew that Rainbow Dash would never, ever pull a prank like this. Even she knew her limits.

Four pairs of increasingly suspicious eyes, however, seemed to disagree.

“That’s not really what all this is, is it, Rainbow?” Twilight inquired, her voice devoid of its previous worry and steadily filling with a dangerous tone. “Some kind of prank?”

Rainbow’s intense sorrow began mixing with utter confusion and a hint of betrayal.

“You think I would joke about something like this?!” she gasped. “I saw her there! I’m telling you, it’s the truth!”

“That...” Pinkie Pie breathed softly, a first for the pink party pony. The others instantly locked eyes on her, as something so subtle from a pony such as Pinkie Pie was like a shout from a mouse. “...That would be a really mean prank, Dashie.”

“It’s not a prank!” Rainbow protested, smacking her hoof down on the floor. “I can’t believe you guys! Do you really think I would be that rotten?”

“It’s not a prank!” Fluttershy asserted, leaping beside her distressed fellow pegasus. As was the new norm, her plea fell on deaf ears. “I really am dead!”

She froze, realizing what she had just said. She hadn’t wanted to ever think of herself like that... but it was the truth, even if she was determined to undo it... somehow...

“So what you’re saying is,” Rarity huffed indignantly. “that not only is our dear Fluttershy... dead, her body got up and trotted away?”

“Is this the part where you convinced Fluttershy to come in here dressed like a zombie?” Pinkie wondered, her eyes narrowed and her head cocked.

“No!” Rainbow asserted, her body shaking with frustration. She bent down, tugging at her mane with her front hooves and gritting her teeth.

Fluttershy felt a wave of compassion for her friend wash over her. Rainbow was telling the truth, but at the time the world seemed to be doing its best to discredit her claims. Swallowing, she reached over and tried to lay a hoof on the neck of her logically trapped friend. She focused on her limb, trying to be as gentle as possible, paying close attention and feeling for the soft sensation of fur.

Taking in a momentary breath, she smiled with pleasant surprise when her hoof actually seemed to make contact with Rainbow’s flesh. And then that gentle smile turned to shock as she felt her hoof sink into her friend’s body, the rest of her form being dragged along with it as her world grew dark. “What—”

Rainbow Dash suddenly gasped, her eyes shooting open as she began to convulse, her body wracked with muscle spasms and writhing on the floor. This went on for several seconds, garnering the worry of her friends.

“Rainbow Dash?!” Twilight gasped, reaching for her blue friend with a cautious hoof, but too frightened of being struck by Rainbow’s flailing limbs to get very close. Twilight just stared helplessly. Was Rainbow having a seizure?

Fluttershy’s vision restored itself in a flash, familiar yet strangely alien senses waking up after what seemed like a long sleep. Just moments ago, she could only see and hear things. Now she could feel the hardwood floor beneath her, smell the scent of the potted plants in her house, and taste the air as she heavily breathed in and out, her strong heart pounding in her chest. She blinked several times to banish the film over her eyes, pushing herself up off the floor. She looked around, seeing four worried faces staring directly at her. Wait, where was Rainbow Dash?

“Twilight, where—” Fluttershy’s irises shrunk as she heard her own voice. It was light and scratchy, and it cracked on the first syllable. It wasn’t hers at all. Her ears folded against her scalp, and her eyes whipped to several different points on the ceiling in fright. Brushing her mane out of her eyes, she looked down at her hooves. Thankfully she couldn’t see through them, but... they were blue. “W-what just happened??” Even though her voice had changed, her mannerisms and characteristically quiet volume had not. She shrunk down, pulling her limbs closer to her torso and staring coyly up at the four other ponies present.

“‘What just happened’?” Applejack echoed, confusion and disdain still tangoing on her face. “I suppose we might ask ya’ the same question.”

“No, but, I mean...” Fluttershy—Rainbow Dash? Fluttainbow Shash? Who was she anymore?!—tried to say, tried to express what in the world she was experiencing. But she couldn’t. There was no word in the Equestrian language for what she was currently feeling, other than... odd.

She could feel the sensation of having a bodily presence again, but it wasn’t her body. She had certainly never felt this physically strong and able before, and it was an odd feeling to have Rainbow’s finely honed wing muscles attached to her own back. She had never been a very strong flier herself, due both to her lack of self-confidence and being in the shallow end of the pegasus gene pool when it came to wings.

However, as strange as this all was, Fluttershy also suddenly realized that it was an opportunity. She was physically here, and her friends could notice her. Or would they only be noticing Rainbow Dash?

Whatever the case, she had to try.

“Twilight! Applejack!” she squeaked happily in the cyan mare’s scratchy voice. “Rarity! Pinkie Pie!”

She lunged forward, enveloping them all in a hug that incorporated Rainbow’s wings as much as it did her forelegs. Tears welled up her newly magenta eyes.

“It’s so good to see you all again!” she wept even as she smiled. “I thought... I was afraid that... that I was gone for good!”

Her friends said nothing, and backing up at last, Fluttershy saw why. They were merely looking at her with stunned expressions, unsure of what to think anymore. Rainbow Dash didn’t give emotional group hugs like that, and she definitely didn’t cry tears of joy during them. She just... didn’t.

“But you’ve been here with us the whole time,” Rarity noted haltingly. “You didn’t go anywhere you could have come back from.”

“But I did!” the currently embodied spirit disagreed. “I mean, Fluttershy did—I mean, I am Fluttershy!”

The stunned expressions and silence continued.

“...Is this more of the prank?” Pinkie wondered tentatively, now looking more than a little unnerved rather than suspicious and angry. She looked at the others, before looking back at the blue mare. “Dashie, you’re scaring me...”

“Rainbow wasn’t pranking you!” Fluttershy insisted, shaking her—Rainbow’s—head. “I really did... die... a-and I’ve been following you all around all day! I don’t know how, but now I’m in Rainbow’s body!”

The stunned looks of her friends were quickly dissolving into either absolute disgust or clearly disturbed fear.

“This isn’t funny, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity hissed, worry weaving its way through her anger.

“I’m not Rainbow!” Fluttershy told her former spa buddy. “I’m Fluttershy! I’m just inside Rainbow right now! Wait a minute... If I’m in Rainbow, then... where’s the real Rainbow?” She gasped. “I-is she floating around as a ghost like I was? Oh, I hope she’s not too scared!”

“Girls?” Twilight inquired, her smile even more forced than it had been back at the library. “Can we have a word?”

The others quickly nodded and filed out into the hallway. When Fluttershy tried to follow, Twilight stopped her with a hoof.

“Can you wait in here for just a second, please?” the lavender unicorn asked. “Um... Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy wilted, staring up apologetically at her purple friend. “Oh... okay. I’m sorry...” She turned tail and quietly trotted back to the bedspread, climbing up on it before sitting down. She cast a shy glance at Twilight as the door was closed by a shimmering reddish aura.

“Girls,” Twilight began, turning to look at her group with a very disturbed and frightened expression. “Does anyone know why Rainbow Dash is doing this? I mean, I know she can be abrasive, but I’ve never seen her act so... weird.”

“She’s acting like Fluttershy,” Pinkie clarified in a hushed tone. The other three ponies looked at her.

Twilight worked the inside of her mouth. “...Yeah.”

“Personally, Ah think that she might be on some new medication or some’n, and it’s messin’ with her head.” Applejack nodded. “This is seemin’ less like a prank and more like a delusion...”

“Silly AJ,” Pinkie remarked with a good-natured giggle. “Dashie doesn’t take anything but ADHD medication.”

“...How do you know that?” Twilight wondered with a cocked eyebrow.

“I-I don’t sample them!” Pinkie quickly asserted with a quick shake of her head. She grinned nervously. “Or... anypony else’s meds...”

“Erm... I’ll explain how dangerous that is later,” Twilight dismissed. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “I... don’t know what to do about ‘RainbowShy’ in there.” She tapped the door with her hoof, her eyebrows drawn upward in the middle. “Maybe she’s just in some psychological pain, and is doing this to distract herself from whatever happened.” She scratched the side of her mane. “I don’t know why she picked Fluttershy dying as her fantasy, though...”

“Maybe...” Rarity spoke up, looking uncertain. “Maybe something traumatic did happen, something involving Fluttershy, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t process it? Maybe this is the most logical thing her mind could come up with to explain the situation?” Remembering how crass she’d just been to the troubled pegasus, she scuffed at the floor with her hoof, crestfallen.

Twilight perked up slightly, as if a light bulb suddenly flickered to life above her head. “Well, I think the best thing to do is to get her to tell us what really happened. Then, we can go from there.” She smiled at her friends’ various noises of approval. Arcane energy surrounded her horn as the door opened itself, causing the pegasus mare on the bed to look up at her guests.

“What were you all talking about in there? Um... if you don’t mind me asking, that is...” Fluttershy lowered her head into her hooves and peeked up from them.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight began, approaching her friend with large eyes brimming with sympathy. “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m Fluttershy... and I’m fine...” the blue pony muttered through her hooves. “W-well, I’m dead, but... I can come back... I-I think...” Her magenta gaze traced the stitch lines on the blanket beneath her.

Her friends exchanged worried glances. “Dear, tell us what really happened to Fluttershy. Did you witness something bad happen to her? Whatever it was, we’re here for you, okay?” Rarity coaxed, laying a white hoof on her chest.

Fluttershy began to feel something strange. It felt almost like a pressure from within, steadily growing, jabbing at her insides like a caged animal trying to escape. Little whispers shouted at the farthest corners of her mind. Little scratchy whispers. “I’m Fluttershy. I-I died, remember? And I want to come back, but I need help.” Two amethyst eyes glided to the present magician. “Twilight, do you have any spells that can bring ponies back from the dead?”

Twilight just stared at her with a gentle frown. “Rainbow Dash, please, I know you’re struggling, but you need to tell us the truth before we can help.”

“I am telling the truth! I-I just...” Fluttershy’s eyes steadily widened as the pressure in her chest flared and the whispers grew into shouts. “I can’t... come back... on my...”

Fluttershy’s world became Tartarus for a split second, a deluge of liquid metal pouring over her body and burning away her skin. Her view tilted sideways and she yelped as she was thrown towards the wall, but fortunately her wings snapped out and she steadied herself before impact.

The first thing she noticed was that she couldn’t feel the chilled air of her cottage any more.

The second thing she noticed was that Rainbow Dash was back, lying on the bed in a mild daze, blinking rapidly. “What the... Owwww...” she moaned, curling up into a fetal position and cradling her skull with her legs. “My head...” She continued to release quiet groans of agony, slowly rocking back and forth.

Twilight gently laid a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Rainbow Dash?” she asked with a frown.

“I... I was... I... I couldn’t control my body... Something locked me out...” the blue one mumbled, her tone reflecting the amount of pain she was in. “It was heavy... Had to... kick it out... Head hurts now...”

Fluttershy simply hovered nearby, awestruck. Had she possessed Rainbow Dash? Could she do it to other ponies? Her gaze drifted to Rarity, the friend that had been the most skeptical. Maybe if she possessed her, she could convince her friends that Rainbow Dash wasn’t crazy.

She frowned as guilt seeped into her chest cavity. Just now she had taken complete control of her oldest friend and painted her in a light that destroyed her credibility. She had to do something to make up for it. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before approaching Rarity.

“Poor dear... I hope she gets better soon,” Rarity whispered to Twilight. Little did she know that a particular ghost was standing just behind her.

Fluttershy took another deep breath. Okay, she just had to... do what she did before, right? Swallowing, she focused heavily on her front right hoof, reaching out to touch Rarity’s neck with it. When Rarity inevitably kicked her out, she would feel the same pain as before, and Rarity would probably have a severe headache like Dash, but... it had to be done.

“I do wish she would just tell us—” Rarity froze, her speech quickly devolving into incoherent squeaks, before she collapsed. Unlike Rainbow Dash, she didn’t suffer from violent spasms, but instead shook uncontrollably for a few moments as if afflicted with Tetanus, gasping and choking on her own saliva.

“Rarity!!” Twilight shouted, horror flooding her expression as she telekinetically shook her friend to snap her out of her strange condition. The other two ponies in the room — sans Rainbow Dash, who was still clutching her head — immediately ran to the white pony’s side.

After just a few seconds, it was over. Fluttershy coughed up some of her — no, Rarity’s saliva before getting to her hooves. Her new sapphire irises flicked to each of her friends in turn. Rarity’s body felt far different from hers and Rainbow’s. While Rainbow Dash’s body felt strong and muscular, Rarity’s body felt like extremely lithe. Fitting, seeing how Rarity was a non-active mare, but she still watched her weight. The skin under her fur also felt incredibly well-moisturized, and it was weird having a bone sticking out of her forehead. Lastly, the lack of wings felt extremely strange to Fluttershy. She felt like she was crippled.

“Rarity, a-are ya’ll alright?” Applejack laid a hoof on Fluttershy’s white shoulder.

“Y-yes, Applejack, I’m alright.” Fluttershy turned her head to give the farmer a gentle smile. “But... I’m not Rarity.” She gave a sapphire wink. “I was telling the truth while I was inside Rainbow Dash.”

Applejack’s face lost all of its color, and she began to back away. Her face split with an uneasy grin. “H’okay, Rarity, i-it’s nice that ya’ll have a... a sense’a humor, but y-you’re creepin’ me out now, so if ya will please drop the facade and go back to bein’ the normal Rarity, that would be much appreciated—”

“It’s not a facade, Applejack. I told you — I’m dead. If you still don’t believe me, I can possess you next... I mean, if that’s okay with you...” She shrunk slightly.

Applejack’s smile vanished, her eyes shrinking to the size of a grain of sand. “R-Rarity, please cut that out. Please. Y-y’all are gonna give me nightmares.”

Fluttershy sighed, turning to face her magically-inclined friend, who was staring at her with the same expression as Applejack. “Twilight, if you have a spell that could bring me ba—” Without warning, her skin began burning again, and she was violently ripped out of her friend’s body, thrown away like a hoofball. Fortunately she was not ejected with as much force as she was from Rainbow, and she was able to steady herself much more quickly. Fluttershy rubbed her chin in thought. She wasn’t able to stay in Rarity for nearly as long as she stayed in Rainbow Dash. Maybe she couldn’t possess ponies too much too often, or she wouldn’t be able to maintain it.

Rarity, on the other hand, was lying on the floor, but appeared to not have a severe headache. “Twilight... What... Ow...” She brought a white hoof to her temple, quieting herself for a few seconds. “I-I was... I... I couldn’t move... I...”

Twilight stared at her fellow unicorn with shrunken pupils, before glancing at Applejack, who was backed into a corner, her chest heaving.

“Oh no... Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no,” the farmpony rambled in panic. She knew that she was next. “No! Please, no!”

“Applejack, you won’t be possessed — th-there’s no such thing as ghosts,” Twilight stated, though her tone betrayed that she feared otherwise.

Fluttershy stared bewilderedly at Twilight, before lightly pulling on her mane. Great. The only pony that could bring her back to life was preconditioned with a belief that ghosts like her didn't even exist. And knowing Twilight, once she came to a conclusion about something, it took an ungodly amount of persuasion to get her to think otherwise. Fluttershy had half a mind to possess Twilight just to force the unicorn to acknowledge her, but... No, she couldn't be angry at her friend. Anger was forbidden. She just needed to calm down. She took several deep breaths, bottling up her frustration and shoving it deep inside, just as she always had.

She glanced at Applejack, who was wildly looking around in panic, searching for her. Fluttershy frowned. If Applejack was that scared of her, she didn't want to reinforce it by making her fears come true. At the time, she probably couldn't, anyway. She felt strangely... drained after hopping into two other ponies, and she didn't feel like she could do it again.

All day she had felt as if she had unlimited and boundless energy, almost like a Canterlot motor carriage battery was wired to her heart. No matter how fast she ran or flew, no matter how loudly she yelled, she never felt tired. But now, after using an ability that she somehow acquired after death, she felt sleepy. In fact, she felt like taking a nap. Could ghosts sleep?

Given how successful she was at trying to faint earlier, probably not.

"A-are ya sure?" AJ breathed, her irises still constricted. "B-but Rarity was actin' just like Rainbow just now, a-and I know that she ain't in on whatever all this is." An orange hoof swept across the group.

"She would be correct..." Rarity mumbled, her headache subsiding. "I-I felt like I was overshadowed by something..."

"See? It... it happened to Rarity too..." Rainbow's voice was muffled by the pillow on her face.

The room grew colder as seconds passed with no conversation. Twilight craned her neck, swallowing nervously. “Fluttershy...? Are you here?”

The newlydead opened her mouth to say that, yes, she was, she was here, but the words just wouldn’t come. She just felt so tired...

But she tried. Oh, how she tried.

“Yes...” she attempted to squeak, but even to her own ears, it sounded like an almost nonexistent whisper. “Yes...!”

She was feeling woozy now as her intellectual friend looked around. Logical doubt was creeping back up over Twilight’s view of the situation, and Fluttershy’s window of opportunity was rapidly drawing closed. If anyone could bring her back, it was Twilight, but first the unicorn had to believe that Fluttershy was there.

However, that didn’t seem to be happening.

Suddenly Twilight’s eyes grew wide.

“Maybe this wasn’t a trick after all...” she mused worriedly, looking to her friends, her eyes lingering with concern on Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “I don’t think even Rainbow would go this far, and I know Rarity wouldn’t...”

Fluttershy’s eyes lit up even as she struggled to stand.

“...There’s something in this room!” Twilight gasped. “Something that plays with your mind! I don’t know what—a hallucinogenic gas? A madness spell? But whatever it is, it’s tricking us! We need to get out of here, now!”

“...No...!” Fluttershy whispered with all her might as the lavender unicorn fled from the room, her friends following quickly behind her. Fluttershy tried desperately to follow them, but she seemed glued to the ground. It felt like there was a leech attached to her energy levels, greedily drinking its fill.

“That must have been what frightened Rainbow Dash when she first came here!” Fluttershy heard Twilight explaining as her friends rushed down the stairs. “Maybe that’s even why Fluttershy isn’t here herself! Whatever’s been planted in her room must have affected her, and she fled the scene!”

“Ya mean she’s still alive?” Applejack inquired hopefully, her southern drawl carrying up through the open bedroom window. They were outside now.

“In all likelihood, yes,” Twilight affirmed with an air of relief in her own voice. “But she might be severely disoriented. We don’t know how long she’s been exposed to whatever’s in there, or who planted it there in the first place... Maybe Fluttershy really was kidnapped, and the perpetrators left something behind to throw investigators off the trail!”

“Wait a minute...” Rainbow Dash spoke up. Oh, how Fluttershy wished she could muster up the strength to go over to the window and see them as well as hear them! “You think this is all the result of some crazy magic gas? I know what I saw!”

“You think you know what you saw,” Twilight countered. “Which is more likely? Fluttershy suddenly dying for some unknown reason, and then her body disappearing, or something making her leave and making anypony who sees her room hallucinate?”

“That... does kinda sense, I guess...” Rainbow sighed, and there was hope in her voice. Fluttershy knew she would feel the same — with this explanation, there was still a good chance that their friend was alive and well-ish. Too bad it was all false... and the longer it took them to realize that, the longer it would take them to finally get around to bringing her back. And who knew what was happening to her body in the meantime? She couldn’t exactly come back to life in a body that was already rotting!

“Have to... stop them...” the ghost uttered, unable to even take a single step despite how hard she tried. She could already hear them trotting away, talking about organizing a search party at Town Hall to look for a disoriented butterscotch pegasus.

After several minutes of simply standing there, unbearably tired but unable to sleep, Fluttershy could feel her strength beginning to ebb back. She finally lifted one hoof, then another, then a third, moving each limb faster than the last. Her wings at last were able to stretch.

She could move again! She had to fly back to her friends, had to... But no, any time she tried to interact with them again, wouldn’t they just think that it was the lingering effects of whatever ‘had permeated’ her bedroom? She would have to interact with them indirectly... Perhaps possessing another pony would help? Somepony who hadn’t been ‘exposed?’

“Fluttershy!”

The newlydead whirled around, seeing Dearly Departed galloping through the wall.

“Where were you just now?” Fluttershy demanded. Then, realizing she had spoken so brashly, she quickly attempted to amend things. “Um... I mean, where did you go? And where’s my body?”

“Your animal friends took it into the Everfree Forest,” Dearly informed her quickly. “But we have to go, now!”

“Go?” Fluttershy echoed. “Go where?”

“Anywhere but here!” Dearly insisted. “Come on!”

The other ghostly mare shot off towards the far wall, but Fluttershy swooped to intercept her. Timid or not, she wanted answers, especially when it came to something that blocked her from returning to her friends.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on!” Fluttershy retorted. “I mean, please! I need to know what’s happening!”

“Fine!” Dearly exasperated. “But on your head be it! I followed your animal friends to see where they would put your body so I could tell you where it was later, but unfortunately they took it to some clearing in the middle of the forest!”

That doesn’t seem to so bad... thought Fluttershy, wondering what all the fuss was about.

“Normally that wouldn’t be a problem,” Dearly continued. “But the clearing is swarming with Shadows!”

“Shadows?” Fluttershy echoed. “What’s wrong with shadows?”

“Not the kind that the Sun casts,” the ghostly guide explained. “Shadows are monsters who live in the Hereafter, even though they were never alive in the first place. They eat ghosts, devouring your soul until you’re nothing at all. They’re not too much trouble in small numbers, but there’s a whole swarm milling about your body. We can’t get near it!”

Fluttershy suddenly felt very, very cold. Something that could eat a ghost? Her mind couldn’t even fully grasp the concept of simply ceasing to exist. How could you become nothingness? The pegasus ghost wasn’t sure if she could think of a worse fate.

“What’s more,” Dearly Departed continued. “Some of them spotted me! I’ve been running from a pack of them since I got here, which means they’re right on my tail! We have to leave now, before they catch up to me and eat us both!”

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as the feeling of cold turned to a howling blizzard in her chest. She nodded, turning to follow her guide as the earth pony ghost galloped to the far wall, only to screech to a halt.

Tendrils of darkness, looking as if somepony had peeled a regular shadow off the floor and rolled it up, were seeping through the far wall. Dearly backed up fearfully to Fluttershy, who could now see more of the shadowy tentacles sliding through all sides of the room.

. . .

Comments

[silvadel]

Potential destruction on the material plane seems to be quite the impetus for a ghost to move on to somewhere less dangerous.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

2198396
congrats! i myself am in university right now, and i know exactly how hard it can be to get into a good one.

[kingtiger666]

they took it to some clearing in the middle of the forest!

The soil of a pony’s heart is stonier; a mare grows what she can and tends to it.

[Eighth Note]

DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!

[Yinglung]

hohoHo, that's surely been an amusingly (to the readers) unnerving (to the characters) turn of event.
And I think that is one of the few times that I see a character's 'no time to explain' excuse being shot down by determination alone.

[shyguy7829]

Whoa, possession? This story just got 20% cooler.

[M1k3y]

Ohhh Twilight you frustrate me.

[M1k3y]

2198396
Oh boy, that beast is going to be fun to tame for my generation.

[Racheakt]

Here there be Hollows?

[FlutterMedicZerek]

I bet Derpy is going to get Possessed :D

[ChaoCream]

Another brilliant story! Poor Fluttershy... I feel so bad for her...

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh, Twilight. So prone to confirmation bias. Honestly, you need to learn how to think like a scientist, girl.

Oh, and here's hoping Fluttershy's soul isn't devoured by negative energy beings from beyond the pale.

But seriously, Twi, gather the data, then make your conclusion. Not the other way around.

[Zervziel]

2198396 It's only taken me six weeks to catch up, but I finally did! I am liking the premise and the story. Shame that the Mane 5 are denser than tungsten.

[staples]

Poor Rainbow Dash...I would love to see more of this!

[GreenJay942]

This fanfic is great. I wish this can continue. If only there were more fanfics that are sort of similar to this. OCs or actual MLP characters.