Amnesia: Fluttershy

by Yukito

Chapter 5

Fluttershy pulled hard on the door to make it open. It inched open slightly, and the chilling sounds of the Brute outside caused her to stop for a moment, until Twilight assured her that it would be ok. She took a long, deep breath, and continued pulling. Eventually, the door was completely open, and standing outside of the room was the creature that was chasing Fluttershy moments earlier. It immediately started charging towards Fluttershy, who responded by turning and running towards the back of the chamber as quickly as she could.

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy! FLUTTERSHY!”

It took three yells from Twilight for Fluttershy to stop running, and realise that the Brute was no longer chasing her. She slowly turned around, and saw the Brute standing perfectly still, caught by Twilight’s spell in mid-chase. “Oh, um…Sorry, Twilight…” She said with a slight blush on her face.

“It’s ok. But let’s get out of her quickly. This spell won’t last for long.” Twilight turned towards the door and began to leave, but stopped when she saw a figure approaching her slowly from down the hallway. It was a pink pony that she recognised all too well. Pinkie Pie. And she had the most furious look on her face that Twilight had ever seen. Blood was dripping from an injury running down her side, and she was limping as she made her way towards the chamber.

“Party’s over…” Pinkie Pie held up the large knife she was holding, her menacing eyes freezing Twilight in place as she picked up her pace. “Time to DIE!”

Twilight couldn’t move one inch. She stood perfectly still, her body aching where Pinkie had previously wounded her. Pinkie made her way closer to Twilight, and Twilight could only watch in horror as her end fast approached her.

“NO!” Fluttershy tackled Pinkie Pie to the ground, causing her to drop her knife, which slid across the floor, into a dark corner of the room. Fluttershy quickly stood back up, and grabbed Twilight’s hoof, snapping Twilight out of her trance. “Come on!”

The two mares began running quickly down the hallway, leaving Pinkie Pie behind. Pinkie slowly stood up, and stared into the direction where Fluttershy and Twilight had fled. “Damnit…You can run but you can’t HIDE!” She began running after them, but stopped when the room began to shake violently. “Whoa! What the-” She looked up to see the ceiling start to collapse, letting out a gut-wrenching scream as she was crushed by the sheer weight of the rubble falling down onto her.

Fluttershy and Twilight were both starting to grow tired, but continued pushing themselves to run as fast as they could. The entire room start to shake violently, the ceiling collapsing behind them, and a strong gust of wind blew out the few torches and candles that were lit, leaving them in complete darkness. “Marco!”

It took Fluttershy a few seconds to realise what Twilight was doing. “Polo!” Since they were in darkness, they needed to make sure they didn’t get separated.

“Marc-AH!” Twilight tripped over when she felt a sharp pain in her hoof, and realised that the Shadow was spawning some of its pink matter to kill them. “Marco!” She quickly rose to her hooves, and continued running, although she was slower than just a few moments ago, due to the pain.

“Polo!” Fluttershy and Twilight realised that they had distanced themselves quite a bit when she tripped over, but they were still close enough to each other, so they simply continued running down the long, dark hallway. Fluttershy was forced to stop when the ceiling collapsed in front of her, blocking passage for the two ponies. “AH!” She jumped to the side and hugged the wall when she felt a familiar burning feeling at her feet. She heard Twilight approaching her, and quickly reached for her lantern. She lit it up, bringing some light into the hallway. Another roar and violent shake, and the two realised the situation that they were in. The ceiling was going to collapse any second now, and there was nowhere to go…Except…

“There!” Twilight pointed towards a small hole at the bottom of the wall. There were bars covering it, but they had been broken enough that the two would be able to slip through. They had no idea what was through the small hole, but they didn’t have any other choice. Twilight helped Fluttershy pass through the hole, and then followed after her, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a giant rock.

“Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked as she helped Twilight stand up.

“Yeah, I’m fine…And we seem to have lost the Shadow for now.” Twilight said, pointing out the calmness that had returned to the mansion. “But it’ll find us soon. We should hurry.”

“But where are we?”

“Hm…Looks like we’re in the sewers…” Twilight and Fluttershy looked around them, and saw that they were in a rather damp room filled with dirty-looking water, which branched off into four different directions. Of each branch, only one wasn’t barred up, and so that was the only path they could take. “Well, no point standing around. Let’s go.”

Fluttershy nodded, and turned off her lantern, since the sewers were fairly well lit. She followed Twilight down the pathway, but stopped after a few steps, collapsing to the ground and blacking out. She saw a blurry vision of Twilight calling out to her, and soon her ears starting to ring very loudly.

---

Rarity woke up in a dark room, strapped to a cold, metal table. A light was turned on suddenly, which would have caused her to shut her eyes if they weren’t being forced open. Instead, her eyes were welling up with tears, and she couldn’t see anything in front of her. She tried to move her body, but soon found that she was bound tightly to the table, and that her mouth was gagged, so she couldn’t call for help, either.

“Gooooood morning, Rarity!” Pinkie Pie, who had been waiting next to the white Unicorn for some time now, placed her head in front of Rarity. Rarity was soon able to see Pinkie’s face, although it was a bit blurry. She continued struggling against her restraints, and tried to ask Pinkie Pie what was going on, but the gag was muffling her voice completely. “I’m so glad you woke up! It’s no fun when the victim sleeps through the live autopsy!”

“Um…” Pinkie Pie turned around to look at the pony behind her. “C-Can I…Go now?”

“Oh, yeah! And don’t worry! I’ve released your friends! They should be having fun in the meadows by now!” Pinkie Pie picked up a blood-stained knife, gave it a slow lick with her tongue, and then raised it above Rarity. “You sure you don’t wanna stay, Shy? The first cut is always the best!”

Fluttershy didn’t answer. Instead, she simply walked away from the scene, slowly ascending the stairs. She heard the loud, muffled screams of pain coming from Rarity, and had to force herself not to turn back. “I’m sorry…” She whispered, tears falling from her face. She had lead yet another friend to Pinkie Pie, the mad pony who loved to torture her victims as she killed them. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to. If she didn’t, not only would she be killed, but her animal friends would be, too. At first, she thought that she could take Pinkie by surprise, and overpower her. However, after the first three victims, she realised that she couldn’t by herself. And by that point, it was too late. She had become an accomplice, and if she asked anypony for help, even Pinkie hadn’t killed her, there would be no future left for her.

She was scared. She didn’t know what to do, so she continued aiding Pinkie Pie, constantly at odds with herself.

‘I should stop this, now! I have to let my friends know what’s going on!’

‘But if I do that, Angel and the others…They’ll be killed…’

‘How many more lives must I sacrifice to save my own skin?’

‘But it’s too late to go back now…I can’t…I can’t ever return to what I was once was…’

“I’m sorry, Rarity…” She rushed up the stairs, out of Pinkie’s prison, her eyes clenched shut as her tears flowed out of them quickly.

---

“An Amnesia Potion?” Fluttershy examined the vial. “What does it do?”

“A single gulp, and your life will be refreshed. Excellent for clearing memories which make you depressed.” Zecora answered, reaching over and taking a lizard tail from the shelf next to her.

“You mean…It makes you forget things?” Twilight asked, looking at the vial next to Fluttershy. “Hey! Maybe we can use this on Pinkie Pie! It might turn her back into the friend she once was!”

“Great minds think alike. But I doubt she will take it without a fight.”

Fluttershy moved over to the corner of the room, staring at the vial with mixed feelings running through her head. ‘If I take this…I can return to the life I once had…But if we can use it to save Pinkie…But then what about me? She’ll be saved, but I…There’s too much blood on my hooves…What do I do? I…I don’t know what to do anymore…’ Fluttershy would be crying right now, if her spirit hadn't already been broken long ago.

“Fluttershy! Run!” Fluttershy snapped out of it, and saw Twilight and Zecora using magic and potions respectively to hold three Grunts at bay.

---

“My friends…My friends are all gone…Twilight’s been captured…Zecora’s probably dead…I’m all alone…” Fluttershy looked down the corridor around the corner, and continued walking when she saw that it was safe. “I’m all alone…Pinkie…You’ve taken everything from me…” She looked at the Amnesia Potion in her hooves, and took a deep breath in order to prepare herself. “I’ll die here, then. But I won’t let you win, Pinkie Pie. The new me will defeat you. I’ll let her have the life that you stole from me…” She brought the Amnesia Potion to her lips, and took a big gulp.

“Ah!” She dropped the vial, and fell to the floor, holding her head as a migraine started to form. “Please…Save…Twilight…”

---

Fluttershy woke up in a very bright room, with the sound of gushing water all around her. She looked around, and saw that she was sitting in what looked like a maintenance room. There were levers in front of her, and machinery that was inactive all around the room. “Twilight?” She called out, unable to see the purple Unicorn anywhere. She took a moment to remember what had happened, and then suddenly threw up on the floor. She remembered the dream that she had…The memories within her that had awoken. The Amnesia Potion must have worn off. And if those memories were real, that meant that…

“I…What have I done?” She held her head tightly, trying desperately to forget everything again. She had helped Pinkie Pie to kill her friends. She was to blame for many of her friends’ deaths. She sat down in that room for a good while, begging for the horrible memories that were still returning to her to go away.

A loud crash snapped her out of her daze, and the machinery around her started to make noise, steam started to flow out of the vents, and gears started to turn. She heard the sound of a gate rising behind, and turned to see a large gate rising up, revealing a large, stone staircase, leading quite a ways up.

She stood up, and noticed a piece of paper falling from her body. She picked it up off the floor, and read it carefully.

Fluttershy,

The gate here is locked tight. I need to go re-activate the machinery to get it working. You should be safe here. I don’t think I’ll be able to come back, so if you wake up before I return, just go on ahead. Zecora’s potion should be in one of the rooms above us. There will be a map there, too. Go to the Orb Chamber. Save yourself.

Twilight Sparkle.

Fluttershy read the note twice, to make she that she had read it correctly. She had a terrible headache, and she had to examine the paper closely, stopping every now and then to absorb what she was reading.

She looked over at the stairway leading upstairs. She then looked back at the letter, and continued shifting her gaze between the two. Part of her wanted to bolt up the stairs, and get out of this mansion. To just end this nightmare once and for all.

But another part told her that she couldn’t leave without Twilight. It just wouldn’t be right. She was her friend, and had helped her so much. She had put her life on the line to help Fluttershy escape, and what had Fluttershy done? She helped a psychopathic pony murder her friends. In Fluttershy’s mind, if anypony deserved to escape from this place, it certainly wasn’t her.

She made up her mind, and walked over to her bag, which was lying in one of the corners of the room. She picked it up, fastened it onto her body tightly, and then headed towards the only door in the room. “Ok…Here goes nothing…”

She opened the door slightly, and peeked through the crack. It seemed relatively safe outside, and it was well-lit. She opened the door completely, and took a step outside. The hallway split into two directions, but Fluttershy was able to tell which path Twilight took through the pipes running along the ceiling, which only travelled in one of the two directions.

She started to follow the pipes down the rather warm hallway, thankful that the area was very well lit, since she was in no frame of mind to travel in complete darkness right now. Eventually, she reached a large double door at the end of the hallway. She opened it slightly, and saw that, although there was still some light inside, the light was very dim. She heard a loud roar behind her, and felt a chill running down her spine. ‘The Shadow is closing in! I have to find Twilight, fast!’

Calming her nerves, and preparing her lantern in case she needed it, Fluttershy built up the courage to open the door, and enter the dark room on the other side.

Comments

[Kiryu]

My congratulations, another successful chapter