Silver dust
It is a bright and sunny day in Ponyville. The grass is as green as it could be, the birds are chirping, and even the clouds the clouds seem fluffier than normal. A yellow pegasus mare with a pink mane and a pink tail stands in the field alone with a white bunny rabbit as they watch the clouds pass by. She sighs.
“It sure is a nice day, isn’t it Angel?” she says, patting the rabbit’s head.
“Yep, it sure is,” says a voice to the mare. She looks around but doesn’t see anypony, so she looks back at Angel.
“Did you say that, Angel?” she asks. He shakes his head.
“No, I didn’t say anything,” he says in a higher pitched voice. Fluttershy’s eyes light up.
“Angel, you can talk?” she says, then she looks frantically around.
“But wait, if you didn’t say that, who did?”
“I did,” says the voice, and a unicorn stallion appears in front of her. He is silvery-grey with a light-blue mane and tail. His eyes are light-blue as well, and he has some red spots around his back and neck with an image of a clock on his flank. He walks closer only for Fluttershy to back up a bit.
“She’s kind of shy,” says Angel. The stallion still approaches Fluttershy.
“Relax,” he says, “I’m Silver Dust.” He offers his hoof to help her up. Fluttershy looks up.
"What's your name?" he asks.
“Well, um, I’m…” she mutters.
Suddenly there’s a flash of light, and Fluttershy is in her bedroom, the real Angel kicking her and clearly terrified. Fluttershy yawns, gets up, and looks around. It’s the middle of the night, and even though it’s winter, it’s really warm in her room.
“What is it?” she asks. Angel points to the wall, shivering in fear. She looks and gasps as she sees a note appear on the wall, which reads:
“Your little friend stopped our conversation, so I guess I’ll have to meet with you tomorrow night.
yours truly,
Silver Dust”
Fluttershy squeals and hugs Angel tightly like a stuffed animal. For once Angel accepts it and hugs back, clearly just as scared and confused as she is. They leave the house and rush over to Twilight’s castle. Fluttershy bangs furiously on the door until Twilight opens it, blinking and rubbing her eyes with her hoof.
“Fluttershy?” she groans, "What are you doing here at 3:00 in the morning?”
“IWASDREAMINGABOUTANGELTALKINGWHENSUDDENLYAGHOSTINMYDREAMSWOKEMEUPANDGAVEMETHISNOTEONTHEWALL,” explains Fluttershy as Angel bounces up and down, shaking his arms.
“Huh?” asks Twilight. Fluttershy hands twilight the note that was left on the wall and Angel plays dead. Twilight reads it aloud for a second, then looks at Fluttershy, confused.
“I don't know what to make of this,” says Twilight.
“I don't either, it just showed up on my wall,” says Fluttershy. Twilight yawns again.
“Look, why don't you stay here for the night, and we’ll investigate in the morning.”
"Thanks," says Fluttershy.
"Don't mention it," says Twilight, and trots to her bedroom. Fluttershy leaves not long after towards the guest bedroom.
The next morning, Fluttershy and Twilight send a letter to Luna asking her about Fluttershy's dream last night, then head back to Fluttershy's cottage, taking spike and leaving angel behind.
“Why do I have to go?” Spike asks, wide-eyed and trembling.
“Because we need to know when Luna responds,” says Twilight, “besides, I’m sure we’ll be fine, Spike.”
“OH! I can’t believe I only brought Angel with me, I may have put my other animals in danger!” exclaims Fluttershy.
"What exactly happened last night, anyway?”
"Um, why?" asks Fluttershy.
"Because I need to know who that guy was.”
"Well, ok, but I need to know my animals are safe," Fluttershy says. She groans, then suddenly snaps.
"I'M COMING!" she yells as she grabs Twilight and flies quickly towards her cottage, leaving Spike behind. When they arrive, Fluttershy frantically opens the door, and when they enter the cottage the animals inside are all fine but seemingly spooked. Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief.
“See? Everything’s fine,” says Twilight.
“Yeah, but Silver Dust says he'll be back tonight,” says Fluttershy, "I'm scared.”
“Ok, then we’ll look where you saw the message.”
They trot upstairs to Fluttershys bedroom, where the temperature suddenly jumps several degrees.
"That's odd," says Twilight. she pulls a book out of her saddlebag titled “Unseen Creatures.”
"I didn't read anything about strange heat in this book," says Twilight. Suddenly the front door opens, and Spike comes running up the stairs, out of breath.
"Hey, Luna responded," says Spike, who burps up a letter addressed from Luna.
"And don't leave me like that next time.” Twilight levitates the letter and opens it, then reads the elegantly written cursive out loud:
"Regarding Fluttershy’s dream last night:
Of course I will help you and your friend. I shall do my best to provide as much information as I can.
Last night I was dragged out of her dream as it ended, and your friend stopped dreaming quite early on last night. It's an unusual occurrence, but it happens sometimes when one is woken up during their dream. Before she awoke, she was dreaming of being in a grassy meadow. I’m afraid that’s all I know."
"Odd," says Twilight, "that matches your description, but it ends far earlier."
Suddenly she remembers something.
"Is Discord around?" she asks, annoyed.
"No, the last time he was here was a couple weeks ago.”
"Well, there's definitely something strange going on here.”
"Y-Ya," says Spike, still shivering, “Hey Twilight, there wouldn’t happen to be any chores or anything back at the castle, would there?”
"You can leave now if you want, Spike," she says. Spike runs off and they investigate Fluttershy’s bedroom. She points at the wall where the note was, but there's just a nail there.
"That's where the note was," says Fluttershy.
"Uh-huh," says Twilight. She walks around the room searching, but it was still incredibly hot.
"What's with the heat?" Twilight groans.
"Ya, I can't stand it either," says Fluttershy. Twilight casts a cold spell on the room, but the magic has no effect.
"Ugh, we're practically being baked alive," says Twilight as she notices some red glowing sparks in her fur.
"Hang on," she says as she looks through the book again. After a minute she groans and slams the book shut.
"Nothing."
"It's even warmer than last night," says Fluttershy, "How about we try again tomorrow?"
"Good idea," says Twilight, "then I can find a spell to counter this somewhere."
"Wait, what about my animals?"
"We can bring them. I think they may actually be in danger here."
"Ok," whispers Fluttershy as she brings them all out. They head back towards the castle, where Twilight finds Spike and enters the castle. Fluttershy finds places for her animals, though a few seem to be scared of Fluttershy now.
Later that night, Fluttershy is still sleeping in the castle, but is having trouble sleeping.
"He's not coming," she repeats to herself. Eventually her eyes finally close, and suddenly she finds herself in a lush forest surrounded by the sounds of birds. The animals were gathered around her when a tall black alicorn mare approached her.
“Luna?” asked Fluttershy, “Why are you here?”
“Twilight told me about the strange events, and I came to investigate,” says Luna. Suddenly she turns slightly translucent.
“What’s happening?” Fluttershy asks.
“It appears something is dragging me out of the dream again,” says Luna. She becomes more and more transparent when Silver Dust appears.
“Hello young mare,” he says. Fluttershy backs up a bit.
“And hi Luna,” He sighs, sounding a bit disgruntled.
“Do I know you?” she says still fading out.
“No but there’s not enough time to explain why I hate you,” he says, and pretty much immediately after she vanishes. Silver Dust walks up to Fluttershy.
“Now, I believe we still haven’t been properly introduced,” he says. Fluttershy is shaking now.
“I-I’m F-Fluttershy" she says “w-what a-are you”.
“I don't know anymore myself,” he says, looking down, "but I know I'm not alive anymore.”Fluttershy squeals and tries to run, but Silver dust grabs her hoof with his magic.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
"I'm scared," Fluttershy says. She accidentally hits his head with her hoof and he cries out in extreme agony.
"What's wrong?" asks Fluttershy. She then recoils as she sees a red liquid drip from the back of his neck, staining his coat, similar to his spots. He throws Fluttershy against a tree and holds his gash.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know that would happen!” she cries out.
“Do you have any idea, how much that hurts,” he screams as more blood stains the ground around him and begins getting closer to her.
Fluttershy cowers under the tree as Silver gets closer. Silver manages to calm down a bit as he sees the mare cowering against a tree. He walks over to her and sighs.
“Sorry,” he says, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” But the mare can’t hear him.
Suddenly the dream starts falling apart as Fluttershy wakes up terrified. In her bed she wakes up and looks at the clock: it’s 4:00 AM. The room seems completely undisturbed. Not even a note was placed. She gets out of bed when her hoof lands in something wet and sticky. Upon realizing this Fluttershy jumps and hovers in the air. The floor was coated in a small portion of the blood that dripped off Silver dust.
Fluttershy screams as she sees the blood, and Twilight frantically comes in and sees the blood too.
"What happened?" she asks.
"He's still here," Fluttershy squeaks as the same heat felt in Fluttershy’s house fills the castle’s halls.