Every time I see her face on a poster I feel compelled to ring it with flowers and write “my condolences.” I won’t have to wait much longer though, because today my passions will finally become realized.
Have you ever felt cheated out of your destiny? Felt like greatness should have been yours?
I have - no, I do - or I was.
It's my destiny to be great. I know that now. Or maybe I've always known and just kept holding myself back. The worst - no, the best - part is that nobody knows who I am. That almost makes it too easy.
But I'm going to change that. You'll see. Soon everyone will know who I am. They will see that I'm extraordinary.
I will finally be recognized for the greatness I deserve.
Twilight stared at the large wooden crate wrapped in a scarlet bow that had just arrived in the mail. It was only thanks to the mailpony clearing his throat that her attention was diverted.
“I need a signature. Just sign here, please.”
“Right, here you go.” Twilight quickly signed the paper and tipped him for his work. Once he was gone, she went back to studying the box.
“Who do you think it’s from?” asked Spike, who was equally as perplexed as Twilight.
“I’m not sure.”
She circled, trying to figure out who might have sent it. She saw a crowbar securely fastened to one side and an envelope with the words, ‘A Friend’ written on the face. But there was no other written address besides her own.
“The box looks like something Applejack would construct, but the bow would be more of Rarity’s sort of thing. However, this could be Pinkie Pie’s doing or maybe one of Rainbow Dash’s pranks.”
Eager and curious to learn the truth, Twilight grabbed the envelope in her magic and opened it.
Princess Twilight Sparkle,
It is my greatest pleasure to give you this invention of my own making. May it serve you well until the very end.
P.S: Save the best for last. There is a surprise waiting.
Sadly, Twilight didn’t recognize the penmanship, so it ruled out anyone she knew, not helped by the cryptic message. Although, it didn’t stop her from considering that one of them simply asked someone else to write it.
Deciding to bite the proverbial bullet, Twilight untied the bow and pried at the edges of the box with the provided crowbar, though she struggled to even move it. Thankfully, to her surprise, once one side popped loose, the rest of the box toppled over like a house of cards.
From the mountain of packing peanuts emerged a pony-shaped object, roosted on a pole on top of a platform. Upon closer inspection, it was seemingly made of wood, painted white, with a smooth, porcelain-like surface.
“A ponyquin?”
“Looks like it,” Spike said, eyeing the item warily. “Wait, the joints look like they can move on their own. Maybe it’s a robot?”
“No, it looks more like an automaton. Which is an older version of a robot powered by gears and springs.”
Now more intrigued, Twilight approached the object, wondering how it tied in with the message on the note.
An interesting detail was that the figure wore clothing. More specifically, it was a simple maid's outfit that was short, ensuring plenty of free movement with regards to the limbs.
Looking more closely at the outfit, Twilight noticed a thin scarlet ribbon around its neck, and there, fastened to the string, was the wind-up key.
A noticeable rectangular bulge poked up from under the apron. Upon closer inspection, Twilight saw that it was an instruction manual. She grabbed it with her magic and read through the glossary. Spike, on the other hoof, had different ideas.
Too curious for his own good, he took the key and searched for where to use it. It didn’t take him long to find the keyhole located between the shoulder blade section at the base of the neck, and he immediately wound it up.
The clicking noise distracted Twilight from her reading, making her look up, spotting Spike mid-turn. While part of her wanted to reprimand him for the potentially harmful action, she remained quiet, wishing to witness the automaton’s first activity. To that end, she waited for Spike to finish winding it.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Having waited long enough, Twilight took over with her magic and finished winding the automaton. When the key finally stopped rotating, she removed it from the slot. A long-winded sigh escaped her mouth. “Sweet Celestia, that took forever. I hope it was worth it.”
Taking a step back, Spike and Twilight watched with anticipation.
Nothing happened.
“Did we over-wind it?” Spike scratched his head. "Let’s see if this works.” He gave a hard kick to the platform, but only to end up hurting his foot. “Ow!”
Ignoring her assistant’s pain, Twilight noticed a section bounce up for a fraction of a second, hinting to her there was a compartment inside the platform. She walked up to the spot and lifted it. Inside were a variety of disks neatly sorted and labeled.
Twilight pulled some of them out and read them aloud. “‘The Floors’, ‘The Dishes’, ‘The Cooking’... ‘The Book Sorting’? ‘The Writing’.” Then she saw a disk with a less elegant-looking label, only having simple tape with writing scrawled across it. “'The Best.' Oh! 'Save the best for last.' That makes sense now.”
“So, does that mean it’s supposed to help around the castle?” Spike said with fascination. “That’s cool, but it’s still not moving.”
“Let me look through the instructions.” She went back to the pamphlet. “To dismount Cogspring - ah, that’s a nice name - from her stand, press the nose.”
Spike did as instructed, and a clicking noise sounded. A mechanical whirring was heard as the post supporting Cogspring retracted into the belly, allowing it to stand on its own.
“This is really cool!” said Spike, jumping with excitement. “What’s next?”
“To give Cogspring a command, insert a command disk by first… pulling the nose.” Saying that did not make Twilight feel any less awkward, as it frankly sounded like the setup to some kind of gag.
Of course, Spike happily grabbed the nose and carefully pulled, not wanting to cause any damage. Another click sounded, followed by the face abruptly splitting down the middle, startling both Twilight and Spike.
Once their nerves settled down, they watched a vacant slot extend out. “I’m guessing that’s where a command disk goes. Which one should we try first?” Spike said, looking at Twilight for an answer.
“Hm. Let’s do ‘The Floors.’ I want to see what it does about these packing peanuts.”
Twilight placed the command disk into the slot, and it sat still. Confused, she looked at the instructions again and found that she needed to push it more to close the head. The satisfying sound of clockwork noises followed its every move as it whirled to life, standing on its hind legs, extending its foreleg, opening a notch in the hoof, then stopped.
Another look at the instructions informed them that a broom needed to be inserted into the slot and advised them to put Cogspring into the far right corner of the room.
Twilight levitated the automaton into place, amazed that it still held its balance, and put the broom handle in the notch. More clicking sounded as it started to sweep in a predetermined fashion, the rhythmic noise blissful music to the alicorn’s ears.
Twilight watched it work, wide-eyed and drooling over the intricately crafted mechanics. “I must know how this was built!” She said, even more amazed than before over the exceedingly sophisticated craftsmanship than the task it was performing.
The two continued to watch Cogspring work until it hit the wall… literally. It stopped sweeping and turned ninety degrees. Cogspring took two steps, sweeping the floor in front of it, turned another ninety, and continued on its path sweeping the same direction in an opposite motion, pushing the debris towards the far left wall.
“That’s super cool and all, but what happens when it hits furniture?” Spike asked. He pictured it leaving all kinds of messes behind and being more trouble to clean up after it than it was worth.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Twilight said before moving a couch in Cogspring’s path. When the broom bumped into the sofa, Cogspring paused, clicking and whirring in place, and adjusted to its new surroundings. A glittering aura surrounded the couch, and, in jaw-dropping amazement, it was lifted into the air.
“It can use magic!?” Both Spike and Twilight said simultaneously, utterly in awe of the display.
“Okay, that does it. I’m going to take that thing apart and learn all of its secrets!” Twilight grinned and squealed with foalish delight. “But first, let’s see what else Cogspring can do.”
After the floor was thoroughly swept, another spell was used to compress the packing peanuts, dust, and dirt into a solid brick for easy transport to the garbage bin.
Twilight and Spike used the command disk labeled ‘The Dishes’ next and placed Cogspring in front of the sink. As instructed in the manual, the preparations required the dishes to be presorted before Cogspring could start the task.
By this point, it was becoming evident why Cogspring had taken so long to wind up. The longevity of her performance required a lot of spring power. Though it was clearly worth the effort.
Positively giddy by this point, Twilight ripped Cogspring away from finishing the dishes and brought the automaton into the library. She dried off its hooves and inserted ‘The Book Sorting’ command disk, unable to contain her excitement.
Cogspring’s limbs extended, essentially turning her into a library sliding ladder without the rungs. Testing with a few books, Twilight would place the book onto Cogspring’s torso, and it would use magic to identify the text before navigating to where it belonged.
Twilight was finding it increasingly difficult to restrain herself from jumping straight into dismantling the automaton. Everything it did was not necessarily perfect, but it operated with incredible accuracy on each of the provided tasks it came with.
“The functionality of this thing is beyond anything I’ve ever read about,” she said giddily, bouncing in place with glee. “I can’t wait any longer. Although, I’ve got to see what ‘The Best’ command disk does before I take it apart.”
Spike ran to retrieve the disk as Twilight prepared Cogspring to insert the command, retracting its limbs back to a pony’s natural length. She was ready by the time Spike returned.
Opening the compartment and putting ‘The Best’ command into place, Twilight closed it and grinned with anticipation, awaiting the surprise it held within.
The front half of Cogspring’s neck separated from the back just under the head, ticking, clicking, and whirling as it slowly moved. A pair of lenses lengthened outward and positioned themselves, tempting Twilight to look through them.
“Well, that was anticlimactic. What even is that?” asked Spike, unfamiliar with the concept.
“It looks like a stereoscopic viewer. That’s something used to look at two almost identical pictures simultaneously, giving the optical illusion that it has dimension to the image. Or it could be a microscope?”
Twilight put her face into the viewer, ever curious as ever, feeling her forehead press into a pressure switch. The image was absurdly blurry at first, but she heard the automaton adjust the lenses’ focus to match her face shape. Once the picture cleared, there was only one single word.
Twilight’s face scrunched in confusion as she read it aloud, understanding the joke but not finding it funny. “Surprise?” A metallic swish sounded as she felt a sting in her chest. Intense pain spread through her body like it was on fire, shock preventing her from screaming.
“T-Twilight!” Spike shouted, eyes widened in horror. Slowly looking down, Twilight saw the razor-sharp rapier blade piercing her heart and protruding out her back. Utterly stunned by the sudden attack, she slowly gripped the sword subconsciously in her trembling hoof and tugged as if that would be enough to solve her problem. However, she had enough sense not to remove it, lest she bleed out completely.
Twilight felt both hot and cold as her body trembled, slowly going numb as warm blood started to leak out of her chest and mouth.
In the final moments of her consciousness, she sensed a rapid build-up of unstable magical energy. Without moving, she enveloped Spike in her magic aura, thrusting him out through the stained glass window just before Cogspring exploded.
Sweetie Belle heard muffled grunts and groans coming from her sister's room. She opened the door and saw a very annoyed Rarity struggling to remove a necklace. Next to her on the ground laid an elaborate yet simple-looking dress.
“Is something the matter?” Sweetie asked, eyeing the odd situation.
“Ah, perfect timing,” Rarity said through clenched teeth. “Someone sent me this… outfit in the… mail.” She fought against the eye-catching jeweled accessory for a moment longer before admitting defeat. “I’m not sure from who, though, but the letter that it came with only said ‘A Friend’.” Her voice sounded strained, as though she was having trouble speaking. “Oh, come on! This thing was so easy to put on.”
“Want me to try?” asked Sweetie, eager to help her sister.
Relief washed over Rarity’s face. “Oh, yes, darling, please! I have no idea why, but no matter what I do, it feels like it keeps getting tighter — Ah! Careful! That’s pulling my mane out!” She cried out, now feeling the necklace starting to dig into her skin.
“Sorry. I’ll try to be more careful. This thing is not wanting to let go.”
“Anyway, it just looked so lovely I had to try it on. But when I did, I realized it should be worn at a more formal… reception. So I was… going… to… Please hurry, dear. It’s getting rather hard for me to... breath!” Rarity ripped herself away from her sister’s attempt, desperately trying to bring the necklace away from her skin for one decent breath.
Unfortunately, doing so pulled it tighter still. Rarity felt her neck starting to swell at an unnaturally accelerated rate, much like an allergic reaction. The chain was now cutting deep enough into her neck to draw blood.
Sweetie Belle panicked as she helplessly watched Rarity stumble around and fall on the floor, her face turning blue.
“Get… … help… …” Rarity barely squeaked past her sapphire lips before her throat swelled shut.
Sweetie Belle ran outside in tears, shaking with panic and fear for her sister's life. “He~lp! Someone! My sister’s in trouble!”
Chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, pop, thunk. Apples fell from the tree and into the contraption gifted to Applejack by ‘A Friend’ in the mail. She smiled as she watched more apples gather into the nearly-filled barrel attached to a funnel connected to a wagon.
Applejack chuckled before she spoke her mind, “And to think I never thought I’d use somethin’ like this in my life. This almost makes my job too easy.”
“I told ya it’d be useful, didn’t I?” said Apple Bloom, walking next to her sister and gathering any stray apples.
“Sure did, sugarcube. Ah’m glad I listened to ya.”
Being on an apple farm, all the trees were evenly spaced. When Applejack pulled the apple harvester down the rows of trees, it would wind up a mechanism attached to a wooden pole that released with the same force as a buck.
There was no magic involved or long-winded, complicated instruction manuals, only easy-to-read illustrations showing how it worked and how to adjust it as needed. A few tweaks were necessary to get the accurate distance between the trees, but after fifteen minutes of harvesting, Applejack had completed nearly an hour's worth of work. Sure she generally preferred to get her hooves dirty, but it still took honest hard work to pull and operate.
When she first laid eyes on the thing that morning, she had her doubts and wasn’t too keen on strapping herself into it. Perhaps it was from pride. Or maybe it somewhat resembled a smaller version of the monstrosity Flim and Flam road in on when she first met the sleazy business ponies. It was also strange how it only had one set size that happened to match Applejack’s body perfectly.
But now, it was beginning to feel like she couldn’t work without it, and she had Apple Bloom’s persistence to thank for that. Had it not been for her, Applejack would have found somewhere to store and collect dust, never once trying it out, but Apple Bloom voiced her desire to use it once she was older.
“Mind fetching’ Big Mac? This barrel’s nearly full. Gonna need another soon.”
“You can count on me!” Apple Bloom galloped towards the barn.
Applejack continued walking forward, approaching the next tree. Chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, click. That new sound, followed by grinding gears, was enough to make Applejack turn her head and look at the harvester, just in time to see the ramming pole finish rotating ninety degrees and face her.
She felt it slam against her face, shattering her cheekbone before her head and neck twisted with a snap.
Applejack laid on the ground, still conscious and in agonizing pain, yet unable to move or even scream.
The pole launched out of the harvester and started retracting back with cables but caught onto something stopping it in its tracks. The wires broke off of the wooden rod and sparked, setting off the flare hidden inside the back. The flames were hot enough to instantly melt the flesh off of the mare's face and body and incinerate the wagon behind her.
The last thing Applejack heard was Apple Bloom screaming her name over the shrieking flames.
Pinkie Pie scanned the plethora of pastries gifted to her by ‘A Friend’. It was packaged in a deep box, suggesting that there were at least three layers of delicious goodies. Thanks to the aroma and the demands from her sweet tooth, she couldn’t resist gulping down the entire first box in one swallow. She planned to share the rest with others, but that didn’t stop her from peeking into the next box. When she opened it, there was a note.
Pinkie Pie,
From what I understand, you like games. If you are reading this, that means you have eaten the first box containing the pastries laced with a fast-acting poison.
She stopped reading the note, letting the words sink in before she continued.
The remaining treats have the antidote in them. If you can consume all of them in less than five minutes, that will be enough to negate the poison. By now, your throat is probably starting to feel a little sore. Tick tock, you’ve already wasted one minute reading this far, leaving you only four left.
Scrunching her face in annoyance, Pinkie scoffed, “Humph, if this is some kind of joke, it’s not funny! And I know funny!” She threw the note aside. However, the message was accurate about her throat. It was increasingly getting more sore to the point of burning.
If what she read was true, all she needed to do was gulp down the remainder of the delectable desserts, which sounded simple. She had consumed a complete cake in one swallow plenty of times. The worst thing that could happen would be indigestion. Though it was a shame that she wouldn’t be able to share with other ponies.
She pulled out and opened the other two boxes. “Well, down the hatch," she said, her voice starting to sound raspy. Like so many treats before, she swallowed all of them in one fell swoop as she had with the first box. Immediately she spat them out along with a great deal of blood.
Against all conceivable logic, they tasted far worse than the muffins she forced herself to eat in Starlight’s village despite their visual appeal. Also, looking at the mass of regurgitated pastries, she saw the exact-o-knife blades, pins, brad nails, and broken glass that had been baked into them.
Games are supposed to be fun. Pinkie thought to herself. This isn’t fun. This isn’t a game.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so simple after all.
Now realizing the severity of her situation, less than three and a half minutes were remaining before the poison would finish what it started. If Pinkie wanted to counteract the poison, she had little choice but to resume eating the pastries as her stomach began to feel like it was devouring itself.
Closing her eyes, Pinkie blindly shoveled the contents into her mouth. She felt the sharp objects tearing her throat to shreds more with each painful swallow. To an extent, the blood masked the appalling taste but knowing what it was, wasn't helping all that much.
With only one minute remaining, there were only six small mouthfuls left. Pinkie was lying on the ground with a steady stream of blood escaping her mouth, pooling around her head, and going into her airway.
Pinkie thought maybe she could hear one of the Cakes enter the room. It sounded like they were saying something to her. But her vision was tunneling, and her heartbeat was pounding in her ears, drowning out all other noises around her.
This is embarrassing, She thought, feeling her body grow colder by the second.
I don’t want to upset the Cakes. If I’m about to die, then I should at least be wearing my best smile. Try as she might, her entire mouth area had gone numb, no thanks to the pins and nails stuck between her teeth. Not to mention the damage done by the glass and razor blades chewing up her cheeks, tongue, and gums.
Still, Pinkie did the best she could, given the circumstances she was in before everything went black.
Spitfire looked Rainbow Dash, up and down. “Crash, I thought I made it clear that you're only allowed to wear the authorized Wonderbolts uniform for this exercise. What do you have to say for yourself?” She was referring to the gizmo attached to Rainbow's back and wings.
“Permission to speak freely, Ma'am?” Rainbow asked, unable to contain her excitement for much longer.
“Granted.”
The words erupted from her mouth like a breaking dam. “I just got this in the mail today. The letter it came with called it a 'flight enhancement vest' and, all morning long, I was testing it out. It doesn’t get in the way of my flying. It helps out like you wouldn’t believe! And--”
“Get to the point, Crash. We don’t have all day!”
“Can you maybe make an exception this one time? Please? I promise it’ll be worth it!” Rainbow begged with a toothy grin.
Maintaining her stoic demeanor, Spitfire sternly looked at Rainbow Dash. “'Like, I wouldn’t believe'? Who sent it?”
“No idea. The letter just said they were ‘A Friend’.”
“Okay, I’ll consider it. But only if you can impress me.” Spitfire looked at the training course. “Penalty if you fail: the entire squad does one hundred extra laps before and after training for the next week. Except for you, of course.”
Hearing that, everyone glared fire and brimstone at Rainbow, already scheming up what they would do if or when she failed. Of course, Dash took the glares in stride and offered a confident salute. “I won’t let you down, ma'am.”
“Why the holdup? Let’s see a demonstration, Crash. Ten seconds a…go...”
Before she had the chance to finish the sentence, Rainbow dashed through the entire course with stunning accuracy and speed, landing in front of her instructor with a wide grin.
Spitfire lifted her shades, then looked at her watch and back to Rainbow Dash. “Okay, I’ll need another demonstration. I think I blinked.”
The rest of the squad looked at Rainbow with loosely hanging jaws. They were already familiar with her speed but what they saw left them both flabbergasted and speechless.
“On my mark….” Spitfire grabbed her stopwatch. Waving her hoof down, she signaled Rainbow Dash to repeat the demonstration. Her eyes could barely keep up with the rainbow streaking cyan blur as Rainbow Dash zipped through the course for a second time. She returned and stopped the stopwatch faster than her instructor.
“1.7 seconds?! Color me impressed. You blew the previous record out of the sky. Spread ‘em out. I want to see how this thing works.” Spitfire wondered if there was some way to replicate the flight enhancement vest, maybe to give to the rest of the team.
Rainbow Dash eagerly spread out her wings and let Spitfire look them over. “What are these?” Spitfire asked, poking at one of the many things she was referring to.
“That. I can feel it sending light electrical shocks through the muscles I need to fly and maneuver. So, it’s using my natural strength to increase what I can already do.” She knew that because she had taken a brief moment to skim over the easy-to-read manual provided to understand how to put it on, what it did, and why.
“You said it was a friend? I wonder if they’d be interested in making more of these. They’d be well compensated for it.”
Without warning, yet expectedly, Rainbow Dash started shaking as a muffled squeal of delight escaped her throat.
“Something tells me you want to do a Sonic Rainboom,” Spitfire said, looking even less enthused than previously.
Rainbow looked at her instructor, whimpering like a puppy, which finally caused Spitfire to relent, though more out of pity than succumbing to the cuteness.
“Only because I'm curious to see how fast you can do it. Then we need to get to practice. I'll allow you to use that vest only if it doesn't become a distraction or start causing problems.”
Smiling with excitement, Rainbow Dash launched skyward. In no time, she arched at the peak of her signature stunt and shot straight down without pause. Rainbow Dash reached the speed needed to pull off the Rainboom far faster than she ever had before. She only traveled a third of the way to the ground instead of the usual half. However, despite the increase in speed, for some reason, Spitfire didn’t see the usual trail of color that Rainbow built up when performing her trick and immediately felt something was off.
When there was no boom, Spitfire finally noticed the pegasus desperately trying to pull out of the stunt.
Concern crossed Spitfire’s face, lifting her sunglasses for a better look, “Something’s wrong. Cloud Chaser, Soarin, cover me!”
Rainbow Dash had already shot past the runway platform by the time the three took flight. Diving as fast as they could, they hear Rainbow screaming for help.
“Open your wings!” Cloud Chaser shouted over the noise of rushing wind and Rainbow’s cries of terror.
“I… can’t! This stupid... It's not letting me!” Rainbow struggled against the electrical shocks locking her muscles in place, preventing her from unfurling her wings. “Please hurry! I don’t want to die!”
Droplets of Rainbow Dash’s tears hit Spitfire sunglasses. “Hang on! We’re almost there!” Contradictory to their word, the ground was rapidly drawing nearer as Rainbow got farther from her rescuers’ thanks to her previously gathered momentum.
To their disappointment, Soarin and Cloud Chaser called it early and began to slow their descent. Spitfire held her speed a little longer but regrettably blinked right as Rainbow hit the ground.
Despite slowing down herself, Spitfire still hit hard, feeling the impact spiking through her right front leg to her shoulder. She face-planted into the dirt and rolled over, her shades lost a lens, and her cheek was bleeding through a scrape, but she swiftly got back on her hooves.
Without hesitation, Spitfire ignored her own pain and hastily limped over to Rainbow, hearing her taking sharp rapid breaths. Spitfire was relieved she was still breathing but could tell the injuries on her were severe.
Her body was twisted and bent in all the wrong places, her wings snapped, and blood was leaking from multiple spots, staining her normally vibrant mane with red. Dash herself was barely able to let out a small cry of anguish.
“Hey… hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Rainbow, Rainbow, hey, look at me, look at me! Dash! You’re going to make it through this!”
Looking back at the two pegasi that accompanied her, Spitfire barked at them, “One of you get medics down here immediately!” Cloud Chaser left to fulfill the given order while Soarin stayed behind.
Spitfire turned back to Rainbow Dash. “Help is coming, don’t worry. You’re going to be fine, Dash. Whatever you do, don’t close your eyes. That’s an order!”
Rainbow sputtered and choked past the liquids filling her lungs, but she managed to cough up the words. “Yes… Ma'am…” Her chest then stopped moving, and her body went limp.
As ordered, her eyes remained open.
“Dash! Hey! Not on my watch, cadet! Stay conscious!” Spitfire smacked Rainbow's face repeatedly, trying to rouse her. When that failed, she quickly changed to chest compressions in a desperate attempt to keep Rainbow stable until the paramedics arrived.
Spitfire couldn’t shake the feeling that it was too late.
Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open as though she had awoken from a nightmare then sagged. She was lying on the floor with the strong feeling that something was very wrong. She couldn’t remember when she had fallen asleep. More to the point, though, she found it difficult bringing herself to move.
Part of her thought it could have been sleeping paralysis but then noticed something else, making her current situation even more urgent. All of the animals in that room were sleeping as well. It was unheard of for all of them to be asleep at any given time, a few maybe but not every single one. There was always the hustle and bustle from one critter or another doing other things, but it was silent, and, for once, Fluttershy found that terrifying.
She had to get up and find out what was wrong, but she could barely move more than a few inches. Fluttershy didn’t feel tired. She was as alert as ever. So why was she so hesitant to move?
Eventually, her will managed to win out, getting her legs under her body and heaved with all the strength she could muster, only managing to get her belly just over an inch off the ground.
Why… can’t I… move? Proving to be too much effort, she slumped back to the floor.
She heard hoof steps approaching her cottage door, filling her with relief. She hoped whoever it was would come inside and see she was in trouble. “Help… me…” Her words might as well have been a squeaky floorboard from how soft it was.
The hoofsteps stopped just outside her door. Oh, dear. I think it’s still locked! That didn’t matter for long as the pony outside unlocked the door with magic, trotting in without knocking.
Fluttershy suddenly got a gut feeling that they weren’t there to help and immediately felt unsafe. She watched the black hooves of a midnight blue stallion come into view and stop right in front of her. The pegasus strained to look up at the intruders’ face.
Please be friendly. Please be friendly. Please be friendly.
“My, my. It looks like I arrived just in time.” His words gave off a respectful impression, yet it also sounded malicious. “Hmm, you’re looking a little more active than I was expecting. Let’s fix that, shall we?”
He lifted his hoof and brought it up to an end table, sliding off a particular flower pot Fluttershy recently acquired that morning, smashing it on the ground. She found it on her doorstep with a small note saying: ‘A gift to you from a friend.’ She would have to apologize to them later. If she ever found out who it was.
On the floor in front of her, the flower pot laid in a heap of dirt and broken pottery. Fluttershy looked at the flowers impressively shaped in the likeness of her and her five friends. She had plans to plant their seeds in her garden and eventually surprise her friends with them.
She inhaled the aroma they gave off, making her body relax even farther than it already was. Wait, were they the reason for her weariness?
"Who… Who are…"
“I’m sorry, what? You’ll have to speak up. I can barely hear you,” the stallion said mockingly, putting his ear close to Fluttershy. He then chuckled at his own joke, leaving her on the ground and going over to the window.
“I’m kidding. I know what you’re trying to ask me. You want to know who I am, why you can’t move, all that fun stuff.” The stallion opened the window, then sat on the sofa. “Consider me….a friend.” He gave a pause as though he expected her to know what he meant. “Maybe I should be a little more explanatory.”
The note from the flower pot levitated and was set in front of Fluttershy’s face. It was then adjusted slightly to the side.
“It’s not blocking your view of me, is it?” The ‘friendly’ unicorn said. “I want to make sure you have a good look at your killer before you die. It should be obvious by now. I’m the one who gave you those flowers. Do you like them? I made them especially for you.”
He waved his hooves above his head like he was giving a front page headliner, “Eternal Sleep. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? The pollen releases natural particles that cause the body to relax. It’s relatively harmless in small doses, and some could even use it as a sleeping aid. However, prolonged exposure, as you can tell, will eventually lead to muscular fatigue. After some time, you fall asleep, then your heart relaxes and…
He paused briefly, as his smile took on a more sinister edge. “You never wake up.”
They’re not sleeping. Fluttershy thought about all of her animals lying still around the room, finally noticing neither their mouths nor chests were moving. And at that moment, Fluttershy felt a rage burn within her. She would not let such a crime go unpunished.
Fluttershy attempted to stand again, and this time she nearly made it. She stood only a few inches short from her full standing height, sweat dripping from her brow.
“Wow. You are way more resilient than I took you for. Why is that, I wonder? How is it that you are resisting…? Ah, I got it! Your proximity to the Everfree Forest probably exposes you to potentially hazardous substances every single day! No wonder it’s taking so long!” He slyly grinned.
Seeing it made Fluttershy feel sick with hatred as she furiously glared at him with all her wrath directed at him.
“Yes, yes! There it is! There's the famous Stare I have heard oh-so-much about!”
The stallion eagerly hopped off the couch and closely examined Fluttershy’s spiteful expression. “Marvelous. Fascinating. Remarkable!” He gently moved her head, looking at her stare from multiple different angles in awe. She wanted to slap his hooves away from her face, fight him, and throw him out of her home. But it took all the strength she had just to keep from losing her balance.
"My… real friends… they will…."
"Your… your what? Your ‘real friends’?” He laughed like she'd told him a joke. “My dear, you don’t have those. Not anymore. Not after what I did to them.”
Fluttershy’s face fell as did her ambition, looking at him in disbelief. He spoke on her behalf, mimicking her voice.
“Why? Why would you do something so awful? Have you no shame? What did we ever do to you?”
He then went back to his regular voice to answer. “Oh my dear, you did nothing. There was only one I was truly after, and I am going to eradicate all remnants of their existence and everything they achieved because they never deserved it!”
“I can probably guess what you’re thinking about saying right now.” He briefly imitated Fluttershy again. “‘What would your mother say about this?’ If mother were here... maybe I wouldn’t be so lonely. Maybe dad wouldn’t have rejected me. Maybe he wouldn’t have abandoned me on the steps of a stranger in the dead of night.” He sounded angrier as he went down the list.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have been excluded by all the other foals my age. Maybe, maybe, maybe! Forget what could have been. This is here and now! And right now, the past is catching up to my sworn nemesis!”
The stallion lightly kicked Fluttershy’s hooves from under her, knocking her back to the ground with little effort. He then sat on the couch again next to the window and breathed the fresh air.
Fluttershy landed next to the toxic flowers, breathing heavily from exhaustion, feeling her body affected more by their pollen.
“Let me tell you a story. When I was a foal… No, what you heard earlier isn't part of what I'm about to tell you, though that is also true.” He smiled and lay back on the couch with his hooves behind his head, looking at the ceiling.
“Anyway, at an early age, I dreamed of going to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns. Sound familiar?”
He looked expectantly at the mare like she would agree with him but was disappointed by what he saw. “Oh, come on, Fluttershy, you know this. That should have given it away like a rosebush in a daisy field. Think, use your head, who do you know that had a similar— Yes, her.”
"Twilight Sparklypants. Get it? Smartypants and Sparkle put together? Forget it, moving on. You wouldn’t believe just how talented I was for my age back in the day. I could - and still can - recite by memory paragraphs from books that even grown-ups had trouble reading. But I didn’t just read. I recreated what I learned and turned it into my own experience.”
The fiendish stallion gave a nostalgic sigh. “So many wonderful memories. When the testing day finally came around, determining whether I could attend the school, I knew I would pass with flying colors. What I didn't expect were the judges being so impressed they congratulated my skills. They said, 'You’re eligible to become Celesta’s next protege.’ Is this making sense to you yet?”
Fluttershy was getting very peeved. Did this guy ever shut up? This stranger barged into her home, mur… Murdered her animal friends, and started gloating about how special he is! But she was powerless to stop him. Fluttershy used up all her strength the first time she stood against this monster in pony skin. Even though she was trying to stand again, her body may as well have been glued to the floor.
“Well, it’s about time. That took much longer for the narcotic effects to kick in than it should have. I guess I should wrap this up before you go to sleep permanently.” He used magic to pull Fluttershy’s limp body up by the neck, but not in a harmful way.
“Twilight Sparkle never deserved to be Celestia’s protege.” He slowly closed in on Fluttershy. “She stole that from me! Back then, I thought, ‘Oh, okay, I guess she’s better than I am.’” He paused, then let out a sinister chuckle. “But after the Nightmare Moon incident and every other world-ending crisis that followed, I learned that it was an unfair situation! I came to realize back then she had magical potential, yes, but Celestia didn’t even look at what I could do. Her so-called ‘demonstration’ was nothing but a freak accident! Twilight had no control over her magic! I did! I would have been the one chosen for greatness, not her!
"I would have finally been noticed for the talent and greatness I was born with." His voice trembled as he spoke, struggling to suppress all the emotional pains he had felt throughout his life.
He stopped right in front of Fluttershy, putting his face inches away from hers, forcing her to look into his dark yellow eyes.
He spoke again, lowering his voice. “And don’t you even think it was a one-time event. I tried to be her friend for years. But the only way she could ever have noticed me was if I was made of parchment wrapped between two bindings! To her, like everypony else, I didn’t exist.”
He paused, taking a deep breath to calm himself from his crescendoing outburst. “All the while, after she moved to Ponyville, it seemed every month there would be yet another article about ‘Twilight and her ‘friends’ saves Equestria again.’ Then to rub it in, she becomes an alicorn! If I had gotten my hooves on that scroll instead of Celesta’s pride and joy, I would have solved it in half the time she did and been the one everyone was talking about.”
Finished with his rant, he gave a sadistically charming smile. The stallion gently brushed Fluttershy’s hair behind her ear and softly stroked her cheek. He then tenderly lifted her chin.
Fluttershy gave a weak moan as she strained to keep her eyes open, but she was quickly losing the battle. She couldn't even gather the strength to spit on him, and she so wanted to.
“And to think, in another timeline, I would've been considered one of your ‘real friends.’ Who am I kidding? From the moment I laid eyes on you, I would have even asked you to be my fiance. Too bad that’s all in the past. No hard feelings really, I just took into account that if I only went after Twilight, you and the gang would have banded together and defeated me before I got my chance to shine. But the way I see it, this is proof that I am superior to her and you in every way, succeeding where all those other fools had failed. Oh, they will be talking about this for generations.”
Without warning, the stallion pulled Fluttershy into an embrace. In response her muscle memory tensed as it would if cold, wet, slimy tentacles were wrapping around her body.
Hearing Fluttershy rapidly breathing uneven breaths, the stallion started softly shushing her and stroking her main. “You’re okay, you understand me after all, right? you spend a lot of time alone.” She did calm down but that didn’t mean she was any less horrified about being this close to this embodiment of a nightmare. “For so long, that's how I’ve felt. I'm tired of being nothing and considered less than an afterthought, but right now with you, I feel complete.”
A muffled boom sounded in the distance making the stallion’s smile just a bit wider and much more sinister.
“And it sounds like Twilight... is history.”
Fluttershy did the only thing she could do and closed her eyes. That was moments before she felt his lips press against hers. She had never been so terrified in her life, but her body was too weak to even shake. There was no hope of preventing him from doing whatever he wanted to her. And after what he had just said, the things that came to mind were anything but pleasant.
He eventually pulled away, then maneuvered to Fluttershy’s side. “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry yourself. True, I may be a vengeful murderer merely seeking much-deserved attention, but even I wouldn’t stoop to that.” The stallion actually seemed to retch at having to even allude to the act, offering her a single look of pity.
The stallion nuzzled her, sliding his hoof to her cheek, causing it to pull against her throat, slightly tilting her head to the side. He then sniffed her mane before whispering into her ear. “Sweet dreams, my little angel. You’ll be with all your ‘real friends’ soon enough.”
The pegasus was let go, and she hit the ground, her consciousness beginning to fade. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye. She was going to die alone in her cottage. How long would it be before someone else found her?
The stallion went to the window, closed it, leaving the normally vibrate cottage deathly silent. “I’ll make sure your funeral’s a blast. After all, you can’t spell funeral without ‘fun.’ Ha-ha-ha!"
As he walked away, the last thing she heard was him singing to the tune of a nursery rhyme in a melancholy tone.
“Six little presents lined in a row, all wrapped up with a scarlet bow…."
With his sadistically charming smile, the stallion gently brushed Fluttershy’s hair behind her ear and softly stroked her cheek. He then tenderly lifted her chin.
Fluttershy gave a weak moan as she strained to keep her eyes open, but she was quickly losing the battle. She couldn't even gather the strength to spit on him, and she so wanted to.
“And to think, in another timeline, I would've been considered one of your ‘real friends.’ Who am I kidding? From the moment I laid eyes on you, I would have even asked you to be my fiance. Too bad that’s all in the past. No hard feelings really, I just took into account that if I only went after Twilight, you and the gang would have banded together and defeated me before I got my chance to shine. But the way I see it, this is proof that I am superior to her and you in every way, succeeding where all those other fools had failed. Oh, they will be talking about this for generations.”
Without warning, the stallion pulled Fluttershy into an embrace. His hooves felt like they were slithering under her skin. In response, her muscle memory tensed as it would if cold, wet, slimy tentacles were wrapping around her body.
Hearing Fluttershy rapidly breathing uneven breaths, the stallion started softly shushing her and stroking her main. “You’re okay, this isn’t hurting you. You do understand me after all, right? Seeing as how you spend a lot of time alone.” Her breathing did calm down but that didn’t mean she was any less horrified about being this close to this embodiment of a nightmare. “For so long, that's how I’ve felt. I'm tired of being nothing and considered less than an afterthought, but right now with you, I feel complete.”
A muffled boom sounded in the distance making the stallion’s smile just a bit wider and much more sinister.
“And it sounds like Twilight... is history.”
Fluttershy did the only thing she could do and closed her eyes. That was moments before she felt his lips press against hers. She had never been so terrified in her life, but her body was too weak to even shake. There was no hope of preventing him from doing whatever he wanted to her. And after what he had just said, the things that came to mind were anything but pleasant.
He eventually pulled away, then maneuvered to Fluttershy’s side. “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry yourself. True, I may be a vengeful murderer merely seeking much-deserved attention, but even I wouldn’t stoop to that.” The stallion actually seemed to retch at having to even allude to the act, offering her a single look of pity.
The stallion nuzzled her, sliding his hoof to her cheek, causing it to pull against her throat, slightly tilting her head to the side. He then sniffed her mane before whispering into her ear. “Sweet dreams, my little angel. You’ll be with all your ‘real friends’ soon enough.”
“Pardon my intrusion, but I wouldn’t happen to be interrupting a heartfelt reunion. Am I?” That last sentence was dripping with malice, despite its friendly first impression.
Fluttershy knew that voice. Hearing it gave her all the strength she was looking for to open her eyes.
The very moment her gaze fell on Discord, her vision blurred, her eyes welling up as tears gushed down her cheeks. Fluttershy felt boundless relief as she unconsciously made soft sobbing noises.
She wanted to do more than that, though. Fluttershy wanted to rush over and use her shining beacon of hope as a shield to put between herself and the monster currently having his way with her. Yet despite her deepest desires for this nightmare to end, Fluttershy’s immobilized limbs refused to comply.
“Not at all. I was just leaving,” the stallion calmly responded, the smug smile still plastered on his face. “As you can see, she is rather gah— tired. The poor thing.” He was promptly interrupted by talons wrapping themselves around his throat multiple times and digging deep into his flesh before the tips turned into hissing venomous snakeheads.
“Oh hello, what might your names be?” The stallion struggled to say with a joyous smile.
“Don’t play games with me, punk. Now tell me what you’re doing to her!”
“Boop.” The stallion poked Discord on the nose and coughed up a chuckle like a crazed lunatic.
The world turned red. Discord morphed into a cartoonish-looking monster, speckled with white accents deep within his black exterior and blood-red eyes.
“Ooh, you look mad. Are you having one of those days?”
The stallion’s bravado lessened as Discord’s greatly enlarged lion paw clamped hard around his entire body, the arm bulging with angry muscles that could snap a full-grown tree with ease.
“If you don’t tell me everything, I will sprout fungus from your eyeballs and cram you in a straight jacket made out of your own hide!” Discord shouted, fracturing the very fabric of reality.
Choking the words past the strangulation, the stallion managed to speak out. “I haven’t hurt a hair on her head. Believe me. If that were my intention, I would have done this.”
There was the snapping sound of bone as Fluttershy’s head was twisted violently by his magic, her limp body falling to the floor like a bag of potatoes.
“See? That’s a big difference, isn’t it?”
With a huff of pure fury, black flames escaping his nostrils, Discord stared directly into the stallion's soul, through his very existence, past the cosmos of the infinite universe and… right over my shoulder?
“Oh, now this is interesting, Mr. Narrator.”
Discord. No spoilers.
Discord, what are you— Don't touch the script! Hey! Give it back!
“Give me one reason why I should.”
You realize all I have to do is say the words, and you will have no choice but to comply.
Discord pondered the words I said and decided to hand the manuscript back to me…
And he handed it back to me…
Against his own will, Discord's body moved to hand back what he…
“Will you put a sock in it?!”
Why isn’t this working? It usually does.
“Hmmm. That’s quite sneaky and underhanded, I have to admit, having him be a mere clone of the mirror pond. I could have all manner of fun with him, and yet it would matter so little in the grand scheme of things. That would have ruined my plan to turn him into my very own mobile, tossed salad garden or make him immortal and unkillable for the price of his magic only to trap him in my realm.”
I said, no spoilers. Give me back my manuscript, Discord, now!
“Oh, yes, that would also allow him to attend the funeral. Handing out eternal sleep flowers for everyone ‘to pay his respects.’ And please. I was to die with Sunshine, Moony, Twilight’s brother, and his family during the procession by a spinning chandelier built with anti-magic crossbow-bolts firing explosives!? Probably would have fallen for that, too, except you forgot one minor detail.
And….what’s that?
“I'm Discord, the Lord of Chaos!”
Whoa, easy. Calm down. I’m just the narrator. Ever heard of ‘don’t shoot the messenger’? ...wait. No, Discord! That was a figure of speech, don't shoot me! Plea-!
“I’ll do you one better. ‘I don’t care!’ I am the narrator now, and I will certainly not let…
“Huh, I guess he never did have a name. More power to me! From now on, he will be known as Brainless Paramecium. Now, time to alter the outcome in my favor.
“I sat down at the desk of the late narrator and licked my talon, causing it to spark like flint on steel. A feather erupted out the top of my talon as I rewrote the fate of Brainless Paramecium.”
