> Amnesia: Fluttershy
>  by Yukito
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The young pony slowly opened her eyes. She could see a dark hallway in front of her, but couldn’t make out many details, as she was only squinting. She opened them wider, waited a few seconds to collect her thoughts, and then got up. “Where am I?” She asked herself. “Who am I?” She walked down the dark, medieval styled hallway, decorated with portraits of who she could only assume used to live here, and suits of armour. The only source of light was the torches on the walls, each of which only providing a small amount of light, and half of which weren’t even lit. There were windows, but it was night outside, so they didn’t provide much light.

She saw a room to her right, and peered inside. It was light enough to walk around without tripping over something, so she decided to check it out. There were a few tinderboxes stashed away inside a treasure chest, which she felt might be helpful. She picked up a small sack that was lying on the desk next to the chest, and used it to carry the tinder boxes around. Before she could pack them though, she heard a strange noise behind her. She yelped, dropping the tinderboxes and the sack, and turned around quickly. It was just the wind. She calmed down a little, although her breathing was still pretty heavy. Even more so since the wind had blown out most of the candles in the room, making it more dark than before.

She stashed the tinderboxes into the sack, and moved back into the hallway. “Ok, come on Fluttershy, you can d-do this…” She assured herself. She then realised that she had had just called herself “Fluttershy”, and suddenly starting hearing voices in her head:

“Rainbow Dash! Wait!”

“Huh? What’s up, Fluttershy? Here to cheer me on in the next race?”

“N-No. I just *huff* wanted to *wheeze* tell you that P-Pinkie Pie…Wanted to see you…”

“Oh, really? What for?”

“Um…S-She just wanted to talk to you, about, um…T-The Wonderbolts!”

“Huh? That’s strange…But, alright, thanks for letting me know. I’ll go see her after this race!”

“G-Great! I’ll let her know…”

Suddenly, all was silent again. Fluttershy quickly came to the conclusion that what she just heard must have been her memories. Nevertheless, suddenly hearing voices like that in such a dark and quiet – not to mention lonely – place made her more than a little startled. Her version was starting to get fuzzy, and she started to limp, too. She quickly headed towards where light was shining strongly from a torch, and took a quick break to calm her nerves.

She heard footsteps coming from behind her, and, although she wanted to ask whoever it was for help, she had a feeling, deep down inside, that was telling her to run. She hid around the corner, and poked her head out. She saw a shadow emerge from down the hallway, and eventually, a pony came out…Or at least, that’s what she thought at first. But when she could see it more clearly, it wasn’t a pony…At least she didn’t think so. It was bright yellow, and its mane and tail were both missing. It had chains attached to its hooves, which surprised her more, considering she didn’t hear them earlier. Its flank had a small red patch on it, where its Cutie Mark should have been, and what Fluttershy noticed most of all, was that its lower jaw was missing. Completely and utterly gone. She could hearing making groaning sounds, as if it were trying to speak.

Fluttershy had to resist the urge to scream at the top of lungs, and instead zipped her head back around the corner. Just looking at this…thing, caused her breathing to become more regular, and heavy, and caused her heart to start pounding uncontrollably. She was on the verge of tears by this point, and worst of all, she could hear the sounds of those chains scraping across the floor moving closer to her. She let out a small squeak.

She immediately started running, knowing that thing must have heard her, as it began moving more quickly down the hallway. She ran towards a door that was to her left, but it was locked. She suddenly got a chill down her spine, and resumed her running with all haste. She knew it had seen her. She knew that it had gave chase. Even without its roar right behind her, and the sounds of its chains on the stone floor, she knew. She could feel it. She could feel terror taking over her whole body, just by being near this thing.

She found another door on her left, that was slightly ajar, and she ran inside. As she began to close the door, she saw the thing that was chasing her just outside. If she hadn’t darted in when she did, it would have caught her by now. She slammed the door shut, and pulled a nearby desk infront of it, to slow down the creature that was now attempting knock down the door.

“Ohgodohgodohgod…” By this point, Fluttershy could not think straight at all. She was acting mainly on impulse, she was walking much slower than usual, her vision was very blurry, and she was beginning to see and hear thing, such as bugs that weren’t really there, or more of those creatures inside the room that would shortly vanish after seeing them. She looked around, and saw a wardrobe. There was really no choice. There was no other place to go. She opened the wardrobe, jumped inside, and closed it again. And just in time, too; the door exploded just as she finished closing the wardrobe doors. Outside, she could feel the presence of the creature, and it sent chills through her whole body. Especially inside the dark, cramped wardrobe that she was in. She heard it walk a bit, then a loud thud, which she guessed was the table being knocked out of the way. Afterwards, some more walking into the room, then some grunts from the creature, and then it walked out again.

Fluttershy took a few minutes to calm down, and then, slowly, she opened the wardrobe door, peered outside, and, one hoof at a time, climbed out of the wardrobe. She almost jumped back in again when she felt something fall onto her back, but calmed down quickly when she realised that it was just a shirt. “Ooooh Fluttershy!~ Where are yoooouuuuu?”

Fluttershy froze. Her heart was pounding like mad, and tears were running down her check. After about half a minute, she then realised that it was simply another memory coming back to her. Of course, the contents of the memory were still pretty worrying, but at least it wasn’t something happening to her right now, at this point in time.

She walked back out of the room, and continued down the hallway, finally reaching a door at the other end. On it was a note:

“Dear, um, well, me:

If you’re reading this, then it means that Zecora’s potion worked. I’ll have to thank her…If she survives…Anyway! Listen to me, I know you must be very very confused (sorry), but I don’t have much time to explain. Your name is Fluttershy, and right now, a murderous pony is after your life. She has killed many of my, er, your, um, our friends, and there’s only one way to stop her, but that way is locked deep beneath this mansion.

Again, I’m truly sorry, but there’s no other way. You must descend through this mansion, and rescue our friend, Twilight Sparkle, who is locked within the Chamber of Sealing.

Good luc, and wath ot for the Shadow! It consmess realty, fees on yor fers, ther’s no way to stp it!”

Fluttershy examined the last sentence very carefully. It looked like it was written in a hurry. There were spelling errors all over the note, but apart from the last sentence, they had all been corrected. One thing was for sure: when Fluttershy wrote this note, something must have happened. She guessed that either the murderous pony, or this “Shadow”, must have closed in on her, and she had to flee.

Fluttershy’s legs were trembling. She wanted to go home, wherever that may be. She wanted it to all just be some nightmare, that she would wake up from any second now. But she knew it was real. She knew that, even in a nightmare, no pony could go through this much pain and fear if it wasn’t real. She took a deep breath and, reluctantly, moved through the door in front of her.

She was a spiral staircase, that seemed to go quite a way down. She saw a lantern hanging in front of her, which had a note reading: “Take this”. She did just that. She reached out and grabbed the lantern, which had a rope attached to it, allowing her to tie it to her sack.

The staircase itself was well lit, all the way down. She started to descend, very slowly, taking each step with extreme caution. However, after a bit of walking, the entire room started to shake, and she heard a loud roar. The stairs in front of her collapsed, so she could not continue down.

Seeing no other choice, she backtracked a little bit, and moved through the large double doors that she passed on her way down.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy opened the doors ever so slightly, and peeked inside before moving any further ahead. She took a good, long look at the room. It was a fairly large room, and very well lit. There were many lit torches all around, and the middle of the room had a ray of sunlight shining directly down. She looked up at the ceiling and saw a huge hole. It was too high up for her to reach, unless she used her wings. It was then she noticed something. Her wings were bound. In all the confusion from earlier, she never even noticed that her wings were bound quite tightly by a strong leather strap. She tried to break it by spreading her wings, but it was no use. No matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn’t break even slightly.

She sighed and gave up, and then continued looking around the room. It was like the hallway from earlier; very medieval looking, with a lot of suits of armour lined up along the walls (although many had fallen over), and dark grey stone making up the entire room. There were a few windows, each one letting in some sunlight into the room. The room gave a sort of dark, cold feeling, like it was cut off from the rest of reality, and that anypony that set even one hoof in there would be all alone. But Fluttershy already felt like she was all alone, and mustered up the courage to walk inside.

As soon as the door closed behind her, the room began to shake a little, and a faint roar was heard. The door behind her suddenly clicked, and when Fluttershy tried to open it, she realised that it was locked. “Ok, just calm down Fluttershy…At least that thing from earlier can’t get to me now…” She re-assured herself, trying desperately to forget about how it broke down a door just fine earlier.

As she walked deeper into the room, she made a note of her surroundings: there was rubble all around her, and paints both on the wall and on the floor. There were 4 doors: the one she came from, one directly opposite of it, with a sign above it reading “Library”, and two more up a flight of stairs. The trouble was that the stairs was blocked off by rubble, and she had no way to get around it. In the middle of the room was a fountain that was spraying water. There was another door that she noticed, but it was completely buried behind rubble, and the corridor it lead to appeared to be caved in. She examined it, and it looked clean enough. She washed her face to cool herself down, and took a minute to calm down and relax. Finally, she decided that it would be best if she pressed on. Her vision was much clearer than earlier, and her breathing was more steady. She had noticed that various features in the room that scared her before, such a painting of one pony carving open another pony with a knife, were mere illusions brought on by the state of chaos that her mind was in before.

She moved towards the door to the library, and on her way, she noticed a few tinderboxes and a bottle with a label that read “Laudanum”. She read the instructions, and discovered that it was for treating injuries. Deciding it could be useful, she took it and the tinderboxes with her.

She picked up a key that was lying on the floor next to the door to the library, and stashed it away in her bag. It had no tag on it, or any engravings, so she had no idea what it was for, but there were two other doors in this room alone, so she decided that it could be useful. She carefully opened the door to the library, slowly peeking inside, and, deciding that it was safe enough, entered.

The library was very dimly lit. There were many lanterns hanging from the ceiling, but only a few were actually lit, and with no windows and any other way for light from outside to enter, the little light that was coming from the lanterns made the room very dark, and hard to navigate. Fluttershy waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, all the while staying in the light, so that she could things next to her clearly, and wouldn’t get freaked out by them. As expected of a library, there were many bookshelves, and books scattered all over the floor. Suddenly, Fluttershy started to feel faint, and started hearing voices again.

“Where is it!? I know I hid it here somewhere!” The voice sounded like it belonged to a young mare. It was loud, and very panicky. “Damn it! Where is that- Ah! Here it is!”

“Um, are you sure you want me to hold on to it? What if-” This voice was Fluttershy’s. She found it strange hearing herself in her own head, and hearing a sudden roar around her didn’t help. Yelping, she hid behind a bookcase, still hearing the voices of herself and somepony else in her head.

“It’s fine. Just don’t drop it like the guest room key. Now come on! We have to get this sample to Zecora before- Oh no! She’s here! Hide!”

The voices faded, and the headache that they brought on somewhat subsided. When Fluttershy realised that there was nothing on the other side of the bookcase, she slowly came out from hiding, still being very cautious. She was shivering from the both the frigid temperature of the library, and also from the sudden shock she just suffered. She wanted to stop and rest, but when the quiet of the library was interrupted by the squeaking of various rodents all around her, Fluttershy jumped up, and started searching around the library. She just wanted to find anything that may be able to help her, and then get out of there, as quickly as possible.

As she passed through the library, she made sure to check all of the bookshelves that she passed, picking up a few tinderboxes, oil vials, and laudanums on the way. She finally found a note on a table inside a small room that she assumed was for private research of whoever lived in this mansion. She picked up the note, and read it:

August 31st –

It has been three months now. Why did we have to pick up that accursed object? And why are we being punished for it? All we wanted to do was to understand the secrets of all there is. Is that so wrong? Are we sinners for seeking knowledge? If so, maybe this isn’t the Devil…Maybe we’re facing God’s  wrath.

…No. Impossible. To think such a being would really exist. Even if it did, there’s no way we would be able to ward it off with blood. I just have to keep cool. I can’t lose my mind. Kurt says he will ward off the Shadow if I bring him more blood. I don’t trust him, but so far he has done as he said. If we can just survive a little bit longer…We can beat this thing! I know we can!

There was more writing below it, but it was smudged in ink. Fluttershy examined the top of the paper carefully. There was some kind of mark on it. It was an ink mark, but in a very strange pattern.  The patter was cut off at the top and bottom, and she saw what seemed to be the rest of it on the floor. She concluded that it must have been a print made from standing on the paper. But she had never seen anything like it before. It quite clearly wasn’t a hoof mark, and she couldn’t recall any animals with feet that would produce such a pattern. They must have been wearing something on their feet, but the print was too long for it to be from a pony.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a loud crash in the previous room. She let out a loud shriek and turned around quickly. “The door!” She dashed to the door and slammed it shut, placing her ear to it and listening closely. When she heard nothing on the other side, she slowly opened the door to check outside. She slowly peered through the crack in the door, and breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that the noise was just the wind knocking over a few books. She stepped through the door, and began heading back towards the hallway. She noticed a note pinned to the door the leads back to the hallway. She grabbed it with her hoof, and began reading it:

September 2nd –

I’ve had it! I’ve had it with these lies! That bastard doesn’t care about us at all! The Shadow has claimed all of our friends. Only two of us remain. Another day and we will surely be dead too…But I’m not going alone. Kurt, I will see you in hell!

Fluttershy placed the letter in her bag, and noticed another letter behind the first one fall to the floor. She picked it up and read it:

To Fluttershy:

We’re out of time. Zecora’s going to make her potion tonight. The corridor to the back hallway will be collapsed (you’ve probably noticed). This is to slow her down. Use the dumbwaiter in the kitchen instead. And remember to lock the kitchen door afterwards.

The Shadow is closing in. Hurry.

Twilight Sparkle

Another clue. Fluttershy put the letter away with the other ones, and made a mental note to head for the kitchen and use the dumbwaiter to move on. The problem was that the stairs were inaccessible. She decided to head back outside and see if there was anywhere else to go.

As she entered the hallway again, she started to feel sick, and the entire room began to shake violently. There was a loud roar, and on the other side, she saw the same monster from earlier break down the door and run towards her. Fluttershy was completely frozen with fear. She couldn’t think straight, and just stood there, completely helpless.

Suddenly, the roaring and shaking stopped, and in its place, a whole lot of strange, pink, fleshy matter began to fill the room. Some of it appeared beneath Fluttershy, burning her and snapping her out of her state of terror. Some more appeared where the monster was, and tore it in half. Blood splatter across the room, some of it landing on Fluttershy’s face, which caused her to jump back and almost throw up, until she got burned by more of the strange pink matter. She yelped and dashed as quickly as she could to a space where the pink matter had not appeared yet, and breathed heavily.

By this point, her heart was beating very quickly, her entire body was trembling, and her vision was completely blurry from tears covering her eyes. She took a few minutes to collect herself, and once she had stopped crying, and caught her breath, she reached into bag, took out a bottle of laudanum, and followed the instructions in order to treat the burns from the pink matter.

“Alright. T-time to press on…” Fluttershy turned towards the stairs, which were now clear, as the pink matter from before tore up most of the rubble. The downside is that she would have to walk over the pink matter, but she decided that she had no choice if she were going to press on. She took a deep breath, and charged forward, passing over the pink matter as quickly as she could, and eventually found her way to the top of the stairs. “Phew, made it!” She had somehow managed to avoid harm whilst running over the pink matter, and took a second to catch her breath. She looked at the two doors, and saw that one of them lead to the kitchen. She turned the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. She remembered that the note told her previous self to lock the door.

“Great, now what do I do?” She looked over at the other door, and walked over to it. It was also locked, however, she noticed that it lead to the guest room. She reached into her bag, pulled out the guest room key, and attempted to use it with the door lock. She heard a click, and tried to open the door a second time. It opened, and she entered the guest room.

The moment the door closed behind her, a blinding light passed through the room, and a second later, the sound of thunder rang throughout the room. Fluttershy felt like she was about to jump out of her skin, and her heart wasn’t sure it would survive any longer. She didn’t feel particularly afraid of the thunder and lightning, but something inside her told her that it was frightening. Maybe it was a fear that her old self had. In any case, when the light died down a bit, Fluttershy was able to see the room properly. It was different than the rest of the building that she’d explored so far. Instead of stone walls and floor, there was wooden flooring and wallpaper. The wallpaper was dark red, and torn in various places, revealing the stone wall behind it. The room was very well lit, which relieved Fluttershy a little bit, until she noticed the blood stains on the floor, next to half a body. She wasn’t sure what it belonged to; it wasn’t a pony, in any case. It had to legs, but instead of hooves at the end, it had feet, like a monkey’s, only without the hair. Or much less, to be precise. The body stopped at the waist, and intestines were spilling out of it, making Fluttershy feel like she was about to throw up. She looked around at the various furnishings in the room: 2 wardrobes, a few bookcases, 4 wooden chairs (one of which was broken), and a desk.

What caught her eye the most was the window above the desk, which was open. And within reach. Suddenly, the letter left for Fluttershy from Twilight didn’t matter anymore. Freedom was within reach! Or so she had hoped. She climbed onto the desk, and peeked outside of the window. She knocked something off the table and onto the ground. Something metal. She could tell that it was metal from the sound it made of the floor. She didn’t bother to look at what it was though, as she was more interested in climbing out of the window and ending this nightmare. But it was not as easy as that.

When she looked outside the window, she saw the same pink matter from earlier completely covering the outside, and even worse, when her head poked outside the window, she heard the same roar from earlier, and suddenly, the windows slammed shut, knocking her onto the ground. “Ouch!” She rubbed her nose a little bit, and then got back up and looked around the room once more. She saw something shiny on the floor. She knelt down for a closer look, and found it to be a key. It must have been what she had knocked off the desk moments before. “Let’s see…”Ptry?” The engraving on it was faded, so she couldn’t make out what it said, but she decided to keep it with her none the less.

“Right, now then…” She looked at a door that was to the left of the room, and slowly made her way towards it. She entered with extreme caution, and found it to be a bedroom. It was similar to the room she was just in, only half its size, and much less furnishings; only one bed, and a desk. “Hold on a second…” She noticed that the desk was different than the others. It had wheels on the bottom. She pushed it aside, and saw that there was an air vent behind it. No, not an air vent. The door was designed to be opened with ease, and the desk was obviously designed for quick access to it. It was more like a secret tunnel. But where did it lead? Before she could ask herself whether she should check it out or not, she heard a loud crash behind her. She quickly spun around, and saw that the door to the guest room had been broken down. There was dust blocking her vision, but she could tell what was there. It was another one of those monsters, and it could see her! She was too far away from the door to close it, and even if she did, it wouldn’t stop this thing for very long.

Fluttershy panicked, and looked around the room for some way to escape. It didn’t take long for her to remember the tunnel that she had uncovered, and without a second thought, she jumped inside, slamming the hatch shut, and crawling through as fast as she could. She recalled that the previous monster was much bigger than she was, and she could just barley fit inside, so hopefully…Yes! She could no longer hear the monster, meaning that it wasn’t following her anymore! But now she had another problem on her hands: continue through this cold, dark tunnel to god only knows where, or wait a little bit, and then turn back?

She didn’t have to think for long, since the tunnel made up her mind for her; it suddenly collapsed under her, causing her to crash down into the room below. “Ugh…Owowowow!” Fluttershy slowly managed to get up, despite her entire body aching from the crash just now. She coughed heavily until the dust settled, and then she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She saw a few torches on the wall, and lit them so that she could see a little better. She was in what appeared to be a dining room. It wasn’t very interesting, just a standard dining room, with the furnishing made of a very fancy looking wood. She saw only one door in the room, in the corner. However, the rubble caused from tunnel collapsing was blocking it off, and Fluttershy was too tired to move it out of the way.

She noticed a dumbwaiter on the other side of the room, and decided to see if it was still working. She pressed to button to summon it, and to her delight, it was starting come down. “Ok, with this, I should able to access the kitchen…” As soon as the dumbwaiter had arrived, she got inside of it, and pressed the button for it to go back up. It wasn't the most comfortable fit, but at least the ride up didn’t take too long.

“Uhhh…” Fluttershy started to feel sick as another flashback rang through her head.

“Let’s see…To get to the back hall through the kitchen, I’ll need to take the dumbwaiter to the storage area. That would be…The top-right one!” Fluttershy heard her own voice echoing inside her head. She then heard what sounded like a door opening, and then herself gasping. “Oh no! A Grunt!...But…It’s dark enough in there…Maybe I can sneak past it…Ok, h-here goes nothing…”

The flashback ended just as the dumbwaiter reached the top, and as it did, Fluttershy’s suspicions about this “Grunt” being one of the monsters she’s been seeing so far was confirmed, as she saw another one of these monsters in the kitchen, right in front of her, moving slowly to the right.

She waited for it to move on, and slowly climbed out of the dumbwaiter. The kitchen wasn’t very big, but was rather long. There was a counter running down the middle of it, with cabinets that hold various things. The monster – or “Grunt” – was on the other side of the counter, seemingly circling around it, making rather unsettling grunting sounds that made Fluttershy hold her hooves to her mouth to stop her hard breathing from revealing herself. She looked to both her left and her right. To her left was the doorway that lead back to the hall from earlier, and to her right was a dead end. There were many dumbwaiters along the walls, but she remembered her flashback and deduced that the dumbwaiter to the storage was to her right…Unfortunately, that was where the Grunt was, and to make matters worse, it was sta
rting to turn around the counter and move down the side that Fluttershy was on.

Fluttershy had no time to lose. She started moving very slowly, trying not to step or breath too loudly, but not too slow that the Grunt would catch up to her. It was very dark, meaning that Fluttershy had to be careful not to hit anything on the floor. There were many torches all around her, and she really wanted to light a few to let some light into the room, but the darkness was the only thing keeping her safe at this point in time.

She made her way to the other side, and circled around the counter, so that she could move over to the other side of the room. She had to continue crawling, so that the Grunt would not recognise her. Her tail accidently knocked a frying pan off the counter, causing her to freeze up in terror. She heard the Grunt stop, and waited. She heard its breath right above her head. She didn’t move to check, but she could tell that it was right above her, leaning over the counter. She had her hooves pressed to her mouth, whimpering as quietly as possible, tears dropping down her face and hitting the floor. Finally, the last straw was pulled. Fluttershy felt something on her back. A bit of saliva from the Grunt.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!” Fluttershy shot up and starting galloping as fast as she could, unable to hold her voice in any longer. The Grunt promptly gave chase, after smashing through the counter to get to Fluttershy’s side. She could hear it catching up to her, making the most terrifying sounds that she had ever heard, that rang through her head, as she continued running. She saw the end of the kitchen, with the dumbwaiter to the storage on the other side of the counter. However, to her horror, the dumbwaiter was currently down in the storage, and she would need to summon it. She hopped over the counter, ran to the dumbwaiter, and pushed the button to summon it.

“Oh god…” She heard the Grunt smash through the counter yet again, and she ducked behind the end of the counter, thinking in her mind that this was it. It was all over now. However…”Huh?” She noticed that the sounds of the Grunts had changed. They were now similar to the ones it made earlier, when it was simply patrolling around the kitchen. Did it forget about her already? Or did it think that she got away? Either way, she could tell that it wasn’t the most intelligent of creatures, which she made sure to remember.

The sound of the dumbwaiter arriving rang through the kitchen, and when she peered past the counter, she could see the Grunt moving away from her, and towards the other side of the kitchen. Wasting no time, she dashed towards the dumbwaiter, hopped inside, and pushed the button to send it down the storage area.

“Ok, calm down Fluttershy…You’re safe for now.” She regretted saying that when a very familiar roar rang through the building again, causing a slight tremor that gradually grew larger. The dumbwaiter stopped for a second, and then started again, but much faster. It was falling at a high speed now. “AAAAAHHHHHH!” Fluttershy screamed as the dumbwaiter fell through the mansion’s levels and eventually crashed into the storage area.

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy opened her eyes slowly, and found herself in a dark, cold room. It was difficult to see anything, since the only light source was a small bit of light from the dumbwaiter shaft. The room was like most of the mansion that Fluttershy had seen so far; it was made of dark stone blocks, that were very cold. Except that there ones were also wet. Looking up, Fluttershy could see small droplets of water dripping from the ceiling. She stood up, and shook her body, trying to wake herself up. She was wondering how long she was out, but after remembering what kind of encounters she had had so far, she didn’t want to stay for too long.

Fluttershy walked around the room slowly, taking great care so as not to trip over anything in the darkness. When she came across a torch on one of the walls, she lit it up using one of her tinderboxes, giving herself some light so that she could check herself for injuries.

Once it was light enough inside the room to see, Fluttershy checked her body closely. There were a few scrapes here and there, but nothing serious. She heard the sound of the wind passing through the hallway outside of the room, which spooked her a little bit. But she was able to regain her composure quickly enough. “I…I’d better get going…But…What if there are more of those things out there?”

A sudden gust of wind extinguished the torch that Fluttershy had just lit, leaving her in complete darkness yet again. She yelped out as loud as she could, ducking down and holding her head in her hooves. ‘I can’t stay here! I have to keep moving!’ Deciding that she had no other choice, Fluttershy took a deep breath, and stepped outside of the small room, entering the hallway of the storage area.

She decided that now would be a good time to use her oil lantern, since the hallway was just as dark as the previous small room. She checked its oil content, seeing that it was almost completely full. She turned it on, and held it in her mouth as she moved forward. She passed by plenty of rooms on her way through the hallway, most of which contained nothing useful. Some would occasionally contain tinderboxes and vials of oil. When she stopped to examine one room, she noticed quite a bit of food stored in a pantry. Her stomach was rumbling, and she decided that she should probably stop to eat. She took a few vegetables from the pantry, examined them, and determined that, although they were a bit dirty, they were still edible. It wasn’t like she had much choice in this situation.

She lit a nearby candle, and turned off her lantern, wanting to conserve her oil. She sat back against the wall of the room, and started to eat a few carrot sticks. She then moved on to some lettuce, and then some apples and oranges. She was enjoying her peaceful meal, until she looked towards the door and saw a shadow passing by. She froze in place, watching as the shadow drew closer, and closer. She then started to hear the sounds made by the previous Grunts that she had encountered, and had to force herself not to make any sounds. She held her breath in, watching as the shadow was eventually replaced with the monster it belonged to.

The Grunt stopped moving just outside of the door, and stared straight ahead of it. Fluttershy had to tear her eyes away from the grotesque creature, the very sight of it sending chills down her spine. She couldn’t hold her breath any longer, and started to take slow, heavy breaths through her nose. Eventually, she heard the creature start to move again. She looked towards it, and saw it turning around, and heading in the direction that it had come from. Once the shadow was no longer visible outside the door, Fluttershy let out a huge breath, and started taking long, regular breaths, and tried to calm herself down. She shakily put the fruit that she as holding down on the floor, no longer feeling hungry.

Deciding that she had rested long enough, picked up her oil lantern, turned it back on, and inched her way closer to the door, slowly peeking her head outside. She couldn’t see any sign of the Grunt, and, after debating it in her head for a while, decided to proceed on ahead. She moved slowly and quietly through the hallway, taking cover in the many rooms as she passed by them, in case that Grunt came back.

She eventually came to a fork in the road, and saw two signs on the wall, each one pointing in a different direction. One of the signs read “Back Hall”, whilst the other read “Dungeon”. She didn’t exactly like the idea of venturing into a dungeon in this spooky place, and the letter that she found mentioned going to the back hall, so she decided to head in that direction. It wasn’t a long walk; she could see the large double doors just up a small flight of stairs right around the corner of the sign.

Fluttershy’s heart sank, however, when she realised that the door to the back hall was locked. She examined the large, double doors, and decided that there was no way to get inside of them. She looked back, and hesitantly started to make her way back to the fork. She looked down the pathway that lead to the dungeon and, after a large gulp, started to slowly make her way towards the dungeon. As she moved through the dark hallway, she started to feel another memory popping into her head. She was starting to hear the same voices as before in her head.

“Twilight? W-What’s down t-there?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s a dungeon. At least that’s what the sign says. See?”

“A d-dungeon?…We’re…We’re not going down there…Are we?”

“Of course not. Applejack and I already checked it out…She…Well, anyway, let’s just say that there’s nothing down there. Well, except maybe for the sewers.”

“The sewers?”

“Yes. If you were to go through those, you could reach the orb chamber with great ease. The trouble is reaching the sewers. Those monsters are all over the place. There’s a longer, but defiantly much safer way, through the back hall. Now come on. Let’s go.”

“R-Right behind you.”

Once the voices had died down, Fluttershy placed her hoof to her chest, wishing her heart would stop beating so fast, and that her breathing would slow down. It was so quiet, that she was afraid her own breathing and heartbeats would attract the attention of Grunts.

She eventually reached a small, rusted, iron gate at the end of the hallway. Behind it, Fluttershy could see a spiral staircase leading down. She opened the gat slowly, stopping for a second every time it squeaked. She heard footsteps drawing closer, and quickly swung the gate fully open, no longer caring how much sound she made.

When she looked down the hallway, she saw that nothing was actually there, and the sounds of footsteps had stopped too. Was she just imagining it? Either way, she knew that staying in one spot wasn’t going to help, especially when she only had a little bit of oil left in her lantern. She picked up her lantern, and began descending the staircase, descending deeper into the mansion.

As she moved deeper, she could hear some sort of strange moaning in her head, and a quiet banging sound repeating itself. She tried to place her hooves to her ears a few time to drown out the sound, but that only succeeded in making it louder. She started to slow down, realising that the sounds got louder the deeper she went.

She reached the bottom after about 5 minutes of walking and occasional resting. She was in a large, brightly lit room, surrounded by 4 pathways, three of which contained large, stone double doors. The fourth passage way was blocked by a pile of rubble that Fluttershy could not move nor climb past. She couldn’t even see past it. So that passage was out of the question. There wasn’t much of interest inside the room; it was mostly the same as the rest of the mansion – a dull stone room with broken furniture and piles of rubble all over the place.

Fluttershy turned off her lantern, and took this chance to pour some oil into it, so that it would be ready for future use. She moved closer to one of the doors, after choosing it completely at random, and tried to open it. It opened slightly, allowing Fluttershy to peek inside, although she couldn’t see much down the dark corridor. She heard the sounds of sobbing coming from down the corridor, and debated whether to check it out or not. On one hoof, it was dark down this corridor, and who knows what could be down? On the other hoof, if someone was in trouble…Fluttershy just couldn’t bring herself to abandon them.

With a small whimper, she walked into the room, the door closing behind her making the corridor much darker all of a sudden, and causing her to gasp loudly as it banged shut. She travelled through the dark corridor, the only sounds besides the sobbing being the squeaks of rats around her, and the flickering of flames from the few torches that were lit on the wall. She eventually started to pass a few doors, some slightly open, some very badly damaged, and some shut completely. She opened the first door that she passed on her right, and took a quick look inside.

She pulled back her head and slammed the door shut as quickly as possible, bringing her hooves to her mouth to stop herself from throwing up. Inside the room, there was a corpse of a pony, lying on the floor, with blood pouring out of various wounds across its body. The head and Cutie Mark were both missing, and the stomach was cut open, allowing the pony’s insides to spill out onto the floor.

Fluttershy kept her hooves to her mouth for several seconds, sobbing and panting heavily as she tried to take what she had just seen. She suddenly heard a loud sound behind her. It was the sound of metal being thrown against a stone wall, accompanied by the sound of many objects crashing to the ground. She turned around as quickly as she could, but saw that nothing was there. However, as she stared at the door behind her, she started to remember something. Some memory was trying to force itself into Fluttershy’s head, but it was fuzzy, and hard to make out.

“Take that!” …”I won’t go down-”…”-out a fight!”…”You monster! You killed them…YOU KILLED THEM!”…”NO! PLEASE! I DON’T WANNA DIE! PLEASE, SOMEPONY SAVE MEEEE!”

The voices belonged to different ponies, none of which Fluttershy recognised. What she did recognise though, was a familiar sound, amongst the sea of screaming, and crying. It was her own voice, letting out small sobs as she pleaded silently. “Please forgive me…” She repeated to herself, wondering what she meant by those words. Once the voices had died down, and Fluttershy’s body had stopped shaking, she stood up, and continued to move forward through the corridor. She decided not to look through any more of these doors until she had reached the source of the crying, not wanting to encounter something like what she had just seen.

Fluttershy proceeded down the corridor, slowing down when a sudden tremor caused the ceiling ahead to collapse, blocking off the path. Fluttershy panted heavily, examining the rubble that now blocked the way. As she stared at the rubble, she started to back away with a look of horror on her face. It looked like the rubble was breathing. Dust was blowing into the cracks through the rubble, and then back out, making inhaling and exhaling sounds.

She looked around to see if there was anywhere else that she could go, and saw, in the one of the side-rooms were the door was missing, that there was a hole in the wall, allowing her to proceed that way. However, before she could move towards it, something banged loudly onto one of the doors behind her. “AH!” Fluttershy turned around and looked at the door in question, where a cloud of dust could be seen coming from it. Another loud bang caused her to turn and run towards the hole in the wall quickly, and a final bang and a loud crash as the door was smashed to pieces caused her to stop and look back for a quick second. This proved to be a big mistake.

Behind her, and Grunt emerged from the room where the door had just been destroyed, and spotted Fluttershy quickly, charging towards her, making horrific groaning sounds as it did. Fluttershy ran as fast as she could, opening the door in the room she was now in to get back into the corridor, and slamming it shut.

She galloped down the corridor, not caring that it was getting increasingly dark as she proceeded. In fact, she was thankful, as it meant that it was harder for the Grunt to see her.

She stopped once she heard the sounds of sobbing coming from a door that she had just passed, and, despite the fear brought on by being chased by this monster, opened the door and jumped inside, slamming it shut as she did so. She breathed in and out heavily, but stopped once she heard the Grunt walking by, holding her breath, and trying her best not to make any sounds. Once she had heard the Grunt pass by the room, and could no longer hear it outside, she let herself breathe once more.

“F…Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy jumped when she heard a voice, and then realised that there was somepony else in the room. She looked in front of her, and saw an orange Earth Pony, chained up to some sort of contraption. The pony had a long blonde mane, that was uneven, and soaked in blood, as was the rest of her coat. She had not tail, and her Cutie Mark, like the corpse that she had seen earlier, was cut off. She looked up at the pony’s face, and had to hold her hooves to her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream.

The pony’s face was beaten quite severely, and covered in blood, just like her body. The worst part of it all, though, was that one of her eyes was hanging out of her eye socket. It was her right eye. It was still connected the orange pony, but was just dangling in mid-air. The other eye was still connected, but was horribly bloodshot. Tears were running down the pony’s face, and the floor was soaking wet. Not just from tears. Waste excreted from the pony’s body covered the floor, giving the room a horrible stench, that Fluttershy had only just noticed.

Looking up above the orange pony, Fluttershy could see some sort of drill pressing into the pony’s skull. It looked like just the tip was in, so it wasn’t in deep enough to kill the her.

“Fluttershy…It is you…What’re y’all doin’ down here?”

“U-Um…Wh-Who are you?”

“What’re ya’ll talkin’ ‘bout? Anyway, you have to go. Now. She’ll be here any minute, to finish me off.” The pony let out a few coughs, and then continued talking. “Hurry. It’s too late for me. Just focus on saving yer own flank.”

“Wait, what do you mean “she’ll be here”? Who’s “she?””

“Have ya’ll gone an’ lost yer marbles? Obviously the same one who did this to all our friends.”

“I…I can’t remember anything…I just woke up in this place, and I…” Fluttershy let out a few sobs, unable to keep her eyes on the tortured pony any longer.

“You…Can’t remember?” The orange pony coughed again, this time spraying blood onto the floor. “Ah, well ain’t that just great? Alright, listen closely. The one who did this…Is a psychopath named Pinkie Pie.” She coughed a few more times. “She was once our friend, but…Something changed…When we found…That object…She…She began…Killing…Every…”

Fluttershy heard the pony’s breathing getting heavier, and hesitantly turned to her, seeing that she was struggling to breath at this point. “That object?” She repeated.

“Yeah…That…Damn orb…Anyway…You…Have ta go…Just…A little further down this corridor…There’s an entrance…To the sewer…Use it…And get to…Zecora…She…Is working on a potion…To return the orb…An’ appease…The Shadow…” The pony’s voice drew quieter and quieter as she spoke, and Fluttershy had to move close to hear what she was saying. “Hurry…She’s…Coming…”

Fluttershy was about to ask what the pony what she had just said, but stopped moving when she heard footsteps behind her. “W-What?” She heard humming coming closer to the room, and her eyes widened in fear. Was this her? Was this Pinkie Pie, the murderous pony who had done this to…Whoever this pony was?

Fluttershy looked around the room, and saw a closet nearby. She rushed over to it, and opened it up, gasping as a corpse began to fall out of it. Hearing the door start to open behind her, she quickly jumped in, and closed the closet, not having enough time to toss the corpse outside. She held her breath, and held herself tightly, wishing for somepony to come along and save her.

“Hiya, Applejackie! How ya doing today?”

“How ya think…You psycho-bitch?”

“You know, you really should watch that mouth of yours! Normally, I would wash your tongue with soap, but…Sorry, this is all I have!”

The sound of something being cut, followed by a loud scream, that soon became gargled, could be heard from outside the closet.

“Whaaat? Dead already? But the party hasn’t even started!” Fluttershy heard a loud sigh from the pony outside. “Oh well, there’s still Fluttershy, I guess!”

Fluttershy pressed her hooves to her mouth yet again, a tear running down her cheek. She had never been more afraid of anything in her life. Even with amnesia, she still knew that this was the most terrified she ever been.

“Oh! But first, I should go visit Twilight! I haven’t played with her since I got her!” A giggled could be heard, and the sound of footsteps as the pony left the room. “Let’s see…I think she was in the Chamber of Sealing…In the east wing…Yup!” The footsteps stopped for a brief second. “Oh crud, I thought I killed all of these things down here!” The footsteps started again, much faster and louder than before, followed by a second set of footsteps and a new sound that sounded like a cow mooing, only more…Horrifying, was the only word Fluttershy could use to describe it.

The sounds were moving the opposite direction to where Fluttershy had entered the corridor, which was also the same direction as the sewer entrance. Unfortunately, this meant that Fluttershy could not risk moving in that direction. At least not right now.

She opened the closet door slowly, looking outside to see if it was safe. Looking over at the orange pony who Pinkie Pie had called “Applejackie”, Fluttershy could see half of a tongue on the floor, along with a pool of blood that was pouring out of the pony’s mouth. She was dead. That much was obvious. Fluttershy let out a few sobs, staring at the poor pony, but then wondered…In the state she was in, death was probably paradise for the poor mare.

Fluttershy stepped out of the closet, only to be greeted by another huge tremor, and a bunch of pink patches of organic matter began to fill the room. In particular, some of the matter formed where Applejack - as Fluttershy remembered her being called in a previous flashback - was being held. Within second, bother the contraption and pony exploded, leaving metallic parts and blood splatter all over the room. Fluttershy yelped, both from the sudden explosion, and from the burning sensation from the pink matter. She rushed out of the room as quickly as she could, and galloped down the corridor, back the way that she had come from. She had to be quick, as the entire corridor was shaking, and being consumed by this pink matter.

Luckily for Fluttershy, there were no monsters in her path as she charged through the corridor, evading rubble as it fell down, and ignoring the water that was bursting out of the wall. She reached the end of the corridor, and wasted no time opening the door and passing through it, slamming it shut as she finally reached the central room that she was in earlier.

She took a much needed rest, after being utterly worn out from running from whatever was happening in that corridor. Was this the “Shadow” that kept hearing about? She noticed that this room wasn’t being affected. Why not? Was it unable to reach her? Or was it simply toying with her? Either way, she seemed to be seemed to be safe in here.

After taking some time to rest, and use some laudanum to treat some wounds that she had obtained from her little event just now, she got up, and looked around the room. There were three possible paths left, only two of which were accessible.

She remembered what Pinkie Pie had said earlier. About how Twilight Sparkle was being held in the east wing. But…“Which one is the east wing?”

Fluttershy walked over to one of the doors, and examined it closely, looking for anything that could tell her what it lead to. She was interrupted by the sound of a door opening, along with the sound of frantic footsteps behind her. She turned around quickly, and saw a pink Earth Pony holding the door closed, breathing frantically as she glared angrily at the huge stone double doors. Her straight mane and tail were also pink, and, just like Applejack, they were covered in blood, along with the rest of her body.

A pink pony…’Pinkie…Pie?’ Fluttershy wasted no time ducking behind a pile of rubble, watching the pink pony, whilst making sure not to make too much sound.
“Damnit! That stupid Shadow! Just let me cut up my friends in peace!” She turned around, huffing in her rage, and walked towards the door at the other side of the room from Fluttershy. “Now then…Let’s go see how Twilie’s doing…”

Fluttershy watched as Pinkie Pie opened the door in front of her. The door to the east wing? She guessed that it was, since that’s where Pinkie Pie was going. But that meant that…Twilight was in danger! Fluttershy watched as the door closed, and then came out of hiding. Twilight Sparkle, the pony who Fluttershy had told herself to go to, was in danger, and Fluttershy had to help.

But…It was no use…Her legs were trembling. Her entire body was shaking. If she were to go after that pink pony, she could die! Just like her friends.

‘My friends…’

Fluttershy remembered the screams of pain and agony that she had heard whilst moving through that previous corridor, and the suffering the Applejack had gone through, before Pinkie Pie finally decided to let her die…Suddenly, she stopped shaking, and started to move forward. She looked up at the door, fear still overtaking her entire body, telling her to run.

But she would not run. Somepony was in danger, and Fluttershy couldn’t just leave them. She had to help. Something inside her was telling her…Telling her that she could not abandon her friend, no matter what.

Letting out one final breath, Fluttershy placed her hooves on the door in front of her, and began to open it. “I’m sure I’m going to regret this…”
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy kept her distance as she followed Pinkie Pie down the dark corridor, hiding in the shadows and trying her best to keep her breathing a quiet as possible. The corridor was dark when she initially entered, but Pinkie Pie was using a lighter to light up all of the torches along the way.

Despite the brightly lit area, and the soothing quiet of the corridor, Fluttershy was more on edge than she had been when exploring the rest of the mansion. Not just because of the psychopathic pony in front of her holding a large knife, but also because she was afraid that she would be spotted by either Pinkie Pie or one of those monsters. There wasn’t really anywhere for Fluttershy to hide, and whenever Pinkie Pie turned around to check behind her, she thanked her stars that there was an open room nearby that she could duck into.

Unfortunately, the rooms she hid inside of were always the same: dark rooms, with a corpse of a pony inside each one, all cut up in different ways, but all similar in that their Cutie Marks had all been cut off.

Fluttershy had to close her eyes and hold her breath whenever she hid inside one of these rooms, unable to stop feeling sick whenever she saw the corpses, or inhaled when near them. The sounds of footsteps moving away from her were the most delightful sounds she had heard in a long time, as it meant that she could finally move away from the corpses. Although that joy was short-lived when she saw the pink pony that she was tailing. There were many times that she wanted to turn around and just get out of there. Gallop away at full speed, and never look back. But she gathered her nerves, and continued quietly following Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie stopped at a large, metallic gate, mumbling something under her breath. Fluttershy examined the gate closely, seeing that it was connected to some sort of mechanism. She followed the mechanism across the ceiling, and saw it leading around a corner. Shortly afterwards, she saw Pinkie Pie moving down that corner. Presumably to open the gate via the mechanism attached to it.

Fluttershy peeked around the corner, and noticed how narrow the hallway was, along with the lack of possible hiding places. She decided to wait here, and move through the gate once it had opened. That way, she could get ahead of Pinkie Pie, and hopefully reach Twilight Sparkle first. ‘But…What if I get lost? Maybe I should wait for her to return, and then continue tailing her…But this may be my best chance…’

Fluttershy sat down underneath a torch, waiting for the gate to open so that she could move through it. She only moved when a group of cockroaches neared her, jumping up and yelping when she felt them on her. She heard a sound from down the corridor where Pinkie Pie had gone. She saw the corridor start to distort, and pieces of debris flying towards her. Something was nagging her in the back of the head. Something she couldn’t quite put her hoof on…

“Wait…” She noticed that the debris was flying at her quite quickly, but there was no wind at all. As the debris drew closer to her, she also notice shards of broken glass and sharp rocks also heading towards her. She flinched as they flew quickly towards her face, unable to dodge in time.

Closing her eyes, she simply waited for the pain to strike her face. But nothing happened. She waited a few more seconds, and then opened her eyes. The corridor was still twisting around, but the debris that was flying towards her was gone. Was it a hallucination?

She suddenly turned around as she heard the sound of machinery moving, and saw the gate opening slowly. She waited until she could move through, and then wasted no time in proceeding down the dark corridor ahead of her. Unfortunately, she had to slow down when she realised that, without Pinkie Pie in front of her, she would have to light the way herself. She was going to light a few of the torches as she moved forward, but decided that that would only cause Pinkie Pie to move faster, since she would not have to light the way herself, and she may realise that somepony else was down there.

She instead took out her lantern, filled it with what little oil she had remaining, and lit it up. She moved through the cold, damp corridor, and stopped when she saw a staircase leading down in front of her. The floor below her was flooded. It wasn’t so deep that she would have to swim, but it would stretch about halfway up her legs, making it harder to move about. Not to mention louder.

She took a deep breath to ready herself, and proceeded on into the water. She pulled back quickly after feeling how cold the water was, and then put her hoof back in, more slowly this time.

She waded through the water slowly, pushing aside barrels and crates as they got in her way. She heard a splash further down the corridor, and paused for a second. When she saw nothing ahead of her, she pressed on, guessing that it was just some water splashing down from the ceiling.

She stopped once she reached a four-way intersection. This was just what she was afraid of. Without Pinkie Pie to show her the way, Fluttershy had no clue which path to take. She could guess, but if she guessed wrong, Twilight would die. “Um…Oh no, let’s see…Maybe…”

She felt a sudden pain in her head, and fell down to the floor. She was hearing voices yet again, but this time, she could see something, too. She could see…A white Unicorn, with a purple mane. She was talking to this Unicorn, but the words were muffled.

“Oh, really?” The Unicorn said, her face completely blank. For some reason, Fluttershy could not remember her face at all. “Well, if she says it’s urgent…”

After that, the Unicorn walked off in the opposite direction, and a sudden feeling of guilt passed through Fluttershy. She could feel her heart beating fast, but not through fear. She started crying, tears splashing down into the water below her. “I’m sorry…” She said, but was unsure why. She must have done something to hurt this Unicorn, is what she was guessing. “I’m sorry, Rarity.”

“Oh, there’s no need to feel sorry.” Fluttershy froze in place, her mouth and eyes as wide open as they could be. She heard splashes behind her, drawing closer. “After all, you were only doing what you had to to survive.”

Fluttershy managed to work up enough courage to turn around face the pink pony that had managed to catch up to her. She was bearing a huge grin on her face. One that made her look positively insane. “P…Pinkie…Pie?” She was hoping that she was wrong, but she knew in her gut that this was indeed the murderous pony that was after her life.

“Yeppers! I have to thank you for helping me capture Twilight, Fluttershy! And Rarity, too. Unicorns are soooo hard to subdue.” Pinkie Pie raised her hoof, and pointed her knife towards Fluttershy, who started to back away. “Hey! I have an idea! Why don’t I take you to the Chamber of Sealing so that you and Twilight can be together for your last moments! I LOVE the look on another pony’s face when they see their friend being tortured!” Pinkie Pie’s body started to shiver, and she let out some odd sounds, wriggling her body oddly. “It’s the best! It really helps me get off, y’know?”

Fluttershy continued backing away, but Pinkie Pie soon started to follow her. After hearing a loud splash behind her, Fluttershy turned around instinctively, but then realised her mistake. She turned back to Pinkie Pie almost immediately, expecting to see a knife heading towards her face at high speed. What she saw, however, was the pink pony running off, and around one of the corners at the intersection. Fluttershy was confused, but relieved nonetheless. The relief was short-lived, however, when she heard another splash behind her. Followed by another one. And another one. Each one closer than the last. She turned around, and saw…Nothing.

Nothing, besides the water splashing about on its own, the splashes drawing closer to her in succession. She didn’t know what this was, but something inside her was telling her to run. Which is exactly what she did. She took off, and turned at the intersection, quickly realising that this was the same path that Pinkie Pie had just taken. She turned her head, and saw that the splashing water had also turned around the corner, and was seemingly chasing her. It was too late now; she couldn’t turn back. She just had to keep running, and hope that it would turn out well.

At the very least, Pinkie Pie seemed afraid of whatever was currently chasing Fluttershy, so she didn’t think that she’d have to worry about Pinkie Pie for now. But that thought was scary all by itself. Something that scared Pinkie Pie away…That must mean that it was pretty bad.

Fluttershy increased her speed as she ran as fast as she could down the flooded corridor, jumping over obstacles as she encountered them. Behind her, along with the splashing of water, she could hear the crates, barrels, and rubble behind her being smashed to pieces. She started to slow down, her energy starting to run out from so much running recently, and she could hear the splashing getting closer much faster.

She jumped onto a crate that was in front of her, and started to cross over a path of barrels and crates in the water. She was expecting to be caught any second now, however…

“Huh?” She stopped moving, and turned around to face the direction where she was just running from. “It…It stopped?” She saw a few more splashes heading towards the barrels, but then they stopped. Was it no longer after her? Why? She took another step onto a crate, and looked down at her hooves. “Is it because I’m no longer in the water?” She looked down at the water in between the crate she was on, and the barrel in front of her. She placed a hoof into the water, and suddenly, the splashing continued moving towards her, crashing through the obstructions in its way. She pulled the hoof out as quickly as she had put it in, and the splashing stopped.

“I see…So if I stay out of the water, I’ll be safe…I hope.” That last bit came out in a whimper, as she very cautiously moved from platform to platform, much like a foal playing “The Floor Is Made Of Lava”. She heard the splashing continue behind her every now and then, along with some more crashing sounds as some of the obstructions in the corridor were destroyed, but the splashing never moved that close to her.

She had to be careful as she moved on, as the corridor was very dark, very little light available for Fluttershy to see ahead of her. The makeshift platforms that she was using were beginning to get further apart from each other, and she had to start jumping from one to another, instead of simply walking across them. She slipped on one particular barrel, and fell down into the water, creating a huge splash that was quickly followed by a series of smaller splashes and a series of crashes moving straight towards her.

She tried to get up as quickly as possible, but she slipped and fell down into the water again. She heard the splashing really close to her, and attempted to get up again. She succeeded this time, managing to push herself to her hooves, and continuing her mad dash down the corridor. She saw a door dead ahead of her, that was swinging open. She moved through it, and slammed it shut, hoping to trap whatever was chasing her outside. Not taking any chances, she continued running anyway, hearing a loud bang behind her as she turned a corner. Another loud bang, followed by a final bang and the sound of the door exploding open caused her to try and pick up the pace. She finally saw something ahead of her that made her smile, though not for long.

Ahead of her was a small stone staircase, and at the top of it was a pony. It looked similar to the Grunts that she had seen so far, except that it had its lower jaw intact, and its right front hoof should have been, there was a long, rusty blade. It turned to Fluttershy and made the cow-like sound that she had heard earlier.

Behind this new monster was a ladder, and at the bottom was the knife that Pinkie Pie was carrying earlier. Or what she assumed was Pinkie Pie’s knife. She guessed that Pinkie Pie had gone up the ladder, running from this thing.

Fluttershy’s choices were limited; she could either let this new monster kill her, or the thing following her. She didn’t really have the luxury of thinking fast, so she decided to take a risk. She charged at the monster ahead of her, which was also charging towards her. She ducked down, and attempted to squeeze past the monster. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite nimble enough to dodge the swinging of its blade, which cut across her skin, causing her to start bleeding, and to slow down as she continued moving towards the ladder.

Despite the injury she had sustained just now, she managed to reach the ladder and start climbing before the monster was able to chase her. Although as she looked back down, she realised that the monster had been caught by whatever had been chasing her through the flooded corridor, and was tearing it apart, spraying blood and body organs everywhere. Fluttershy averted her eyes, looking up towards the top of the ladder as she continued climbing, trying not picture the image of the monster being torn apart, as it made her feel sick. As she climb the ladder, she remember her injury, and was starting to feel unwell. She tried to pick up the pace, wanting to treat her injury as soon as possible.

Once Fluttershy reached the top of the ladder, she sat down on the cold stone floor, using her tail to brush away the rats when they were too close. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of laudanum, and applied it to her wound. It burned slightly, but the pain was nothing compared to when she received the wound in the first place. The wound started to close up, and the pain started to fade away. She wanted to take a few minutes to catch her breath, but she had to catch up to Pinkie Pie before she reached Twilight.

Fluttershy looked at her surroundings. There were three different pathways that she could take, but only one was lit. She guessed that that was the path that Pinkie Pie had taken and, having nothing else to go on, followed it.

She was limping from the pain of her wound, but she tried to move as quickly as possible. Not just to rescue Twilight, but because she didn’t want any more monsters to find her. As she moved thought he corridor, she noticed the walls starting to close in on her, and the floor starting to vibrate. It didn’t take her long to realise that this was her eyes playing tricks on her, and she tried to shake it off.

However, while she was concentrating on the corridor, she didn’t notice the pink pony appear from around a corner. She crashed into her, causing both of them to fall to the ground. Fluttershy stood up, rubbing her side, and looked at what she had just crashed into. She screamed when she saw that it was Pinkie Pie, who was lying on the floor, growling at her with an enraged look on her face.

“Fluttershy? You’re still alive?” The pink pony’s angry face quickly changed into a menacing grin, as she got up and reached out towards Fluttershy with her hooves. Fluttershy immediately started running down the corridor. “Hey! Stop moving!”

Fluttershy ran as fast as she could through the dark corridor, which wasn’t very fast, thanks to the wound that she had on the side of her body. She could just about make out the images of a few doors on either side of the corridor, but didn’t chance trying to open one. At least not until she heard a loud cow-like sound ahead of her. She knew what was waiting for her down the corridor, and acted immediately, running towards a door on her left and hoping that it was unlocked. “Yes!” She yelled out instinctively, diving into the room and slamming the door shut.

It was dark, so she couldn’t see much, but she could see a few barrels in the corner, stacked on top of each other. She ducked behind them quickly, curling up and waiting. She heard the door opening, and maniacal laughter at the door. She tried to keep her breathing quiet, but she was so worn out that she was breathing very heavily. There was no doubt that Pinkie Pie knew where she was, and when she heard footsteps heading her way, she prepared to make a run for the door.

“Wheeeeeeeeere’s Pinkie Pie?” Pinkie Pie sang out, the sounds of her footsteps stopping all of a sudden. The barrels suddenly scatter all over the room, and Fluttershy looked up at Pinkie Pie, who was towering over her, her hooves stretched out in the air. “HERE I AM!”

Fluttershy noticed something behind Pinkie Pie moving, and ducked further behind the barrels. Pinkie Pie laughed and started to move around the barrels, but stopped suddenly. Fluttershy dashed out from her hiding place, running around both Pinkie Pie, and the monster that was towering over her, after slashing her from behind with its blade. It turned its attention towards the yellow Pegasus, and began to give chase, stopping when the door to the room slammed shut. It started to attack the door, destroying it in two quick, powerful strikes.

Fluttershy had managed to put some distance between her and the monster, but she could still hear it chasing after her, groaning as it followed her down the dark corridor. She saw a door ahead of her, marking the end of the corridor. It was different from the other doors that she had seen in this corridor. The pattern on it resembled a magic circle. She opened it up, happy to see that it was unlocked, and dove into the room, slamming it shut behind her.

She was now in a rather large room, filled with an eerie purple light, from torches all around the room, which emitted enticing, purple flames. There were red circles all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. She turned her eyes to the centre of the room, where she saw a purple Unicorn, with a roughed up, striped mane and tail, sitting in the centre of a large, glowing, red circle. She had shackles attached to each of her hooves, with the other ends being attached to the ground, preventing movement, and there was a metallic ring placed around her horn. She turned her head up, and smiled at the yellow Pegasus. “Fluttershy. You’re safe.”

Fluttershy noticed that the entire left side of the Unicorn’s face was bruised, and that blood was pouring out of her nose and mouth, though it looked dry, so it wasn’t from bleeding recently. She moved closer to the Unicorn, stopping just outside of the glowing circle. “Twilight…Sparkle?”

“Come on, Fluttershy. My face isn’t that beat up, is it?” Twilight asked, letting out a small chuckle. She was relieved to see her friend alive and well, but horror struck as she realised what her being here meant. “Wait. If you’re here…That must mean that Zecora’s potion didn’t work…” She turned her head to the ground, frowning once again and mumbling something to herself.

“Um…I’m not sure…” Fluttershy responded, causing Twilight to lift her head up once more, looking at her with a confused look. “You see…I can’t remember…Anything.” She reached into her bag, and pulled out the letter she had written to herself. She threw it to Twilight, afraid to enter the strange circle. “I found this shortly after waking up here. I’m not sure what’s going on, but…”

“You…Can’t remember anything?” Twilight read over the letter, and gasped when she crossed over the part regarding Zecora’s potion. “Wait…The potion…You must have drank Zecora’s Amnesia Potion. But why?” Fluttershy’s silence showed that she honestly couldn’t remember anything. “Hm…Well, in any case, we should hurry up and get out of here. If Zecora’s still alive, then we might have a chance to get out of this place.”

“Um…What should I do?”

“Come closer. I need you to remove these shackles.” Twilight raised her left front hoof as high as it would do. “They’re not too hard to break. There are plenty of rocks around that you can use. I also need you to remove the magic restraining device from around my horn.”

Fluttershy nodded, and grabbed a nearby rock. She moved closer to Twilight, and starting getting to work on removing the shackles. “Um, Twilight…What is this “Shadow” that was mentioned in that letter to me?”

“The Shadow…That’s the thing that’s been chasing us, ever since we arrived here.” With one shackle removed, Fluttershy gave Twilight a rock, so that she could help with removing them. “It seems to be related to the orb that was excavated in the Ponyville quarry a few months ago. For some reason, it doesn’t want us to understand what the orb is. It didn’t start attacking us until we tried to use our magic to determine what the orb was. After that, the entirety of Ponyville – or what remained of it – was transported here. It seems that the Shadow, when dealing with a large group, isolates everyone in this mansion, so that it can kill them off without having to worry about them running away.

“We found a lot of notes from previous victims of the Shadow, that included details on how to slow it down. And also, how to beat it. You simply have to relinquish the orb, without learning anything from it. If you can do that, then the Shadow will let you go. The problem is that the Shadow doesn’t take any chances, and we can’t just simply give it the orb or anything. Zecora’s potion was designed to seal the orb away, making it so that we could never touch it. It’s a long shot, but if we can do that, then the Shadow may just let us leave with our lives.”

“But what about Pinkie Pie? Why did she…Why did she kill all of our friends?”

The last two shackles were removed, and Fluttershy began work on removing the ring on Twilight’s horn. “Fluttershy was the first pony to come into contact with the orb. We think that she may have gone insane when she did so. She was in a come for two weeks, and was mumbling something strange in her sleep. But, Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, we didn’t think too much of what she was saying. When she woke up, she started to kill of our friends, one by one. It wasn’t until we had all been transported here that we realised what she was doing. Some of the ponies she killed were turned into mindless puppets. The monsters you no-doubt saw on your way here.”

The ring shattered with one final bash with the rock that Fluttershy was using, and Twilight stood up, slowly. She had to stretch her legs, and almost fell back down to the floor. “Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, supporting Twilight.

“I’m fine. I just haven’t walked or eaten in days. I’m a little thirsty, too…Anyway, we should go. The Shadow is going to catch up to use soon. We don’t have much time.”

Fluttershy gasped as she looked at the only way in and out of that room. “Twilight…One of those things…It was outside, chasing me earlier.”

“Ah, yeah…” Twilight said, now standing with her strength. “That’d be the Brute that Pinkie placed to guard me. It won’t be able to breach that door, but…It’s probably still waiting for you to open the door. We have to be careful.”

“What can we do?”

“Under normal circumstances, I’d use my teleportation magic. Unfortunately, having your magic sealed for a few days is hard to recover from. At most, I can only stun it for a few minutes.” Twilight walked closer to the door, and stood to the side of it, signalling Fluttershy over. “Alright. You open the door, and I’ll take care of the Brute.”

Fluttershy reluctantly nodded, and then slowly walked closer to the door. She placed a hoof on the door, and gulped. “Ok…Here goes…”
> 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.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy moved the dark hallway, staying close to the lit candles scattered about on the floor. There wasn’t much light in the hallway, and she didn’t have a lot of oil left. She would take a few seconds to rest by the light of a candle and allow her eyes to adjust so that she could see ahead of her, and then dash over to the next light source. There were many doors on the sides of the hallway, but she was more focused on following the pipes than risking a look inside any of the rooms.

There were cobwebs and spiders on the walls, and rat scuttling across the floor, neither of which were helping to calm the yellow Pegasus’ nerves. Even though she was good with animals, these animals seemed…Different, somehow. She didn’t know why, but for some reason, seeing and hearing these animals scuttling around made her even tenser than before.

She figured it may have been the Shadow playing mind-games with her, but simply that thought alone wasn’t of any help to her. She stopped when a sudden gust of wind blew all of the doors she could see in front of her open, followed by the sounds of Grunts crying out. She shook like a leaf, hoping the darkness would be able to hide her. However, after a few seconds of nothing happening, she decided to continue on, and cautiously peek inside each room as she passed by.

As she thought, there was nothing inside each room. Well, nothing living, anyway. Just another trick the Shadow had played on her to try and make her break down. “Just keep calm, Fluttershy. Twilight needs you right now…”

She repeated those words over and over. She was determined to rescue Twilight, at any cost. She had betrayed all of her other friends, and had lost everything that she once had, simply because she was too scared to make stand up to Pinkie Pie. However, at the very least, she wanted to make sure that Twilight escaped this nightmare alive. This thought was the only thing that kept her moving.

She found a fork in the path after walking for a few minutes, but the pipes split up, and flowed down both possible directions. “Great…Now what?” She noticed that one path was much brighter than the other, which was almost pitch black. That didn’t really tell her which way to go, but since she had to pick one path out of the two, she decided try her luck with the lighter one.

Pressing on down the somewhat light corridor, Fluttershy noticed the sound of running machinery up ahead, and it was getting louder as she continued moving forward. It sounded like she had picked the right path after all.

She found a door to the side of the corridor, which seemed to be where the sound of the machinery was coming from. “Twilight? Are you here?” She asked as she opened the door slowly, gasping and suddenly slamming the door shut when she saw a body flying towards her. It banged loudly against the door, and Fluttershy had to calm herself down before she could open the door again.

Panting heavily and shaking like a leaf, Fluttershy slowly pushed the door open again. She had expected the body to be jamming the door, but to her surprise, it was rather easy to open. When she looked inside, there was nothing. The body was gone, and there was no sign of it anywhere. She checked the backside of the door, and saw that it was in good condition. It didn’t seem to have been damaged or anything.

She noticed a lot of running machinery in the room, and a desk at the far end, the only light source being a single flickering candle on the desk. She started to hear screaming coming from the desk, and realised that it was Twilight’s. She cautiously moved closer to the desk, looking around the room to make sure that nothing was going to pop out.

She heard a loud groan behind her, and turned around quickly to see a Grunt charging at her, ready to tear her apart. She didn’t have time to react, and let out a loud scream when the room started to violently shake, and the ceiling started to collapse. She was hit hard on the head by a falling rock, and fell down to the floor, barely staying conscious as the whole world seemed to float up to the sky.

She heard a loud splash, and felt her whole body suddenly become wet. She looked up, waiting for her dizziness to end, and saw a huge hole in the ceiling above her, with the Grunt from before falling down. She realised that she must have fallen through a hole in the floor, and landed in some water in a lower floor.

“Wait…Water…” Sure enough, her worst fears were realised as a series of splashes quickly made their way over to the Grunt, who had just risen to its hooves, and the invisible beast in the water started to tear the Grunt to pieces.

“Fluttershy! Run!” Fluttershy turned around to see Twilight Sparkle standing on a ledge, bleeding from a wound on her forehead, and throwing bits of a corpse into the water. “Hurry!”

Fluttershy watched as the splashes in the water made their way over to the bits of flesh that Twilight threw into the water, and then quickly looked around for a way to escape. She found a gate that would lead to another part of the sewer, and could see a ladder heading up just past it. If she could just find a way to raise the gate…

“There!” She found a lever on a platform not too far from the gate, and made her way to a pile of rubble which she could use to climb up to the platform. She heard a series of splashes getting closer to her, and realised that it was no longer being distracted by Twilight’s offerings. She just barely managed to reach the pile of rubble, feeling her tail being grabbed a hold of by something behind her. The monster that was chasing her was attempting to drag her back into the water, and she wasn’t able to keep a good grip on the rubble.

There wasn’t much time to think, so she acted immediately. She picked up a sharp piece of rock that was within reach, and used it to cut through her tail. It took four attempts to finally cut through, and the end result was the vast majority of her tail being chopped off and submerged into the dark, dirty sewer water. Not a harsh price to pay for keeping one’s life, but to Fluttershy, she didn’t do it to keep her own life. She did it to save Twilight’s.

She started to climb up to the platform carefully, almost slipping and falling into the water a few times. The water would occasionally splash around her, remind her that the monster in the water was still there, waiting for her to re-enter the water.

She eventually managed to climb up to the top of the platform, and had to take a quick rest to catch her breath. She looked over to the other side of the room, and saw that Twilight was still alright. She pointed a hoof over to the ladder. “Twilight! I’m going to open the gate! Are you ready?”

Twilight rose to her hooves, picking up a few more pieces of flesh, ready to lure the monster away from Fluttershy. “Why did you come down here? I told you to go on without me!”

Fluttershy didn’t answer. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Twilight about what she had done. All that mattered to her was that Twilight survived, so she simply walked over to the switch, confirmed once more that Twilight was ready, and pulled it down, raising the gate up. At the same time, the whole area began to shake once more, and a mixture of roars and screams could be heard.

As if the situation wasn’t already bad enough, now they were running out of time. And even worse, when the gate opened, another series of splashes started to enter the room from the other side. Now there were two of these monsters.

“Go!” Twilight shouted as she threw the final pieces of flesh that she was holding to the far end of the room. The two monsters made their ways over to the distraction, and Twilight and Fluttershy immediately jumped into the water and began running.

Once they cleared the gate, they heard the sounds of splashing behind them. The distraction was over. Now, they just had to hope they could reach the ladder, before the monsters reached them.

Fluttershy tripped over a rock hidden by the sewer water, and Twilight had to stop for a second to help her up. The two made the mistake of looking behind them, and saw the splashes had almost caught up with them. They both yelped and dashed towards the ladder as quickly as their bodies would allow them to.

Fluttershy noticed that Twilight would make it…If the monsters behind them were slowed down a little bit. She slowed down slightly, just enough that Twilight wouldn’t notice, and then stopped. Twilight was almost at the ladder when she looked back to see her friend standing perfectly still, facing the direction of the splashes. “Fluttershy, what’re you doing!? RUN!”

Fluttershy shook her head, and stared at the splashes approaching her with a determined look on her face. This was it. With this, she could allow Twilight the time she needed to escape, and completely make up for her past sins. With her sacrifice, she could finally do some good to make up for the evil she committed. It was that thought running through her mind that set her heart at peace as her end drew near…

SPLASH!

Fluttershy’s eyes and mouth were wide open as she was knocked back by a cloaked figure in front of her. The figure turned around, and smile at Fluttershy. “Not yet. It is not time for your tale to end. Live on, if your mistakes you wish to mend.”

Fluttershy recognised the voice and the striped face of the figure in front of her. It was Zecora, the zebra who had made the Amnesia Potion, and who was making the other potion designed to help them escape. Fluttershy was about to speak up, but Zecora cut her off. “Go now! With all haste! Do not let my sacrifice be a waste!”

Fluttershy’s thoughts were all over the place. She wanted to sacrifice herself in order to help Twilight escape, but instead, someone else was sacrificing themselves. For Fluttershy’s sake. The splashes were nearly there. There was no way out of it for Zecora now. If Fluttershy allowed Zecora to die for nothing, that would just be another pointless death on her shoulders. It would be her fault.

She nodded, and started to run towards the ladder. Twilight followed Fluttershy as she passed by, giving one final farewell to Zecora, and thanking her for her brave sacrifice. The two began climbing the ladder, stopping to give a moment of silence as they heard the screams of the zebra below them as she was no-doubt torn apart by the monsters that were chasing them.

After finally reached the top of the ladder, and finding themselves in a very dark room, Twilight decided to use a few of the tinderboxes left in Fluttershy’s bag to light some of the torches, so that the two could rest and catch their breaths in a well-lit environment.

“Fluttershy, we should probably start moving again soon.” Twilight finally said after a few minutes. Fluttershy didn’t respond. She simply sat still, staring blankly into space. She had been like that for the past few minutes.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in a more soothing voice, trying to get the yellow Pegasus to open up to her. Fluttershy turned towards Twilight, her face filled with fear, tears running down her cheeks. She grabbed onto Twilight, wailing loudly, screaming that it should have been her. “Whoa, whoa! Calm down! Now, tell me what happened.”

It took Fluttershy a few minutes of searching for the right words, and being able to get them out between her sobs, but she eventually managed to tell Twilight everything. The whole truth about how she had helped Pinkie Pie commit her murders. About why she had done it, and how she didn’t have the right to go on living anymore.

Twilight thought about what Fluttershy was saying, and stayed silent as the thoughts ran through her head. She looked at Fluttershy, who was crying uncontrollably, and wasn’t sure whether to comfort the poor pony, or to…’No!’Twilight dismissed the thought immediately. Fluttershy was her friend, and she only did what she did because she was frightened, and cornered by Pinkie Pie. She didn’t deserve to die. The only one at fault…No. The only thing at fault was that accursed object that they had found before. The orb that started all of this.

She looked down at Fluttershy, who was telling Twilight to go on ahead and leave her behind. Twilight gritted her teeth, and stood up suddenly, shocking Fluttershy. “SHUT UP!” Twilight shouted, causing Fluttershy’s crying and begging to stop. At last, it was here. Twilight was going to punish Fluttershy for her friends’ deaths. She was ready for it. She was ready for whatever punishment Twilight had in mind. Yet, what she wasn’t ready for, was a big, warm hug from the purple Unicorn.

“Don’t say things…Like “I want to die”, or “leave me behind”. You’re my friend, Fluttershy. My last friend from Ponyville…If I lose you, I’ll be all alone again.”

Fluttershy felt tears running down her face, but they weren’t her own. Twilight was crying, and she tightened her grip on Fluttershy. “But…I killed…”

“Don’t say it!” Twilight interrupted. “You didn’t do anything, Fluttershy! You had no choice! You were as much a victim in all of this as we were! So…So don’t try to force all blame for onto yourself!” Twilight released Fluttershy, and pulled away from her, but still kept her face fairly close to Fluttershy’s. “If you die now, Zecora’s death would have been for nothing. And if you die now, I’ll be all alone. Do you want that, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy didn’t respond. Mixed feelings were running through her head right now. She didn’t know what to say or do. Twilight saw this, and continued. “The only thing your death will bring is more sadness. If you die now, it will be pointless. But…If you continue living…You can start your life anew. You can make up for all the mistakes you’ve made up to now.”

Fluttershy’s eyes shot open, and she gasped, as she recalled what Zecora had told her before she had died. “Live on, if your mistakes you wish to mend.”

Twilight was right. If Fluttershy died now, nothing would be accomplished from it. And if she was truly sorry for what she had done, then…The only way to set everything right, would be continue living, and work hard to atone for her sins.

Fluttershy was about to speak up, when a loud roar caused the two to gasp in panicked surprise. “Come on!” Twilight said, extending her hoof towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy smiled, and grabbed Twilight’s hoof, allowing the purple Unicorn to help her up.

Twilight and Fluttershy ran out of the small room that they were in, and found themselves in a familiar corridor. It was close to the room where the machinery was house. They could even hear the sounds not too far from where they were. Twilight led the way down the corridor, and Fluttershy followed, whispering a quiet “thank you” to her friend.

The corridor had changed drastically since their earlier visit; it was much darker, and there were blobs of pink matter all over the place. There were also corpses lined up down the corridor, though thankfully the darkness made it hard to see the more unsettling features of the bodies.

The corridor began to shake, and the Shadow’s roar began to sound throughout it, getting louder each passing second. After a series of burns and near-death experiences from falling rocks coming from above them, the two eventually managed to reach the door. “Hurry! Open it!” Fluttershy yelled as she caught up to Twilight.

Twilight panicked, and it took her awhile to finally open the door. The two slipped through, and slammed it shut, just in the nick of time. As they closed the door, they heard the sound of the ceiling collapsing right where they had just been standing. The roar became more quiet, and eventually, disappeared.

The two let out relieved sighs, and had to walk the rest of the way to the maintenance room. They were completely out of breath, and their whole bodies ached from the running, and from the injuries that they had obtained.

Once they had reached the maintenance room, Fluttershy decided that it would be a good idea to take a quick break, and treat their wounds. Twilight agreed, and they both sat down for a few minutes, allowing themselves to catch their breaths. Fluttershy took out her last two bottles of Luminal, and the two took one each. A strange, green leaf fell out of Fluttershy’s bag, and Twilight leaned in to examine it. “What’s this?” She asked.

Fluttershy shrugged, and thought back, trying to remember to when she had picked it up. She couldn’t recall ever picking it up, and she couldn’t remember seeing any plant life throughout most of the mansion…Except…The sewers. She remembered seeing some of these leaves in the sewers, but as her mind was focused on more stressing issues, she didn’t really take notice of them that much.

She then remembered when Zecora had pushed her back, and thought she could recall Zecora touching her bag, too. Did Zecora put this leaf in her bag? If so, then what for? “I think we should hold onto it for now. I think Zecora may have left it for us.”

Twilight nodded, and placed the leaf back into Fluttershy’s bag. Once the two were able to breathe properly again, they stood up, and moved over to the large staircase that would take them to Zecora’s potion.

They slowly ascended the large staircase, pressing their hooves against the wall for support. The steps weren’t very big, and were badly damaged. They both prayed that the Shadow didn’t roar until they at least reached the top. Thankfully, they managed to reach the top of the stairs without any dramatic events taking place.

Fluttershy opened the door at the top, and allowed Twilight to check ahead for any dangers. Once she was told that it was safe, Fluttershy followed Twilight through the door, entering the back hallway. It was a large room, with a large dolphin-themed fountain in the centre, which was right in front of where the two mares had entered the room from. Behind them, there was a balcony, with five doors lined across it. Around the room, there were many lit torches, and a few large windows, allowing a lot of light to illuminate the room. There were nice paintings along the walls, and there was very little rubble spread throughout the room.

The room was much more peaceful than any of the other rooms that they had come across, and it almost completely calmed Fluttershy down, until the faint sound of a familiar roar could be heard coming from the bottom of the stairs behind them. They closed the doors that they had just passed through, and Twilight began leading Fluttershy to the room where Zecora’s potion was hopefully waiting for them.

They reached the door, but their hearts sank when Twilight was unable to open it. It was locked tight, and neither were strong enough to try breaking it down. Fluttershy noticed the sign above it. “Party room?” She asked, reading the sign again to make sure that she had read it right.

“Yeah, we needed a big room, and this was biggest we could find.” Twilight explained.

Fluttershy gasped, and reached into her bag. She pulled out the key that she had found in the guest room, and looked at the engraving. ‘Prty’ was all she could make out, but maybe…She tried to unlock the door with the key, and…”Yes!” She shouted with enthusiasm as she heard a clicking sound coming from the door. She covered her mouth with her hooves, and blushed slightly. “Um…I mean…Yes.” She said in a much quieter volume as she pushed the door open.

She and Twilight walked into the room, which was completely pitch black. Fluttershy lit up her oil lantern, and placed it onto the nearby table, where a vial of some purple liquid was sitting inside of some kind of apparatus.

Twilight walked to the other side of the table, and picked up a piece of paper that was lying there. She began to read it out loud.

To whomever may be reading this, I fear it may be too late for me.
But fear not, for salvation may yet exist for thee.
The potion to quell the Shadow’s wrath, I have prepared,
But a vital ingredient, I have none to spare.
To the sewers I shall go, in search of the herb I need.
I may not return, but it’s a risk I must take, indeed.
If you are reading this, it may mean I am gone.
In my place, finish this potion, and

The note ended there. Twilight could only assume that Zecora had to leave suddenly. At least now they knew why Zecora was in the sewer, and they also had an idea as to what the green leaf in Fluttershy’s bag was.

Fluttershy set her bag down, and took of the leaf. It was a little dirty, so she cleaned it up a bit. “Do you think this is the final ingredient?”

Twilight shook her head, and turned to the vial on the table. “I don’t know, but it’s the only chance we have at this point…Let’s put it in the potion, and take it with us.”

Fluttershy nodded, and placed the green leaf into the vial. After a few seconds, the mixture began to bubble, and the leaf dissolved into it. The colour of the liquid changed from purple to green, and stopped bubbling a few more seconds later.

Twilight placed the lid that was sitting next to the vial onto it, and picked it up carefully. She nodded to Fluttershy, and the two began to leave the lab. “Ok. The Orb Chamber is back underground. We passed it on the way here. Although you were asleep, I guess…”

Fluttershy nodded, and looked around the back hall a bit. She noticed that one of the paintings seemed different that it did earlier. She examined it closely, and let out a loud yelp when the people inside it moved slightly. Twilight looked up at the painting, but didn’t see anything strange. “Don’t worry, it’s just your mind playing tricks on you. Try to ignore it.”

Fluttershy nodded, and then remembered that she had left the lantern in the party room. She turned back to go and retrieve it, but was pushed back by a sudden gust of wind, accompanied by a loud roar. The back hallway began to shake. The fountain stopped spraying water, corpses began to appear on the floor, and blood began to stain the walls and paintings. Soon, the lights were blowing out one by one, and the ceiling of the party room collapsed, making retrieving the oil lantern impossible.

“Oh no! It’s here!” Twilight shouted, running down the stairs to the lower level, followed closely by Fluttershy. The two made their way back to the doors below the balcony, and opened them quickly. Another loud roar caused the two to trip over as they quickly descended the stairs. Fluttershy managed to regain her balance, and caught Twilight just in time. Twilight had somehow managed not to drop the potion, but neither mare had time to be relieved. The roaring and shaking continued, and pink blobs were starting to appear all around them, attempting to burn them like earlier.

They both managed to make it down to the bottom of the stairs with minimal injuries, and charged out of the maintenance room, slamming the door shut behind them. The roaring stopped, but they knew that it wouldn’t last for long.

They dashed through the hallway as quickly as they could, heading in the opposite direction than earlier, and didn’t stop, especially not when they heard a loud crash behind them. The door had been forced open, and the Shadow’s enraged roar could be heard once again.

They were nearing the Orb Chamber, and the Shadow was starting to lose its patience. It began extinguishing whatever light sources existed all around them, shaking the room more violently than before, and causing the walls on both sides to seemingly close in on the two. Another mind-trick to throw them off, but they paid it no mind. They just had to keep running. They were almost there. Just a few more steps now…

They made it just in time. They turned at a branch in the corridor, and entered a large room, with a dome-shaped ceiling. It was the biggest room Fluttershy had seen in the entire mansion, and also, the most empty. The only thing inside the room, was a single pedestal in the centre. And on that pedestal, was a spherical object, shining with a brilliant, bright blue light. Despite there being no other sources of light in the room, things single object seemed to be enough to illuminate the entire chamber.

They hurried to the centre, and Twilight wasted no time in opening the vial, and pouring the potion onto the orb. “Come on…Please work…” The two watched as the orb began to glow pink for a second, and then saw a strange wisp of pink smoke surrounding the orb. They were forced back by a sudden shock when the smoke reached their bodies, but before they could question what was happening, they heard the Shadow’s roar directly behind them.

Both ponies turned and watched in horror and pink blobs began to fill the room. The only way in and out had been block now, and their deaths were quickly approaching them. Closer…Closer…And closer. The two were just moments away from being consumed by the Shadow. This was it. It was all over.

The two closed their eyes, and held each other close, waiting for the end to come…Waiting for the Shadow to take them…

“…Huh?” Fluttershy dared to open her left eye slightly when nothing happened, and then opened her eyes completely, surprised by what she saw. She nudged Twilight, who was still quivering and keeping her eyes tightly shut, with her hoof. “Twilight…Look…”

Twilight opened her eyes. She was just as surprised as Fluttershy was by what she saw. They were no longer facing the pink blobs of matter formed by the Shadow. They were no longer in the Orb Chamber. And, they were no longer in the strange mansion. She took a look around, taking in the sight of the all too familiar surroundings. They were back home. They were in Ponyville.

“Twilight? Fluttershy?” The two ponies turned around to see a white Pegasus clad in armour approaching them. He wasn’t alone. Behind him, there were numerous ponies of all types dressed in armour, some examining the town, and some watching in awe and wonder at the two ponies.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight, completely at a loss for words. Twilight looked at Fluttershy with a similar shocked and confused expression, but eventually, she managed to form a smile on her face, tears running down her cheek as pulled Fluttershy into another comforting hug. “It’s over…We’re back home…”