"The Other Side" Chapter 5- Shelter

The skies poured rain as lightning cracked like a whip overhead. Fluttershy rushed all of her animals to their houses, moving them with a maternal touch and whispered words of assurance.

"It's OK. The storm will pass and we'll all be fine. No need to worry, I'll protect you."

She spoke to them with a caring, calm voice, hushed and soothing, as if speaking normally would scare them. The skies were black with large, twisting stormclouds, drenching everything under them with pounding rain. The sky lit up eerily with each flash and snap of energy the stormclouds released. After Fluttershy was sure that every last animal was safe, she hurried inside her cottage, closing the door quickly behind her. As soon as she had went inside, her mask of calm confidence was replaced with a look of worry and concern. She had never seen a storm like this before, and it did not bode well. Lightning speared down from the clouds every few seconds, and the amount of water falling from the sky was torrential. The ground around her house was literally drowning; the dirt was now a thick mud that pulled greedily at feet and hooves alike. She had trouble just walking from her house to the small animal habitats she maintained.

Fluttershy tried desperately to forget the storm, and walked into her small kitchen with a nervous look on her face. She lit a fire in her stove and put a kettle on, trying to boil water for tea. As the water boiled, Fluttershy practically ran up her stairs, and grabbed a blanket from her bedroom closet . She pulled it around herself tightly, as if it could protect her from the raging storm in the skies above. She went back downstairs and grabbed a teacup from one of her kitchen cupboards, holding the dainty china with a firm but gentle grip. She poured the hot tea into her cup, blowing on it softly before taking a sip. She had barely enough time to swallow her mouthful of tea before another bolt of lightning struck. This bolt was deafeningly loud, so loud the house's windows rattled in their frames. Fluttershy jumped at the noise, diving under her kitchen table. She peered out with fearful eyes, slowly creeping to the window when nothing else happened. She stood up slowly, peering over her windowsill with frightened eyes. Peering into the darkness, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

She was about to go back to drinking her tea when the forest lit up again. The disturbing light revealed a dark shape moving sluggishly towards Fluttershy's house. She screamed as she saw it, dropping her cup full of tea. It smashed into a dozen pieces, shards of china skittering across the floor. A puddle spread outwards at Fluttershy's feet, slowly creeping outwards from the point of impact. The shape moved very slowly, and appeared to lean against trees, stumble forwards, fall halfway down into the muck, and pull itself back up. It was dragging itself ever closer, lurching from place to place. Fluttershy was panicking, darting around the room at breakneck speed, trying to find a place to hide.

What is that?! I need to find somewhere to hide! No, no, no... that won't work. Maybe in the bathroom? The closet? Under the bed? Hide! Hide! Hide!

Fluttershy's thoughts were desperate and fearful, gripping her mind tightly, threatening to never let go. Suddenly, another thought hit her like a slap to the face. It chilled her to the core, sending surges of cold terror racing up her spine.

The animals!

She burst through her front door, a protective determination now replacing her feelings of self-preservation. She pawed at the ground like a bull ready to charge. She lowered her head, preparing to rush at whatever monstrosity was making its way towards her cottage. She snorted softly, the rush of hot air from her nostrils turning into fog as it mixed with the cold, rainy air. She ran full tilt towards the thing, her pounding hooves kicking up sprays of thick, dark mud with each step. She yelled out as she closed the distance between her and the shape.

"Leave them alone!"

Her brows had creased angrily, her eyes narrowed, and her mouth had turned into a frown by the time she was within twenty feet. Lightning flashed again, the witchlight illuminating the shape completely. It was Dylan. His clothes were shredded, long talon-marks cutting through the fabric on his chest, and a large chunk was ripped out of his left shoulder. He looked like he was moving on sheer will alone, as his knees sagged and his arms dropped low to his sides. His head hung low, his back arching over as he tried to drag himself forward. His hands were mangled, the knuckles bloody; the skin had been ripped from his fingers. His face and skin were completely pale, even paler than normal, and it was obvious he had lost a lot of blood. His clothes were almost entirely soaked in the dark red liquid, and there were rivulets of it streaming from the corners of his mouth. His pants and undershirt were charred rags, and it looked as if they had been set afire. The look in his eyes was one of heart-chilling fear and confusion. He stared right into Fluttershy's eyes. If Dylan had been able to speak, he would have said 'Help me.', but instead, all that came from his lips was a pitiful groan.

"H-h-hlllph... muhh..."

Fluttershy skidded to a halt, the anger she had felt moments ago was nothing compared to the brain-wrecking feeling of incomprehension that now closed its fingers forcefully around her mind.

"D-Dylan! Wha-"

Before she could finish speaking, Dylan fell limply into the mud with a loud splash. His face was completely submerged in a pool of water, and Fluttershy frantically dragged him out of it to stop him from drowning. She held his head in her hooves. Looking closer at his wounds, she could see that a ragged gobbet of flesh had been torn out of his shoulder from what looked like a beak. Blood gushed freely from the wound, and she could look into the very workings of his musculature. The weeping trenches torn in his chest also bled furiously. To Fluttershy, it seemed impossible that he could even be alive, as the amount of blood he had lost should have been the end of him. Again, Dylan had miraculously survived for a reason completely unknown to her. She felt his pulse, which was barely noticeable, even to her, who was a trained healer. She didn't hesitate. Fluttershy lifted Dylan over her shoulder and galloped towards her house as if nothing else in the world mattered. She was crying, her chest heaving With each choked out sob.

Fluttershy shouldered her house's door open, stepping around the shattered teacup and pool of tea. Her hair was weighed down with the rain, and her feet were caked with mud. The floor under her feet creaked and groaned as she ran to her kitchen table. She lifted Dylan's unconscious body off of her shoulders and placed him on his back atop of the table. Fluttershy then went to her closet and pulled out a box full of various tools, herbs, bandages, and other healing items. She dropped the box onto the table with a loud thump.

"Where is it? It has to be here! Why isn't it here? Oh, why did I have to lose it now, of all times? Come on, find it, Fluttershy! You can do this! Where... Buck! Buck! Buck! Where is the piece of cud?! It's not in here!"

If her friends had heard her, they probably would have been completely taken aback, as they had never heard Fluttershy swear before. To them, it was normal to hear Applejack or Rainbow Dash cussing up a storm occasionally, and the other three might let a word slip by rarely, but Fluttershy had never before swore in their prescence. Fluttershy searched vigorously in the box for something, tossing items out of the box and onto the table.

"Motherbucking garbage!"

She tossed a bag full of roots to the floor angrily, spilling a few of them. She then picked up a small glass bottle of black powder, which had a label on it which said Coagulant.

"Yes! Finally!"

She yelled victoriously, twisting off the lid and pouring a pinch of it into each of her patient's wounds. The blood coming from each of the wounds seemed to thicken and turn a deeply dark shade of red, which was almost black itself. She also poured a few drops of a bluish-green liquid into the bloody flesh. She snatched a roll of bandage from the box and wrapped it tightly around Dylan's chest and shoulders, covering the large gashes and the empty space where part of his shoulder had been.

Dylan twitched and writhed on the wooden table, groaning in distress. The fact that he had been completely still a few seconds ago was extremely unnerving.To Fluttershy, it looked as if he was experiencing a terrible nightmare, as the look on his face twisted into a look of utter sadness. A few seconds later, it was one of unfathomable rage. His fingernails dug into the underside of the table, his hands holding the sides in a white-knuckle grip. He began to spasm rapidly. His head was arched, turning from side to side. This went on for minutes. The whole time Fluttershy tried to comfort him with a hoof on his uninjured shoulder. He shook one last time, raised his chest towards the ceiling, and gasped before he became still. He looked as lifeless as a statue, and if she had not had her face close to his, she would not have felt his slow, warm breathing, and assumed he had probably died.

Dylan awoke with unnatural speed, snapping his hands upwards and around Fluttershy's neck. He squeezed. Her eyes opened wildly with fear with fear and surprise. His face was a snarl, his teeth teeth bared like a feral predator. He screamed out,

"You! You were there! YOU WERE THERE!" his gaze was mad with an insane light, peering into the depths of Fluttershy's eyes.

"Hrk-hhhg-Dhlll-Dylan! I-It's me! S-Stop!" Her voice was a croak, her words strangled into a hoarse groaning noise. She was terrified, and her hooves instinctively raised to her throat and tried to pull away Dylan's hands. He continued to stare at her, his face contorted and pulled into a mask of anger.

"Who are you?! Wh- w- No... NO!"

A sudden recognition sparked in Dylan's eyes, his anger turning to disbelief and horror. Fluttershy looked like she was about to lose consciousness, her eyes drooping closed. He threw his hands away with disgust, screaming a cry of anguish.

"No! Wh-what did I just-..."

Dylan broke into tears, rolling off of the table with the greatest look of misery in his deep blue eyes that Fluttershy had ever seen.

"NO! NOOOOOO!"

Fluttershy had just regained her breath, and she was also crying deeply. Dylan broke into a run and bolted for the door, almost ramming it out of its hinges as he sprinted outside.The rain and lightning were like nothing Dylan had ever seen. The water alone threatened to drive him to the ground with the sheer amount and force of it, and the raindrops stung bitterly on impact. The lightning was as if the sky had taken it upon itself to drown out every other sound, and to blind anyone who looked at it. Dylan's run came to an unexpected halt when he collapsed onto his hands and knees. His heart ached, in the physical and philosophical sense, and it felt as if it would rip itself apart with the amount of self-hate coursing through it. He could barely breathe, much less move, and even the effort to think rationally was monumental. Fluttershy's voice rang out, concern and compassion in her words, but fear also.

"What happened?! I'm alright, Dylan! You're at my home! There's nothing to be afraid of!"

Dylan turned his head, terror bleeding from his gaze. He spoke quietly, barely audible over the noise of the storm.

"You're wrong... It's me. It's me that I'm afraid of... I... hurt you... What... am I? Why... was he... I can't hurt you again. I can't. I won't let myself. I did this... I tried to kill you. After you saved me... Why would I- NOOOOOOO!"

Dylan was looking into a pool of water, and he had a look of complete rage on his face, but it appeared to be directed at his reflection. What he saw was his reflection, but something was undeniably wrong with it. His head was a leering skull, and it was burning with an otherworldly fire, it's eye sockets full of dark malice. He brought his fists crashing down into it with such force, it seemed as if he was trying to smash his mirrored self into a thousand pieces. He roared and screamed, his entire body focusing all of its remaining energy towards the destruction his reflection.

The skull did something impossible; It smiled. It was as if the bone actually molded itself. The smile it gave was one of diabolical amusement, and it began to laugh. He screamed in outrage, bringing the bottoms of his fists slamming down on it from with enough force to almost break his already torn hands into pieces. He wept. His sorrowful tears were put to an end by a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

"Dylan, I forgive you."

He stopped, his reflection his own again. He turned and looked at Fluttershy's compassionate face with a look of melancholy understanding.

"Thank you... but... can I forgive myself?"

He turned back to the reflection of himself, staring at it as if it would change horribly before his eyes once again. The rain and lightning were no longer deafening, they had begun to calm, now more of a soothing sensation than a terrifying one.

"I hope so... I need you inside!"

At these words, he turned his head in shock.

"You... wait, what?!"

His mind literally exploded with thought. WHAT THE FUCK DID SHE JUST SAY?!

Fluttershy's mind was just as confused. What the buck? Did I... Oh... My...

He looked completely embarrassed, shocked and confused at the same time. It took a moment, but then Fluttershy looked as embarrassed and surprised at her words as Dylan had been.

"Uh, n-no! What I meant was... um... I need you inside the house!"

Dylan still stared at Fluttershy, his mouth agape. He shut it slowly.

"Oh. T-that... makes more sense. I think I need some help getting it up. Uh... Oh, shit! Uh... Getting myself up."

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY?! Dylan screamed inside his mind.

"Uhm... I... I... OK... I'll help you up." Fluttershy's thoughts turned to surprise again.

My goodness! He... did he? No. There's no way...

She put her hooves around his shoulders, which was hard to do, seeing as he still stood a six inches taller than her even when she stood up on two legs. They walked rather awkwardly back inside Fluttershy's cottage. He opened the door weakly, trying to summon up a small bit of strength.

Did we just... Never mind.

He closed the door behind them with an exhausted, bleeding hand.