Fluttershy nervously looked from side to side, making eye contact with each of her friends as she recalled her frightening past. She looked back down at the floor and felt a vast array of emotions as she relived every minute of her last day with Pinkie. After fighting with her own inhibitions she began to speak, revealing the truth that none of her friends ever imagined possible. Rainbow Dash had came back, quietly resting outside beneath an open window, listening intently to what Fluttershy was about to say.

It was a day like any other, until Pinkie showed up at my door. She brought Gummy over for me take a look, he was very sick and neither of us were really sure why, so I decided to keep him for the night or at least til I could figure out what was wrong and how to help him get better. After a few minutes I realized that he was very malnourished, it seems all he had been eating was sugar and cupcakes. He needed meat, I don't really like to think about it but I know some animals need to eat other animals to live, that's just the way it works. So I took him into the Everfree Forest and let him go in a small pond, I watched him from behind a bush so I could make sure he knew what he was doing. It seemed his natural hunting instincts took over immediately, he went into the water, close to the bank. He opened his cute little mouth and waited for some unsuspecting prey to walk into his kill zone. Soon a small mouse wondered out into the open, I slowed my breathing making sure not to make any noise. It slowly walked in front of Gummy, then he snapped at it, clamping down on its tiny body. He rolled around and shook his head back and forth but it just escaped and ran away. It seemed there was no way for Gummy to hunt without his teeth. I knew he wouldn't last if he couldn't hunt for his own food, alligators don't eat food that's already dead, so that's not an option. I decided to go consult with Pinkie Pie the next day. So I made Gummy a spinach soup that was decently high in iron, hoping to hold him over til we could work out his problem.

In the morning I headed out to find Pinkie, but I couldn't. I looked everywhere hoping to find her before she took off with Rainbow for the day. Eventually I spotted the balloon in the sky with Rainbow Dash next to it, I knew that's where Pinkie had to be. I tried my best to fly up there but the winds slowed me down a lot, and when I finally made it Rainbow had already flown off somewhere else and Pinkie was trying to chase her. I landed in the balloon and tried to catch my breath.

"Oh hi Shy, what brings you to the sky. Hehe."

"I... found out... what's wrong... I'm tired wow. Anyway I found out what's wrong with Gummy."

"Oh really?! Does this mean he'll get better now?"

"Well... actually the problem is that he needs to eat a gator appropriate diet, all he's been eating is sugar and that's really not good for him at all."

"What, nah he loves cupcakes, what else could it be?"

"Trust me that's what it is, he needs to eat meat, and even more importantly he needs to be able to hunt for it himself. He can't though because he doesn't have any teeth, do you know why he doesn't?"

"Yeah duh, I took em out. You can't have a pet alligator with teeth, that'd just be silly."

That was when I felt the anger for the first time, this anger filled my chest and I began to lose control of what I said and did.

"You what?! Pinkie, Gummy could die because of that, look, I'm going to take him to Zecora and see if she can help with his teeth, then I'm going to let him live in the Everfree Forest where he belongs."

"You, you can't! He's my pet and I'm taking him back home, he loves cupcakes and there's nothing wrong, he just has a cold."

"I'm not going to let him die, he needs help."

Then Pinkie Pie just started glaring at me, she pushed her nose up against mine really hard and pushed me into the corner of the balloon's basket, then she said, "I'm going to take Gummy home right now, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. I'm not being nice anymore Fluttershy."

That's when I lost all control of everything, I remember everything perfectly, I remember wanting to hurt her. I stood up and pushed her away.

"Oh really? We'll see about that!" I pushed her again, much harder this time, she slammed into the side of the balloon's basket, which was now swaying frantically in the storm winds.

Pinkie lost her balance and I walked up to her then... then I... I...

I said, "I'll never let you hurt another animal again." Then I pushed her over the edge. As she fell she made eye contact with me, I saw every emotion she was feeling through her eyes. It looked like a mixture of fear, confusion, and betrayal. I imagine these were the same things Gummy felt as she ripped the teeth from his mouth. A few seconds after she fell, I saw Rainbow Dash flying towards her, I already knew it was far too late for her to be saved though. When I saw Pinkie hit the ground, I began to smile ear to ear, I felt happy.

And well, you know the rest. I lost myself after I lost you guys. I hid in my house and never wanted to leave, I desperately clung to the care and love my beloved little pets required. I'm not sure exactly when I started to blur reality with my imagination again. I haven't done that since I was just a little filly. At least as far as I know I haven't. Thanks for snapping me out of that by the way Twilight, I haven't felt that crazy since the day I killed Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves, surprised at the fact that she speaks about it so casually.

"I'm sorry guys, I really think there's something wrong with me."

"Ya think?!" Rainbow revealed herself from behind the window. Then once again flew away, feeling she needed to be alone.

Applejack and Rarity were in a state of shock or disbelief, they sat in silence trying to absorb everything they had just heard. Twilight on the other hoof was busy trying to decide rather the story she just heard was the truth or if Fluttershy fabricated the whole thing and convinced herself it was the truth.

She began to pry into her mind. "So you don't feel bad about murdering one of your best friends then?" Twilight spoke in a harsh unsympathetic tone. She was busy focusing on Fluttershy's entire body, watching her eyes, her body language, her breathing, even detecting her pulse.

"Oh but I do feel sad Twilight, I just didn't feel bad at the time it happened."

Twilight deduced that she at least believed she was telling the truth, but she decided to go deeper. She trotted up to her and touched her horn to Fluttershy's head. She closed her eyes and engulfed them both in a fiery purple aura.

Twilight began to see Fluttershy's most prominent memories, reliving them through her eyes. She found herself in a dark attic, she sat in the center, watching dust float around in the air. A circle of animals surrounded her, all staring into her eyes, their faces blank and emotionless. They sat perfectly still, all breathing in unison. In her hooves she held Angel, he seemed lively enough as he writhed and turned in her grasp, as if he were on fire.

"Now now Angel, be still and take your medicine or you'll never get better." Twilight then saw herself standing there in the dark, staring at herself pityingly.

"Is this what Fluttershy thought she was seeing?"

Twilight saw herself reach out with a black hoof, blinding Fluttershy. Then she flashed into another memory. She was in the Everfree Forest, staring down at a cow's skull. She began violently stomping on it, shattering it into sharp jagged pieces which she then collected in a small pouch. She ran back and met Gummy. He was already getting much larger at this point. Fluttershy had him tied down by each leg and his tail to several wooden polls in the ground, his mouth was propped open by a metal rod.

"Don't worry now Gummy, this is going to hurt, but you need teeth if you're going to survive in the wild."

Fluttershy was wearing her doctor outfit, she seemed to have a crude method of sterilizing her equipment then her skull fragments, dipping them into a boiling pot of water and setting them down on a steel tray.

"Now please try not to move too much okay? And most importantly, remember that I love you and am doing this to help you."

Fluttershy grabbed one of her many malicious looking medical tools, this one a thin metal rod with a razor blade at the end. She clumsily gripped it with her hoof and reached into Gummy's mouth, cutting into this gum. The terrified animal roared out in agony as she sliced into his mouth.

"There there now Gummy, almost done with the first one."

She used a pair of pliers to grab a sharp fragment of skull. She forced it into the fresh incision she had made, after setting it deep within, she grabbed two small metal wires and pierced his gum on either side of the "tooth" wrapping them around and tying the incision closed.

"Well... That's one down." Fluttershy grimly looked down at her bowl of sterile skull fragments, there were dozens remaining. She began to smile, then her vision blacked out once again.

Twilight now found herself inside Fluttershy's room, this was shortly after Pinkie's death. Fluttershy violently paced back and forth, her face battered and bruised. Fluttershy began to rampage through her room, kicking the walls and smashing her own belongings. She seemed to be trying to fight herself. She walked up to a mirror hanging in her closet. She stared at her reflection for a few moments. Her face was wounded and miserable, she was crying and biting her lower lip, however her reflection seemed perfectly content, she was smiling back at herself, her eyes blocked out by a nonexistent shadow. Fluttershy turned around and kicked the mirror repeatedly, shattering it and cutting herself in the process. She proceeded to frenzy in her own home, destroying anything that even remotely shared some connection to Pinkie Pie. She soon happened upon an old group picture, she smashed it immediately after seeing it. She looked closely at the partially torn image, she focused on Pinkie's happy carefree loving face, how innocent and harmless she seemed. Fluttershy took a piece of glass and began stabbing the image repeatedly and violently. She found an inkwell, she dipped one of her own fallen feathers into it and blacked Pinkie's face out. She then threw the inkwell out her window, breaking it. She stumbled back a few steps, and collapsed, her vision slowly fading.

Next Twilight saw everything she was looking for, she watched one of her best friends murder another. She saw it through her eyes, and even worse, she felt the satisfaction Fluttershy felt at that moment.

Twilight took a few steps back, now back in current time. She looked at Fluttershy, she saw her cute innocent smile, and her wide eyes staring back up at her. Twilight lost her balance and fell into Rarity, the experience was much stronger than she ever could have expected. She tried to recover herself. Something had to be done, Fluttershy needed help that Twilight wasn't prepared to provide.

"Applejack, don't let her leave, Rarity I need to talk to you. Come with me."

Applejack wasn't sure she was comfortable being alone with Fluttershy, but held her composure. Fluttershy slowly turned her head to meet Applejack's eyes. Her soft smile turned to a devious grin.

"Are you scared AJ? You know there's no need for that, right?"