Smoke rises over the edge of Ponyville, but when the firefighters arrive to put out the flames, not a single soul is found.

The moonlight guides the path in the dark of the night. You follow behind Fluttershy, Harry the bear following behind you. You feel weightless as you robotically place one foot in front of another. Fluttershy hums a happy tune to herself, breaking the gentle song of crickets.

“Don’t worry, Anon!” Fluttershy says cheerfully. “I’ll be more than happy to let you stay with me for as long as you need. Things will get better! You’ll see.”

You remain silent, not out of a refusal to give her any more affirmation of breaking you, but rather because you can’t bring yourself to say anything.

You have nowhere else to go. No home. No real friends.

“You… you won’t get away with this, Fluttershy,” you whisper.

Fluttershy stops, and you stop behind her.

“Oh? I won’t get away with this?” she says quietly.

Sirens blare in the distance, the smoke billowing up in the air behind you.

“Anon, I hate to break it to you, but I already have,” she says, turning to look at you. “You set your own home on fire. I’m just doing my job. Who’s going to believe that the…”

She clears her throat, throwing a lock of hair over one of her eyes, before digging a hoof in the ground.

“Meek, quiet little element of harmony that loves animals, would ever hurt a fly?”

She snickers to herself before looking up to you determinedly.

“You’re mine, Anon. The sooner you accept that, the happier we can be together.”

Your fists clench. And then, automatically, you strike the mare in front of you. She falls to the ground, her eyes wide in shock. You push against the ground and dart away from the path. You sprint with all of your might, the scenery rushing past you as you flee from your captor.

“Get him, Harry! Don’t let him get away!” you hear Fluttershy yell.

You spot a patch of trees where you set your course to try and lose them. Soon, just as you are about to reach the line of the forest, you hear the scramble of legs behind you and the roar of a bear. You try to put everything you have into your charge as you duck and weave between trees. Each step sends the cracking of twigs and rustling of leaves echoing through the forest. You listen as Harry’s own steps alert you to the distance of your pursuer.

You pant for breath. You can’t keep this up for forever. You’re gonna have to find a place you can hide. Somewhere that you can shake off Harry and get away. You had to build yourself back up from nothing once. You can do it again. But you can’t allow yourself to be caught.

Up ahead, you spot an oversized tree. You faintly taste copper in your mouth… or is that blood? You aren’t even remotely in the sort of shape you’d like to be for this sort of action. You need to stop and catch your breath. Once you pass the tree, you leap to the left and stop. Leaning against the trunk of the tree, you take a few slow, deep breaths in an attempt to catch your breath. You hear the bear closing in and coming near.

You hold your breath, pushing yourself closer and closer to the bark of the tree, you hear the bear rush past you, still running deeper into the forest. You slowly exhale, trying to stay as quiet as possible. The rustle of leaves moves deeper and deeper until, it stops. Your eyes move to the ground, and find a small walking path that’s free of branches and leaves. You move onto it and push forward, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

Once you find the treeline once more, you scan the landscape to find any source of Fluttershy. You can hear your heartbeat in your ears as you listen for any sort of sign of the winged menace.

It’s now or never, Anon. Run.

You run out into the open, your feet crunching around the grass. A light mist forms from your exhaled breath from the chill in the air. You sprint along the path towards Ponyville. You have to get out of this town. Whatever puts the most distance between you and Fluttershy, the better. The best way to do that would be to catch a train. The elements of harmony probably have connections in towns all across Equestria, but if you can get to somewhere like the Yaks or Saddle Arabia or the Griffon Kingdom, maybe you can escape her grasp.

You look behind you, and find the path behind you desolate. You look to the skyline and only see the billowing of smoke from your burning home. Then when you look up to the moon-

The shadowy outline of a pegasus with long pink hair.