Chapter 41

Fluttershy was in shock, so much so that she’d forgotten to be relieved about her presentation being interrupted before she’d spoken a single word.

Her eyes were wide as she looked around the gym, hearing the panicked screams of students as they ducked their heads, frightened by the sound of automatic gunfire.

Two men had emerged from behind the curtains on the stage wearing ski masks and dark, long-sleeved shirts, wearing black cargo pants. Each of them had a backpack on and were carrying a firearm; one had a twelve-gauge shotgun and the other had a small automatic weapon.

A third shooter had appeared at the side door of the gym with a nine-millimeter handgun, stopping anyone from being able to escape.

Fluttershy heard her name being called, and she turned to see Luna waving her over to join her at the side of the crowd. The shy girl snatched up the cage and kept her head down as she scampered over to the blue-haired woman while the shooter with the machine gun sprayed bullets into the rafters, frightening everyone in the gym into a panic.

The man with the shotgun jumped down from the stage and approached the crowd where Fluttershy had just been standing, stopping only a few feet in front of the students, just as the machine gun had finally stopped its deadly song. The students continued to whimper and squeal in the newfound silence as small bits of debris fell on them from the ceiling, which had been pulverised and riddled with bullets.

“Shut-up!” the shotgun-man shouted at the crowd, pacing back and forth. He sounded fairly young, probably in his early twenties.

His shout only succeeded in lowering the volume of noise to a very small degree. He lurked back and forth in front of the students, shaking his head as he glared into the sea of fearful eyes looking back at him. “This fucking place…” he growled.

Fluttershy felt something grasp her hand. She looked down to see Luna’s pastel hand squeezing hers, and she lifted her head to look through the woman’s glasses into her eyes.

Luna clenched her jaw as she looked back at the shy girl, giving her a reassuring look with her deep, green eyes. Fluttershy clenched her jaw, looking back at her former principal, wondering what was going to happen, and what she should do.

Unbeknownst to Fluttershy, her training had started to kick in as she gave a quick glance towards the man at the door, noticing he had tucked the pistol into his pants and was resting his palm on the handle.

Next, she turned to look at the man on the stage with the machine gun, watching him closely as he stood there, grinning smugly through the hole in the mask as he watched the man with the shotgun pace around in front of the crowd.

“This place is fucked!” he shouted suddenly, pointing his finger at Luna. “They don’t care about any of you!”

Fluttershy glanced at Luna, who shook her head at the accusation.

“Well, today they’re really gonna be fucked,” he continued.

The gym went silent quite promptly, aside from the soft chorus of shaky breathing, fueled by the fear of death and suffering.

“Young man,” Luna finally said, breaking the silence.

Fluttershy stared wide-eyed in disbelief, her mouth agape as she watched her former Vice-Principal speak defiantly into the face of intimidation.

“I don’t know what has driven you to believe these things, but this is no way to go about solving your problems,” she said sternly.

Fluttershy couldn’t believe the bravery of this woman. To speak up against these armed intruders, and in front of everyone in the gym to-boot; this was something the shy girl could never do herself, even as an immortal.

“And what are you going to do? HUH?” the shotgun-wielder demanded, unexpectedly marching towards Fluttershy and Luna. “You had your chance to do the right thing, and you blew it! Now, who’s it going to be?” he quizzed menacingly, shifting his eyes onto Fluttershy. “Maybe your teacher first?” he asked, mistaking the shy girl for a faculty member.

He promptly lifted the shotgun and pointed it directly at Fluttershy’s face. A collective gasp emanated from the crowd of students, many of them covering their eyes when they saw the innocent guest speaker become the target of this unhinged psychopath.

Fluttershy drew her head back, staring down the large barrel that hung a foot from her face. “Oh no! If he shoots me, everyone will know what I am!” She tensed up, waiting for it, wondering what it would feel like, and what she would do if it happened. Should she try to engage them? More innocent people might end up dead if she did; the man with the shotgun was close, but the other two men were too far from her reach, and would have plenty of time to bring harm to the students before she could stop them.

What happened next was the worst thing Fluttershy could have imagined.

Luna, with her arms outstretched to the side, stepped in front of the shy girl, using herself as a shield to protect her former student, glaring at the shooter with a stoic face.

“NO!!” Fluttershy gasped. “Luna can’t sacrifice herself for me!” Fluttershy's heart wrenched at the thought of the woman showing such bravery, unaware that the shy girl’s life was in no real danger at all.

Luna remained steeled as she stared into the eyes of the assailant. It was clear that he did not expect her brash move and he gave pause, considering what he should do as he held the gun to her face, forcing everyone to wait in tense panic as the seconds dragged by, each one an eternity of its own.

Fluttershy’s heart thumped in her chest, terrified that her former Principal could be dead at any second. “What should I do?” she thought. “He’s on the other side of her…I won’t be able to help her in time,” The shy girl stood motionless behind the VP, waiting hopelessly for the loud bang, her stomach turning at the thought of Luna’s face being blown apart and splattering all over her.

An eternity went by, and then the shooter turned away at last, lowering the shotgun as he faced the crowd of students once again. “No,” he said. “They need to see their students die first…WHO'S IT GONNA BE?”

Luna gasped when he raised the shotgun, aiming into the crowd of innocent, young faces, eliciting a sudden wave of panicked screams that filled the auditorium.

The tightness in Fluttershy’s stomach suddenly increased upon seeing the kids thrust back into danger; even though she was a bit relieved when she realised the blue-haired woman wouldn't be made to sacrifice herself in vain. She felt intense shame in herself for just standing there, doing nothing, while Luna was on the cusp of paying the ultimate price for her hesitation. She felt selfish for not acting, knowing that she might have had the power to do something about what was happening.

And now she was seeing the weapon being aimed at innocent students. She peered over Luna’s shoulder, watching as the young teenagers ducked their heads, putting their arms up in front of their faces to protect themselves; a pointless gesture, since the second he pulled that trigger, their flesh would be torn apart like soft bread.

“This can’t happen…come on Fluttershy! You HAVE to do something,” she urged herself, feeling her heart tearing itself in two when saw the fear in the eyes of the young students. “Oh, but…what if you make things worse?...Oohhh, I wish Rarity was here; she could just use her magic to make some shields to protect everyone from harm!”

“Please,” Luna spoke again, her voice noticeably more tense now. ”Obviously...you feel that someone has wronged you at some time...”

The shooter quickly turned his head to face her.

“But,” Luna continued, speaking shakily, “taking the lives of others is not going to fix anything. You are only going to make things worse for yourself, and you will not likely survive this once the police arrive...if you go through with it.”

He walked briskly toward Luna and swung his hand at her face, planting a fierce slap across her cheek, knocking her glasses off.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Fluttershy watched the eyewear gradually inch their way to the floor; her heart thumped relentlessly, watching them descend slowly, gasping as they landed on the hardwood and broke, popping a lens out and snapping off one of the side temples. Luna’s head was thrown to the side from the force of the strike and she staggered backwards, bumping into Fluttershy, who put her hands on the disoriented woman’s shoulders to catch her.

“Are you OK, Luna?” she whispered close to the VP’s ear, maintaining a gentle grip on her shoulders.

Luna turned her head part-way to face the shy girl and nodded, holding a hand to her cheek as the nasty sting rang across her skin.

Fluttershy scowled and looked up to make direct eye contact with the shooter, her anger beginning to spark inside her brain as she watched him arrogantly stare back, retreating a few steps before turning his attention to the students again. “I have to do something!” she decided, clenching her jaw.

Luna was now cupping her hands over her mouth, watching helplessly as the man pointed the weapon at the crowd of students, waving the barrel around, choosing which lives he would destroy first with a sickening level of casualness.

“But what if they are stronger than me?” Fluttershy's thoughts conflicted with themselves, once again doubting her own abilities. With a quick sigh, she squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a shake. “NO! I already hesitated once, and Luna almost lost her life for it…I have to act!”

“Hmmmm…” the man thought out loud, his hands steadying as he chose his target.

“I’ve saved this school before, and I can do it again!” the shy girl reassured herself, only to have the voice in her head become timid again. “Oh, but…I had my friends with me those other times...”

Once the shooter had found on his target, he slowly, teasingly turned his head towards Luna. “This is your failure. You can’t protect them.”

Luna shook her head. “No…” she whimpered quietly, her voice elevated, cracking as she pleaded for him to spare their young lives.

Fluttershy heard it: Luna, the woman possessing such unwavering bravery was finally beaten; her emotion was showing through, watching helplessly as her students were about to be viciously murdered. Witnessing this was enough for the shy girl. Her rage hit full throttle and she clenched her fists tightly, finally resolving to put her skills into play; now was the time to act, before it was too late. “This is it, Fluttershy! They need YOU!” She slipped her jacket off so she could move freely, revealing her signature white tank top from underneath, along with the green skirt and boots that completed the ensemble as always.

“Nobody fucks with MY school!”

The shy girl placed her hand on Luna’s shoulder and quickly darted around her, drawing a gasp from the Vice-Principal as she tried to reach out and stop Fluttershy, who was now sprinting over to the man with the shotgun.

He was barely ten feet away from Luna, so it didn’t take Fluttershy long to close the gap between them. She swung her foot high and swift, kicking the gun upwards just as he squeezed the trigger, sending the shot into the rafters, causing another wave of debris to rain down onto the students. The BANG was deafening, causing the students and teachers to cover their ears, squeezing their eyes shut.

As Fluttershy brought her leg down after the kick, she thrust her heel into the side of the shooter’s knee, snapping the joint with a loud crack. He grunted loudly as his leg collapsed, and he leaned sideways to shift his weight onto his good leg, holding the shotgun out to balance himself as he went down onto his other knee.

Without hesitation, the shy girl grabbed the gun with both hands and shoved it back into his face, driving the butt-end of the stock into his temple, knocking him unconscious. She then yanked the weapon from his hand as he fell into a lifeless heap, and she spun around to aim the shotgun towards the man at the door, pumping the handle to reload the weapon.

The entire room was frozen in time, locked in that terrifying moment. Not a single breath was passed -- whether in or out -- and all eyes were set squarely on the shy girl, who had shocked everyone in the auditorium with actions so quick and precise, hardly anyone was able to keep up as she managed to catch her adversaries sorely off-guard, setting in motion a chain of events was sure to turn the tables on them. The only sound in the room was the hollow clunk of the smoking shell as it bounced on the floor after being expelled from the weapon, coming to rest at the feet of the wide-eyed students.

She stood motionless, aiming at the other shooter, who she had observed earlier with his pistol tucked into his pants. Now, he was caught with the gun only half-raised, with the shotgun pointing directly at him now. Fluttershy had taken down the leader so quickly that by the time he realised what was happening, it was too late for him to draw his pistol and aim at her in time, but...

There was still the matter of the shooter on the stage with the machine gun.

The entire room watched on in horror as the man on the stage aimed the machine gun at Fluttershy, grinning maliciously through the mask with an arrogant chuckle sounding from his throat.

The standoff went on for a few moments.

The room was dead silent.

Everyone waited for the next move.

But it was Fluttershy, and Fluttershy alone who knew that she was the one with the upper hand. Her mind was alive and her body was ready for action; her training was coming back to her, guiding her to save the students of CHS. She had seen everything that was going on without even realising it until now: she knew the man with the pistol would be too slow to draw the weapon by the time she had him in her sights, and she was certain that she had heard the machine gun completely empty its magazine after the assailants entered the gym and sprayed the ceiling with warning shots to frighten everyone into submission.

She also knew that in his brash overconfidence, the man with the machine gun didn’t bother to reload his weapon when it was empty, which was now something he had forgotten about as he stood in the left of her peripheries, aiming at her from the stage with an empty weapon like a fool.

Fluttershy kept the shotgun lined up with the man at the door and shifted her eyes to the left, watching and waiting as the man on the stage aimed at her and pulled the trigger, only to hear the dull click of the useless weapon.

“Shit!” he cried, suddenly realising his mistake.

As he frantically began pulling the clip from the gun to reload it, Fluttershy let a small grin creep across one side of her lips. “Check-mate…amateurs.”

She brought her eyes back to the man at the door, who was still frozen in place, his pistol half drawn. She closed one eye, putting him in her sights and then pulled the trigger, followed immediately by a deafening BANG that rang throughout the gym. The weapon violently kicked Fluttershy's slender figure backwards, causing her to stagger slightly as she struggled to maintain a firm grip on the cantankerous weapon.

The spread hit his right shoulder with a spray of crimson that painted the adjacent wall, causing him to spin around as he fell, landing on his front, facing out of the gym doors.

Without skipping a beat, Fluttershy turned to face the stage, letting the barrel of the shotgun point down at the floor as she pumped the handle, flinging another spent shell to the side, which landed at Luna’s feet with another hollow clunk.

The man on the stage was still scrambling to take a new magazine out of his pack as Fluttershy dropped to one knee to steady herself, aimed the weapon and fired without hesitation, hitting him dead-center in the chest. She was much closer to him than the other man; the blast therefore opened up a deep, red crater in his torso, spraying the stage with blood as he was blown off his feet and landed on his back, several feet away with a loud thud.

The shy girl stood and faced Luna, who was standing in the same spot with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide as saucers.

“Are you OK, Vice Prin-…um, Luna?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

Luna didn’t move, other than giving a small nod and a shaky exhale.

Fluttershy watched her for a moment, and was about to say something when she heard grunting from the gym door. She turned to see that the man with the pistol had gotten back up to his knees, his right side covered in a glistening, red coat of blood; he was trying in vain to lift his arm to point the gun at her, but the pain was too intense and he had become groggy after losing vast amounts of blood.

The sight of his persistence to commit violence sent Fluttershy over the edge, and she pumped the shotgun again, expelling the final shell to the side, leaving an arc of pale smoke in its wake. The shy girl angrily approached him, stomping her feet and holding the shotgun in both hands with a clenched jaw, scowling at him as he knelt there helplessly, breathing heavily.

“HOW DARE YOU!” she hollered, her soft voice gone, replaced by a frightening shriek; one that certainly caught everyone -- especially Luna -- off-guard. “YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD SHOOT UP CHS?”

She stopped a few feet in front of him and aimed the weapon at his face. She knew it was out of shells, but he didn’t, and she had no problem using it to intimidate him. “How many?” she asked from behind the barrel.

He squinted at her, breathing hard and grunting in pain before shaking his head.

“HOW MANY ARE THERE?” she repeated, louder this time.

“Fi…five," he answered, barely audible.

“WHERE ARE THE OTHER TWO?”

“…Pr…Principal…” he huffed.

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide with worry. “Principal Celestia…” she thought, realising this ordeal wasn’t over yet. She had one more objective to complete.

The shy girl snapped herself back to the moment, now more focused and ready than ever. She flipped the shotgun around so she was holding it by the barrel and then swung it at him like a baseball bat, connecting the wooden stock with his face and knocking him out cold.

Satisfied that he'd been effectively dealt with, she dropped the gun to the floor. It landed at her feet, clattering loudly as she stepped over her victim to leave the gym before she stopped to look at Luna one more time.

“Stay here,” Fluttershy ordered.

Luna stared in shock as the shy girl walked out of the room and out of everyone’s sight, leaving the entire auditorium in utter, stunned silence.

*****

Fluttershy crept quickly but quickly down the halls of CHS towards Principal Celestia’s office listening for any signs of gunfire, or possibly the sounds of voices; the halls were completely empty, and to her relief, there were no bodies or any other evidence that anyone innocent had been killed yet.

She entered the front lobby, where the halls intersected into the large, circular main foyer. Staying close to the wall, she approached the corner to the hall that led to the Principal’s office. She was about to peer around the corner to see if the hallway was clear when she heard voices, as well as the shuffling of feet. It sounded as though someone was being forced to walk down the hallway…

Principal Celestia was being led down the hall at gunpoint by two men, who were similarly dressed to the men who occupied the gym. One of them was on her right, holding her right arm with his left hand while reaching across himself with his right arm to hold a pistol to her chin. He dragged her along with him, her feet shuffling along the floor, stumbling every so often as her trembling legs tried to keep pace with his hasty stride. Her chin was high with the gun pressed against her jaw, her breaths hissing through her gritted teeth.

Like her sister, she was showing additional signs of age of her own. Her face wasn’t as tight as it once was and her eyes had slight wrinkles in the corners; her light blue, pink and green hair had been cut short and was styled simply at the sides and front, with the back of her neck exposed. There were small wisps of white hair along the sides of her bangs and around her ears, however, her large, purple eyes remained sparkling and youthful. She still wore the same yellow jacket over the purple v-neck shirt along with those purple slacks as always, with the large golden pin on the lapel of her jacket.

The other man followed behind them, holding a nine-millimeter handgun at his side as he walked. “I heard shots already,” he said, taunting the tall woman. “They must have started the party without us; I guess we’ll find out which students of yours are already dead when we get there, eh?”

As they approached the end of the hallway, they had begun to veer to the right to head through the main foyer, heading for the gym. Just when they were about to pass the end of the hall on the right side however, two slender yellow arms suddenly shot out from behind the corner; one gripped the crook of the right arm of the man who held Celestia, and the other grabbed his right hand, which was holding the gun to her jaw. His arm was yanked firmly to the right, placing the gun under his own chin as the little yellow fingers squeezed his finger against the trigger, firing a round upwards, through his chin and out the top of his head, spraying a red and gray mist onto the ceiling.

It happened quick as lighting, making Celestia jump with fright at the sudden movement, compounded with the loud BANG that echoed down the empty hall. Disoriented, she gasped sharply as a wave of cold pinpricks washed over her skin, wondering if it was her who'd been shot, until she felt the contrasting feel of his warm blood splattering on her face and neck. Her breath locked in place next, and she stood there shakily; unaware of what had just happened, gawking at the lifeless man laying on the floor with a steadily growing pool of crimson surrounding his head.

Fluttershy had emerged from behind the corner by then, charging swiftly towards the second man who was following behind; he was still trying to get a bearing on what had just happened when he looked up just in time to see the pink-haired girl approaching him with an alarming scowl on her face. In a panic, he raised his pistol and fired.

Without thinking, the shy girl quickly reached out and cupped her hand over the end of the gun, just as he pulled the trigger. The discharge collided with her palm, which had blocked the barrel and caused the weapon to backfire unexpectedly, sending a piece of shrapnel and a wisp of high pressure flame across his thumb and wrist from the rear of the gun, leaving a deep slice in his flesh and burning the skin of his hand and forearm.

Instinctively, he let go of the gun and screamed in pain as he clutched his injured hand with the other.

Fluttershy, still holding the pistol by the barrel, wasted no time in raising it above her head to swing it downwards, connecting the handle to his face, smashing his nose with a sickening crunch that echoed down the long, empty hall. Blinded by pain and tears, he cupped both hands over his face, blood immediately seeping between his fingers as the shy girl brought her leg up and drove the sole of her boot into the center of his chest, knocking him off his feet and onto his back. He landed like a ton of bricks, his head hitting the marble floor with a loud thud, after which he laid there, bloodied and motionless.

Fluttershy dropped the destroyed weapon to the floor with a sharp clack as she turned to look at her former Principal, who now stood before her, dumbfounded and trembling. She folded her hands and brought her knees together like she always did, being the shy girl that she was. “Um, hi Principal Celestia…I like your hair.”

Celestia stared wide-eyed at her former student, trying to decide whether or not she’d just imagined seeing the timid girl brutally incapacitate the assailants within a matter of seconds. “F-Flutter…sh…” she began, just as her eyes rolled back and her body began to collapse to the floor.

Fluttershy darted forward to catch the tall woman and brought her to the floor gently, sitting down with her to avoid letting her head hit the hard marble. She sat on the floor with her legs outstretched, letting the Principal faint against her, resting her head on the fragrant pink hair that padded the shy girl’s shoulder.

Fluttershy wrapped her arms around Celestia’s shoulders and held her safe and secure, waiting for her wake up, or better yet, for help to arrive.