Five years, seven months after meteor...

“…etal, check. Synthetic leather, check. Blueprints, check.”

Shy opened her eyes.

She lay where she had fallen: within the train station. The scent of the potted plants floated on the breeze past her nose. Stained glass was on display in every window. The intricately engraved doors to outside stood open before her. Her eyes were drawn from the doors to the scene outside.

Sunlight bathed everything outside. A yellow pony with a flowing pink mane stood beside a mine cart embroidered with diamonds. Everything about her radiated beauty, from her perfect mane to her brilliantly blue eyes, to her perfect smile. In one hoof she held a checklist, in the other she held open a tarp covering the mine cart. A pen in her mouth checked off item after item.

She noticed Shy wake. Smiling, Fluttershy called out to her. “Shy! Thank the sun you’re alright, I was so worried!” She held out the hoof with the clipboard on it. A purple glow appeared around it and lifted it up. “Twilight, check the rest while I get Shy some food, would you?”

“Of course, Fluttershy!” Twilight Sparkle said, trotting into view. The clipboard hovered a few hooves away from her glowing horn. “Although, you’re much better at this than I am.”

Laughing softly, Fluttershy made her way inside the station. “Don’t be silly! You’ve always been the smartest pony in Ponyville, Twilight!” The yellow pony was heading towards a fridge along one wall.

Twilight started to respond with her laughter. “Oh, Fluttershy, you-”

Shy closed her eyes.

Shy opened her eyes.

The only light afforded to her came from what little the sun could radiate through the haze. It was enough to reveal broken glass from the windows, doors barely attached to the walls, and empty pots where the memory of plants still lingered.

Outside was the mine cart, rusted and muddy. Rain bombarded it and sought its way past the tarp that covered the cart. The wind howled through the abandoned building and lifted the tarp slightly, allowing some rain to slip inside. The skeleton of Twilight Sparkle stood silent guard over it. Failing in her duties even in death, Shy thought.

Something made a splash as it hit the ground next to Twilight. Shy froze but the sound did not repeat. She stood slowly on legs weak from excessive use and too little sustenance.

“You need to eat!” cried Fluttershy from barely a hoof away. Shy flailed her hooves in surprise and fell over. She barely managed to keep her stub of a right wing from hitting the floor and erupting in pain.

Though Shy screamed obscenities at her, Fluttershy kept on badgering. “If you don’t eat something you’ll faint again!”

The words got through Shy’s anger and got her back up. The bandages around her body could finally take no more abuse and slipped off partway. As she walked towards the dirty fridge, Shy wiggled till they rested on the floor. She was no doctor, but she figured after so many days she no longer needed them.

Within the fridge were some supplies, put there specifically for this moment. Food, medicine, bandages. Shy shoved the medicine and bandages away and pulled out as much of the food as she could hold. Falling to the ground, she ate and ate until her stomach threatened to rebel.

With that off her mind, she rose again. Her legs wobbled but she managed. Fluttershy hovered annoyingly close by with anticipating eyes.

Shy ignored her. The achy pony started to trot to the mine cart, but stopped when she felt something against her chest. Weighing heavily, the Element of Kindness bumped into her when she walked, reminding her of its presence. It kindled no refreshing feelings, so Shy took it off with a scowl. Whatever magic it had must be used up. She dropped it to the wooden floor like so much garbage.

Fluttershy let out a little whimper. Shy continued to ignore her.

Strangely, Shy actually started to feel less tired once the Element was off of her. The achy feeling went away almost completely as she stepped out into the rain, water soaking her fur. She sighed. What in the night is going on with this body?

Fluttershy galloped out of the station to the mine cart. “Shy, Twilight Sparkle was helping me keep track of everything you brought! Show her the list, Twilight!” The perfectly dry yellow pony reached out to encourage Twilight with a touch.

Shy pushed the unicorn’s skeleton over and into the mud. Sticking out of the mud beside her was a clipboard with a blank piece of paper attached. A quill lay beside it. Shy whirled on Fluttershy. “How did you get her out here? Where did these things come from?”

Blinking innocently, Fluttershy cocked her head to the side. “Twilight brought them, silly. I asked her to come help wit-”

Shy took all her hate, all her anger, and all her pain, and focused it completely on Fluttershy. The yellow pony’s leg’s buckled. Shadows deepened and stirred around the two ponies. With all her might, Shy tried to destroy Fluttershy right then and there.

Fluttershy continued to stare into Shy’s eyes as her body sank to ground. Her expression was completely neutral. She said a single, quiet word.

“Stop.”

The shadows snapped back into place. Shy was pushed back, hooves digging grooves in the mud, as the rain pulsed away from Fluttershy. Clouds parted overhead in a circle outward from her to reveal the sun, blinding Shy. Shy cried out in pain, throwing up her front hooves to shield herself while falling to the ground.

It was over in an instant. Shy stayed curled up in the mud for a few more heartbeats before lowering her legs from her face. Fluttershy was still there, but her expression was one of worry. “Are you alright? What happened?” She started towards Shy.

The downed pony threw out a hoof while crawling away. “Stay away! I don’t want your help!” Fluttershy faltered a step. After a moment, though, she kept coming. Shy scooped up a hoof-full of mud and threw it at her. “Go away!”

Though the muddy missile passed through her harmlessly, Fluttershy looked as if it hit her right in the heart. “If that’s… what you want… I’ll leave you alone…”She turned slowly and trotted towards Ponyville. Shy lost sight of her as she turned round the corner of the station.

But Shy still felt her watching from inside. It made her want to tear out her eyes and dig into her skull, to rib out the disease at the source. “Not long now,” she reminded herself aloud to keep from self-mutilation. Once she defeated the monster, Fluttershy would grant her freedom.

Shy stood back up, mud covering her side and leg. The rain tried to wash it away. She wiped it off of herself angrily. Small strands of fur came away. Burnt, battered, shot at, starved…

The pony stood up on her hind legs and slapped her cheeks. I’m alright, she told herself. Balancing on two legs had come easy to her, most likely because Fluttershy had done it so often when tinkering with the town. Shy turned her thoughts from her well-being and decided to walk like that from then on. Anything to differentiate myself from her.

Wind made the tarp over the mine cart flap noisily. Metal peeked out from underneath.

Time to get to work.

Five days later…

Candlelight on either side of the drawing table, the only light within the smithy, eliminated all shadows. Blueprints taken from Canterlot rested upon the surface, some spilling over the side. A few of them carpeted the dirt floor below. Dingy white poster paper lay wherever the blueprints did along with broken quills and turned over inkwells.

The images portrayed in the blueprints on the floor showed the armor of the royal guard. A few even showed the long lost crystal kingdom guard armor. These had held little interest for her and had hoof prints where she had stepped on them.

The remaining blueprints, the ones that showed experimental or ancient armor, kept the drawing table warm. These designs were mostly half finished, however. Shy had gathered all the books she could on armor and locked herself within the smithy. It had seemed like hours since she had seen the sun, food supply slowly dwindling. Every waking moment was spent attempting to complete the incomplete.

When the sliding warehouse door behind her creaked open and light pierced in, Shy had a fleeting hope that bullets would follow, her soul floating up with the new light. But death did not come. “Shy?”

“You took your time,” Shy grumbled, shielding her eyes with a hoof. Everything seemed so much easier to her now that she constantly walked on two legs. No longer did she have to balance every time she had to lift a leg.

Zecora lowered her hood as he stepped into the smithy. “I thought I heard something from here. I couldn’t find you anywhere!” There was concern in her voice; real concern.

It made Shy sick. “Shell that up before I… ” The pony couldn’t complete her sentence. She fell back, catching herself against the table. How long have I been awake?

“You look terrible!” Zecora dropped her saddlebags and rushed towards her. Shy tried to swat at the zebra weakly. She dodged it, coming around and putting her neck under the pony’s front leg to stabilize her. “Come on, you need rest!”

The long week of constant motion finally caught up to Shy. She slumped against Zecora and allowed the zebra to half carry, half drag her.

Better have gotten those damn… oblivion took her.

Drowning.

She was drowning.

Shy spat up the liquid and thrashed.

“Easy! It’s ok!” Zecora yelled. She backed off, putting the soup bowl down on the nightstand. They were in Zecora’s room in her hut. Daylight was partially blocked by a hastily put up curtain over the broken window.

Once Shy realized where she was, she grew furious. “Are you trying to kill me?!” she screamed at the zebra. Her front leg reached out and tried to hurl the bowl at Zecora.

The zebra was faster, however. She grabbed the bowl in her front legs and backed off more. “You needed to eat, Shy. You’ve been asleep for a day. If I hadn’t-”

“Shut up!” Shy put a hoof to her temple. A headache was blossoming inside her brain. “Your voice is grating.” The room was silent for half a minute while Shy thought. Her stomach started to growl. “Give me the soup.”

Slowly, Zecora returned bedside. Shy shakily sat up and Zecora gently placed the bowl on her lap. It smelled awful. The pony tried to lift it with her front legs. It sloshed around and nearly fell off the bed before she caught it. She found it difficult to lift the bowl from her lap to her mouth. “Darkness… ” she swore.

Zecora reached forward to lift the bowl for her and got a slap in the face as reward. “I can do it myself!” Shy growled out at the zebra.

“You obviously can’t!” Zecora snapped back. She grabbed the bowl from the shocked pony. “Drink!” the zebra demanded.

Scowling, Shy succumbed to her fate. The soup wasn’t as terrible as it had smelled and it even brought a little strength back to her. In fact, Shy was certain the awful smell wasn’t coming from the soup at all. More pressing concerns held her attention, however. When she waved to take a breath, she voiced them. “You’ve gotten bold, haven’t you?” The pony reached out and pressed the zebra’s cheek she had slapped.

If she felt any pain, Zecora didn’t show it. “You need help, whether you want it or not.” She lifted the bowl to the pony’s lips again.

Shy considered the zebra while drinking. As the bowl was brought down again, she asked, “What is that smell?”

“What smell? Are you sure it’s not something in your nose?” Zecora leaned on the bed to peer into Shy’s nostrils. It was then that Shy found the source of the smell.

“What in the dark’s name did you eat?!” Shy pushed Zecora away and coughed. “I’ve never smelt anything… ” Fluttershy has only smelt this once… “… are you on drugs?!”

“I took some medicine that-”

“Are there drugs in the soup?!” Shy struggled to move away, falling off the bed in the process. The blankets and pillow fell with her.

“Relax, Shy!” Zecora put the soup down on the nightstand. “The medicine is for my pain, nothing uncouth! I used what vegetables you had to make the broth!”

“I know what you took, Zecora.” The same thing those young colts were taking back in flight camp… “Pellucid isn’t for pain,” the pony continued, “It’s a drug, and a highly addictive one! You bought that instead of the Dragon Star?!” Something suddenly caught Shy’s attention from under the bed.

“No!” Zecora yelled back. “I bought both! There was plenty of… what are you looking at?” Shy was leaning down to get a clearer look under the bed. “There’s… there’s nothing there… stop!”

The pony dived under the bed at the same time the zebra tried to jump over it. Calling on all her remaining strength, Shy lifted the bed with her back and flipped it away, zebra and all. She ignored the crash as she saw what Zecora was trying to hide.

An “alchemist’s inhaler” was resting on a towel. It was nothing more than two glass pieces, one a tube and the other a round end, that screw together. Smaller tubes poked out from four sides of the round end where drugs drip-fed. Beside the inhaler was a fixture that could hold it up and close to that was a recently put out magic candle.

“You spent my bits on this?!” Sitting, Shy grabbed the inhaler in her front legs. A small amount of pellucid was still in one of the small tubes. The smell made her gag. “This stuff is disgusting!”

Zecora crawled out from under the overturned bed with pleading eyes. “Please, I need it! Don’t take it away!” A trickle of blood ran from a cut on her forehead down her face. Like the rest of her injuries, the zebra obviously couldn’t feel it.

“Why should I let you have this? It makes you even more useless than you were before!” The pony lifted the inhaler over her head to smash it.

The motion triggered Zecora. She broke down, throwing herself on the floor and sobbing. “PLEASE! I’LL DO ANYTHING!” the zebra screamed. Shy was too stunned to say anything right away. Zecora crawled forward to her lap, nuzzling her stomach. “I know things; I know how to make you feel good… I’ll make you feel good… ”

“Get… get the fuck off of me!” Shy fell back and kicked out. Zecora cried out, trying to hold on. “You can have your inhaler and your drugs and kill yourself for all I care!” Tucking the inhaler under one leg, Shy used the other to pry Zecora off of her. “But don’t ever touch me or defy me again, got it?!”

Zecora nodded again and again. Shy felt like breaking the inhaler just to spite her but gave it to the zebra instead. I need her pliable, and this works just as well as anything.

The zebra hugged the inhaler to herself, rocking back and forth on the floor. She wasn’t like this before, a whispering Skadi commented. Your actions must have driven her to this.

“Her own weakness drove her to this.” Shy walked around Zecora to the living room. A large vat of soup was suspended over a slowly dying fire. “Even under the influence she can still function.” She grabbed a bowl and dipped it in the vat. A corner of the living room provided a suitable place for her to sit and drink.

Fluttershy softly spoke. This doesn’t feel right, Shy. She’s hurting herself…

“Which would you rather happen,” the pony asked between drinks, “She hurt herself or I hurt her?”

The voices inside her head were silent.

When her bowl was empty, Shy leaned against the wall behind her and slipped back into sleep.

A soft glow from within three glass jars lit the living room. The glow was located beside the front door, leaving half the room in darkness. Shy rubbed her eyes. “Time flies… ” as Twilight Sparkle used to say, she recalled.

“…when you’re having fun… hee hee hee… ” Zecora tittered from the doorway to her bedroom. Shy could barely make her out in the gloom, lying on her back.

Pellucid, Twilight instructed, is a drug that affects the brain. Groaning, Shy stood up to get more soup. Twilight continued, the effects are rather strange. Some accounts record no change in personality, while others show radical mood swings. Cold soup filled the bowl to the brim. There are a few constants, however. The more fragile one’s mind is, the more susceptible they are to mood swings. As well, pellucid is highly addictive after long term use. If one took the drug over a few years, they would do anything to get more.

Shy grunted as she fell on her rump again. There was a trail of soup from the bowl to where she sat. I’ll have her clean it later, she thought.

That all sounds really bad! Fluttershy said to Twilight. Why would anypony do that to their self?

A unicorn’s shadow against the wall pointed. Doctors used to prescribe pellucid as pain medication, Fluttershy. They didn’t know back then about the long term effects.

An empty bowl was again in her hooves, soup running down her chin. “Zecora, how long have you been taking pellucid?” The outline of the zebra rolled back and forth on her back, laughing at nothing. She cried out when the empty bowl shattered against the wall beside her. “How long have you been taking that fucking drug?”

Zecora curled up into a ball. “One, two, three… in Los Pegasus, everypony did it… ” Her body shook. “In… ” Soft sobbing came from where she lay.

These days, Fluttershy, everypony knows not to take pellucid. The unicorn shadow melted back with the others. No pony would do that to themselves…

The darkness of her closed eyes did not shut out Zecora’s sobbing. “You’re always thinking, aren’t you?” Shy’s voice was a whisper. “You didn’t read the library again and again for fun. You know far more then you’re letting on, don’t you?”

No shadow appeared to answer her.

“… Fuck you… ” The yellow pony stood up on her two back legs. “Get up, Zecora.” Though she stopped crying, Zecora stayed on the floor. “Remember what I said I’d do if you didn’t obey?” That caused the zebra to stand in an instant. “Good… Come.”

She led the zebra into the cold rain.

“It’s dark… ”

“Wonderful observation, Zecora. Be a good girl and light a few candles.” Every window in the smithy remained covered, though little light would have been found naturally that night. Zecora hurried to light the candle beside the door so as to find the others. Shy ignored her, all her attention on the drawing table.

Centerfold, on the cleanest paper she could find, was her masterpiece. Few ponies had ever walked on two legs into battle. Why bother when you can just stick a lance on your side and charge? After examining all the diagrams before her, though, Shy began to see how two legs were better than four. Armor could cover more of her body, weapons fixed to her front hooves could be directed easier, and no pony would know how to defend against a long dead method of battle.

Light blossomed beside her. “Done,” Zecora said happily. The match in her mouth fell to smolder on the floor beside her hooves. Shy stamped it out before it caught the zebra aflame. Better have her do simpler tasks.

“I am going to spend the next few days making this.” The pony tapped on the drawing. “I need you to bring me food every morning and evening. Along with that, you are to prepare the Thousands potion. Do you understand?”

A faraway look had taken over Zecora’s expression. Shy tried to bring her back to reality with a slap but the zebra felt nothing.

“By Celestia, how in hell’s-”

“Celestia?!” Zecora snapped back to herself. Her eyes locked onto Shy’s and her words came out in a monotone. “Celestia is dead. All hope is lost. Equestria belongs to them now.”

Something within Shy churned.

“I don’t have time for your nonsense right now!” she screamed. The muscles on the zebra tensed up. “Bring me food in the day and night, and make my Thousands potion! Do you understand?”

Water flew from her mane as the zebra nodded her head.

“Do not forget… now go!” She flicked Zecora in the face with her tail as she turned back to the drawing table. Rubbing her nose, Zecora fled from the smithy.

Earth ponies had long ago created tools that, while feeble compared to unicorn’s magic, allowed them to keep up in innovation. Some even said earth ponies were forced to excel in creating new inventions because of this handicap.

As a pegasus, Fluttershy had never before had to worry much about creating anything. When the town “needed” her, however, she had learned and adapted. Any earth pony would have been impressed with her “accomplishments”. Before they vomited all over themselves…

Regardless of the circumstances, Shy was begrudgingly grateful that Fluttershy had such vast knowledge of inventions. The pony in control of the shy pony’s body spent the next days heating, hammering, and fitting with relative ease. Her mind was packed with more knowledge than anypony should have known, and she put it to single-minded task.

While Shy’s focus was on her work, Fluttershy’s was on her friends. Her thoughts cut through any noise Shy made and forced their way onto her. “Oh, Twilight, I know you miss Pinkie Pie too, but she’ll be back soon!” Shy would hear behind her. It always came from behind her, but when she turned she saw nothing but shadows dancing from the candlelight.

Who’s the shadow pony now?

“Skadi?!” Shy screamed. The alicorn would quietly make a snide comment or remark and then disappear. Shy drove her hoof-hammer into the drawing table, smashing through it. “No control… I have no control over any of this… ”

This was usually when Zecora would open the smithy door a crack and peek in. Paranoid, at times twitchy, Shy wondered how the zebra spent her days and nights when she wasn’t bringing her food. Then she realized she didn’t care. “Get in here already!”

Zecora’s saddlebags were always full. With what was always a mystery. Sometimes she came with raw vegetables, sometimes with soup, once with dirt. Only once with dirt, Shy recalled. She had been quick to display her displeasure.

Eating calmed Shy’s nerves and helped her focus. A little voice she assumed was Fluttershy tried to say Zecora’s company also helped, but Shy ignored it. When she was finished eating she would chase the zebra out again and resume her work.

Shy didn’t count the days because they didn’t matter. The only limits were her supplies, and she had gotten more than enough. Everything else she ignored as best she could.

In the shadows of the windowless building she turned back time to an age when ponies fought, and died, and lived. To a time when she would have felt at home among the charging armies.

Zecora’s visible eye grew wide with fear. “Stay back!” she yelled out, tripping over her own hooves as she tried to backpedal away. Mud splashed, covering her already dirty coat.

Shy laughed mockingly. Her stomach rubbed against the synthetic leather lining the inside of the armor. “Get up, you nitwit.” The zebra’s eye seemed to grow wider when she realized who was standing before her.

The armor covered much more of Shy compared to standard pony armor, which was made for standard ponies. Shy, now practiced in two legged walking, was not a standard pony. The chamfron helmet was similar to crystal empire design but with a full crinet instead of an open necked one. The peytral, or chest armor, was from an old design she had dug up. She included an opening in the center just under her neck to allow her body to breath somewhat.

The front leg armor had been the hardest part to design, but she had found that tubed metal fastened to her chest armor provided the protection she wanted. The joints were open just enough to allow full range of motion.

Finally, the crupper, which would sit on a pony’s back and rump normally, was turned into a full skirt that attached to her chest armor as well. Down her back legs ran linked chains that granted minimal protection but afforded full mobility.

Still, Shy’s pink mane overflowed out of the helmet and down her chest. The opening in the top of crystal empire helms, she had decided, was unnecessary. I’ll just have to cut my mane down.

Zecora got to her hooves. Her red eyes told the tale of her drug intake that day. “This is what you’ve been making?” She reached out and poked Shy’s chest armor with a hoof. “You think that’s going to stop them?”

“Them?” Shy swatted the zebra’s hoof away. “Focus, Zecora. Did you make the Thousands potion yet?”

Eyes shut tight, Zecora thought hard. “I… yes… I think?”

“Tell you what, Zecora,” the pony picked up the zebra like she weighed nothing, “let’s go to your hut and find out.” Shy tossed Zecora over her shoulder and started towards Everfree. It was well past sunset and nearly pitch black but Shy knew the way by heart. Rain hitting her metal coating was a new sound. I’ll have to learn to ignore it.

The zebra’s mental state made her more confused than worried. She swung her back legs back and forth. “My hut is nice,” she said quietly. “I made it. It’s mine.”

“Wonderful.”

“It’s got herbs and spice and everything nice,” Zecora went on. “Little Applebloom would come to play. ‘Do come in’, I would say.”

“Applebloom is dead.” Shy adjusted the zebra on her shoulder. “Everypony is dead here.”

“… you aren’t…”

“I might as well be. Now be quiet before I make you walk.” Her hooves sank a little deeper into the muddy path entering the forest from all the extra weight. “Have you been eating?”

“I can’t eat till master says so… Ribbon was bad so she doesn’t get food… ” Zecora started smacking her lips. “We have to make master happy… ”

Shy shook her head and sighed. “’Master’ this and ‘them’ that. For somepony who doesn’t want to talk about what happened to you, you sure do talk about it a lot.” She bent her knees, lifted Zecora off of her, and placed her down. “We’re here. Get the potion.”

It seemed to take Zecora a moment to realize she was standing again. “Potion… the Thousands potion? It’s inside.”

Sighing again, Shy walked past the zebra into the hut. It was a mess inside, revealed by the bottled fireflies. Dirty alchemy pestles and pots were everywhere. The door pushed something glass against the wall, shattering it. “What in the night happened in here?”

Zecora peeked into the hut from outside. “I started to make it but forgot how… then I remembered… then I forgot again…”

“You… stupid… ” Shy ground her teeth together. “You finished it, right?”

“Yeah… it’s in my room… ” The zebra tripped and fell down the short flight into the hut. She lay in a heap but didn’t express any pain, eyes staring at Shy. “It’s my… masterpiece… ”

A familiar feeling hit Shy: a churning within. Something didn’t like Zecora’s state, be it Fluttershy or Skadi. But neither put voice to their misgivings.

Shy wouldn’t have listened to either of them, regardless. She stepped over the broken glass and spilled potions to get to Zecora’s bedroom. The door was open and light from the living room leaked in. The pony saw that Zecora had never righted her bed. Bags of bluish-green herbs were stacked in a pile to one side. Pellucid.

Next to the bags was more alchemic equipment, but something more interesting caught the pony’s eye. A small vial of dark liquid was sitting under an empty dripper. She gently removed it with her hooves and brought it into the light of the next room.

It was so dark that light would not pierce it. “Is this it?” Shy asked of the still grounded Zecora. The zebra was busy crawling on the ground like some small animal. “Zecora!”

That brought her out of it temporarily. She nodded, “That’s a Thousands potion, dark as a dragon’s heart.” Her hooves waved in the air as she rolled onto her back. “Taken by only the strongest, for the battle you’ll take part.”

Shy starred at the vial. “What does it do, exactly?” Potion books told of the Thousands potion’s ability to bring out the will to kill inside oneself, but that was all. Nowhere did it explain how this was done. “How long does it take to work? … Zecora?”

Zecora was asleep.

“Fucking... great… ” All I know about this thing is that it will give me resolve to kill. It could also kill me. Shy sniffed the liquid. It smelt like burning wood. But I’m not really real, now am I? I can’t really die. And if I did, would that be so bad?

Her lips closed around the end of the vial and she threw her head back. Its contents poured into her mouth. There was a stronger taste of burnt something but Shy swallowed before her mind could process it. Still, she spat out the vial and coughed repeatedly when it caught up to her.

Immediately her body started to feel hotter. It wasn’t unpleasant at first, but it got worse. She stripped off her armor to try and keep cool but it wouldn’t stop. Feeling like she was in direct sunlight in the middle of summer, Shy rushed out into the rain.

Stream rose where the rain hit her skin. She dropped to her back leg’s knees and held her head, her brain on fire. Pain wasn’t something new to her. Pain was welcome in her world. But this went beyond pain.

I’m going to die.

Shy threw her head back and screamed towards the heavens. The clouds pulled away overhead, taking the rain with them. Branches and trees cracked and pushed with the rain. Stars brighter than any she had ever seen filled her vision completely.

Every constellation had come out to play. Fluttershy had always loved the many animals made from the stars. The bear, the wolf, the snake.

Lines slowly connected the dots of them. In the endless ocean of space, the animals shivered. It was too cold for them there. They needed a place for warmth.

The snake crawled down into Equestria. There was warmth here under the leaves, in the bushes. Even in the darkness of night the snake could keep warm. But there was other warmth it wanted.

There; prey.

A mouse had descended. Black scales coiled slowly, silently. The mouse was not yet familiar with its surroundings. It was confused, afraid.

Darkness pounced upon it. First, its fangs pierced the soft flesh beneath fur. The shock alone would have been enough to kill the mouse, but nature is nothing if not thorough. Around the limp body went the snake’s own till bones cracked.

Cyan eyes regarded the kill before the snake opened its maw to feed.

A shadow dashing along the snake’s peripheral vision was its only warning as a badger leapt from cover. The snake tried to do anything in response to the attack but was killed almost instantly.

Blood dripping from her teeth and claws, the badger dragged the snake’s body into the bushes and began to feast. It would not make the same mistake the snake made. She used her cyan eyes to check her surroundings constantly.

Around her she could hear the other animals fighting and dying one after another. This world was only large enough for one. The final survivor would rule supreme.

But it would not be the badger. As had been done to the snake before her, the badger was pounced upon by a larger creature. A panther, black as the night, left the dying badger where she had fallen. There was no time to eat, not now.

She would have plenty of time to eat when-

A manticore burst from the trees with a lion latched to its back. The lion clawed like mad, trying to keep its hold. With little option left, the manticore fell onto its side to roll onto the lion.

Seeing the couple locked in combat, the panther tried to retreat. Without warning a bear entered the area looking for fresh prey. There was no escaping a fight.

After a struggle between all four beasts, the manticore started to limp away, the only survivor. She knew she had to return to the stars or death would come for her. If she could just-

A strange creature appeared before her. It took the manticore a moment to recognize the pony, but it was a moment too long taken. The spear attached to the pony’s side plunged into the manticore’s stomach as the pony rushed forward.

Spear snapping as the manticore fell, the pony cursed her luck. She had made that spear quickly while the other animals were distracted and there was no time to make another. Thinking quickly, she crawled under the larger beast to where the spear had broken. Her face pushed into the wound and bit the sharp end of the spear. Blood dripped from her face when she retracted it, but now she had a weapon.

A roar shook the earth. The beast claiming to be greater than all come before and after had arrived.

Every animal left knew it was pointless to fight one another while such a being roamed unmolested. The pony turned her cyan eyes towards the origin of the roar and set off.

It didn’t take her long to see the dragon. She was almost crushed by a falling tree when it swung its tail across the forest. Black scales covered it from head to toe, blocking out the millions of stars overhead with its presence. Dozens of animals ran wild around the dragon’s legs.

Two stomping steps silenced them.

The pony knew she was outmatched. She knew she would die if she tried to defeat the towering dragon. But there was nothing else for her, nowhere to retreat. All she could do was go forward into oblivion with the knowledge that she had fought to the end.

Her scream was muffled by the spear end in her mouth. Perhaps hearing her, or perhaps just turning her way regardless, the dragon faced her. It breathed in, gut extending.

The dragon breath wiped out the remaining creatures. Her unblinking cyan eyes searched for more prey but found none. She had reigned supreme. Shy breathed out a line of fire into the sky.

This is the power every pony has inside waiting to be set free... a darkness so black it became unseeable…

Heat crept up her back suddenly. Shy spun around and saw the sunrise peaking over far off mountains. There should be no sun her-

A shaft of light ripped through her left shoulder, leaving a hole the size of a pony. She screamed in pain and confusion. Another shaft lanced through her side. Shy could do nothing as more and more beams of light tore her apart.

The outline of an alicorn cast a shadow over the sun.

Air filled the pony’s lungs as she gasped. Eyes flew open. Daylight lit clouds overhead. Rain chilled her. Her throat was a desert. She turned from her back onto her side and drank from a puddle.

Shy coughed and dry heaved. Where am I? What day is it?

She used some of the water to wipe her eyes, trying to use as little mud as possible. When she could see clearer she looked around. Zecora’s hut was only a few meters away. Shy recalled taking the Thousands potion and…

It was all a strange blood drenched blur to her. The fact that she was alive seemed like a good sign, but she had expected to feel some sort of change within her. Instead she felt exactly the same. It infuriated her.

If she could have screamed, she would have called out for Zecora. Shy stumbled to the open hut entrance and collapsed onto her stomach in the doorway. She coughed and managed weakly, “Zecora…”

“Hmm..?” The zebra was sitting on the steps going down into the hut from the entryway. Her alchemist’s inhaler was in her front legs. Shy saw fresh pellucid in the device. It only served to increase her rage.

“You idiot… ” The pony swallowed to keep her throat wet. “You didn’t make the potion right!” She crawled forward till she was head to head with Zecora.

If she was worried, Zecora didn’t show it. Her half open visible eye looked confused. “I made it perfect, just for you.” She held out the inhaler to Shy. “Here, some of this will-”

“I DON’T WANT YOUR FUCKING DRUGS!” Shy’s voice cracked along with her temper. Her hooves lashed out, shoving the inhaler from Zecora’s hold. It fell away from them to smash into a million shards.

Both pony and zebra were wide eyed, silent. Zecora began making a sound like an animal caught in a hunter’s trap. She fell onto the floor, glass pieces cutting her legs, and started pushing the shards together in a pile in a vain attempt at fixing it.

Shy knew she had finally allowed her anger to do something unfixable. She couldn’t find the capacity to care, though. The potion had failed, but something from the dream stuck with her.

Rising to her hooves, Shy walked past Zecora to her armor. She donned it quickly and skillfully. Walking past the zebra again, Shy said, “Maybe now you won’t be so useless.”

The rain hit her metal shell, but Shy found it easy to ignore.

It took far less time than Shy had first thought to bring her idea to life: blades extended from her front hooves. The vision of a pony holding a bloody spear end made her realize most weapons easily handled by other creatures would not suit her. Weapons that she could never drop and wouldn’t break off easily, those were perfection for her.

After a few hours of tinkering, Shy felt she had the design down, but hunger gnawed at her. Zecora was late with the food. “Probably still crying over her stupid inhaler,” Shy said out loud. “I’d better go get my own food, then.” She pushed her chair away from the drawing table testily.

The walk to Zecora’s hut seemed faster to Shy without her armor on. I should start wearing it more to get used to the weight, she decided. Her mind turned to Froggy Bottom Bog. She couldn’t imagine how it would be having to fight the monster in that environment. I need to do more preparations…

“Zecora?” Shy poked her head into the hut. Though the light of day did not penetrate the clouds, it came through the windows enough to allow the pony to see. Glass shards still littered the floor but the zebra was not in the living room. The pony took care to step over them. The door to Zecora’s room was open a just a crack. Must be sleeping. Shy walked to where they stored the food from the many sources around Ponyville. The container was beside Zecora’s room, and Shy was compelled to peek in.

A striped leg was the only part visible of the zebra, who appeared to be lying on the ground. Something seemed off to Shy. She turned from the food container and pushed open the door.

Zecora was perfectly still, raw pellucid carpeting the floor around her face.

“Shit!” Shy ran into the room to the fallen zebra. Her hooves checked for the pulse she knew wasn’t there.

Zecora’s shadow stretched and warped. Ms. Cheerilee’s voice spoke from it. “Drug addiction used to be a very large problem in Equestria due to the strained relationship between ponies and other higher species.”

“You can’t fucking die! I won’t let you!” Shy got up and ran into the living room. There, she grabbed one of the jars with a firefly.

The shadow under the jar changed to Nurse Redheart. Her words shot out like a bullet but Shy heard them clearly. “Before modern technology, earth ponies had to rely on natural medicine. If a pony’s heart stopped, for example, agitating a firefly correctly against that pony’s body could restart the organ.”

“I know that already!” Shy screamed. She ran back into Zecora’s room and dropped down beside her. Using her mouth to unscrew the lid, Shy quickly turned the jar over with the open end against Zecora’s chest. She held the jar with one leg and banged on the end with the other.

The firefly began to spark and look for an exit. It landed on Zecora. A shock went through the zebra, her muscles convulsing a moment. She went limp again and remained still. The firefly lay dead on her.

Beneath the firefly, a shadow Shy could not have possibly seen changed. Applejack said, “Now, Applebloom, you have to tell me if any of your classmates try and make you do something you shouldn’t be. No pony can force you to do anything you don’t want to.”

The jar and firefly slammed into the wall. “Shut up!” Shy screamed as she turned for the living room again. There were two more firefly jars. She grabbed one and was back to Zecora in a flash.

Untwisting the jar, Shy clung to it too tightly and it shattered in her arms. She cried out in pain as the glass cut her front legs and chest. The firefly flew out an open area in the patched over window she had broken in through.

This is pointless. Everything’s pointless. Zecora’s dead. I’m dead. Everypony is dead.

One jar left.

Apple Cobbler laughed with Apple Fritter, “You can’t be serious! She’d never!”

Blood hit the floor. Shy slipped entering the living room, body ramming into the food container.

Silver Spoon huffed, “Those cutie mark crusaders think they can just move away without a single word of goodbye?”

Light from the firefly threw shadows around the room. It sought to illuminate as much of Shy as it could in her embrace.

Carrot Top organized her wares. “Sale here! Come one pony, come all ponies!”

Dr. Hooves looked over the produce. He couldn’t decide what would make a better soup.

“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” Shy yelled, unscrewing the top of the jar as quickly and carefully as she could.

Horse, M.D. flipped through the pages of his medical book. “Ah here we are: pellucid. Ingesting raw pellucid, while in small amounts manageable, is deadly if taken in large quantities. Even if a pony is able to survive ingestion of the drug, full recovery is uncertain.”

“I know that!” Shy tipped the jar onto Zecora and held it steady.

Rarity shook her head sadly. “Ponies who take things like that… well, I wouldn’t want to associate with them. How could I respect somepony who doesn’t respect themselves?”

“I don’t care what you think!” Yellow hoof raised to hit the jar.

Zecora’s shadow looked at her. “What’s the matter, my dear Shy? You look as if you’re about to cry.” Shy froze. “Don’t you know, Fluttershy wasn’t lying. Don’t be sad, everything is fine.”

“YOU WON’T TAKE HER!” Shy shook and hit the jar as much as she could without letting it fall away from the zebra’s chest. The firefly within crackled loudly.

The insect landed on Zecora. Shy watched her body convulse, her muscles clenching.

Her eyes opening.

Zecora gasped and flailed. Shy pushed the jar away, scooped up the zebra in her front legs, and held her head against her chest. The zebra shook violently. “It’s ok, it’s ok!” Shy said again and again.

Slowly, Zecora calmed. Shy rocked her back and forth. “Zecora? Can you hear me?”

The zebra looked up into the pony’s eyes. “…Shy?”

A feeling unlike any other washed over Shy. “Yes, it’s me. I’m here.”

Zecora clung to Shy tightly, the light of day fading outside. There was no more light within the hut. Going to need a candle…

Shy’s thoughts were interrupted by a cold feeling on her face. She wiped her cheek and her hoof came away wet. I was… crying?

A shadow quietly stepped out of the room.

No… she was…

One week later…

The wooden dummy swung across the room. Tracking it skillfully, Shy lunged at the right moment, piercing its fake neck with her metal claws. It fell apart but its head continued swinging. Rope connected to pulleys held it aloft.

For the hundredth time Shy thought, I never thought Fluttershy’s town hall contraption would come in handy… She undid the straps on her helm and let it fall away. Horns attached to the sides of it pointing backwards stuck in the wood flooring. Her pink mane no longer obscured her vision, having been cut to just above her eyes. It had been a torturous experience without the aid of a unicorn.

A towel rested on a table at the end of the room. Shy made her way over to it to wipe the sweat off. Some food had been placed on it as well, half currently being nibbled on by Zecora. Shy hadn’t let the zebra out of her sight since deciding to cut her off from pellucid. She would sometimes slip into a dark place, hurting herself or attacking Shy until subdued.

It had been a long, frustrating week for the both of them. Shy sometimes wondered why she was keeping Zecora alive at all. The Thousands potion, the only real reason she had needed her, had failed, and there was not enough ingredients anymore to make another. They both knew that if Zecora went off to buy more she would never come back, or return more drugged up than ever. Shy shouldn’t have cared either way if the zebra died.

But the memory of the shadow’s speaking to her, of Fluttershy already having a place in her flock for the zebra, made Shy’s skin crawl. I won’t give her another.

“You need to eat more,” Shy scolded the zebra, wiping her face with the towel.

Zecora’s appetite had been fickle and it was starting to show on her body. The vegetables on her plate were barely chewed on. “I’m not very hungry,” she said in a monotone. Her eyes stayed staring down at the table.

Shy pushed the plate closer to Zecora. “Don’t make me rig up an IV. Eat.”

Frowning, the zebra bent and bit at a cabbage without bringing it up from the plate. It made Shy want to hit her but she could resist the impulse. Practicing fighting the dummies had been cathartic for her. That along with Fluttershy leaving her alone had improved her temper immensely.

Shy began striping off her armor. “Hey… how about I cook tonight?”

This made the zebra’s ear twitch. “You? Cook?”

“Yeah, Fluttershy’s read stacks of books on cooking. I’ll make something different.” When all her armor was off, Shy wiped down every piece. No mud clung to it or her anymore. She had been bathing with Zecora daily even though it meant going into Fluttershy’s cottage to use the only working bath in Ponyville. “Come on, we’ll wash off and go-”

-home-

“-to your hut.”

She looked doubtful still but Zecora nodded. The baths were always an awkward time for both of them and neither liked letting them go on too long. Zecora seemed to get frustrated about something when Shy washed her and Shy hated feeling so vulnerable.

Shy left her armor in the town hall instead of taking it with them.

“A broth isn’t very different… ” complained Zecora. She rocked her chair back and forth, gnawing on a root. A few magic candles lit the room in the fading daylight.

The smell coming from the pot told Shy she was on the right track. “Don’t complain until you’ve tried it.”

“Why did you leave your armor?” Zecora stopped her rocking. “You never go anywhere without it… ”

Shy’s back leg tapped on the floor, an unconscious habit whenever she was starting to get annoyed. “I don’t need it to cook.”

“But that monster has been coming into Ponyville, you know.”

“I know.” Shy lapped at the soup to get the taste. “It comes in the night and sleeps in the day.” She took a bowl in her mouth and dipped it in the pot.

“It doesn’t attack us even though it could easily kill us.” The pony couldn’t respond right away while she delivered the bowl to the table. “Maybe we should just... leave it alone?”

Zecora got her response from Shy’s hard set eyes. “I can’t do that. I can’t live in this hellhole forever. Now be quiet and eat your soup.”

Angry now herself, Zecora rotated the bowl till the part Shy had had in her mouth was closest to her. The zebra deliberately put her mouth in the same spot when she bent to drink from it. She knew it bothered the pony to no end when she did overtly intimate things.

Shy grimaced and turned away. Her saddened expression seemed to make the zebra confused. “Zecora… I can’t and won’t ever understand things like relationships or love. And I know this will be hard for you to do alone, but you need to leave this place.”

“What are you…?” Black hooves were brought up to either side of Zecora’s head as her thinking slowed. “What did you do…?”

“I don’t think I’m going to come back, Zecora.” Shy gently took the zebra in her front legs and laid her on the floor. “Don’t die here.” Zecora’s eyes closed and she yawned. It’s working fast…

“Don’t leave me… ”

The gentle rise and fall of her chest signified Zecora’s journey into sleep. Shy wanted to leave right then but stayed sitting beside the zebra. She put her forehead to the other living creature’s own softly. “I can’t give you what you want. Go find somepony who can.”

Rising, Shy put out the fire under the cooking pot, the magic candles, and locked the hut door behind her.

A trail of wet swamp mud ran ahead of him, the feeling of it under his feet different from the mud everywhere else. He wouldn’t have taken the same route every time, but there were no bad things here. The only two meanies stayed away from him.

His eyes were only open slits. Too much light and it would be painful. And then he would never make it back to her.

But, as he had done every night, he made it back. She was where she always was. This time, he knew she would be happy. All he wanted was for her to be happy again.

His maw lowered to the small patch of land she stood on. Tongue pushing them out, un-inflated balloons poured onto the ground. They landed on toys, fireworks, and other party supplies surrounding the pony.

Mama… play?

Pinkie Pie stayed completely still.

Mama… happy?

The monster lifted his claw and gently, softly, stroked the pink pony’s mane.

Mama… no meanies anymore… mama…

Her smile was frozen.

Tears came to his enormous eyes. Every night was the same. Every night he just wanted her to say his name again.

Heat erupted all around him. He pushed away from the island into the swamp and spun. Fire was appearing everywhere he turned. It caged him in a wide area, partially blinding him.

Except in one place where a tall, shining figure stood. Her cyan eyes seemed to glow red in the firelight.

He roared as loud as he could. Meanies! Stay away from mama!

The figure roared back and charged.

SHE’S MINE!