It had been a week since Fluttershy had awoken in the hospital. After three days she had been released, with advice to avoid strenuous work for a week or so. Rainbow Dash had escorted her home, her friend feeling responsible for Fluttershy’s safety after the accident.

At first, Fluttershy’s concussion had made her actions very limited. She spent most of her days reading or sleeping. She was barely able to walk into her kitchen to get a drink of water without getting a headache and feeling dizzy. She read what she could, and amused herself further by tending to her houseplants.

After a day or so, she was able to tend to her garden and her pets without difficulty. She could fly for short distances without feeling dizzy. Fluttershy’s dreams had been calm, without a repetition of the nightmare. She had not seen any more tentacles, nor had her reflection acted as it had by the river. Fluttershy’s life settled into normalcy again. She wondered how long that would last.

Ever since Rainbow Dash had confirmed Fluttershy’s suspicions that there had been nothing in the river besides her and a few fish, the word insanity kept popping up in Fluttershy’s mind. What if I just hallucinated those tentacles? What if my imagination made me see that reflection? Luna help me, I might be crazy! These thoughts and others tended to keep Fluttershy awake at night, and during the day she often imagined that she would be locked up in a padded room, with silencing spells cast over her and the room.

It must have been the nightmare. Yes, yes that’s it. I had that horrible nightmare, and it made me imagine that I saw the tentacles and the reflection. I just fell into the river, Fluttershy thought as she and Rainbow Dash flew over the Everfree forest. The time had come to track down the cockatrice that had been turning local deer into stone.

“So, we grab the cockatrice and then what?” Dash asked. “I’ll try and convince it to turn the deer back to normal,” Fluttershy replied. “And if that fails?” Dash prodded. “Then I’ll have a little conversation with the cockatrice. I tend to be very persuasive with them,” Fluttershy said, remembering the time she had stared down a cockatrice when it had been threatening Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash laughed. “I remember. Scootaloo wouldn’t stop talking about it for a week.” Fluttershy managed a weak laugh and a smile. Scootaloo was like a little sister to Rainbow Dash, and the two often spent the weekends practicing flying for Scootaloo.

The dark trees of the forest soon obscured the forest floor below. The hoots of owls and shrieks of birds that were alien to Fluttershy sent a shiver down her spine. She looked at dash and gestured to dive below the canopy. Rainbow Dash nodded and descended alongside her friend. They broke through the canopy, a small twig scratching Fluttershy on her way down. If she noticed, she didn’t show it. The instinctual terror of being in the Everfree forest, Fluttershy was focused. Her breathing was slightly ragged as her hooves touched down on the spongy earth.

Dash landed softly next to her. She crept up to Fluttershy and made not a sound. Fluttershy’s eyes were wide as she took in the alien sounds and sights of the forest. Her breathing was growing slightly more and more ragged as she watched eyes appear and disappear in the darkness. Dash lifted herself above Fluttershy and shouted at the top of her lungs, “BOO!” Fluttershy screamed and twisted, falling to the dirt.

Dash collapsed laughing. “You should have seen your face!” she cried as she clutched her sides. Fluttershy glared at her and brushed some dirt off her wing. “That wasn’t funny, Dash.” She said softly. “Are you kidding me? That was hilarious!” Dash said, still laughing. Her sides slightly hurt from laughing so hard.

Fluttershy gave Dash the Stare. Her friend stopped laughing abruptly. “Come on. I think I saw some statues this way,” Fluttershy said. She turned and trotted into the forest, Dash right behind her. They walked for about ten minutes when the found several statues. Deer and what looked like a fox had been frozen in place as statues of stone.

“Aw, these poor dears,” Fluttershy said. She prodded the nose of a doe with her forehoof. The statue tilted slightly but refused to move, as expected. “Fluttershy, what did you expect to get out of poking a statue?” Dash asked. Fluttershy ignored her. Dash rolled her eyes.

They walked on, stepping on dirt so as to muffle their steps. They found more statues as they went; a frog here, a bird here. Fluttershy even had to avoid stepping on a petrified Parapsrite. Sadness filled Fluttershy. In her mind, cockatrices were evil beings that only wanted to cause pain. Despite her long-upheld beliefs about how all creatures were good, she was willing to make an exception for cockatrices.

Fluttershy heard a rooster crowing. She waved to Dash. “Get down! It’s up ahead!” she hissed as she crouched. She peered over a bush and saw the chicken-snake cockatrice slither around in a clearing, hissing and spraying saliva. “So, same plan as earlier?” Dash asked. Fluttershy nodded, a little afraid. She had never seen a cockatrice this big.

“Um, excuse me?” Fluttershy said softly as she walked out of cover, shielding her eyes with a foreleg. The cockatrice slithered up to her and glared at her. It hissed and snarled as Fluttershy squeaked. Dash covered her eyes and began edging out of cover. “Listen, I need you to go back and revert all those poor animals that you turned to stone back to normal. Pretty please?” Fluttershy asked sweetly. The cockatrice snarled and hissed.

“Uh, Fluttershy? I don’t think this is gonna work,” Dash whispered. Fluttershy sighed. She lowered her foreleg, her eyes still clenched shut. “Listen I am going to give you one warning before you and I have a problem,” she said to the cockatrice as she opened her eyes.

The cockatrice screeched in triumph and glared at Fluttershy It looked deeply into her eyes.

The cockatrice was taken aback. It looked into Fluttershy’s eyes and saw something there, something ancient and evil, something that it had only seen once in its long life. It saw that this pony had been marked, and that the one who had marked her was the Shadow. It screeched and turned tail. It slithered away in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, great. Now we have to track it down again,” Dash said, exasperated. “I wonder why it ran away like that,” Fluttershy wondered. She felt a hoof grab her shoulder. “What do you need, Dash?” she asked.

“Uh, Fluttershy? I’m over here,” Dash said from across the grove. “Well, then who is touching my-” Fluttershy began. Another hoof grabbed her leg. Another, her neck. Dozens of hooves sprouted from the ground and grabbed Fluttershy.

“Help!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her breathing was choked as a hoof grabbed her throat. There were dozens of them now, all grabbing and pulling at Fluttershy. She felt tears in her eyes as a hoof ripped out a handful of hair from her mane.

Dash watched in horror as her friend screamed and thrashed. “Get them off of me!” she screamed. “Get what off of you? There’s nothing there, Fluttershy!” Dash cried. Fluttershy was screaming and writhing on the ground. “My mane! It’s got my mane!” she wailed. Dash decided that standing around wasn’t going to help anypony, so she sprinted up to Fluttershy. She grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders and tried to shake her back to reality.

“There’s nothing there, Fluttershy!” Dash screamed. Fluttershy ripped herself free, crying, “Nonononono!” Dash rushed over to her to hold her down. She got to within four steps of Fluttershy when her friend turned and bucked Dash in the jaw. Hard. Dahs hit the ground three feet away, dazed and confused. Her world was spinning and laced with darkness.

Fluttershy wailed and clutched at the hooves, which melted into tentacles right before her eyes. They wrapped around her throat, burrowed into her eyes, tugged at her mane. She felt pain the likes of which she had never felt before, as if her body was being ripped in every direction possible.

Suddenly, the tentacles melted into shadows that raced away. Fluttershy took a tentative look around, sweat rolling down her brow. She saw the dazed form of Dash lying in the dirt a few feet away, and she hit her knees. “I really am crazy,” she said as she buried her face in her forehooves.

“I can make all your troubles go away, Fluttershy,” a voice called from the darkness of the forest. “Just… come to me. You will find peace in me.”