AAT

HuSh NoW QuIeT NoW

by ~AstraltheNightWolf

"I've been having a lot of trouble lately, Doctor..."

Doctor Hooves' ear flicked lightly, trying to dismiss the comment but knowing it was impossible. The remark would settle in his mind, and begin to stir around with the so many others that had been said, and eventually root there forever. It would pry at him for the rest of the day- the rest of the week- troubling him throughout time and tearing holes in his schedule. He looked sadly at the patient in the chair and wondered how he had gotten himself into this.

If this wasn't enough, he was supposed to write everything his patients said on a notepad so he could study them later. Doctor Hooves had never really had anyone come in for therapy, but that was before. For the past few months he'd been standing rigidly by this patient's side, trying to nurse her back to health. But so far nothing was working. It was as if all the methods honed for the past years were useless and ineffective. He couldn't figure out why; they had always worked before.

But he hadn't expected this pony to come in, not in the least. She was the last pony he'd ever expected to have problems. She was timid, but that didn't need fixing. The timidness was an admirable characteristic, enabling kindness in her heart. She was always avidly cheered up by the simplest of things, but now it seemed...she was becoming less and less, with each visit, her body toned down, the look of soft worry more detectable in her delicate features. The pale yellow-coated pony sitting in the chair, a slender wing of pink hair partially obscuring her face. Her wide eyelash-frayed eyes waiting expectantly for an answer.

Fluttershy blinked, then repeated herself. "I've been having a lot of trouble lately..." She sat back on the chair, her shoulders scrunched. "I've never had this problem before...but it's bad. Everything's so empty, and it feels like there's nothing I can do, and no one to help me..." Her front hooves rose, and covered her eyes. "I just don't know what to do..."

Doctor Hooves watched in exasperation as Fluttershy's cheeks became wet, glistening with tears. He'd gone through this routine many times before, the same problems every single visit. He'd tried every single remedy there was, made so many prescriptions he was running out of paper. It had come to a point where he was now making suggestions that weren't even valid in doctoring. That was the least of it...what scared him is that Fluttershy came back each time, her conditions only worsening, more symptoms. She wasn't getting cured, whatever it was she had. That scared him, too. No matter how many times he and his assistants took a look at her, they couldn't find anything wrong. Only that she was depressed, and frightened, for no reason whatsoever.

He sighed, ripping out a sheet of notebook paper from his pad. "Tell me again what your problems are."

Fluttershy removed her hooves from her face, revealing red, puffy eyes. "I don't know," she said, hiccuping. "All I know is that for the past few months, the tiniest little things get to me. I've never realized how much they get to me. It's just...I feel like I have no purpose, and that everyone hates me and takes advantage of me. Just because I'm shy."

Doctor Hooves could see why people would want to manipulate her, but he chose not to tell her that. He didn't want to risk anything. But this is what she had been telling him for week upon week. He exhaled noisily, clicking his pen impatiently.

"We're going to need more details, Fluttershy," he said in annoyance. "Come on...I'm a doctor, and you can't hide anything from me, or you won't get better. Explain to me, so I can understand."

Fluttershy reached for a tissue box positioned near her, lifting out a thin sheet and dabbing her eyes with it. "Well..." she said, looking hesitant. "I...I don't know why, but...I feel like my friends hate me. I think that my shyness really irritates them, and they only use me because they have to. Because I'm one of the Elements of Harmony." More tears leaked from her eyes and made sleek trails down her face. "It's...awful. I can't be around them without feeling miserable."

"But why do you feel that way?"

She sniffed. For a moment, she looked uncertain, her eyes narrowing to slits. "I don't know," she said softly. "I really can't say why."

Doctor Hooves scribbled down on the paper. At least she was saying something different than the last few times. "Anything else?"

Fluttershy looked down. "Well...I'm not sure...I don't think it's really a reason..."

"It doesn't matter. Tell me anyway; it might benefit."

Fluttershy concentrated hard, searching the recesses of her mind. Doctor Hooves examined her face, and was slightly disturbed. Her eyes were dark and lightless, with a glazed film over the ordinarily glossy green irises. Doctor Hooves had seen similiar eyes before, on a patient just before their dying breath. But she spoke, her voice so low it was barely audible. "It's very strange," she murmured. "Everything...seems dark. And at night...there are shadows...and voices that speak, endlessly, endlessly..."

Doctor Hooves felt a shiver run from his neck to the base of his spine. Voices...maybe she had schizophrenia. He could have sworn she had already had a brain scan, and there was nothing wrong...but maybe he was mistaken. Maybe that had been another patient.

But whatever was happening to his patient, it was frightening. The cloudiness in her eyes wasn't normal. There was something behind it- a sickness, or a disease- but Dr. Hooves didn't know. Though he had other patients- one who was just a filly, and had lost her leg- another who had lung disease and needed a lung extraction- but every day, his mind would settle back on Fluttershy. Why he worried about her, he didn't know. He cleared his mind and clicked the pen closed, placing his notepad on the desk behind him.

"Alright, Fluttershy, time's up," he said tiredly. "I have an appointment. Someone who needs leg braces installed. I can't be late- report your progress back to me next time, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded, almost mechanically, the tear trails on her face glimmering. Without another word she slid off the chair and walked towards the door, her step slow and sluggish. As she left, Dr. Hooves could hear her murmuring to herself.

"Darkness...why is everything so dark?"

He shuddered.

* * *

"Come on, Pinkie, let's go."

Applejack turned around to stare at the pink pony, who was carefully balancing a plate of pastries on her head. The plate held at least ten cupcakes, all strategically placed and uniquely decorated. Pinkie Pie wobbled around, trying to keep from falling.

"I'm trying, Applejack!" Pinkie protested, her front legs buckling. "It's a lot harder than it looks, you know. If I make one wrong move, all these beautiful cupcakes I made are going to toppling to the ground. Whoosh!" The pink pony made a gesture with her hoof to show her. "Splat! And that won't be good, because we'll never be able to deliver them, and if I don't deliver them, then the pony who's supposed to get them will be very sa..."

"Pinkie!" Applejack interrupted, shaking her blonde mane. "Let me do it. I had these made especially for Fluttershy, and I don't want them gettin' messed up." She trotted over to Pinkie Pie and swiped them from atop her head, attaching them to the saddlebag on her back. "Come on, now...we ain't got any time to spare."

Pinkie Pie sproinged forward, skipping happily after the Earth pony. "Whee! This is gonna be so fun!" she exclaimed. Her curly magenta tail bounced lightly in the summer breeze. "Just you and me, making a special cupcake delivery to Fluttershy." She giggled joyously.

Applejack shrugged, not cheered up by Pinkie Pie's sprightly mood. She was too busy thinking, and too suspicious. Her thoughts, in fact, were about why she was making the cupcake delivery in the first place.

"Now," she said firmly to Pinkie Pie, "I want you to be extra-nice to Fluttershy when we deliver these, okay? And extra-careful...you don't want to go an' knock over her furniture like last time. She ain't been feelin' too well lately, so...just try not to be too...Pinkie today. Alright?"

Pinkie Pie nodded, not relenting from her jubilant skipping. "You got it, A.J.! I Pinkie Promise!" She mimed sticking a cupcake into her eye, nodding in consent.

Applejack turned back around, treading slowly in the direction of Fluttershy's house. She really had no idea whether or not Fluttershy was feeling well, but she wouldn't bet on her being very happy. Every Tuesday morning, 11:30, Fluttershy would slip off somewhere, looking like all was lost. Applejack wasn't usually very nosy- she was the Element of Honesty, after all...but she couldn't help herself. Fluttershy in distress was one of the things that she couldn't stand. Last week she had followed Fluttershy during her weekly slip-off, and tracked her to the hospital. Watching from the doorway, Applejack watched her trudge into the room where therapy sessions were held. It made Applejack itch wondering why Fluttershy would go to therapy. So to cheer her up, she had Pinkie Pie bake these cupcakes for her. Well, that and she felt guilty about following Fluttershy. Doing something nosy and not telling was as good as lying to Applejack.

Soon Fluttershy's tree-house came into view. Usually there were animals all around it- chickens pecking in the yard, cotton-tailed bunnies hopping through the grass, foxes yipping brightly at her doorstep, bluebirds singing sweet songs at her window- but today all the animals were absent. Or at least silencing themselves. Applejack spotted a few plump songbirds settled into their nests, looking desolate.

"Well then," Applejack muttered. "That's mighty strange..."

Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, was oblivious to this fact and hopped right up to the doorstep. "Come on, Applejack!" she chirped. "The sooner Fluttershy gets the cupcakes the sooner we can eat them together! Even the gloomiest day can be made a little sweeter by Pinkie Pie's special cupcakes. No other cupcakes are quite like mine, you know. I use special ingredients that no other pony uses! And also, my cupcakes have a lot of..."

Pinkie Pie went chattering on about the superiority of her pastries as Applejack walked up to the door and pressed the doorbell. Inside the doorbell sounded, echoing in the massive hollow trunk of the tree.

The two waited for the door to open, but it didn't. There weren't even any hoofsteps behind the door. Applejack squinted at the door, tapping her hoof.

"That's unusual," she observed. "Fluttershy's always real quick to answerin' doors..."

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "Maybe she isn't home. Oh well! I guess we have to eat these cupcakes by ourselves." Pinkie Pie reached for one of the cupcakes sitting on the plate, but Applejack pushed her hoof away.

"Nuh-uh. Not so fast, Pinkie...Fluttershy's always home at this time of day."

Applejack set the plate of cupcakes down by the doorstep and walked down the porch, circling around the house to Fluttershy's window. It was closed. Usually she would have it open so she could hear the birds, but today it was shut tight. Looking closer, though, Applejack noted that it was not locked, and Fluttershy always locked up before she left her house. It was a habit of hers- she was paranoid about things like that.

"Well...if we cain't get 'er to open the door, we're just gonna hafta bust in."

Pinkie Pie stopped leaping. She looked half surprised, half awed. "But...wouldn't that be like a robbery?"

"Pinkie...it's not a robbery unless you steal somethin'. And we ain't gonna do that, 'cause stealin' is bad, and Fluttershy's our friend. Fluttershy would always answer her door. And I'm gonna find out what's eatin' her if it's the last thing I do."

Applejack walked up the doorstep again, turning the doorknob experimentally. It was loose, just like she had suspected. She pushed the door open and walked inside. Unlike the outdoors, there were a few animals, but there was a notable difference in these animals. Around Fluttershy animals were always energetic and zealous, but the few that were inside looked worried. A few bunnies, a handful of sparrows, and two kittens were seated at the edge of the stairwell, tugging nervously at their ears and tails. As Applejack and Pinkie Pie walked in, they turned their heads to look at them and made small, crestfallen sounds.

Pinkie Pie's good mood had finally been pushed through, and now she looked around in perplexion. "Where's Fluttershy?" she said quizzically. She walked around the room, her head switching to and fro. "Where are all the animals? Fluttershy's house is ALWAYS filled with animals."

Applejack approached a drawer with a lamp on top. The surface had a fine layer of dust on it, as if it hadn't been dusted in days.

"The animals're always dustin' things," Applejack mumbled. She turned to Pinkie, who was patting one of the little bunnies on the head. "Where did they all go?"

Applejack looked up the stairwell. All the doors were closed, and all the lights were turned off. She stepped over the gathering of animals and up the creaky stairs, her long blonde tail flicking behind her.

"Ooh, are we gonna explore?" Pinkie squeaked. She bounded after Applejack, reaching the top of the stairs before her. "We can find Fluttershy and find out where all her animals went. And then we can cheer her up with cupcakes."

Applejack follwed Pinkie through the upstairs of Fluttershy's tree-house, getting more suspicious by the minute. Nothing seemed right. Why would Fluttershy be so depressed? She was never depressed. She cried sometimes, but over little things. She got angry sometimes, and she was shy, but never depressed. Even when she cried her animals were there to cheer her up. So what was wrong now?

Applejack navigated through the hallways until she came across Fluttershy's room. It too was closed, but no sound was coming from it. Applejack hated to intrude, but she couldn't leave things the way they were. Turning the doorknob, she pushed open the door and burst into Fluttershy's room.

She had expected Fluttershy to be sitting there, crying. But the pony who was sitting there on the bed- was it really Fluttershy? The pale yellow coat, once the color of butter, looked faded. In fact, everything in the room looked gray. Fluttershy was sitting with her legs folded under her, staring at her pillow- no, THROUGH her pillow...at something that wasn't there. Even upon Applejack's arrival, she didn't look up.

"Uh...hi there, Fluttershy," Applejack said. She shifted her hooves. The room was cold, and not only that, but there was a certain air to it that made Applejack uncomfortable. She wanted to step out, talk somewhere brighter. But by the look of it, Fluttershy didn't plan on moving.

At Applejack's words, Fluttershy's head turned lethargically towards her. Applejack stifled a yelp. Those weren't Fluttershy's eyes, she knew. They were as faded as everything else, dark and hollow. The pupils were enlarged, almost engulfing the green part. She felt like dark holes were staring at her, into her...penetrating her soul. She had to look away.

"Uh...so...sorry for botherin' ya...but uh...we were just wonderin', if you were feelin' well..." Applejack fought to keep a smile on her face.

Fluttershy didn't move. She didn't even blink. But she opened her mouth, just barely, and spoke in a tone even softer than usual.

"You came to make fun of me, didn't you?" she whispered.

Applejack perked up. She looked at Fluttershy, avoiding her eyes. "Wha...what?"

Fluttershy's head tilted a little. "You came to tease me. About being the way I am. About how I'm so shy, and the only friends I have are animals." Her mouth curved up in a tiny, barely detectable smile. "That's what you came for...right?"

Applejack blinked. She shook her head, wincing. "I...I don't know what you're talkin' about..."

Suddenly, Fluttershy flung herself from the bed. Behind Applejack, Pinkie Pie squealed. Fluttershy moved in sudden flashes, so fast Applejack couldn't keep up with her. And then she was in Applejack's face, looming toward her, her teeth bared and her pupils shrunken in rage.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Fluttershy screamed. "BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU DO! YOU PRETEND TO BE SO HONEST, BUT YOU'RE A FILTHY LIAR! JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM! ALL PRETENDING TO BE MY FRIEND, JUST SO THEY CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!"

Applejack backed up, biting her lip. She had never seen Fluttershy so angry. And what she was saying made no sense to her. She looked at Pinkie Pie, who was backed up against the wall, whimpering. She turned back towards Fluttershy, trying to be as sincere as possible. "Fluttershy, calm down...I just wanted to come here to see if you were alright!"

Fluttershy flew from side to side, in flashes that made Applejack dizzy. "SHUT UP!" she shrieked, knocking a lamp to the floor with a crash. "I'm fed up with you lying to me! All of you! You always yell at me and act like I'm worthless! You even came into my house without asking! What kind of a friendship is that?" Fluttershy tore the curtains from her window, and tossed them away. "I'M SICK OF YOU! STAY AWAY FROM ME! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU MANIPULATE ME ANYMORE!"

With that, she zipped up towards the door, and slammed it in Applejack's face.

It was silent for a while, the only sound in the hallway being Pinkie's high-pitched whimpers. Applejack breathed heavily, not believing what had just happened. What was all that she had been talking about? Manipulating her? Applejack didn't know what to think.

Pinkie Pie was sniffling. "That was scary," she whimpered. "Maybe Fluttershy's angry at something we did. Do you think...that maybe we were mean to her?"

Applejack considered that for a moment, but she shook her head. "No," she said sharply. "It's not our fault, Pinkie. Did you see her eyes? Did you see HER? That ain't right. She was different, Pinkie...there's something wrong with her. She's sick."

Pinkie Pie sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Applejack sighed. "You have a right not to be. But we can't leave Fluttershy like that. We have to call Dr. Hooves."

***

Assistant Ditzy was in The Doctor's office, looking at herself in the mirror. It was something she often did, looking at herself. She observed that she had a nice fur color, gray-blue, and a nice mane- blonde. Something she was proud of. But it was her face- her eyes, specifically, that made her cringe.

Ever since she was born she'd been made fun of. She had amblyopia, or lazy eye, causing one of her irises to drift into a corner. It gave her a cross-eyed look, one that would not do nicely in the pony world. She was mercilessly made fun of most of her school life, being called "Derpy" and "Nerdy Derpy" because she liked science and math. Her only friend was a colt named Edward T. Hooves. Even then he liked to be addressed Dr. Hooves because he thought it sounded more official. He was also studying the concept of time travel, thus producing an hourglass mark on his flank. They immediately became close friends, and thereafter the bullies who jeered her saw them as a married couple even though he was three years older. They began to call her "Derpy Hooves". A nerd with a lazy eye and a close affiliation with a colt who wanted to travel through time. Not exactly something that'd win you any popularity contests.

As they grew older, their outlooks began to change. Ditzy Doo advanced in chemistry (earning her the bubbles on her flank). Dr. Hooves did a few time travel rounds with the help of some of his unicorn friends, but became a doctor when he found that a local town called Ponyville was in need of a doctor. He still was a doctor and now Ditzy was his assistant, mostly doing virus examinations in the lab and trying to find disease cures. They had grown to be the best of the best of friends. They had grown so close that Ditzy admitted being called "Ditzy Hooves" wouldn't be such a bad thing.

She was still looking in the mirror when she heard hoofsteps behind her. She whirled around, her hoof automatically flying upwards to cover her bad eye. She caught a glimpse of Dr. Hooves' dark-brown mane. "Dr. Hooves!" she exclaimed. "I...uh...I was just..."

Dr. Hooves waved his hoof at her. "It doesn't matter what you were doing." He looked at the hoof concealing her eye. "Why do you keep doing that whenever someone walks in?"

Ditzy snorted. "You know why," she huffed. "Even the nurses can't take me seriously looking like this. I look like an idiot, you know, with this eye of mine. Everyone who looks at me thinks I'm stupid and hideous."

Dr. Hooves snorted back. He walked up to her and pushed her hoof away from her face. "You are not stupid, and you are not ugly," he said crisply. "You're very pretty. Okay?" He walked over to his desk and sat down, exhaling deeply.

A blush spread across Ditzy's face. He thinks I'm pretty? she thought in bewilderment. And not only that, he said VERY...

Dr. Hooves riffled some papers on his desk, looking for his notepad. "Hmm...nope, not here...say, have you seen my notepad? I thought I put it here..."

Assistant Ditzy, still recovering, turned toward him. "You mean the therapy notes? You've only used that once today. When you were with Fluttershy."

Dr. Hooves groaned. "I know, I know. I can't stop thinking about her and I don't know why. It just bothers me for some reason that she's so depressed and we can't figure anything out. And if that weren't enough, two pony friends of hers just came now and are telling me to fix her. I've been trying to fix her for eight goddamn weeks! What more do they want me to do?" He tossed some papers aside, and some of them floated to the floor.

Ditzy went over and scooped them up. Despite Dr. Hooves' point, she could only think about what he had said. About how he couldn't stop thinking about her. It was as if he were in love with the Pegasus. And it made Ditzy feel jealous. She knew why, and she cursed herself for being so selfish.

"It takes more than eight weeks to cure a depressed patient, Dr..."

Dr. Hooves scooped up some more papers, finally uncovering his notepad. "I know, I know. But patients usually get better in that amount of time. But no...Fluttershy's only gotten worse. It keeps progressing and progressing, and today she came in looking like a ghost. I'm serious. I'm beginning to think it's more than depression, but I don't know what, and I'm really worried about her..." He got a faraway look in his eyes.

The envy surged up in Ditzy's chest. "Oh. I see. You're so worried about one patient of yours? Well, what's so special about her?" It slipped off her tongue before she could stop it.

Dr. Hooves rolled his eyes. "Oh, get real, Ditz. I'm not in love with her. And why would you care, anyway?" He turned away, carrying his notepad in his mouth.

"Because you have me."

Dr. Hooves stopped. He turned around, dropping the notes, looking at Assistant Ditzy. "I know I do."

"So why do you act like we're just friends?" Assistant Ditzy blinked. She felt so naive, and so childish. Like a filly. She didn't know why she was telling him all this. "We've known each other all our lives. So why are we just friends?"

Dr. Hooves' anger left him, leaving him sympathetic and soft-hearted. "We aren't just friends. It's a lot more than that."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

The stallion stepped towards her and kissed her on the forehead. "Because I didn't know you felt that way, Ditz." He turned around, picking the notepad back up and departing through the doorway.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay? I gotta take care of these ponies out here."

Assistant Ditzy nodded, even though he couldn't see her. She was unable to speak, she was so happy.

She had been called Derpy all her life, but this was worth it. It was worth it to love someone, and be loved back.

***

"Fluttershy..."

It started out as a whisper. Soft, without any identifiable voice. Gentle, almost innocent.

"Fluttershy..."

Then two voices. Echoing after each other, now a sharp hiss.

"Fluttershy..."

Loud. Booming, a crowd of voices reaching towards her.

"Fluttershy...Fluttershy...Fluttershy...Fluttershy..."

Chanting now. Icy voices, so many of them, pulling at her, tugging at her, with freezing hands.

Fluttershy tossed and turned. She couldn't be free of them. The voices turned to ice, black, thick ice curling over her and tearing at her skin and stabbing her and ripping her and...

...and then she awoke.

She looked around her. The room was empty, and no hands could be seen. The voices had stopped, but she could still hear them echoing in her head. And all over her body, she was racked with pain, unlike any she had ever felt before.

She tried to remember what had happened. She remembered yelling. She remembered ripping the curtains, and knocking things over and throwing things. Yes, she remembered all that. But why? Why was she yelling? She never yelled. She didn't like to- it was mean and cruel. The thought of her shouting at someone shook her up. Who could she have been shouting at? She searched her memories for faces.

Blonde hair, a perky face, a ginger coat...Applejack. And Pinkie Pie. Her friends. She had screamed at them and thrown things at them. Just for walking into her room.

As she remembered, the pains got sharper. She keeled over and groaned. She felt like she had been bruised, broken and battered...like every bone in her body had been snapped. She felt like her tendons had been stretched and cut, that there was acid bubbling underneath her skin. It felt like...hatred. Hatred and despair, sizzling underneath her organs where she couldn't reach them.

It was her fault. She had yelled. She had been mean...that's why she was being punished...

...But why?

The pains suddenly worsened. Fluttershy bit into her lip so hard it drew blood. She finally succumbed to mashing her face into her pillow, screaming at the top of her lungs and biting into the fat, fluffy material until the sudden spasm went away. When she could think again, she saw she had torn a hole in the pillow with her teeth, and the white pillowcase was stained with red.

Tears formed in her eyes, but she refused to let them spill. Why was this happening to her? It felt like there were a million little things underneath her skin, moving around, destroying her body at snail's pace. She had a sudden impulse to get a knife, to stab herself open, let the pain flow away...

She shook her head. No. Why was she thinking that way? She mashed her face into her pillow again and let the agony eat away at her. No matter what, she wasn't going to yell anymore. No matter how much pain she went through, she wasn't going to take it out on her friends anymore. Though she tried to stop them, the tears flooded from her eyes, and she began to sob. And with each sob, the anguish inside her increased.

Through her crying she heard a timid noise. She looked up and saw two of her pet bunnies in the doorway, concerned expressions on their faces. Normally she would feel warm and fuzzy when she saw them, but today she just wanted them to go away. To spare them her wrath.

She knew they were worried about her, and she didn't want that. She fluttered over to them, even though each flap of her wing felt like hell, and began to pat each one of them on their heads. "Shh, shh, it's okay," she whispered. "Mama's here."

She began to sing the song she always sang them. The one that they loved to hear. "Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy heads..."

But it wasn't her voice.

It was the same voices she had heard in her head in the dream.

The little bunnies covered their ears with their paws, squealing. They backed away from Fluttershy, eliciting sounds of terror, until they hopped quickly away in a fright. Running away from her, for the first time in their lives.

Fluttershy watched them go. Her vision became blurry, and the tears spilled down her face. The trails left by her tears felt like fire, sweltering flames digging into her skin. Those voices. They were inside of her, taking her over. Clouding her mind. Those many voices, that's what she was becoming.

"No..." she wailed. Her tears dripped onto the floor. But instead of being clear, they were black...a thick black liquid, like melted shadows. She stared at the drops in horror. They were beginning to move, to writhe on their own. As if they were alive.

She searched for a mirror. She dashed over to her desk, and stared at her reflection. Her eyes were diluted, dark holes. Her tear trails were sticky and black, and the blood from the cut on her lip was black. She opened her mouth, revealing a sticky black tongue. She blew her nose into a tissue. Black.

Fluttershy began to hyperventilate. "No...no...this can't be happening..." She couldn't think anymore. The pain was too much for her to handle. She yanked open a drawer and pulled out a pocket knife, sawing fiercely at her wrists. She severed her wrist artery, and where there should have been a spurt of red blood oozed a squirming spillage of black sludge. The voices suddenly became louder. They weren't in her head anymore; they were real.

"Hush now, Fluttershy, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Fluttershy dropped the knife, her eyes widening as the black sludge covered her arm. And at that moment, staring at her arm, something in her...

...snapped.

"Hush now..." she whispered, a smile jerking at her lips. "Quiet now..."

***

"Dr. Hooves."

The stallion turned around, staring at Assistant Ditzy. Where one might see an erratic mare with an eye mishap, he saw the most beautiful pony he had ever laid eyes on. He had thought that from the moment they'd met. But he was never brave enough to tell her until now.

Right now, Assistant Ditzy had slipped out of her lab coat and was wearing a khaki vest underneath, which is what she wore when she wasn't at work. She yawned, one of her hooves reaching towards the ceiling.

"I don't feel like working anymore today."

Dr. Hooves stared at her. Her eyes were unusually dim, half-lidded. He didn't get what she meant.

"I want to spend time with you."

Dr. Hooves blinked. "Oh, I see," he said, suddenly realizing. "But...what about Fluttershy? We're supposed to bring her in and diagnose her." He stepped over to the phone.

Ditzy waved her hoof at the phone. "Don't even try. I called her fifteen times and she didn't answer. I think she's shutting out the whole world. At this stage of depression, it's hard to tell whether or not she's going to get better."

Dr. Hooves shook his head. "I don't think she will. I think she might even get suicidal at this point...which is why I want you to bring her in. Try calling up some of her friends. They know where her house is. I think it's best if she stays overnight at the hospital, in case she gets any ideas."

"But I don't want to work!" Ditzy complained, throwing up her front legs. She laid back in the swivel chair and spun it around. "I'm too tired."

The doctor smirked. "You sound like a foal. You know that?"

Ditzy stopped spinning, looking at Dr. Hooves seriously now. "Dr...I wanted to...have dinner, or something. A nice dinner. Just you and me."

Dr. Hooves gazed at her. He felt more exhausted than ever. "I would like to do that too, but we can't. There's still so much work to do..."

The Assistant got up, abruptly kissing him. "I don't care. We need to do something together. We just confessed our love for each other- the least you can do is take the rest of the night off."

The stallion shook his head stubbornly. "Nope. Can't. Taking care of a patient is more important..."

"...more important than me?" Ditzy said. Her ears flattened. "Well, thanks a lot. I feel so much better."

Dr. Hooves swiveled his head towards her, narrowing his eyes. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure sounded that way."

He sighed. "Listen...I'll have dinner with you. 7:30 tonight. But I have business to take care of, okay?" He left her alone in the room, blowing her a kiss as he did.

He walked into his office, opening the side door for some fresh air. He leapt back in surprise- standing in the doorway was a pony. And not just any pony.

"Fluttershy!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I was...I was just about to call you!"

The Pegasus shrugged, giving a little giggle. "What for? Another therapy session with you? But I don't need one. I'm all better now." She giggled again, raising her left hoof to her mouth. Her leg was heavily bandaged.

Dr. Hooves looked at her. She certainly didn't look better. She looked bony and frail, and it looked like some of her color had been scrubbed clean away. Her hair, usually straight and glossy, was frazzled. And her eyes were still dark and lightless. But she was smiling...that was good.

Fluttershy walked in, looking around. "Wow! What a nice office you have. Such a beautiful office. So tastefully decorated." She laughed and began to fly around in glee, giggling like a filly all the way.

Dr. Hooves raised one eyebrow. "But Fluttershy, you've been to my office a million times. Why are you here, anyway?"

Fluttershy sat down in the therapy chair, looking happy, but still sporting dark eyes. He looked closely at them. They were rimmed with black. He might say it was makeup, but there was something very un-makeup about it.

"I'm here because I wanted to see you," Fluttershy chirruped. "I'm always so glad to see you. Don't you know that, Dr.? You always cheer me up."

From what he'd accomplished in the past few months, Dr. Hooves didn't think he cheered Fluttershy up very much. In fact, she was acting very strange. From depressed to unusually happy- all in one afternoon. And what was the bandage? That hadn't been there before. He squinted at it, and detected a small dark stain on it. It wasn't blood. It was too black to be blood.

Fluttershy was suddenly close to him. Dr. Hooves took a couple steps backwards, nearly bumping into his desk. How had she done that? One second she was in the chair and now she was nose-to-nose with him, her dark glassy eyes set upon him.

"You've really helped me, Doctor," she whispered. Her voice sounded echoey...almost as if it had doubled. "I really like you..."

Without warning, Fluttershy closed the space between their faces and kissed him. Dr. Hooves leapt back the moment they touched. He didn't stop scrambling backwards until he was on the other side of the room, pressed against the wall. Whatever he had presumed would happen at that moment, it had certainly not been that.

"Fluttershy!" Dr. Hooves gasped. "What...why did you do that?"

The pale yellow Pegasus stood on the other side of the room, still beaming. "Because I love you, Dr.!" Fluttershy said brightly, as if it were the most obvious thing ever. "I've always loved you. You always help me and you're always there for me."

Dr. Hooves was tempted to say something drastic, but he stopped himself. He had a feeling that Fluttershy would be genuinely crushed if he did. He cleared his throat, closing his eyes for a few seconds, and tried to explain to her.

"Well, I'm flattered that you feel that way about me, Fluttershy," he said briskly. "It's really very nice. I mean, you're...pretty...and nice, and you're sweet...I'm glad that you like me."

Fluttershy jumped up. "Good!" she said lightly, clapping her hooves together. "Then we can be together."

Dr. Hooves blinked several times. He held up his front hooves. "No, Fluttershy...we can't. You don't understand..."

The pale yellow pony flashed up to him again. Her teeth were set in an eerie grin, clamped together as she spoke. "What don't I understand?" she said icily. "Is there something wrong?"

Dr. Hooves felt his heart quicken as he remembered. She was a troubled patient...she had a lot of problems. She was not one to mess with. He panicked slightly and moved away, trying to avoid the darkness of her eyes. If he were to explain properly, he had to say it directly. "Well...you see..."

"...I'm already in love with my Assistant."

This stimulated an utmost reaction in Fluttershy. The Pegasus' irises went from large to small, all in an instant. She flashed across the room, seized a glass flask from the counter, and threw it at Dr. Hooves' face. The glass shattered on impact, many of the pieces embedding into his flesh. Dr. Hooves yelped and covered his face with his hooves as blood began to stream down.

"LIAR!" Fluttershy screeched. Her voice was not her voice. It was as if something had possessed her. "YOU SAID I WAS NICE! YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME! YOU LIED! YOU LIED! YOU'RE A DIRTY LIAR, LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!" Dr. Hooves sat scrunched in the corner, trying to stem the blood flow. The cuts from the glass were deep.

"Fluttershy, stop!" Dr. Hooves protested. But she wouldn't. She continued to throw things at him, anything she could find. The objects she threw struck his body in various places, bruising him and opening more gashes.

"I thought you were different," Fluttershy snarled. "But you're a liar, like them. You always lied! All those prescriptions you gave me, they didn't work. You LIED! You wanted to watch me suffer!" She rammed herself into a cabinet, shattering the contents within and showering the floor with glass.

Hoofsteps sounded in the hallway, and Assistant Ditzy burst inside. "What's going on in here?" she demanded. She took in the scene in front of her: Glass covering the floor, Fluttershy hovering in the air, Dr. Hooves cowering, covered in blood.

Assistant Ditzy shielded Dr. Hooves. "What the hell are you doing, Fluttershy?" Ditzy shouted. "Dr. Hooves was trying to help you!"

Fluttershy stopped. "You're the one Dr. Hooves is in love with, aren't you?" she whispered.

Ditzy adjusted her hooves. "That's none of your business," she growled.

Fluttershy opened her mouth in a smile. Ditzy and Dr. Hooves were horrified to see black tendrils crawl out from underneath her tongue, curling and lengthening.

"Oh, it IS my business." Fluttershy murmured.

"Now hush..."

***

"Has anyone seen Fluttershy?"

Applejack was looking around. She had been looking around for hours. Above her, floating on a puffy white cloud, was her friend Rainbow Dash.

"A.J., stop worrying about her. Fluttershy's the nicest pony in all of Ponyville...she wouldn't get into any trouble." The blue Pegasus chomped nonchalantly into one of Pinkie Pie's cupcakes, which had been saved from earlier that day.

"That isn't what I'm worried about, Rainbow," Applejack muttered. "I'm worried about HER. She could be anywhere right now. She could be hurt. And all you care about is snacks."

Rainbow Dash laid her head against the cloud, chewing a mouthful of cupcake. "Hey," she said. "I just think you're overreacting, that's all. Fluttershy's fine, okay? She's probably just sad because none of her animals are going near her."

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the book she was reading in the grass. "Um, Dash? I think that's the whole reason A.J.'s worried. Her animals aren't going near her...don't you think that's a little bit strange?"

"And that's only the tip of the iceberg," Applejack said. "Earlier today I walked into her house, and she started yelling on about how I wasn't really her friend and that I was always manipulatin' her. There's something wrong...I know there is...and I'm not gonna stop looking." Applejack turned away from her friends and started up one of the grassy hills.

"Wait, A.J.!" Twilight Sparkle piped up. "Where are you going? It's dangerous to leave Ponyville at night!"

Applejack glowered at the purple Earth Pony, her green eyes dim and serious. "If ya'll aren't gonna help me, then I'm just going by myself. And there ain't nothin' you can do to stop me." On that note, she began to trot up the hill, leaving grassy hoofprints in her wake.

Rainbow Dash licked the frosting from her hoof. "Do you think we should try and stop her, Twilight?"

The purple pony shook her head. "There's no stopping Applejack when she put her mind to something."

Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. "Should we...follow her?"

Twilight shrugged. "Well...I don't know. I don't think we should. It's too dark."

Rainbow Dash's tail flicked. "Yeah, but she'll...something might happen to her, Twilight!"

Twilight laughed. "Don't be silly," Twilight laughed. "After all, what bad thing has ever happened in Ponyville?"

***

Applejack looked up at the sky. The bright blue had succumbed to dark red and purple, and the first glimmers of stars were beginning to shine. The moon was full and round, a bright white disk hanging in the sky. Even so, she could barely see what was in the grass in front of her. Everything was dark- and Applejack felt unsafe.

She was almost at the top of the hill. She looked behind her. All she could see was grass, and the top of the clock tower surrounded by a few distant buildings. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...

But she had to keep going. She wasn't going to let a little darkness scare her. She was tough, and she was going to BE tough. And Fluttershy needed her. If not even Twilight Sparkle cared, then who would? Fluttershy needed someone to worry about her. Applejack usually didn't worry about Fluttershy, but that's why she was doing so now. She felt like she had to repay the Pegasus. She had always been so kind until recently.

Applejack reached the top after a few minutes of walking. By that time the sky had grown almost completely dark, a dark purple. And clouds were moving in, covering up the many glittering stars. Applejack hadn't noticed them before, but she had been looking at the grass the whole time, hadn't she?

When she looked up, she flinched a little. Just up ahead there was a little old shack, built out of several old beaten-up boards. At first she thought it was abandoned, but she could hear a voice inside...

"Hush, now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

It was Fluttershy's song. Applejack brightened up. If she was singing, then maybe she had calmed down, and maybe she was happy. She might be singing an animal to sleep, or something.

Applejack ran excitedly towards the door, opening it up and bursting inside. "Fluttershy!" she said. "Fluttershy...I've been lookin' all over for you!"

There was no answer. Applejack could see Fluttershy's figure in the dim light. Wherever the light was coming from.

"Uh...Fluttershy?"

Suddenly, the door slammed shut on Applejack's ponytail.

"Ouch! Ugh..." Applejack said. "Weird...must be the wind or somethin'..."

Suddenly, the eerie light flashed over Fluttershy's face.

And Applejack could not believe what she saw.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..." Fluttershy sang gutturally.

Applejack screamed. She tried to yank her ponytail out of the door, but it was stuck.

Where Fluttershy's pretty green eyes had once been, there were now dark, empty sockets, blood and blackish fluid seeping from the gaping holes. The eyes had visibly been, at one point, gouged out- the optic nerves were visible, webbing out in spidery tentacles and moving grotesquely on their own. Her face was a mess of partially decomposed skin, shredded muscle and bone, oozing red fluid and the same blackish stuff streaming from her eye sockets. Her hooves were covered in the mixture of red and black and bits of yellow-pink, giving the notion that she was the one who had done this to herself. In Applejack's presence, her skeletal mouth opened in a hideous attempt to smile, a deformed black tongue lolling on the broken lower set of teeth.

"Hush, now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Spiritual voices emanated from all sides, Fluttershy's voice intermixed with thousands of others. Booming from the walls, crashing like lightning. Applejack screamed. It was physically impossible for her ears to take in all that sound at one time. In result, she felt something in her ears burst, and slimy blood flowed down her face. Applejack didn't know what was happening. She heard Fluttershy's voice again, thundering.

"It's time to go to bed..."

Her mouth opened, stretches of the black stuff sticking to the roof of her mouth. The black liquid began to stream from her mouth in long vines, solidifying and turning into swinging ropes. The stuff began to come out of her ears, her eyes, her nose...reaching towards Applejack and writhing wildly. Applejack's throat was frozen, and she screamed silently as the tendrils twisted towards her.

When they hit, then Applejack could scream. She could feel herself being engulfed in the tendrils, eliciting a pain like she'd never felt before. It was like acid burning through her skin, a burning cold stabbing into the marrow of her bones. She was being so compactly constricted that she couldn't breathe, and her rib cage cracked with the pressure. And then the ripping started, the tendrils pulling her apart. Slowly, achingly, separating her body parts. There was nothing Applejack could do but scream. Nothing but lay and be tortured- why couldn't she die? She could never imagine this, it was beyond comprehension the agony that she felt. The sweet freedom of death wouldn't come. For eternity, the pain would last...

Fluttershy's body was a mass of writhing shadow tendrils. Applejack's blood splattered the walls, and all around, the booming, repeating chorus...

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...

Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

***

Three days later, Dr. Hooves and Assistant Ditzy's bodies were found in the hospital basement. Their eyes and tongues had been sliced out and their hearts were exposed, each organ smashed into a pulp. Around the bodies were several symbols written out on the floor in blood, none of which could be identified. A message was written on the wall, with English lettering, but was too scrawled to be readable.

An investigation was launched soon after the discovery of the bodies. No hoofprints or any sort of evidence could be found. For long periods there was search for forsenic evidence, but not even the most skilled of inspectors were able to find anything. The investigators were forced to ask survey questions in hopes to find the perpetrator.

After questioning hospital employees, investigators discovered that many said Dr. Hooves had seemed troubled for the past few days. It was also said that a female pony- young, Pegasus- had walked into his office with him the last time he had been reported seen. When investigators asked if anyone could remember who the pony was, many could not. After several interviews, investigators found that there were two other ponies missing- Applejack Smith and Fluttershy Herrings.

After this confirmation, more surveying was done. Employees said that a patient who had many of Fluttershy Herrings' features had been coming in for therapy, with reported schizophrenic-like symptoms. Employees said that the Pegasus had not been seen for several days- about as long as Dr. Hooves and Assistant Ditzy had been missing before their bodies were found. Applejack Smith's period of missing was shorter, so Fluttershy Herrings was made the prime suspect. Search parties were instructed to go out and see if they were able to find anything that could help solve the crime.

The search parties asked some of Fluttershy's closest friends if they knew anything of her disappearance. Even in their disbelief that Fluttershy had done anything wrong, the ponies said that Fluttershy and Applejack had been friends before they'd gone missing. They had also seen Applejack heading up a hill near the far end of the valley.

The search parties traveled up the hill, where they found an old shack. Upon opening the door, they made a shocking find- the walls were splattered with blood and dark fluid, and all around there was a scattering of bones and skin chunks. They found what looked like a pony on the floor, with what they thought was an orange coat, but was hard to tell under the bloodsoak. Organs were glued to the wall by a thick black paste- eyes, pieces of stomach, intestines, and even the heart.

The investigators thought that the pony was dead- and that's what they put in the files. But the pony was not dead. Even with extracted organs, loss of almost all its blood, and exposure of muscle and bone, the pony was twitching and clawing at the floorboards. Although they were disgusted and horrified, the investigators listened closely. A gravelly voice was coming from the body's mouth.

"Kill...me..."

The investigators tried to talk to the body, but it just repeated the phrase over and over. Inspecting the body, they found one of the flanks untouched. Tattered, but eligable, they identified the pony's cutie mark- three apples, the same as Applejack Smith's. They had no idea how to rescue the body, so they fulfilled her wishes and killed her by gunshot.

Upon looking around the room, they could not find anything else. Except for one phrase, written on the walls in blood...

"HUSH NOW, QUIET NOW"

It was the same song that Fluttershy Herrings sung to her animals before they went to sleep.

Later on the murder file was named the U.C. investigation, which is said to be named after the lead investigator, Ulric Clark. But it is said that the initials actually stand for "Undead Corpse". It is unknown, but something did happen to the investigators that scared the others. The investigators who had come across the shack later fell sick, with dizziness and fatigue. It escalated to the investigators being delirious. Later on, with examination, they had schizophrenic-like symptoms that could not be cured. When listened to, all five investigators had been reported to be chanting the same phrase over and over:

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head- hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

The investigators were hospitalized and later sent to a mental institute.

Equestria was disturbed and terrified by the crime, especially since nothing like it had ever happened to them. Equestria was supposed to be a place of complete contentment. For many weeks after there were reports of seeing the shadow of a Pegasus on the walls at night, and an echoing song in the distance. Every report had the same song lyrics- what the investigators had been chanting. What had been written on blood on the shack walls.

The city decided to file the murder mystery as "unsolved" and leave it at that. Every pony in Equestria was forced to move out due to the public reports, and it was never spoken of again. Equestria became a ghost town, and the only reason they gave to the outer cities for moving was the "incurable insect problem". Even if the Equestria ponies stayed out of it, other cities became interested. Equestria quickly became a tourist attraction and a pinpoint for other city's investigators.

The first investigator came alone. A Palamino pony named Ginger Sugar coming from a strict Southern family, she didn't believe in ghost stories. She traveled to Equestria by carriage, as was her culture, and was dropped off in Equestria at 6:30 PM. She thought it would be more of an experience if she came when it was dark.

She hadn't expected it to be completely deserted, but it was truly and completely abandoned. Reading her notes, she saw that the place where the "Undead Corpse" had been found was in a shack at the top of a valley hill. She walked up the hill, unfazed, and came across the shack. It was clunky, and lopsided, wooden with a tin roof, but she was a Southern girl and had no fear of things like this. She entered the house with practically a smile on her face.

That smile vanished quickly.

In the house was a skeletal, eyeless, yellow pony, with many bloody, bulging gashes. The smell of old blood filled the air, and everywhere there were masses of writhing black. The pony lifted her face- or what was left of it- and bared a broken bony mask of a face. Out of her eye sockets and mouth curled many shadowy black tendrils.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Memories of the rumors came back to Ginger. A scream caught in her throat, she tried to bolt out the door, but found that it had shut. Before she could react, she was being bound with long black tentacles that burned and sizzled her skin. Ginger shrieked, but it was no use. There was nobody there to help her.

The pony in the back of the room fluttered, her wings consisting of splintered bones that were somehow still intact. She flew towards Ginger, the tentacles turning her over and over, slowly crushing her, beginning to needle into her pelt.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

END