Fluttershy looked over the verdant green meadow, garnished with a rainbow of flowers and iced over with a perfect blue sky. Various insects buzzed about, creating a lovely ambient noise against the wind. The few cotton-candy clouds made shapes, as if saying hello to the yellow pegasus. She smiled, a sight that has yet to be rivaled in its sweetness. Behind her, a menagerie of animals were at play, digging at the caramel dirt or leaping up to lick the frosting sky. Her Angel bunny sat beneath her, surveying the area with an almost approving look.
She sighed, her honey breath exhaling smoke into the pleasantly cool air. Winter was coming soon, and her meadow would be blanketed with mint-white snow, so crisp and fresh.
She loved stepping into the powder, the calming crunch and chilling coldness. She loved-
"Flutter?" The pegasus mare was startled at the sound of her friend's voice sounding behind her.
"Oh, Twilight. I didn't know you were here," she answered in her signature quiet voice, not turning away from the sight of the meadow. Twilight Sparkle had developed a habit of creeping up on her recently, Fluttershy noticed.
"Uhm, sure," the female said unsurely, as if she was talking to a stranger. "Listen, me and the girls were wondering if you wanted to go to the park? It's be good to get you out of here-"
"Oh no, Twilight. You know I can't do that. My animals would miss me far too much," Fluttershy reasoned, Angel stirring slightly beneath her. Her baby-blue gaze was fixed ahead of her, a relaxed look around her eyes.
"Whatever you say, Flutters," Twilight sighed, the tone strangely defeated, as if she'd asked the question a hundred times before only to be met with the same response. "Just...come talk to us when you can, alright?"
"I will, Twilight. I promise..." Fluttershy's reply faded away, the green meadow seemingly hypnotising her.
The young girl turned away from her friend, and dragged herself up the basement steps. Five worried voices could be heard conversing behind the basement door, which let in the room's only source of light. Below the steps, a pink-haired girl of the same age sat cross-legged on the cold, concrete floor. She was staring at a wall, on which was a simple yet beautiful outdoor mural. Green flowery meadow, trees in the distance, perfect blue sky...
Fluttershy clutched her ragged white bunny doll closer to her. She never wanted to leave.
xx
"And you say she's been like this for two weeks?" the doctor asked, a serious expression painted on his face.
"Yeah, as far as I know she hasn't moved since. What's wrong with her?" Tara asked the doctor sitting across from her. Her friends had decided to stay in the kitchen.
"I've seen this before, but it's very rare. It seems your friend's mind has tricked itself into believing in a different reality. It's likely that the world she now lives in was inspired by that mural in the cellar."
"That used to be our nursery..." Tara murmured, wringing her hands together worriedly. "She keeps calling everyone these weird names. Like...'Twilight' and 'Applejack'. And she only notices us when we call her by her nickname, Flutters." The doctor wrote the information down.
"Anything else?"
"She hasn't eaten or slept properly since this began. Sometimes she'd just pass out from exhaustion and when we woke her, she'd just keep staring at the wall," Tara replied, eyes cast down to the purple carpet.
"The only advice I can give is to keep an eye on her. Cases like this must be dealt with carefully, so as not to damage the patient. I'll return within a week." The doctor stood up and bid farewell to the four girls waiting outside the sitting room.
"What did he say?" Tabitha asked, her trans-Atlantic accent edged with anxiety and a finger twirling around one of her curls.
"Something about her mind thinking she's in another world," Tara replied, a hand running through her high-lighted hair. "There's really nothing we can do."