Chapter 7

Fluttershy knew it was only a matter of time before she gets chosen. She listened to a deep voice talking to Flam. "I know I didn't exactly set up an appointment, but do ya think you can schedule me in?"

Flam answered proudly, "Of course. You've been a customer with us for years. I even have a special treat for you."

The unknown voice asked sarcastically, "Are you actually going to give me a discount for once?"

Flam stuttered, "Well no. But, I do know how much you love the pegasi, and I got a brand new one; never been touched yet. She's been waiting eagerly just for you."

Fluttershy continued listening in through the walls. The unknown voice sounded skeptical at first, but agreed to accept Flam's 'special' treat.

Hoofsteps approached, and the door opened. Standing next to Flam was a blue-gray earth pony. "This is the new pegasus you got?" asked the earth pony.

"Sure is. Cute right?" Flam said.

"She doesn't look all that new, she already has a layer of dust on her," said the earth pony.

"I assure you she is. She just needs to be moved around a little, if you know what I'm saying," said Flam.

"Well alright I'll take her up to the room then," said the pony.

Flam flashed a near-devilish smile at Fluttershy "Keep in mind, the new ponies may sometimes be a little rascally. You might have to be a little rough with her."

The earth pony chuckled, "That won't be a problem."

Flam dragged Fluttershy out of the room and closed the door. This is the first time Fluttershy seen the door close from the other side. Flam untied the bindings around Fluttershy's hooves. "You know what to do. One hour. And I mean it this time, one hour. I don't want any of this 'five more minutes' horseshit."

The earth pony nodded and escorted Fluttershy up the stairs. The yellow pegasus was frightened, and when she thought about being afraid, she thought about Lantana—which made her more afraid.

Flim was standing at the top of the stairs and showed the earth pony to the room. Behind a structurally flawed door was a surprisingly well decorated room. The walls looked like they were actually painted this decade, and the floors were elegantly tiled. The room had one double bed, and a mirror off to the side that faced it. There was one chair, and a window that let in just enough light, and provided a pretty nice view of the Ponyville Lake in the distance.

Despite how much Fluttershy expected everything to be horrifying, she had to admit the room looked rather pretty. However, Fluttershy knew what awaited her, and she was afraid to merely think about it. Before closing the door leaving Fluttershy alone with the earth pony, Flim said, "Have a good hour."

The earth pony starred Fluttershy up and down making several passes with his eyes. He was slowly scanning across every inch of her body. Fluttershy stood frozen. She was fearing the earth pony's next move. "Well Flam was right. You are a cute little thing," he said. Fluttershy couldn't come up with any words to respond. She tucked her tail in between her legs and shook with fear—much like the way the unicorn from the basement did.

Fluttershy muttered fearfully, "Please, please don't touch me!"

The earth pony didn't seem to care about Fluttershy's fear at all. "I already paid 70 bits. Now Flim and Flam run this business well, but they are far to stingy to refund my money. Of course I'm going to get my money's worth. Now we only have an hour so..." Thump! The earth pony's body hit the ground.

Fluttershy's spine tingled. She never hit another pony before, but she struck this pony in his throat with all her might. The earth pony was unconscious. His neck had a large bruise on it, which continued to grow by the second. Fluttershy didn't know why she did what she did. She was just as surprised as the pony she hit. She was acting on pure instinct. Blood was drooling out of the pony's mouth, and Fluttershy could feel judgment from the back of her mind. I-I hit him? Well he was trying to rape me, but still... is he dead?

Fluttershy could hear Flim shouting and knocking on the other side of the door. "Is everything okay in there? You aren't being too rough are you? Remember we need her back in one piece so we can use her again." Flim knocked from the other side of the door again, "You still there?"

Fluttershy quickly grabbed the chair and jammed it under the door knob. Flim turned the knob but couldn't push the door open. The door was stuck closed. Flim pushed harder on the door. "I need help here!" he shouted down the stairs.

Fluttershy could hear several hoofsteps trotting up the stairs. Flim managed to push the door just barely wide enough to fit his nose in. "Dumb pegasus get back here!"

Fluttershy ran up to the window and shattered it with a solid kick. Glass fell to the ground at the same moment as the chair holding the door closed, snapped in pieces. Fluttershy flew out the window.

I should be okay. I may not be the best flier, but I should be able to fly away from a couple unicorns. Fluttershy was surprised when she found two pagasi ponies following her—tailing her closely. Fluttershy thought that Flim and Flam ran the whole business themselves, but apparently they had help.

The pegasi chasing after Fluttershy were both darkly colored—one a dark brown, and the other a dark gray. They looked strong, and large. If they ever got their hooves on Fluttershy either one of them could easily out muscle her to the ground. They chased after her with a great intensity on their faces.

The pegasi were faster than Fluttershy, and soon she had to try something besides just flapping her wings harder. She was flying just on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy thought to herself, If I can't out fly them, maybe I can out maneuver them. She turned sharply going straight into the Everfree Forest. She weaved in, and out of the trees smoothly, as if her life depended on it, because for all she knew, it might.

The darkly colored pegasi followed her into the forest without any hesitation at all. They managed to weave in between the trees, and still managed to keep up the pursuit, but the distance between them and Fluttershy was growing. They weren't able to move in between the trees as easily as Fluttershy. She was almost out of sight, but then...

Snap! Fluttershy's wing flapped directly into a tree branch that was too thick for a pony of her size to fly through. At first she thought the loud snap came from the branch, but the thick branch didn't break—it didn't even bend. Her right-wing sent an intense pain, and folded into an unnatural position. The collision sent Fluttershy into the ground. Her landing was hard, and merciless. The high-speed she was flying at caused her to skid across the uneven forest floor.

She was conscious when she landed—the impact of the landing was on her ribcage—but she was in too much pain to move. The forest floor wasn't a forgiving surface to land on. Where Fluttershy landed, there were plenty of sharp rocks as well as branches. Skidding across that surface opened large chunks of Fluttershy's skin in several places. Most of the open wounds were on her belly and thighs. She could see a large streak of her own blood that drew a straight path from where she crash landed, and where she was laying. In addition, Fluttershy saw a fair amount of rocks that wore chunks of her own flesh over their sharp edges.

Fluttershy was winded, and couldn't lift herself up. The two pegasi that were pursuing her followed her down to the ground—in a much safer way. They landed on either side of Fluttershy. Fluttershy cried, not from the pain—which there was a lot of, but because she failed her attempt to be free. Fluttershy might never get to see her daughter again.

"Now what are we going to do with you?" the brown pegasus asked, "You look pretty beat up. Without your looks no pony's going to want you, and Flim and Flam aren't going to waste the money to fix you up. Nonetheless, we can't just leave you alone—its a matter of principle."

The gray pegasus spoke, "I think there's only one thing we can do now. I'm not flying back all the way from here carrying a limp pegasus. I say we kill her here, and leave her here."

The brown pegasus nodded his head in agreement. He approached Fluttershy, and tightly gripped Fluttershy's broken wing. Fluttershy squealed in pain. The pegasus continued to put his full weight onto her wing as Fluttershy cried out, begging for them to stop. She felt close to blacking out.

Just then, a ferocious roar came from beyond the fog of the Everfree Forest. The shadow of a great beast was approaching. The two male pegasi flew off for their own lives, and left Fluttershy behind as the beast charged forward.

The beast had scared off the other pegasi. Although they probably thought that the beast will eat Fluttershy instead of them—completing their duties—the beast had no intention of harming Fluttershy. The creature showed itself. Standing before her was a manticore ten times her size.

Fluttershy wasn't afraid of the manticore. After all she would rather be devoured in a single bite by a manticore, than being slowly tortured to death by two pegasi, and besides, she knew that the manticore had no desire to eat her—it just saved her life. It must have heard Fluttershy's screams of agony, and ran over to rescue her.

Fluttershy thanked the creature, and with struggle, lifted herself onto her feet. The manticore gave a playful lick across Fluttershy's mane. The manticore carried Fluttershy back to the edge of the Everfree Forest, before it retreated back into its den. Fluttershy was too injured to fly at all, but had enough strength in her legs to make it the short distance back home—just as long as she doesn't have to go faster than a limp.

Despite being only a short walk, Fluttershy's fastest limp can barely be compared to a slow newborn's crawl. The rain was coming down hard in Ponyville. It was a heavy downpour. Fluttershy absorbed so much rain in her coat, mane, tail, and skin, that she felt as if she was caring the limp weight of another pony on her hooves. Her mane absorbed so much water that it became heavy, and hung straight down her face, instead of off to the side. At least the rain is washing out the blood.

After a walk that took three times as long as it should have, Fluttershy made it home in the middle of the night, and all she could think about was seeing her daughter Lantana. Part of her expected to see Lantana up and about, prancing around with her face full of utter bliss, but a hint of doubt was in the far back of her mind. She was starting to come out of denial, but had to see her daughter's corpse one last time to know once and for all.

Fluttershy approached Lantana. The body was laying in the same spot as before. From a closer look, Fluttershy could see that Lantana's body had almost no skin on her face at all. Maggots and flies were eating at the skin, and the corpse's eyes were nothing more than a small ooze coming from the depths of her eye sockets.

"No Lantana! You can't be dead! You can't be!" Fluttershy felt like she was about to cry yet again. After all she was starting to understand that her daughter was actually dead for the first time. Nonetheless, Fluttershy held her tears in. She continued to stare at her daughter's corpse.

"No! This can't be!... But it is!" Fluttershy couldn't handle watching the flies feed on her daughter any longer. She turned her head away, and up to the sky. She had no more tears left to shed. All she could feel now was anger.

Fluttershy shouted into the sky, "This is all Flim and Flam's fault! If it wasn't for them! If they just left me alone! Oh, I'm so angry! I'm so angry I could just... I could just... Oh, I'm so angry I could Just KILL THOSE BASTARDS!"

A darkness formed in the pit of Fluttershy's heart. She had nothing left to care for—only enemies to hate. "With Celestia as my witness, I will take everything from those fuckers just as they took everything from me! I will kill them! I will kill them no matter what it takes! I will kill them no matter who tries to stop me! I will kill them if its the LAST THING I DO!"