Paralyzed Part 4

>High above you in her cage, Fluttershy can be heard whimpering.

>’I’m doing this for Anonymous,’ she thought to herself ‘To show him how sorry I am…’

>Fluttershy awkwardly reaches back to her left wing with the dagger held aloft precariously in her hoof, and slowly brings it along the base, slicing her flesh open; she winces and cries out.

>Fluttershy realizes that there is no way of severing a limb gently, this has to be done with force; holding the dagger higher above the connecting bones, the blood from the blade runs down along the hilt and along her arm, and she focuses on this to help her through the next cut.

>With a sickening thud, the first blow lands on her wing, slashing apart muscle and connective tissue, but makes no progress passed the bone.

>Now sobbing in agony, Fluttershy begins to feel hopeless as no progress has been made; will she have to try and saw her bone in half?

>Fluttershy lies down on the floor of the cage, and thinks hard back to her Pegasi anatomy lessons from her days as a schoolfilly.

>’The Humerus…I’ll have to take it out of the socket…’

>Fluttershy stands again, legs trembling terribly with fear; this will be far more painful than her first two tries.

>She lifts her wing weakly, and watches the way ball of the Humerus moves under her skin, and prepares her first cut.

>Her first slice opens the skin, revealing the muscle and tissue around the ball and socket of her joint.

>The work is excruciating; moving the dagger along her tissue, she can feel her wing become totally limp, and she presses the dagger in between socket and joint in a sort of fulcrum, and after much effort, the ball pops out, and her wing falls to the floor with a light thud.

>Staring in disbelief at her own accomplishment, she watches as blood begins to poor more profusely from the wound; looking to a small brazier at the other end of the cage, she walks over to it.

>The blade heats up slowly, giving her much time to reflect on the coming pain. When the dagger seems to have reached its highest temperature, she brings it near her wound, but stop just short; her coat is singed from the proximity of the searing metal.

>Fluttershy begins to fear the possibility of biting her own tongue off from the pain; walking over to the severed yellow wing, she picks it up in her mouth and bites down, hard.

>Quickly, with the wing now in her mouth to prevent further unwanted injury, Fluttershy bears down on her gushing wound with the hot blade, and screams into the wing in torment; the cauterizing of skin producing a smell of cooked meat that wafts down to you, far below her.

>Pulling the dagger away, her flesh stick to it, and the wound is splayed back open, spouting blood again. It had gotten too cold.

>Fluttershy collapses in anguish, letting out a scream that echoes throughout the chamber, dropping the wing from her mouth; you jump in surprise.

“Fluttershy, what the hell is going on up there!?”

“Fluttershy!?”

“Answer me damn it!”

>You can only hear her whimpering sobs; moments later the screaming returns: Fluttershy has heated the blade a second time, and bitten into the wing, this time properly cauterizing the wound shut.

>Your mind is racing, is something attacking her in the cage? Is she doing this to herself?

“Fluttershy answer me right now, what the fuck is going on up there!?”

>”I’m doing this…for you Anonymous.” Her voice is very weak, you can barely hear her. “And you…shouldn’t use bad words.”

>The screaming returns, even louder this time: She has removed the second wing, cauterizing it as quickly as she can manage, and is writhing in the aftermath of her painful sacrifice before finally gaining the strength to lift both wings to their respective pedestals.

>Before you can call out to her a again, as you look directly up to the cage, a drop of liquid hits your forehead, and you wipe it up with your finger to see that it is blood: Fluttershy’s blood.

>A deep howl thunders through the chamber, and monstrous steps follow it; it sounds louder than ever.

>The sound comes from the far end of the chamber; the whole room feels as if it is the epicenter of an earthquake, and your heart is racing in anticipation: could this finally be it, will the beast reveal itself to you?

>Fluttershy’s cage had begun to rattle and sway, and the chains holding it in place were beginning to fail; one breaks from the stress, and then another, dropping the cage halfway to the floor, sending it swinging violently about on its final chain until that too fails, and the cage is sent plummeting down next to you, just barely avoiding crushing you to death.

>The cage begins to teeter to one side, towards you, and you jump forward in time enough to avoid the cage’s second attempt on your life; the roaring stops.

>Scrambling over to the bars of the cage, you can see Fluttershy inside lying on her back with both wings missing; only two black and bloody spots remain where they once were.

“Fluttershy…what happened to your wings…? Hey!”

>You cannot reach her, inside the cage despite considerable warping on the bars from the impact.

“Fluttershy you’re not unconscious are you?”

>She does not move; a light rumbling resounds through the room.

“Damn it…what now?”

>The entire face of the far end wall is obliterated in an explosion of pulverized rock and dirt, the chamber wall utterly crumbles to the force behind it; and a great behemoth looms at the threshold.

>It stomps inside, growling ferociously, but not at you: it is looking at the cage.

>The beast is an absolute Abomination: the flesh is patchy in dark and bright red spots, with a face contorted into an ugly permanent scowl, gnarled black nubs for teeth, and a fat unwieldy body to contain all of this horror.

>Each step it takes is a thundering boom, and it slowly makes its way to the unconscious Fluttershy.

>You are immobilized by this impossible sight; you have never heard of a creature like this in Equestria.

>As you follow the abomination’s journey to Fluttershy’s cage, you notice that the gray Creature from before is standing on top of the bars, staring at you intently as the Abomination looms above it, raising its fist in preparation to strike; it bellows in rage.

>Before it can swing, you yell.

“Stop!”

>The Abomination does not look to you, but holds its fist in the air, unmoving.

>”Isn’t this what you wanted?”

>Says the Creature on the cage.

>”To see her die?”

“Y-you can talk?”

>”Or did you want to end her life with your own bare hands?”

>You notice the creature has lost its wings.

“S-she…raped me.”

>”And she has sacrificed much in seeking your forgiveness; you already put the pieces together the moment you saw her wings were gone, but you are unwillingly to fully recognize this”

“So she cut her wings off to set me free…that can’t undo what she’s done to me.”

>”So then you do want her to die?”

“Y-yes.”

>”And yet you stopped your own anger from crushing her; why?”

“What do you mean, ‘my own anger’?”

>”Have you not realized it yet? This beast is a representation of your hatred for Fluttershy as a result of what she has done to you, and I am the form of how you see her: a wretched creature.”

>You sit in silence for a moment, desperately searching your thoughts, while the creature looks intently at you.

“This isn’t real.”

>”But it is.”

“No, emotions don’t just take form and torment them inside of some fucking cave, none of this is real; I’m dreaming”

>”Did your pain feel real, did you anger, how about your fear?”

“Yeah that all felt pretty damn convincing, but I know this is all some…weird fucking illusion.”

>”You’re wrong.”

“Just shut up! You’re not real, and neither is that monster!”

>”But her pain was real.”

>That voice did not belong to the Creature, but rather…

“Princess Luna?”

>Appearing behind you, it is Princess Luna herself; she looks down on you with contempt.

“Princess, what’s the hell is going on? You aren’t responsible for this are you?”

>”Not Us Anonymous, thou art responsible for thy own punishment.”

“What punishment? What have I done wrong!?”

>”Do not be so coy, accept oneself and embrace the truth.”

“Princess, from the moment I entered Equestria I’ve been a model citizen, you know I have! Ask anyp0ny in Ponyville!”

>The Princess shakes her head in disappointment.

>”Nay Anonymous, thy past sins are the ones of which we speak.”

>Your blood runs cold; cold she really mean…?

>”We know much about thy past from thy memories, and since thou art abashed of the truth, we shall relive the most poignant moments together.”

>Princess Luna bows her head, and her horn begins to glow as powerful magic envelopes it.

 

>As if viewing the scene from a heavenly watchtower, you observe a moment of your past alongside the Princess: one of many you had hoped to forget.

>You watch as you and your cousin play in your front yard together, she is a few years younger than you; your are fighting back tears now.

“Why are you showing this to me Luna?”

>”We wish for thou to remember what innocence looked liked, before thou both took and shed it.”

“P-please don’t…”

>The scene shifts to you in your old vehicle, years later: driving alone along a dark forested road at night. Your cell phone rings, and you retrieve it to see that it is your cousin calling.

“P-Princess please don’t do this to me…”

>”We do not wish to watch this again, but we must show how thou came to be.”

>Lifting the phone to your ear, you can only say ‘hello’ before you swerve off of the road, and into the deep gully below, unfocused by your cousin’s loud and giddy laughter on the other end.

>The scene shifts to the firefighters prying you free from your wrecked automobile with the ‘jaws of life’; you are a mangled mess of what once looked like a person.

>The scene changes more quickly this time, you could her Luna shudder at the sight of your accident.

>You are unconscious in your hospital bed: both legs were severely broken, but luckily you had avoided any damage to your spine. Despite this, the doctors were unsure if you would ever walk again due to the extensive nerve and muscle damage.

>Your family is with you in the room; your cousin is crying: she blames herself.

“Stop…”

>”Thou used her guilt to get what thou wanted. Thy own flesh and blood, Anonymous.”

“Please…”

>The scene shifts to your bedroom at your old home some months after the accident. You are in a wheelchair, many of your most visible wounds and bruises have gone. Your legs are no longer in their casts: the bones healed quite well considering the damage, but the nerve damage was more severe; though it would eventually heal and allow you to walk again before you ever disappeared into Equestria.

“Luna no, please just stop…Please!”

>Your cousin is in the room with you.

“No…”

>”Thou did not lie when thou said humans could be despicable and loathsome at times, Anonymous.”

>You cannot bear to watch; tears of shame cascading down your cheeks.

>”She forgave thou for thy cruelty later, but thou could not forgive Fluttershy for hers.”

>Floating in the air next to the Princess, invisible to your memories, you collapse and sob; years of attempting to forget have shattered in only a few moments.

>The memories begin to fade until the chamber returns to view, back where you and the Princess had previously stood.

>After a while, you finally regain control of yourself.

“So you created this whole illusion of Fluttershy, of those freaks, and this place, just to torture me for my past?”

>Luna shakes her head.

>”Nay Anonymous, We wished to see if thou could forgive if a wrong had been done to thou, and it seems thou could not, thy anger only grew as it further manifested itself, and thou painted a horrible image of Fluttershy in the process while We merely provided a state in which thou could explore inner self without interruption.”

“S-so this was all just a dream…? When did it even start?”

>”It began in thy bed this morn, We watched while thou dreamed, and cast one of Our spells. Thou art actually still asleep, Twilight has risen and may try to rouse thou from slumber soon.”

“So you think you can just invade dreams and try to give out life lessons?!”

>You feel your privacy has been thoroughly violated now, and are on the cusp of a tirade.

>Again, Luna shakes her head.

>”Nay, this is not just about thou, but Fluttershy as well.”

>Luna sighs.

>” The Fluttershy you knew here was genuine, sleeping and in my spell as you are. We learned from her dreams that she is indeed in love with thou, and We needed to see if she would do as We had feared and go about showing thou her affections the wrong way; she did.”

“This doesn’t make any sense…you’re telling me you just threw us together in a dream to see what would happen, and maybe try and teach me a little something about ‘Forgiveness’ if something bad happened to me?

>You scoff.

“You’re no Celestia, she wouldn’t do something this moronic.”

>Luna raises a hoof and slams it down on the chamber floor, shattering the tile beneath and sending shards of rock into your eyes and face.

“OWW! Damn it Luna!”

>”Thou art proving most ungrateful Anonymous, does thou not realize that We simply gave thou and Fluttershy a dream devoid of time and space to allow thou both a chance at finding inner truth?”

>You give the Princess the most hateful glare you can muster.

“No, you threw us into an arena and watched us fight, and played with our emotions as the mood struck you. I can only imagine what you did to her while I wasn’t around…I mean for Celestia’s sake Luna, you made her cut off her own wings!”

>Luna seems a bit sullen at this, and looks away from you.

>”Nay, she chose to do this…a-as thou chose not to forgive. No harm has been done at any rate; you will both awake unharmed.”

“Yeah, no physical harm. Thanks for forcing me to relive one of the most shameful moments in my life by the way, that was great.”

>”We only wa-“

“Just let us wake up…”

>Luna stares at you for a long moment, eyes full of self-doubt. Her horn begins to glow…

>A question suddenly comes to mind; this may be your best opportunity to ask it.

“Hey wait a second! What exactly did you mean by: ‘You should run…and tell her…how you feel?’

>Luna stops her spell, and looks at you with a puzzled expression.

>”What art thou referring to? We have never spoken such words to thou.”

“But I’ve been having one weird recurring dream since I came to Equestria, and then when you pulled your little stunt, I had two more dreams: they all said those words to me.”

>”We have only seen the one dream thou speak of; the night I began to read thy dreams, We noticed how strange it was, and began to read the dreams of Fluttershy as well. This is why We brought thou together…because thou both dream of the first day thou met each other.”

“So you never saw those other two dreams I had while I was here…? Is it even possible to dream within a dream?”

>”Nay, We have never witnessed these ‘other dreams’ thou speakest of; and yes, it is possible. Are thou questions answered?”

>Luna readies her spell as she speaks, eager to be rid of you now, her resolve now clearly shaken. She must realize her mistake.

“Yeah…I guess so.”

>You felt very confused now, you had thought that perhaps the voice was Luna’s doing.

>She casts, and blackness washes over your vision.

 

>You awaken with a start. Home, in the Library.

>”Morning!” called Twilight Sparkle, as she descended the stairs. You could feel your own dazed expression as you sat up in bed, and rubbed your eyes

>”Did you have that dream again?” She asks quizzically. “I really wish you would tell me about it, I love trying to analyze dreams!”

>You lie in bed and think about what to say: would she even believe you if you told her?

”Nah, I just didn't sleep well is all,”

>You lie. It was a nightmare, the most horrific you’ve ever faced, and it was all because of Princess Luna and her foolish interference in other’s lives.

“Hey Twilight, I know you have a book for Fluttershy that arrived today, I was hoping you could get Spike to deliver it, and maybe we can do a whole extra lesson together?”

>”Oh my! So eager to learn today,” She giggles “okay, if you feel like you can handle it.”

>You stretch your arms and yawn, and motion to step out of bed.

“No…”

>Your heart sinks.

“I…I can’t move my legs.”