Chapter II: Kindness

>>Chapter II: Kindness

 

>beep beep beep

>Finally, time to get ready for your new adventure

>After a hot shower (and probably your last one for a while) you hear knocks at your door

>“We have been directed by Princess Luna to serve you breakfast, Sir Anon”

>The royal chefs suddenly filled your room with a whole dining set, table and everything and left as quickly as they entered

>There in front of you was not just a breakfast, but a feast fit for a king

>Guess she’s really serious about this whole prepare to retrieve the elements thing

>Also, Sir Anon? Since when were you knighted?

>As you finish your meal, you gather your belongings and stuff some leftovers in your bag for later

>With a deep breath of the crisp morning air, you make your way to the courtyard

 

>You make it to the courtyard without any problem, and much to your surprise, there’s not a soul in sight

>“Am I early…?” you say aloud to yourself

>“No, actually you are late, Anon”

>Luna stepped out of the shadows, startling you

>“Don’t you mean, SIR Anon?”

>Luna stopped for a second, then gave you a soft smile

>“You are correct, Sir Anon. I was meaning to tell you last night, but I wanted to wait for the right moment”

>She started walking toward you with her horn glowing

>“I officially dub thee, Sir Anon of Equestria”

>She tapped her horn on both of your shoulders and lastly, your head

>And with that, your dubbing into knighthood was complete

>Off in the distance, you can see the sun starting to peak out over the horizon

>“Quickly Anon! You should make haste to the prairie!”

>She pulled out the map and gave it to you

>“Farewell, Princess. I shall come back as soon as I can with the elements”

>You start to turn around and walk until Luna called out to you

>“Yes, Princmmmffff”

>All of a sudden, all you can see is a majestic dark blue face before yours

>After what seemed like minutes, Luna took her lips off yours

>“It..it is a Canterlot tradition for a princess to kiss her chosen knight before he sets out on a perilous journey….”

>With the visible light from the rising sun, you can tell that she’s blushing and…crying?

>You thank the princess and bid her farewell again, this time finally able to walk more than a couple steps

>As you leave the courtyard, can hear her yell out some words of encouragement and a farewell along with a few muffled sobs

>Shit just got real

 

>Your journey to the prairie was boring and uneventful

>The only thing of notice, however; was how foggier it got with each passing day

>Upon entering the area where the outer circle on your map that indicated the “alien” presence that was marked by Luna, you can’t help but notice what she was talking about

>Life abruptly transcended to death inside of the circle

>All the trees were dead. There was no vegetation. It seemed that everything was set to grayscale while inside the circle, and the fog was considerably thicker and colder

>Oh well, you’ve been through worse

>You make your way deeper, your map being useless due to the fog covering everything

>After what seemed like hours, you finally see a light

>You rush over to it only to find that it was the exact place where you entered

>Well shit

>Ok, so what now?

>As you look back inside, you can barely make out an outline what seems to be….a bunny?

>Walking inside of the circle again was like jumping into an ice cold pool after chilling in the Jacuzzi

>Fuck its cold

>You look around for the bunny until you hear it move, or something move at least

>Your senses kick into high gear as you try to follow the noise that the animal makes

>The noise gets more distant as you try to make it through a random patch of dead trees

>And with that, the noise is gone and you’re left with is a sinking feeling of despair

>You’re in the middle of a seemingly endless forest of dead trees, it’s freezing, you can’t see worth anything, and to top it off, you can’t help but shake the feeling that there’s something watching you

>That’s when it hit you

>The deeper you went in following the noise, the colder it got

>Regaining your bearing, you set out, hoping you were right

>A light

>Finally, you’ll be free of this damned forest

>Hoping the light would bring you warmth as you basked in all its glory, turned out to be the opposite of what you wanted

>Holy fuck it must be below zero degrees in here

>You quickly don the robes Luna made for you for extreme climates

>You really need to do something nice for her when you get back to Canterlot

>Finally, with all your attention on your surroundings, you notice the fog has lessened

>Furthermore, you’re standing in a vast clearing, no trees, but there is grass here

>Wait…this looks too familiar

>As you walk (hopefully) towards the center of the clearing, you can see a silhouette of a cottage

>Yup, this isn’t creepy or anything

>Its Fluttershy’s cottage

>You dreadfully approach the little house, seeing a bunny running around it

>Something about the bunny’s features struck you odd…was it….rotting?

>As you came closer to the cottage, you can hear various animal noises from birds, to squirrels, to bears?

>Fuck

>The closer you get to her cottage, the more you start to shake

>No, no. She’s dead. You saw her die.

>“Oh!....um….H-hi Anon…!”

>Snapping out of your thoughts, you see what you have feared before you

>“Fluttershy”

>The words came out as cold as the air around you

>“A-Anon please!! It’s me! Fluttershy!”

>You don’t know why, but seeing her made ice run in your veins, and you don’t like it

>“Prepare to die, imposter!”

>You take your sword out and point it at ‘Fluttershy’

>Her eyes turn from her original innocent look, to a more, sinister glare

>“Oh, but it is me Anon! Don’t you remember how I saved you from a direct blast from Judgments fireball?”

>Uneasiness was the only thing you felt

>She still had memories of the battle? But how? Even if she was a fake, how could she know that?

>No, no. Don’t let ‘it’ get to you. ‘It’ is a fake.

>Her gaze never leaves you as she circles around you

>“What’s wrong? Can’t attack your friend, your comrade?”

>‘It’ is trying to break you, but you know you won’t crack that easily

>“You are not my friend, she’s dead, just like you will be here in a moment!”

>You ready your sword and prepare to lunge at her until she flashed something bright in your eyes

>“Does this look familiar?”

>With a smirk, she showed you the element of kindness. Fluttershy’s element.

>“Where did you get that?”

>“How many times do I have to tell you? I AM FLUTTERSHY!”

>She laughs with a coldness that made you shiver

>“Enough talk, it’s time for you to die!”

>As soon as she said her last word, animals started to surround you

>These weren’t ordinary animals…they’ve been dead for quite a while

>A cool breeze blew by you as you took your stance

>All of a sudden, waves and waves of undead animals started closing in on you

>Slashing and deflecting the animals were easy, but it was causing you to be winded after extended periods of time

>Their numbers seemed to be endless

>You had to stop this fast, or they will overtake you as you start to fatigue

>There was only one solution: kill the imposter

>You looked around for her, but to no avail

>There’s only one more place she can be

>As you fight your way to the cottage, you hear two loud roars

>If your jimmies haven’t been rustled yet, then this would rustle them for sure

>Two zombie bears and an endless barrage of zombie critters blocked your path to the cottage

>It’s do or die time

>Running full speed and slashing frantically proved to be super effective

>You were able to kill one of the bears, but the other one didn’t seem to happy about that

>Rage mode activated

>The bear is running at you on all fours now, so you decide to run head on into it, like a badass

>With sword pointed out, you take aim for its head, hoping to kill it before it killed you

>Seconds to impact

>And

>SMACK!

>As you collided with the bear, it gave you one last ferocious swipe on the chest, sending you flying towards the cottage

>The armor took most of the damage, but the force of the impact knocked the wind out of you

 >Struggling to catch your breath, you hear laughter above you

>“You never cease to amuse me Anon”

>Impostershy stood on top of the cottage, enjoying watching you struggle to get up

>“Please, don’t be rush to get up. Actually, let me help you”

>She jumps off the roof and stomps you back into the ground

>You hear a disgusting crack as she crushes your left shoulder

>She laughed hysterically while you writhe in agonizing pain

>“Is that all you have, Anon?”

>You feel yourself lifting up, and before you know it, you’re thrown across the clearing

>You land with a dull thud only a few feet away from your sword

>“Get up and fight Anon! It’ll be embarrassing for me to kill when you’re laying there so pathetic like that!”

>Another cold laugh

>You muster up all the strength you have to stand up and pick your sword back up

>You assess the damage, and results came up with a big you gonna die, bro

>Fuck that shit, if you get killed by the feeblest of p0nies, everybody’s going to make fun of you in the afterlife

>Thankfully the freezing temperatures already have numbed your flesh wounds, giving you the opportunity to focus on how slay your enemy

>As you stare Impostershy down, you notice yet another bear beside her…or wait

>The two other bears you felled before have conformed into a new, bigger, and uglier enemy

>“That’s one hideous monster. It’s unBEARable to even look at”

>Nothing but silence, even Impostershy isn’t even laughing

>“Well fuck you too” you say as you charge forward

>The double bear charges forward to you, attempting to put you down for your horrible joke

>Not today mother fucker!

>You jump over the bear beast and make a beeline to Impostershy

>Being fueled on nothing but adrenaline, you run as fast you can to catch Impostershy before she retreated back into the cottage

>Now or never

>Running underneath her, you use the momentum of the sword to take a running jump, sword stabbing the sky

>You hear a squeal and a thud next to you

>Bullsey-…?!

>You hear that spine chilling laughter once again

>Impostershy got up, laughing like a manic

>Fuck

>You can feel death approaching you; it’s in the form of a horrendous two-headed, four-armed, and four-legged bear beast

>At least you’re getting killed by a mutant zombie bear instead of…Fluttershy

>You take one last look at her only to see a puddle of black liquid oozing from her side

>“You…you got lucky and only grazed me, but I can still…”

>She started to glow

>“What…what did you do?!”

>A sudden burst of light started shining from the wound you gave her, and then it started engulfing her entirely

>You look back over to the bear monster to see that it was stopped dead in its tracks, seemingly petrified

>Impostershy let out a blood curdling scream before exploding into burst of light

>You sigh as you fall to the ground, all the pain and fatigue catching up to you finally

>As you lay there, you can feel warmth from the sun on your face as you lay on…..the grass?

>Opening your eyes, you finally see color and life brought back to your surroundings

>The fog has lifted a bit more than it was and the warmth and light of the sun shone down on the prairie once again

>You look back up only to meet a pair of big blue eyes staring back down at you

>“F-Fluttershy…?”

>You see the real Fluttershy right before your eyes, but you notice she’s a bit transparent…

>“H-hi…Anon…”

>Seeing her innocent smile again brought a surge of warmth back into your frigid body

>You put your arm up trying to give her a hug, but your arm passed right through her

>“I guess you’re still dead, huh?” you said frowning

>“Well not technically,” Fluttershy said glumly, “As long as you have my element, I’ll always be with you…”

>You look at her as she hovers over you, dropping her element onto your chest plate

>The element of kindness floated above you and began spinning really fast and with a bright flash of light, it turned smaller to fit into the groove on your chest plate

>Well shit, Luna lied to you

>“This should make you feel better, Anon”

>She landed next to you, smiling her usual warm smile

>What do you know, she’s right

>Her element started glowing as you feel your broken bones being repaired and various pains vanishing

>“Now, Anon, the element’s power won’t work if you use it constantly, so only use it when you really, really, reeaaalllyyy need too. Ok Anon?”

>“Sure thing, Fluttershy”

>She starts to fade and dissipate into the air

>“Thank you so much for freeing me of that horrible curse, now I can finally rest in peace…”

>She gave you one last smile before she fully disappeared into the gentle prairie breeze

>“No, Fluttershy, thank you……”

>The element gave one last glow before it ‘rested’