[FLUTTERRAPE] Renaissance


                                            The thread died prematurely one time (or "again", I should say) and it gave me an idea.


                                            ---


                                            >Anonymous checked his cracked watch and observed with expectant boredom as Fluttershy confidently drank an entire bottle of ‘Flim and Flam’s Emergency Life-Evacuation Elixir’.

                                            >He nodded with approval as she did so, since in the past Fluttershy had been incapable of drinking even a half-pint of beer at once without coughing most of it back up, yet here she was chugging back five-hundred millilitres of ‘The World-Famous Cure-All to Break-ups, Visiting In-Laws, and University Examinations’ with no spillage. He supposed she was trying to get her money’s worth.

                                            >He noted that of all the products sold by the two brothers he had seen so far, this was the only one that apparently did what it was supposed to; Fluttershy immediately dropped like a stone, frothing at the mouth and convulsing.

                                            >Several seconds of intense writhing and gurgling later, and she was still.

                                            >The man knelt beside the pony and lazily checked her pulse, noting the time on his cracked watch.

                                            “Half a minute. If nothing else, it works fast. Flim and Flam might finally be onto a winner there.”

                                            >He stood once more and dipped a hand into his pocket, retrieving a large shard of translucent cool-grey crystal. It was as thick as a closed fist and twice as long. An unnatural purple fire danced within, yet the crystal did not feel warm to the touch; paradoxically, it was like holding a piece of ice. Anonymous pointed the shard at Fluttershy and waited.

                                            “Come on, Shy, up and at ‘em.”

                                            >After a moment of silence, he shook it slightly, gesturing again at the corpse of the former Element of Kindness with a frown. Still nothing happened, so he waggled it around a bit more before sighing in resignation.

                                            “Dry again. Here we were thinking Twilight increased the capacity on this thing, eh girl?” He mumbled to his late companion.

                                            >Anonymous slid the crystal back into his coat pocket and stooped low to hoist the pony into his arms.

                                            >He did not need to exert himself much; she was as light as all pegasi, even in death and hers was a familiar weight to him.

                                            >He straightened up and strode across the knoll, a distant building the focus of his gaze.


                                            >The man nodded farther down the street at the looming tree library, Fluttershy still limply hanging in his grasp. The mare he was speaking to, Flitter, wore a look of recent understanding.

                                            >“So that’s why she’s... dead?” She asked, hesitant to say the last word.

                                            “Yeah,” Anonymous said nonchalantly, “happens a lot, hence why Twilight and I have an agreement going. Surprised you hadn’t heard about it yet.”

                                            >“I’ve been out of town for a few days...”

                                            “Oh no, this has been going on for far longer than that.”

                                            >“Really? I can’t believe I’ve never seen it, no one even mentioned it in passing,” she scowled, “no one tells me anything around here.”

                                            “It’s nothing to make a fuss about, happens so often most people stopped caring after the first dozen times.”

                                            >“Dozen! How many has it been now?”

                                            “I’ve honestly lost count. Still, I’d best be going, the longer she’s dead the more she’s gonna feel it when she wakes up. You’ll promise to keep this to yourself though, right? Everyone knows, but it’s sort of an open secret. We’re not supposed to talk about it.”

                                            >Flitter tacitly swore herself to secrecy and parted with a fond, if confused, farewell. Anonymous continued on his way, humming tunelessly to himself as he went.

                                            >‘It’s a good thing people around here are so trusting and cooperative’, he thought.


                                            >He had to shift Fluttershy onto one arm in order to get the door open, but it wasn’t much trouble for him on account of Fluttershy’s slight frame. He announced himself to the library’s steward, and a worried face looked out from an alcove above.

                                            >Twilight Sparkle spared only a moment on the sight of Ponyville’s only human holding the dead body of one of her dearest friends before making an exasperated noise in the back of her throat.

                                            >“Again? Seriously? It’s been three days!” She exclaimed in disbelief.

                                            “Three days of off-the-wall madness, let me tell you,” came the gruff response.

                                            >“I’d prefer if you didn’t.”

                                            >Anonymous carried Fluttershy to the table in the centre of the library and laid her down atop several books and scatterings of parchment that had been left out.

                                            >Twilight huffed at this, but made no comment.

                                            >She busied herself with unfurling well-used spell scrolls and muttering a practised incantation under her breath. Anonymous seated himself across from her, watching the unicorn go through the motions over the plump yellow belly of the pegasus cadaver.

                                            >“Alright,” Twilight glanced up at him then inspected the body, checking it for obvious damage, “no wounds this time?”

                                            “No, just a poison. Something simple, for once.”

                                            >“That’s nice,” she said dryly, “if they were all like that then the crystal wouldn’t lose its charge so quickly, it’s only goi--”

                                            >Anonymous cleared his throat before she could once again lecture him on the inner machinations of her admittedly brilliant spellcraft.

                                            “I think we should just get this sorted before we discuss magic again, Twi.”

                                            >“Right, sure. May I have it?”

                                            >The human nodded and handed her the frigid crystal over Fluttershy’s body. The library bore an all-encompassing silence other than the shifting of Twilight’s supplies and the occasional sniff.

                                            >The thick walls of the tree prevented most of the noise outside from getting in, allowing the occupants peace even on busy days.

                                            >It was the perfect environment for a library, but Anonymous still found it unsettling to have to visit this place so often with such macabre dealings.

                                            >He tried to think of the last time he came here just to check out a book, and found that he could not recall.

                                            >He turned his attention to the corpse between himself and Twilight and pondered it.

                                            >She always looked so peaceful, even after her more gruesome attempts left her in a more ‘fragmented’ state, though the crystal was more than capable of reassembling her in spite of this.

                                            >Her face bore an unnatural youth, a side-effect of the crystal’s regenerative powers as it continuously remade the pony back to what the magic within the artifact considered ‘perfect health’.

                                            >The silence around him had become oppressive, so he looked once more to Twilight to find her holding the crystal aloft in a hoof, studying it with vague disinterest.

                                            “Something the matter?” He asked.

                                            >“No,” she tilted the crystal a bit to watch it from a different angle, and then her eyes danced once more over the lifeless body before her. “Yes,” she said finally.

                                            “Can you not recharge it?” An edge of worry crept into Anonymous’ voice.

                                            >“No, of course I can.” She frowned at him. “I’m just wondering if I should or not.”

                                            >Anonymous blinked in surprise, his own formerly placid features contorting.

                                            “Of course you should, she’s your friend.”

                                            >“And your stalker.”

                                            “Nothing I can’t handle, Twilight. She’s harmless, most of the time.”

                                            >“Even so...” She gently laid the crystal on Fluttershy’s belly and rested her front hooves on the table, looking at Anonymous contemplatively.

                                            >“Have you ever thought about the ramifications of this thing, Anon?”

                                            “I try to leave the thinking side of things to you. All I do is bring her in whenever she runs out of gas.”

                                            >Twilight nodded at the grey chunk, her face now a fixed frown.

                                            >“This crystal is a highly illegal piece of thaumatological engineering. Its existence is an affront to Celestia herself. Did you know she had to wage a one-mare war against necromancers several centuries ago?”

                                            “I didn’t. Is it important to mention?”

                                            >“It is. I am her personal student. If she found out I was doing this I... well, I’d certainly not be sitting here talking to you.” She chewed the inside of her lip for a moment. “I am starting to wonder if it’s worth the risk of doing this.”

                                            “And let your friend die permanently? I didn’t think I’d show up today batting for Fluttershy, Twilight. She’s the Element of Kindness, you need her.”

                                            >“She’s the -bearer- of the Element, not the Element itself, there’s a difference.”

                                            “Semantics, surely.”

                                            >“Yes and no, but we’ll not get into that. The point is that she’s dead.”

                                            “She is for now, yes, but you can bring her back.”

                                            >“No, Anon, you need to understand this if we’re to carry on doing this. Fluttershy is dead. She died months ago when she first tried to see if pyrotechnics were your fetish. What this crystal does is force her back to life. It’s a phylactery. It’s a profane merging of life magic and death magic. The fire you see inside it, just like a regular fire, needs fuel to burn. I’ve been feeding it living essence in order to do so.”

                                            “What specifically have you been feeding it?”

                                            >“The tree,” she said simply. Anonymous raised his eyebrows.

                                            “What,” he gestured around himself, and Twilight nodded.

                                            >“It’s a living thing, isn’t it? A very old living thing, but a living thing nonetheless. There’s magic in this tree, a lot of it. It’s been a good source of fuel to keep the crystal charged, but if we cast our minds forward in time we have to acknowledge that eventually it’ll run out. One day, this tree will die because we drained its life-essence to keep Fluttershy alive. Or not-dead, to be technical.”

                                            >Twilight sighed and frowned at her friend, then reached a hoof forward to stroke the pink strands of mane out of the dead mare's face.

                                            >“Once it’s gone, we’ll have to look for new sources of fuel, but you know something else?”

                                            >Anonymous knew better than to answer a rhetorical question.

                                            >“She’s going to be like -that- forever. Young, full of life. The rest of us are going to grow old. Rarity’s gonna go nuts when she finds out I figured out a way to beat aging, she still thinks Fluttershy’s gonna grow old like the rest of us.”

                                            “What’s your point, Twilight,” Anonymous said impatiently.

                                            >“My point is,” she sharply retorted, “that not only is this illegal, but we’re running on borrowed time. Eventually this is all going to catch up with us. It can’t go on forever. At some point we’ll just have to accept that Fluttershy is dead and move on.”

                                            “And what happens to the Elements after that?”

                                            >“If I’m theorising right, and to be honest, I don’t think I am, but they should just choose a new bearer.”

                                            “You can’t just gamble the future Equestria on a hunch, Twilight, that’s insane.”

                                            >“You know what’s insane, Anon? Killing yourself in a pyrotechnics display to seduce an alien! That’s insane!” She looks in disbelief at Fluttershy. “Every time this happens I ask myself ‘Why did she do that? What could she possibly think of next?’ I don’t know what you did to her to make her so baby-crazy, Anon, but she’s willing to kill herself time and time again over you!”

                                            “Don’t turn this around on me—“

                                            >“I’m not turning it around on you, I’m saying that she’s clearly nuts and was probably destined to die early anyway. If not you, then maybe someone else? What if some poor stallion living around here accidentally caught her eye and she started going crazy for him instead? Morally speaking, if a pony is destined to die early, is it right to keep them alive?”

                                            “I’m not discussing morality with you, Twilight, it’s way above my IQ level.”

                                            >“You don’t need a high IQ to determine right from wrong, Anon. What we’re doing isn’t just a profane violation of the laws of nature and the laws of Equestria, it’s an indictment of our—of MY morality as a pony. I’m keeping her from death by doing this and for what? So she can kill herself again and again and again.”

                                            “You could keep trying to talk to her.”

                                            >“And she’ll dismiss us like she did before. We spent months trying to convince her to calm down, Anon. She’s dead-set on you.” She paused for a spell and cocked her head, considering something. Then she nodded with a serious expression. “Pun definitely intended.”

                                            “So what, because she’s too dumb to change her mind you’re going to abandon her to fate? You’re going to give up on her? I thought you were all about supporting your friends, Twilight.”

                                            >“Don’t question my devotion to my friends, Anon.” Her tone was hard. “I love them enough that I’ll risk betraying Celestia herself to protect them, but this,” she cast a hoof over Fluttershy’s body, “this is insanity. It’s the same cycle, day in and day out. Fluttershy lives, she guesses your fetish, she dies. It’s endless. All the while, we’re getting older, the tree is dying, and the risk of someone in Ponyville running their mouth and word getting back to Canterlot increases by the day. I’m genuinely amazed Celestia hasn’t come barging in yet to drag me off to the dungeons herself.”

                                            >Anonymous sat back in his seat, watching Twilight warily.

                                            “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you. You’re prepared to let Fluttershy die.”

                                            >“I say this with the utmost respect to her, Anon, but her existence at this point is meaningless.”

                                            “Hardly respectful. She has a life beyond me as you damn-well know. She has a job, responsibilities, a family."

                                            >"So does everyone who dies an early death, why is Fluttershy any different? We would mourn, and we would move on, the same way everyone does when a loved one dies."

                                            "The difference is that you have the power to bring her back and prevent all that heartache. You did it once before."

                                            >"Something I may come to regret if we continue down this path."

                                            "Would it not be better to revive her first and tell her all this personally? To let her know that you’re breaking the crystal and that if she dies again that’s it? That was her last shot?”

                                            >Twilight glanced at the phylactery, then slowly nodded as she thought over his words.

                                            >“Sure we could. This would all be a lot easier if you’d just let her win though. Give her what she wants so she doesn’t have to continue perpetuating this fruitless, fatal game of cat and mouse.”

                                            “I can’t do that, Twilight. Pony vaginas are just too weird, you know this.”

                                            >She sighed, a distant look in her eye. “It’s true, they are...”

                                            >The mare smiled at Anonymous; a forced thing. She straightened up, ignited her horn, and a rippling tide of magic cast out over the crystal as she clearly spoke aloud the ritual she had recited a hundred times before. The concentric waves of power seeped into the wooden shell of the tree itself.

                                            >Anonymous watched a window outside, and saw a handful of shrivelled brown leaves drifting down from the verdant green canopy. He had seen this before, but hadn’t understood its relevance until now.

                                            >The fire flickering within the crystal blazed with invigorated purpose, and fingers of wispy violet energy reached out from it to touch Fluttershy’s body. They drifted over her form listlessly, poking and prodding her, the tips of the spell sinking below the flesh to perform their dark work. With a gasp, Fluttershy awoke once more, blinking a few times before wincing.

                                            >“O-ouch... h-how long was I out?” She groaned.

                                            “Too long,” Anonymous said. He shared a look with Twilight, and they both nodded before helping Fluttershy off the table.

                                            >Perhaps she would listen this time. Perhaps she would give up on her quest and finally move on to better things. Or perhaps she would continue as she was, on an inevitable track to an early grave.

                                            >Whatever she chose to do, she only had one shot left.

                                            >Anonymous hoped she would make the right decision.