Fluttershy’s Bad Dream starring Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle
“A bad dream? Again?” asked Twilight, still half-asleep. She sat up against her pillow and blinked. The Pegasus pony was standing shivering by the side of her bed, her teddy bear Mr Tickles tucked under her wing.
Fluttershy nodded. “Oh yes,” she said. She closed her eyes. “A TERRIBLE one, Twilight… I was in the Everfree Forest and there was this… this SCARY stallion… and –”
Twilight pushed her dishevelled fringe out of her eyes and looked at the frightened Pegasus pony. She DID look genuinely scared; but then again, Fluttershy always looked a little scared anyway.
Twilight sighed. She’d NEVER get back to sleep at this rate! And she had all those books to reshelve tomorrow. Well, SPIKE would be doing most of the reshelving, but SHE was the one who had to manage him. And anyway – arguing with Fluttershy’s big, doleful blue eyes was an exercise in futility.
“Hop in then,” said Twilight. “But please don’t steal my blanket this time!”
Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “I’ll be careful, Twilight – I promise.” She climbed in next to Twilight. The bed was so small that there was barely enough room for the two of them – and adding Mr Tickles to the equation made everything even squashier.
“Oh, thank you Twilight!” said Fluttershy.
“Don’t mention it,” said Twilight. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Goodnight Fluttershy.”
“Oh, goodnight Twilight Sparkle!” replied the Pegasus pony.
Soon Twilight could feel herself slipping off to sleep again. Her thoughts began to jump around and jumble together and then she –
“Oh, it was SUCH a TERRIBLE dream!” said Fluttershy suddenly. She had turned over to face Twilight, and the unicorn pony could smell milk and cookies on her warm breath.
“Ohhhh, Fluttershy! Go back to sleep. I really need my rest or else I get crabby in the morning.”
Fluttershy fell silent. “But you’re always crabby in the morning…” she said under her breath.
Twilight suddenly opened her eyes. “Look. If you tell me about your nightmare, do you promise to go right to sleep afterwards?”
“Oh yes,” Fluttershy nodded. “I promise. I was walking at the edge of the Everfree Forest picking some beautiful flowers – I think they were lilacs, or maybe freesias – when I heard a voice calling my name from inside the forest. Now, you know that usually I’d never go into the Everfree Forest under any circumstances – but there was just something about this voice! I had to go and find the pony who owned such a beautiful voice! So I walked into the forest and –“
Twilight looked at the clock on the wall of her bedroom. “Look, Fluttershy – is this one of those really LONG nightmares? Because if it is, I –“
“Oh no!” said Fluttershy. “Well, maybe. Anyway….”
Twilight groaned.
“So there I was in the forest, looking for the owner of the voice when suddenly I feel this hot breath on the back of my neck. So I shy away, and when I turn and look around this huge stallion is there! Oh Twilight – he was like twice the size of a normal pony. And he was sooooo beautiful!”
“Beautiful?” repeated Twilight. This didn’t really sound that much like a nightmare.
Fluttershy nodded and her mane fell back onto Twilight’s face, who brushed it away. “Oh yes! He had huge blue eyes with really long lashes and these wide shoulders – and his chestnut-brown coat was so sleek it looked like velvet. And he smelled… well, you know that smell of laundry when you’ve just pulled it out of the drier?”
Twilight nodded, a half-smile breaking onto her face. “Mmm.” She liked that smell too.
“Well, like that… except he also smelled a bit like perspiration. But he’s still really scary! And so he comes closer to me and he says – and his voice is really beautiful as well! A little bit like Big McIntosh’s, but without that accent. I mean, this stallion sounded like he was from Canterlot, like he was a Duke or a Baron or something. And so he says ‘You shouldn’t be alone in the Everfree Forest, little filly,’ – Oh, I can’t do his voice but just imagine it was absolutely gorgeous – and he says ‘There are DARK and DANGEROUS things in here – things like ME!’”
“Ooh!” Twilight’s eyes were open now and she was staring at the glowing stars painted on her ceiling. This nightmare was certainly beginning to sound interesting!
“And then I stumble backwards,” continued Fluttershy, “And I say ‘Please, please don’t hurt me! I made a mistake coming here,’ and he just laughs and says ‘Yes, you did, little filly,” and he comes closer and closer until I can feel his breath all over my face and his coat is rubbing against mine and it feels sooo hot! – and then…”
Twilight turned to Fluttershy expectantly. “And then what?
Fluttershy’s face fell. “And then I woke up.”
Twilight snorted and turned back around. “Go to sleep, Fluttershy. I’m sure that ‘scary stallion’ won’t be there tonight.” I hope he visits MY dreams, though! she thought.
Fluttershy kept her promise and with a few tosses and turns and soft murmurs she fell asleep – and soon afterwards Twilight did as well.
***************
Twilight was galloping along a path deep in the Everfree Forest with the stallion in close pursuit. She could hear the heavy clop clop of his hooves and she could feel his breath, hot as blood against the back of her neck – or maybe it was just her imagination? But the path soon came to a dead end, the way blocked with a wall of twisted brambles and gnarled tree-trunks, and when she turned she saw it hadn’t been her imagination after all. The stallion was right there! And he WAS huge. His coat was chestnut brown and gloriously glossy, just as Fluttershy had described it, and he looked down at her with his strikingly blue eyes, a satiric smile on his mouth.
“Didn’t your friend warn you about me?” asked the stallion, as he stepped forwards towards the cowering unicorn pony. “Didn’t she tell you you’d met a scary stallion in the Everfree Forest?” Twilight nodded. His voice was just as gorgeous as Fluttershy had said. It was deep and resonant, and tinged with ironic humour.
He was right on top of her now, towering over her. She closed her eyes, so she felt rather than saw him bring his face close to hers. His breath was hot and sweet on her face, and she found herself wanting to look at him, to see his handsome face so close to hers. She opened her eyes and found herself looking straight into his deep blue ones.
“You’re frightened of me, little filly?” he asked, his voice soft – and when Twilight nodded, he said “You probably should be frightened. I could do anything I wanted to you right now, and nopony would be able to stop me…”
Twilight gasped. “Wh… what are you going to do to me?” she whispered.
His smile deepened as he brought his face closer still. “I’m just going to kiss you,” he said. His lips grazed her neck and she could feel the air escaping from his nostrils against her coat. He turned his face up at her. “Now, is that so terrible?”
Twilight shook her head. “N… nno,” she replied.
“Then why are you still shivering?” he asked, laughter at the edge of his voice.
Why was she still shivering? “I…” she started to reply, but his mouth was already against hers, hot and wet and sweet, tearing the kiss from her rather than giving it to her. Her heart leapt up in her chest and she felt her knees give away beneath her, and as she slid to the ground his face followed hers, his lips glued to her own. There was a taste she recognised, as her tongue was battered by his, a taste and a scent… of milk? And chocolate perhaps… chocolate chips. But all Twilight cared about now was getting more of this kiss, and she threw her forefeet around the stallion’s soft neck and pulled him closer. As she drew him down his delicate mane fell across her face, and it tickled her and enveloped her in a scent of flowery perfume. He kissed back harder, and she did the same, until it was almost as if the two of them were wrestling each other as they rolled across the cool grass of the forest path, along the soft sheets of her bed and off onto the floor with a hard thump!
Twilight awoke suddenly to find herself wrapped up in a tangle of sheets and blankets and she panicked. She struggled to extricate herself from the heat and tightness of the linen cocoon, but it was made all the more difficult by the pink mane that veiled her vision and the Pegasus pony who was wrapped up inside with her, hugging her tightly and smothering her face with slobbery kisses.
“Fluttershy! Wake up!” cried Twilight, pushing the Pegasus pony’s wet mouth away from her own. “You’re… You’re having a nightmare!”
“W..what?” Fluttershy’s eyes flicked open, and she found herself looking straight into Twilight’s. “Oh Twilight! I’m…I’m so sorry!” With the help of her wings she squirmed her way out of the knot of bedclothes and, once free, she helped Twilight to do the same, and the two ponies were left panting for breath on the floor of Twilight’s bedroom.
“Did… did you have a bad dream as well, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy in between gulps of air.
Twilight, still unable to speak, nodded.
Fluttershy looked at the pile of crumpled and tangled bedclothes. “Oh, Twilight… I’m sooo sorry! Did I steal the blankets again?”
Twilight shook her head. “D… don’t worry about it, Fluttershy.” She stood up and after a few minutes of confusion, she’d separated the sheets from the blankets and put them back on the bed with Fluttershy’s apologetic help.
Twilight slipped back under the covers with a grateful sigh – but when Fluttershy made no attempt to join her, she turned onto her side and said “Come on, Fluttershy. I said I forgave you for stealing the blankets!”
Fluttershy was blushing, her gaze fixed on the floor. “I… I think I was doing more than just stealing the blankets, Twilight. Maybe I should just go and sleep on my own…”
But Twilight took the Pegasus pony’s hoof in her own and drew her under the covers with her. “It was just a dream, Fluttershy,” she said. And then, reaching down on the other side of the bed, she picked up Mr Tickles from where he was lying on the floor and tucked him in next to Fluttershy.
“A bad dream?” asked the Pegasus pony, snuggling the teddy bear close to her chest, her bright eyes glistening.
“Not that bad,” said Twilight with a smile as she snuggled up to the bear as well. “And if we’re lucky, we might just have the same dream again.”
THE END