Persona EG LTE | Mythril Moth Creations

Evening

"Fluttershy is Eris."

Everyone is staring at me...

Twilight groans. "Not this again..."

"What the hell, dude?" Rainbow cries, throwing her hands in the air.

"Didn't we already do this?" Pinkie asks. "I mean, I thought it was her too, but..." She shrugs. "I'm silly, so..."

Cadance looks at me. "Flash...that isn't funny."

I look around at everyone. "No...listen. I'm serious." I take a deep breath. "A lot of things haven't been making sense ever since all this started. But today..." I look each girl in the eyes. "Nobody outside of this dorm knows about Rainbow's crush on Celestia."

Everyone's eyes widen. "Is this true?" Cadance asks.

"Yeah," Rainbow says. "I..." She blushes. "There's no way I'd go around tellin' anybody about that. And...and the only people I really trust are right in this dorm. Right in this room." She frowns. "Well, and AJ. And...and Fluttershy..."

"Unless Eris or this Mephistopheles are the kind of hackers you see in movies," I say, "then there's no possible way they could know about Rainbow's thing for Celestia unless they heard it from somebody living in this dorm."

"Or unless it is somebody living in this dorm," Twilight says. "I see where you're going with this."

"And unless one of you girls is Eris," I say, looking around, "which we know you're not, because we were all in the same place at the same time on Rarity's birthday, and I know none of you would betray Rainbow's trust like that..." I lean forward. "That leaves exactly five people who aren't in this room and know about Rainbow's thing for Celestia." I hold up one finger for each name I say. "Applejack. Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle. Sonata. And Fluttershy.

"Now, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle...that's crazy. Who would they talk to? I mean, they might've said something to that friend of theirs, the chicken girl, but really...it's stupid to think they could be the leak.

"Applejack? There's no way. She's honest to a fault, and...and she's got way too much to worry about to waste time screwing with us like this." I frown. "I mean, yeah, she's fit enough and strong enough to be Eris, but I can't honestly see her trying to kill anyone, or being some kind of genius hacker, or even just a spy."

"Yeah, that doesn't make any sense," Pinkie agrees.

"And Sonata, well...she just got here at the end of December. And she's been in a wheelchair until yesterday. Eris has been screwing us around since October. So there's really no way she could be involved in all this.

"And then there's Fluttershy." I look down at the table. "Fluttershy keeps to herself a lot. She's moody a lot. She was furious with Rainbow for a long time after the Fall Formal."

"Hey, we settled that!" Rainbow cries. "We're cool now!"

"I know, but I saw something in her eyes that scared me," I say. "And then there's that weird 'flu' she had right after Pinkie's birthday."

Twilight's eyes widen. "That was...the first time we fought Eris...!"

"Exactly. And after Rainbow's birthday, she was giving me dirty looks a lot. I didn't notice it at the time...I guess I kind of did, but thinking back..." I shake my head.

"But...but Eris said she isn't Fluttershy, right before she beat the pink outta me!" Pinkie says.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, because there's no possible way Eris would lie about her identity. 'Oh, you're right, Pinkie Pie, I am Fluttershy! I live right next door to you and I take all your little pets for playdates in the park and now I'm trying to kill you, I hope you don't mind!'" I shake my head. "I'm telling you, a lot of things are pointing to Fluttershy being Eris."

Cadance frowns. "Rainbow? When you...ah...'examined' Fluttershy...did you happen to notice if she was, well...fit enough to be...?"

Rainbow frowns. "Fluttershy's in pretty good shape," she says. "Crazy ninja assassin, though? I..."

"There's something else." I toy with a wrapped pair of chopsticks. "Eris didn't try to kill us the last time we ran into her. And...she's the one who clued us in on being able to bring Rainbow and Pinkie back to life."

Everyone looks around. "So...what does that mean?" Twilight asks. "I'm sorry, I'm just not following this."

"Remember when we saw Eris arguing with that other person that one time?" Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow nod. "I think..." I unwrap the chopsticks and break them apart. "I think maybe...Fluttershy's having a change of heart. She doesn't want to hurt us anymore. I think she's...being forced to do bad things to us."

"Assuming she IS Eris," Cadance says.

"Right, assuming that."

Rarity frowns. "So...if Fluttershy is that wicked girl..." She looks around the table. "What exactly do we do about it?"

I sigh. "I was kind of hoping one of you might have an idea about that." I shake my head. "It's...it's not like we can throw her at a wall and force a confession out of her."

"She'd deny it and then run to Celestia and tell her we all assaulted her," Twilight says.

"Yeah, and then we'd have an even bigger mess on our hands," Pinkie says, her hair drooping. "But...whether or not Fluttershy is Eris..." She looks at me sadly. "We...we can't really trust her anymore, can we?"

"It's Fluttershy," Rainbow says numbly. "She's...she's just Fluttershy. Sweet, helpless Fluttershy. She's never done a mean thing in her life...not to anybody..." She looks at me, tears in her eyes. "It can't be her! It just can't!"

"Look...I'm not saying these things to be mean to Fluttershy," I say. "It's just...everything we know about Eris and everything we know about Fluttershy..."

"It...it all fits," Twilight says miserably. "It...it really does all fit..." She lays her head on her arms. "She's been right in front of us this whole time, and we didn't have a clue..."

Cadance takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "Everyone? Let's...let's all get some sleep. We need to sleep on this, think about it...think about where we go from here. And..." She frowns. "This whole question of whether or not Fluttershy is Eris...it doesn't change the fact that we need to train in Zodiac tomorrow. My birthday's a week away..." She turns pale. "It's coming after me again. I can feel it. You kids have to...have to fight Aquarius."

"Oh crap, I totally forgot about that," Rainbow says. "Don't worry, we won't let anything happen to you."

"Yeah, we'll kick its butt," Pinkie agrees. "You just worry about having a good time with your hubby-hubby." She grins and waggles her eyebrows. "A really good time. Like, Fifty Shades good."

"Pinkie!" Cadance yelps, blushing. "I'm not into bondage!" She pauses, then adds, "Well...handcuffs maybe..."

"DON'T NEED TO HEAR THIS!" Twilight declares loudly, grabbing a container of cold, congealed rice and shoveling it into her face.

"I'm...I'm gonna go to bed," Rainbow says, standing up. "I..." She frowns. "Oh God, I'm kinda scared to go to my own room now."

"I'm staying with Twi-Twi tonight," Pinkie declares.

"I hardly believe you'll be murdered in your sleep," Rarity says with a roll of her eyes. She sighs. "Still...I must admit that even the thought of our enemy living right down the hall from us is...disturbing."

"Just...try not to think about it," Cadance says. "We all need to be rested for tomorrow. We can...we can worry about all this business of who Eris is later."

We all head back to the dorm and up to our own rooms (or in Pinkie's case, to Twilight's room). I get ready for bed, then turn the lights off and lie down.

I can't stop thinking about all the times Fluttershy has seemed off. About all the little glances, the little moments...

I really want to be wrong. I really hope I'm wrong. And yet...

I feel nauseated...

It's a long time before I'm able to sleep.