music makes you lose control

Part 1: Fluttershy Falls

It was a pleasantly warm day in town, Canterlot University had just let out for the summer, and that meant it was time for longtime friends to make up for lost time.

Fluttershy paused in front of the shop window to make sure her butterfly pin was in its proper place in her wavy, pink hair before going behind the counter to talk to Rarity. They’d agreed to meet on Rarity’s break at the boutique. Sure enough, there she stood, getting ready to leave the world of retail fashion behind for 30 minutes. She blushed as Rarity turned to face her, that ivory-colored face lighting up to see a friend.

“Fluttershy!” Rarity said, throwing her arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace. “Oh you look smashing today!”

And Fluttershy did indeed put a lot of thought into her outfit that day. Turquoise sweater over a yellow sundress and pink tights and brown flat-heel pumps. Simple, but all the colors worked together, as Fluttershy’s fashionista companion observed. Rarity herself was smartly dressed, with a lavender work blouse and black skirt alongside her usual gold bracelet and jeweled necklace.

She pulled back, giving Flutter room to breath. “How are you?”

“Er…I’m alright.” She looked down, brushing her hair back out of the way. “I saw that you wanted us to get together, the six of us… you need my help with that?”

“Of course!” Rarity beamed, taking her friend’s hands in her own. “This is all about friendship! I couldn’t just leave you girls out of the planning!” She noticed that Flutter was still looking down, obviously deep in thought. “…You’re okay with that, right?”

“Sure.” Fluttershy smiled back, looking up into her friend’s eyes. “I’ve got a project with someone else, but I’m free this afternoon. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”

Rarity flicked her head, sending her immaculately groomed violet curls fluttering around her head. “Oh? Can I ask what you’re up to, darling?”

Her friend nodded, humming in agreement. “It’s special music to help calm animals down. That way, we can help them without anyone getting hurt.”

“Aw…” Rarity sighed, that was just like Flutter… “That’s such a good idea!”

Fluttershy nodded. “Thanks, It wasn’t really my idea. My friend did most of the work on the music, I’m going to try it out at home and tell her if it works.”

Rarity leaned forward, eyes narrowed inquisitively. “ Who’s the friend, Flutter? Is it Octavia? Twilight? If it’s Twilight, you can tell her about the party. She can keep it a secret better than Pinkie can.”

Flutter shook her head. “It’s not them…. And you probably don’t know her. She keeps to herself, kind of shy..”

“I can see how you two would see eye to eye then.” Rarity said, smirking. It wasn’t like Fluttershy to keep a secret from her, though that was reason enough to let her keep it. If the project required her friend’s silence, then so be it.

“Anyway~” Rarity put her hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder, trying to change the subject. “I got a bunch of orders for dresses, apparently there’s this really exclusive ball coming up! Now, I asked and they’re not handing out invites anymore, but they paid for all the outfits to be made up front!”

And so the two of them exchanged small talk for a while before parting ways. Though Fluttershy wasn’t in a bad mood, seeing Rarity lifted her spirits. She hummed an old song to herself on the way home, something she remembered her friends singing one time.

“When she got home, there was a little note taped to her door and her musically inclined friend was nowhere to be seen. “Or just don’t show up… I guess that’s alright.” She muttered to herself, taking the note and opening it up.

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Sorry I missed you! I just remembered I had a very important meeting with someone, so I left the project on a flash drive inside. You’ll know it when you see it.

Love,Starlight.

P.S. Thank you for keeping this a secret.

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“She didn’t talk about meeting anyone…” Fluttershy said, unlocking the door. Angel was asleep in his hutch, the white bunny having eaten his way through most of his food. She paused to whisper hello to him as he slept, then continued to her room. Laying on her bed was a hand-wrapped gift box with a CD jewel case sitting atop it next to another paper note. Flutter sat down on her bed, slipping off her shoes to get comfy before checking the items out.

The note came first, written in the same familiar script as the one on her door:

“Do NOT open the present until you listen to the song. ~ Starlight”

“Strange…” Flutter tossed the note aside and took the CD out of the case, looking it over. It was a plain blank disc with ‘FOR FLUTTER’ written on it in purple marker.

After popping it into her computer, the closest thing to a dedicated music player she had, Fluttershy laid back on her bed and listened. If it worked, maybe she could pass a copy Pinkie’s way to get her to sit still for five seconds.

The music began with the sounds of a beach, water crashing on the shoreline, the distant call of ocean birds, some new-agey sounding panflute. Fluttershy glanced around the room, wondering if there had been a mistake. It sounded like a regular relaxing music CD, how this was supposed to calm frightened animals was beyond her… though it had just begun, she needed to give it a chance. She sat up, listening intently as the music got louder… the flute and nature sounds giving way to soft white noise like rain on a windowsill. Now, she could see it. After only a few seconds of this steady, gentle soundscape, Fluttershy felt her eyes grow heavy, unable to stifle a yawn. “At least it’s working.” She said, yawning yet again as a narcotized, sleepy haze settled over her mind.

The trap had been sprung.

Among the soothing background noise and somber flute… there was a harsh, electric sound that started off faintly, but quickly grew in volume, sounding like TV Static mixed with a screeching buzzsaw. Fluttershy clasped her hands over her ears, getting up to shut the racket off, but just as soon as the interference came, it climaxed in a thunderous POP and she found herself dropping back onto her bed with a throbbing headache. Fluttershy rolled over, groaning as the world around her blurred. She felt like she’d been struck in the head with a rubber mallet, a sensation she knew well from an incident where Pinkie missed her swing during a heated game of ‘Whack a changeling’ at the carnival.

The relaxation music didn’t seem to be helping. The contrast between the soothing music and the cranial agony she was feeling screaming through her every nerve made her question her very sanity. She grit her teeth, thrashing around on her bed like a fish out of water. Underneath the drilling pain and the sound of a tranquil ocean, she could hear whispering.

Soft, feminine whispering that was at once welcoming and stringently authoritarian. Like a stern mother…

“Good girl…”

Flutter blinked, looking around the room to see who was there… alone. Did the music speak to her?
“Aw, is your head hurting?” The voice teased. “ I can help that. Just relax and listen to me.”

“Nnngh…” Flutter groaned, kicking at her bedsheets as she writhed around. “Stop it!”

“You are relaxing and listening… It makes me happy when you relax. It makes me happy when you listen. You like making me happy.”

“R…relax?” Her struggle slowed, the throbbing in her brain wasn’t quite so terrible for that moment.

“And it makes you happy to make me happy.”

“Happy…”

The voice continued its assault on her mind, every word worming deeper and deeper into her conscious mind.

“ All that matters is happiness”
The music is slipping deep into your pretty little head.”
“Deeper and deeper”
“And it’s making the hurting stop”
“Please..” Flutter caught herself pleading with whatever spirit haunted the audio track. “Make it stop.”
“And you’re going to feel even better when you learn to obey.”
Obey. That word was like an instant aspirin for Fluttershy. The more she thought it, the less her head hurt.
“And you’re going to feel so good… so happy…when you learn to let me take over.”
Fluttershy’s struggling stopped altogether, she lay in bed, having forgotten completely where she was in that moment.
“Let the music become your thoughts”
“Let the thoughts become your actions”
“Let the actions become your desire”

“Yes… please!” She buried her head in her pillow, her pink hair a sweaty mess now. The migraine had become a numbing, overpowering sensation that made it all but impossible to think, it was already hard to listen to the voice. That lovely voice…If she obeyed, relief would come.
After the last wave passed, Fluttershy realised she had been rubbing her thighs together the entire time, the smooth material feeling welcomingly cool and tingly on her legs. She needed to be touched, to feel the reassuring presence of another.

“You can feel me, can’t you?” The voice whispered, her sole companion in this storm. “You can feel my hands on you… on your legs…going up your thigh, I’m here for you.”
And then, she felt it. Cool, graceful fingertips running up her legs. Flutter closed her eyes again, as the invisible hands moved up her hips, up her chest…then down again, then up; it made the pounding in her head less and less. The affection in each touch was very real, the feeling spread and spread until she was cuddled and pet by hundreds of unseen appendages, all belonging to the same loving force that flowed into her, that changed her.
“It feels good doesn’t it?”
Her eyes opened, they had lost their attentive luster. “Oooooh, yes.”
“Don’t you want to feel good like this all the time?”
Fluttershy nodded, meekly saying “Uh huh…” in a voice so meek and silent that only her mental intruder could hear.
“Then give yourself to me. Become my little blushing bride.”
Some fading part of her knew that she should be fighting it… but confrontation was never her strong suit… that little dissenting mote shrank down… down.
“Just say the word and you’ll feel better than you ever have before.”
Down…
“I want you to be happy”
“I will…” Flutter said, and the very second the statement passed her lips… it was like a wave of water rushing over a glowing flame. Her headache… her fear… all of it extinguished in one arctic flash of cool blue and white light inside her mind. She cried out in joyous relief, going limp on her bed, panting and shivering.
“You’re mine now.” The voice said, and the warmth returned to Fluttershy’s body. The music had stopped, it was sunny outside, the silly girl had lost track of time.
With a yawn, Flutter sat up on her mattress and flexed her toes, the rosy pink of her tights and the sunflower yellow of her dress looked brighter, cheerier. Everything around her looked more colorful, the room having become a world of saturated, earthy hues.
And then she saw the present left for her. With delicate, careful hands she opened it up and was greeted with a sleek black leather collar with a teal butterfly clasp. The item seemed to glow with a nostalgic aura as she took it. The metal and turquoise stone of the clasp were icy cool to the touch, the leather soft and supple.
“For me.” She whispered to herself in a breathy, eager voice. She put it around her neck, how could she not? And once she fastened it in place, she felt a crackling POP in her brain, like a dried branch snapping off a tree. An irreversible break from her old self, one she welcomed.
She couldn’t wait to show the others.

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