//------------------------------// // Kindness vs Cruelty // Story: So, You've Grown Wings // by Steel Resolve //------------------------------// Twilight looked to each of her friends, who nodded accent. "We agree." "Good, good, now first, I think a change of venue." With a snap of his fingers, everypony found themselves in the Cloudsdale Coliseum. Discord and Nightmare took up residence in Celestia's private viewing box. The twelve alicorns were lined up in two opposing lines. Each faced their progenitor Element. "So then, which of you wishes to go first? I have decided the location, you may decide the order." Discord grinned from his box, a cheap looking t-shirt proclaiming "Go Team Chaos" with each letter in a different style of writing. Nightmare merely looked bored. Of all the ponies he expected to respond, Fluttershy was the least likely. "I'll go first, if that's alright with everypony else...." Dash was quick to protest. "Fluttershy, no! Let me go first! I couldn't stand watching you get hurt!" Fluttershy nodded, she had expected this. "Dash, you can't be expected to protect my honor every time somepony tries to bully me. I can do this." Dash still looked anxious and would have insisted again but Applejack laid a hoof on her shoulder. Quietly, she spoke. "Dash, she needs to do this, don't take it away from her." Fluttershy nodded thanks to Applejack, and flew forward. She pointed to Shimmer. "We're going to fight now, if that's okay with you." Shimmer looked bemused, but she flew forward. A gong rang out from no place in particular, and Discord's voice rang out. "FIGHT!" Fluttershy struck the first blow, a small slap to the cheek. Shimmer looked at her, wounded, and returned an equally weak slap... this went on for some time. After about five minutes of this Discord yawned. "Sweet Faust this is going to be the wussiest fight of good versus evil ever! Somepony do something or I am just calling this farce a draw if only to spare the remainder of our dignity." Pinkie Pie flew forward, a Cheshire-like grin on her face. She faced both ponies. "Staring contest! Go!" Fluttershy looked startled. "Wha-" Then Shimmer began to Stare. ------------------------------------------------- "What was that just now?" Thissdens had been eating salad when a small annoyed-looking rabbit had kicked him in the shins. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Thissdens were having lunch together. Angel Bunny had been watching this nonsense go on for weeks now, and frankly, it was getting to be too much. Fluttershy needed to be in the kitchen making him a damned sandwich right about now or some shit was going down. That meant these two needed to stop being around so much. "Angel Bunny! Stop that!" The unrepentant rodent glared at her meaningfully and made motions for her guests to get the buck out. "I'm warning you..." Fluttershy poked one eye out out of its socket somehow. Thissdens looked upon the scene, bemused... Was she trying to give the bunny a stink eye? Rather unusual but if it worked... Angel Bunny kicked the table, unsettling everypony's bowls and spilling drinks. He glared at Fluttershy and pointed to the kitchen. Fluttershy's whole stance shifted. Her eyes centered on the troublesome cony and suddenly, the air was charged with potential energy. Fluttershy, in a small voice that somehow carried well beyond the confines of the cottage, spoke four words. "GO TO YOUR HUTCH!" The rabbit lasted all of three seconds before curling into a ball and scampering off to any place most distant from the irritated filly with the pink hair. Fluttershy relaxed visibly, and looked sheepish. "Sorry everypony, he gets like that-" Thissdens had been in some sort of reverie up to this point, and finally came out of it as she spoke. "What... the buck... was that?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "That's the Stare Prof, I watched her back down a dragon with it once. I hear she took on a basilisk and made it turn Twilight back from stone." "Cockatrice." Fluttershy said absently. "I see... and that whisper? The one I could somehow hear pound into the back of my skull?" Thissdens rubbed his ears at this. Fluttershy looked startled. "You could hear that?" Thissdens nodded. "I dare say a few of your friends in Ponyville might have heard that." Dash looked impressed. "Yeah 'Shy, you been practicing your volume? I'd love to hear you cheer me on now!" Thissdens tapped a hoof to his chin. "Sight based mental manipulation, and what seems to be magic enhanced sonic suggestion. It doesn't fall under our normal guidelines... but I think we should study it. Have you had any practice controlling this phenomenon?" "No, it just happens when I am frightened or angry." Fluttershy rubbed a hoof over the side of her mane sheepishly. "To the lab then, let's research." ------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy returned it, equal intensity. Both ponies were focused, the air around them began to crackle. The rest of the ponies looked about nervously, the building was beginning to shake, cracks appeared in the walls of the Coliseum. Random bolts of lightning appeared as the two ponies fought for dominance. Fluttershy could not believe this, was the Stare a gift of her element? She had spent months after that incident practicing its use. Nevertheless, it appeared it was not her gift alone. The air began to smell of ozone as the two continued. Somehow their eyes seemed to have gotten larger than the physical constraints of their head would in theory allow. Chunks of the stadium began to rain down to the ground below. Further below, a rift began to form in the ground. Shimmer continued to Stare, she would not let up. She felt her will slip for a second or two, she began to wish to accede to this pony before her. Then, she redoubled her efforts. Above them, the sky was beginning to boil, the clouds parted way in a dramatic fashion, lightning arched between the two ponies locked in ocular combat. Fluttershy sang out, in a loud, overpowering, yet soothing voice. Hush now, quiet now, It's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, It's time to go to bed. Driftin' off to sleep, The exciting day behind you. Driftin' off to sleep, Let the joy of dream land find you. Hush now, quiet now, It's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, It's time to go to bed. Shimmer seemed startled, then relaxed. Her eyes grew heavy, her wings began to feel weighted. By the third verse, she collapsed, only to be caught gently by Fluttershy, who set her gently down in the stands. "There, there, now... You're just grumpy because you need a nice nap." Nightmare nudged Discord, who had seemed to freeze up. "Ahem, well... that was fairly decisive wasn't it. Match to Fluttershy, via technical knock out due to naptime..." The gong rang. "The next match will be tomorrow. Get some rest everypony." Discord snapped his fingers, and eight flashes blinked away their opponents.