Kindness's Gift

by chibiachika

Honesty

Applejack had been short on breath, the amount of energy she spent searching for her missing friend through the night was easily more than she spent on a long day of applebucking. Fluttershy was such a kind and gentle pony, why would anyone want to hurt her? Her cottage had been less tidy than usual, even taking into consideration the indoor animals.

“If we can find her, Ah really gotta have her teach me to speak to the animals!”

As she galloped towards the Carousel Boutique to check in with Rarity, she caught the unicorn on her porch with her lost friend. She slowed to catch her breath. She wasn’t in too much of a rush to get over there, as she could see Fluttershy cowering from a furious Rarity. She had been in the pegasus’s place before, and it wasn’t a good place. Whatever Fluttershy said to her must have been bad, because not one of the group would ever consider doing something like that to Fluttershy.

What she didn’t expect was Rarity to pull Fluttershy by the mane. Applejack started to move forward, but noticed the expression on her lover’s face had changed to one of curiosity, followed by excitement. Rarity’s mood swings weren’t exactly rare, but usually they were cause for concern. As the farmmare was a few buildings away, she could hear the unicorn going into a planning mode.

“And I’ll have to make you the most gorgeous dress! Or are you the groom? No, I can’t see you as the groom...Then again, I didn’t ever see myself as a groom either...”

“Rarity, have ya completely lost your mind?” Applejack walked up to the pair, and let herself collapse to the ground. “Fluttershy, where were you? Did something happen to you?”

“Oh, no, nothing happened...nothing whatso-OW!” She winced as she was pulled by the mane towards the fallen pony.

“Our dear Fluttershy is getting married!” Rarity said with an excited squeal in her voice.

“Wait, ya were dating? And ya never told anypony else? What about your house? I went there, and it looked like trouble!”

“Oh...I was a little excited, I guess I knocked some stuff over...But I knew her back in school in Cloudsdale...” Fluttershy motioned the two of them closer. She didn’t want certain ears to hear what she was about to say. “...Twilight reintroduced us.”

“Ya’ll have managed to date that long and we never found out? How did Twilight even hear about her?”

---

Twilight Sparkle was sneaking through the palace. She had just moved in, having been picked as Celestia’s personal student, and she was still a bit lost around the royal grounds. It was late at night, and her stomach had rumbled for its midnight snack, one that she normally had no issues getting back at home. She had to be careful, she had watched the guards patrolling the halls, and made a mental note of their scheduled rounds. She knew just when to sneak out, and get back to her room without getting caught. The only trouble she ever worried about was that her path took her by the ceremony room where her mentor controlled the cycle of day and night.

“Did you learn anything about that little filly, doctor?” Celestia’s voice caught Twilight’s attention. She stopped, and peered into the room. Celestia was talking with an older stallion, a stethescope symbol adorned on his flank.

“I’m sorry, your majesty. It’s really odd, and that’s from a doctor who specializes in alicorn biology. I mean no offense by this, but your anatomy and biology is...simple, compared to that unicorn. By the sight of her, she looks like any other purple unicorn.”

“Purple unicorn? Are they talking about me? Is this about that burst of magic from my test? When were they even able to study me?” Twilight quietly pondered.

“I worry a bit, though. It’s not safe to keep somepony like that there.”

“I’ll send word to the guards, have some patrols set up to keep their eyes on her so that no accidents happen.” Celestia sighed. “I’d love to move her, but we can’t just take her from her parents just because she doesn’t belong.”

“They can’t be talking about me, can they...?” Twilight was upset. She had been made fun of by her peers before she was admitted to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She didn’t belong with them. But her parents loved her, didn’t they?

“I checked everything I could,” the doctor added, “she’s definitely not an alicorn. There’s nothing to hint at the possibility of wing growth.”

“Why would they even consider me an alicorn? That’s just silly! There’s only one of those in existence!” Visions of her as an alicorn entertained Twilight briefly. “As if that could ever happen!”

“And not even a little bit of magic?”

“We tried to have her use one of the most basic magic spells that most unicorns can cast on their first attempt, and all that happened was that she got a migraine.”

“I feel sorry for that little Violyre. I was sincerely hoping that we could help her. She is a bit of a mystery though, in all my years, I’ve never once heard of a unicorn that could walk on clouds.”

“Violyre...I’ll have to remember that name. Maybe one day, I can solve this mystery!” Twilight did a silent cheer as she turned around, and ran straight into one of the royal guards. “Um...hello!” She darted off to her room before the guard could react.