//------------------------------// // Would You Kindly LEAVE ME ALONE?! // Story: The Element of Hate // by Shadow Bolt //------------------------------// “Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais "If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?" ― Sydney J. Harris Chapter 3: Would You Kindly LEAVE ME ALONE?! As Twilight was getting closer to the entrance of the Everfree Forest she started thinking of what was the game plan for this assignment she took upon herself to succeed in. First off I will go back to the library and write to the princess about what I’m currently doing and how I will update her while I’m making progress. Then after that I will introduce Shadow Bolt to my friends and once he sees first hand of what our friendship is like and sees the power its holds he’ll abandon his silly notion and admit that friendship is more powerful than hate. By the time she finished her mental list they were standing outside of the Everfree Forest. Shadow Bolt stood by the entrance next to Twilight Sparkle his mind thinking about what’s happened over the last few moments. Let’s see, moved my house to the Everfree Forest so I can be left alone, picked the spot of where I should put my house, as the sun started to rise I went inside to finally get some sleep, an hour later get wakened up by a bossy unicorn, constantly get offended by said unicorn, then she starts arguing me about hate, says friendship is more powerful than hate in a snooty way, then challenges me to prove me wrong. He stood there with his thoughts until Twilight pointed her hoof to the town in the distance and said, “Over there is Ponyville, my home. Once we get there I will introduce you to my friends and you’ll see that I’m right about friendship being more powerful than hate. Why did she have to say it in such a snooty way? She is so full of herself. Although maybe this might be somewhat entertaining since I don't go out much. If she didn't show up and challenged me I'd probably would have slept in all day he thought. He then said to Twilight, "Alright, lets begin." As they were about to head to town Twilight just remembered something. I told Fluttershy that I was going to come back as soon as I finished my investigation. If I don’t show up she'll think that something happened to me. Twilight decided that before they head to town she should visit Fluttershy to let her know that she’s alright. Then another thought pop into her mind, Not only will I let Fluttershy know that I’m okay, I can also introduce her to Shadow Bolt and be one step closer to proving my point about friendship being more powerful than hate. She turned to Shadow Bolt and said, “Before we head to town I want to introduce you to one of my friends” “Okay” was all he said. With that Twilight started walking towards Fluttershy’s cottage. It didn’t take long before the cottage was in their sights, Twilight saw Fluttershy was patiently sitting outside. She’s probably sitting there waiting for me to come back, she thought. Twilight called out to her, “Fluttershy it’s me, I’m back. Fluttershy heard her and started walking towards Twilight, as she walked up she said, “Thank goodness your'e back Twilight, I was starting to get worried.” Then she stopped when she saw Shadow Bolt behind Twilight. Shadow watched as a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane and tail walked up to them. She had blue eyes and had three pink butterflies for her cutie mark. She walked up to them and then stopped when she saw him. She looks familiar. Twilight walked next to her and said, “Fluttershy this is Shadow Bolt. Shadow, this is Fluttershy, one of my dear friends and one of The Elements of Harmony, she represents The Element of Kindness.” Shadow looked at the so called Element of Kindness and said to her, “So I take it you’re the one who wants me gone because my house is scaring you, am I right?” Fluttershy didn’t respond, instead she tried to hide her face behind her mane and looked away from Shadow. Look at her, first she doesn’t answer my question and now she is doing her best to avoid me he thought as his hate was starting to burn up inside him. She’s no different from everypony else, trying to avoid looking at me as if I’m some kind of monster. And I’m supposed to believe she’s the Element of Kindness, last time I checked doing your best at ignoring somepony isn’t an act of kindness. More like rudeness if you ask me. Twilight started sensing something was wrong with the atmosphere around them and looked at Shadow and noticed something. The red aura was back and once again was covering Shadow Bolt’s body. She could feel the anger and pain behind the aura and that’s when she realized something, The aura wasn’t coming from the forest, it's coming from HIM. I cant really explain it, but it's as if this red aura is some sort of manifestation of his hate. She turned to Fluttershy to see if she noticed the red aura too and saw that Fluttershy wasn’t even looking at him. Twilight figured out what was going on since she understood Fluttershy more than Shadow did, she quickly tried to defuse the situation and said to Shadow, “Please forgive Fluttershy’s actions, she’s always shy when it comes to meeting new ponies.” “She’s shy?” was Shadows response, his anger started going down from Twilight's reply. “That’s right, when I moved to Ponyville I met Fluttershy and she did the same thing to me as she’s doing to you right now.” Shyness isn’t an excuse for rudeness if you ask me was what he was thinking of saying but decided against it. Twilight saw the red aura disappearing while she was explaining to Shadow about Fluttershy’s actions, when she finished talking the red aura was gone. Okay this is interesting, it seems when he gets angry the red aura appears, Twilight makes a mental note of this for further study. She turns to Fluttershy, still avoiding looking at Shadow Bolt and said, “Shadow Bolt isn’t gonna hurt you, I’ve brought him here so I can show him how wonderful our friendship is. Why don’t you tell him a little bit about yourself?” Fluttershy turned to Twilight and said, “Okay... I will.” She then turned to Shadow and said in a kind voice, “I’m Fluttershy, and I love to take care of my animal friends.” Shadow was starting to feel a bit better now that the yellow pegasus wasn’t ignoring him and now is speaking to him. He decided to try start up a conversation with her and asked her, “What kind of animals do take care of?” Fluttershy responded, “Oh, lots of animals. I take care of squirrels, bunnies, birds, mice, bats, and even a bear.” And I take it they're very happy with you?” he asked. “Oh my yes, I am very kind to them and in return they're kind to me,” She responded. “I have so many friends because I’m so kind to them. I believe if your kind to everypony they will be kind to you.” How naive she is, he thought. He didn’t agree to her last comment because he knew that’s not true. He cleared his throat and said, “I hate to burst your bubble but I don’t agree with what you just said.” Twilight curious responded, “Why is that?” “Because I’ve already tried using kindness to make friends and that didn’t work.” He said. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked. “During my travels I settled down in the city of Baltimare where I thought that if I tried to be kind to the townsponies maybe that wouldn’t hate me, boy was I wrong.” He said, “It took me awhile before I found some ponies that wouldn’t run away or ignore me, and that's when I tried kindness to win them over. At first I thought it was working, I was kind to them and they were kind to me. Soon they started being cruel to me, but I didn’t say anything since I was trying not to be rude to them since I still thought that kindness would work like it did last time. It wasn’t until one day when I was flying around that I overheard them talking about me from a distance. It seems that the only reason they hung out with me was so they could make fun of me afterwards. Apparently they thought that my kindness was a weakness and that's why they treated me bad. They thought that they could treat me in whatever way they wanted thinking that I wouldn’t mind because of my kindness." Afterwards I returned to my house and moved away, I swore that I would never show kindness to anypony ever again.” Twilight felt sad when he finished his story thinking Why anypony would do that to someone who was trying to make friends. “I’m sorry that happened to you," she said. He looked at her and said, “It’s fine, no use thinking about it.” He turned to Fluttershy, "My kindness made them think that I was weak and helpless.” Fluttershy said, “But I am weak and helpless.” So she admits it he thought, his hate was starting to burn up again. Kindness is a sign of weakness, those ponies really thought I was weak because I tried to be nice to them. He looked at Fluttershy and said in an intimidating tone, “And do I look weak and helpless to you?” Fluttershy shaken from the tone of his question once again tried hiding behind her mane which again made Shadow angrier even more. Twilight once again saw the red aura and knew that this wasn’t good. Shadow repeated the question in an angry tone, “You didn’t answer my question, do I look weak and helpless to you?” Fluttershy still refused to answer and started cowering and avoided eye contact from Shadow. This made him even furious which made the red aura grow bigger his raised his hoof and shouted, “ANSWER ME!” his hoof stomped the ground. The loud noise from his hoof stomping the ground made Fluttershy screamed and in an instant she flew back to her cottage slamming the door behind her and locking it. Twilight saw that there was nothing more she can do and decided that they were finished talking to Fluttershy and should move on. Twilight said to the angry pegasus, “Since it seems that Fluttershy is…….. indisposed at the moment we should probably move on to our next destination.” Shadow stood there still a bit angry and took some deep breaths, the aura slowly disappeared “Fine let’s go!” he started walking towards Ponyville. Twilight starting walking right behind him trying to catch up thinking, Okay this is going to be a bit harder than I thought, but I’m positive that I can change his ways and soon everything will be alright.