//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Kindness and Self-restraint // Story: Kingdom Heart next generation: Friendship is Omniversal // by Starry Eyed //------------------------------// Fluttershy made her way through the forest. She was out paying visits to the sick animals, gathering herbs, and admiring the beauty of nature native to this area. An epidemic had broken out in the forests just south of the volcano where the dragons went during the great dragon migration, and since the dragons had all already left that area, Fluttershy was more than happy to go and help the poor little critters. But today she stumbled across a new critter, one she had never seen before. It looked like a human from mythology. Although Fluttershy wouldn’t know these terms, the boy she had found looked a lot like Trunks from Dragon Ball, except that he had jet black hair. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The boy, whose name was Matsu, woke to find himself on a large cot, in a quaint little cottage in the forest. Matsu had been bandaged, but that was really unnecessary, due both to the fact that his injuries were not warranting of anything more than some rest and due to the fact that his natural healing speed would have already healed him without treatment anyway. But the sentiment was there. At that moment as he was looking about his new arrangement, Fluttershy walked back into the room, and the two immediately locked in eye contact. There was a moment of silence, but only a moment, because they both broke the silence thereafter. “Oh my, a human, I’ve never seen a real human before. That’s just so wonderful I just don’t know what to say.” “Oh my, a pony! I’ve never seen a real pony before. That’s just so wonderful I just don’t know what to say.” They both registered what the other had just said, and both laughed at the irony of the situation. Matsu spoke up first “My name is Matsu. I take it you’re the one who helped me?” Fluttershy walked over to Matsu, “Oh yes, I found you in the forest, and you looked like you were hurt, so I brought you back here and tried to treat you; but you didn’t have any real injuries so I just got nervous and ended up bandaging you without a real reason. Oh forgive me, my name is Fluttershy. I am just so excited, I specialize in different kinds of critters big and small, but I’ve never seen a human before.” Matsu laughed “well I am a human alright, what would you like to know?” Fluttershy gleefully responded “oh everything”. So that is what Matsu did. He told Fluttershy everything about humans that he thought was important, but it wasn’t much of a history lesson. Matsu wanted to spare Fluttershy the darker side of human kind, so his talk was pretty much what humans were like as a whole as opposed to any particular society of them. But he gave special emphasis to his own crew, and used them as examples of humankind. Fluttershy for her part also told Matsu everything about ponykind, and the two compared and contrasted the two species. Fluttershy told Matsu all about Ponyville and her friends and their adventures and everything, and finally asked Matsu, “And that’s pretty much everything about where I come from. You know you’ve said a lot about humans in general, but you haven’t told me anything about where you came from, or about your homeworld Matsu. You’ve told me all about all the worlds you’ve visited, but nothing about the one you’re from. What’s it like?” Matsu’s expression was just like Fluttershy’s. He was reserved, but very kind, and a little bit shy (not as much as her), but now he seemed melancholy and sad. “I was born in a place called Transverse Town, and that is where I spent my childhood, but I will never think of that as my home, or my homeworld. My home is the gummi ship, my family is my crew, and I have no homeworld or nationality. I am just an orphan, but that is my family. So I am not alone.” Fluttershy gasped, “I am so sorry, I didn’t know.” Matsu insisted that it was alright, “No don’t worry about it. I’m very happy where I am now. I’m not the only one either; all the members of my crew grew up as orphans in that trashy town. The priestess and her father, the old man, were slightly better off. But not much, Enforcers don’t like religious matters; competes for what people believe you know. They had to go into hiding, but the old man always offered us sanctuary. He was always there for us all; the only parent we ever had.” Fluttershy looked like she felt a little better, “So this old man is like a father figure to you? I mean is he the one who brought you all together?” Matsu shook his head “no, we were all poor in our own ways, but more importantly we all felt helpless. We were all scared of the Enforcers and would have fallen apart and given up.” Matsu smiled, “If it weren’t for that one brave soul that couldn’t give up.” Fluttershy leaned in wide eyed and curious, “Who?” Matsu looked up happily, but serious, “The boss.” Fluttershy had clung to his every word but was now confused, “You told me there was a pilot, a priestess, an old monk, a scholar, a doctor, a musician, and a chef. You didn’t say anything about a boss.” Matsu just brushed this off, “Doesn’t matter, you can have more than one job you know. The boss is the ...” Whump! Matsu looked to see that a small white bunny that looked much meaner than a bunny should, had thrown a cabbage at him, and was now thumping his foot on the ground. Fluttershy gasped, “Oh my goodness, look at the time,” I should have made my rounds over an hour ago. Have we been talking that long? Oh I am so sorry; I have to go check on all the animals. Oh and I still have to fix all their food, oh dear. So much to do.” Matsu put his hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder, “Relax, I helped make the problem and I can help fix it.” Matsu smiled, “I am the crew chef, leave the feeding to me.” Fluttershy still looked worried, “There are a little over a hundred animals, and some of them require a lot of food. It will take a while.” Matsu was still smiling, “I can cook enough to feed 500 people in one hour. I’m pretty sure I can do this.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One hour later, Fluttershy sat at her table. The treating of the animals had been difficult, but the food had been finished in record time. What’s more, all the animals were in an incredibly good mood, and were all full. Matsu walked up and put a plate of vegetarian pasta before Fluttershy. They exchanged a look, but Matsu said nothing and merely waited for Fluttershy to taste it. Fluttershy took one bite and her eyes widened like Pinkie Pie’s had the first time she saw a Sonic Rainboom. It was bar none the best thing she had ever eaten. Instantly all the weariness she had gathered from the days caretaking washed away. She found herself wondering if what she had eaten until that moment had always been spoiled or rotten. She turned to Matsu, her eyes asking what her full mouth couldn’t. Matsu got the hint, “Special cooking knives, special everlasting cooking oil, and special cooking techniques from the gourmet world that we visited in our travels. The real trick is infusing the food with your healing magic so that it grows to its perfect state before cooking it. I’m personally a vegan, and since I’m the cook that’s usually what the crew ends up eating. So I had to learn magic techniques that make vegan food taste many times better than the best of meats, which trust me, isn’t easy for omnivores like us humans.” Fluttershy was officially impressed, “Thank you so much Matsu. With you here to cook I can get on with the treatment and we can have all these little guys better again in no time.” Matsu’s smile went away, “I’m very sorry Fluttershy, but I have to rendezvous with the boss. I’ve tried to stay until I repaid your kindness, and I’m very glad I got to meet you. But I must get back to him ASAP.” Fluttershy was saddened by this, “You, but you, oh. Do you have to go already?” Fluttershy’s pleading was joined by that of ALL the animals, who had grown to like Matsu just as much Fluttershy had. Even Angel had gotten attached, and that’s saying something. Matsu looked more worried than anything, “I don’t want to leave, but you don’t understand the situation. This isn’t about the Enforcers, or even the crew, this is about the boss. The boss is the only one who can stop me without hurting me.” Fluttershy didn’t understand, “Stop you? Stop you from what.” Matsu looked down and shook his head, “I cannot explain. I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy still didn’t understand, but she knew she couldn’t keep her new friend here, “It’s alright. It was really nice to get to meet you. I was able to open up to you right away because I saw you as another critter. Normally I’m very shy, but there isn’t anyone out here but little critters and I’m not shy with them. But now I think that your soul is very similar to a pony’s even if you don’t look like one. I guess I started thinking that way when I found out you were an orphan too.” Fluttershy gasped. She had unintentionally just told Matsu her deepest darkest secret. Fluttershy had kept secret that she had no family from everyone, even the Pegasus’s ponies in Cloudsdale. Only several older Pegasus and Rainbow Dash knew that she had no parents. She hadn’t even told her friends. The animals knew, and Fluttershy thought that Twilight had figured it out. After all, parents don’t let little fillies leave home to go live in the woods alone with animals. Twilight probably knew, but hadn’t asked, so Fluttershy hadn’t told her. Matsu looked like he was trying not to cry, “I really am so sorry, but that’s actually all the more reason I have to go. I don’t want to hurt you so I have to go.” Suddenly all the birds in the forest flew together in fleeing chaos. Anyone who knows anything about animals would know what that meant. Something was happening that was scaring the animals away. Fluttershy couldn’t feel power levels or life forces but Matsu could. “Enforcers? What in the world are they doing all the way out here? Unless they are after me. They generally like to conquer places but this is in the middle of nowhere.” Fluttershy had already learned everything about the Enforcers and the old alliance and everything else relevant from her earlier talks with Matsu. Her sorrow turned to fear for her little animal friends. Matsu turned back to her. He was as serious as he had ever been around her, “Get all of your animal friends and get as far away from here as quickly as you possibly can. I’ll hold them off.” Fluttershy entered the state she was in when she talked down that dragon that one time, “Now see here Matsu, we are not going to run and leave you behind with those things!” Matsu looked away from Fluttershy and towards the enemy, “I didn’t tell you to run so that you would get away from the Enforcers. I told you to run to get away from me. Now run!” Matsu ran off in the enemy’s direction. Fluttershy gathered up all of her little animal friends and organized them to run away or to carry the animals that couldn’t move as fast. Once she had done that, she ran too, towards the Enforcer’s camp. She had to help her friend. Some of her animals ran with her. She wanted to stop them, but a series of animal complaints that only Fluttershy would be able to understand told her they were not about to go anywhere. So off they went after Matsu. As Fluttershy left the forest, she saw an Enforcer camp, complete with several warships and already thousands of Soldier class Enforcers were on the ground, accompanied by thousands of Pawn class Enforcers that were preparing camp. She then noticed that they were all staring about 30 degrees away from her direction at Matsu. Matsu’s hair suddenly spiked up and his eyes whitened out. A coating of magic rushed over him. Fluttershy may not have been able to sense magic, but she had taken care of enough critters to tell how high one was on the food chain, and how strong a predator it was. That’s why Fluttershy found herself second guessing herself. This couldn’t be right. She could feel that Matsu, whom she would have said was at the same spot on the food chain as a pony, was suddenly much mightier than a dragon or even an Alicorn. Matsu spoke but his voice sounded different. It was deeper and meaner, “Ha, it’s been a long time since I got to come out to play. I’m going to have some fun and kill all these guys to work up my appetite. And then,” Matsu turned his head and looked in Fluttershy’s direction, even though she had not revealed herself and it had seemed even the Enforcers hadn’t noticed her until then, “I’m going to eat you!” Fluttershy froze. She had no idea what was happening; not with her or the Enforcers, but most especially with her new friend. Matsu lunged into the enemy camp and started destroying the Soldier class Enforcers. Whenever a Scout or Pawn would attack him he would just look in their general direction and they would fall “dead”. Fluttershy’s animals offered different plans as to what they should do, but the majority vote was to run away now. Fluttershy just stood and watched until Matsu had “killed” his one thousandth Soldier Class Enforcer. Matsu then raised his head and let out a bone chilling battle cry. All the remaining Enforcers shut down and collapsed, never to rise again. Apparently even the pilots of the warships had been hit by this, because shortly after, the ships began to steer into each other before crashing into the old dragon territory. Matsu’s hair fell back to its normal position, and then he fell to the ground. Fluttershy was frightened. Dragons were proof that Fluttershy was somewhat afraid of being eaten, which is what Matsu had promised to do to her. Anypony else in Fluttershy’s position would have run away. But anypony else wasn’t the element of Kindness. Fluttershy flew down to Matsu’s side and shook him awake. As Matsu came to, he saw Fluttershy and quickly put the metaphorical puzzle pieces together as to what had happened. Matsu turned his head aside like he was ashamed, “You stupid pony. Why did you not run? I could have hurt you. When my other nature comes out I kill and eat everything I can find. Do you have any idea how horrible I would have felt for the rest of my life if I had eaten you!?” Fluttershy looked down at Matsu with kind eyes, “But you didn’t. You said you would but you didn’t.” Matsu screamed back at her, “That’s only because I exhausted myself of all my power and had to forcefully revert in order to heal! If I had still had even one percent of my power left after beating those things, then I assure you I would have made good my offer! I would have done something unforgivable! That’s why I must find the boss. The boss is the only one who can revert me to this form without hurting me! There are only three ways for me to revert: 1. Become completely exhausted of all power, 2. Destroy and/or eat everything so that nothing is left, or 3.The boss! And, several things can set me off: blood, booze, severe pain, anger, fear, danger! I’m a loose cannon! I’m not safe! I would never want to hurt you, so I have to find the boss!” Fluttershy cradled him, as per her caring nature, “Shh, it’s okay. You’re not a bad pony, er person, Matsu. You're very kind, and you can’t help it that your other side isn’t. I’ll help you find your boss.” Matsu looked back at Fluttershy dumbfounded, “You’ll help me! Didn’t you just hear what I said? I could hurt you without meaning to. Why would you help me?” Fluttershy looked down at him “Well, because you're my good friend Matsu. And friends help each other.” Matsu looked up, awestruck, “Friend. Only my crew has ever called me friend AFTER seeing me like that.” Matsu reached up and returned Fluttershy’s hug, “Thank you so much Fluttershy, you have no idea what this means to me.” He gently sent the tiny amount of magic he had recovered in this time through the pressure points on Fluttershy’s temple, and she was out like a light. Matsu gently laid her down, “But that’s all the more reason that I could never hurt you now. Your animal friends will take care of you now. I hate it, but this is the only way I can repay your kindness.” As if on cue, Fluttershy’s animals came running up to get her, some ready to fight Matsu to save her, but all knew they couldn’t beat that thing. Matsu looked up at them, “I used the conquerors Haki to beat the Enforcers, but it wasted all my power. Take her to safety, and tell her to go home once her job here is done.” With that, Matsu stood and briskly walked away. He could allow himself to cry because he didn’t have enough energy to go berserk now anyway. Matsu had more than one friend he had to look out for now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy awoke on the same bear-cot that she had put Matsu on earlier that day (she couldn’t put him on a pony sized cot; it would have been too small). Her animal friends had brought her back. She thought about all that had happened and figured out approximately what just happened. She looked up at her animal friends and asked, “Where’s Matsu?” they just shook their heads, they didn’t know exactly where he was, but he was gone. Fluttershy braved up, and went to check up on all her little animal patients. The mixture of her treatment and Matsu’s cooking had all but cured them all. Some of them still need some rest but that was the full extent of it. After seeing that everything was ok, Fluttershy gathered up all her little animal friends and spoke to them, “Everyone listen up. All of your conditions have stabilized. You should all able to pull through with some rest. My job here is done. I know I said that I would stay with you longer, but that was on my own vacation time. I’m going to have to end my vacation early. I have something very important to do, and I think you all know what it is.” One of the birds chirped something to her, “Yes, that’s right, I have to help my friend, and the rest of his crew if possible.” One of the bears growled something, “Yes I know it’s risky but I have to do it. He is my friend.” Angel bunny motioned as if to ask how, “That actually is a good question, one that I’m not smart enough to answer, but I know who is. I have to find Twilight Sparkle. She’ll know what to do.” Fluttershy was now on her way back to Ponyville. She had no way of knowing that Twilight was off helping Rain at that moment. She had to get help. Angel Bunny was the only one of “her” animals that had come with her, and he was now riding on her back. Angel bunny may have seemed like a huge jerk sometimes, but he knew when to be himself and when to be helpful, and now was a time to be helpful. There wasn’t much he could do but stay strong for her right now though, so that’s what he was doing. Fluttershy found herself remembering back to her night at the gala, where she had gone crazy on all those little animals. She then found herself remembering that it wasn’t the first time it had happened. It was years before Twilight Sparkle had come to Ponyville. At that time, Fluttershy was already friends with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. But to be fair, Pinkie Pie was mostly her friend because Pinkie Pie befriends everyone. They had all three come to see Fluttershy because she had been having a lot of problems with her animals for about three months in a row at that time. Fluttershy had snapped. It was just as bad as the grand galloping gala but the difference was there was nowhere to run. At that time Rainbow Dash had managed to calm her down. If there is a testament to Rainbow Dash’s courage, it’s not flying or bucking dragons; it’s staring crazy Fluttershy down without a hint of fear and calmly asking her to compose herself. After Fluttershy became composed, she became scared. What would her “friends” think of her now? They would hate her. They would throw her away! But they didn’t, they were there for her. They forgave and forgot just like that. Fluttershy never forgot that. Fluttershy realized why she was thinking about all this now; Matsu was in the same boat. The hardship of being kind is that when you are kind to others and others are not kind back to you, it wears on one’s patience. And when it snaps, very, very bad things usually happen. Matsu wasn’t cruel. He was kind, and people usually repaid him with fear and rejection. Fluttershy knew more than most how hard that could be. People that had done good most of their lives and were judged as “bad” or “crazy” people because of one little uncharacteristic thing they had done one or two times! It was enough to drive anypony to the edge of reason. After that one party they had thrown for Pinkie Pie, someponies had started saying she was crazy or dangerous. Rainbow and Applejack had put down those rumors, but the stigma stuck. It made Fluttershy mad that after a lifetime of being the happiest and friendliest Pony in Equestria that people could think badly of Pinkie after just one uncharacteristic thing. It made her more than mad. It had her want to show everyone that everyone makes mistakes, and that you shouldn’t overlook a lifetime of good for a day of bad. She had already forgiven and forgotten what happened with Matsu and she was going to help him. Nopony and nobody should be without forgiveness if they deserve it, and Matsu needed it now more than most. “Angel” said Fluttershy, “Kindness is about more than being nice to everypony. It’s about forgiving and forgetting the little things everypony does, and looking for the good in everypony. If you can see the good in anypony it’s hard to not be kind to them. There’s a whole lot of good in Matsu and I’m going to help get his crew back together, if I have to fight past all the Dragons and Enforcers in the Omniverse myself!”