//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13: Extending Kindness 
// Story: Prelude and Encore: A Tale of Friendship, Betrayal, and Forgiveness 
// by WritingDragonfly 
//------------------------------//

	"She actually got the house for me?"

Spike nodded. "Of course. Twilight doesn't say things like that without meaning it. And she does kinda wield one of the Elements of Harmony. She has some leverage."

A slight smile almost crossed Dragonfly's face. Spike grinned in response. Things were seeming to go well, at the least. Twilight talked to the mayor yesterday afternoon after the little meet and greet they had had. Now sitting at the same bench they always did, they were preparing to visit Dragonfly's new home. He spoke once again. "We've just gotta go talk to Fluttershy. She knows where the house is."

Dragonfly sighed. "At least we're starting quiet."

Spike shook his head. "Don't be like that, Dragonfly. You were a bit rude yesterday."

She rolled her eyes. "Baby dragon, you know I can't change this."

Spike frowned. If she kept that attitude... "Just try, alright?"

"Fine!" she said exasperatedly.

"Alright then, let's go." With that, Spike began to lead Dragonfly in the direction of Fluttershy's house.





"Go ahead, Dragonfly."

"Why do I have to knock?"

Spike put his hand to his forehead. They were standing at Fluttershy's front door. "Because this is for you."

"Fiiiiiiiiiine." However, just as she lifted her hoof to strike the door, it opened.

"Ack!" She hopped back in shock. Fluttershy was standing in the doorway.

"I... heard you two talking. H...how can I help you?"

There was a moment of silence. Spike quickly nudged Dragonfly.

She quickly righted herself and began talking. "Twilight got permission for me to use the house you mentioned, and I was hoping you could show me the way there."

Fluttershy smiled. "Why of course!" Suddenly, her expression shifted to a slight frown. "But, it's a pretty big house. It'll feel pretty empty if it's just you."

Dragonfly gave a very fake smile. "It doesn't matter. I'm fine with that..." She stopped for a moment, then spoke again. "And I thought you said it was a small house yesterday."

"Well, I figured it would be easier to get the house for you if we referred to it as 'small'."

Spike could plainly see that Fluttershy was lost in thought. What was she...

Her eyes suddenly lit up. "How about a pet?"

Dragonfly gave a nervous chuckle. "No, really, it's fine..."

Fluttershy shook her head. "Really? Well, I'm sure you'll change your mind. But, for now, I guess we'll go to your new house."

As Fluttershy trotted out of her front door and began to lead the way, Spike took a moment to think. She seemed way too compliant with that answer, even by her standards...

Nevertheless, they began to follow Fluttershy away from her cottage.

"So, Dragonfly," she said, "Where are you from?"

"Oh, um..." Dragonfly took a second to answer. "Fillydelphia."

"Ooh, the city. I could never really live there... too many ponies."

"It wasn't really quite as crowded as you would think."

Spike gave a slight smile. Dragonfly was definitely getting a bit better at being nice towards the others. Her emotions were still incredibly fake, but he could hardly expect speedy progress on that.

Flutter smiled. "I still doubt I could live there. Anyway, we're actually pretty close to the house."

Dragonfly raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

Fluttershy gave a nervous laugh. "The only reason I knew about it was because it was so close. Angel-bunny ran away there a couple times, as have few of my other animals when they were angry at me."

They stepped into a clearing, and at a glance, Spike immediately understood why Fluttershy had given up so easily earlier.

"F...Fluttershy, what is this?" Dragonfly stammered out, a slight tone of anger in her voice.

The house was there, as Fluttershy had claimed. What she hadn't told them about, however, was the large crowd of animals standing in front of it.

"Awww," Fluttershy said with a note of innocence in her voice, "it looks like some of my animals overheard us talking about one of them getting a new owner."

"Fluttershy, if you're expecting me to believe that you didn't plan this..."

Spike put a hand on Dragonfly's side, and whispered to her. "Calm down. It's no big deal; you can still say no if you really want to."

Dragonfly sighed and looked at the animals before them. "Th... there are quite a lot here, I must say..."

The large mass seemed to be split into two distinct groups, with the exception of one small brown creature who kept on wandering back and forth between them. Spike couldn't quite make out what it was right away because of its size and the distance he was away.

Fluttershy smiled. "Isn't it amazing? You wanna sing about it?"

Dragonfly gave her a bored stare. "Do I look like I wanna sing about it?"

Fluttershy frowned. "Well, I guess I'll start introducing you..."

She dejectedly flew over to the group on the left. She reached down to pick up a creature, and then flew back to Dragonfly.

"This is Sef. He's a hedgehog."

The little ball cradled in her arms opened up, and the little face that emerged from it gave a yawn. It was quite cute. At least, Spike thought so...

"Eh." Dragonfly, as always, seemed unimpressed.

"Alright, then..." Fluttershy flew back to the groups and set Sef down. The one out-of-place creature from before walked scampered over to him, but Sef quickly turned away and hobbled back to the group on the left, leaving the other creature by itself. From the way it was running, Spike reasoned, it was some type of squirrel, probably.

Fluttershy flew over to the group on the right, pointed to one of the animals, and returned, the animal following close behind.

"How about her? Her name's Lily- she's a hummingbird!"

The small, iridescent green creature started buzzing around Dragonfly's head. She tried to follow it with her eyes, but was quickly dizzied. 

"U...um... maybe something... a little less speedy..." She said, shaking her head to regain her composure.

"Hmm..." Fluttershy frowned, and shook her head at the hummingbird, who almost dejectedly flew back to her group. Again, the other creature scampered over, but Lily either didn't notice or was ignoring it, as she flew well above it and didn't give it a moment's notice.

Spike looked over at Dragonfly. She seemed to have all her attention focused on that one creature.

For what seemed like hours for Spike, Fluttershy kept on flying back and forth between the groups, bringing an animal over only for Dragonfly to reject it, while Dragonfly maintained her attention on the central animal. Eventually, Spike came to the conclusion that the animals on the left were all ground animals, while the ones on the right were flying animals.

It was around the time that Fluttershy finished introducing her incredibly exotically named red panda Evvyky that Dragonfly finally spoke up.

"Who is that little guy?"

There was a tone in her voice that Spike hadn't heard in a while. A certain warmth... like back the day before she had left...

"Hmm?" Fluttershy turned to the animal Dragonfly was staring at. "Oh, her?" She flew over and picked up the creature, and carried her back to Dragonfly. "This is Flo. She's a flying squirrel."

Flo looked up at Dragonfly hopefully. Dragonfly looked down at the creature, and then at Fluttershy. "The others seem to be ignoring her... A... flying squirrel, you said?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yup. She can't actually fly, mind you. Only glide."

"I see..." Dragonfly looked down at Flo again. She then smiled, and spoke. "I'll take her."

Flo's eyes brightened up, and Fluttershy gave a slight smile. "Wonderful!"

Flo quickly hopped up on top of Dragonfly's head.

Fluttershy looked up at the little creature. "So, you want to protect her, huh?"

Dragonfly looked at Fluttershy, a bit surprised. "Y...yeah. I guess you could say that. I just can't stand when somepony looks down on somepony else. And that's what it looked like they were doing to her."

Fluttershy gave a light smile. "Yeah. You know, I definitely didn't get this from you at first, but you seem like you'd make a good mother-figure. Like you'd be good at taking care of others."

"Maybe." Dragonfly smiled and looked at the animals, who were all in turn looking at Fluttershy. "Those animals all rely on you pretty heavily, don't they?"

Fluttershy smiled. "Yep. And I do my best to care of them, always."

Dragonfly looked at her. "I... guess we have a bit more in common than I thought."

Fluttershy looked a little confused for a moment, but quickly shook it off. "I guess I'll lead the rest of my animals away, and I'll let you get settled in to your new house." She turned to the groups, and clapped her hooves, getting their attention. She looked back at Dragonfly. "See you later!" She then turned and flew away, with the groups following behind.

Spike looked at Dragonfly. Her serious attitude had returned. 

She spoke, without looking at him. "Well, baby dragon. I would like some time alone to get settled into my new house. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait, wait, wait, whoa." Spike looked at her defiantly. "I'm not leaving until you explain something to me."

Dragonfly looked down at him without turning her head. "What is that, baby dragon?"

"Your mood just softened when you started talking to Flutter about Flo. It was like the spell you had cast had worn off for a bit. What's with that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, baby dragon."

"Don't lie to me, Dragonfly!"

"I'm not lying, baby dragon!" Dragonfly looked at him angrily. "I felt no different than I ever had at any other point in the conversation." Dragonfly took a few steps towards the door of the house. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a house to explore. I'll see you tomorrow." She stepped up to the door, opened it, and walked in without another word.

"S...see ya..." Spike said dejectedly. He then turned and began to walk back home.





As Dragonfly stepped into her new home, Flo immediately jumped off of her head and took a glide towards the couch nearby. She took a look around. "So this is the living room..." There were a couple doors and a set of stairs; she could have started exploring, but she was quite exhausted from that little encounter. She plopped down next to her new pet.

"I'll take care of you, don't you worry," she said to Flo, who had already curled up to go to sleep.

Dragonfly took another look around the room. It was pretty empty, except for the couch and a small desk. She got up and walked over to the desk.

It had a few drawers, which, after investigation, turned out to be empty. On top of the desk was a large planning calendar. She was about to turn back to look around the house a bit more until she noticed a sheet of paper sticking out from under the calendar. She pulled it out.

At the top of the paper, the words "Certificate of Adoption" were emblazoned.

Chrysalis felt a little pang of homesickness. But... why...?

She shook her head, trying to push away the confusion, and walked off into one of the other rooms. Very conveniently, it was one of the bedrooms.

She trudged over to the bed and collapsed into it, falling into a dreamless sleep...