//------------------------------//
// Petite Preface 
// Story: Niceness Scarred Requires Guard 
// by sweeT2010Tooth 
//------------------------------//

	When was the last time you were nice? Was it worth it and/or successful? If it was successful, then you were lucky. However, did this 'niceness' actually hurt more than it helped? If you didn't know that niceness can hurt, know that the possibility is always there. This is because niceness is born from one's own expectation of its outcome. It is exhibited in many forms dependent on anypony's upbringing. For example, the niceness of ponies in Saddle Arabia is different from the niceness offered in Neigh York. Being culturally different, their expectations of being nice carry their own formalities, traditions, and social involvement. 

Most ponies consider limiting niceness to a simple formality in greetings and everyday conversation. To extend that gesture any further would invite a sense of vulnerability to negativity and all that comes with it. It is well known that too much niceness can lead to one being used by others. In a sense, everypony builds up a wall to block out those willing to misuse that offered niceness. Kindness is built upon the same practices and rules of niceness. Keep in mind niceness is not exactly kindness—it is an extension of it. Kindness is a base twisted to make any form of niceness. And, though kindness is a base to niceness, the two have a difference which can be explained further.

Herein lies the difference: I could be nice to somepony; I could be kind to somepony. The difference between the two behaviors is from which they are born. Niceness comes from expectation. Kindness comes from virtue. My upbringing could instill the expectation that behaving in certain ways are more acceptable than others. These expectations in behavior could be proposed acts of niceness. On the other hand, deep down in my gut perhaps I could feel that something is not right. This leads me to rely on what I believe in my foundation of principle. This foundation of principle—or virtue—leads to expectations in behavior that could be proposed acts of kindness. To reiterate: Niceness comes from expectation. Kindness comes from virtue.

Those that express too much kindness need to learn inhibition. This is why bullying is said to build character as it inhibits one's expression of kindness by forcing the victim to put on a thicker skin so-to-speak. In a sense, this changes the proposed acts of niceness so as to not be put in the same position. Although kindness, itself, doesn't change it can twist the ideas and further acts of niceness. We all know that bullying doesn't always build character; it can break someone. So, what happens to those that never learn this inhibition? They are subject to a lifetime's worth of misuse and abuse. In addition, they never build up a wall for defense from this but rather shut down hence the origins of shy and timid personalities. Lacking the inhibition to be nice and avoid suffering its consequences, a need arises for not a friend but a guardian—a guardian who steps up to stop another from sticking their hoof into the burning embers of exploitation.