The Greatest Show of Kindness
Prologue
Today was a beautiful day. The sun was brightly shining in the Krylon blue sky, the wind was rustling leaves among the fresh, crisp autumn grass, and the gorgeous petals of rose and tulip created a sweet, soft aroma that created a calm, soothing atmosphere. The chirping of birds and the chattering of small animals that were roaming freely around the small cottage sounded of serenity that was like music to the Fluttershy’s ears.
The past few days had been completely hectic for Fluttershy. She had been getting ready for the big wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, ‘helped’ to defeat the massive changeling army, and even witnessed the power of true love as the two defeated the great Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. Afterwards, she got to show off her bird choir’s beautiful music as the two completed their vows-a tremendous honor for her.
It was now four days after the wedding, and life had returned to a normal state for the mare. She continued to fulfill her once again planned out routine: She woke up and fed her animals, per usual. For breakfast, today, she ate a basic meal of toast, apple juice and a fruit salad, containing apples, oranges and cherries, with a hint of lemon. Alongside this, she read the daily newspaper. After this, she took a refreshing, warm shower, and did chores around her house, such as dusting and occasionally mopping her floor. Usually she took a nap for a few hours a day, and today, she decided to nap after she fed her animals their lunch.
Once she awoke from her nap, she made for herself a delicious lunch of a carrot, spinach and cherry tomato salad. As she went to take a bite, a knock at her door interrupted her. She got up to answer it, and it was Twilight.
“Oh, good afternoon, Twilight. How are you?” Fluttershy softly asked.
“I’m well,” Twilight quickly responded.
“What brings you here today?” Fluttershy asked, a glimmer of curiosity in her eye. It was positive curiosity as she enjoyed being with her friends.
“I’m here to issue an important message from Princess Celestia,” she urgently replied, getting a slight wide-eyed look from her friend.
“Oh, um… okay. What is it?” Fluttershy timidly asked. She didn’t know what kind of information her great Princess would be sending out, but because the changeling invasion happened so recently, she put a bet on it centering around them.
“Princess Celestia wanted me to tell you, as well as the rest of Ponyville, that if you spot a changeling, you are to inform me immediately so that we can put it jail. It is critical that these measures to protect the peace and well-being of the ponies, and also to make sure that no more plotting against Equestria occurs,” Twilight explained, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I understand that because you’re the Element of Kindness that you may want to help them, but it’s very dangerous to do so.”
“Um… I understand, Twilight. I’ll…do my best to tell somepony if I do see any,” Fluttershy nervously nodded, too shy to say anything against her friend's words.
“Okay. I know it may be a little difficult for you, but I’m sure you can do it,” she reassured, timidly nodding her head.
Even though Fluttershy was instructed to report any changeling findings, she was reluctant about the matter. Before this point, in Equestria, changelings were considered animals, a specimen of nature. Because of this, she found herself in a tight bind.
By nature, she was inclined only to be kind to and help animals, no matter what kind of animal they were. No matter if were was a ferocious manticore in pain, an enraged grizzly bear, a small, innocent bunny rabbit, or even a rude, spiteful changeling, she was expected to show unconditional love and care toward it.
Now that the changelings had invaded Canterlot, they were only viewed as monsters across all of Equestria, and Fluttershy now had a stigma to view these creatures as normal animals like the rest of them. It was almost frustrating to Fluttershy that she would have to change her views on changelings, lest she wanted to be shamed, shunned and looked down upon in her society. She would hate to have to put prejudice against an entire race of creatures because of one incident. She found it unfair to have to say that every single changeling was bad, because she knew it just wasn't true. The peer pressure was intense. Because of her troubled past, this was a feeling she never wanted to have again.
Deep in thought about this, she went back to her small dining table and stared down at the meal she had made herself. She wanted to eat something, but she felt her appetite draining away from her. She was too invested into her thoughts about the changelings, which made her lose all motivation to continue doing things around her house.
In situations like this, she liked to take a walk through the known paths of the Everfree Forest to try and clear her mind. So, she got up out of her chair and took her salad into her miniscule kitchen and put it in the small refrigerator before making her way out the door of her cottage, setting off through the Everfree.
As she walked along the tree-filled path, she continued her thoughts on what she was thinking earlier. She had a disdain for what was to come of any changelings she found if she did find any. She had never had any personal encounters with changelings before the wedding, but she had heard mixed things about them, ranging from somewhat pleasant visits from the occasional kind changeling in rural towns to completely horrifying encounters. From her experience, they were militant, aggressive creatures, not hesitant to attack at all, but she knew that not all of them were this way.
Next, she thought about Celestia’s orders. She didn’t want to have to make any changelings suffer in a prison and during persecutions; her pure heart would not allow her to. She feared for what would happen to them-images of changelings being beaten and starved in jails in order to get any information out of them. It frightened her to think of these thoughts.
She almost resented the fact that unless she followed these strict rules by Celestia unless she wanted to have a rehash of her past. She loathed and feared going back to those horrible times, and the very idea of what she had endured still haunted her to this day.
Shrugging, she stopped in the middle of her trot for a few moments to take in all of these thoughts.
After gathering her thoughts, she still found herself troubled about what she had been thinking about. Looking around, she recognized that she was about to reach a crossroad that led down to Zecora’s hut. Thinking this could calm her mind, she decided to walk down the other path. Zecora always managed to calm Fluttershy with her delicious brews of tea and her witty, meaningful commentaries on life.
On her way, she decided to stop thinking of the things that had troubled her for the past half-hour and just look over the scenery and admire its beauty. The forest was dank, and almost had a musty scent to it, but there was a certain admiration she had for its vastness and serenity. As she smelled the forest air and closed her eyes to take in the echoing sounds of the dense shrubbery, she kept to her canter, not paying attention to where she was walking.
A moment later, she felt one of her hind hooves get caught on something. She tripped, stumbling forward before getting a face full of dirt as she slid forward a little. For a moment, she lay there, not doing anything, not thinking anything. After taking a deep breath, she lifted herself back to her hooves and looked back to see what she tripped over.
On the ground at the base of a tree was a black body lying there. All along its chitinous form were light-green scratches, as well as some thorns sticking out of its hard hide. Its back-left leg was twisted in a way that it wasn’t meant to, and its front-right leg was pushed back past its back on the same side. There were cracks running down the chitin; glowing green fluids slowly dripped from them. Fluttershy was terrified at the sight, but she understood at the same time that her greatest fear, which had just been realized not even an hour prior, had come true.
“A…changeling!?”