Fluttershy woke up in a cage.
It wasn't your traditional kind of cage. It seemed like more of a long barred hallway with a dirt floor. Outside of the bars appeared to be a large room with thousands of bright stadium lights. Shy was nervous. She didn't like cages, and she hated the spotlight.
She was on the verge of panic when she heard a small squeak coming from her hooves. Excitable as she was, the noise startled her. She looked down and saw a small mouse looking back up at her with curiosity.
"Oh," Fluttershy smiled. "Hello Mr. Mousey! How are you?" She knelt down to get a closer look at the creature. Closer examination revealed that the mouse was obviously quite ill. It's fur had begun to gray prematurely. It's ribs were showing. "Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy gasped. "It looks like no one's fed you in days! No one has been keeping you warm, and you definitely need more cheese! Well we'll just take you back to my cottage-"
The mouse turned and ran down the caged hallway.
"Wait!" Fluttershy yelled out. "You shouldn't be going anywhere in your condition!"
Fluttershy chased the mouse down the hallway into the darkness. Her visibility was limited to the floor of the cage, which seemed to become wider. Her eyes fixated on the mouse...
Until a cream yellow hoof came down hard on the pitiful creature, snapping it's spine and killing it instantly.
Fluttershy's jaw was on the floor.
The lights came up revealing that the hallway had led to a large circular cage. Every single wall had compartments in it. Each compartment contained an animal. Obviously alone. Obviously hungry. Obviously suffering.
In the middle of the cage, grinding her hoof into the dead mouse, was a mare. She was cream yellow, and had a light pink mane that she hat put into a tight braid. She wore a black spiked bracelet on each hoof and she had a collar to match. The expression on her face was a sickening smug pride.
"If he's told me once, he's told me a thousand times," the mare said with a mixture of mocking exasperation and abject glee. "Show no mercy to creatures of darkness.
The mare kicked the dead mouse over to Fluttershy's hooves. Fluttershy looked in horror at the dead animal at her feet. She looked back at the evil eyed pony on the other side of the cage.
"And we're supposed to scare you?!" she said wide-eyed. "Look at you! You're so... soft! What happened to you to keep you down like this? The fact that we had the same childhood baffles me."
Fluttershy looked down at the mouse and images flew through her mind.
A fall from the clouds. Encountering animals. A crushed butterfly. A sudden rush.
Fluttershy dug at the ground with her hoof, creating a small hole.
A return home. They wouldn't bully her again. A fight. Pleasure through causing pain.
Fluttershy carefully placed the broken body of the mouse into the makeshift grave.
A long night. A fierce war. Approached by a new king. Bathing in his light. He would allow her to do what she loved to all creatures of darkness that dare oppose him.
Fluttershy covered the body with dirt and muttered a little prayer.
From there on out, she was no longer shy. From here on out her presence made them Shudder.
"Honestly," sneered Shudder. "To think there was a reality where I could have become... you... ugh."
Tears started streaming down Fluttershy's face. "Why do you have these animals here...?"
"Why do you think?" Shudder laughed. "Nocturnal bats, cave dwelling bears, night owls, every one a creature of darkness. Every one needs to be punished. And me Fluttershy...," she took a deep inhale. "I like o punish. I like to cause pain. I figured it out by accident. I could snuff out life. That was far more significant than prolonging it..."
With each word that drizzled out of Shudder's mouth, Futtershy's despair turned more into rage.
"And the best part?" Shudder smiled. "There's no way a wimp like you is going to stop me. I can take my time. I'll start with these pathetic little creatures here..."
Futtershy gritted her teeth hard.
"Then I'll move on to your friends," Shudder smiled. Enjoying the thought a little to much. "Sweet Searphim, I love my job. And thank Glare our paths diverged at some point. You're too weak for this work... All in the name of 'kindness'? Please. It's just a shield. You won't hurt anypony else because that way nopony else will hurt yo-"
And then Shudder was cut off by a pair of hooves jamming themselves into her side. She flew partway across the cage.
"A 'shield'?!" Fluttershy screamed. "You think my kindness is a shield? You know what? In a way, you're actually right!"
"What in Tarta- AH!" Shudder was cut off as Fluttershy put a hoof on the back of her neck and put most of her weight on it.
"I have dealt with ponies like you all of my life!" Fluttershy screamed. "Torturers. Tormentors. These are just other names for bullies. All you've ever earned how to do is tear ponies down! You've never done anything to help anypony else! Why? Because that would be hard! That would take care, concern, and an actual thought! You don't want that! You want people to suffer because once upon a time you suffered to! As if that was any kind of excuse! I'm not kind to shield mysef! I'm kind to shield others! Because there are just too many ponies like you!"
Shudder tried to get up but Fluttershy stamped her back down.
"There is nothing more I'd like to do right now than stomp you into the dirt!" Fluttershy said through gritted teeth.
Then she let Shudder go.
"But I'm not going to do that," Fluttershy said softly as she walked to the other side of the cage. "You're not worth my time, and I have to repair some of the damage you've done here..." She flew up to some of the caged animals and looked them over. "It's okay," she said softy. "We just need to find a way to open this cell..."
"NO!!!" Shudder flew to Fluttershy's position and punched her hard. Fluttershy didn't react. Instead Shudder's hoof began to crack like glass. Light began to shine through each crack. "What...?" Shudder said angrily. "Why isn't this working...? Why aren't you in pain?!"
"It's okay, little guys," Fluttershy said sweetly. "She doesn't have any real power over you guys. She can only hurt you if you let her."
"That's! Not! True!" Shudder kept punching, but the blows had no effect. Each hit merely sent the cracks further up her forehooves and onto her torso. "I have power over all of them! I make them hurt! I can make anypony I want hurt! That's how I know! That's how I know I'm-"
"You're losing," Fluttershy smiled. "In the last few seconds you've done everything you can to try to hurt me. You used words. Threats. Even violence all just to get a reaction out of me. Nothing has worked. No bruises, no tears, nothing. Simply put there is nothing you can do to hurt me in any way. The one thing you are is powerless. All because one mare stuck to her guns and told you 'No'."
"THAT'S! A! LIIIIIIIIIIE!!!" The cracks covered Shudder's entire body now. She began to slowly lower down to she ground, shaking. "It... it's gotta be... He told me this made me strong... He said that this was my calling... I don't... I don't understand..." She laid on the ground and put her face in her hooves, and began to start crying.
Fluttershy landed next to her counterpart and took a deep breath. "Shudder?" she asked in a soft voice. "I'm going to ask you a question. It's a question somepony asked me a long time ago. It's something somepony has needed to ask you for a long time..."
Shudder looked up as Fluttershy offered her hoof.
"Do you need any help?"
At that moment the dirt floor of the cage became emblazoned in a cream yellow with the image of three pink butterflies across it.
When the Light died down Shudder was gone, all of the animals looked much healthier and happier, and were free and roaming around the cage. A deep grass had grown on the cage's dirt floor.
Fluttershy smiled as she thought about the fight ahead. A bully. That's all Glare ever was. A bully who only knew how to hurt. That fact gave Shy more confidence than she had ever had before in her young life. Because no matter how physically powerful they may be, no bully could stop Fluttershy.
Fluttershy was invincible.
A portal opened next to her. Through it she saw Twilight staring down Seraphim Glare. Then Rainbow Dash crashed trough the roof.
"One," she said.
"Two!" said Pinkie, leaping from nowhere.
Fluttershy steeled herself and leaped trough the portal. Ready for anything.
"Three," said Fluttershy.