Elements of Tragedy

by PokerFace

Kindness is Killing

The sky was just darkening, gradually changing into dusk, as the sun of Celestia left the sky to make way for Luna’s moon. The sky was shrouded in clouds, and the stars were making their appearances in the inky vista of the night. Darkness was spreading across the land of Equestria fast, and the mood of the land was matched perfectly with the emotions of six figures slowly making their way through the unnatural Everfree Forest. If you looked closely, you could tell that the six figures were all different kinds of ponies. A purple unicorn in the lead, a bleach-white unicorn mare following suit, two brightly coloured pegasi watching the skies behind them, and two peachy earth ponies taking the rear. The purple unicorn stopped to check her rather small map.

“Well, Twilight? Are we going the right way?” The blue pegasus asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion and a hint of worry. She spat the word ‘right’ with contempt, for she was sure that the purple mare was getting the group lost for the 10th time. Really, what was the point of a map if you didn’t know how to read it? The blue pegasus earned herself nothing but a look of irritation from the orange earth pony with a cowboy hat.

“I think so. We should be at the Royal Pony Sisters castle in about an hour if we pick up the pace. That encounter with the trees back there really slowed us down.” The lavender unicorn’s face was grim, her eyebrows lowered and her violet eyes more serious than anypony had ever seen them- even when she was studying. The rainbow-maned pegasus snorted, rolling her magenta eyes to the sky. Why did the unicorn have to act so darn important all the time?

“Don’t forget how me and Fluttershy saved your tail back there at the cliff. I mean, it was Awesome!” The blue pegasus then began to describe the amazing feat that had taken place not even ten minutes ago. “You were all ‘I will not!’ then AJ was like ‘Yes you will, let go and you’ll be safe!’” The pegasus did a terrible job mimicking their voices, sounding like she was mocking them rather than imitating them. Both imitated ponies sighed. This was going to be a long walk.
The group kept moving at their unique paces: The purple unicorn looked as if she wanted to break into a trot, but restrained herself; the white unicorn was walking on her tip-toes, afraid of getting her precious white coat dirty; the orange earth pony was walking with her head low, glancing from side to side with her ears pricked for danger; the pegasi were taking it easy, fluttering along slowly to accommodate the slower ponies below them; and the frizzy-maned pink earth pony was bouncing along, feeling optimistic as ever with a gleaming smile on her muzzle.

After twenty or so minutes of walking, the whole group was tired. All except one multicolor, winged pony, who seemed to have a jolly good time telling stories about her friends near-death experiences.

“After that, me and Fluttershy looped the loop around and WHAM! We caught you right in the nick of time!” She gloated, doing a barrel roll in the air and landing next to the dark-fringed pony, who snorted in contempt but covered it with a faux smile.

“Yes Rainbow, I was there. But we need to- A manticore!” She screamed, staring at the beast that was not even 20 feet away. The buttery yellow pegasus covered her face with her hooves, squeaking in fright. A manticore? How did such a rare creature arrive here? The beige beast looked like a lion: It was brownish-tan, had a beautiful maroon coloured mane and large, square paws. Two small green eyes glowed in the dim light, and a large triangular nose rested on its muzzle. It looked feline enough... except for the fact it had a scorpion tail and two dark maroon bat wings. All ponies except the pink-maned mare crouched into battle stances. The azure-eyed mare closed one of her eyes and turned away as she heard a loud smacking noise followed by a roar of pain.

“Take that you ruffian!” Rarity’s shout of accomplishment sounded like she was showing off, but why would the yellow pony exploit her when Rarity looked so proud of her—
Her thoughts were interrupted by a roar, a scream of anguish, then a similarly sounding scream of “My hair! My hair!” As Rarity clopped away. Her hair looked like it had been blown back by a tornado! But she didn’t blame the manticore. How fair was it that the butter pony let her friends torture this poor beast? It wasn’t like it was hurting anyone before Rarity went ahead and kicked it in the face. Who wouldn’t be mad if a unicorn back-kicked them in the jaw? The beast expressed its rage with a deep bellow, charging forward and swiping at Applejack. Fluttershy flinched, fluttering back a little bit. It is a little bit scary.. but..The apple-bucking rodeo pony leaped up onto its back, waving one of her hooves in excitement as it began to jump around.
Alright Fluttershy, enough is enough.

“Wait...” She flew over to the manticore, trying to get Applejack’s attention. Nobody bat an eyelash at her. They were, however, doing everything they could to make the Manticore leave them alone. Applejack was eventually thrown off of the lion, muttering something to Rainbow Dash when she went airborne. Fluttershy frowned. Why wasn’t anypony listening to her? They needed to be nice to this poor, unhappy animal! And not get too close to it, those teeth looked sharp!

“Wait..!” Fluttershy tried again, looking around to see if anypony had heard her. Of course, once again, no pony noticed. The other pegasi was flying circles around the manticore, leaving a rainbow ribbon behind her as she flew. Fluttershy didn’t understand how that was going to achieve anything, except for maybe making the manticore even angrier. Fluttershy watched in horror as the lionesque animal swiped one beefy paw out, smacking Rainbow Dash to the ground and sending her skidding face-first towards the other four ponies.

“Rainbow!” Twilight gasped, eyes wide. Fluttershy frowned. No, no, no! Being angry at it won’t solve anything. Her purple friend’s once blank expression turned into one of hatred. The unicorn curled her lip, grit her teeth and pawed the ground once with her right hoof, Applejack following the motive. Fluttershy bit her lip, considering what she was about to do. Or thought she was about to do, at least... She was so nervous for her and her friends she couldn’t even think straight. Rainbow Dash got up and joined the group. As one, they galloped in a line towards the manticore, all wearing the same faces of fury.
Fluttershy, do something! The pegasus looked around, unsure of what to do. The ponies were drawing closer. How dare they hurt an innocent creature? How dare they want to injure it for no reason? That wasn’t nice.. Fluttershy’s face twisted into one of anger and desperation for just a fleeting moment, realizing what she had to do. Be loud, Fluttershy. You can do it.

“WAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTT!” A screaming Fluttershy zipped in front of them, raising a hoof to tell them to stop. All the ponies skid to a halt, staring at the dandelion coloured pegasus with bulging eyes. Had Fluttershy, the pony afraid of her own shadow, just screamed at them- or was the heat getting to their heads? Smiling, the yellow pony trotted over to the manticore, eyes soft and kind. It growled a little bit, taking a cautious step back. She tilted her head, her teal eyes forming into pools of compassion.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” Fluttershy batted her eylashes, nuzzling the manticores paw. It still looked suspicious, raising its paw away from her. Fluttershy looked into the beasts eyes, smiling as best as she could and tilting her head to look cute. The manticore frowned, it’s eyebrows lowered. It whimpered a little bit, and held out one of its paws. On it sat a small grey thorn, probably picked up from one of the many sharp rose bushes growing around the area. Pus oozed out of the wound, and a little bit on blood.

“Ooh, you poor thing! Now this might hurt for juuust a second.” She lidded her eyes a tad bit, looking up at the beast with shining eyes. She leaned forward to get a grip on it, but heard a warning from Twilight and Rarity.

“Fluttershy.. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Twilight was skeptical.

“Fluttershy, sweetie! Who knows what kind of diseases that thing is carrying? Don’t touch it!” Rarity looked more disgusted than anything, with her nose curled up and the sides of her lips pulled down. The other three ponies nodded in agreement, shaking their heads.

“Yeah, Fluttershy. Don’t do it.” Rainbow Dash craned her neck and flapped her wings nervously.

“Fluttershy, we can just go around it!” Pinkie Pie squealed, her eyes wide.
Fluttershy ignored them. She was great with animals! She didn’t need them to tell her how to do her job. After all, it was her special talent! But maybe they were right.. A little nervously, Fluttershy leaned forward again and bit it, tearing it out of the beast’s paw. The manticore roared in pain, it’s eyes popping in anger. It grabbed her body and bit her flank, slamming her headfirst to the stony ground.

“Fluttershy!” The five ponies screamed in unison.
The last thing Fluttershy remembered was how much it hurt to feel her skull crack open against the cobblestone.