The Death of Kindness

by Grethon

Replacing a Loved One

Chapter 2: Replacing a Loved One

"So Twilight dear, you know the Princess best. Do you have any idea why she would need us all here like this so soon after the uhhh... tragedy?" Twilight looked up from the book she was reading to stare at Rarity. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack were all sitting at a grand dining table in Canterlot palace. They had been called there by Princess Celestia a few hours earlier to discuss something she had said was "of great importance".

"I can't say for certain Rarity, but Princess Celestia wouldn't have called us if she believed it was something that could be done without our help." Twilight said in a matter of fact way. "I have full confidence that she knows what she is doing."

"I'm sure it's something real important too!" Rainbow said with a sarcastic tone. "I mean it would explain why the Princess hasn't bothered to show up after an hour of us waiting here right?"

"Rainbow! That's mighty disrespectful of you to be talking about the Princess that way!" Applejack piped up in an offended tone. "She's a very busy pony after all."

It was a well known fact in the group that Rainbow Dash partiality blamed Fluttershy's death on Princess Celestia. The quest that they were sent on that faithful day wasn't to settle a nation threatening conflict or to prevent a looming disaster. It was a simple fetch quest to find an old relic that might help them understand the powers of the Elements of Harmony better. Nothing a single adventurous pony like Daring Doo could have done, but instead Celestia sent Twilight and her friends to retrieve it since using the Elements were their charge.

Rainbow shot Applejack a dirty look. "So we aren't important to her then? Are we just the last thing on her to do list before she sets the sun and goes to bed?"

"No Rainbow y'know that's not what I meant." Applejack said in a more reasonable tone.

"Then what DID you mean?"

"Dashie please stop!" everypony turned their attention to Pinkie Pie. She was welling up with tears and she had a pleading look in her eyes. "Fluttershy wouldn't have wanted us to fight like this."

Rainbow looked down at her hooves. "I... I'm sorry Pinkie. Your right." She looked over to Applejack with a guilty look on her face. "You too Applejack. Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled like that."

"It's alright sugercube. We're still grieving ourselves."

The room fell silent once more for a few minuets. Twilight continued to read her book, Pinkie was idly tracing her fore hoof on the table in front of her, Rainbow looked deep in thought, Rarity was just staring at the door, and Applejack was thinking about home. The Apple family had volunteered to take all of Fluttershy's animals and care for them until they could find a good home. Many had already been adopted by animal lovers far and wide. The news of Fluttershy's death spread quickly and there were many ponies willing to take a pet or two off of Applejack's hooves. Angel however was proving to be unadoptable. Applejack believed he was still holding out for Fluttershy to come back one day. Poor thing.

After another few minuets the door swung open. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna walked through the door and greeted their guests. "Hello my little ponies, I am sorry to have kept you waiting for so long." Celestia said in her ever regal voice.

Everypony but Rainbow bowed quickly and Twilight decided to speak up first. "Princess does this have anything to do with that faint magic burst from the west last week? I've never felt anything like it before!"

"No Twilight, but I will speak to you in private afterwards about just that." Celestia said. Twilight nodded and Celestia looked back to address the whole group. "Everypony I know you are all in a state of grief still. Fluttershy's passing was sudden and unexpected, and something I did not foresee happening in my wildest dreams. That is why I never thought I would have to assign you girls this quest in your lifetime."

Celestia paused for a second and looked over towards one of the stain glass windows depicting the girls defeating Nightmare Moon. "Without the Element of Kindness the powers of the Elements of Harmony are nearly useless, and without the Elements of Harmony to protect Equestria I fear that we could be put in great danger with no way to defend ourselves. Luna and I have been studying the relic you girls brought back from the Unicorn Range, and we have discovered that it is possible to reassign an element to another pony if they meet requirements of that element."

Rarity spoke up. "But... Princess you can't seriously be suggesting that-"

"Yes I am Rarity." Celestia cut her off. "I need you, all of you, to find a pony that is as caring, loving, and kind, as Fluttershy was."

"You have got to be kidding me!" Rainbow yelled in anger. "You can't expect us to just go and replace Fluttershy like that! No, not going to happen!" Everypony else remained quiet, but by looking at them you could tell that their sentiments was with Rainbow Dash.

"That is not what we are asking!" Luna pitched in. "We would never ask you to replace your friend. But as it stands right now, without somepony to wield the Element of Kindness we are far less safe from danger."

"But why us?" Pinkie said.

"All of you knew Fluttershy better then anypony else in Equestria, and so I can think of no pony else to find somepony who matches the Element of Kindness." Celestia said reassuringly.

Twilight looked at all of her friends. Their expressions ranged from determined to horrified at this possible quest. She had her doubts too, but she wasn't about to question Celestia's judgement. She has always done what was best for her and everypony else and she wasn't about to start questioning her now. "Okay Celestia, I trust you. Where do we start!" She said confidently.

Celestia smiled. Twilight's reaction was just what she expected from her faithful student. "Very well then here is the plan." Celestia conjured a scroll right in front of her and unraveled it on the table in front of her. A Map of Equestria lay in front of her and everypony else. It had five markers placed on it, each one was colored to match the coat on one of the Elements of Harmony. "All five of you will split up and go to a city or town in Equestria and scout your location for a pony that is kind. I have selected locations that all of you would be best suited to go to."

"Applejack, you will go to Appleloosa. You have family there and know the south better then anypony else."

"Yes ma'am!" Applejack said with much gusto.

"Rarity, I am sending you to Manehatten. With your career in fashion you are very well suited to adjusting to city life."

"Manehatten! I would be delighted Princess." Rarity said excitedly.

"Pinkie Pie, I would like for you to go to Los Pegasus. A place where everypony is always partying would be best suited for you."

Pinkie just smiled and gave a nod.

"Rainbow Dash, since you are the only Pegasus the obvious choice for you is to go to Cloudsdale. Especially since it is your hometown."

"Yea, whatever." Rainbow Dash said while looking off into the distance.

"And then for you Twilight. I need for you to go to Tall Tale. I know you have never been there before, but the town has a pretty extensive library aswell as a larger then average unicorn population. It will be to your liking."

"I've always wanted to to visit Tall Tale. I just never got the chance!" Twilight was very cheery.

"Now everypony." Celestia took on a much more relaxed tone now. "This isn't just meant to be a quest to do and then go home. All of you have been in so much pain and misery lately, and so I want you to take this opportunity to relax and make some new friends. I want all of you to come back with a smile and the willingness to move on. And hopefully somepony who can bear the Element of Kindness."

After a moment to let it all seep in Luna spoke up again. "Everypony will have two days to go back to Ponyville to pack up and get ready for their trip, All living expenses will be paid for by us for as long as you need to stay. We will also hire ponies to watch and take care of your homes while you are away. Yes that includes a full time farmer Applejack." Applejack, who had a hoof in the air, put it down with a blush and smile on her face.

"Twilight." Celestia had walked over to her faithful student. "I need to talk to you in private now."

"Of course Celestia!"

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Twilight and Celestia were standing on a balcony over looking Canterlot. Celestia look muddled and didn't know where to start the conversation. Luckily for her Twilight was going to start it for her.

"Your not sending me to Tall Tale just because of its Library are you?" Twilight said with a smile on her face.

Celestia turned to Twilight and smiled herself. "Was it that obvious?"

"Well yea I mean that magic burst, it came from almost directly that direction. If it had happened while we were still at the Unicorn Range I probably could have pin pointed the exact location."

"That magic." Celestia took a serious tone once again. "Twilight it has been a long time since I have felt that kind of magic. To you it probably just felt like a new and unique kind of spell flux, but for me it brought back horrible memories."

"But why?"

"That magic radiated death. It was powerful too. Whoever cast it could most likely rival even your power." Celestia cast back a serious glance to Twilight.

"If that's true, then why haven't we heard any news about it? If somepony cased a spell that powerful and deadly wouldn't something have happened by now?" Twilight was obviously trying to think of answers as she talked.

"I don't know Twilight. It could have been a Unicorn who found an ancient tomb and decided to experiment with old spells, or it could have been something else just practicing its magic before it uses it seriously. Either way, that magic has been banned since Equestria was first founded and any pony using it needs to be found and punished or at the very least warned."

"Okay then. You want me to find out who cased that spell and bring them to you?"

"Only if that is necessary. If you believe they were just naive then a warning from you would suffice, but I am willing to come out there myself if the problem is more serious." Celestia changed to a smile and craned her neck to rest on Twilight's head. "You have always exceeded my expectations Twilight and you have my confidence that you will find out what happened and take care of it responsibly."

"Thank you Celestia you don't know how much that means to me." Twilight's eyes started welling up. "Sometimes I wonder, if I had just tried a little bit harder, done a little bit more, maybe I could have saved Fluttershy aswell." She sobbed for a second before regaining her composure.

"You blame yourself for Fluttershy's death just like Rainbow Dash does, don't you?" Celestia said.

"I know I shouldn't think like that, but sometimes I just can't help it... but wait doesn't Rainbow blame you?" Twilight looked up to Celestia inquisitively.

"Rainbow Dash is having a conflict in herself. She blames herself for Fluttershy's death, but at the same time she has trouble admitting she was wrong. She told herself that she would never let anything happen to any of her friends, and so when she proves herself wrong by letting Fluttershy die she becomes... troubled. Shes venting the only way she knows how, but I know that one day soon she will realize what you already have, and when she does she will want to apologize."

"How can you be so certain?"

"I have known many pegasi like Rainbow Dash over the years. It becomes easy to spot." Celestia smiled.

"Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy grew up together! Shes had to have taken it harder then anypony else." Twilight said.

"And how is everypony else?"

"Applejack and Rarity are both very mature. They are ready to move on already and I'm not worried about them. Pinkie Pie on the other hand... Shes hasn't even been able to throw a single party since then. I hope shes back to her normal self after a week in Los Pegasus."

"That was my intention in sending her there." Celestia said confidently.

"Are you sure you even need me to tell you how everypony is doing? You already seem to know." Twilight said flatly. Celestia just giggled at that. "Well there was one pony who surprised me." Twilight continued.

"Oh who is that?"

"Applejack told me that when she first told Bic Mac about her death, that he was really distraught. I didn't even think about any stallions that might have had feelings for Fluttershy until I heard about that."

"Everypony is affected when somepony passes away Twilight. Even those you think would be mostly unmoved by it."

"I suppose your right Celestia."

Celestia looked across the sky. The Sun was just about to touch the horizon, and so she prepared to set it with her magic. With a glow of her horn the Sun dipped down past the rolling plains and the moon rose on the other side of the sky in its place. Celestia turned back to Twilight and gave her one last reassuring hug before retiring inside. "Good night Celestia". Twilight decided that it would be best for her to get some rest as well, for tomorrow she would have to spend the whole day back in Ponyville getting ready for her adventure in Tall Tale. Little did she know that the one pony she was trying to get over would happen to be there as well.

Author's Note:

Sorry no Fluttershy or Aeirck this chapter! I wanted to focus on world building and foreshadowing. Next Chapter will be just them and I'll focus more on building Aerick as a character.

I will try to do 1 chapter or 3000 words per week. I can't make any promises though.

I want to thank Steelclaw for motivating me to keep writing. I take criticism really bad, but he made me realize that I'm just an amateur so there's no way I'm going to be perfect. That is what practice is for.

Comments

[Steelclaw]

Aside from a few typos and such, the story is looking good so far! I'm still wondering just what happened to Fluttershy, but it doesn't seem that important to the plot. Now the poor ponies are going to be separated after the death of their friend! That's rough, but it seems like they need to find someone who can bear the element of kindness. I wonder if "Ashlyn" would qualify (Could an undead pony even wield such magic?), since the only pony that could be as sweet as Fluttershy would be herself.

Keep going! I look forward to seeing how things develop, and I do hope that Fluttershy eventually bumps into one of the Mane 6...er...Mane 5. I wonder if Fluttershy will stay preserved as she is, or if she'll eventually start to decay. Aerick seems to be familiar with necromancy, but he has nopony else with him, so I suspect that any others might have rotted away and were "dismissed".

Anyway, it's great that you decided to continue. Don't worry too much about bad criticism and only accept the constructive kind. It's YOUR story that you're sharing with us, so write it how you want.

[Rupertthered]

Any idea when this story will update?