The Element of Kindness

by Hoshii Niisan

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy
Length: 1693

Fluttershy is known for being the Element of Kindness, but her beginnings were not kind to her.

The Element of Kindness is just so... um... KIND! But was her past kind to her?
Before Fluttershy there was Flutter, and before that was a pony who was addicted to alcohol, who married another alcoholic pony. They made a filly, but was she the same as the Fluttershy we know today?

Cover credits go to Hasbro, or whoever made MLP, DHX, I honestly don't care who made it.

Published 2015-01-01 17:50:06 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-01 17:50:06 UTC

In Which Fluttershy Gets Her Cutie Mark- And Regrets It.

The big moment was here.

That day, the race with Rainbow "Crash" and some bullies was here. Rainbow Dash had called them out, and Fluttershy was the one who started the race.

She anxiously held the flag with her hoof, but she was shaking with it in her nervous attack. She lowered the flag, and the force of the flight starting shocked her so much that she spun in a circle about a thousand times. She landed down on ground.

Ground.

What was it?

Up above, Rainbow Dash had done it- a sonic rainboom.

Down below, the critters of the earth were frightened. What could she do other than try to comfort them? This is what she did, and suddenly she burst put into song, feeling all the emotions associated with happiness.

That day, she received a nice wing injury from mommy. Only her stuffed animals knew of the incident with Rainbow Dash.

It was a sunny day that afternoon, but despite the birds singing a cheerful song, the pegasi keeping the clouds at bay, and even the ice cream pony giving away sweet treats, Fluttershy huddled in a corner of her room, in an afraid and melancholy mood. It was there she spoke to Chirpy, one of her stuffed birds.

"Does anyone love me?" She asked Chirpy.

"I do." He replied.

Fluttershy knew that when Chirpy talked to her, it was the lonely equivalent of her talking to her. It was because of this she cried. She cried and cried, knowing there wasn't anyone who really cared for her. Yet, through a breaking voice, Chirpy spoke to her once more.

"What about that teacher?"

She remembered Ms. Magnolia Petal, who was her teacher. She only cried harder- school had just let out for the weekend. She went to her mirror to look at herself. She did this every time she questioned who she was. But her breath dissappeard when she saw it.

Her cutie mark.

It contained three butterflies, all of them with pink wings and a blue abdomen. Fluttershy was excited. Her cutie mark was finally here! Wait until her friends...

That's right, she thought, I have no friends. I am unloved.

Her father burst into the room, holding another empty bottle of alcohol in his hoof. "Fluttershy! Dear!"

She wanted to scream, but she knew she had to hide. His vision was impaired when he was drunk. She hid under the bed, considering herself lucky that she always cleaned under it.

"Dang it, Fluttershy! Get out here NOW."

Fluttershy remained under the bed, no matter how many times he yelled.

It wasn't long before her mother was in her room as well. "FLUTTERSHY!"

She remained under her bed, crying silently as they started searching. They searched everywhere, until they found her.

"I told you, girl," said daddy. "GET OUT HERE NOW." He grabbed her by her back hooves and tail, and this made Fluttershy howl with pain. Daddy stopped when he noticed her cutie mark. "Well well well... what have we here? Butterflies?" He started to beat her on the flank, but didn't stop there. He beat her on the head, the stomach, and even asked mommy to help beat her on her hooves.

Fluttershy wanted to scream, to fight back. But the pain was too much. She silently cried until he grabbed at her neck, causing vases to break with her scream.

When everything was done, Fluttershy was somehow alive, but not fully awake. Before she drifted off, she heard daddy say, "Useless girls like you don't deserve to come out of their room. You can stay there a little longer.

A little longer meant a week.

In Which Fluttershy Gets Out of "Home"

A week later, Fluttershy mustered all her strength to stand. It was painful. Extremely painful. She was covered in scabs and still bleeding scratches. Her main task was to get out. Now.

She grabbed a blanket, and inserted her most precious belongings, which included Chirpy, some scrap bits, a few books, and a candle. She couldn't think of much else to bring.

Her next obstacle was the window. She could hear noises from daddy. Snoring. They were sound asleep. She quickly broke the window and lept out.

Mommy and daddy heard the noise. "Was that a burglar?"

"I don't know, darlin'. I'll go check." He grabbed a bat and checked the house, excluding Fluttershy's room. Good riddance if he kills her, he thought. "Maybe something fell," he said dismissively on his way back to bed. "Let's just go back to sleep."

Fluttershy was lost for hours until she saw the sun rise in the morning. School.

She rushed over to Ms. Petal, and explained everything. Quickly, she flew as fast as her wings would allow and fled Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash tried following her, but it was no use. The adrenaline filled Fluttershy was swift to land on the ground, next to a tree. She remembered the huge, bushy tree from her fall in which the butterflies saved her. She found the tree was like a house, and she settled there to rest. A whole bunch of animals lived there, however, and Fluttershy made close friends with them over the next few months.

One morning, about five years later, Fluttershy was gathering some birds to practice their song that all of Equestria would know.

That's where she met Twilight Sparkle.

In Which Fluttershy is Born

"Well, would you look at that." The older pony looked at her newborn filly. And what a cute filly she was! A yellow filly, with a pink mane and tail. You would think the new mother would be crying with joy, urging her husband to come see her, but she was the exact opposite. Behind her false smile lied an inner face of disgust, despite the overjoyed newborn reaching out to her. The mother was still in the hospital, there was no way to rid herself of the child here. She just kept down the filly's hooves, which the filly used to wholeheartedly try and reach out to her "mama!"

Mama was her first word.

"So..." The nurse trotted into the hospital room, achieving an almost teary smile at the sight of the yellow filly. "What shall you name her?" She smiled at the filly and then at her mother.

The mother, however, was speechless. She almost involuntarily uttered "I don't know."

"How about... Flutter? That sounds like a nice name, and it seems fitting for a Pegasus like her."

The mother had another idea. "How about Fluttershy?"

"Oh!" The nurse squealed with delight, slightly startling the baby. "What a cute name!"

Mere hours later, all the paperwork was filled out. Fluttershy now had a mother. On the way out, the mother was able to shed her false smile. Her look of disgust and even anger left Fluttershy undeterred, and as such she kept reaching her hooves out, desperate for a hug.

A hug was the one thing she didn't recieve all day.

Author's Note

My sister (She wrote "The Other Side of the Diamond" and is known as Snowfu on this website) gave me a headcanon on what Fluttershy's past was like to make her so kind and yet so shy. Here it is in story form.

In Which A Filly Goes to School

Fluttershy's days as a filly were normal. They always followed this order:

Cry at three o'clock in the morning.

Recieve a small slap from Mommy, but it feels like a slap to the filly.

Sleep, drowning in tears.

Wake up four hours later.

Receives regular food.

Poops.

Changed diaper.

Recieves lots of love.

Feels happy. Breifly.

Get a good night kiss.

Repeat.

It was a peculiar relationship indeed, but Fluttershy kept noticing these bottles all over the floor. They weren't like baby bottles, they had writing on them. Oh well, Fluttershy couldn't read well yet, but she knew the alphabet. B-E-E-R. She decided there wasn't any harm in drinking it, it was accessible on the floor. Fluttershy took a sip. It was a small sip, but it tasted awful. But something horrible happened. She felt horrible pain in her head. It went all the way down to her stomach. Then her hooves. Then her tail. She lied down on the cold, bare cloudy floor, and rested. Her last moments of consciousness were of her father picking up the bottles.

A year later, Fluttershy was ready to go to school.

"Mommy!" She yelled. "I'm ready to go to school!"

She and her mother went through the checklist, and before she departed for school, she received a big hug and a bigger kiss. "I love you," she said, sending her off. As she left, her look of happiness turned to anger once more as she pulled out more alcohol to drink as she went inside.

Fluttershy meanwhile spent about ten minutes searching Cloudsdale, confused with slight terror. The terror subsided as she found her school, and was met with a comforting and warm face. "Are you lost, sweetie?"

"Y-y-yes." She started shaking, and adopted a nervous look.

"Honey," said the teacher. "Please don't be nervous. I'm here for you." Her face lit up with a smile. Fluttershy reciprocated, and the teacher asked for her name. Once she replied with her name, the teacher brightened up. "It looks like you're in my class!"

Fluttershy let out a small and sheepish "Yay."

Fluttershy felt friendly envy towards one of the fillies in her class. Her name was Rainbow Dash. She was such a good flier, compared to Fluttershy she was a guru at flying. She had told her cliques of friends that she was working to make a sonic rainboom, a flying stunt that was hard to achieve, especially for a mere filly. Fluttershy watched her fly meekly from a distance. Rainbow Dash noticed her once, but Fluttershy turned her head to the swings nearby, so as to conceal her burning, deep red face.

When Fluttershy returned home, she recieved a nice black and blue eye from her father.