Altering Harmony

Fluttershy snarled, lashing out with a hoof at her pet Angel the bunny. She didn't like how he'd been pestering her ever since a few hours ago. In fact, it was really irritating; there was even this one time where she'd been eating and Angel had appeared out of nowhere, causing her to choke on her food quite badly. It took a long time for her to recover - to her disgust, Angel was included in the process - but eventually she did, and you could tell that she was not happy at all about it.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, once again lashing out at Angel. The bunny, to her surprise, barely dodged it, but still managed to avoid it nonetheless.

"You know what, Angel?" Fluttershy's voice was sickly sweet as she spoke. "I need to go out for a walk. And you, little bunny, are going to stay here the entire time."

She placed a lot of emphasis on the word "you", her tone becoming more and more hostile with each word.

Angel, clearly shocked at how agressive his caretaker had become, ran off in tears.

"That's what I thought," Fluttershy growled, opening the door to her cottage as she unfolded her wings and took flight.

She flew over Ponyville, her eyes scanning the ground below as she searched for a suitable place to land. Just as Fluttershy found one and was about to plummet down, a rainbow-colored mane flashed at the corner of her eyes. Recognizing the mane, Fluttershy turned in its direction, only to witness Rainbow Dash resting on top of a nearby cloud.

Why, she'll make for a fine victim. Fluttershy chuckled before flying over to the cloud and then bucking it extremely hard in the side, causing it to dissipate into thin air.

"Wha-" Rainbow Dash woke up just as her fluffy bed disappeared. "Hey!" she protested, flapping her wings in panic until she finally got a hold of herself. It was then that she noticed Fluttershy, who was staring at Rainbow Dash with an amused expression on her face.

"What'd you do that for, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Fluttershy snickered. "Think, Rainbow Dash... or is all of this just too much for your simple little brain that it can't even think properly anymore?"

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth for a brief moment before she finally let out a long, defeated sigh. "Seriously, Fluttershy. What do you want from me? A fluffy cloud to sleep on? Just leave me alone, then, and you can have one. I don't care anymore."

Huffing, Rainbow Dash flew away, her silhouette becoming more and more distant until finally Fluttershy could no longer see her at all.

"Absolutely pathetic," Fluttershy sneered before plunging into a dive, her eyes set on the large suitable-for-a-safe-landing clearing that she had discovered from before. Folding her wings at the very last second, she gently touched the ground and began trotting in the direction of the Golden Oak Library, which just happened to be nearby.

Knock! Knock!

Twilight groaned as she heard the persisent, firm knocking on the door. She hadn't been in the mood for visitors at all ever since Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Although Spike had convinced them to leave at the very end, he himself had begun bombarding her with questions of all kinds soon after.

It had been really irritating; fortunately, Twilight had managed to postpone his questions to the next day through some secret means.

"Great, now who could that be? If it's those ridiculous fillies again... Celestia be my witness that I'll have no mercy on them," Twilight muttered.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Twilight's ears twitched as she continued to ignore the growing knocks.

"Open this door, now!" a familiar voice sounded from behind the door.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight said, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "Exactly how many ponies are those troublesome fillies sending to my library just to convince me to help-"

"OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Fluttershy shouted deafeningly, interrupting Twilight's words.

Twilight, shocked to the core by her friend's hostility, slowly creeped toward the door and opened it to reveal an extremely furious Fluttershy.

"O-Oh, hi Fluttershy," Twilight stammered, sneaking a glance behind Fluttershy to check if the Cutie Mark Crusaders were hiding behind her.

"Did you not hear me knock?" Fluttershy eyed her suspiciously, the harshness of her voice freezing Twilight in place.

"Well, I did," Twilight explained, "but I thought it was Apple Bloom and Scootaloo since they've been bugging me all day."

"Whatever," Fluttershy growled, shouldering Twilight aside rather rudely in order to enter her library.

"Um... Fluttershy?" Twilight turned around to see that the yellow pegasus was now sitting on a nearby stack of books.

"What? Don't bother with offering me refreshments," Fluttershy grunted.

"N-No, not that. I just wanted to ask you if you were... feeling alright," Twilight chuckled nervously.

Just as Fluttershy was about to respond, however, Spike came into view.

"Hey, Twilight-" Spike stopped in his tracks, seeing Fluttershy.

Fluttershy snapped her head in the baby dragon's direction, fixating him with a cold glare.

Twilight nodded her head before Spike could speak. "She's crazy!" Twilight mouthed the words as good as she could just as Fluttershy whirled around. Noticing her sudden movement, Twilight immediately mustered up a fake smile.

"So, why did you come over?" Twilight asked her, trying to keep her tone as neutral as she could.

"I've been bored lately," Fluttershy replied, occasionally stepping on stray books as she wandered around the messy library, her expression one of disgust.

"Well, you could always help me clean up-" Twilight was cut off as Fluttershy spoke.

"What kind of pony cleans up stupid books when they're bored?" Fluttershy rolled her eyes in irritation, turning to Twilight. "If you really want somepony to do your dirty work, Twilight, then I suggest Rainbow Dash. Oh, but wait... she'll probably give up before she even started! Pathetic!"

"W-Well, I just thought that y-you could help me instead," Twilight stammered, avoiding Fluttershy's cold gaze as best as she could.

"Aren't you the Element of Kindness though, Fluttershy?" Spike asked her. "You're supposed to do kind things for another pony!"

"Only the Element of Generosity does favors for somepony else like a slave. Get your facts straight before declaring me that filthy element," Fluttershy snarled at the young dragon. "And mind your own business, too!"

Spike stared at the yellow pegasus in horror as she began knocking down nearby piles of books, contributing to the library's already messy state. "Looks like what Scootaloo and Apple Bloom said really were true," he whispered to himself, "not that I didn't believe them already when I saw Twilight, but... my friends have all changed for the worse."

"And it's all my fault because I couldn't be there for them when they most needed me."