Fluttershy Meats her Conscience

Fluttershy left the basket she had used to carry the two fish back to her house on the bridge above the creek, and flew down to drop off the two fish off at Eris and Iris' hole. They both came out and thanked her. Iris let out a cute squeak of excitement, and Eris wrapped her tiny little paws around Fluttershy's hoof in a tight hug. It was good to know that she had done the right thing—friends were the most important thing in all of Equestria, and Iris and Eris the ferrets were Fluttershy's friends.

Fluttershy flew back up to the bridge to find Angel bunny, his two forefeet crossed, standing next to the basket she had used to carry the two fish. "Um, hi Angel bunny, how are you, um," Fluttershy asked.

Angel extended one arm to point at the basket, and frowned. He seemed to be angry at Fluttershy—or at least disappointed. Fluttershy looked down, unable to continue meeting his gaze, and laid down on the ground. She looked to her side, and then back to Angel, and then back down to the ground. "I'm sorry Angel bunny, I didn't think that, well, I'm sorry if you don't like that, well. Um, I just wanted to be nice and Eris and Iris just wanted some fishies and they're always so nice too, and sorry that I took so long," Fluttershy managed to tell the ground beneath Angel's feet. "I mean, sorry if you're mad at me, I didn't mean to take so long, I should have gotten back to feed you earlier, and, I didn't, um, I was just trying to," Fluttershy started, "I just wanted to be nice."

Angel shook his head, and pointed down the path that led to Ponyville. It took Fluttershy a second to realize what he meant.

Fluttershy was a smart pony, and she had known that there was no reason for the stories that she had made up in panic about the two fishies to be true. She hadn't wanted to hurt the fishies, but she hadn't wanted to disappoint her ferret friends either, and everypony made up nice little stories about how things were to make themselves feel better from time to time. Fluttershy knew that helping her friends was a good thing, but hurting fishies was a bad thing—yet she had made a promise to Eris and Iris that she would bring them some fish, and not following through on promises was a bad thing, too. Everything was just so hard, and she just wanted to be a good pony and have other ponies like her and be her friends.

Fluttershy let out a short, quiet whine, and her muzzle sank down to the ground in shame. Fluttershy realized that the merchant-pony hadn't been angry because he couldn't help her get some fish. He had probably been angry that anypony would want to buy what had once been a living creature to feed to another animal, when they could just buy soy-cakes instead. "I'm the worst pony, sorry, I deserve to, well, oh, um, oh no," Fluttershy said. Maybe the merchant-pony had told somepony else that Fluttershy had been trying to buy fish. He did always tell Fluttershy stories about other ponies who had been silly or dumb. Ponies always talked to each other so much, and it was always so hard for Fluttershy to know what to say to get them to be her friends. She just tried to be nice to everypony—that seemed to work most of the time.

Fluttershy valued nothing more than her friendships with other ponies—for these were the apple of her eye.

Eris sat beneath the bridge, gnawing on the fish that Fluttershy had brought her. She would enjoy her meal.