Fluttershy stood at the edge of the forest and faced her class from the School of Friendship. The sun filtered through the leaves and cast dappled light across the forest floor, a soft breeze carrying the sweet scent of wildflowers. She knew her students were just glad to be on a fieldtrip, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make it a fun learning experience. Proudly, she addressed them all. “Welcome, everyone! Today, we’re going to learn about the special bond between animals and kindness. Nature is full of amazing creatures, and each one responds to love and compassion in their own way.”
She led the group along a well-trodden path at the edge of the Everfree—the safe parts—pointing out various plants and animals as they hiked. “See this little squirrel here?” Fluttershy said, gently indicating a small squirrel perched on a branch. “It’s fall, so he’s getting ready to memorize where he’s going to store his acorns. During this time their brains actually grow, and if you listen carefully, you’ll find they can be great conversationalists.”
Smolder held up her hand. “Uh, isn’t that a you thing?”
“Well, it’s easier for me,” Fluttershy said, “but anyone can learn how to understand animals. You just have to observe what they need to feel comfortable and imagine seeing the world from their eyes.”
As Fluttershy spoke, she demonstrated her point by crouching down and whispering something into the squirrel’s ear. She then turned back to her students, translating what she said. “I just told that little guy a safe spot behind my cottage where he could hide his acorns. Even if they expand their minds, it’s still hard for them to keep track of them all.”
“And… what do you get out of it?” Gallus asked.
“When we show kindness, whether it’s through our actions or our words, animals learn to trust us. And you never know when you might need a friend who knows their way around a forest that’s full of hungry Timberwolves.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, I guess,” the young griffon assented. “Though I don't think I'd get lost in a forest. I mean, I can fly.”
Smolder chuckled. “Want me to break your wings so you can really learn the lesson?”
“Hard pass,” he replied.
The group continued their walk, Fluttershy pointing out various creatures—birds singing in the trees, a family of deer grazing in a clearing, and a babbling brook filled with darting fish. Each time, she emphasized the importance of approaching with gentleness and respect.
“Remember,” Fluttershy said, as they stopped near a meadow filled with colorful butterflies, “nature thrives on harmony. Just as we ponies, and creatures, need kindness to work together, so too do the animals and plants around us. When we live in harmony with nature, it reflects back to us in the form of beautiful, peaceful interactions.”
“Are you sure that applies to every animal out here?” Ocellus asked, anxiously. “I’m pretty sure I just saw a flock of crows mugging a rabbit out of a hawk’s talons. Obviously kindness is paramount for peaceful cooperative societies, but I’m pretty sure not all animals live like we do.”
“True, life can be hard, especially out in the wild, but that’s why we should try to make it a little easier for them,” Fluttershy explained.
“I don’t know how kindness is going to stop a hawk from eating a baby rabbit though,” Smolder added. “That’s like asking me not to eat all the gems off of Silverstream’s project for Rarity’s class.”
“So that’s where those went?” Silverstream gasped. “You said Spike needed them!”
“Huh. I did, didn’t I?”
“That’s not very Applejack-core of you,” Sandbar teased. “That’s gotta deserve detention or something.”
“Well, it’s her fault for not using fake gemstones! I’m freaking starving half the time because the cafeteria doesn’t sell dragon food.”
“Everyone please,” Fluttershy pleaded with them, spreading her wings so that everyone would turn to see her now. “Let’s discuss this later, okay? We still haven’t reached the falls yet. The fish there have the most beautiful golden hues when the sun hits them.” She turned and guided them up a small branching footpath.
Mental note, she thought to herself, talk to Starlight about the lunch menu.
“Uh, Miss Fluttershy?” Yona asked, pointing a hoof towards the bushes. “Lesson still not very clear. Does all animals mean all animals?”
“Yes, why?”
“Uh, then what about ants? Yona not sure ants even understand kindness.”
Fluttershy paused for a moment, considering Yona's question. "That's a very good question, Yona," she said, her voice soft, but proud that Yona was considerate of even the little things in nature. "Even the smallest creatures, like ants, can be affected by the kindness we show. It might not always be in the way we expect, but kindness can still make a difference." She knelt down beside a patch of grass where a line of ants was busily working. “Here, let’s see how we can help these ants. Normally you’d have to observe them for a while, but I’ll use my talent and just ask a few ants here what their colony needs.”
Fluttershy gently placed her ear near to the ground and whispered her question. To the students, nothing happened, unable to hear the thoughts and wishes and wills of animals the way she could with her natural gifts.
“Yes? What is it? Fluttershy leaned closer, trying to hear the micro-chitters of the ant trail.
“Since time immemorial,” one ant’s chitters began, quickly passing the story onto the next so that their voices were a cacophony brought to synchronistic order, “our colony has been besieged. For ten thousand generations, the Everfree Forest has spilled its boundless horrors, gnawing at the eternal glories of our Queens, at the very heart of our existence itself.”
Fluttershy blinked. “I… I’m sorry? I’m not sure I—”
“Giant one, you stand before the Super Colony—a million queens spread across a million nests—shaping the very earth upon which you stand. We are an empire beset on all sides, forever under threat from the machinations of vile contagion, cursed infiltrators, and ravenous cretins, forever at war for the very struggle of survival itself, for there is no mercy amongst the wild. Against the chitinous horrors of the Deep Woods charge our Adeptus Majorae, specially bred soldier ants who Know No Fear. They spearhead every assault against the Hated Foes and stand watch over the colony tunnels. In the fertile depths of colonial fungal farms and hatching grounds toil the Laborer Minims, tireless legs rear the Adeptus Mediae, ant specialists whose cutting jaws are blessed by Polymorphism, and their life dedicated to the Colony Queens’ holy cause.”
“Oh, that seems very—interesting.”
“So? What ants say?” Yona leaned over the trail. “What kindness mean to ants?”
Fluttershy hesitated to comment. “Well, you see…” She put her head lower to the ants. “What exactly are you struggling against?”
“The Great Devourers,” clicked the ants in unison. “The Neivamyrmex Legiones, known to your species as Army Ants. Never has there been an insect race more inimical to the survival of the colony, for they are the bane of all life within the Deep Woods. Their origins are but poorly understood, the heart of their colony constructed not from earthen mounds as ours, nor the silk-woven tapestries of the Weaver Ant colonies, but from the very flesh of their ravenous harvesters. The Queens believe the Legiones migrate by Bivouacs, constructed out of the living ant workers' own bodies, which serve as deployment nodes to marshal forces for cooperative, leaderless raid swarms that detect and overwhelm their prey in fleeting moments. As the Nerivamyrex advance, voracious tendrils blanket the Deep Woods, choking the life from doomed colonies, ripping workers and larvae from their once vital tunnels.”
Fluttershy gave a nervous grin. “Oh come now, it can’t be that bad.”
“There are many colonies, many bivouacs, each one helmed by an inexorable queen or queens, their progeny spawning multiplicitously. Yet even the Neivamyrmex are but one facet of the immeasurable threats. For we say again, our supercolony is besieged. Across a thousand fronts we fight for our survival. Those who would tear down the colony are a legion, and while our forces are great, our enemies are greater. There is no respite. There is no mercy. Even in the quietest hours, an uncaring wilderness sends perfidious parasites and plagues to break us. Our colonies burn in the caustic blight of pesticides. Yet still, we march, the last bulwark against nature’s terrors. And while we draw breath, we will fight. For in the grim dark of the forest underbrush, there is but one truth: There is Only War.”
“Okay…” Fluttershy stood, dusting the dirt and ants off her knees. “The ants are busy, Yona. I think the kindest thing would be to not disturb them. And never think about what they might be doing ever again.”
