Kindness
Chapter 1
Twilight Sparkle sat in her darkened bedroom with a pen in her hand. From her desk, she could clearly make out the full moon from her window, slightly obscured by a thin layer of smoky clouds. It was a quiet night, a peaceful night. But like every night, Twilight would stay up late to study.
It wasn’t like she was failing her classes, in fact, the very opposite. Twilight was the brightest witch of her generation and – quite possibly – the most powerful. She’d gotten into one of the most prestigious schools for young witches when she was just seven years old. She’d performed a spell to hatch a baby dragon in front of three very powerful, judgemental witches and warlocks and as a reward for such a high scoring mark; she was allowed to keep the dragon.
Twilight’s previous classmates had been bitter towards her success. She had always been quiet, a little girl who instead of playing tag on the playground, would be bound to a book about assorted spells in a shaded corner. Twilight could hear the vicious remarks of her fellow classmates and she’d been many a time victimised by some cruel magical practical jokes. Still, it never bothered her. Twilight Sparkle didn’t see the need for friends. Her books kept her company and that was all that mattered to her.
Lazily, Twilight lifted a finger into the air and drew it over the page of her latest book. Immediately, the page lit up with a pink glow and turned itself over. Telekinesis was something most witches were gifted with at young ages and Twilight was known for taking advantage of it – especially to help carry her books around – in fact, Twilight hardly saw it as magic at all. At the moment, she had been busying herself with teleportation spells. If she was able to teleport herself safely from class to class, she’d never need to worry about her fellow classmates causing any kind of trouble. In fact, she had a book somewhere in her pile that spoke of an invisibility charm that would prove just as useful.
Twilight saw spells as her way of proving herself. Her teachers were always praising her when she revealed her latest spell and in that way, she felt like she belonged. Magic was everything to her and because of that, she had to make sure she was always several steps ahead of her classes at all times.
However, on this warm spring evening, just as Twilight had lifted her hand to turn the next page, she heard something outside.
In fact, more than a something. A someone.
“Oh no, Oh no, Oh no!”
SMASH
Twilight’s head shot up instinctively as the noise reverberated through her room.
At first, Twilight considered the fact that it might just be another prank. God knows how many times she had had someone from her school throw an egg at her window or maybe jinx her bike. She’d long since started walking to school, so that didn’t matter to her. However, from her window she could clearly see a cloud of dirt, like something… someone had fallen. From where, she couldn’t tell, but whoever it was or whatever it was, she knew she had to do something.
Quickly, Twilight swung her lilac bathrobe around her nightgown and slipped on a pair of boots. Carefully, she tiptoed through her house, checking to make sure her mother and father were still asleep. She also checked in on her brother’s room, but knew it was really a waste of time. Her brother could sleep through the apocalypse so she doubted a noise from outside would even cause him to stir.
As Twilight made her way to the back door, she could see the cloud of dirt clearing and quickly moved to unlock it. Being in a hurry, she simply levitated the key inside the lock and turned it as quietly as possible before slipping out into the cool spring air.
“Hello?” She whispered as she took a step towards the cloud.
As the dirt cleared entirely, the moonlight shone down onto the figure in the grass. To Twilight, all she could see was a mound of bright pinks and yellows, but as she made her way slowly closer, she began to notice other things too. Two pale arms were sprawled out in front of a young girl’s head. She couldn’t see any of the girl’s features for there were masses of pink hair in the way. Her slender legs were bare up to the knee length green skirt she was wearing. Twilight frowned as she lifted a hand into the air. Quickly, her palm began to glow a bright pink, illuminating the rest of the girl’s body. Twilight had just begun to kneel down towards her when she saw them.
Two bright yellow feathered wings were sprawled out along the girl’s shoulders. One had tucked itself rather neatly into her shoulder blade; however the other lay outwards, ruffled and presumably injured. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat immediately as she fell onto her knees. She scrambled back unsurely as the injured wing twitched and the strange pink-haired girl gave a yelp of pain.
Twilight found herself frozen as she stared disbelievingly at the girl in her garden. She blinked, rubbed at her eyes and blinked again, but the image in front of her was still very clear. A girl, possibly around Twilight’s own age with… wings.
“It can’t be.” Twilight whispered.
It appeared her voice had been heard this time as the girl in front of her shifted and again let out a tiny yelp of pain. Her voice was soft, even though Twilight could clearly see the thing attached to her back was very likely broken.
Twilight’s mind began to work again as the girl began to come around. No matter who she was or what she was she needed medical attention. Twilight considered the variety of spells she had self-taught herself but knew that she was no way close to figuring out the healing spell. She didn’t want to end up causing the girl even more pain.
“Okay, fine. No healing spell.” Twilight muttered to herself as she rubbed her face in frustration, “That’s fine…” Her eyes widened suddenly with a bright spark as she remembered something else. She’d done a first aid course a while back, it hadn’t been much and she’d only ever properly trained on animals but… wasn’t this the same sort of thing? When she was ten, a bird had gotten caught in her room with a broken wing and her mother had taught her how to splint and bandage it. If she could do it to a bird then surely she could…?
“What am I thinking?” Twilight muttered to herself as she pushed her face into her hands.
This was insane, she was insane! There was no way she was staring at what she thought she was staring at. Not one chance in the matter.
But then the girl groaned again and this time she lifted her head, “R-Rainbow Dash?” She muttered to herself airily before her eyes snapped shut and her chin hit the ground.
Twilight sighed in defeat. If on the very off chance she wasn’t having some kind of strange dream or hallucination, she couldn’t leave this girl in the dirt. She had to help her.
Gently, Twilight shook the girl’s uninjured shoulder and waited for a response.
Only a few moments later did the girl groan again. One of her hands fisted the grass in her palms as she groggily tried to lift herself up.
“No, wait!” Twilight cried, instantly grabbing for the girl’s arm, “You’re… You’re hurt!”
The girl didn’t seem to understand, because she simply tried to push herself up again. This caused a searing pain to shoot from her wing up into her shoulder and down her arm. She let out a soft yelp before promptly falling against the dirt again.
“W-Where am I?” She asked after a moment’s hesitation. Her voice remained in a dulcet tone.
“Canterlot.” Twilight said with an eyebrow raised, “My garden, more specifically.”
“Canterlot?” The girl squeaked, obviously alarmed. Her arms scrambled against the dirt and this time she lifted herself up, wincing against the pain as her wide blue eyes scanned the area. “Oh no, oh no!” she squealed, “I can’t be here, I can’t!”
Her voice was small and pained as her breathing hitched and she began to hyperventilate.
Twilight’s eyes widened as she took the girl by her uninjured shoulder, “Hey, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.” She frowned, “Why can’t you be here?”
If the girl had heard her, she didn’t show any signs of it and instead carried on babbling, “Oh… they’ll lock me up if they find me! They’ll never let me out again. Oh! How could I be so stupid?” Her voice was so soft and smooth, if Twilight couldn’t plainly see the fear in her eyes she wouldn’t have believed how afraid she truly was.
“Who would lock you up?” Twilight asked, alarmed.
“Oh…” The girl quietened down, her breath calming as she realised Twilight was now staring at her intently. “I…” She cleared her throat and looked at the floor, “It doesn’t matter… I have to go now.” She moved to stand up, only for her wing to slide to her side uncooperatively. She let out a muffled cry of pain as her wing lay lifeless at her side.
Twilight stared at it questioningly. It acted just like any other limb… except of course… it wasn’t. “What are you?” Twilight asked, snapping her lips closed the minute she realised what she’d said.
The girl looked at her, confused for a moment. Then she stared down at Twilight’s still glowing palm. Recognition lit in her eyes, “You’re a witch.”
Twilight closed her palm instinctively, effectively closing off the light, “Yes.” She said, as if it were obvious, which of course, it was. To anyone who lived in Canterlot.
A small smile quirked the lips of the winged stranger, “I’ve never met a witch before.” She said whimsically, “I mean… I’ve seen your kind before but never had the courtesy of speaking-” she cut herself off, a look of terror in her eyes, “Because I’m not supposed to talk to you… we… I can’t. This isn’t right.” She shook her head and looked about herself desperately. She couldn’t leave; she could barely stand with the searing pain shooting through half of her body.
Twilight only stared at the stranger in confusion, “Our kind?” she bit out icily, “What are you?”
The girl looked to Twilight and smiled, “I… I’ve said too much.”
“No.” Twilight remained stubborn, “You haven’t said enough,” she motioned to the girl’s wing, “and you’re certainly not getting anywhere with that in the state it’s in.”
The girl sighed, “I…”
“I’ll help you.” Twilight said suddenly, still eyeing the wing warily, “I don’t think it’s broken, it could be dislocated though.”
The girl looked at the floor and winced, “R-Really?” She asked, biting her lip.
Twilight nodded, “Come inside.” She said gently, sticking up a finger as a thought came to her, “And quietly.” She added, “I don’t want my parents to see you.”
The girl quirked a brow, “Are they witches too?”
Twilight frowned. What an odd question to ask. Of course they were. What else would they be? “Yes.” She said.
The girl’s eyes sparkled in wonder, “Wow…”
“I mean what I said though.” Twilight said, “Come quietly and I’ll see if I can um… relocate your…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word so she simply motioned for the girl to follow and walked off back the way she came.
Author's Note
This is just a short project and probably won't be more than three chapters long. I hope you liked this chapter, this whole 'alternate universe' will be explained shortly. This was just a bit of an introduction.
CHAPTER 2
Fluttershy had never been to Canterlot before.
Sure, she’d seen it from afar, but she’d never summoned up the courage to visit it. No, she had remained in Cloudsdale with her feet firmly planted on the clouds, thank you very much.
How had she even ended up in this mess anyway?
Her fists clenched a little tightly as she stepped carefully through the witch’s back door.
Rainbow Dash
A hard headed rebel at the best of times, Rainbow Dash was Fluttershy’s closest friend. Though they couldn’t have been any more different, Rainbow Dash had stuck by Fluttershy her entire life. They had been close friends since they were toddlers and, well, friendships like that just can’t break apart.
Still, it had been no accident that had caused Fluttershy to end up here. No, Rainbow Dash had been a large factor in that...
“Come to Canterlot with me, Fluttershy, c’mon, please!” Rainbow Dash flawlessly pulled the puppy-dog eyes on her closest friend as she bent down slightly to meet her gaze, “It’ll be fun!”
The girl’s adventurous nature sometimes came off as a little crazy; it didn’t help that she had hair that was literally every colour of the rainbow. Still, Fluttershy hated to disappoint her friend.
“O-Oh.” She stammered, chewing on her lip nervously, “Y-You mean to just look at it r-right?”
“Sure!” Rainbow Dash said in that way Fluttershy immediately knew she had an ulterior motive.
“But we can’t!” Fluttershy said stubbornly, instantly regretting how her tone had come across.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and grabbed Fluttershy’s hands which were wrapped tightly around her oversized yellow sleeves, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” She grinned, twirling around on the clouds, “It’ll be fine!”
“Oh… Rainbow!” Fluttershy moaned, hating how she was being forced into this. She knew that their kind weren’t supposed to mingle with the witches. It was an unspoken rule, but a rule nonetheless. She didn’t want to think of the punishments they’d be sanctioned with if they were to be caught.
“C’mon.” Rainbow Dash was already pulling her in the direction of Canterlot, “Just close your eyes and follow my voice, we’ll be there in no time!”
Fluttershy’s bottom lip trembled as she gingerly took a step off of the clouded floor of her home world, Cloudsdale. Her wings automatically began to flap behind her as she hovered in the air. She squeaked as the world below her swirled before her feet, “What if I fall?” She whispered.
“You’ve gone to Las Pegasus a bunch of times, Flutters, you can do this just as easily.” Rainbow Dash smiled. She folded her arms and sighed dramatically, “I’ll even let you hold my hand.”
Fluttershy blushed, but took her best friend’s hand nonetheless. She knew Rainbow Dash hated to do anything that was considered weak, but she’d never once backed down when assisting her friends. So, hand in hand, they’d made their way to Canterlot.
That was when everything had taken a turn for the worst.
“I c-can’t!” Fluttershy protested, “My wings are exhausted! How long have we been flying anyway?”
Rainbow Dash hid the concern for her friend with a boastful grin, “It’s fine! We’ll find some cloud cover soon enough, nothing to worry about!”
“There is no cloud cover, Rainbow Dash it’s so dark and it’s freezing!”
“We’ll drop down lower then,” Rainbow Dash insisted, pulling Fluttershy closer, “It’s fine, no one will see us in the dark anyway.”
Fluttershy let out a terrified squeal. She hated the dark, it was one of her many phobias. Not only could she barely see Rainbow Dash’s colourful hair in front of her, but her wings were aching as well. She knew she couldn’t go on much further, she wasn’t as well practiced when it came to flying.
“Come on, just a little further, I think I see a cloud…”
And then Rainbow Dash was gone.
Fluttershy didn’t know what had happened. Had she gone off ahead?
“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked weakly, “Where are you?”
"Fluttershy?"
Her voice was caught in a sudden gale that was picking up around them. Fluttershy let out another squeak as her wings seized up with the effort of carrying her.
Then, she fell.
Fluttershy absently rubbed her injured shoulder as she moved through the hallway the witch was guiding her across. She couldn’t help but worry about Rainbow Dash’s safety, but knowing her skill, a little wind wouldn’t have fazed her in the slightest. Still, Fluttershy hoped that Dash knew she had disappeared. The only problem in her hopes was that Canterlot was a big place. She’d seen it from the sky well enough and with all that ground to cover… with all those people sure to be waking up in a few hours… what if Rainbow couldn’t find her? Fluttershy found herself on the brink of another panic attack.
“Hey, are you okay?” The witch looked worried and Fluttershy found herself nodding to calm her nerves.
The witch was probably around her age with long purple locks that hung just below her shoulders. Her skin was tanned slightly and her eyes were a vibrant lilac which matched just about every item of clothing that she was wearing.
The witch raised a brow, “Are you sure, you look really pale. Is your…” the witch branched off again. Fluttershy noticed this was a growing pattern in her behaviour. It was like the witch was having trouble believing her eyes, believing that Fluttershy had wings. Instead, the witch briskly pointed at her extra appendage and asked casually, “is that really hurting you?”
Fluttershy had learned from Rainbow Dash to be brave in the face of pain, but she couldn’t deny the fact that at that moment her entire left side was in agony. She assumed it was because her left side had taken the brunt of the fall, but she knew her left wing was dislocated also. She could barely move it, except for the occasional twitch which would send a shockwave of pain throughout her body. She shivered slightly, “A bit.” She whispered.
The witch smiled sympathetically, “It’s fine, I know how to pop joints back in, I had to do it in first aid class.” She opened a door at the end of the hallway and ushered Fluttershy inside, “This is my room.” She said, “I’ll fix you up in here.”
Fluttershy made her way inside, careful not to knock her sagging wing on the way.
The room was rather large with a double bed in the far corner with purple, floral print sheets. To Fluttershy’s right was a large oak desk with an assortment of books on every topic of magic imaginable. There were knick knacks spread here and there, a teddy bear on the bed, a picture frame of who Fluttershy believed to be the witch’s family on her bedside table… and then, in the far corner, just to the left of her bed, was a little basket.
Fluttershy felt her only working wing bristle, “What’s that?” She asked, indicating towards the basket.
The witch glanced to where she was pointing and beamed, “That’s Spike, he’s my pet dragon.”
Fluttershy felt a wide grin on her face before she could stop it. “A dragon?” she asked, mesmerised.
The witch opened her mouth to speak further on the topic, but Fluttershy had already moved towards the basket. Sure enough, amongst the blankets was a little baby dragon snoring softly. He was purple all over with a little green belly. He was the most sensational creature Fluttershy had ever laid her eyes upon, “He’s beautiful.” She sighed in awe, reaching her finger out to stroke the creature on the nose.
“Careful, he’s grumpy when he gets-” But the witch was shocked to see that the little baby dragon was making soft, almost cat-like purrs as Fluttershy stroked her fingers along his stomach.
The witch laughed, “Wow, he must really like you.”
“Oh, I think so. I love animals.” Fluttershy said quietly as she continued to stroke the dragon.
The witch smiled, “Do you have any pets then?”
Fluttershy visibly stiffened and lifted her head slightly, “Well… we can’t really keep them where I’m from.”
“And where is that?” The witch’s voice was a little harder this time and Fluttershy felt herself wary of turning towards her.
“Oh… um, I…”
“If you can’t tell me, then can I guess?”
This shocked Fluttershy so much that she found herself unconsciously turning her face towards the witch. The witch smiled broadly, holding out an ancient looking book presumably from the large pile on her desk.
“I had to study all sorts of lore for school, you see.” The witch said, looking down at the book, “And… one of them talked about, well…”
“What?” Fluttershy felt her heart-rate quicken.
The witch smiled meekly, “Well… it talked about Angels.”
Fluttershy let out a laugh, surprising herself as much as the witch. She reached out her arms towards the book to which the witch handed over carefully.
Fluttershy held it out in front of her and smiled, “Yes… I guess that’s what your kind call us nowadays."
“Again with the my kind.” The witch bristled gratingly, “You know, I have a name.” She reached out her hand towards Fluttershy and smiled brightly, “I’m Twilight.”
Fluttershy glanced at her hand nervously. She was trapped in witch territory with a friendly enough girl that had now shared her name. Rainbow Dash had been careless about these sorts of encounters, but Fluttershy remained adamant that they shouldn’t be seen. It was the law, after all. After a moment’s thought, Fluttershy surrendered. After all, what was in a name? Slowly, she took Twilight’s hand, “I’m Fluttershy.”
As they shook hands, Fluttershy let out another cry of pain. Twilight revoked her hand immediately and guided her guest towards her bed, “We better get that sorted out.”
After Twilight had placed Fluttershy on the bed, she began to move her hands warily about the bright yellow appendage, “I should probably get you something to bite down on… if my parents wake up then-”
“B-Bite down on?” Fluttershy asked shakily. She wasn’t good with pain as it was and it was only with Rainbow Dash’s help that she’d gotten as far as she had without fainting.
Twilight sensed her nerves and did her best to sooth her, “It’ll only hurt for a second, I promise. But it might be a bit of a shock and I don’t want you to make any loud noises.”
Fluttershy let out a quiet breath and nodded a little unsteadily, “Okay… if you must.” She whispered.
So, after a little rummaging, Twilight found a belt in her chest of drawers, folded it over once and placed it in Fluttershy’s mouth, “Bite down on it, okay?” Twilight tried to sound supportive, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for the little yellow Angel.
Fluttershy did what was asked of her and closed her eyes tightly. Twilight gritted her teeth and gently drew her hands along the soft feathers of the dislocated wing. Carefully, she moved her hand under it, feeling along for the joint. She tried to track back in her memory to the times she’d done this with other winged creatures. Her hands soon found the bone that felt out of place. “Okay,” Twilight mumbled, “On the count of three.”
“One.”
Fluttershy squealed.
“Two.”
Twilight held the wing steadily.
“Three!”
Fluttershy bit down hard on the belt as a searing pain shot through her entire left side. Twilight shifted the bone neatly back into place, hearing a small clicking noise as the wing was cleanly joined back to Fluttershy’s shoulder.
Fluttershy let the belt fall out of her mouth as the pain slowly passed. She turned to her left and carefully flexed her wing. Twilight scooted away; staring in silent wonder at the way Fluttershy moved her wing, bristled the feathers and finally tucked it into her shoulder blade just like the other one.
Fluttershy rubbed her arm and smiled gratefully to Twilight, “Thank you… thank you so much!”
Twilight looked away, embarrassed, “It was nothing-”
“It wasn’t!” Fluttershy insisted, “Without your help… I don’t know what would have happened.” She said earnestly, “Oh, thank you, thank you!” She squealed in delight before jumping forwards and enveloping her arms around Twilight’s rigid body.
Twilight gasped in surprise as the young Angel hugged her. She didn’t know what to do, how to act. She assessed the situation a moment before carefully winding her arms around Fluttershy’s back in the same sort of gesture. It felt… warm. Nice, she guessed to feel contact with another person.
That’s when she felt a deep pang in her chest.
Aside from her family, she’d never been hugged before.
Twilight’s mouth ached as she smiled into Fluttershy’s shoulder. For the first time in her entire life, she knew what she had been missing.
After a few moments, Fluttershy drew away and sighed, “I should probably go…”
“No!” Twilight was shocked with the force in her tone and quickly cleared her throat, “I mean… can you stay, maybe, just for a bit. I’d love to learn more about your… your people.”
Fluttershy giggled a little sheepishly, “You can call us Angels if that’s what you’d like. I suppose it’s as good as any other name.”
“Okay.” Twilight smiled, “Okay then… tell me, are Angels magical too?”
Fluttershy shrugged, “Well… not really. We can walk on clouds...”
“Seriously?” Twilight’s eagerness made Fluttershy smile. She nodded. “Anything else?” Twilight asked, “In the lore it said Angels controlled the weather.”
“Oh, of course.” Fluttershy beamed. She pushed her pink hair out of her face and pursed her lips, “I can’t really talk about it though…”
“I won’t tell anyone!” Twilight insisted. Her eyes were sparkling so brightly, her eagerness reminded Fluttershy of Rainbow Dash. She blinked in surprise, Rainbow Dash!
“I need to go.” Fluttershy mumbled, trying to stand up, “My friend… I-I came with my friend.”
“Another Angel?” Twilight inquired, eyes wide, “Can I meet them?”
Fluttershy shook her head, “Goodness, no. It’s bad enough I’m here.”
Twilight frowned. Fluttershy had been on the edge about speaking to her in general since she’d fallen out of the sky. The way she’d spoken about being locked up… Twilight began to wonder about the Angels in general.
“Is this… illegal or something?”
Fluttershy’s face reddened as she brushed her hair over her face, “W-Well, I…”
Twilight’s eyes hardened, “So the reason Angels are just fairy tales is because, what, your boss won’t let you come down here?”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she grabbed at the hem of her jumper skittishly, “She’s more than a boss, Twilight. She’s our leader. Our Princess!”
“Princess?” Twilight considered the word for a moment before lifting her hand into the air. Fluttershy bristled as she watched the book of lore she had carelessly placed on the bed light up with a pink glow. In just a few seconds the book became airborne and gently landed into Twilight’s open palms.
Fluttershy’s face burned as she watched Twilight flick through thebook until she finally came to the page she was looking for. She drew her finger across the text for a few moments before looking up. “Princess… Celestia?”
Fluttershy’s shocked gasp was all that Twilight needed to know she was on the right track, “Your leader is more than a Princess, Fluttershy. I mean… in our lore, Celestia is a God. The God. The God of our days.”
Fluttershy had backed herself into a wall, her wings had broadened and were now flapping helplessly, as if she was trying to find an escape, “You can’t know about her!” Fluttershy begged, “You’re not ready!”
“Ready?” Twilight implored.
Fluttershy sagged against the wall and let out one small sob before she looked back to Twilight. Twilight was shocked to find the young Angel had tears glistening in her blue orbs.
“I don’t know all the answers, Twilight.” Fluttershy begged, “But… Celestia told us that when the time was right, she’d reveal herself to everyone. The witches and the humans.”
“Humans?” Twilight’s jaw tightened, “We don’t speak of the humans, here.”
Fluttershy sighed and stood up from the wall. She pushed away from it and took a step closer to Twilight, “And they don’t speak of you.” She glanced at the floor before taking Twilight’s hands in a gesture she was very familiar with Rainbow Dash doing, “But, Celestia said that when all the known worlds are made aware of her existence… then there will be an everlasting peace.”
Twilight looked at the sincerity in Fluttershy’s eyes and after a few grating moments of silence she finally let up, “Okay.” Twilight said simply, “Okay, fine.” She pursed her lips and tightened her hold on Fluttershy’s hands, “I believe you.”
Author's Note
So this chapter briefly explains the universe I'm writing this story in. I hope you can follow it alright.
