Section Two: Be Kind to Yourself

Chapter Five

It was still day after the meeting. With Starburst, currently under Fluttershy's wing, they were on their way through the woods to the yellow mare's cottage. The pegasus smiles at the other mare, as she was overly fascinated by the critters within the trees. The cottage was on a hill nearby, but the shy mare stopped so she could greet some of the animals: a badger, a couple squirrels, several birds and her pet bunny showed up.

"Why, hello everyone, and you too, Angel," she says cordially. "I hope I didn't take too long getting back here. Was everyone on their best behavior?"

The creatures nodded. "That's good to hear. Now, I bet you're wondering who the pony beside me is."

The critters looked at the ashen pony, eventually giving off an odd look.

"This is Starburst. I've been put in charge of teaching her about the element of kindness. She's unable to speak, but she's friendly. So please try and make her feel right at home for awhile, okay?"

The animals looked at the quiet pony as she looked back and gave off a warm smile. They mimicked her action immediately. Fluttershy was happy to see them getting along instantly.

"It's good to see you all getting along so quickly!" she smiles and then turning in the direction of her cottage. "Okay, now it's lunch time for you all. I'm going to go and get your yummy delights!"

The ashen mare stopped the pegasus the moment she began to trot off. Fluttershy could tell by her eyes that if she wanted help.

"Oh, it's okay, Starburst. I can get it myself. Could you do me a favor and stay with the animals? It might help you understand kindness more if you could get acquainted."

She watched her trot off into her cottage. For the time being, the mare looked back at the creatures smiling as warmly as ever. As for the critters, they looked back...with eyes of anger. This gave her a confused look. She wasn't sure why they were upset. Was it because she was different? Does she lack the requirements of being friends with the mane six? Was she the cause of their anger? The questions continue to buzz through her mind endlessly as the critters began to growl lowly. They soon revert into their cheery moods the moment they heard a shy pegasus's call.

"Alright, you little darlings," she says, carrying a saddle basket with a variety of food. "It's lunch time. I'm sure you all managed to get along with Starburst, right?"

The critters simply nodded, holding no regrets. With a warm smile showing on her face, the yellow pony sets up their bowls. A couple carrots for Angel, bird seed for the birds, and a small variety of nuts for the squirrels and chipmunks were laid out.

"Now, you all help yourselves. There should be enough for everyone." she says to the animals, and then perked up holding a thought in mind. "Oh, that's right!" She turns to the ashen pony. "I need to bring some of these to the other critters. I know it might be a lot to handle, but would you mind feeding them? Sometimes it can be quite a job for me, but I think you can do it."

The pony responds with a smile and a nod. The pegasus happily complied and picked up some of the remaining food to put into her basket saddle.

"Oh, thank you so much! I promise it won't take long. Just make sure they don't eat too much, okay?"

With that said, she trotted away. Starburst appeared delighted to help feed the animals for the first time. She knew the request was sudden, but she couldn't help but try her best in understanding the element of kindness no matter what job she was given. She turned to the creatures, giving yet another warm smile.

Angel was the first to finish his carrots, and looked at her holding a longing gaze. The others soon followed. The smile was dropped. She couldn't tell why they stared at her so intensely. She noticed that their bowls were empty. Fluttershy said not to overfeed them, so she began to fiddle with some of the bags the pony had left behind.

The stares felt very demanding now. Every animal that had gathered were giving off serious vibes. What could they be thinking? Were they impatient? She's never done this before! Starburst lifted a bag of food pellets and poured some into one of the bowls. The confused look passes over her face again when she noticed that no one was eating. She grabs the bag of bird seed and poured it into another bowl. The birds weren't eating. The animals began to sound angry. In a slight panic, she went for the carrots and placed a couple in front of Angel. All he did was kick them quite a distance away. Their anger grew louder. The mare goes for the acorns and reaches in the bag for one, and holds it up in front of a squirrel. It immediately slaps it away.

The pony could not contain the amount of shock she was experiencing from the critters. The birds started chirping in cacophony and flying around to peck at her. Angel signaled the squirrels and other small rodents to grab ahold of their food and pelt it at the silent pony. There wasn't much she could do to protect herself at this point. She had to get out of there fast, so she ran.

She ran opposite of Fluttershy's path, hoping to finally escape from their grasp. The only thing going through her mind right now was when Fluttershy was going to return.

As soon as she got a good distance away, she could hear them cheering…

Fluttershy had soon returned a half hour later to check up on Starburst's progress.

"Starburst, I'm back! I'm sorry I took so long. I hope I didn't worry you-"

She gasped at the scene. The area was a mess. Food covered the ground and the ashen pony was nowhere in sight. The animals might have had their second helping without her assistance, but it felt like a smorgasbord-styled lunch wasn't the intention here.

"Oh my!" she said trotting over to Angel. "Angel, what happened here? Why is there food everywhere? And where's Starburst?"

The bunny just looked at her with a mean look when she mentioned her. He crossed his arms and turned the other way. The pegasus wasn't sure about his reaction.

"Come on, Angel, I want an explanation. There has to be a reason for why Starburst is missing!"

Angel refused to respond. Some of the other critters never said a thing. One bird soon flew to her, chirping its reason. The yellow pony was still confused.

"You're saying that she had given you a hard time...? But, I swear she's very friendly! She wouldn't do anything to harm you all...would she?"

The critters disbursed, unhappy about her response. She was still confused, but she couldn't stand by to think about it now. She had to find Starburst. But first, she had to clean up the mess that was left behind.

For around ten minutes the ashen pony kept running. She had to stop to catch her breath at some point, so she did the moment she believed she was far enough from the betraying critters. She wasn't sure how far into the woods she was. She didn't care. She felt safe as soon as the animals didn't follow her all this way. She sat and leaned against a tree for a breather, until a sudden thump popped off her head and rolled beside her hooves. It was an acorn. She must be sitting under an acorn tree. The mare looked up to see if she guessed right, to only notice that a small chipmunk was in a branch right above her.

It appeared small from above, and even smaller as it ran down the trunk. Its size was nearly a third larger than the acorn! The little guy might have accidentally dropped it. It didn't look like it wanted to attack her, but it slowly tried to approach the acorn. Its eyes stared into hers, hoping there wouldn't be any conflict between them. Starburst understood why it was acting like this, and felt obligated to nudge the acorn over to it. Once she did, the chipmunk grabbed it and happily smiled. The pony did the same, but to only remind her of the memory of the other creatures picking on her.

Her smile faded and she looked down at her hooves. The chipmunk wondered why she was acting this way, wondering if it did anything to disrupt her sudden change of mood. More sudden thumps popped off Starburst's head. She looked back up at the tree to notice two other chipmunks, who were also upset at her presence just like the other critters. They chattered loudly as more acorns came flying at her. They must be his parents. The mare held up a hoof to block off some of the projectiles. She couldn't bear to stay here any longer since the critters made it impossible, so she got up and ran once again. The little chipmunk was the only one that didn't fight...

It was dusk. Fluttershy had just finished cleaning up the food that was scattered about, and trotted around the woods in hopes of finding Starburst.

"Starburst? Starburst, where could you have run off to…? Oh my…It's getting late. I hope you didn't go too far...!"