She needed a place to think. Somewhere she would have privacy, without having to worry about being interrupted by the animals roaming on the periphery of the cottage grounds -- and since Fluttershy didn't use what Fleur felt would have been basic, common sense precautions, the cottage residents might see "periphery" as stretching just about all the way to Ponyville. A place where ponies moving to and from the cottage wouldn't disturb her, and now she'd had her first taste of proof that Fluttershy, even without the veterinary license, effectively had the profession's hours: if somepony needed help, the cottage was open for business. Fleur needed solitude, at least for a few minutes.
The abandoned mill provided.
She wasn't thankful for the circumstances which had given her the opportunity to check up on it, but being able to venture within during daylight hours allowed her to see just what level of pony inquiries had been made in the wake of her first break-in. The answer quickly turned out to be "none." When she'd initially gone inside, there had been no protections beyond a few locks which had been rapidly proven as something much less than unicorn-proof, at least for a unicorn who knew what she was doing. And now she knew that at least when it came to daily checks, nothing was happening. She'd evened out the coating of interior dust before leaving, negated all physical signs of pony presence. Nothing new had appeared. Nopony had gone inside since she'd left, and the telltale splinters she'd arranged across the door frame only broke when she entered.
It still wasn't a good time for a full exploration. Daily security checks were off the board: once-per-moon visits only required two ponies to intersect within the non-miracle of perfectly bad timing. But she did glance around at the machinery as it rested (and rusted) under the dust-laden glow of Sun. The water wheel continued to turn, for the river outside was flowing and the axle had yet to permanently jam. But Fleur suspected that time was coming: there was an odd creaking to the rotations, and the portion of the wheel which could be viewed from the mill's interior had an unsteady wobble at the apex. That vibration traveled into the gears, teeth skipped slightly -- but everything continued to turn, at least for a little while longer. Energy without direction, work without purpose.
The mill was dead: she'd known that at the moment of first sighting. It just didn't know it was a corpse. It laid perfectly still and pretended to breathe, tried to present the illusion that those breaths brought in air which would still do some good. It twitched instead of moving, but it kept twitching and you would wait for one of those twitches to gain a little more strength, become true movement, the stretching out of a foreleg as chance for first step or --
-- it was dead. Dead and rotting under Sun and Moon. In time, the twitching would stop, and that time couldn't come soon enough. But for now, it was a place to think.
She made sure she wasn't standing in a sight line for any of the windows, even the highest ones: pegasi could always be flying by. The best place turned out to be behind a long conveyor belt, the heavy canvas still going around and around as the water insisted on providing the corpse with that ineffective illusion. She watched the same dark stain go by three times as her thoughts finally began to shift into some sort of workable order, and they led off with the same refrain which had followed Fleur all the way down the path from the cottage.
Something happened to her.
Something bad. Something dark. Something when Fluttershy had been a child. Something...
inevitable
...which shouldn't have happened. An event which had expressed its opinion of that by happening anyway. Because childhood was often laughably described as innocence and hope and potential in a world which hated all of it, and so that world had hated Fluttershy. It couldn't be stopped. No intervention ever came. Things -- happened, and the most anypony could hope for was to survive, learn from them, and find a way to forge their pain until it hardened into steel at their core. The purpose of pain was to make you strong, and Fluttershy... wasn't.
Fleur thought she knew the rough shape of what had happened, just from the words which had emerged before Fluttershy had fled. The world was cruel, and it often expressed that cruelty not only towards the young, but through them. But the words... it was unlikely they had been spoken on purpose. You forged pain into a solid because if you let it flow through you, the heat would continue to rise until blood turned to steam and everything found a way to vent. Things came out. Sentences which weren't meant to be spoken, actions you hadn't wanted to take. Fluttershy's pain had reached its boiling point, and the pressure had pushed out words.
A pony who'd deliberately spoken might have done so as a sympathy ploy: come near me, talk to me, pity me -- and now that you feel sorry for me, you'll do anything to make me feel better, anything I say... because pain, sufficiently solidified, could be wielded as a weapon against the world. But Fleur, even with having only known Fluttershy for so little time, was sure the pegasus was incapable of that. The words hadn't been meant to emerge, and she'd hidden from whatever had been done in their wake. She would want to forget, even when doing so was impossible. She would ignore it, allow the heat to drop into the lower level of background torment while the inner river flowed and waited for its chance to flood through her again. And she would not want Fleur to talk about the words, in any way, at all, and possibly ever.
So what can I do with her?
No matter what anypony might lie about, there was no cure for pain. There was only the forging, and Fleur only knew how to place her own river under the pressure of cold logic, force bale-weights of time and need against it until only the steel remained. Pain happened, for that was the way of the world and when you chose what to do with it, you could only choose for yourself. Fluttershy's river would push against her from the inside and every so often, a gear would skip. Dam it and the flow would push on the barrier until everything exploded.
"She has... certain problems."
So in addition to a potentially infinite amount of time, Celestia had both a gift for understatement and a rather snide skill at creating unusual prison sentences, because Fleur's had just turned out to be for life. There was no cure for pain, and Fluttershy's agonies would forever keep her from finding a mate --
--no. There has to be a way out of this. Even if there's no way to match her with anypony, match a blank who won't ever let herself believe anypony could be attracted to her when she's that beautiful with that tail, there has to be some way I can get enough leverage over Celestia to get out of Ponyville, and that could still start with the Bearers. With Fluttershy. I can't abandon this. Not that she could anyway, at least not in a way which involved physical departure. She could have prospectively just shown up at the cottage every so often, pretended to go through the motions of teaching while claiming she was taking the slow path -- but that would have been aiding and abetting in her own jail time.
Pain can't be cured, because the past doesn't change. What happened to her -- happened, and she's not the sort of pony who can forge it. Or forget. Nopony could ever truly forget.
Gears clicking nearby. Mesh, mesh, mesh -- skip -- mesh, mesh...
But maybe it can be diverted. Send it flowing in a new direction.
Fleur had been taught how to do that, as a first hoofstep towards living with everything. Did Fluttershy know how to do it? Could that be taught? Or would just getting her out into a social setting provide new opportunities, carve out fresh channels...
She took a deep breath, watched the dust swirl within the light.
She wasn't a therapist. She'd met several and managed not to laugh at any of them over the moons in which she'd been forced to have some degree of contact, because nopony could get their escort's license without passing certain classes, including one in psychology -- and that was a course which those future escorts shared with future psychiatrists, each gazing with mildly horrified fascination at the alien form of life on the other side of the aisle. To a large degree, Fleur had found that course beneficial: she'd already had a pretty good idea of how ponies thought (and her talent didn't exactly hurt there: the hardest part to get through without full-scale public mirth had been the chapters on equine sexuality, and Fleur could have merrily rewritten most of that if it hadn't been so blatantly self-sabotaging, plus she was certain nopony ever would have published it), and having some portions of it confirmed didn't hurt. But to hear her teacher talking about means of cure... it had taken too much to stay on her bench, and she'd usually wound up exiting the campus at high speed, trying to find a private place before the giggles could completely take over.
Pain couldn't be cured. Ever. But you could live with it. You could work with it, use it. And somehow, she would need to find a way of working with Fluttershy's. It would hurt the pegasus: Fleur knew that. It might kick her over and over until something broke, and Fleur would have to try and prevent things from going that far. But it still had to be done. Pain was many things, including
inevitable
Another breath, gazing around at the mill. Shadows were playing across one filthy windowpane. It could have been wind shifting a branch, or it might have been something flying by: either way, she shifted deeper into the darkness. Just in case.
We keep going.
There were hours to work with, unexpected ones, and Fleur made the most of them.
A few queries brought her to the bookstore, and it gave her two of the things she'd needed most: a personal copy of Ponyville's weather schedule -- and a map, one which had been commissioned by many of the local businesses and therefore not only indicated streets, but had various highlighted sections where marks were overlaid on buildings and nearby text indicated just what kind of facility was operating there. She quickly located the spa she'd passed earlier, saw the library tree, noted with some surprise that there was a public bathhouse --
"Excuse me?" The bookseller reluctantly turned to face her. (Fleur already knew the shop owner didn't like her. Beauty had its price, and part of the payment could come in jealousy from those who were strictly average in appearance and couldn't stand the thought of anypony who surpassed them being allowed to exist.) "The veterinarian." Fleur's corona ignited, and a tiny spot of glow indicated the proper place on the map. "Is she any good?"
"Sweetbark?" the bookseller asked, looking in as closely as she could manage without any degree of actual approach. And then, with a completely unexpected smile as the dislike towards Fleur's appearance was momentarily overridden by the shared bonds of what the pony was now perceiving as another pet owner, "She's perfect."
"Really?" Fleur casually asked.
"She," the bookseller declared, "has never lost a patient. Everypony here knows that. You're currently in the same settled zone as Equestria's best vet. Just feel lucky if you ever get to see her."
Get to? Fleur examined the thought, then allowed it to manifest as speech.
"Well, because she's perfect," the bookseller explained, "there's a lot of demand for her services. So much that she can't see everypony, or every animal they bring her. She has to decide who she can squeeze in. But if she can see you, your pet will be perfectly fine. You can count on that. I've been taking my Kori to her for years --" a quick nod to the green-and-gold cockatiel preening itself on the perch near the front display window, proudly standing guard over the bestsellers "-- and she's perfectly healthy."
Carefully, "Well -- what if she can't work me in? Where do I go then?"
"You could take the train to Canterlot," the mare told her. "But if you're desperate... well, there's a cottage out by the fringe. But you might want to avoid that, unless there's no other choice." A tiny shudder traveled across the skinny body, and several nearby magazines seemed to vibrate in sympathy.
"Why?"
More softly, tone dipping into the near-whisper of casual gossip. "Because that one isn't perfect. Animals die there. All the time."
Fleur's field carried the unfurled map some distance in front of her as she trotted out of that shop, still thinking.
Mark magic was, in many ways, subtle: relatively few talents had overt manifestations beyond boosts to their possessor's skills. But within Equestria, that subtle power was also just about universal, and all the little magics added up into something which could move the world. And it was true that some ponies had stronger talents than others. (Fleur, who'd had practically no chance to discuss such things, still suspected she was fairly advanced within the herd.) So somepony whose mark and talent was for being a vet, assuming they'd backed natural inclinations with study, would always be more skilled than somepony who'd put in an equal amount of work without having the appropriate icon to back it up. Fluttershy's mark appeared to be for communication with animals -- not healing. And in that sense, when it came to the treatment of her charges, she was effectively destined for some level of second place. A natural vet who'd taken all the courses and kept up with the unending flow of journals would be better. Period.
But -- perfect?
Fleur had known ponies with veterinary marks. Not well: she'd occasionally had a question answered if she'd piped up with just the right tone, but she'd mostly been treated as either intrusive background material or extra equipment while the vets went about their duties: either hold this and steady that while lifting here or leave. Those vets had been skilled, and she'd occasionally thought she could see when their marks went into action, spotting the little flashes of insight as they arrived within pony eyes. But they hadn't been perfect. As far as Fleur knew based on the strength of the talents she'd been able to observe, a pony could be the best vet in the world and when faced with a fatal wound or incurable disease, all your mark would do was tell you that the organs wouldn't heal, the infection was beyond all hope, and it was time to approach the owner and ask if they wanted some time alone with the one who was about to be lost. For a vet to have never lost a patient would mean a talent which could magically cure those diseases, knit flesh and replace blood -- something she'd never personally witnessed.
So is it possible she has one of the strongest talents in the world and ponies are coming from all over the continent for a chance at guarantee, hoping she can squeeze them in? And Fluttershy gets the leftovers, most of which are going to be really bad cases because any pony who comes that far did so for a major reason. Without that same magic helping her, the animals die at the cottage. It would let her maintain a practice with a true vet in town, because that vet is perfect -- so perfect and so nationally reputable for that perfection that it's impossible for her to see everypony.
Was that within the realm of possibility? Could any mark grant magic that powerful?
It was remotely possible that Sweetbark was the Bearer of Magic, taking the Element simply due to mark strength, and that the Element had further boosted her ability. Anypony in the settled zone could be the Bearer of that Element, and perhaps being a Bearer of any kind would bring such benefits. But...
When it came to magic, Fleur wasn't an expert. She'd never attended any level of gifted school, although she'd spent more than a few nights accompanying their graduates to parties, because it sometimes seemed as if the ability to learn about how thaums interacted cost more than a few former students any capacity for figuring how ponies did it. Get beyond her own abilities plus the things she'd personally observed and it wouldn't take her long to enter the worrisome realm of guesswork.
She wasn't an expert -- but she knew when to listen to her instincts. And in this case, that deeper voice was telling her something was wrong.
I have to identify the other five Bearers. Soon.
Fleur took another look at the map.
The light brown earth pony stallion had a mane which moved across his head in waves, a series of small spiky crests working their way down his neck into what never quite resolved into a final cascade. He was perhaps a decade older than Fleur, somewhat handsome, wearing a ridiculously-long rainbow-hued scarf as first shield against a light touch of fall chill, and he was attracted to her. She'd felt his attraction from several body lengths away, noticed the movement of familiar pieces coming to rest against each other. Fleur wasn't exactly his type: there were a few requirements which she was missing, and he had no way of judging what she was capable of in the privacy of a bedroom. But he had hope, and it had all come surging into his pupils at the moment she'd pretended to coincidentally glance in his direction -- followed by a shy smile and careful, half-timid trot towards him. (He liked initial timidity, and he liked it to vanish upon contact with a mattress.)
"Yes?" he said, with most of the hope shifting into his voice. (He had a pleasant voice, lightly accented, and she decided he was Trottingham-born.) "Can I help you with something?"
"Please," she smiled. "I'm new in town, and I was just looking at this map..." Her field opened it a little wider, rotated it for his viewing pleasure. "I noticed how many things are indicated, all the businesses which want a new arrival to know where they are. Is this part really true? Is that the original Barnyard Bargains?"
"Surprisingly," he smiled back. "I know -- most ponies think it's the one in Canterlot. But yes, that's the very first. In fact, the owner lives in town."
Which got a genuine blink of surprise out of her, and she filed that little fact away for later. "Oh! I just thought they might have decided to sneak the claim past the head office. And... well, I am new." She held back the 'sir,' as to address this pony as an elder would break the illusion of his actually having a chance with her. And illusion it was, because while he was certainly handsome enough, unless he turned out to be the Most Important Pony Around, there was just about no way Fleur was ever going to spend too much time with somepony whose mark displayed an hourglass. "And I've heard so much about Ponyville! Well, I guess everypony has by now. And I was looking at the map, and..." She tilted her head, made the smile a little shyer. "...I was curious about something."
"What?" he quickly asked. "I've been here for years. I can probably answer pretty much any question you might have about the town."
"It's a silly thing, really," she smiled. "But in a way... well, I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for them. Not under Sun or on stable ground. I was thinking about that, just from being in town. I guess most ponies don't think about it at all, even when they're this close, but... I thought, since I'm here, I could thank them... but I don't know where they live. The Bearers, I mean. And if you could just show me --"
The smile had vanished.
Blue eyes moved their gaze over her, completely avoiding the barrel he'd been taking so much care not to get caught looking at. They went over Fleur's face a few times.
"Are you just visiting here?" he slowly asked. "Or have you moved in?"
"Moved in!" she declared, trying to shore up his sudden ebb of enthusiasm with a balancing surge. "Just a little while ago. I'm actually about to start house-hunting --"
"-- good," he cut her off, and the right forehoof lightly stomped. "Welcome to Ponyville. I hope you enjoy being here. And because I also hope you enjoy living here, I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell pretty much everypony who asks me that. What just about anypony here would tell you when somepony asks that question. Only this time, I'm going to be a little more polite about it."
He took a deep breath. The lean muscles along his torso shifted.
"If you were a tourist," he told her, "I would tell you not to bother them. And if you're going to be a resident -- then you should mostly find out which ponies they are on your own. Because once you manage to meet them, once you know them... you'll realize why they shouldn't be bothered."
He shrugged slightly, started to turn away from her -- then glanced back.
"How long have you been in town?"
Fleur, half-frozen with the shock of having been denied, still managed to keep most of her scramble to recover completely internal.
"This is my second day," she continued to smile. "So I really do need somepony to show me around, who's been here for years and knows the best neighborhood to live in --"
"-- second day?" A small snort. "Then I can pretty much guarantee you've already met one. Or she's met you. You've been in the presence of Laughter's Bearer, and I hope you got a giggle out of it, at least once the shock wore off. And once she's fully done her part for you, there's a good chance you'll meet at least a few of the others. They probably won't tell you who they are. Most of them usually don't. But given enough time, you'll see all of them, you might speak with most of them -- and after that's happened, when you figure out which ponies they are -- then, when the next new arrival comes into town and asks you who the Bearers are -- you'll tell that pony not to bother them. On the day that happens, no matter where you were born or how long you've been here, you'll be a Ponyville native. I hope it happens soon. But until then -- let it happen. All of it."
Is he smelling the cottage on me? She had to find the Foal-Castille soap -- no, that couldn't be it, there was no way under Sun that Fluttershy could have been Laughter...
"Now," he continued, "if you're looking for a place to live, I do have a suggestion. The settled zone is expanding fast: we've had more than a few ponies moving in since the Elements were rediscovered. New neighborhoods are springing up. But there's a few older places available and if you really want to learn about Ponyville, I'd suggest moving into one of them. It'll be easier when you're among ponies who've been here a while. So -- if you're looking to rent, I know a house which has been empty for -- a while. It's actually switched owners because the last landlord couldn't keep a tenant in it any more, and the current one dropped the price into the basement as their last possible lure. Would you like to see it?"
He smiled again, and there was warmth in it. Fleur, who'd been denied, didn't care.
But -- low rent was low rent, although it begged the question of why the owner(s) couldn't keep a tenant in the house.
"It's in a good neighborhood?"
"Decent," he assured her. "It's on the east side of town, and there's a lot of families in that area."
Which would at least put her closer to the cottage, and there was a chance she'd already gone past the For Rent sign in the dark. "Would you show me? Please?"
Another smile, and he flicked the spiky curve of his tail: an invitation to follow. She did, but not too closely, and only pretended to ignore the additional regard he tried to sneak across her form. Stallions sneaking glances at her was hardly anything new, and she was familiar enough with the cons generally directed towards new arrivals to be fairly sure he wasn't trying to lure her into one -- while still being fully on guard because in the event that she was wrong, she'd have to do something to stop him. (She could sense his attraction, and that he wouldn't proceed without her permission -- but perceiving other intentions was beyond her talent. It was perfectly possible to be attracted to somepony you were about to rip off.) But there were other things to think about, because Fluttershy couldn't be Laughter -- that was seriously supposed to be an Element? -- and he seemed so sure that she would have already met that pony --
"...once the shock wore off..."
-- no. No, that is not possible. There was a little shock when I went into the library and saw an alicorn doing reshelving, but that wasn't the least bit funny unless you think royalty being employed as a librarian is a joke. (At best, that wasn't funny/ha-ha, that was funny/what the buck is going on?) So the only other pony that shocked me is the one who came out of the bakery. Pinkie.
An Element which would choose that pony as its Bearer was, charitably, an Element with a very strange sense of humor. But the stallion seemed so certain -- and a pony who threw welcome parties would certainly have a method of meeting new arrivals.
...it's possible.
Fluttershy. Pinkie. One who wants nothing and one who's a trysexual. She had many ways of getting to know a trysexual, and thinking about pretty much any of them already had the headache working its way in.
She would have to attend her own welcoming party. All of it. No excuses, no cutting out early, and with a considerable amount of attention paid to who her hostess was spending time with.
Four to go.
"So how do you know about this place?" she asked the stallion. (He'd given her his name, and it had made her all the less likely to spend hours with him after this. The hourglass would have been bad enough alone, and given that degree of fresh reinforcement -- it was easier to just think of him as 'the stallion'. It was certainly less nauseating.)
It produced a small sigh. "I'm friends with the mailmare who has this route. She knew the last long-term occupant, and because she comes through on every delivery day, she sees when ponies move in. And when they move out again."
Fleur looked at the house. The strange inward triangle slant of the upper level, the dipping path which exposed the stone foundation and basement as it worked around to the back. "So what's wrong with it?"
"Because ponies wouldn't be moving in and out if something wasn't wrong, yes?" he admitted, adding a touch of wince. "Right... look, before I tell you the big thing: the upper floor is cramped, the plumbing isn't perfect, and the ramp is outright treacherous. But the insulation's been redone, you've got a porch, and the rent is about as low as you're going to find while still getting a roof. It has problems, but it's a good value for the rental price."
Fleur needed to present a public image, and that requirement was often a costly one -- for other ponies. Saddlebags which went so far into decorative that they forfeited most of their practicality because thinned-out bottom layers were in style, dresses that consisted of translucent layers more flimsy than cotton candy and just as prone to dissolving in the rain -- all things she could generally acquire as gifts. But that was her public image.
The house was oddly shaped, more than a little ugly, and desperately in need of numerous outer renovations. There was a chance the inside was worse. It wasn't a home anypony wanted to occupy if they needed to make a strong impression, especially one which was meant to be backed by the raw impact of perceived wealth. But as an escort, she went to the homes of other ponies or, just about as often, their hotel rooms.
Nopony ever came to hers.
"Then what's the big thing?"
He swallowed, and got it over with.
"Ponies have been saying it's haunted."
And there was the con. (She decided he probably wasn't running it and had just made the mistake of believing it. Still, she was going to stay on alert.)
"There's no such things as ghosts," she said. "Would you please take me to the realtor?"
Get a price. Get a look at the interior. Possibly get a roof, one which wasn't dead. And after that, she just might find herself doing a little scouting.
Fluttershy needed to gain confidence, and the best way to do that remained giving her a success. The pegasus was attracted to nothing -- but no matter what she said and somehow believed, Fleur knew it wasn't the other way around. Somepony in the settled zone wanted Fluttershy. That pony might not be the right one for her, and Fleur was going to be careful about that -- but somewhere in Ponyville was a stallion (or mare: for a pony who wanted nothing, anything was a potential option) who would at least say yes.
Once the realtor visit had wrapped up for better or worse, Fleur was going to draw up the lesson plan. And after that -- she had a map, and what passed for Ponyville's nightlife had also been clearly marked.
It was time to start setting up for the first evening of Date Camp.
That got rather dark. And very telling, not just about Fluttershy, but about Fleur...
I don't think it's Invisible's house? ... Should we know what house that is?
Fleur seems to be reading Fluttershy all wrong, and projecting a bit of her own issues / history onto her...
How very interesting that Fleur doesn't see how Sweetbark works...
Very interesting welcoming speech, Time Turner...
7904238
As promised in the Patreon post, the next chapter will lean back into comedy, because it's time to investigate the nightlife. And I'm not just talking about Fleur.
Discord Does Research, Part II.
...okay, comedy/horror. With Discord, it's usually a mix.
In Which We Learn of the Subtleties Contained within Sarcasm.
I know that house. It's the one Spike swore off estate sales in, isn't it?
Oh, she better HOPE that old mare isn't haunting the place.
D:
Every time that mill comes up this story takes a real sharp turn into Really Dark. If this is implying what I think it is, anyway.
Man, once Fleur gets even a hint she's been rejected she really holds it against a pony, huh. At least date camp sounds like it'll be fun and untraumatizing.
Oh, and nice callback to Unnoticed. That'll be fun.
Willing to bet ten bucks whoever made Flutters think she's not beautiful will get their just desserts via pissed-off Fleur and/or Discord.
Not holding my breath though.
Date Camp. Boot Camp. Same diff.
Severe childhood trauma. Seriously, shouldn't Celestia get Fluttershy some actual counseling?
And add me to Malandy: it strikes me as a bit odd that a devious manipulator like Fleur doesn't see what's going on with Sweetbark. [1] But then again she's got a lot on her mind.
[1] Fifth asshole to appear in this story, but, upon consideration, probably not as big an asshole as she could be: she's more interested in reputation than money, since the biggest bucks are in dragging out the lives of animals with expensive to treat, severe and incurable conditions. (Unless, say, she's massively overcharging for colic pills and such).
7904480
Disagree. Sweetbark has never appeared in any story. She's been discussed, but she's never been seen or heard from.
i'm a little surprised that Fleur never thought to ask Fluttershy who the Element Bearers are...she knows Fluttershy is one, but not which element?
7904542
It's partially lack of opportunity plus the sheer awkwardness & blatancy involved. Fluttershy isn't the easiest pony for anyone to ask a really direct question of, and it's also a matter of how Fleur can occasionally work.
Also, the nature of the true relationship between the Bearers isn't known by everypony in Equestria. More than a few think they're an elite military unit which assembles at need. Fleur's already disproved the group marriage rumor just through the nature of her assignment. The concept that they may just be friends who regularly see each other may not have penetrated, especially for a mare who tends to operate solo.
7904504 What is Sweetbark's orientation?
'Cause that blind date might just be worse for Fluttershy than the Caramel Experience. (Could be cringe inducing, could go for terrifyingly dark.) one of her friends is going to have to yell at Fleur about that (and my vote is for Rainbow, or Spike).
7904504
OK, fifth to appear/have their jerkass behavior rubbed in our faces.
(And it's not always a negative: Discord is an asshole, but he's a fun asshole. )
Not sure if I want Fleur's childhood spelled out in detail or just have it stay inferred. Knowing exactly what happened to her would probably explain so much. But leaving just hints feels more powerful and right...
I'm guessing Celestia investigated Fleur thoroughly and learned about her past. That's why she's given her a chance to meet and be redeemed by the Element Bearers rather than just thrown her in prison for her crimes.
Nice, a reference to your amazing story Unnoticed with the odd house. Not suprised Fleur would end up there. Though I half expected her to rehab the mill.
I wonder if Fleur will become friends with Derpy and Spike? I could see them both welcoming her and the Mayor as well. She missed a citizen once. I doubt she will do so again.
7904562
Northwest.
Date camp sounds great. I love dates. Fresh or dried. Sweet, tasty, and good for you.
Just caught up on this whole fic. Very interesting clash/contrast of Fleur and Fluttershy. First chapter Fleur just seemed like a gold digger, but now her POV seems more like a, a.... how to put it, a hunter (or rather, potential prey) in a jungle full of predators. Her entire personality is based on that- project confidence, don't blink, never let them see your fear. She's doesn't seem quite inherently malicious or cruel, but based on her mentor's (probable) bad end, that just how she sees the world. She's probably spent a lot of time in the literal wilderness too considering her taste for meat and she's surprisingly knowledgeable about animals (being able to identify so many animal mating displays so quickly).
I know Fleur hasn't paid attention to the Bearers, but she's really missed out on a lot of news. I would have thought the newest alicorn princess being the Element of Magic would be common knowledge at least, but guess not. Then again, the local eldritch abominations (Discord and Pinkie) are enough to overwhelm almost anypony anyway. I hope she eventually just checks a history book or newspaper archive so she can get the horror and despair stage over with (once she finds out about Rarity). Wonder how she would react to bumping into Spike (especially when he's one of the saner ones in town).
I like how Fleur is gradually slowly acclimating to Ponyville. As well as just barely starting to get a vague handle on just how impossible her "community service" task is. I do kind of hope Fleur maybe eventually has to fix every part of Fluttershy's life (like the misconception about Fluttershy's vet skills) to get her out of her shell. Though also means putting up with the Bearers... quirks too, when she's already biased against one.
The more I see of Fleur's thought process, the more I wonder what happened to her... and the more I dread finding out. And now I'm finding something similar happening with Fluttershy. I really hope a lot of that Fleur projecting.
I suppose Sweetbark's ruse has to work for some ponies. She wouldn't still be in business otherwise. But the fact that she's duping anyone makes me surprisingly angry at the injustice.
Asking Fluttershy would, of course, be too easy. Or perhaps too obvious, which admittedly does make a lot of sense.
... Oh. Or, putting aside what you noted in another comment, part of the reason why the Bearers don't have wider renown is because the town deliberately obscures them. I had never considered that possibility, and yet it fits with everything we've seen.
I believe this is the first time we've gotten to see Doctor Turner in any of your work. (I like to split the difference. ) I could be wrong, though.
Ah. That house. Well, any spirits within will need to get in line; Fleur's plenty haunted as it is. Her past, her present, her future... She's a Dickens story waiting to happen, especially if she's still in town by Hearth's Warming.
In any case, looking forward to more. Especially the next time we cut back to Discord. That's sure to be an experience.
Hourglass? I guess it must be Time Turner, wonder why that would nauseate her.
Haunted house? I can see it considering all the magic in the world, I suppose if there is an issue, she could just hire an exorcist.
I'm guessing, apart from Pinkie Pie, it's because they are normal ponies trying to enjoy their lives. Having a ton of ponies greeting them would probably kill that...except for Dash, who would bask in all the attention. They all have their flaws, but I doubt it's because ponies think they are dangerous or overly messed up *again, Pinkie Pie excluded*.
As for Sweetbark being a perfect vet, that makes me curious. I have to imagine that, like a lawyer, she doesn't take on pets that she doesn't think will live in order to keep her reputation. All the really sick pets go to Fluttershy who loves pets, but, due to her fears and who knows what else, probably doesn't have any actual veterinary classes or training. I doubt it does much to help her confidence, especially if it's recommended NOT to go to her with your pet.
Flutters is just getting beat on all over this fic, poor girl. And Fleur is now just looking for somepony who likes her and will at least not abuse her and just calling it a day.
Hopefully this'll turn out better for the two of them as the story goes on, this has been quite a dark setup for a romance, but very intriguing.
7906828 She's so inherently manipulative that she doesn't even consider doing anything in a straightforward manner. At this point, she's just going out of her way to make herself miserable.
Actually, it's very possible that she's spent her whole life going out of her way to make herself miserable. She seems to turn absolutely everything into an obstacle that has to be overcome.
7906888 She hates the passage of time, anyone with any sort of time related mark would be a problem for her.
Also, a quick question about an earlier chapter. If Rarity doesn't have any particularly unusual taste, what does it mean for Spike's crush, given how unusual he is?
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Ah, thank you for that, I didn't remember that at the time.
I actually read through the earlier chapters, but I didn't see a single time where Fleur spoke with Spike and Rarity, or any indication about Rarity having the same feeling for Spike. So, Spike crushing on Rarity might be considered unusual, but that's all on Spike, not Rarity. Rarity crushing on Spike would probably be unusual, but that is not occurring from what we have seen in this story so far.
And, admittedly, Spike crushing on a pony makes sense, since ponies are what he's lived with his entire life, so they would wind up as the objects of his affection and romantic interest.
7907574 She hasn't talked with either of them, but she mentioned Rarity's tastes when she spotted her on her way to the boutique. She decided to forgo clothes for now due to her working there.
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That was all I saw on Fleur talking about Rarity's romantic pieces, I would assume the ones scrubbed clean involved what happened with Blueblood and the Gala. Fleur doesn't mention Rarity having any unusual tastes or personality, she just thinks of Rarity as a common pony trying to fake being important.
All right, caught up.
The 4 or 5 chapters that I just read have been pretty interesting to binge through, primarily because of how my opinion on Fleur has changed from where I've started to where I am now. Initially, while I didn't specifically dislike her, I didn't particularly like her either. But now as her background has been coming out, and especially her handling of that first encounter with Discord, I find myself liking her more and more all the time.
As an aside, she should look into renting that mill to fix up and stay at. It'd be the best choice for being both convenient to Ponyville and to Fluttershy's cottage. Plus, it could be an interesting metaphor for how Fleur fixes herself up.
I assume that Sweetbarks reputation is akin to animal shelters in the real world? No deaths due to only accepting the "safe" pets
7912058 The answer to that question may be found here.
I love the way you write, it really helps make your characters thought patterns and points of view understandable.
Heh. At least Discord was aware Celestia was trying to help him.
Oh, sure, she told Fluttershy to 'reform' him so he would 'use his powers for good instead of evil', but that happened through becoming his friend, and considering how deeply he cherishes that friendship, it's more than clear he truly wanted a friend even if he didn't know at the time.
I'm thinking that the whole "Perfect" thing is a self-fulfilling prophecy: The Vet gets so busy she can be picky about which clients she sees. Not only that, but it's better for her pocket book if she can do things quicker. Fluttershy takes all of the spillovers, the ones who can NOT afford to wait, therefore she gets the ones that are in the worst shape. Thus ensuring that The Vet will NEVER get pets who DIE, while Fluttershy will get the pets that WILL die. The sad part is that I am sure many of those dead pets would have died even if the vet had gone to see them....
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It's a reference to Five Hundred Little Murders, in which Ponyville's vet keeps her perfect record by sending cases where she risks losing to Fluttershy.
Actually, a "Tell all" book written after she retires could be VERY profitable. Diary Of A Canterlot Escort or some such. What sells is
1) Name dropping
2) Dirt
3) & ESPECIALLY, a combination of the two.
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I feel like that scam could work to an extent but not to the point of perfection. At some point she's going to misjudge and accept a case she shouldn't and then either the pet dies under her care or she has to tell the patient she's referring them to Fluttershy and they will partially blame her for sending them there if they see Fluttershy's care as inadequate. So while it definitely could reduce the number of complaints, I cannot see it removing them entirely unless she has magic death sense powers as her cutie mark gift on the par with shinigami eyes from Death Note.
But of course, that's a minor detail in this story, where I find the writing engrossing a Fleur an interesting and entertaining protagonist.
The abandoned mill provided.
Hello again abandoned mill
match a blank who won't ever let herself believe anypony could be attracted to her when she's that beautiful with that tail
Hello again tail fetish
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I know you said this a year ago, discovering this as I did only a year in advance, but as I said in a previous chapter: It's a classic and some can respect a classic.
Also it's a slow burn on her attraction because I ship it! Not that it isn't fairly obvious, but it's adorably sweet the way they both think they're so terrible... It's perfect.