Rarity was looking over her latest designs when she heard the bell on the door ring. She turned to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway, and said, “Oh, Fluttershy, come in, make yourself at home.”
Fluttershy walked in, and deposited the basket in her mouth at Rarity's hooves. Soon after, a white cat popped out. “Oh, she looks marvelous,” Rarity said on seeing Opal.
“Of course. I couldn't leave the poor thing like that after she got all wet. Are you sure you don't know what happened to her?”
“I'm sure.”
Fluttershy didn't believe Rarity, but was a bit too self-conscious to press the point. Not that she would have to, as at this point a tall white unicorn with a light pink mane and tail and three fleur de lis as her cutie mark walked out of the bathroom. The new arrival said in a Prench accent, “If I recall, you said you accidentally knocked her into your laundry tub.”
“Uh, maybe. I don't remember,” Rarity said, doing her best to play innocent, but instead making herself seem even more guilty.
The newcomer turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Is she really this bad at lying?”
“Kinda,” Fluttershy said evasively.
“I see. By the way, you look familiar.”
“I do?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes. I remember pony who looked like you was a celebrity on the modeling circuit a few years back. Lasted about a month, as I recall, then suddenly dropped off the radar.”
“That was her. Fluttershy quit, because the whole thing made her miserable,” Rarity said, happy to change the topic from what happened to Opal.
Fluttershy flinched when she heard this. She never like having her modeling career brought up and just wished everypony would forget about it. Much to her frustration, however, the two unicorns decided to plow on down that road.
“Oh, that's too bad. your style of modeling worked quite well for you. Although... wasn't your modeling agent Photo Finish?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy admitted hesitantly, really wanting to change the subject.
“That explains it. During my brief stint in the modeling business, before becoming a trophy wife, I heard horror stories about how she would heavily promote her models and run them until they were utterly burned out,” said the pink maned unicorn.
Rarity then saw how talking about this was affecting the yellow mare, so she changed the subject, saying, “Oh, but where are my manners? Fluttershy, this is Fleur de Lis. She's staying with me until she can get back on her hooves after what happened in Canterlot."
"What happened?" Fluttershy asked, feeling like she was missing some information she should have had.
Fleur explained before Rarity had the opportunity to. "Fancypants, my former husband, had an affair with a wealthy socialite by the name of Pink Pearls, then outed me as a bisexual when I threatened to reveal this to the other nobles.”
“Why would he do that?” Fluttershy asked, feeling nervous and slightly silly for not having this info.
“Why would he cheat, or why would he out me?”
“Why would he out you? Why would your sexuality matter?” Fluttershy asked, speaking in a low whisper that Fleur struggled to understand. Fortunately the tall unicorn got the gist of it.
“First off, try to relax. I'm not going to be offended by some silly question. And to answer your question, Canterlot high society is notoriously conservative, and being outed as gay or bi is usually enough to get you kicked out of their little groups. He did it because he wanted to discredit me before I could do serious harm to his reputation,” Fleur explained.
Gaining a little courage, and volume, Fluttershy asked, “But why not stay in Canterlot?”
“Simple. There was nothing left for me there after I was outed, which is why I decided to seek new opportunities outside the city.”
“As for why she came here. It's because I'm her friend, and outside of Fancypants' sphere of influence, except in regard to dress sales,” Rarity explained.
“And your shop was only about four hours from Canterlot,” Fleur was quick to point out.
“Well, yes, that too.”
The sound of someone's stomach growling (no one would fess up) stopped further conversation, and after a minute of awkward silence, Rarity said, “Maybe we should get some lunch. My treat.”
Walking out the door, Fluttershy, who was behind the two white unicorns, found herself staring at Fleur's rump. She immediately chastised herself for doing this, thinking Don't even think that, Fluttershy. Even if you were a fillyfooler, there's no way that a high class pony like Fleur de Lis would want to go out with a simple country pony like you. It's a hopeless pipe dream. She then wondered, Why does she make me so nervous, though? I didn't have a problem talking to Celestia, or Fancypants, or any other high status ponies, so why should she be any different?
Fleur's thoughts, on the other hand, were going down a much more upbeat and inclusive line. I could get used to living somewhere like this. Easy access to the latest fashions; no need to maintain that silly, pretentious facade of smug nobility they insist on in Canterlot; a simpler lifestyle; romance for love, not status; and cute ponies everywhere, like that adorable little yellow pegasus behind me. What's not to love?
It took no time at all for her to find something she wasn't going to love, however. Something having to do with her height in relation to the vast majority of ponies living in Ponyville.
“Ow,” she yelped, after knocking her forehead into the restaurant's doorway. An act she repeated when an inattentive Fluttershy walked into her rear.
“Are you okay?” Rarity asked.
“I'm fine, but, obviously, low doorways are going to be an issue,” Fleur said, rubbing her forehead with her hoof, before turning her attention to the small voice behind her that kept apologizing.
“Don’t worry about it. These things happen,” Fleur said, turning to look at Fluttershy with a reassuring little smile on her face, hoping to calm the shy pony down.
Unfortunately, It was obvious that Fleur's attempts to reassure the pegasus weren't working this time. Fluttershy was obviously still very nervous, which left the tall unicorn confused. She turned her head back towards Rarity so Fluttershy wouldn't see this, and ducked under the low door frame, though she didn't get low enough to avoid scraping her horn on it.
Rarity saw Fleur's look of confusion, but made no comment, thinking it would be best to talk to her about anything that might be bugging her in private. Instead, she asked, “Is Fluttershy here?”
“Yes. She's behind me.”
“Oh, okay. Table for three please,” she said to the maitre d'.
After being seated and ordering their food, Fleur asked Fluttershy, “Why are you so nervous?”
“I'm just shy,” Fluttershy said, trying to hide the fact that she didn't actually know why she was so nervous around Fleur.
“Is that the only reason? You seemed quite comfortable when you were alone with Rarity.”
“That's probably because we've been friends for years now, and she didn't know you were there. Trust me, she was much shyer than this when I met her,” Rarity said, finding herself thinking back to that day.
Fleur saw Rarity become lost in memory and realized she wouldn't be speaking up for the moment. Deciding that she wanted to learn more about Fluttershy and try to calm her down in the process, she asked the pegasus, “So what is it that you do, Fluttershy?”
“I take care of animals.”
“What kind of animals?”
“Any kind, rabbits, snakes, cats, birds, bears...” Fluttershy said.
The look on Fleur's face had to be seen to be believed. “Bears? Really?”
“Yes. They're such nice creatures.”
Fleur was now very confused because she had always thought bears were ruthless killing machines. “Nice creatures?” She found herself asking.
“Oh, yes. They love to come by and have tea with me every once in a while.”
“Wait, how are you having tea with bears and not being mauled by them?”
“Well, my special talent is working with animals,” Fluttershy said, hiding her annoyance.
This explained a lot. Fleur said, “After seeing your cutie mark, I thought your special talent had something to do with butterflies, or something like that.”
“No, I'm good with animals of all kinds.”
Rarity, back in the modern world now that their salads had been delivered, said, “She's not kidding. When we went into the Everfree Forest to get the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon she walked right up to an angry manticore and got it to calm down.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“And she's still here?” Fleur asked, still in disbelief.
“Yes. It's amazing, isn't it?”
“It's unbelievable. So you take care of these monsters?”
Fluttershy stopped trying to hide her annoyance when she heard Fleur ask this. “They're not monsters.”
Rarity, wanting to defuse the situation before it got heated, said, “You might want to be careful using that word around Fluttershy. She is very touchy about having her animals being disrespected.”
“Oh. My apologies, Fluttershy,” Fleur said, visibly relaxing somewhat and carefully hiding her concern about possibly having ruined any potential friendship she could have had with the little pegasus within an hour of meeting her. Then, deciding to change the subject away from animals which she was less comfortable with than she thought, Fleur asked Rarity, “So how's business been?”
“Fairly slow, since there are no big parties or other events coming up anytime soon, but I'm getting by.”
“That's good to hear,” Fleur said. Having nothing more to say and seeing Rarity wasn't continuing the conversation, she let silence descend on their table after that.
After a minute or so, Rarity asked, “What do you plan on doing now that you've left Canterlot?”
“Try to find a new way to spend my time, maybe settle down with somepony, and definitely relish not being somepony's status symbol. Trust me, being a trophy wife is highly overrated even if your husband is a pony as nice as Fancypants usually is.”
“I'm sure.”
“Also, I won't miss having to keep up the pretentious facade that goes with being the wife of a prominent noble twice your age,” Fleur said.
“Really? How old are you?”
“24.”
“Wow, I didn't know he was that old, or you were that young,” Rarity said, sounding surprised.
“My size belies my age, I guess.”
“It really does.”
Fluttershy, who had been listening to the two of them speak and quickly eating her salad, hoping to get back to her cottage soon, said, “Sorry, I promised Angel I would be back by now,” before slipping out of the restaurant.
“Angel?”
“Her domineering pet rabbit.”
"Oh." Fleur said as she watched Fluttershy leave. She wondered if she was actually leaving because of her poorly chosen words earlier and the fact that things between them had not quite gotten off on the right hoof.