“Good job, you learn quickly.” Silver Wing said to Fluttershy as they left the clearing they had used for Fluttershy's lessons.
It had been about a week since their first lesson, and although Fluttershy had very little resources from which to learn from, she picked up new tricks and abilities easily.
Twilight had decided not to be present for this lesson. She was offered to oversee Fluttershy's progress, she shot the offer down, claiming it would be good for Fluttershy to spend some time with somepony else for a bit.
“Thank you, but really all I did was do exactly what you told me to do, it really isn't worth any congratulations.” Fluttershy said in reply, expressing herself modestly.
Silver pulled her close however and said, “You aren't giving yourself enough credit. You've learned in days what some naturally born vampires take weeks, or even months to learn. You have a pretty good talent, you just need to work with it.”
“My special talent is taking care of animals.”
“Well maybe you have more than one talent.” Said Silver, “Speaking of taking care of animals by the way, how have you been doing with that.”
“Fine,” Fluttershy said, “They've begun warming up to me again. It wasn't easy, but I think they're starting to trust me.”
After Fluttershy had started taking over her responsibilities again, it became obvious that her new nature was unnerving to them at the least, and most of them were worse. Over the past week she had to earn their trust again.
Most of them were easy to win over again, simply by going through her normal routine they trusted her completely within a few days. Others however, required extra kindness and occasionally some 'encouragement' from Angel.
“So they aren't trying to bite your head off anymore, that's good.” Silver said, offering Fluttershy a friendly nudge and a smile.
Fluttershy replied, “It was never that bad.”
“Sure it wasn't.” Silver said.
Finally, after a considerable silence, Silver asked, “Fluttershy, do you consider me a friend?”
“Of course I do. Why, is something wrong?” Fluttershy replied.
“Well, if you consider me a friend, then why do you make this so awkward?” Silver asked.
“I don't try to,” Fluttershy said, “I'm just a little nervous around you.”
“Nervous?” Silver replied inquisitively.
“I feel like you're dangerous,” Fluttershy explained, “I know you just want to help me but I'm still a little afraid of what I've become, and what you are.”
Silver rested a wing on her friends back, and with a comforting demeanor and warm smile said, “It's never easy for somepony to adjust to vampirism, it hasn't been for thousands of years and honestly, I would be far more worried if you had accepted it right away.”
“Twilight and I were both born like this,” Silver continued, “We don't express it, but we both know that we've been different all our lives. Maybe you wouldn't agree, but we're both proud of what we are.”
“You're proud of... this?”
“It may not be easy for you, but for us...” Silver began, but was cut off when Fluttershy quickly motioned for her to be quiet.
They had reached the edge of the forest, and up ahead was Rarity, waiting outside of Fluttershy's cottage with an impatient look.
Fluttershy quietly whispered, “We need to be discreet. Just follow me, and pretend we were talking about... feeding birds.”
“Can't you come up with something better?” Silver asked. Upon receiving an annoyed stare however, she gave it up and nodded for them to proceed.
Given no better alternative, Silver started off their false conversation, “How was I supposed to know they didn't like daybloom seeds?”
“Well,” Fluttershy replied, “Maybe you should have realized it when they started pecking you.”
“I thought they were just hungry.”
“Excuse me,” Rarity said, breaking up their discussion of birds with convenient timing, “I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm terribly confused.”
“I should really be going now.” Silver said, taking her cue to leave Fluttershy to her friend.
As she took off, Rarity said, “I'm still very confused. Angel told me you would be out in a few minutes, or at least... I think that was what he said.”
“He was probably trying to tell you to go away, he can be hard to understand sometimes.” Fluttershy said, holding the door open to invite Rarity in.
“Yes,” Rarity said as she entered, followed shortly by Fluttershy, “That still doesn't explain why you were in the Everfree forest in the middle of the night with somepony I've never even seen before.”
“Would you like some tea?” Fluttershy offered politely.
Rarity nodded, “Yes, now about your late night wanderings, who was she?”
“Just a friend of mine. Twilight introduced us a while back, and we've been spending time together recently.” Fluttershy replied.
Rarity again nodded, “I see, and what were you doing in the forest so late? You know the forest is more dangerous at night.”
“We were just going for a walk.”
“A... walk?” Rarity asked slowly.
“Yes, just a walk.”
Rarity was confused, “What in Equestria could have possessed either of you to take a walk through the Everfree forest in the
middle of the night?”
Fluttershy began getting out the teabags as the water boiled. As she worked, she explained, “It isn't as bad as you think. It's actually very peaceful, and it isn't dangerous or scary at all as long as you don't go too far in. We never went any further in then about halfway to Zecora's hut.”
Fluttershy didn't like having to lie to her friends. All because of a simple mistake, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were now suspicious, and judging from Rarity's late night visit, neither of them had given up the search yet. The forest was much more dangerous than she made it out to be, and they had gone much further in. The best she could hope for was that Rarity would be too worried about getting dirty to confirm her story, and would forget the whole thing.
“These walks, do they often involve getting attacked by birds?” Rarity said jokingly, trying to relieve some of the tension.
Fluttershy smiled, pouring tea into a cup, she said, “She was just trying to feed some birds. I suggested she try something like that, it helps me clear my mind sometimes.”
“Thank you,” she said, levitating the cup over to her as Fluttershy poured her own, “By the way, is Rainbow still bothering you?”
“No,” Fluttershy said, “She hasn't been around since she got chased off by birds a few days ago.”
Rarity couldn't help but giggle slightly at the idea, “Everypony seems to be angering the birds this week. Might I ask what she did?”
“She tried to spy on me from the tree outside. The birds didn't like her shaking their nest.”
“Unfortunately I've been little better off than the birds.” Rarity said after a short pause, “ She's been bothering me all week, explaining all her theories, some reasonable and some that sound like something Pinkie would say on one of her stranger days. And don't even get me started on her amazing plans to catch you in the act, though I doubt she would have much success, since she can't seem to figure out what your supposed to be guilty of.”
As Fluttershy sipped her tea in the silence, she noticed something odd. The tea tasted strange. There was very little flavor, and what remained was different. The flavor was exactly the same, but now it was dry and dull, and completely unappealing. Since Rarity didn't mention anything however, she decided to simply review her books later, maybe talk to Twilight about it, being as it was probably just another effect of becoming a vampire.
“What are some of her theories?” Fluttershy asked.
Rarity looked at the ground tiredly as she said, “Mostly nonsense, that you're a demon from Tartarus here to bring down the elements of harmony, there was one about how you were a secret agent sent by Princess Celestia to spy on Ponyville. In fact the most reasonable thing she's come up with is that you're a changeling.”
“That's still what you believe happened, isn't it?” Fluttershy asked, sipping her tea again, despite the lack of taste, “By the way, does your tea taste okay?” She quickly added, deciding to ensure that it wasn't just her imagination and that their actually was something odd about it.
“It's actually a bit stronger than I expected, but it's fine, no need to worry about it.” Rarity said, glancing down at her cup, “As for the changeling explanation, I have trust in Twilight's judgment, but even that leaves me wondering, what would anypony want with that kind of information?”
After that they simply remained silent, until Fluttershy asked the single question yet unanswered, “Rarity, why are you here, especially in the middle of the night?”
“You know, to be honest Fluttershy I really couldn't sleep, and... well, I've been worried about you.” Rarity said, “I keep coming back to that evening, hearing... well, I guess it would be you, ask those kinds of questions, it made me begin thinking more about how much we don't know about each other. For all I know, you could be plotting to take over Equestria with Twilight as your accomplice, and Rainbow could be the secret agent sent to stop you.”
Rarity set down the empty tea cup on the table and on the verge of tears, she continued, “We're supposed to be friends, but I don't even know if anypony is being even close to honest with me. I keep thinking Twilight isn't doing as much as she could to sort this out, and then I keep thinking that it might have really been you asking me those horrid questions, and I just don't know what to do.”
“Um, if it makes you feel any better, I would definitely include you if I was secretly plotting to take over Equestria.” Fluttershy said, remaining calm and gentle as always.
“Well, thank you, though that hardly makes me feel any better.”
“Oh, I'm sorry I didn't...” Fluttershy began saying in a panic, only stopping as Rarity interrupted her.
“It's not you darling,” Rarity interrupted, “I fear I may be growing a bit paranoid. Perhaps we should step up our spa appointment, I could use some relaxation. Does two days sound good to you?” Fluttershy nodded, earning a weak but honest smile, “Well then, I won't keep you from your bed any longer, have a good night.”
As she got up to leave, Fluttershy said, “If I do turn evil and try to take over Equestria, you're welcome to join me.”
Turning back, Rarity smiled and replied, “I'll keep that in mind.”
Then Rarity left, leaving both herself and Fluttershy better off than they began.