Rarity looked over the faces of her gathered friends, glad that they all answered her call. She stood up at the head of the table and addressed them, “Hello, girls. I’m glad you all could make it here today.”
“Don’t be dramatic with it, just tell us why we’re here,” said Rainbow, impatiently drumming her fingers on the table. “I’m going to be late for practice.”
Applejack sent a brief annoyed glare at Rainbow Dash, “Ah’m also a mite curious.... Not that I don’t like spendin’ time with you or anything.”
“I don’t know,” said Fluttershy, petting a white cat that had stuck its head out of her bag. “You sounded really urgent on the phone.”
Pinkie leaned forward with an excited grin. “Ohh, OOHH! Did Twilight come back? Do we get to be super awesome moé magical girls again!?” she exclaimed, jumping out of her seat, and waving her straw around like a wand.
“Ok, firstly, no more television for you, Pinkie. Secondly, this is extremely urgent, we have to keep the promise we made to Twilight before she left. We have to teach Sunset Shimmer the magic of friendship.”
“Ugh, do we haavvvvee to?” Rainbow groaned spreading herself over the table. “Personally, I don’t want anything to do with the one who wrecked it in the first place.”
“Don’t be like that, Dashie,” said Pinkie, patting the girl's rainbow hair, “You saw how she was, I’m sure she’s learned her lesson.”
“I agree, not to mention it’s been almost a month since then, and her situation has only gotten worse after the school was rebuilt. Most of the students refuse to talk to her and nobody ever sees her outside of the local library.”
Rainbow leaned back in her seat, “Well, maybe if she hadn't destroyed the school, terrorized the students, and broke up our friendships, I would care just a little bit more... just a little.”
Rarity folded her arms in defiance, “Be that as it may, we promised. So we have a moral obligation to help her learn how to make some friends.”
“Oh, no, I am not wasting my hard earned winter break on her!” blurted Rainbow, bolting upright and crossing her arms.
Applejack scoffed, “Waddaya mean ‘hard earned’ you nearly failed most of your classes except for gym.”
Pinkie hopped in place. "Who knows... we might finished before winter break. We could probably even spend Christmas with her."
“Whatever, I still don’t want to!” replied Rainbow.
“But, Rainbow, we promised Twilight,” pleaded Fluttershy, giving her a wide eyed puppy dog gaze. Eventually, Pinkie and the cat joined in as well. Sensing that they were needed, just about every animal that Fluttershy kept on her emerged and added their stares to the attack. Bombarded by adorableness, Rainbow reluctantly backed down and slumped in defeat.
Pinkie gave a thumbs up to Rarity who nodded in appreciation. “Thank you. Now, the problem is going about it. Any ideas?”
Pinkie slowly raised her hand while Rarity shook her head and said, “No parties, if we hold one now, no one will show up and she’ll only feel worse.”
Pinkie slowly lowered her hand.
…
“Well? Come on, don’t be shy, speak up,” Rarity urged in response to the group silence.
…
Rarity sighed, “Well I had at least intended to listen your ideas, but if none of you have any, I’ll tell you mine. I believe that we should all spend a day with her, and include her in our activities in order to bring her out of her shell.”
The collective group offered murmurs of agreements.
“I think that Fluttershy should go first,” she finished.
“What?!” she exclaimed, hiding behind her hair in surprise, “Why me?”
“Fluttershy,” Rarity said gently, moving closer to the shy, introverted girl, “you are the kindest person I know. Also, if you remember, you were in the same situation as her when we first met.”
“Except she didn't try to enslave two worlds,” Rainbow muttered.
If Rarity heard her she didn't show it. “You can relate to her the most out of all of us. I have complete faith in you, darling.”
Fluttershy, although reluctant, decided that if her friend trusted her, she would at least give it a try. “Alright,” she said softly, her eyes showing a small amount a confidence.
~~~
*Tap…. Tap…. Tap*
“Umm, yes, hello, may I come in?” asked Fluttershy as she stood in front of the glass doors.
“Fluttershy,” sighed Cheerilee, “this is a public library. You don’t have to knock on the open doors.”
“Oh right… sorry.”
“It’s fine, come in,” she said, smiling slightly as she turned to walk away.
Fluttershy stopped her before she could leave, “Wait, please. Do you know if Sunset Shimmer is here?”
Cheerilee turned back to Fluttershy with an irritated look on her face. Without a word, she pointed toward an out of the way table with a single girl with intertwining red-orange hair, quietly reading a book.
“Thank… you,” she said as Cheerilee briskly turned and left. 'She looked a little mad when I mentioned Sunset Shimmer… she must still be upset over what happened.’ she thought sadly before making her way over to the girl in question.
Shimmer responded by looking up at the new arrival, she momentarily looked surprised that someone actually visited her, before hiding back behind her book. “H-hi, Fluttershy.”
“Um, hi.”
Silence reigned as neither girl knew how to proceed. Eventually, Sunset broke the veil.
“Well? What do you want?” she asked.
Fluttershy jumped at the sudden question. “I just… I wanted to see if you wanted to spend the day helping me at the animal shelter.”
“No thank you. I would rather stay here where no one can hate me.”
Fluttershy mustered up a small amount of courage to continue. “Please? I really would like some help… and to get to know you better.”
Sunset looked up to see Fluttershy’s pleading eyes, and knew that she couldn't say no anymore. She sighed, put the book down, and followed Fluttershy out of the library.
Once outside, Fluttershy couldn't help but notice the many people glaring in their direction. Before she could shy away, she realized that all of the stares were, in fact, being directed at the girl next to her. She also noticed the way Sunset walked. She had her head down and her pace had quickened, almost as if she were to begin running any second.
~~~
As Fluttershy entered the animal shelter, she was assaulted with various sights and smells. To most people, it might seem a bit overwhelming, but over time she had learned to get used to, and even sort of enjoy, the various smells. Eventually, the smells became something of a comfort to her in times of distress.
“Hello my animal friends. How are you all today?” she said as she bent down to pet all of the various dogs, cats, lizards, snakes, and other assorted animals. They all chirped, hissed, and purred at her touch, clearly enjoying the affection of their caretaker.
“Is that you, Fluttershy?” called out a voice from the back room. Sunset turned towards the nearby door just in time to see a tall woman with jet black hair, exit from a door near the back of the shop. She wore a violet dress, polka dotted with what resembled sunflowers, and had what some would call librarian glasses attached to a chain that went around her neck. “Welcome back, and I see that you’ve brought a friend.”
Fluttershy looked up at the women in concern, “Oh, yes, is that ok?”
“It’s completely fine, dearie. I wish that there were more kind children like you.”
“Oh no, what’s wrong?” she asked, seeing that something was bothering the women.
“Oh, just a few financial troubles, nothing you young ones need to worry about.”
Fluttershy stood up and walked over to her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Really, it’s nothing. Just having you around makes the animals happy, and having you volunteer here everyday makes me happy.”
“Well,” she said, brightening up a bit, “all right then.”
“Well then, you know where everything is, but call me if you two need anything,” she said, leaving the two girls to their own devices.
Fluttershy waved to the departing woman before turning back to Sunset, who had waited out the conversation by staring at a caged mouse in the corner. Fluttershy got to work feeding the animals, getting them water, and grooming some of the furrier ones. What should have been an enjoyable experience was eventually made somewhat awkward when she remembered that she wasn't alone today. For the next 30 minutes she would constantly look back toward Sunset Shimmer who spent her time gravitating from one animal to the next, sometimes petting or grooming them like Fluttershy would do.
Normally, she would sing a small tune while working, but with someone else present, she couldn't muster up the courage to do so. Instead, she tried to make some light conversation.
"S-so,” she began hesitantly, “…do you like animals?”
“I guess,” she said, still grooming the bunny that she had gravitated to.
“Really? Which one do you like most?”
Sunset thought for a few seconds before softly petting the bunny between its ears slightly smiling as he leaned into her touch. “I don’t have one. I used to hate animals actually… but now it seems like they’re the only ones to not shun or glare or at me for what I’ve done.”
Fluttershy couldn't help but notice how sad she sounded. It was true that many of the students in the school had expressed their hate for her, but did it really spread that far around town?
In the end, because she was unable to bring up any further conversational topics, Fluttershy decided to only focus on the animals in front of her for the remainder of the day.