Fluttershy stretched out and got comfortable. She tried to stop being nervous around older vampires but the older one was, the more likely they commanded some form of respect. And this one was one of the most powerful in terms of age. And yet in some perverse way, Fleur did not look like some old lady but was only in what some would call middle age. She briefly swirled her coffee around and smiled at Fluttershy.
"Oh this establishment is so quaint. I don't often go in coffeehouses anymore. Not since the good old days."
"I mean you only talk about the good old days once in a blue moon, why not start now?"
"Oh you are so testy. Its rather unbecoming of a lady. But blame the feminine things of the last hundred years here in your little world and I'd turn to see all your leaders bow before Robespierre as he deftly talked about the necessity of terror. The guillotine was partially a pastime. You have your talent shows. We had capital punishment. Violent behavior is unbecoming of females but we are the daughters of previous generations. Isn't some kind of male influence a good thing?"
"I used sarcasm. Don't go off the deep end now."
Fleur stopped stirring and opened her eyes. "If you don't want this spoon in your arm, I would suggest shutting your mouth. I have tried every way to figure out how this curse given by God works. I know how you tick. I know exactly where every nerve ending is, I know how to keep an immortal alive and conscious while I work on them. I have honed all my skills for hundreds of years."
"I mean all I want is some information. If you want to then try to beat me up, be my guest. Sombra did train both of us- I wonder who is better anyway? I mean he trained you like two centuries ago. I trained under him like a year ago. What do you even do? Look pretty and work out the entire brood's stress level?"
Fleur's coffee mug shattered. Joe looked over. "Oh sorry monsieur, I guess it broke. I can pay for the glass." Fleur quietly whispered to Fluttershy. "I will break your spine. But yes we can talk. Just you know, I'll talk while destroying you."
Joe just shook his head. He knew to let things go. He had many coffee mugs anyway. What was one broken one. He knew when a bad time entered his shop. Except this time it wasn't named Celestia.
***
Roseluck's days off were relaxing to her. Being in nature was soothing, even if cities were not her ideal habitat. She liked the untainted glens and dales of small town life. Seemed more attuned to her aura. But she dealt with her isolation from the earth in smaller ways. Teaching students weren't the most fun but planting a seed of knowledge was rather nice and tending to that made her work bearable. But what really made her happy was tending to her garden and feeling a bit of connection to healing the earth of its pollution one seed at a time. She was busily gathering her seeds from the local store when one of her students crashed through the building and out the other side in a flash.
Pulling out her phone, Roseluck quickly dialed her emergency contact. After the muffled voice came on the line she broke down the situation.
"Yeah. It's Rose. Oh you know nothing much. Oh I mean there was this one thing. You know that whole keeping magical creatures on the down and out secret thing you guys all kind of made. Yeah well the vampires broke that shit. Yeah I know that should be impossible at this time of day . What will I do about it? Fine. Fine. You owe me now."
Hanging up and in now a bad mood, Roseluck cursed her luck.
"Fine. if Queenie wants me to deal with this, I will." Roseluck snapped her fingers and vanished.
***
Fluttershy dusted herself off and quickly checked how her body was doing. Opening her eyes she saw that both of her arms were sticking at unnatural angles and she winced at the thought of having to push them back into place to let her body heal. Looking for a nearby tree, she quickly sprinted towards it, one shoulder aimed straight at the hard trunk and as she heard the bone snap back in a semi normal place she held in a scream. She may have had healing powers, but it didn't mean she had pain free healing. After her arm started working as best as she could hope for in the moment she used it to put the other arm back in place as well.
"Tres bien! Now that made me feel a rush- while your manners are complete and utter. how do you say. garbage fire when compared to the ideal lady, you aren't an imbecile. I remember a lot of fun times in French Indochina when I used to have fun with all these humans and they never could bounce back as good as us. I would give you a D minus in vampirism."
There was Fleur flapping away on her bat wings.
"Well okay compared to a dusty old lady like you, but who's really comparing."
"And there we go again with the whole mouthy thing. This is why I preferred Moondancer anyway. She knew how to deal rightly with people. And no I actually liked her. Why would I murder a vampire I liked? It'd be antithetical to my own purposes. I like civil behavior and she was the best at what it truly meant to be a vampire. No whining, no talking back. She was perfect. Hiding her vampirism while manipulating all she could."
Fluttershy hated hearing Fleur talk. The woman loved the sound of her own voice and her own thoughts that once she started speaking crazy, she really was unable to stop until some sad sack decided to shut her up. Fluttershy hated this so much.There were so many better things she could have done to really not have to talk to Fleur. She could have had Trixie to spend hours searching the files of the highschool registries for students who were absent. she could have said no to Sombra's task, she could have ate a whole tub of chocolate ice cream while watching Titanic.
She'd have to file that idea away for later.
But what she loved about Fleur's crazy talk was that she really did get caught up in her own thoughts. And Sombra did teach her to attack while her opponents were weakest.
Quickly fashioning a tree branch into an aerodynamic weapon would have taken too long. So Fluttershy had the next best idea she could think of.
"Hey Fleur, there's something on your shirt."
"Au contraire, I keep my linens completely immaculate. If there was a piece of dirt on my clothes I would know. I mean- give me a moment." Fleur looked down and saw that there was nothing on her shirt.
"Made you look." Fluttershy tossed her tree limb as hard as she could. She really hoped she had thrown it correctly or that the idea of a "stake" that kills vampires did not include hastily improvised javelins.
Fleur screamed as the wooden spear impaled her. "Are you trying to murder me you little freaking upstart! Mon Dieu, this hurts. And this was my favorite shirts. Once I get this out of me I will show you the true meaning of pain if that's the last thing I ever do."
With a loud pop Roseluck gracefully tried to hop into the clearing. "Now girls can we all act like the totally rational people I hope you are. Though with how Canterlot currently is having a hissy fit having a city block explode thanks to you stroking each other's fragile ego- we have a problem."
Fluttershy blinked. Sure she knew of Roseluck, since she was one of the teachers in Canterlot High that she actually liked since she was the advisor of the Ecology Club. But she appeared out of nowhere. That wasn't supposed to happen for magical creatures that she knew of.
"Hey you threw off my moment of vowing vengeance. Fleur was seething while trying to pull out the branch as delicately as possible,
"Oh I'm sorry your majesty. I don't care. First of all, you destroyed the peace in the city that has been on a tenuous balance ever since the Accords of 1692 banning any and all conspicuous supernatural abilities."
"Yeah well she was sarcastic and completely unlearned in manners."
Roseluck laughed at that. "Seriously? You fought her over that? Have you seen the student population here in this here town. Feels like
I'm back in the days of King Arthur with how full of themselves these humans are. And to stand up for my student- she's probably not all that bad. I'd say blame the vampire curse cause all of you are insufferable."
"Thank you Miss Roseluck."
"Oh that doesn't mean I'm letting either of you off the hook though. Let's just say your internal vampire problem has been getting out of hand. The establishment I work for has been looking for Moondancer and her little shenanigans for a while."
Fluttershy tilted her head. "She's been dead almost a week now. Shouldn't you have done this sooner?"
Roseluck chuckled. "Shy, that the Court for you. They live in their own little world. Time dilation and all that jazz. But yeah I'm just the enforcer bringing you two in. Sorry."
"What are you doing?"
Roseluck whistled long and slow. Fluttershy shivered as a breeze quickly picked up and she was confused when she felt the grass move as one undulating wave. A small circle of light slowly surrounded the three and they winked out of existence for a brief moment.
***
Fluttershy opened her eyes and was greeted by twilight. The grove that they had been in before was lit by a noonday sun but here in a land where it seemed a few hours had passed.
"Where are we?"
"Oh now where are my manners? Vampires- or most haven't been here for quite a while. Welcome Vampires of House Tepes to the Seelie Courts. Sorry for the silence. Our lady is rather livid right now."
Quick trumpets were heard in the distance and as Fluttershy turned, she saw a single train of people walk up towards her. They did not look the part of happy fairies, but more angry and holding silver spears that glinted in the twilight.
A booming voice that was feminine and full of power echoed through the silence.
"That is an understatement. And I hoped my school's nurse wasn't such a pain in the rear but now we have a problem on our hands."
The train stopped and a thin and graceful lady stepped towards the pair. Fluttershy glanced over and saw Fleur visibly shaking in terror.
"Oh don't worry. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have brought you here."
"Sorry Vice Principal Cadance. I should have been more tactful."
"Oh Fleur. How nice to see you actually having some decorum for once. But when you are in my presence and realm call me Queen of the Shining Throne, Benevolent Ruler of the Seelie Court. Oh an Fluttershy- if you want to ask around in my school's files don't send a crowbar when you could just ask nicely."
Fluttershy froze.
"Oh but don't worry. We won't kill you. Our handmaiden's daughter is one of your friends. She speaks highly of you. We can talk of your punishment later. Windy Whistles wants to see how her daughter's doing now. I said that she could just ask during a parent teacher conference, but you know how long distance parenting is."
A muffled female's yell could be heard echoing through the glade. "I know my daughter- Dash is too awesome to do great in school, milady."
Fluttershy shivered at the thought of talking to Rainbow's mom. Also finding out your friend is a literal fairy took some getting used to. She would have to ask to ask her when she got back. Fluttershy thought that maybe Dash's strange iron allergy made some sense now. She blankly followed the procession to the large palace in the distance.