Eventide hated Ponyville. She hated the bad memories it brought back to her. She hated some of the residents. She hated it so much that every time she visited the rustic little town on business she made sure to grab the first train back to Canterlot after she was finished. So why was it that after having finished speaking with Sweetie Drops and Lyra she had walked in entirely the wrong direction? Why was it that she was now standing staring gormlessly at the door to Fluttershy's bizarre tree house? She barely even knew the mare, hadn't spoken to her in over five years and even then had never really known her. The letter hadn't even been entirely clear as to what Fluttershy wanted with her. As far as Eventide had been aware any bridges between them had been thoroughly burned down during the unpleasantness but then out of the blue she had received the letter, Fluttershy had gone through the trouble of finding her address and having it sent to her by courier, hay she had even addressed it to Lady Trailblazer, nopony ever used her title.
Continuing to stand outside the door without knocking, Eventide considered how much the times had changed since she had been a filly. Back then she would probably have been tackled to the ground by now for being creepy and standing outside Fluttershy's, back then she practically idolized the townsfolk, back then this was an animal sanctuary. From the looks of things there was still an abundance of bird feeders and burrows but many appeared empty and there was not the excess of wildlife she recalled from her youth. Realizing that she couldn't exactly stand there forever and finding her legs unwilling to move, Eventide took a deep breath, raised a hoof and knocked three times on the door.
At first there was no sign of anypony being home but just as Eventide was considering leaving she heard the telltale clicking of the door being unlocked. Slowly the door creaked open and on the other side Eventide could just about make out the eye of the yellow pegasus within. A few moments later the door swung wide open and Eventide found herself embraced in a great hug.
"Oh, Eventide, why didn't you tell me you were coming today? I'd have prepared a lunch for us." Fluttershy smiled as only she could, she was so softly spoken, so welcoming, the very definition of kindness...and that tore Eventide up inside. Shouting, anger, cruel words, Eventide had her fair share of those meetings and was well versed in how to tackle them. She could hold her own in a fight be it verbal or physical. But being so readily welcomed by somepony with every reason to hate her? It was like a dagger to the heart and she had no idea how to deal with it.
"I was in town to see Lyra. I didn't... I wasn't planning on coming here at first but you'd taken the trouble to send me that letter and I thought I'd hear you out." Her eyes panned over the room. As with the outside it seemed that the number of animals the building could cater to had been drastically decreased. It was as tidy as Fluttershy had always kept it but now it lacked most of the animal smell.
"I'm getting on in my years and as much as it pains me I just can't look after all of my animal friends anymore," Fluttershy seemed to have read her mind, had she been that obvious in looking about the house? Eventide felt a slight twinge of guilt at how badly she had been scrutinizing her host's home.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy, is this as awkward for you as it is for me? Cause right now I can't think of a single thing to say that would even begin to fix things," as she spoke her eyes were drawn to Fluttershy's wing, not once had she actually seen it since the pegasus had left the hospital. Her right wing was bound to her side with a brace but even with it being obscured it was easy to make out the extent of the damage. The entire limb seemed twisted and disjointed, even with the finest doctors in Canterlot they had been able to repair it and many of the bones had ultimately been unable to set at the correct angles or positions. Apparently she had refused the suggestion that the entire wing be amputated, if Twilight's letters were to be believed though she had taken the whole experience in her stride and even gone so far as to make a point of how 'she barely used the thing anyway'.
"Oh, Eventide, you don't need to fix anything. I never blamed you for what happened and if he could speak to you I'd bet Discord wouldn't blame you either." How, how could she not blame Eventide? The thought pounded on the inside of her head again and again, after the myriad of woes that other ponies she had never even met had heaped on her, how was it that Fluttershy could stand here and act like nothing had ever happened?
"How are things going with Discord? Is Twilight any closer to finding a cure?" her voice began to break as she spoke and tears began forming at the corners of her eyes, she didn't want reconciliation! None of her worldly experience had taught her how to deal with a situation like this, the judgement of others had always lit indignant fire inside of her but now it was as though she were being crushed beneath the weight of her own guilt.
"I'm afraid not," Fluttershy shook her head. At some point she had boiled them tea, how had Eventide not even noticed her making tea? "Rainbow power may be stronger than The Elements of Harmony but it isn't something she ever worked out how to control. I'm afraid we just can't stick on some pieces of jewelry and magic the problem away." Fluttershy nudged a cup of tea over to Eventide and then settled down onto a pile of cushions. "How are things with you though Eventide? We haven't really spoken much for the past few years and I'd love to hear about your adventures. You know after me and the girls had less adventures of our own I really did enjoy hearing you talk about all the places you'd been and the creatures you'd met. Have you met anypony special?"
"How!" Eventide screamed, jumping out of her own seat, the tears now running down her cheeks in great torrents. "How can you just sit here and want to talk about my personal life, about guys and adventures!? How can you... I... after everything I said, after everything that happened...after mom... after...you should h-h-h-hate me! Hate me, judge me, tell me how awful my mother was! Just don't... don't sit there and do whatever it is you are doing now!" Her speech degenerated into a series of wracking sobs and unable to continue she collapsed to the ground. A wing gently rubbed across her back.
"Feeling better? Just let it all out," Fluttershy just stood there making gentle shushing noises and rubbing Eventide's back for the next few minutes as the unicorn bawled her eyes out, trying to bury herself in the cushions she had been sitting on.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she eventually managed to whisper between her tears.
"Well it wasn't you who hurt me and Discord was it? In fact I can't think of a single time I've met you that you weren't polite and friendly with me. I remember you as the little filly hiding behind your mother, or playing with the animals. I remember you being the young mare who came to me when she was worried about her ummmm romantic preferences. Now a lot of ponies have said some unflattering things about you Eventide but I know first hand that we shouldn't trust everything we read in a newspaper." She released Eventide and poured her a fresh cup of tea.
"Most of what they said was true. I did say a lot of those things..." she whimpered trying to avoid eye contact with her host.
"I guessed as much. Now tell me, Eventide, how much of that would you have said if it wasn't for that Mr Quill? Now I know for certain that a lot of the things he had printed were taken out of context and they were printed without your consent. Do you think you would have said half the things you said if it wasn't for that first awful article?"
"Probably not..." that first interview really had been the start of a downward spiral. After that everypony wanted to know if it was true what Quill had said about her, when she had the option to either deny what had been said or embrace the truth she had apparently made the wrong decision. After that the whole world had seemed to come crumbling down around her.
"Well that settles it then. You've never done anything to hurt me personally and the things you said were only said because some very mean ponies put you in a very bad position. So really I don't see any reason the two of us can't still be friends. Do you?" Eventide looked up, it was hard to tell with her vision clouded by tears but she was certain that Fluttershy was smiling.
"What about mom?" Eventide asked as she levitated a tissue out of her saddlebags to wipe her eyes.
"Your mother..." Fluttershy took a deep breathe and sighed "she hadn't been well for a very long time. I know there are a lot of ponies that felt just awful about what happened. A few of us felt like we'd failed her, that maybe if we had noticed just how bad things were, we might have been able to stop her before things got so bad. Now I don't condone what she did, but I do feel sorry for her, and when we spoke with her before she... before she left, she seemed very sorry for everything that had happened, I'm sure eventually everypony will come to forgive her."
"I'll be dead, Fluttershy." The pegasus let out a little squeaking sound at the statement. "It's just so long, Fluttershy, and I don't think there's any magic in all of Equestria that will let me live to see the day... I guess it just feels like a hollow victory. Even if they do forgive her I'll be dead by then. I just... everything feels so hollow, like they robbed me of all my happiest memories and now? What am I even sticking around for now? A career that nopony cares about anymore, ponies that hate me and friends who I seem to hurt just by being around them. When I visited Flurry she ended up having to bail me out of a drunken brawl with a changeling and Starlight can barely even look at me without bursting into tears! I don't even know why she acts that way, did I do something wrong or am I just cursed to be a burden to everypony who cares about me?"
"She... she never told you did she? Starlight never told you about what happened?"
"What happened? I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Starlight's been nothing but a good friend to me since I first met her. She's a better aunt than my real aunt that's for sure. What happened? Did I do something wrong? Does she think she did something wrong?" Eventide wasn't so much angry as curious, worried even. She'd pretty much come to conclude that it was some personal problem Starlight had been having to deal with. The idea that she had unintentionally upset the mare was disconcerting.
"It's the second one... she's really been torn up about it but that's really something she has to tell you herself. It wouldn't be right for me to tell you. Now how about we talk about something nicer? How about some good old fashioned girl talk?" Eventide had to chuckle at that. From anypony else she'd have said they were pulling her leg, well anypony except Flurry. Fluttershy seemed so genuine, she actually cared about what was going on in her life.
"There's a guy I've sort of been seeing. It's a long distance relationship, really long distance. He's nice and we have a lot in common but I just have no idea how to even go about talking about him with anypony else. The problem, the one when I was thirteen?" Fluttershy nodded, she remembered that talk very well. "Well lets just say that never really went away."
"Oh... so you like this stallion but you aren't attracted to him?"
"No.... no I'm attracted to him, problem is I have no idea how I go about explaining that to anypony. The court of public opinion would have a field day!" Eventide let out a hollow laugh at the idea.
"Oh... so I guess that means he's a-"
"Yep. Please don't tell Twilight, she didn't exactly approve the last time this happened."
"Eventide. Twilight didn't approve of that relationship for a couple of reasons, your ummm rather unusual taste in stallions wasn't one of them. I'm sure if you talked to her about it you'd find her to be very open minded about it." A part of her could hardly believe this was happening, she felt embarrassed and ashamed, she felt stupid and silly but oddly she didn't feel bad. She actually felt happy, sitting here talking to a mare she barely even knew about some of the most mundane aspects of her life was making her feel happy.
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For the next few hours Eventide retold some of the stories from her old adventures. She imagined Fluttershy had probably heard a few of them before, after all they all predated the unpleasantness. If she had heard them before though she showed no indication and instead lapped the tales up. Perhaps Fluttershy was just humoring Eventide but frankly she didn't care, she was enjoying herself and didn't want the moment to end any sooner than it needed to.
It was late evening when she left Fluttershy's cottage, as she made her way back into Ponyville she considered how fortunate it was that she hadn't had to take her costume off at Fluttershy's, it was awkward putting the thing back together and a few times in the past she had almost been caught out having made a mistake with some minor detail like the wig or glasses. Still, this was the best mood she had been in after a visit to Ponyville in a very long time. Things had gone very well with Fluttershy and she pretty much felt on top of the world, it would take a miracle to ruin her current mood.
"That's her! She's tha mare that was bein all mean to Miss Bon Bon!" she turned on the spot to look at the source of the voice. Sure enough down the road stood the little apple filly that she had met at the sweet shop, an accusing hoof pointing directly at Eventide. With her was Applejack, Spike and none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle.
"You! Ah don't know what trouble you've bin causin today but ya better know we won't stand for it!" Applejack had quickly closed the distance between the two of them and was practically nose to nose with Eventide, from the look in her eyes she was clearly not happy to see her. Of course in Ponyville miracles happened everyday...