The Shyness of Blindness

by S Olin S

Maybe this will work better?

Fluttershy reasoned that maybe if Annie was at her own home rather than in an unfamiliar location, then maybe she'd do better.
Fluttershy, of course, wasn't expecting Annie to be an instant extrovert, and the more she thought about it, what happened was exactly what she should have expected. Annie had only known a single building of ponies her entire life, after all.
But Fluttershy wanted to help Annie make progress. She was trying her best to make sure that Annie was comfortable with each of the following visits. Rarity would visit more, of course, but Twilight and her kids would visit a few times, as well as Dash and AJ. Though, it seemed like T and Claire were definitely preferred over the rest. Since, after about a dozen visits over 3 months, it looked like those were the ones Annie would be most excited to hear about.
Sure, not that much progress was made, this was relative of course, but it was an improvement.

---

Fluttershy's Cabin,

A knock came at the door of the cabin. Claire and T had arrived for another visit.
Annie walked over to the seat in the living room, where she would often stay glued the entire visit.

Fluttershy looked at Annie and smiled as she walked over to the door. No matter how many times the filly did it, she always found it amusing how planted she seemed to be in that spot.
She opened the door and Rarity, T and Claire were standing and the fillies walked inside.
"Hi, Rarity! It seems like you three are here almost every week now." Fluttershy said with a little chuckle.

Rarity laughed. "Yeah, it does seem that way, doesn't it. Though, the kids do seem to be enjoying it more and more. This might actually be visit number 13."

"Already over a dozen. I swear someday the kids are going to forget which house is theirs."

The two parents walked over and sat on the couch while the kids went over and hung out at the seat.

"Hey, Annie!" T said enthusiastically, sitting down next to the seat.

"Hi, T," Annie said, She wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as T, but it seemed like she liked him the most out of anypony she had met so far. "Had any luck with flying?" She asked. In the 3-moth span, T had started to fly more often.

"Yeah, I've been getting faster when I go straight, but turning is really hard," T explained.

"Well, I'm you'll do better soon," Annie reassured him.
She still talked with hesitation and long pauses in between some words, she wasn't talking with as much energy as T, but it was better than her being mute, like when they first met.

"What about you, Annie?" Claire asked. "Have you been getting better at using your magic?" Annie had also been recommended to see what she could do with that horn of hers since the first time she met Fluttershy was after she was able to calm down a manticore. Though, that was probably thanks in part to sheer fear of the situation.

"I've been getting better I think. I can't see what I'm doing very well, but mom said that I was doing good. Right, mom?" Annie asked Fluttershy.

"That's right," She replied. "She was able to levitate a broom yesterday, but I was suddenly very sleepy when she did it..."

"Yep. And how have you been, Claire? Been helping your mom with jewels and such?" Claire had been helping Rarity more in the jewel department over time. Being able to quickly find and retrieve jewels.

"Oh yeah. I realized that I can... smell the gems that mom wants me to get? It's really interesting."

"Oh yeah," T interjected. "She was able to find one gem in mom's big chest. I don't know how she does it."

"That sounds really cool. Mom has a few and they all smell the same to me," Annie explained. Of course, Claire and T were half dragon so that probably helps.

"Oh yeah, she's got quite the nose for gems. Must have come from her dad. Though I don't remember him being able to smell gems in all the time I've known him." Rarity said.

"Well, you can use your magic to find them, can't you?" Fluttershy asked. "That might have something to do with it."

"I suppose, yes. But no matter why she can do this, it's come in very handy whenever I need a certain gem for my dress. I feel like she'll end up being a jeweler," Rarity predicted. "Maybe she'll take over the boutique and turn it into her own shop," She laughed.

"That building does have a lot of space. How did you even come to own it in the first place?" Fluttershy asked.

"Apparently one of my relatives oned the place before. Then it was passed to my parents, and when they moved to Canterlot, I took over." Rarity explained. "That place has seen a lot of renovation over its lifetime. We had to do some recently after Claire discovered that she could breathe fire. She hasn't set anything ablaze yet, but she also can't do that much with it yet."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. I've managed to avoid a fire in my sanctuary despite all the fire-breathing critters that always seem to make their way there."

"It all started with that fire gecko that Zecora brought in that one time, right?"

"Yeah, after that, well they just couldn't resist."

"Well, that helps reassure me. I'll still get some more fireproofing done on the house and see about Spike teaching Claire how to control her fire properly so that way she doesn't burn anything."

"That sounds lie it'll work well."

"And I've noticed Annie's getting a bit better every time we come over. How did she do with Star?" Rarity inquired.
Starburst, Twilight's daughter, had come over twice before.

"Oh, she was not liking it. Star was very much her father's daughter. She was very serious and seemed to nearly intimidate poor Annie. She'd make perfect Royal guard material though."

They checked back on the three, who were having a good conversation it seemed. Annie seemed to be enjoying herself more each visit.
"I have an idea, Fluttershy," Rarity began. "Perhaps one of these times we can see about having Annie come over to the boutique again. Last time didn't go so well, but I'm sure she'll eventually be up to it. What do you think?"

"I love that idea! We'll have to arrange that sometime in a few weeks. Hopefully, she's used to you guys enough that she won't mind if she's not here."

"Maybe whenever she gets up from that chair." Rarity said, looking at Annie sitting in the exact same position and location on that chair as when they first arrived.

"You know, I'm not sure if she ever will. I may just have to bring it along whenever we go to your place, or else she'll have nowhere to glue herself the entire time."

Rarity looked at the clock and realized what time it was. "Oh my! We have to go and be on our way to Canterlot. But We'll see you the same day next week, right?"

Fluttershy nodded. "We always do."

"Let's see how quickly 24 visits arrive," Rarity stood up and walked over the three fillies. "Come on guys, we need to get to Canterlot to visit grandma and grandpa."

"Alright..." They all said, reacting about how you would expect.

"We'll come back though, right?" T asked. He Asked that every time.

"Of course we will. We always do." They all said their goodbyes and Annie finally moved from her spot.

Fluttershy saw that Annie had been getting better, and hoped that as time went on she'd be more open to meeting more ponies. And hopefully visiting Rarty's for a change would help that.

Author's Note:

I feel like I had some trouble with writing the fillies. I've never been very good at writing children, so I'm not sure how well I did here. They're supposed to be around 5 or 6 at this time, I think Claire was something like 10 at this time. But either way, there'll be a third chapter tomorrow and then onto the next story.

Comments

[S Olin S]

9815952
Oh man, thanks! I'm glad to hear that I'm doing well (At least as well as I can) with that aspect of her character.
In the actual canon of what this is based off, I don't believe she ever went through this, beyond being afraid of the dark, but I think it's an interesting idea for the character.
I'll hopefully be able to keep some aspect of that throughout the other two chapters of the story, but thanks for the feedback!

[Szalhi]

Forgot to comment on this story yesterday, sorry.

9815952
Oh man, I thought you were younger than that. Not sure why it might have mattered to me.

As author has said, I'm also pretty sure that this is not a canon event that occurred in the Next-Gen verse, but maybe it was mentioned somewhere I missed? The universe mostly takes place around teenage years so I don't think it was relevant enough. Anthea actually had friends back in the orphanage, but maybe that was more along the lines of an orphan family relationship? Anyway, here's the prelude story written by the creator themselves.

Helpless

[Yosh-E-O]

I'd say you did fairly well in showing the progression of the children's relationships. Annie is making progress but it seems that it may have more to do with being in familiar territory as opposed to confidence in herself.

So this canon does get Spike and Rarity together? How adorable! If Donkey and the Dragon on Shrek can do it, why not Rarity and Spike?

It will be interesting to see what progression you show in the next chapter. It gives me something to think on outside of my own head space as a 100% blind person.

[S Olin S]

9816535
Yeah, this has a basis is the actual canon of the universe. As well as Helpless, what with the mention of the manticore. Though I've had some changes in mind, including this story.
I put the orphanage up to that being ponies Anthea had known for pretty much her entire life y that point, sho she was comfortable with them.