Rarity was looking over her latest designs when she heard the bell on the door ring. She turned to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway, and said, "Oh, Fluttershy, come in, make yourself at home."

Fluttershy walked in, and deposited the basket in her mouth at Rarity's hooves. Soon after, a white cat popped out. "Oh, she looks marvelous," Rarity said on seeing Opal.

"Of course. I couldn't leave the poor thing like that after she got all wet. Are you sure you don't know what happened to her?"

"I'm sure."

Fluttershy didn't believe Rarity, but was too self-conscious to press the point. Not that she would have had time to, as at this point a tall white unicorn with a light pink mane and tail and three fleur de lis as her cutie mark walked out of the bathroom. The new arrival said in a Prench accent, "If I recall, you said you accidentally knocked her into your laundry tub."

"Uh, maybe. I don't remember," Rarity said, doing her best to play innocent.

The newcomer turned to Fluttershy and asked, "Is she really this bad at lying?"

"Kinda," Fluttershy said evasively.

"I see. By the way, you look familiar."

"I do?" Fluttershy asked, sounding nervous.

"Yes. I remember pony who looked like you was a celebrity on the modeling circuit a few years back. Lasted about a month, as I recall, then suddenly dropped off the radar."

"That was her. Fluttershy quit, because the whole thing made her miserable," Rarity said, happy to change the topic from what happened to Opal.

Fluttershy flinched when she heard this. She never like having her modeling career brought up, and just wished everypony would forget about it. Much to her frustration, however, the two unicorns decided to plow on down that road.

"Oh, that's too bad. your style of modeling worked quite well. Although... wasn't your modeling agent Photo Finish?"

"Yes," Fluttersy admitted, really wanting to change the subject.

"That explains it. During my brief stint in the modeling business, before becoming a trophy wife, I heard horror stories about how she would heavily promote her models and run them until they were utterly burned out," said the pink maned unicorn.

Rarity then saw how talking about Fluttershy's modeling career was affecting the yellow mare, so she changed the subject, saying, "Oh, but where are my manners. Fluttershy, this is Fleur de Lis. She's staying with me, after Fancypants cheated on her, then outed her as bisexual."

"Why would he do that?" Fluttershy asked, confused, but happy to be talking about something other than her modeling career.

"Why would he cheat, or why would he out me?"

"Why would he out you? Why would your sexuality matter?" Fluttershy, who was always extra nervous around high-class ponies not named Rarity, was now speaking in a low whisper that Fleur struggled to understand. Fortunately she got the gist of it.

"Canterlot high society is notoriously conservative, and the possibility that you're attracted to ponies of the same gender is usually enough to attract the wrong sort of attention. Being outright outed is usually enough to get you kicked out of their little groups, and he wanted to discredit me before I could do serious harm to his reputation," Fleur explained.

Gaining a little courage and volume, Fluttershy asked, "But why not stay in Canterlot?"

"Simple. There was nothing left for me there after I was outed, which is why I decided to seek new opportunities outside the city."

"As for why she came here. It's because I'm her friend, and outside of Fancypants' sphere of influence, except in regard to dress sales," Rarity explained.

"And your shop was only about 4 hours from Canterlot," Fleur was quick to point out.

"Well, yes, there is that."

The sound of someone's stomach growling (no one would fess up) stopped further conversation, and after a minute of awkward silence, Rarity said, "Maybe we should get some lunch. My treat."

Walking out the door, Fluttershy, walking behind the two white unicorns, found herself staring at Fleur's rump. Almost immediately, she chastised herself for doing this, thinking [i]Don't even think that, Fluttershy. Even if you were a fillyfooler, there's no way that a high class pony like Fleur de Lis would want to go out with a simple country pony like you. It's a hopeless pipe dream.[/i]

Fleur's thoughts, on the other hand, were going down a much more upbeat, more inclusive line. [i]I could get used to living somewhere like this. Easy access to the latest fashions; no need to maintain that silly, pretentious facade of smug nobility they insist on in Canterlot; a simpler lifestyle; romance for love, not status; and cute ponies of both genders, like that adorable little yellow pegasus behind me. What's not to love?[/i]

She soon found something she wasn't going to love, unfortunately for her. She was a tall unicorn in a town populated almost entirely by ponies much shorter than her, and, as a result, not designed for ponies her size, so inevitably...

"Ow," she yelped, after knocking her forehead into the restaurant's doorway. An act she repeated when an equally inattentive Fluttershy walked into her rear.

"Are you okay?" Rarity asked.

"I'm fine, but, obviously, low doorways are going to be an issue," Fleur said, before turning her attention to the small voice behind her that jept apologizing.

"Din't worry about it. These things happen," Fleur said, turning to look at Fluttershy with a reassuring little smile on her face.

Unfortunately, It was obvious that Fleur's attempts to reassure the pegasus weren't working. Fluttershy's face was still full of nervousness, which left the tall unicorn confused. She turned her head back towards Rarity so Fluttershy wouldn't see this, and ducked under the low door frame, though she didn't get low enough to avoid scraping her horn on it.

Rarity saw Fleur's look of confusion, but made no comment, thinking it would be best to talk to her about anything that might be bugging her in private. She instead asked, "Is Fluttershy here?"

"She's behind me."

"Oh, okay. Table for three please," she said to the maitre d'.

After being seated, Fleur asked Fluttershy, "Why are you so nervous?"

"I'm just shy," FLuttershy said, trying to keep Rarity from finding out that she was very nervous having to deal with a high class pony like Fleur.

"Is that the only reason?. You seemed quite comfortable when you were alone with Rarity."

"That's probably because we've been friends for years now. Trust me, she was much shyer than this when I met her. I couldn't even get a word out of her," Rarity said, finding herself thinking back to that day.

After seeing Rarity become lost in memory, and realizing she wouldn't be speaking up for the moment (never mind being much more interested in learning more about Fluttershy straight from the horse's mouth than anything else), Fleur, asked, "So what is it that you do, Fluttershy?"

"I take care of animals."

"What kind of animals?"

"Any kind, snakes, cats, birds, bears..." Fluttershy said.

The look on Fleur's face had to be seen to be believed. "Bears? Really?"

"Yes. They're such nice creatures."

Fleur was now very confused because she had always thought bears were ruthless killing machines. "Nice creatures?" She found herself asking.

"Oh, yes. They love to come by and have tea with me every once in a while."

"Wait, how are you having tea with bears and not being mauled by them?"

"Well, my special talent is working with animals," Fluttershy said, hiding her annoyance.

This explained a lot. Fleur said, "After seeing your cutie mark, I thought your special talent had something to do with butterflies, or something like that."

"No, I'm good with animals of all kinds."

Rarity, back in the modern world, now that their various salads had been delivered, said, "She's not kidding. When we went into the Everfree Forest to get the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon, she walked right up to an angry manticore, and got it to calm down."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"And she's still here?" Fleur asked, still in disbelief.

"Yes. It's amazing, isn't it?"

"It's unbelievable. So you take care of these monsters?"

Fluttershy became much more annoyed when she heard Fleur ask this. "They're not monsters."

Rarity, hearing the unusually annoyed FLuttershy's voice, seeing Fleur's shocked reaction to her statement, and wanting to defuse the situation before it got heated, said, "You might want to be careful using that word around Fluttershy. She is very touchy about having her animals being disrespected, and, either way, there aren't any animals that you could call monsters on her property."

"Oh. My apologies, Fluttershy," Fleur said, relaxing somewhat. However, even with this reassurance, she decided she would be best off avoiding Fluttershy's house if she could help it, and made a mental note to be more careful about her word choice with the pegasus around.

Deciding to change the subject away from animals, which she was less comfortable with than she thought, Fleur asked Rarity, "So how's business been?"

"Fairly slow, since no big parties or other events are coming up anytime soon, but I'm getting by."

"That's good to hear," Fleur said. Having nothing more to say, and seeing Rarity wasn't continuing the conversation, she let silence descend of their table after that.

After a minute or so, Rarity asked, "What do you plan on doing now that you've left Canterlot?"

"Try to find a new way to spend my time, maybe settle down with somepony, and definitely relish not being somepony's status symbol. Trust me, being a trophy wife is highly overrated."

"I'm sure."

"Also, I won't miss having to keep up the facade that goes with being a prominent noble's wife, especially when said prominent noble is twice your age," Fleur said.

"Really? How old are you?"

"24."

"Wow, I didn't know he was that old, or you were that young," Rarity said, sounding surprised.

"I guess my size belies my age."

"I guess it does."

Fluttershy, who had been listening to the two of them speak, and eating her salad, hoping to get back to her cottage soon, said, "Sorry, I promised Angel I would be back by now," before slipping out of the restaurant.

"Angel?"

"Her domineering pet rabbit."

"Oh." Fleur said as she watched Fluttershy leave, and wondering if it was because of her poorly chosen words earlier, and the fact that things between them had not quite gotten off on the right hoof.