Fluttershy flew back to her cottage at a quick pace, though not as quick as her trip to the meadow. She wanted to know how Shade was doing. As soon as she touched down, she ran into the house and galloped upstairs. When she entered her room, she looked at her bed, and she saw Shade sleeping peacefully and she relaxed.
-Okay, he's alright. Still, I think I should leave him asleep. That bruise doesn't look too good, and I don't want him to be in unnecessary pain...
Fluttershy walked downstairs. As she did, the pony that appeared to be resting in her room sat up quietly, and he smiled.
"Yes...I've been thinking about it...She's the one. The one who'll finally make me happy. But...I need to have her for myself. Her friends might prove to be a problem...I think I should meet them soon, see what I'm getting into, as it were." He slowly lay back down on the bed. Meanwhile, downstairs, Fluttershy was taking all of the gifts she had received out of her satchel and placing them around the room. She was carefully looking over all of the gifts while she took them out of her bag and admiring. She stopped once she pulled the sapling out of her bag. She started thinking.
-Applejack... Fluttershy smiled, then that smile turned into a confused frown. I wonder why you weren't sure if I could trust Shade...Well, you'll change your mind after you meet him, I'm sure of it. He's such a nice pony.
Fluttershy found an empty flowerpot in her cottage, and she filled it with soil and put the sapling in it. She carefully placed it next to a window so that it would get some sunshine, and she watered it. The sapling looked somewhat wilted beforehand, but now, it looked very healthy.
"I wonder if that has to do with the magic that Applejack was talking about..." Fluttershy glanced upstairs at that moment, because she heard Shade moving around. "I should make him some soup to eat. He might be awfully hungry..." she said to herself as she began preparing the soup. When she finished, she carefully brought it up to her room. Shade was beginning to wake up.
"Oh, good, you're awake," said Fluttershy as she gave the bowl to Shade. "Here, eat this."
"Oh, just for me?" asked Shade. "You shouldn't have." Fluttershy let out a small giggle.
-Why did I laugh? It wasn't that funny, was it? Fluttershy mentally shook her head. There was silence in the room for a couple of minutes, save the barely audible sounds of Shade's eating. When he was finished, he wiped his mouth. Fluttershy stood there awkwardly, and Shade spoke up.
"So, you want to show me around your humble abode?" he asked.
"Um, I don't know if that's such a good idea...I mean, you're still badly hurt..." said Fluttershy.
"Oh, come on, Fluttershy! I can barely even feel it!" said Shade, as he beat his chest with his hoof. His grin turned into a grimace as he grabbed his chest in pain afterwards. Fluttershy smiled at his antics, then frowned.
"Well..." she said hesitantly.
"Come on, Fluttershy, it's not like I have anything better to do. Besides, I want to see what your place looks like."
Fluttershy sighed in defeat. "If you insist..." she said, helping Shade out of the bed. To be honest, he was healing rather quickly. The bruise was considerably smaller than it was the last time she saw it, and it didn't seem to cause him too much discomfort. She made sure he could get down the stairs, and she showed him around her cottage. The main thing that surprised him was the sheer amount of animals that there seemed to be around.
"You really love animals, don't you?" asked Shade, smiling.
"Oh, yes, of course!" replied Fluttershy, returning the smile. "Would you like to know why?" she asked.
"I would like that very much," he replied. Fluttershy helped him sit down on the couch in her living room, and she began telling him the story of how she got her cutie mark. She soon finished her tale, and she asked Shade, "What about you? Where are you from?" Shade's smile vanished completely, and his face took a depressed look.
"I...I don't remember..." he said. "I tried to, earlier today, but it seems that I can't remember anything that happened before you found me," he continued.
"Oh...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to touch on a sore subject...please forgive me..." said Fluttershy, her face mirroring the look on Shade's face.
"It's okay, don't worry about it, there's no way you could've known" he replied. A small smile appeared on Fluttershy's face, and then they heard a knock on the door.
"I wonder who that could be..." said Fluttershy. "I'm not expecting anypony today..." She slowly got up and walked to the door. When she opened it, she was greeted with the sight of her five best friends.
"Wh-what are you all doing here?" asked Fluttershy in confusion. She was the pony that usually did the visiting, and whenever she was the one who was being visited, it was usually by no more than one pony.
"We came to see that darling friend of yours, Shade!" replied Rarity.
"Yeah! He seemed like such an awesome pony that we just had to come by and meet him!" added Rainbow Dash.
"It was actually Applejack's idea! It seemed like a nice gesture," continued Twilight.
"Really?" asked Fluttershy incredulously.
"Hehe...Eeyup," replied Applejack sheepishly. Fluttershy grinned.
"So...can we meet your super-special-awesome-nice-friend-Shade?!" yelled Pinkie excitedly.
"Oh! Of course, s-sorry," replied Fluttershy quickly. They all went inside and introduced themselves to Shade. They stayed for a while, answering all of Shade's questions about their lives. He seemed very keen on knowing how well they all got along with Fluttershy, strangely enough. Soon after, everypony left, seeing as they all had things to do.
"They all seemed like real nice ponies," said Shade, while Fluttershy was cleaning the small mess around her cottage. Shade offered to help her, but Fluttershy wouldn't have it.
"Well, they are my very best friends. I should hope that they're nice ponies," said Fluttershy, her voice muffled by the duster in her mouth.
"That pony with the hat...What was it, JackleApp?" asked Shade.
"Applejack," corrected Fluttershy.
"Oh, right, Applejack. Sorry," apologized Shade.
"It's okay, you just met her," replied Fluttershy.
"Applejack. I don't think she liked me very much."
Fluttershy turned to Shade with a confused look on her face. "What makes you say that?" she asked.
"She kept on giving me these looks. I don't want to say they were dirty, but they weren't too good. It was like she was judging me, or like she expected me to do something horrible," he said.
"Hmm, that's odd," said Fluttershy, putting down the duster. "I certainly hope she didn't mean anything bad by it. She was probably just looking at you. I mean, you are a very handsome po-" Fluttershy stopped dead, her face slowly turning dark red.
"What was that?" asked Shade with a grin on his face.
"N-nothing..." replied Fluttershy quietly, picking up the duster.
As the other ponies left the cottage, they continued walking in a group for a bit.
"That Shade seemed like a really nice pony, didn't he?" asked Twilight.
"Yes, of course! I must admit I'm somewhat jealous of Fluttershy," replied Rarity.
"What makes you say that?" queried Rainbow Dash.
"Well, Shade is absolutely gorgeous!" answered Rarity.
"What do you think, Applejack?" asked Pinkie earnestly.
"Hmm, Ah dunno, girls... He seemed mighty odd ta me," responded Applejack.
"Oh, come on, Applejack, he's a really cool character! What was 'odd' about him?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well, it's just that... Ah dunno, he was just doin' some funny things while we were talkin'. Like, he kept flinchin' every time one of us mentioned the word 'friends'. Doesn't that seem mighty odd ta you?"
"Oh, you were probably just imagining those things, AJ!" replied Pinkie. "Like Dashie said, Shade's a really cool character!"
After a couple more minutes of walking, they all split up to do their individual activities. As Applejack walked on the path, she began thinking.
-Mm, Ah guess they're right. Ah bet Ah'm jus' imaginin' things. Applejack sighed. Gosh, Ah sure hope that they're right. For yer sake, Fluttershy.
After Fluttershy silently finished cleaning, she helped Shade back upstairs and into her bed. They had a small conversation, and then Fluttershy left the room. As she did, Shade's smile became a frown. He turned over on his side.
"Applejack, huh?" he said to himself. She could be some trouble. The others? Not a problem. They were easily swayed by my charming self. But, that Applejack...no. She's gonna take some work."
Fluttershy walked down the stairs, and she lied down on the green sofa. She started thinking out loud. "Why doesn't Applejack trust Shade? I mean, he's a nice pony, isn't he? I suppose the circumstances are strange, but...Am I not seeing something? Ugh, this is frustrating..." she said. Shade heard Fluttershy talking, and he quietly moved over as close as he could to the stairwell and began listening. Fluttershy let her head slump onto the sofa.
"I'm probably just overreacting. She's just trying to make sure he's a good pony, that's what she's doing. It's not that she doesn't trust him. I'm sure she's just trying to make sure he's not a bad pony.That's just like Applejack: always looking out for me..." Fluttershy then noticed just how tired she actually was.
-Oh, Applejack... Fluttershy drifted off to much needed sleep. Once she did, the pony at the top of the stairwell began to talk to himself again.
"Could she have feelings for Applejack?" Shade asked himself. "No. She can't. This would ruin my plans. Of course, I haven't begun work on the plans yet, but still. This could be a bigger problem than I thought. Either way, this can't happen. She can't take Fluttershy away from me. If the only way I can have her to myself is by making sure that no other pony would miss her, then I'll make it happen."
He climbed back into the bed.
"It'll be harder than I expected. But it'll be doable." Shade then fell asleep.
Yeah, this is the very belated third chapter. I suck at character development, if you haven't noticed yet. I might make a oneshot about Shade's past to try and explain his...problems...in this story. So, yeah, Shade is kinda evil. Huge plot twist, you totally weren't expecting it. Yeah, you probably were, this isn't the most convoluted writing in existence. Also, half of this chapter was dialogue, sorry about that. So yeah, I'm going to try and update every week, mostly because I have nothing to do. So, hoping that the next chapter comes out soon. And hoping that I can shorten these author's notes. Thanks for reading.