Off went the TV as the episode ended. So who was our cast today? Me, because this was my thing now, Torkuda, because his home, Rarity, because sadism and Fluttershy because this was an episode about her.
I sighed. “So… that seemed a bit… over kill.” I looked around. “What did everyone think?”
Torkuda spoke up. “It was like a show a dragon would make about you ponies, your personalities dialed up to eleven because he’s racist.” Rarity giggled. “Hmm?”
“Oh well… racism always seems to be a two way street. You should see the plays we do about dragons.” She shook her head. “To be honest, all the things these writers get wrong I’m starting to just find funny. Fluttershy is portrayed as so paranoid in this episode it would be amazing if a character like that could even survive in the real world!”
Fluttershy sighed. “Guys, be honest, am I EVER that bad?”
Torkuda and I both looked off to the left. “Weeeelllll-“ I started, trying to figure out how to put is delica-
“Yes!” Rarity said. Sheesh, thought I had a problem with brutal honesty.
Fluttershy stepped back.
“Oh don’t worry about it darling. We all have our moments.” She got up from the couch and went to Fluttershy, putting a foreleg on her shoulders. “Be comfortable with what you are hmm? Sometimes it’s embarrassing, but that’s life. We all have weaknesses, but I’m learning something from Rainbow Dash while watching this stuff. Sometimes our flaws are part of what makes us so amazing!” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. Rarity chuckled. “One more time for old time sake Rainbow? Sing!”
And thus, one more time, I sang the theme song for the show. Torkuda and Rarity had heard my horrendous renditions of this song a few times, but Fluttershy hadn’t. She sat there giving several positively adorable giggles as I went, which made me sing all the louder. Eventually she was full on belly laughing at me. The song ended, Fluttershy wiping away a few tears.
She looked down with a grin. “You guys are right, I do let my fears get carried away sometimes… is it ever fun for you guys when I act like that?”
“When we see a scary play, it’s pretty fun to watch your reactions,” I admitted. “I especially love when you do that thing where you put your hooves over your eyes and turn away, just to look for a mirror where you can keep watching anyway.”
“I still want to see what happens!” Fluttershy said, smiling.
I thought back a little on the episode. “Ya know, that scene in the beginning made me wonder, just how much power do you have over animals? I mean-“
“Oh absolute,” Fluttershy said. I looked at her with wide eyes, stunned. “What? That too honest?”
“Wait, so you have full mind control?” I asked.
“Well I’m not a puppet master,” Fluttershy said. “Please don’t think that. It usually just last a few minutes, just long enough to give a few suggestions. If I want, yes, my stare ability can give me the power to tell an animal to do pretty much anything and they have to obey. I mostly just use it to keep an animal from struggling while I treat it though.”
“Yea but, you never use that on ponies right?”
“Well you’re all my friends aren’t you?” she asked. I backed up a little. “I’m kidding! Please don’t look at me like that Rainbow! I-“
“It- it’s okay,” I said quickly. “Have you um… ever used your stare on me?” she cringed. “Fluttershy…”
“Look it wears off but… when you broke your wing, you kept putting up a fight and wanting to fly again. You were going to make it worse so… I had to do something... honestly I thought you were in shock. I try to avoid it but when I really care about someone and they’re in pain, I can kinda make them do what I want so they don’t make it worse- it’s hard to resist- Is that wrong?”
“Well I mean- maybe?” I wanted to tell her to never do it again, but… I had grown up a lot. Things weren’t so black and white to me anymore. I had many ponies who were pretty important to me now, especially my daughter, and if I had the ability to keep her from hurting herself like that, it would be hard not to use it. And would it ALWAYS be wrong to use? Maybe just for a little thing?
Rarity spoke up. “You know, I find that right and wrong usually have to do with context. For instance, restraining a pony against her will, well that’s pretty wrong yes?” we both nodded. “But well, if she’s attacking you, it’s a better alternative to injuring her is it not? I think your power can be used for good Fluttershy, you just have to be careful with it.”
“Oh, I am,” Fluttershy said with a nod.
I decided to move on. “So Flutters, you ever build an under the bed fort like in the show?”
“Oh that? Goodness no, I haven’t done anything like that since I was ten!” Fluttershy replied.
I chuckled. “Even ten seems a little late for that.”
“You didn’t seem to mind,” she said.
“Wait I… what?” I asked. “I didn’t hide with you-“
“I never said we were hiding in the pillow fort. You were seven, I was ten. You wanted more and more pillows for some reason. I think you wanted to see if you could move the bed with pillows or something. I read you stories under there for a while and you played with your wonderbolt dolls.”
I grimaced. “Well first of all, action figures, not dolls. Second… I was seven!”
Fluttershy nodded. “Mhmm, and as I remember, you were very cute.”
“I…” I blushed.
Rarity chuckled behind me. “Still are.”
I grunted. “Okay so, Fluttershy is anyone immune to your power?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Actually Angel Bunny is. It’s a little bit of why I like him so much. There are times I get scared I have too much power, but I can’t do anything to his will. I guess it’s… sort of a reminder that my power shouldn’t be used to make friends.” She nodded her head side to side, “I think on occasion I let him be more mean to me than I should, but I need someone with me who’s will is just as strong as mine.”
“So, I hate to revisit this, but you don’t make ponies be your friends, right?” I asked.
“I can say I don’t,” she sighed, “But now that you know it’s possible, the thought is always going to be in your head isn’t it?” Rarity and I both looked away for a few seconds. “Why I don’t talk about it, guess it just slipped today, I was in the spirit of being goofy and… wish I knew something to say.” She bit her lip. “Truth is, I guess my fear is a good balance for my power. I’m pretty scared of other ponies and even animals. Not sure what would happen if I lost it entirely.”
“Are you scared on purpose?” I asked.
“No, I wouldn’t even know how to do that,” Fluttershy said. “I just see it as a good balance that’s all. Sometimes I think about using my power wrong, but then I get scared of what others would think if I did, and it stops me.”
“Still the scenes where you got scared, I mean, the kids with the bad teeth, would you really get scared of that?” I asked.
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Um, they were just kind of cute. Cute doesn’t scare me. I’m like anyone, you have to put some actual effort into scaring me.”
“So not just candy and clothes scare you?” Rarity asked.
“What? Of course not. In those scenes I was just being a kill joy. It’s hard to understand how, if even candy supposedly scares me, I’m later able to set up a Granny Smith puppet that decapitates itself while wearing a bat costume. Though the episode did get right, that I don’t like to scare others. Not my thing. Maybe I like surprising ponies every so often, but not genuinely scaring.”
“Oh come dear, it’s not hard to scare other ponies, and it is fun from time to time,” Rarity said. “For instance I love telling scary stories.” Fluttershy shrugged and shook her head.”
“Bet you couldn’t scare me!” I said, secretly hoping she could.
“Oh I can scare anyone,” Rarity said. “I credit that to most of my stories involving bondage of some sort.”
“I guess that could do it, but if you focus-“ I started.
“It’s a very particular fetish darling. Particularly exposed positions. Most folks find it terrifying-“ Rarity began moving over to me.
“OKAY!” I quickly cut her off. She grinned, making me think she wasn’t serious, but still, she could have been. “So what about that scene with Granny Smith scaring Fluttershy? Laying in on thick in that scene… kinda wish AJ was here so we could ask about it. Would Granny really act that way?”
“You can ask me, I’ve known the Apples waaaay longer than you have darling,” Rarity said. “Remember, I didn’t move here from another city after all.” I shrugged. “Now Granny Smith has never been a very empathetic person that I remember. Well… maybe that’s the wrong way to phrase it. She had the intuition of a mare into how others are feeling, very much of it, but you have to understand the world has been very mean to her. She lost her son and daughter in law not long after her husband and then had to take care of a farm and three children in her older years all by herself with only fleeting assistance from the rest of the family. She sees the world as rather unforgiving and while she tries to be kind, she wants others around her to be resilient, not just happy. She’s said it a few times, when it comes to Fluttershy,” Rarity looked at our yellow friend, “She thinks we baby you.” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “She sees you afraid of so many things darling and she thinks you’re cutting yourself off from possible friends and good memories.”
“I’m working on it!” Fluttershy finally snapped.
“I know you are darling, I’m explaining how someone else feels. You can’t defend yourself to me against her.” Fluttershy pushed down her ruffled feathers. “But sometimes, I must admit, I wonder just how right she could be. Fluttershy how many genuine friends do you have outside of us and your animals?”
“Five friends is actually a decent number,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Not when you consider the main reason we became that way was a life threatening situation in which we had no choice. None of us even knew you before the Nightmare Moon incident. We’d only seen you around town and took our pets to see you from time to time,” Rarity said.
“Rainbow knew me…” Fluttershy objected.
“For a few months, in your childhood. After flight school you rarely spoke to each other,” Rarity replied. Fluttershy’s ears went down. She sighed. “Fluttershy, I’m not saying being introverted is completely wrong, or even voluntary. You probably don’t know how to relate or ponies have rejected you, but the solution to that isn’t to hide in your cottage… I’m glad you’re making progress in overcoming your fears, but Mrs. Smith isn’t wrong that you have a long way to go and you need to keep going. In reality, she would have scared you on purpose, just to show you that fear itself isn’t to be feared.”
Fluttershy bit her lip. “C… can we talk about something else for a bit?” she asked. Rarity and I nodded. “Why don’t we talk about Spike’s costume.”
I chuckled, “I thought it looked dumb, you couldn’t scare anyone with that!”
“Hey!” Fluttershy shot back. “That looked like the hardest to make out of all of them!”
“I’m sure the Crusaders could work really hard to make a bigger tree house but it would still collapse the tree. Putting more work into something doesn’t make it better.” I pointed out.
“I still say hard work counts for something!” Fluttershy said, folding her forelegs.
“Agree to disagree,” I said. “But hey, would you really be that easy to convince to join us on Nightmare Night? Spike didn’t have to try hard.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’ll admit it. My fears hold me back a lot, but I have another weakness in that… I’m kinda gullible. Kinda unfair that I have both weaknesses.”
“It makes sense Fluttershy. Experience is hard to gain with so much fear.” She patted Fluttershy on the shoulder. “We’re here though, we’ll help you.” Fluttershy smiled at her.
I chuckled. “Ya know I’m here to take care of any real danger!” Fluttershy smiled and nodded at me. “Anyway, anyone hear Pinkie’s balloon story? It’s so awesome… really wish she were here to tell it. Had me sitting up with Scootaloo half the night I was so scared.”
“You woke her up to comfort you?” Rarity asked. “I’m not sure if that’s sweet or not.”
“Oh no, she passed out on my side, I just felt better having someone there.” I shivered. “Couldn’t look at a balloon for a week after that one.”
“I notice the show tried to say you being honest with Fluttershy about her weaknesses was a bad thing,” Rarity noted. “Thing is, most of the comments you were cut off from giving would have been rude, but, time and a place. When you’re literally acting afraid of candy, if someone is being snarky about it, that’s called for.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Truth is, I like some of the concepts of Night Mare Night, I like dressing up for instance, and I love the excuse to eat candy… oh and some of the foals look adorable in their costumes.”
“Hey remember the scene where the Crusaders TP’d Rarity’s house, Sweetie would know better than that right Rarity?” I asked.
Rarity chuckled. “Oh I would let Sweetie slide… the other two might become characters in my next story…” I looked at her with lowered eyebrows. “Maybe just Apple Bloom.” I nodded.
“So you don’t like Night Mare Night Fluttershy… why?” Rarity asked. “You sound like you have no real problem with the traditions.”
“Out of context it all sounds fun.” Fluttershy replied. “Eating candy, dressing up in costumes, startling your friends, an excuse for the foals to play, taking something fearful and making it fun, it’s all great sounding fun… Being scared can be fun. I even like playing peekaboo with babies… not sure if that technically scares them… but on Night Mare Night ponies go out of their way to terrify each other. I don’t like being scared or seeing others scared much beyond being startled. It’s too aggressive. It’s like eating a whole bag of sweets. You like them, but too many makes your stomach upset and you feel like throwing them up. Too much scaring, even if I know it’s all fake, makes it so I can’t sleep and I get jumpy. For goodness sake, I don’t hide under the bed, but I do abstain from Night Mare Night.”
“So what did everyone think of the costumes?” Rarity asked. “Anyone want something like those for their costumes next year?”
“I’ll have Rainbow Dash’s,” said Torkuda, the five story dragon. “Better get started.”
“You really should take part in Apple Jack’s corn maze next year!” I said.
“Doubt I would fit.” I shrugged, still, I wanted to somehow incorporate my ACTUAL dragon friend in a Nightmare Night prank, but how...?
“I did try to make my own costume one year,” I noted. “It was basically a couple painted cardboard boxes… yea, glad Rarity helps me these days.”
“I will notice something,” Rarity said, “You got things thrown at you Rainbow, and Pinkie was pushed into a wall. Our entire team sans Fluttershy was scared half to death in fact, but only Fluttershy seemed to be the one we were ever supposed to feel sorry for. I guess there’s something about how a person presents themselves. If they act tough, not only do you assume they can take more punishment, but you care less if they do. Wonder where that instinct comes from.”
“Yea, in real life, nobody better shove Pinkie into a wall, no matter how annoying she’s being… but me,” I shrugged, “If ya have to, whatever.”
“I do wonder why your character didn’t think of using Discord to scare everyone,” Rarity noted to Fluttershy.
“Good question,” Fluttershy said back.
“Kind of cheating,” Rarity said. “I mean, if you want to scare someone you can always pull a knife too.”
“Yea, especially if they’re tied up,” I said, hearkening back to her stories.
“Oh now c’mon, that’s effort,” Rarity said cheekily. “I mean, the spider web we got stuck too, that was a good effort.”
“I’m sorry but that would be a bit far Rares!” I said.
“No, not far enough really,” Rarity said. “She needed to deal with the magic user. Oh and find a way to get your hooves up so you feel more exposed-“
“Oookaaaay!” I shouted.
“Still up to hear one of my stories?” Rarity asked.
“Nope.” I replied. “Besides you’re supposed to scare ponies, not kill them.”
“Oh but killing one would scares the others, especially if they can’t escape!” Rarity said, raising her eyebrows a few times. “Hmm… wonder if that excuse would work on the police.”
“Clearly you should be watched,” I said.
“I will note something that was too much effort. Why bother dressing up the bear?” Rarity asked. “At the end, he’s dressed up as a monster. Look, if I’m stuck in a giant spider web with a giant carnivore coming at me, I’ll be good and scared even if it is “just a wild animal” who could you know, crush me with one swipe of its paw.”
I waved a hoof at Flutteshy. “Um... off hoof, you can't still turn into that Flutterbat thing can you?” I asked Fluttershy.
She shrugged. “Maybe, but really, off hoof, would that be the most scary thing you've learned about me today?”
“No, it would be an awesome thing,” I replied. “So how about it, can you still turn into a bat?”
She looked at me, cocked her head to the side and blinked a few times. Suddenly her head shot forwards, bearing sharp fangs at me. I jumped back and crashed into Rarity. Both of us started laughing as we got back up from the floor and looked back at Fluttershy on the couch- who was standing next to a flutterbat made of glowing energy. “Um... guys... that's not me...” Fluttershy jumped off the couch and joined us.
I quickly pushed my friends behind me and fluffed out my wings. “Torkuda?!” I yelled. I looked over to see the dragon on his back, his head laying flat and his tongue out, not breathing. “Umm... RUN!!!” The three of us took off, grabbing Rarity as we hit the mouth of the cave and flying off with her.
(***)
Lightning flew into view of the camera, her electric projection fading. “Good thing Fluttershy is so yellow, that was easy... well the pink was a little hard,” she admitted.
Still in his “dead” pose, Torkuda still lifted up a claw to his daughter. She quickly flew over and slapped him a high five with her hoof.
The face of a small blue colt appeared in front of the camera before the recording ended.