Twilight's Phobia, by Homage
Chapter 5: A New Beginning
It was a chilly Thursday evening in Ponyville. The sky was a bit cloudy, but there was no rain scheduled for that week. Ponies in the market stalls were packing up their stands and counting their profits. Foals were called to supper by their mothers. A few ponies were outside, taking a stroll. One couple, a blue-maned unicorn and a charcoal-maned earth pony, sat on a park bench, deeply locked in each others eyes.
Twilight Sparkle trotted down the cobblestone road, smiling at the kissing mares as she passed. The lavender unicorn was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage for her daily scare-apy (scare therapy). Twilight's training had been going well, evident from the fact that the unicorn wasn't afraid to walk so close to the Everfree Forest. The lavender unicorn happened to pass a purple-maned mare with a three-diamond cutie mark.
“Good evening, Rarity,” Twilight greeted. “How was your day?”
“Oh, hello, Twilight,” Rarity replied without making eye contact.
When the white unicorn continued to walk away, Twilight trotted up beside her and asked, “Is something bothering you?”
Rarity turned to the lavender unicorn and said, “I'm doing marvelous, darling. How about you?”
Twilight picked up on Rarity's tone, and joked, “Are you still saddle-sore about those snakeskin boots you never got to buy?”
Rarity chuckled. “Oh, I'm over that, Twilight,” the white unicorn answered. Though Rarity was known to hold grudges occasionally, she was quick to forgive her friend after the incident. After all, Rarity was usually the drama queen.
Twilight pressed the question. “Then what is going on? Did you lose your diamond-encrusted purple ribbon? Did your sister shrink another one of your sweaters? Did Spike try another one of his pickup lines on you?”
Rarity smiled. “No, no, and thank Celestia no. It's just...” The unicorn quickly looked over her shoulder, then turned back to Twilight. “Are you going to Fluttershy's cottage?” Rarity whispered.
“Of course I am! It's in my schedule!” Twilight exclaimed. Then, the lavender unicorn added, “Why? Is there a reason I shouldn't?”
Rarity's eyes opened wide. “Dear, I don't know quite how to put this...” she started in a very quiet voice. “I just saw Fluttershy beat up a bear and break the poor thing's neck!”
Twilight lost her composure and fell to the ground, howling with laughter. Rarity just stood there with her jaw on the floor. Twilight's guffaw became a chortle, then a chuckle, then a giggle. Finally, the lavender unicorn stopped laughing altogether, and stood up. Rarity raised an eyebrow.
Twilight wiped the tears from her face with a hoof. “Rarity,” the lavender unicorn said. “She was just helping him relieve stress!”
Rarity gasped. “Twilight, darling, you can't possibly believe...”
“I've seen her do it before!” the lavender unicorn exclaimed. “Trust me, I had the exact same reaction, though I was a bit preoccupied at the time...”
Rarity put a hoof to her chin. “Well, I guess that does make more sense. It was rather silly of me to jump to conclusions!” the white unicorn said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Twilight smiled. “I'm always glad to help, Rarity. I don't want to be late to Fluttershy's, but I'll see you later, ok?”
The white-coated mare waved a hoof goodbye, and the two unicorns both went their separate ways.
As Twilight approached Fluttershy's cottage, she gave herself a pat on the back for not being scared. The lavender unicorn used to be terrified of going near the Everfree Forest by herself. But during her lessons with Fluttershy, Twilight learned that snakes tend to remain where they are as long as they can find food. Since the Everfree Forest contained plenty of rodents, the snakes had no reason to leave.
As Twilight went to knock on the door, she remembered something: Fluttershy was preparing a surprise for her. The yellow pegasus had refused to give details, but Twilight figured that it had something to do with snakes.
Twilight tapped her hoof on the door. “Fluttershy, are you home?” called the lavender unicorn.
“Who... who is it?” came a timid voice from inside.
“It's Twilight,” said Twilight. “I'm here for my daily scare-apy.”
“Oh, Twilight. Come in.” said the voice.
Twilight pushed open the door and stepped inside the cottage. She didn't see her friend, but she heard some faint tune being hummed. “Fluttershy, where are you?” the unicorn called out.
The humming stopped. “I'm upstairs. Please come on up.” responded the voice. The humming resumed.
Twilight trotted up the stairs, up to the second floor. The lavender unicorn realized that she had never actually seen this part of Fluttershy's house. She walked up the stairs, admiring the pictures of animals adorning the walls, along with the actual animals scampering and flying around the house. Twilight figured it was nice to have so many pets, but the lavender unicorn would never do that herself, because pets were too messy. Twilight wondered how Fluttershy kept her home so neat. Were the animals helping her clean or something?
Twilight reached the top of the stairs, and followed the humming down the hallway to the bedroom. The door was open, so she walked inside. The interior of the room was neat: the knickknacks on the shelves were arranged carefully, the bed was made, and the floor was clean. The curtains were open, as well as the window. Fluttershy was sitting on the rug at the foot of the bed, next to a large box with a sheet over it. Twilight said, “Hi, Fluttershy,” but didn't take her eyes off of the container next to the yellow pegasus. “What's in the box?”
Fluttershy glanced shyly at Twilight. “Um... this is... that surprise I mentioned yesterday.”
Twilight started to get a little nervous. “Is it... a snake?” the lavender unicorn asked.
Fluttershy looked at the floor. “Um...” stuttered the yellow mare. “Yes.” Then she quickly added, “He's the nicest snake in the world! He's friendly and cuddly and never bites!”
Twilight started sweating a little. “Uh huh,” she remarked slowly. She started pacing, “And what kind of snake is he?”
Fluttershy stood up and exclaimed with a grin, “He's a ball python! You know how nice they are! Do you want to meet him?”
Twilight had known this day would come. Some time or another, she knew that Fluttershy would try to get her to handle a real snake. The lavender unicorn also knew that ball pythons weren't venomous, and that they were very docile and commonly kept as pets.
Twilight sighed. “Let's get this over with.”
Fluttershy grabbed the sheet in her mouth, and started to tug. Suddenly, she let go and asked, “Twilight, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, if you don't think you're ready...”
“My body is ready,” replied Twilight. “I have been studying snakes and counseling with you for a month now. I'm sure I can handle it.”
“All right, as long as you are absolutely, positively, completely, super-duper sure.” said Fluttershy, pulling the cover away from the box.
The box, which was actually a glass tank, was filled with wood chips. It contained a rock, a bowl of water, and a half of a log. Fluttershy pulled the lid open and started pushing the log with her hoof. “Come on out, Monty. Come meet Twilight,” the pegasus whispered sweetly.
When the snake failed to emerge from under the log, Fluttershy turned it over and picked up the snake in her hooves. The small brown python with black splotches slowly wrapped around the yellow pegasus' foreleg as she removed it from the tank.
Twilight recoliled a little bit, but she didn't scream or run away. She watched as Fluttershy gently stroked the snake. “Who's a good snake? You are, you are,” the yellow mare cooed.
Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it again. It was easy for her to think about snakes without being scared now. But actually seeing one seemed to have reactivated her fear. Fluttershy took her eyes off of the snake, stopping her baby talk, and asked her friend, “Twilight, do you want to touch him?”
Fluttershy had just given Twilight the push she needed. The lavender unicorn didn't answer the question, but slowly approached the sitting pegasus. Still standing, Twilight slowly reached a shivering hoof out to the python on wrapped around Fluttershy's foreleg. “H-h-h-h-h-hello, there, little guy...” she sputtered.
The snake, detecting motion, turned his head toward Twilight's hoof and flicked his tongue out at it. Twilight immediately screamed and jumped so high that she hit her head on the ceiling with a loud “thwack!” The impact shook the nearby shelves, which dropped their contents to the ground with a resounding clatter. The racket only terrified Twilight even more, and with a final panicked yell, she dove through the open window.
Fluttershy stuck her head out of the bedroom window. Twilight galloped down the path toward the library, wailing. Fluttershy called out to her, in her loudest possible voice, “Um, wait, Twilight! He was only...” The pegasus trailed off. “...smelling you.”
Twilight didn't hear, but not even the Royal Canterlot Voice would have stopped the lavender pony. She kept sprinting full-speed until she disappeared in the darkness of the night.
Fluttershy was so frustrated she could just kick something. The yellow mare turned around and gave a large vase a hard buck, which caused it to wobble a little. Fluttershy turned her gaze to the brown and black snake on her foreleg. “Well, Monty, I guess it's time for me to bring you back to Homage's...” She put the python back in his tank and replaced the lid.
Clearly, Twilight still had a long way to go. It would be at least another month before the lavender unicorn would be ready to try again. But Fluttershy knew that Twilight would be back tomorrow. The lavender mare really did want to change, but these things take time. As long as Twilight kept working at it, she was bound to get over her ophidiophobia.