It was the next day and noon was fast approaching. Fluttershy was quite pleased she had been able to organise all the necessary elements of her plan to get rid of Snowflake’s fears. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were the easiest part; all you had to do was tell them they had chance of earning their cutie mark and they’d leap at the opportunity to help. While Fluttershy didn’t like getting the three fillies help this way, she assured herself that the fillies were helping her with a noble cause. The most difficult part of the plan was the four butterfly costumes that Rarity had been able to make in just an evening. Thankfully Rarity had no outstanding orders to take up her time but doing four costumes from scratch at such short notice was nothing short of impressive. Rarity had even managed to put pockets on the inside of the wings of Fluttershy’s and Scootaloo’s costumes so their wings could fit inside allowing them to flap them. Rarity was now fitting each pony into their costume and was doing the last adjustments to Apple Bloom’s.
“Hold still, darling! Unless you want a pin in your side.” Rarity snapped. She was so tired from doing so many costumes at such short notice.
“Ah’m sorry, ok? It’s just all this frilly lace makes me itch like Winona after she misses ah flee bath!” whined Apple Bloom.
“Oh stop complaining, you sound just like your sister when she was having her Grand Galloping Gala dress fitted” chided Rarity “Aha! There we go; the last stitch. These costumes are done!”
“Oh thank you so much, Rarity. It was so generous of you to do this all in one night” smiled Fluttershy.
“It was nothing, Fluttershy, really” smiled Rarity in return “Now please remind me, darling, for I haven’t had my coffee this morning, why are you four dressing up as butterflies?”
“Oh well you see, whenever one of my animal friends has fear they need help with, I’ll introduce them to their fear but in a more familiar surroundings. In this case, introducing Snowflake to butterflies in the familiar surroundings of me” said Fluttershy, finishing with a squee.
“Hmm, ok, I can see where you’re going with this” pondered Rarity. In all honesty, she hadn’t listened to why Fluttershy had asked her for four butterfly costumes yesterday afternoon and instead had just leapt at the chance to use some old designs finally. “But why do you need the fillies?” further enquired Rarity.
“Oh, well butterflies usually travel in a swarm…” said Fluttershy not even convinced herself “but who could be scared of three such cute fillies” Fluttershy trailed off while looking at the fillies.
“Well ok then, if you’re sure this will work” said Rarity as she began packing up her things.
“So what do we have here then?” said Discord as he entered from the stairway, his voice sending a chill down everyone’s spine but Fluttershy’s who was happy to see her friend “Why are you dressed as butterflies? Did Fluttershy find my demonic wishing eye and take over Equestria and this is now the demanded attire for all denizens?” said Discord with a chuckle.
“Morning Discord” beamed Fluttershy “It’s for my plan to help Snowflake get over his fears. I think this technique is called immersion therapy”
“Hmm, I can assure you it’s not my dear, but it will be interesting to see if this works” said Discord sarcastically.
Before Fluttershy could give her rebuttal, there was a knock at the door. It was Snowflake who had arrived a little before noon. It didn’t matter though because they were ready early. Fluttershy ushered the girls to stand behind her as she walked to the door and opened it. Snowflake took a few panicked steps back when he saw Fluttershy’s new butterfly wings but relaxed once he saw the familiar sight of the rest of her. On cue, the three fillies began prancing around the couple, Sweetie Belle going as far as saying “buzz buzz” every now and again until Apple Bloom reminded her that butterflies don’t buzz and she stopped.
“Er… what’s going on?” Snowflake shakily asked.
“It’s to help you get over your fear” smiled Fluttershy “I thought if you saw butterflies in a situation you knew, you’d learn to become more relaxed around them”
Snowflake seemed convinced by this but it didn’t stop him from looking around at the three bouncing fillies and Fluttershy with his shoulders tensed. While this went on, Discord watched from the door way with malice in his eyes. Rarity had finished packing away her things and was about to leave when she caught onto Discord’s malcontent.
“Discord… what are you thinking of doing…” said Rarity cautiously, careful not to antagonise the former God of Chaos.
“Me? Oh nothing, just pondering on how your costumes could be more… lifelike” said Discord while smirking.
“Well I’m sorry my costumes don’t meet your oh so high standards” said Rarity now flustered but Discord’s comments “So tell me; how would you go about improving them?”
The pair stared intensely into each other’s eyes, Discord with smug mischievousness and Rarity with angry sternness. It wasn’t long before Rarity caught on to what Discord meant by “lifelike”.
“Don’t you dare…” began Rarity.
“Too late!” interjected Discord before turning Rarity into a marshmallow and dropping her into a glass of chocolate milk he also conjured.
He then turned his attention to Fluttershy and her three filly helpers. He thought to himself how they needed to step it up if they were to ever rid Snowflake of his fears and that he was the one to help them. So with a snap of his fingers, the four ponies became one with their costumes and became mare and filly sized butterflies with pony heads. Fluttershy let out a horrified gasp and turned instantly to Discord knowing it was his trickery. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were on the floor beating their wings against the ground and crying in hysterics. Scootaloo however was having the time of her life; she could finally fly and she was making sure to enjoy every moment she could and had already began flying through the branched of Fluttershy’s cottage tree. Snowflake on the other hand had faired the worse. This fright was too much to run away from and instead the mighty stallion simply fainted.
“Discord!” screamed Fluttershy in a booming loud voice “Change us back! We were trying to help poor Snowflake and then you do this! He’s probably half way to Canterlot with fear by now! We’ll never find him…”
Fluttershy had trailed off because she saw Snowflake lay unconscious on his back. She gave Discord one last intense and angry stare who relented and turned the ponies back to normal but was still laughing to himself. Upon their reverse transformation, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle checked themselves over to see if they were once more normal ponies again and hugged each other to celebrate. Scootaloo on the other hand began crying; mostly because she could no longer fly but also because she’d taken a hard fall through the tree when the spell had worn off. Once back a normal pony, Fluttershy rushed to Snowflakes aid and was relieved to find he’s only fainted and not died of a heart attack like she had initially feared.
Discord was in fits of laughter now, so amused by how flustered Fluttershy had been made by his little practical jokes. Fluttershy however ignored him and tended to Snowflake. She’d never dealt with someone fainting before; she usually kept her animal friends in such good care they’d never be in any sort of situation that would cause them to faint. So Fluttershy did the only thing she thought to do; she’s saw other ponies do it before when somepony collapsed; she fixed her mouth tightly around Snowflake’s and began to blow. Now Snowflake hadn’t stopped breathing so didn’t need resuscitation but Fluttershy didn’t know that’s why ponies blew into the mouth like she was doing and thought it was how you brought somepony back around when they fainted. Snowflake quickly stirred and thought he was waking up to Fluttershy kissing him so passionately kissed her back which was a terrible surprise for the poor mare who began blushing uncontrollably. This just made Discord laugh even harder as he saw Fluttershy try to wrestle herself free of Snowflakes lips. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shielded their eyes in embarrassment while Scootaloo continued to wail about being flightless and having a sore behind.
Fluttershy finally broke free of the suction of Snowflakes lips and sat on her rear, trying to regain her breath. Snowflake sat up and looked around; perplexed to find himself outside. He thought he’d fallen asleep and the business with Fluttershy turning into a half pony, half butterfly amalgamation was just some horrible nightmare and his marefriend had seen his distress and kissed him in his sleep to comfort him. But then he saw Discord, rocking back and forth on his back, laughing so hard that he was starting to sound hoarse. Upon seeing the God of Chaos he realized that it probably wasn’t a dream and Snowflake had actually seen the horrors he thought he’d merely dreamt.
“Oh I see dear little Snowflake is awake” guffawed Discord “So strong and masculine and yet scared of tiny, weeny butterflies”
“Hey!” interjected Apple Bloom, taking on her sister’s well known tone of authority “You done turned us into monsters, Snowflake had every right to be scared of what he saw. Combine that with the fact we were giant butterflies; the thing he’s most scared of and of course he’ll faint!”
“Oh listen to you, think you’re your big sister, all head strong and tough” mocked Discord “How come its fine for him to faint when you’re a filly and all you did is scream?”
“Because, Discord” said Sweetie Belle butting in “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! And we’ve been close to death… 345 times!” squeaked Sweetie Belle after checking a number clicker she produced, debating internally if to add this most recent incident to the tally.
“Oh yeah, well…” Discord tried to finish but Fluttershy interrupted him.
“Stop mocking Snowflake! We all have fears; mine is the world, Rainbow Dash’s is not being cool. You even have a fear Discord, and that’s choir singing!” screamed Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy! I told you that in confidence! And you know perfectly well it’s because they have too much harmony” hissed Discord.
“I don’t care! Now please can you leave us be!” said Fluttershy in a tone that indicated she didn’t want to play any games.
Discord clearly heard the anger in her voice and began to walk away disheartened. He did still play quite cruel jokes even though he was supposed to be reformed but he did it to try and have fun with his friend Fluttershy who little by little had come to understand Discord’s quite dark sense of humour. But he’d gone too far this time and had earned himself a spot in Fluttershy’s bad books. He knew she’s come around eventually but for now the best he could do was not bother her while she did whatever it she was doing with her coltfriend and those three annoying fillies.
“Hey, where’s my sister?” said Sweetie Belle before Discord had walked back in the house.
“Oh… heh heh, funny you should say that...” said Discord sheepishly.
With a snap of his fingers, the glass of chocolate milk he’d put the marshmallowed Rarity into appeared into his claw. He then tipped it out onto the grass and clicked his fingers again at which point Rarity appeared and began screaming about being sticky. Sweetie Belle rushed over to her and acting on instinct leapt at Rarity, only to have their manes entangle and stick together because of the chocolate milk that coated Rarity’s hair. Rarity screamed in shock and began to run around while Sweetie Belle wailed as she trailed behind her. Discord began laughing again but quickly noticed Fluttershy staring at him angrily so stopped and snapped his fingers again which seemed to remove the stickiness and Sweetie Belle from Rarity’s mane but not the frizz and mess caused by the stress she’s just endured.
“Well I think I’ll be off” said Rarity flatly “Come along, Sweetie Belle, bring your friends”
“Ok…” said Sweetie Belle saddened by how robotic Rarity was acting “Hey Apple Bloom, help me with Scootaloo”
Each filly hooked a foreleg around one of Scootaloo’s and began to drag her away from Fluttershy’s cottage. Scootaloo was still babbling about her brief time as a butterfly and how she’d felt so free and why had all the other’s made such a fuss and caused Discord to turn them back. The other two fillies at least acknowledged her rambling with occasional nods and audible conformations but nothing to say they agreed with her.
Discord had slinked back inside now and had left Fluttershy and Snowflake alone in her front garden. Fluttershy was so embarrassed; she’d been seen by three fillies passionately kissing her coltfriend; what would the ponies of Ponyville say? Snowflake saw she was pondering over something that made her clearly sad and went over and stroked her mane tenderly. She felt so reassured by this and nuzzled his hoof tenderly in return.
“Sorry that didn’t work” said Fluttershy glumly “I didn’t think Discord would be so mean and prank you like that”
“Don’t blame yourself, Ms Fluttershy” smiled Snowflake “As you said, it was Discord’s doing. If he thinks that’s a prank, then I doubt he is reformed!”
“Oh he is, it’s just Celestia doesn’t trust him enough to give him any responsibilities so he’s left with nothing to do” said Fluttershy while staring at the ground “And think about it, he’s a being who was compelled to spread chaos, like I am to spread kindness, so it’s a hard habit for him to break”
Snowflake wasn’t entirely satisfied with Fluttershy’s reasoning but it was be enough for now. He sighed at how difficult this had proven to be and wished getting over a fear was far simpler. But he knew Fluttershy was trying and he shouldn’t give up, for her sake. He began to lean in for a kiss but found Fluttershy was doing the same. They kissed for a while before breaking and Fluttershy motioning Snowflake to follow her inside. Snowflake ran ahead to open the door for her which she thought was him being a gentlecolt but was just him trying to avoid seeing her cutie mark again. Once inside, they saw Discord was nowhere to be found. Fluttershy figured he was upstairs sulking like he always did when one of practical jokes backfired. The pair sat down in front of the fireplace to try and compose themselves after the terror they’d both endured. Fluttershy rested her head on Snowflake’s shoulder and sighed. She was at a dead end with her efforts to help Snowflake get over his fears. She’d tried immersion therapy and that hadn’t worked, what else was there for her to do?
But then she remembered what Discord had said; something about what she was doing hadn’t been immersion therapy. If it wasn’t, what was? Suddenly out of nowhere with the sound of a pop appeared a book. It was open on a page that gave a loose definition of what immersion therapy was and Fluttershy realised how wrong she was. She turned to see if Discord was there and he was. He was just stepping out of the door when she saw him.
“Discord, wait” said Fluttershy, now attracting Snowflakes attention.
“No, Fluttershy, I’m sure you don’t want me around” said Discord sounding almost depressed “I just thought I’d steer you right before you gave up” said Discord pointing at the book he’d just conjured.
“Thank you, Discord” said Fluttershy, smiling sweetly.
Discord completely stepped out now and closed the door. Snowflake looked to Fluttershy wondering what she saw in Discord and why she was so quick to trust him. He wasn’t jealous of the troublesome chaos monger but he did wish he treated Fluttershy better. But it seemed Fluttershy was happy again and seemed to be cooking up another idea on how to help him.
They heard Discord say hi to someone who said hi back enthusiastically. Then they heard a knock at the door and heard Derpy announce she had mail for Fluttershy. Fluttershy opened the door and saw Derpy had a note in her mouth. Fluttershy thanked her for it before closing the door. Fluttershy opened the letter and she and Snowflake read it together:
Dear Fluttershy,
Sorry I stormed off just now, but I had to be away from that frightful beast, Discord. I know you trust him but I think he’s still a menace to society. I know you think he can be truly good but I still think your hope is misguided.
Nether the less, I feel I should state I don’t hold any of Discord’s actions against you and will still help you get rid of Snowflake’s fear; as long as we do it away from your cottage and Discord.
Pop over to the boutique if you have any more ideas on how we are to cure Snowflake. If I have any, I’ll mail you as I want to avoid being near… you know who.
Kind Regards,
Rarity
Fluttershy was a little perplexed as to why Rarity had gone to the trouble of writing a letter to explain this but it was nice to be assured that she hadn’t lost her help. But the letter got her thinking further and she realized that she was yet to use Rarities magic to help Snowflake and she hatched a plan that she’d finalise when she saw Rarity the next day. She offered Snowflake to stay the night but he politely declined. She figured it was because of Discord who was likely to come back and she couldn’t blame him. Still she wanted to spend the night with Snowflake so cuddled up his foreleg and wished she didn’t have to face Discord and his apologising alone. But Snowflake said he had to go because he had things to sort at home. He took off into the sky with Fluttershy watching him go. She hoped her plan would work better than today’s. Discord wasn’t likely to be nearby when they did it so it had a better chance of success already. Once he’d flown away she returned inside her cottage to spend some time with Angel Bunny.