It was the next day. Pinkie was trotting along the sunlit road towards Fluttershy’s cottage again. This time without Gummy on her tail. She knocked on the door and Discord opened again.
“Hey, Discord!” She greeted Discord with enthusiasm. “I’m here for the therapy with Dr. Fluttershy.”
“Oh, hmm, yes, quite.” Discord looked a bit flustered. “She’s not here right now, come back later!” He then shut the door and summoned a reinforced door in place of the original one.
“Discord!” Pinkie said accusingly. “What did you do to Fluttershy?”
“Nothing!” Discord popped his head through the upper section of the door. “I mean, she’s just simply not home... she’s... uh... preparing for the therapy session.”
Pinkie, of course didn’t believe him and jumped right through the opening into the cottage. There was a very large jumping spider sitting on the couch, which frightened Pinkie right away.
“It’s huge!” She said after a short scream.
“Oh, yes that’s the point!” Discord said with startling enthusiasm. “It’s part of the exposure therapy!”
“Exposure therapy?”
“Why, yes! She wanted to give you bigger and bigger spiders, so you get used to them.”
“Ah! Get it away from me!” Pinkie screamed at the spider approaching her and tried to stomp on it the closer it got. Discord quickly took it out of harm’s way.
“I think you’re the one who should be taken away from it!” He said, visibly annoyed.
“Is this why Fluttershy’s not here?” She said, while nervously running in place. “Is she gathering these huge spiders?”
Discord got an idea. “Exactly, she’s out there searching for Fluffy... the horse-eating spider!”
“Horse-eating spider?!”
“Yes, it’s a spider so large, it could eat a horse!”
And with that, Pinkie was right outside the door, running and screaming, just from the thought of the horse-eating spider. Discord waved at her with a sarcastic smile, then went back to the house, with worried annoyance.
“I knew something was going to go wrong!” He grumbled to the jumping spider in his hands.
“Oh, what are we going to do now?” The spider said with a very faint voice. As faint as Fluttershy’s. And that’s because that spider was Fluttershy herself. Somehow she’s been turned into a spider. “Are you sure you can’t change me back?” She asked with concern.
“I can’t! This is some very advanced magic! Even for me!”
“Maybe we should ask Twilight for help. She knows a lot about advanced magic.”
Discord looked unsure about the idea, but agreed anyway. If he can’t solve this conundrum, then Twilight might.