//------------------------------// // The Switch // Story: Flipped Out // by pepdog1 //------------------------------// Fluttershy's hooves made soft tapping sounds on the grass as she trotted through the garden. She stopped a few meters away from her house, in a clearing with a single, lonely tree. She sat, waiting. Waiting for what, you ask? Discord. "He's late." She mutters to herself. "Again... I wonder if he really wants to spend time with me, or is just doing it because he has to..." Feeling guilty for saying this, even though nobody else was there, she hastily tried to cover it up. "Either way, I see him as a friend, and hope he sees me in the same way too..." Discord's voice suddenly came out of nowhere. "I do see you as a friend, Fluttershy. And I hope you see me as a friend too..." Fluttershy jumped, looking around for Discord, but she couldn't find him. Until she felt a tap on her shoulder... "Discord?" She turned around, only to see nothing but the tree that had been standing there. But... Something seemed different. It almost looked like the tree had a face... A very familiar face... A branch from the tree reached over and tapped her on the shoulder again. Fluttershy's face now had a huge, happy smile on it "DISCORD!" She literally shouted, hugging the tree. Discord morphed back into his usual self, hugging the Pegasus tightly. "Hello, dear little Fluttershy!" He said happily. "I've missed you..." "I've missed you too..." "Now," Discord let go of her, smiling, "We have a lot of things to do! But first... I want to show you something... Sit down." She happily plopped down onto the grass, ready for whatever it was he wanted to show. She had been waiting for her day out with Discord for a whole month now. Discord followed pursuit, only he created a rock made of candy from thin air and sat on that, taking a chunk and eating it. "Now," he said, his mouth full of candy, "The first thing you have to do is... Relax. You're too hyperactive and jittery." Fluttershy nodded, taking a deep breath. She consciously told herself to calm down, to relax, to Zen. Zen... It took a few seconds, but soon she was completely calm. "Mmm..." "Good." Discord smiled. "Now, close your eyes..." She did as she was told, keeping a calm state of mind. "Now, I want you to delve deep into your mind. Don't think, no, but enter your mind. Be inside it. Leave your body and enter your head. I'll help." Fluttershy tried. She imagined leaving her body, being inside her brain. She felt Discord's magic pushing her in. And she let it. Only thing is, that's where it went wrong. Or, in Discord's case, right. Fluttershy was no longer in control of her body, and didn't know how to get back in. Without a brain to control it, her body went limp into Discord's arms. And without a body to keep her going, Fluttershy blacked out... Discord smiled to himself and picked up the mare, carrying her to her bed. "Perfect." He smiled to himself, chuckling a bit. Now the fun really begins..." Little did he know, Fluttershy's empty body wasn't so empty... And it would be completely full within a few short minutes. Three friends were walking around the fair in Happy Tree Town. Their names were Flippy, Flaky and Nutty. Nutty is a light green squirrel with a lazy eye and mismatch irises, one lime green and the other black. He is a complete sugar addict, and so is constantly giggling and shaking, and has candy stuck all over his body. It's a miracle his little buck teeth haven't fallen out or rotted yet... Even though they technically have. Flaky is a shy, red porcupine with way too much dandruff in her quills. She can't help it though, so you can't blame her. She is always nervous, and her dandruff gets everywhere. Flippy is a war sergeant. The lime green bear always wears a camouflage beret and matching war uniform. He carries around a machete and a Bowie knife in his pockets, but strangely enough he has post-traumatic stress disorder, and so "flips out" whenever he sees something that reminds him of war. And that usually doesn't end well. The group had gone to the town fair together, as I previously mentioned, and were waiting in line for a cute game of apple bobbing. While Flippy seemed to be enjoying himself ever so much, the other two were a bit cautious. If he flipped out here, they would be in for a catastrophe, and probably a week in the "Regenerator" too. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, however, until they figured out that a certain accident-prone moose was running the game. Lumpy. "Step right up, see if you can get an apple! Nobody has yet!" The blue moose smiled. "Well, except Sniffles, you know, because of his snout. You, Flippy, wanna have a turn? Get an apple, get a prize!" Flippy took this as a challenge. "You're on!" He stepped up to the barrel. It was only three quarters full, and the apples weren't very easy to grab since they had no stems, but that wasn't going to stop Flippy. "Hey Flaky, watch! I'm going to get you that stuffed teddy, okay?" Flaky giggled. She had a hunch that he wouldn't be able to do it, but it was cute that he was thinking of her. The bear dunked his head into the water, holding onto the edges for safety. The other three watched him to see if he would be able to do it, but they didn't get to see much, because just then, disaster struck. Mime; a purple deer with white mime-like face-paint, walked up near them and set up an invisible stand. He started noisily popping invisible popcorn and, of course, Flippy started feeling a pain in the back of his head. The popcorn sounded exactly like gunshot. Flaky and Nutty ran up and knocked Mime to the ground. He yelled out in pain, even though he wasn't supposed to, and gave the two a quizzical look. Nutty pointed over to Flippy, who still had his head in the barrel. Lumpy was hiding behind another stand. Mime's eyes widened. The three got up and started to back away slowly… Flippy knew exactly what was coming. His alter ego was trying to get out. He did what he always did, try to push him back into his brain and stay in control… only this time was different. His alter ego, Fliqpy, wasn't there. With nothing to push back, he found himself doing something really strange. He pushed himself back inside. Flaky, Nutty and Mime suddenly saw the bear slump forward into the barrel with a splash. They waited a few moments. What was happening? After a few seconds, Flaky had had enough, and was getting really worried. She rushed forwards, grabbing Flippy and pulling him out of the water, onto his back. She held a hand over his open mouth. "Fuck, fuck, he's not breathing!" She cried. "Nutty, Mime, help!" The two swapped glances, before rushing over to help. Nutty got to work instantly, putting his mouth over the other's and trying to get him to breathe again. A curious crowd started to gather around them. The crowd included Lifty and Shifty, two green, twin raccoon thieves who could only be told apart by the fact that Shifty wore a hat; Splendid and Splendont, a pair of superhero flying squirrels with super powers, with Splendid wearing a red mask against his blue fur and Splendont in reverse colours; and Cuddles, a currently very frightened yellow rabbit wearing rabbit slippers. The crowd watched for a while, and Lumpy even came out of his hiding spot. They were just about to declare the bear dead when he started coughing and spluttering. "He's alive!" Lumpy laughed. The crowd cheered. That is until Nutty, who was sticking his tongue out in disgust after practically kissing the other, held up a paw. "Hold on, heheheh... He's still breathing hehehe… but he's not getting up. I think he's unconscious." The crowd was worried. What if he flipped out when he woke up? Mime held Flaky's hand to comfort her. She was shaking even more than usual. As soon as he did, however, she hugged him tightly instead. "Alright, back it up people." Splendont said to them, getting between Nutty and the unconscious bear. "We don't want to have any accident-" He was suddenly pushed out of the way and into a nearby stall by a jealous Splendid. "Alright, back it up people." Splendid said to them, as if unaware of what he had just done. "We don't want to have any accidents." Discord was sitting in Fluttershy's house, knitting with some straws as the needles and a milkshake as the wool. As soon as he had finished, he drank it. Well, that's the master of chaos for you. He was about to start another when Fluttershy started stirring. "Oh, goodie!" He smiled, getting right up next to the Pegasus. "Let's see who my new playmate is!" Fluttershy moaned something about apples and water, before her eyes fluttered open. Only thing was, they were no longer a blue-green color. They were black. "Huh...?" She sat up, looking around groggily. When she spoke, her voice was no longer the soft, feminine voice she always had, but instead a slightly squeaky, confused voice. A male's voice, too. "Where am I?" It only took a second for her eyes to fall on Discord, and then they were filled with fear. She chuckled nervously in her new voice. "Ha ha, very funny, Lumpy... F-Flaky? N-N-Nutty...?" Discord smiled and pressed his face up against the other's. "Welcome," He said evilly, "To Equestria." Princess Twilight and her friends had been called to Fluttershy's house. Apparently, Discord had been causing some trouble, and now the neighbors were worried for Fluttershy. Twilight opened the door to the cottage with her magic. What she and her friends saw was not what they expected to see. Fluttershy was on Discord's back, pulling his arms back painfully with both hooves while holding a knife in her mouth. "Twilight!" Discord yelled. "Please! She's gone insane!" "Fluttershy!" Twilight cried, shocked and confused. "What are you doing?! As your princess, I order you to stop this at once and tell me what is going on." "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "I know Discord's a jerk, but you have a knife! That's not like you." Fluttershy looked at them for a moment, before reluctantly getting off of Discord. She stood in front of them, the knife now tucked under her wing, and saluted. "Sergeant Flippy, at your service, princess!" She shouted. Or was it now a he? The others were surprised to hear the change in voice. "I'm sorry for attacking your comrade," He continued, "But he frightened me and I though I was under attack. Please, princess, please understand that I have no idea where I am, or how I got here..." The others were silent for a moment, but then Applejack spoke up. "Sergeant... Flippy?" "Yes ma'am." He replied. "Part of the W.A.R., that is, the Weaponized Animal Regiment." This got Twilight curious. "And... What animal are you, exactly?" Flippy was confused. "Um... A bear? Is that not obvious...?" He glanced towards a nearby mirror, only to see his reflection and freak out. "I'm a pony!" "Pegasus!" Pinkie said in a sing-songy voice. "And I'm a girl!" Twilight glared at Discord. "What?" He asked, smiling sheepishly. Twilight glared even harder. "You have a lot of explaining to do..." "Hey, hehehe, he's waking up!" A... Giggly voice. "Oh my... Th-thank goodness..." Stuttering, shy voice, much like her own. "Hurray!" A nasal voice. Sounded a bit retarded. Mixed in with a squeaky, uncertain voice. "Stand back! We don't-OW!" A strong, clear voice, interrupted by a shout of pain. "We don't want things to get messy! HEY!" Another strong voice, only slightly different to the first, interrupted by the sound of somebody being pushed to the ground. "I'll fucking kill you, Splendid!" The first voice, followed by the sound of punches being delivered. "I'll fucking kill you first, you poser!" The second voice, again. This time it sounded like he was pressed up against the dirt. "SHUT UP! You're going to make him flip out if you keep going like this!" A... Slightly Mexican voice? "Shifty's right!" Another Mexican voice, only a bit more high pitched. "We don't want to have a blood fest of our paws!" Alright, that was it. Enough swearing, mentions of killing, and mentions of blood. Fluttershy had had enough. "Stop it!" She shouted, sitting up. She didn't open her eyes. She didn't want to. "Stop it, shut up! You're scaring me!" Only then she opened her eyes to see a group of animals standing around her, staring with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Two of them, two flying squirrels, were on top of each other, as if they had been frozen in the middle of a fight. One of them had their face in the dirt, just like Fluttershy had guessed. Suddenly two of them, two raccoons, started laughing. "He- he sounds like... Hehehe... Like a girl!" One managed to say between bursts of laughter. "That's... Hehehe... P-priceless! One of the flying squirrels, the blue one, got up and pushed them both angrily, making them fly off into a stall. He grimaced as he saw them land, and turned back to the others nervously. "Um... Super strength?" "That is fucking it, Splendid." The other flying squirrel growled, rolling up imaginary sleeves. "You're going to die." "Bring it on, Splendont!" Splendid whooped. And then, it broke out. Splendont attacked him, and he was sent flying into another stall. Splendont flew after his counterpart, but Fluttershy didn't get to see what happened next. "Hey, are you okay?" It was the rabbit. He helped her up to her feet, and she was quite surprised to find that she could easily stand of two instead of all four... Although she did stumble a bit and felt a bit... Odd. "I... Feel sick..." The rabbit helped her over to the barrel nearby. She grabbed onto the edges and looked into the water. And then she almost fainted. "I-I-I..." "Yeah...?" The rabbit got closer, looking into the water with her. "I-I'm a bear!" The others were confused. "Um... Of course you're a bear." Flaky scratched her head. "Is this another personality or something?" One of the raccoons, the one without a hat, asked the other. They must have recovered pretty fast from being thrown across the field. "Flippy, are you alright?" Asked the rabbit. Fluttershy looked at him, confused. "W-who's Flippy?" she asked. "A-and who are you?!" A whisper ran through the crowd. "He doesn't recognize us!" A green squirrel exclaimed quietly. Splendid and Splendont must've finished fighting for a bit, because Splendont was now behind her with a hand on her shoulder. "So... You don't remember?" Fluttershy shook her head. The squirrel went on. "I'm Splendont, this poser here is Splendid..." This earned an angry shout from the other squirrel, but Splendont ignored him. "The rabbit is Cuddles, the porcupine is Flaky, the raccoon with a hat is Shifty and the other is Lifty, the moose is Lumpy, the deer is Mime, the hyperactive squirrel who gave you CPR is Nutty, and you are..." "Fluttershy." She answered, smiling warmly, trying to ignore the CPR comment and the blood rushing to her cheeks. "Fluttershy, huh?" Splendid rubbed the back of his head. "So... Can you tell us a bit about yourself?" Normally, Fluttershy would be too frightened to talk, but she felt okay now. These were talking animals! "Okay... I'm a Pegasus, or used to be, I live in Ponyville, I'm... A girl. I was sitting and doing some meditation with my friend Discord, but then things went wrong and I ended up here..." "... So, you were meditating, hehehe? How did things go wrong?" Nutty's turn to ask this time. Fluttershy looked up at the sky and sighed. "I don't know! I sort of... Left my body and entered my head. And now I'm in a different body!" The other tree friends swapped glances. "Flippy..." Flaky spoke up. "When he was trying to push Fliqpy in after the popcorn... He must've done the same thing! He could very well be in your body now!" Fluttershy was confused, but was interrupted before she could say anything. "If that's the case, hehehe, we're going to have to take drastic measures!" Nutty smiled. "To Sniffles's'!" "So... I swapped minds with your friend Fluttershy..." Flippy looked down at the cup of tea between his hooves. Twilight was staring a hole through Discord's head. "I... Can't believe you, Discord." She said. "I thought you were good now!" "I am!" Discord insisted. "I just... Wanted a bit of fun." "At the expense of others?!" The others sighed and talked between themselves. Discord was embarrassed. "It was a mistake, okay? A mistake... I am truly sorry for. Please... Give me another chance! If we can just find some way to communicate with her..." "You could tell her how ta reverse it?" Applejack finished. "Yep." "If Sniffles was here, he'd make a communicator in a flash, using a radio and a toothpick." Flippy mumbled to himself. Rarity suddenly felt the need to cheer the boy up. "Listen, darling." She said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Why don't you come down to my boutique? I could make you something! You know, I am the most skilled fashion designer this side of Appleoosa!" "It's true!" Pinkie smiled, rifling through a cookie jar. Flippy looked up at her. "Well... I guess I do feel a bit strange without my uniform..." "It's settled then! To my boutique!" She grabbed him by the hoof, but he slipped out and ran over to the bench instead, grabbing the knife he had previously threatened Discord with. "Um... Ah, is that really necessary? Rarity asked nervously. "Yes." Flippy replied bluntly, walking past her. She sighed. "Fine, but don't bother me when people give you strange looks." With that, she closed the door behind them. Discord got up. "Alright then!" He smiled, stretching comically. "I'll leave you guys to it!" He was about to leave when Twilight grabbed his tail with her magic. "Not so fast." She growled. "You started this, you're going to help get it right. Or else." Discord gulped. This was not going to be pretty...