Flutterception
Well, here's my shot at writing an episode-like plot story. I hope you enjoy.
And I don't own anything associated with MLP or "Inception".
Chapter 1: The Incident
“Okay Angel, I hope you like what mommy’s made for you.” Said the timid mare known as Fluttershy as she slowly carried a delicious salad over to her pet bunny, Angel. She was careful not to drop a single leaf of lettuce onto the floor of her cottage, knowing that doing so would upset the picky rabbit, who would refuse to eat if one ingredient missing.
“A nice, big salad with all of your favorite vegetables. I even threw in a few extra carrots for you since you love them so much.”
Angel the bunny did not look too happy. In fact, one could say that he looked rather aggravated, as if he’d been waiting for an hour just to start an appetizer at a five-star restaurant that promised prompt service to its customers.
In reality, though, it only took Fluttershy about ten minutes to make the salad, and Angel was just being his typical, moody self, nothing really out of the ordinary.
Fluttershy gently placed the plate holding the salad onto the floor in front of Angel before backing away with a smile, “There you go Angel bunny.”
Angel looked at the salad before he rose an eyebrow looking back up at Fluttershy as if something was missing from the otherwise perfect salad.
“Oh what is it? Did I forget something?” Fluttershy asked nervously as the scowling bunny pointed to the top of the salad with his paw. A light bulb went off in Fluttershy’s head as she realized what Angel wanted, and what she had forgotten.
“Oh! That’s right, how could I have forgotten the carrot on top? I’ll be right back Angel.”
With that, the yellow Pegasus gracefully flew off into her kitchen. She stopped at what appeared to be a small vegetable crisper that held all of the vegetables that she picked from her garden.
She opened it to see that it was filled with tomatoes, celery, lettuce, everything needed for the perfect salad. Everything, except, for a carrot.
“Oh dear,” she said before flying back over to the rabbit that was just looking at her with his eyebrow raised, “I’m sorry Angel but it looks like we’re out of carrots.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Angel crossed his arms and turned away from the plate.
“Now Angel, mommy is very sorry that she can’t make the salad exactly how you wanted it, but I put extra carrots into the salad itself. Does that help?”
Angel glared back at Fluttershy with contempt before he let out a small “humph” before turning away from her, shaking his head in defiance before he pushed the plate away from him using his foot.
Fluttershy began to think over what she should do. After all, Angel needed to eat something, and the salad was already made. It would be a waste to throw it out after all the effort she put into making it.
She sighed, “Okay Angel, I’ll go outside and see if I can find you one in the garden.”
Angel didn’t respond with anything other than a wave of his paw as if to order her to “move along and get my carrot woman.”
Fluttershy flew off and opened the door to her house to see Rainbow Dash standing on the doormat, her hoof raised as if she was about to knock on the door before Fluttershy had opened it.
“Oh.” Rainbow Dash muttered as she slowly put her back down onto the doormat and smiled at her friend, “Hey Fluttershy.”
“Hello Rainbow Dash, do you need something?” she asked.
“Yeah I came by to pick up Tank’s medicine,” said the cyan mare, of course referring to her pet tortoise.
“That’s right, I almost forgot about that.” Fluttershy said with a sympathetic tone, “How is the poor baby.”
“Eh, he’s had a fever all day,” Rainbow Dash, said with a sigh, “I just wish he didn’t eat that stupid plant.”
“Well as long as you give him this medicine, he should be fine in a few days.” Fluttershy said with a smile before gesturing over to her kitchen, where a small bag was placed with the word “Tank” written on it in black pen.
“Thanks Fluttershy, I owe ya one” Rainbow Dash said before flying over to pick up the bag. She then flew back over to the door and once she was outside, she turned to Fluttershy, “So what are you up to now?”
“I was just about to go grab Angel bunny a carrot from outside, well, if I can find one that is.” Fluttershy said with a small bit of disappointment.
“Oh okay, well I’ll catch ya later.” Rainbow Dash said before she flew off.
Fluttershy waved to her friend with a smile before she made her way out to her garden to search for the carrot to put all carrots to shame.
The garden was quite impressive for such a small size. Animals were everywhere, as were plants that boasted ripe fruits, and vegetables that were seen sprouting from the ground everywhere. She began to whistle a cheerful tune to herself as she searched the area of the garden that the carrots normally grew in. Once she got there, she realized that they were all gone.
“Oh, Angel’s not going to be happy about this,” she said quietly before she continued to fly around the garden, eyes scanning the ground for any carrot that she might have overlooked while she was picking them earlier, “there has to be one carrot left. Just one.”
She eventually did find one last carrot in the garden, “Ah-ha! I’ve got you.” She said triumphantly, which was still not too loud. After all, this is Fluttershy that we’re talking about, and even her enthusiastic voice was more often than not quieter than a church mouse that wears slippers while walking on a floor made of cotton.
She landed and was about to reach out to grab the carrot from the ground when a brown rabbit came out of one of the bushes nearby and made it to the carrot before Fluttershy. He quickly pulled the carrot out of the ground just as Fluttershy reached for to grab it herself.
She gasped from the rabbit startling her. The rabbit sniffed the carrot and opened his mouth to start eating when he suddenly felt somepony tap him on the shoulder.
He turned to see Fluttershy looking at him with her big, innocent eyes, “Um excuse me, mister bunny? I was just wondering if I could possibly have that carrot? It’s for a friend.”
The rabbit shook its head and turned to eat the carrot again, only to have Fluttershy tap it on the shoulder a second time. His face started to turn red as he felt his blood pressure rising in aggravation. Nevertheless, he turned back to Fluttershy, who now had an even more desperate look in her eyes.
“Could I please have it? I promise I’ll buy you some more tomorrow. I would buy one myself but the shops are closed for the day.” She got onto her stomach and put her hooves together in a way that looked like she was praying. “Pretty please?”
The rabbit shook his head even more furiously now before he turned his back to the pleading mare to eat the carrot.
But before he could take a bite out of the delicious, juicy, fresh carrot, he felt Fluttershy tap him on the shoulder a third time. “Mister Rabbit.”
This was all the rabbit could take before he turned angrily towards Fluttershy and took three swipes at her face, cutting her cheeks up pretty good. The force of his assault knocked her to the ground. The psycho rabbit then picked up the carrot and hopped off into a nearby bush, leaving a very shaken pegasus in his wake. Fluttershy could feel her cheek burning and swelling up from the cut that the rabbit had given her on her cheek. Tears began to fill her eyes as she raised a hoof to her cheek, feeling the cut before she quickly withdrew her hoof as a stinging pain shot through her skin.
“Why did that bunny…how could that bunny…how could a bunny…” she began to think before she curled up in the garden and began to softly cry. Her entire body shook as she kept replaying the event in her mind.
Of course in her mind the bunny had razor-sharp claws and teeth, red eyes, and was ten times the size of a normal bunny. Also, it growled and spat blood at her.
A bit of an exaggeration if ever there was one.
About five minutes passed before Rainbow Dash zoomed back up to Fluttershy’s door and knocked rather forcefully, which was normal for Rainbow Dash.
Her face was in a scowl and she was clearly angry about something. She wasn’t angry with Fluttershy, but her frustration about something was clear.
“Fluttershy! Open up!” she demanded as she pounded her hoof on the door, “I’m out of peanut-butter! Tank refuses to put the pill in his mouth without it! Stubborn tortoise.” She growled under her breath.
After a few more moments, she pounded the door again, “Uh, Fluttershy?”
No one answered, and she suddenly became concerned as she flew to the window of her house and peered inside to see nopony inside. She only saw Angel, who was fast asleep, his face buried in his salad as his mouth opened and closed with his snoring.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and knocked on the window, “Fluttershy are you in there?”
When she didn’t answer, Rainbow Dash let out a sigh before she decided to check the garden.
“Maybe she’s still trying to find a carrot for Angel.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself as she flew off towards Fluttershy’s garden. As soon as she was above the garden, she gave it a quick scan before she saw Fluttershy curled up in a ball, still shaking and crying.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash gasped from the shock of her friend’s sadness before she swooped in and landed beside her. Fluttershy didn’t budge, she just kept crying softly into her hooves. “Fluttershy what’s wrong?”
Fluttershy slowly raised her eyes up to Rainbow Dash, tears rolling down her cheeks, “A rabbit…with big claws…attacked me” she tried to say through her tears, each word reflecting the fear that she felt. She began to let out small whimpers after speaking.
Rainbow Dash scowled, “What!?! A rabbit attacked you? That jerk, where is he?” she asked as she jumped into the air and brought her hoof down onto her other hoof a couple of times, like a fist bring brought down onto a hand. “I’ll show him a thing or two about messing with one of my friends.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “He’s gone.”
“Oh, well come on let’s get those cuts cleaned up.” Rainbow Dash said as she led the timid Fluttershy back into her cottage. Once they were back inside, Rainbow Dash shut the door loudly, which woke Angel up from his slumber. He lifted his head up to show that he had a piece of lettuce stuck to one cheek, a tomato slice stuck to his other, and a slice of carrot stuck to his forehead.
“Sorry for waking you Angel.” Rainbow Dash apologized.
Angel shook himself awake and hopped in front of Fluttershy to see if she had the carrot with her. As soon as he landed in front of the unsuspecting Fluttershy, however, she gave shriek and dove underneath her couch, cowering as if she had just seen a dragon.
Angel looked at her; then back at Rainbow Dash with his arms up like he was asking, “What did I do?”
Rainbow Dash wasn’t much of help on that subject as she was just as clueless as Angel was regarding Fluttershy’s sudden fear. She trotted over to the couch and got down, “Fluttershy what’s wrong, you’re acting like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked up at Rainbow Dash, “I…I don’t know, it’s just when Angel jumped in front of me, he frightened me.”
“Why? Angel is not going to hurt you.” Rainbow Dash said as she turned to the white rabbit, which still had a very confused look on his face, and whistled, “Come over here Angel.”
Angel bounced over to Rainbow Dash’s side, but as soon as Fluttershy saw him, she gave out another yell and dashed out from under the couch and flew up into the air before she grabbed the ceiling fan that was directly above her, wrapping her legs around the fan so her back was facing the ground. She shook while she hung in the air, safely out of reach from the cute, fluffy bunny.
“Fluttershy, why are you acting like this?” Rainbow Dash asked, now visibly concerned for her friend.
“I…I don’t know, but whenever I see Angel…” she didn’t get a chance to finish as she, once again, caught sight of Angel in her line of vision.
Just like before, she screamed and flew up the stairs to her room at lightning fast speed and shut the door. Once safely inside, she pushed her bed, dresser, wood chest, lamp, and everything that wasn’t bolted down in her room, against the door to prevent Angel from getting to her.
Meanwhile, downstairs Rainbow Dash and Angel looked at each other, both still confused as to why Fluttershy was acting like this.
Rainbow Dash flew up the stairs to Fluttershy’s room and heard her sobbing on the other end. She gently knocked on the door.
“Um…Fluttershy, are you okay?” She asked with a worried tone.
“No…I…not."
"What's wrong?
"I’m afraid of Angel.” Fluttershy whimpered.
Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide, "What, but why? Angels’ been your pet for years.”
“I don’t know, but now when I see him I’m suddenly afraid that he’ll attack me.”
“Little Angel, attack you?” Rainbow Dash said with a chuckle, not realizing how inconsiderate she was being, “come on he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I know, but I’m...I'm still scared.” She whimpered.
“Wait a second.” Rainbow Dash suddenly realized why Fluttershy was acting the way she was, “Fluttershy, are you afraid of Angel because you were just attacked by a rabbit?”
“What?” Fluttershy asked as she slowly crept to the door, pushing some of the furniture out of the way so she could open it a crack and look her friend in the eye. Well, somewhat in the eye at least. “Rainbow Dash that’s crazy. I’ve gotten scratched by animals before and have never been scared. How could I be scared of little, innocent bunnies from one attack?”
That was when she caught sight of Angel as he walked up the stairs She quickly darted back in the room and shut the door. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and knocked, “Fluttershy, come on. I already told you that he’s not going to hurt you.”
“But…but I never thought an animal like a bunny would attack me,” she said quietly from behind the door, “they’re usually so cute and cuddly.”
“Well sometimes there are mean rabbits, just like there are mean ponies, it doesn’t mean all of them are.” Rainbow Dash said in as comforting of a tone as she could, “Are you gonna come out of your room at all, because somepony still needs to feed Angel. I can hear his stomach from here.”
Angel was about to protest when his stomach proved Rainbow Dash’s point by letting out a little gurgle. Angel put his hand over it and rubbed it in order to sooth the hunger pains he was feeling at the moment before looking up at Rainbow Dash for help.
“Rainbow Dash, could you please feed him for me tonight before leaving, maybe if I sleep it off everything will be fine.”
Rainbow Dash groaned, “Fine, but when I come back tomorrow morning, you’d better not be locked away in your room.”
Rainbow Dash grabbed Angel in her front hooves and flew him downstairs to his plate. She gently put him down before leaning down to his level so she could speak to him. “Okay Angel, here you go. I know you’re a picky eater based on what Fluttershy has told me. But I’m going to have to ask you to eat the salad.” Rainbow Dash smiled at Angel, hoping that giving him a kind face would convince him to eat.
Angel crossed his arms defiantly, closed his eyes and shook his head. Rainbow Dash began to get somewhat irritated and she let out a little growl.
“Angel, listen you need to eat the salad.”
The bunny shook his head.
“I’m not leaving until you eat every piece of that salad, so eat it.”
Angel shook his head.
“Eat it.”
Angel shook his head.
“Eat it!” Rainbow Dash growled at a higher, angrier volume.
Again, Angel shook his head before Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, “Okay, I guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.”
She reached out and pulled the plate towards her and took a bite out of the salad before she chewed the food and then swallowed. She then sat back up and rubbed her stomach in satisfaction as a smile grew on her face.
“Mmmm, that’s delicious. Too bad you don’t want any of this delicious, nutritious, satisfying salad that Fluttershy made you. Oh well.”
She slowly leaned forward and continued to eat the salad in front of Angel, hoping that reverse psychology would work on the picky rabbit.
Slowly but surely, she noticed the rabbit open his eyes and look at the salad with more interest than he had before. “It’s such a shame. I know there isn’t the carrot on top, but this is still soooo good.”
Angel was about to cave into desire. As he reached his paw out towards the salad, he saw Rainbow Dash looking at him with an expectant, excited look in her eyes. Once he realized what she was up to, he got back into his “huff” position and looked away with his arms closed. Rainbow Dash nodded, “Okay, enough with the “hard way”. It’s time to do this the Rainbow Dash way.”
Quickly, Rainbow Dash got right up into Angel’s face and glared at him like a coach would do to one of his or her players if they weren’t performing well on the field.
“All right Angel, you listen here.” Rainbow Dash said with force, making Angel jump in shock, “You’re used to Fluttershy being a pushover with your picky eating and always getting your way. Well guess what, Fluttershy isn’t here, it’s just you, me and this salad.”
She said as she pointed to the salad, “Now you will eat that salad or I will make you run laps around the house until you decide to do so. And if that isn’t enough of a reason to eat,” she leaned forward so her muzzle was millimeters away from Angel’s, “I’ll force you to eat something really horrible.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “Do you understand?”
Angel was now frightened by Rainbow Dash’s sudden assertiveness, something he wasn’t used to with Fluttershy. He gave the pegasus a salute and began to chow down on the salad.
Rainbow Dash chuckled as she stood back up, away from Angel’s face, “Ha! Works every time.”
With that, Rainbow Dash waited until Angel finished his entire salad.
“Ahem.” Rainbow Dash said. Angel looked up to see Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow as she pointed to a small tomato that the bunny had neglected. Angel sighed and popped the tomato in his mouth. Rainbow Dash nodded, “Good job Angel.”
With that, Rainbow Dash flew off towards the door and shouted up to Fluttershy, “I’ll be back here tomorrow Fluttershy! And don’t worry, I got Angel to eat.”
“Okay! Bye Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy shouted back from her room. When she heard the door shut, Fluttershy sighed and lay back, facing up at the ceiling of her room.
“How could one little bunny cause me to suddenly be afraid of Angel?” she sighed and began to drift off to sleep, unsure of what was in store for her in her dreams, but hoping they wouldn’t have anything to do with rabbits.
Next Morning
Rainbow Dash and Twilight made their way up to Fluttershy’s cottage. Rainbow Dash had decided to ask Twilight to come along with her because she felt like if anypony would know what to do about Fluttershy, it would be her. She hoped, however, that it was just a precaution and Fluttershy would be back to her timid, kind self that was not afraid of Angel rather than her timid, kind self that was petrified of him.
“So she freaked out whenever Angel came near her?” Twilight asked as they started to walk up the small pathway leading to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“No! It wasn’t just when he was near her. She flipped out whenever she saw the little guy,” Rainbow Dash said with concern in her voice, “even when she was on the ceiling fan, as soon as she caught a glimpse of him she bolted upstairs.”
“That’s not like her,” Twilight said, “I mean, yeah she’s shy and oftentimes scared of her own shadow…”
“Literally.” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
“…but she’s never shown fear of any animals besides dragons. I just can’t picture her scared of a sweet little bunny like Angel just because of one bad experience with a rabbit.”
The two ponies reached the front door to Fluttershy’s cabin and Twilight knocked on the door.
“Fluttershy? It’s Twilight and Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted, “We’re here to check in on you to make sure everything’s all right.”
There wasn’t an answer until they heard a window above them open up and a soft voice call out to them, “Oh hello Twilight and Rainbow Dash.”
They both looked up to see Fluttershy’s head sticking out of the top floor window.
“Fluttershy? What are you doing up there?” Twilight asked with her eyebrow raised.
“I just wanted to wait for Rainbow Dash to get here so I could go downstairs.” Fluttershy said.
“What’s stopping you from going downstairs now?” Twilight asked as she started to realize how right Rainbow Dash was about Fluttershy’s fear.
Fluttershy gulped, “I…I don’t want to run into Angel just yet.”
“Why not?”
Fluttershy looked away as if she were ashamed of herself.
“Fluttershy, are you really still afraid of him?” Rainbow Dash asked, though her voice had more of a concerned tone to it rather than an annoyed one.
Fluttershy nodded.
“But you can’t be afraid of rabbits, you’re supposed to take care of all animals in Ponyville…including rabbits.” Twilight said, but all she got was Fluttershy looking away from her and backing up from the window.
“Fluttershy come on, don’t be like this.” Rainbow Dash said.
“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but I am afraid of bunnies,” she muttered, “and I can’t go downstairs unless you keep Angel away from me.”
“But the door’s locked.” Twilight said as she pressed her hoof into the door and looked up at Fluttershy to illustrate her point.
“You can come in through the window up here if you’d like.” Fluttershy motioned to the open window that she was poking her head through.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed groan, “Ugh, I’ll be right back Twi.”
With that, she flew up to the window and entered the house, leaving a still worried looking Twilight in front of the door.
Rainbow Dash flew through the window and landed in the house to realize that she was in Fluttershy’s room. Fluttershy had not even left the safety of her bedroom, which was still barricaded shut with furniture that normally would have been spread out in the room.
“Um, Fluttershy. Was you bed against the door the whole?” she asked, pointing to the bed, which was placed vertically against the door to prevent the possible intrusion of the killer rabbit from Monty Python…er…I mean Angel.
“Yes, I was too scared to move everything away from the door, I didn’t want any rabbits to break in.”
“Okay, this is getting ridiculous.” Rainbow Dash thought before she asked Fluttershy another question, “But how did you sleep?”
“I slept on the floor.” Fluttershy said, pointing to an area of the floor where a small blanket and pillow had been placed, still messed up from her sleeping in them.
Rainbow Dash face-hoofed, “Okay Fluttershy, I’m going to take you downstairs and show you that you have nothing to scared of.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath and exhaled before nodding, “All right.”
Slowly, both of them managed to get all of the furniture off of the door and creep out into the hallway before making their way towards the stairs.
“Okay Fluttershy, relax, I’m right here beside you.” Rainbow Dash said comfortingly, even though it still felt weird that she was saying this about Angel.
They slowly made their way down the stairs to see Angel sleeping on the couch, lying face-up on one of the nicely decorated throw pillows as he slept.
“Hey Angel.” Rainbow Dash called the rabbit. “Come over here.”
Angel’s eyes fluttered open and he sat up stretching and letting out a little yawn before he hopped off of the couch and bounced over to the bottom of the stairs that the two pegasi stood atop of.
Upon seeing the rabbit bounce over, Fluttershy gasped and took a panicked step back in fear before Rainbow Dash used her hoof to stop her from retreating any further.
“Go ahead Fluttershy, he’s not going to hurt you.” Rainbow Dash said in as reassuring of a voice as she could muster. “Just go downstairs.”
Fluttershy closed her eyes and took another deep breath, “Okay, here I go.”
She slowly trotted down the stairs, not advancing to the next step until both of her hooves were on the step before it. Angel just looked at Fluttershy with a raised eyebrow that seemed to imply that Angel was thinking, “Really?”
She continued her descent until she was three steps away…two steps away…one step away…finally all four of her hooves touched down onto the ground floor of her cottage. Her entire body was shaking and her eyes were closed, afraid to look at Angel.
“Come on Fluttershy, don’t be afraid. Remember, it’s only Angel.”
Fluttershy nodded and opened her eyes up and looked down at the bunny. She nodded before she began to talk to herself in a re-assuring manner, “Okay, you can do this Fluttershy. It’s only Angel bunny. Nothing to be afraid of.”
She slowly made her way to Angel, who just sat there waiting for her with expectant eyes. After all, he may not have always been nice to Fluttershy, actually he could be sort of a jerk most of the time, but he still didn’t want her to be afraid of him. After all, he did love and care about Fluttershy like family, he just had a very weird way of showing it.
Slowly, Fluttershy reached out to touch the little rabbit’s head, slowly…slowly…slowly….
Rainbow Dash began to smile, her eyes growing wide in excitement as she thought that Fluttershy would be able to touch Angel’s head and get over this bizarre fear.
Just before Fluttershy’s hoof was on Angel’s head, however, the rabbit reared back and let out a loud sneeze, which was probably the worst thing that could have happened save for Angel outright attacking Fluttershy.
As soon as the little rabbit let out the large sneeze, Fluttershy reared back and let out a scream before she bolted towards the door of her house, breaking it down as she flew off. Rainbow Dash flew after her before stopping on the door.
“Fluttershy! Wait!” Rainbow Dash screamed, reaching out towards the direction that she flew off in. "Dang, I was so close."
“Gwet owff owf twe dwor.” A muffled, female voice came from underneath the door.
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking down at the door before she realized Twilight was flattened under it.
She quickly got off of the door and lifted it to see the purple mare stuck in the ground, clearly in a crater that had taken the shape of her body from the force Fluttershy broke through the door.
“Twi, are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight managed to pull herself out of the crater, her mane a mess and her eyes wide in shock from the impact. She shook her head to clear herself of the shakiness that she felt from the impact.
“Yeah I…I think so. Why did Fluttershy run out like that?”
“Angel sneezed right as she reached out to pet him.” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight groaned as she straightened out her mane with her hoof.
“Okay, I think we need to take her to the library and examine her, where did she go?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged, “I don’t know.”
Twilight face hoofed before she turned to Rainbow Dash, “Well I’m sure she’ll turn up eventually. Come on, let’s go back to the library and see if we can find something that can help her.”