Fulttershy has another talent, and Twilight teaches her how to use it.
Fluttershy has only ever used her stare to intimidate, to get what she wants. What happens when she uncovers the secret behind her talent? Is there more than one thing that she can do with it?
This isn't the best story in the world, nor does it have the best plotline (yet). This is my first fanfic. Please don't be too harsh with criticism.
"Hey Fluttershy! Twilight wants you!" Shouted Rainbow Dash as she sped past Fluttershy.
"Oh, ok," replied Fluttershy. She wondered what it was for.
Since becoming a princess, Twilight had been in her library more, reading more books about talents of ponies. Fluttershy remembered he saying that 'If my ending to that spell about ponies' destinies made me a princess, my own destiny must have something to do with that.'
Fluttershy didn't know why Twilight wanted her, she already knew why and how she talked to animals. She headed over to Twilight's tree house, pondering about why Twilight wanted her. Had she seen Rarity, Applejack or Pinkie? She must have seen Rainbow Dash, because she was the one who told her about Twilight. Or maybe she hadn't seen Twilight. It could have just been a message. Fluttershy knew how fast Rainbow Dash was, everypony knew. Still thinking, Fluttershy rounded the corner to Twilight's house.
Fluttershy knocked on the door. "Hello?" She asked in her usual timid voice. "You wanted to see me Twilight?"
"Ah, yes! Hello Fluttershy! Come on in, I'm really excited about what I have found out about your talent," Twilight answered as a pink aura surrounded the door and opened it. "Spike's having a nap. Goodness knows how much he's been helping me, letters have been coming in from everywhere!"
"Oh, ok," Fluttershy came into Twilight's house, taking in the extra shelves that were once empty but had recently been filled. "You wanted to see me about my talent, right? But I know I can communicate with animals, I've known that ever since I got my cutie mark."
"Well, it's not exactly that talent. I was more talking about your unique stare." Twilight flipped through the pages of a book with a swirly pattern on it. Fluttershy didn't take any notice. She was too busy worrying about what Twilight would ask her to do. Didn't Twilight know that she had little power over her stare?
"So, I was reading this book Princess Celestia gave me about some unusual talents. It seems that some ponies actually have two talents, and if they figured out the other one first, their whole life would be different!" Fluttershy looked sceptical, if not scared at what Twilight had said. What would have happened is staring had been her cutie mark? What would it have looked like?
"So," Fluttershy hesitantly asked, "if I had discovered my strange ability to stare at ponies, I would have a different cutie mark?"
"Well, it's not exactly a stare, I mean it's not just a stare." Twilight looked slightly hesitant. "I mean to say, that, well, your stare is actually, when you gain control over it, a means to gain control over ponies."
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy was quite scared at the fact that she could 'gain control over ponies'.
"Well, you know Chrysalis' power to brainwash ponies?" Fluttershy remembered well. She was closely involved in the events of the royal wedding, and felt ashamed that she didn't believe Twilight's claims about the Changeling Queen Chrysalis. "You don't think that I can do that, right? I mean, I don't even have a horn," Fluttershy worriedly asked.
"No, no! Not like that at all! Your talent is... different. It can help ponies."
"But why haven't I known about this?" Fluttershy asked.
"Because this talent is quite rare in ponies, especially Pegasi. No racism intended, but Pegasi usually have talents based around weather." Twilight answered patiently. "You are different, as I said. You have a sort of... soft persuasion about you. I only noticed after I had read about this. Don't you wonder about how everypony likes you, even if they haven't met you?"
"Well, yes, actually. Sometimes I wonder if it has something to do with my stare... But it can't," She decisively said. "That's impossible."
"Ah, but it is possible, Fluttershy! Especially in your case, because when used properly, your stare can, well, it can hypnotise ponies."
"Wait, what?" Fluttershy exclaimed. She didn't understand what Twilight had just said. Fluttershy had been asked to go to Twilight's house earlier that day, wondering what she wanted her for. She later realised, or otherwise, got told, that her special stare could actually hypnotise ponies. "You mean... You mean.." She stammered. "You mean... Anypony?"
"If you gain control over it, yes, anypony." Twilight answered. "Absolutely anypony. It's completely amazing, isn't it?"
"Amazing. Right." Fluttershy was shocked beyond words. She couldn't believe what Twilight had said. It explained so much, but seemed so impossible!
"You look scared. Sure, it's dangerous if you can't control it, but with enough practise... You can do wonders for ponies, wonders!"
"Dangerous? Dangerous?!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "How is it dangerous?!"
"It's not dangerous if you know how to use it," calmed Twilight.
"But I don't!" Exclaimed Fluttershy. "What if I harm somepony?"
"We'll train you. All us six. I'll tell..."
Fluttershy interrupted. "No! Don't tell anypony! They won't understand! They'll hate me!"
"Well, perhaps we could, I mean I could, I could let you practise, with, I mean on, me."
"But what if I..." It was Twilight's turn to interrupt.
"No what ifs. You get nowhere with what ifs. Nowhere." Twilight instructed. "Nothing bad will happen. Spike will make sure of that."
"Spike? I thought you weren't going to tell anypony!"
"Spike isn't a pony, he's a dragon. And he's been listening the whole time."
"But, you lied to me, Twilight!"
"No, I didn't lie to you. He was asleep when you came in. He woke up. This is what you need to learn to do. Notice the little things. The strange absence of Spike's snoring, the change in the atmosphere, this has nothing to do with unicorn magic, or any magic, Fluttershy. This is how to know things that nopony knows without even asking."
Fluttershy considered the options. Take Twilight's advice and learn to control her stare, or run away. The latter sounded nicer, but was probably impossible. Twilight could, more likely than not, stop her from escaping, or just see her at her house. Since the nicest sounding option wasn't available, she chose taking the advice, and the lessons.
"When do the lessons start?" She asked.
"As soon as you want them to. But make sure it's tomorrow, I'm tired." Twilight answered with a wry smile.
"Tomorrow it is, then." Fluttershy half-heartedly decided.
Fluttershy made her slow way back home. She was deliberately taking her time, thinking about what would happen after today. She decided to try whatever Twilight said about noticing things, just to see if it would actually get her anywhere. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, then opened her eyes again. What she saw was overwhelming for her. Fluttershy had never taken this much attention to everything, that was the sort of thing unicorns like Twilight did. She saw, or rather, observed her friend Applejack trying to help her sister and her friends to get their cutie mark, sadly failing, the apple stall hardly getting any customers. Sweetie Belle should really think about her singing talent, thought Fluttershy. She saw Pinkie through the window of Sugarcube Corner, baking what seemed to be rainbow cupcakes. She saw Rarity at a fabric stall, buying some blue and green material. Must be for Twilight, those colours look great on her, Fluttershy concluded. She smelt the smell that only fresh fruit and vegetables could smell like, and if she looked hard enough, she could even see a faint rainbow in the sky as Rainbow Dash worked on her trick for the Wonderbolts further. Everything in the town square had a sort of rhythm to it. It all had a pace and a beat. The beat thrummed through the marketplace, a faint thrumming, like a heartbeat. Fluttershy was in awe.
As she reached her cottage, Fluttershy was still unsure of the safety of these "lessons" Twilight was willing to give her. Again in her little bubble of thoughts, Fluttershy once again took little notice of what she was doing. She absent-mindedly opened the door to her cottage, greeted Angel Bunny, and made him a salad. As she was chopping vegetables, carrots to be exact, she thought of how many times changing what ponies thought ended in disaster. Back when Discord was evil, he had controlled the minds of her and her fellow friends, making them the exact opposite personality. Fluttershy hated that feeling of knowing what was going on, but having no control whatsoever. It was like looking through a window to all the things that she was being made to do, but not being able to control her own actions. She thought about Chrysalis, and how numerous ponies could have ended up mindlessly chanting the Changeling Queen's name, completely powerless against the oncoming swarm of Changelings. She thought of Twilight's spell on that doll that made everypony in Ponyville fall in love with it, and how embarrassed they were when it was all over. She then looked back on those memories, and saw a link. Control. Maybe if she could control her stare, she could control her own life. She didn't even need to control other ponies if she didn't want to, and she certainly didn't want to.
"Angel, what do you think?" Fluttershy asked her pet rabbit, knowing that no audible answer would come. "Do you think I should take the lessons Twilight is offering, or should I back out?"
Angel puffed out his chest, put his shoulders back and stuck up his chin.
"You're right. Everypony tells me that I should be less cowardly, so I'll give it a shot. For Twilight's research, mind, and not because I am curious," she said.
Angel rolled his eyes, oblivious to the fact that rabbits probably can't roll their eyes.
Fluttershy got into bed that night, mentally exhausted with all the thinking and decision making she did that day, and felt accomplished. She had just made a good decision, and was determined to carry it out. She was unable to think any more thoughts as waves of sleep washed over her.
Fluttershy woke up with a yawn and a stretch. After a long night's sleep, Fluttershy had forgotten about the upcoming lesson that she was taking that day, but not for long. Not having any particular feelings about the lesson yet, she calmly walked into the kitchen of her cottage and greeted Angel Bunny. Then she woke up fully.
"The lesson! It's today?!" Fluttershy frantically exclaimed. Nervousness and fear, with a hint of curiosity and excitement filled her and she was unable to move for a good 10 seconds. "Oh no," she whispered, to not-one in particular.
"Angel, what am I going to do? What if Twilight was wrong? But Twilight is never wrong, is she? But she could be, there's nothing saying she couldn't be, but what would happen then?" Fluttershy rambled, getting shot an annoyed look from Angel, signalling her to calm down.
"You're right, Angel. It's no big deal, is it?" Fluttershy unconvincingly said to herself." Everything will be fine. Besides, it doesn't matter if she was wrong, it just is another less thing to worry about."
Fluttershy had breakfast, those sorts of thoughts going through her head all the while. She continued her daily routines until it was around noon, when she finished up and decided to go to Twilight's to get the lesson over with.
"Ah, Fluttershy! I was wondering when you'd come. Come on in!" Twilight gestured inside, and Flutershy walked in apologising for coming so late. "Sorry, Twilight, I just had to..."
"No, no, that's fine!" Twilight cut off. "I was just looking forward to this. I can finally share my studies with somepony! Come sit down!”
Fluttershy sat down at a chair, (it was definitely not there before, neither was the table, Fluttershy noticed) and Twilight sat across from her. Fluttershy was feeling a bit uncomfortable, as there was a short but nonetheless awkward silence between the two mares. Fluttershy decided to break the silence, but she didn’t think through as to how.
“So, um, my, uh, stare…?”
“Ah, yes, that. Now before the ‘hands on’ part, you need to learn the basic theory. And the advanced theory. And everything in between. Because if you are to hypnotise anypony, you must know everything about everything that you’re doing. See, there are many parts of hypnosis that ponies… overlook, and it results in… accidents. I am going to make sure that none of that could possibly happen, so first I will teach you the hypnosis that anypony can do, special stare or not. Then we’ll see how your stare amplifies that ability.”
“Uh, sure.”
“Ok. So first, you need to learn the basics. Nopony can be normally hypnotised to do anything that is against their respective morals, so don’t think that you can get away with anything too diabolical,” Twilight said with a smile. “Also, if a pony wants to be hypnotised, they can be. And if they don’t want to, they will resist and therefore break out of the trance. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, whether guided by another pony or not. The, for want of a better word, ‘subject’ in trance will believe everything that the hypnotist says to be true, making them completely suggestible and obedient, unless some suggestion makes them feel uneasy. You got that?”
“That’s quite a lot to take in, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, looking rather befuddled.
Twilight saw Fluttershy's confused look. "I know it may be a bit much information, but that's the least interesting bit over with. That was the sort of 'safety warning' part about this."
"Safety warning?" Fluttershy asked uneasily.
"Just what you absolutely need to know before doing anything," Twilight picked up the book again and ruffled through the pages. "After that chapter in the book, there is information on how to hypnotise others in other ways than what yours is. Since your talent is quite rare, there is not much information on the induction of trance through your stare. That means we'll have to experiment!" Twilight exclaimed happily.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Twilight? What if..."
"'What if' s are never good, Fluttershy," Twilight cut in, "they set up mind barriers and stop ponies from doing the things they want to do."
Fluttershy looked slightly reassured. "Ok, sure. What's the worst that could happen?"
Twilight looked scared for a second, that phrase being the downfall of many of her experiments before. So, as she would, she decided to be extra careful. "Yes," she said warily, "even if you don't know what to do, the pony will eventually come out of trance, as one would wake from a sleep."
Fluttershy looked unsurely at Twilight. "So... what should I do?"
"Well, let's first try a little change to your stare. We know what will happen if you use your normal stare. I'd end up scared silly! So, maybe try to think of calm thoughts, instead of intimidating thoughts, and conveying them through your stare into my eyes."
"Okay then, I'll try." Fluttershy decidedly said. Twilight nodded, and then looked at Fluttershy.
"When you're ready, Fluttershy." Twilight kept looking at Fluttershy, and it would have been unnerving if not for the fact that Fluttershy had her eyes closed.
Fluttershy opened her eyes, and looked straight into Twilight's. Instantly, Twilight felt a rush of calm wash over her, although she also felt a desire to back away. Neither of those feelings were diminishing, but Twilight didn't want to look away. After a few seconds, Fluttershy closed her eyes, and Twilight blinked a few times, the remnants of the almost hypnosis fading. "Wow, Fluttershy, that was cool! Maybe try and not be so scared, because I felt the need to run while also feeling very relaxed."
"Sure Twilight. Maybe not just now, though. I feel a bit hungry. I guess it takes some energy to do that much concentrating for the first time."
"I'll get lunch for us both," said Twilight, walking to the kitchen.
Fluttershy thought back to those seconds when she was focusing her stare on Twilight. She had felt exhilarated, as if she could do anything. It felt different to feel on top of her emotions, and not be a victim to them. Twilight came back a few seconds later, with two daisy sandwiches. "Here we go, lunch. It's not anything fancy, but I reckon Rarity would be the one to want that sort of thing." Twilight giggled.
"Yeah. Thanks again, Twilight. Would you like to try again after this?"
