Fluttershy slowly walked into the psychiatrist's office. It was a cold, white room with no redeeming features besides a stack of magazines on small, wooden table. Directly across from her was a closed door with no knob, but had a keyhole all the same. She glanced around; no one else was there. It was a lonely and dead silent. The lights that waiting rooms were plagued with gave off a low hum, almost like a white noise, but the ones here were silent. She shivered slightly. The only reason she had ever come to this place was that her friends had finally convinced her that she should go see a professional about her various phobias. Unfortunately for Fluttershy expressing inner turmoil to a complete stranger did fall under one of those phobias she was supposed to get help with. She did not have a problem with regular waiting rooms, but this particular room had no similarities to the regular waiting rooms of the doctors or veterinarians she had been to.
She walked over to the pile of magazines and glanced at the top. She did not recognize its name: Equestria Daily. Underneath the name was a picture of a bright full moon, with the caption: “Princess Luna refuses to lower to moon and make way for the sun. Princess Celestia trying to reason her with sister. Motives still unknown.” Ok, so maybe it wasn’t completely different from other waiting rooms.
She was still musing over this when the door at the end of the room opened, causing her to jump. A tall, red, unicorn stallion walked out wearing a suit.
“Fluttershy, I presume?” he asked.
Fluttershy nodded.
“Excellent. My name is Dr. Red.” Dr. Red introduced.
Fluttershy remained silent.
“Hmm. Usually ponies ask me about my name. My parent's weren't very creative. It isn’t a very good name for a pony, but it does fit, eh?” he chuckled. Fluttershy made no sound whatsoever. “Heh, yes, well…why don’t you come into my office and we will get started.”
Fluttershy followed Dr. Red through the doorway. Inside was a much more welcome sight as the room was carpeted, had beige wallpaper, a clock, and a single potted plant, which looked decently healthy. She allowed herself a smile.
“Well, you may choose to sit on the couch, or stand, or whatever would make you feel the most comfortable.” Said Dr. Red.
Fluttershy went and sat down on the couch. Dr. Red went over to his own seat and levitated a pad of paper and a pencil.
“Ok, so this is the way this works: our session can last five minutes and five minutes only, but I can almost guarantee that it won’t last the full five. My fee is one bit per minute, so a total of five bits. Even if you don’t use the full five minutes, I’m still charging you five bits. I’ll send you a bill in a couple of days.” Dr. Red glanced over at the clock. “Ok…go!”
“Go?” Fluttershy said softly.
“The appointment note said that you wanted to talk about a phobia or two. Go ahead and start telling me about one of them”
“Well,” Fluttershy glanced down. It took her a moment to gather the courage to speak. “I’m afraid of dragons.”
“Anything in particular about dragons?” Dr. Red began to write.
“I’m mainly just scared overall, but I would have to say I’m afraid of getting eaten by a dragon.”
“Has a dragon ever tried to eat you?”
“Well no. But just when I start thinking about dragons, then I get scared of my own shadow, anything with scales, and I just sort of…shut down.
“Ah. Ok.” Dr. Red stopped writing and looked up at Fluttershy. “I’m going to tell you two words now. Listen to them carefully, I want you to remember these words when you are feeling scared.”
“Should I write them down?”
“No I think you’ll be able to remember them.” He paused for a second. “STOP IT!”
Fluttershy squeaked and jumped as he bellowed the two words at her.
“Wh..what?”
“STOP IT! PLAIN AND SIMPLE!”
“I’m not sure I understand.” Fluttershy said quietly. She had moved past any nervousness she had had, and moved right on to shock.
“You don’t understand?” asked Dr. Red. “Do you need me to define them for you?”
“No…I…” Fluttershy began.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m supposed to just…stop being afraid of dragons?”
“Yes!”
“I don’t think I can just stop being afraid of dragons, just like that.”
“What, you don’t want to go around being afraid that you’re going to be eaten by a dragon for the rest of your life, do you? I mean, that sounds frightening.”
“It is.”
“Well then STOP IT!”
Fluttershy squeaked again and went silent. Dr. Red seemed to be calm once more. He glanced at the clock.
“Well, we still have some time. Do you have anything else bothering you?”
“Um…I’m nervous about meeting new ponies.”
“STOP IT!”
Fluttershy went silent. Twilight had personally recommended this pony to her. As Twilight had put it: “He’s a great physiatrist, helped me overcome any fears I had.” Perhaps that was just her though; she is the type of student who never fails to follow instruction when it is put to her.
“We have just under a minute.” Dr. Red commented, looking over at the clock. “Anything else you would like to briefly discuss?”
“Well, I’m sorry but I don’t think I can just stop being afraid of being eaten by a dragon. I can’t simply switch off my mind.”
“Actually you can turn off your mind, but it is quite a painful process.” Dr. Red replied.
Fluttershy gave him a quizzical, and slightly horrified, look.
“So what you’re saying is that I haven’t given you enough for you to overcome your fear of being eaten by a dragon, or just dragons in general, is that it?”
“Yes, if you could give me something more I would be grateful.”
Dr. Red thought for a moment, placing a hoof to his chin in contemplation. “All right, I’ve got ten words for you to remember. You will want to write these down. Do you have some paper? No? Ok, take these.”
He levitated a piece of paper and a pencil over to where Fluttershy was sitting.
“Are you ready?”
Fluttershy nodded.
“Stop it or I will feed you to a dragon!”