Flutterphobia

by JesterOfDestiny

Rating: everyone
Tags: Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Discord, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4042

Pinkie Pie is forced to reconsider her fear of spiders.

After a mysterious spell turns Fluttershy into a spider, Pinkie Pie is forced to face her phobia.

Published 2017-04-10 02:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-04-10 02:30:01 UTC

Chapter 1 - Pinkie's Fear

A pink pony was trotting along the sunlit road. That pink pony was of course Pinkie Pie, with Gummy holding onto her tail. She was going to Fluttershy’s cottage for a visit. She knocked on the door with her hoof.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” She talked towards the door with great enthusiasm. “Are you ready?”

The door’s upper half opened up, but it wasn’t Fluttershy who opened it. Discord leered through the opening. With a glum expression, he looked at her.

“Oh, Pinkie Pie!” He said. “You must be here for Fluttershy’s new batch of alligators.”

“Yes!” Pinkie said with even more enthusiasm. “I’m sure we’ll find Gummy’s parents this time.”

“Oh, yes, yes.” Discord rubbed his beard. “Well, Fluttershy isn’t home right now.”

“She isn’t? Where is she?”

“She’s in town, helping some ponies with a spider infestation of sorts.”

Pinkie looked worried. “Spider infestation?” She asked with a nervous smile.

“Oh, yes! There was a sudden influx of spiders in Ponyville today and you know how ponies can act around spiders.”

Pinkie laughed nervously. “Oh yeah! I better not hurry her then. That does sound terribly important.”

“Why don’t you come in Pinkie?” Discord said in a sudden surge of friendliness. “I’m sure it won’t take long.” He opened the lower half of the door.

Pinkie stood there for a second. “There aren’t any spiders around here, right?” She asked.

“I don’t think so.” Discord answered unsurely. “I’m sure they’re resting somewhere else right now. Even Fuzzy Legs is out and about.”

“Great!” Pinkie felt much more comfortable coming in. “Then I’ll just wait for her right here.”

She stepped in and put Gummy down onto the couch, then peered out the window, looking for the alligators, Gummy’s potential parents. She saw a few of them resting under the shadow of a tree, in a tiny pool of mud. Pinkie pushed Gummy up to the window.

“Look Gummy! Do you recognize any of them?”

Gummy responded with his usual blank stare. He did start wagging his tail slightly.

“Oh, I know.” Pinkie continued. “It must be so exciting to see your kind.”

“And I’m excited too.” A gentle voice could be heard from the door. It was of course Fluttershy, as she finally got back from cleaning ponies’ homes from spiders.

“Fluttershy, you’re back!” Pinkie yelled with enthusiasm, but her enthusiasm quickly faded when she saw that Fluttershy was covered in spiders.

“How did the clean-up go?” Discord asked.

“It went fine.” Fluttershy replied. “Although it was bit annoying to deal with the spooked ponies.”

“Did they destroy something again?” Discord asked in amusement.

“Just the sort of things some ponies believe about these adorable animals. One of them was afraid that the spider would crawl inside them and lay its eggs under their skin. I mean, where do they get all these ridiculous beliefs from?!”

Discord chuckled at Fluttershy’s tiny rant. “I agree. That is absolutely ridiculous!”

“And they can be so mean to them. Could you believe the way they talked to me for daring to touch the spiders?”

“Yes, well, you saved the spiders from those nasty arachnophobes.” He winked, then pointed to Pinkie. “Look, who’s here to reunite an alligator family!”

Only then did they see Pinkie’s face distorted by fear.

“Uh, Pinkie?” Fluttershy said with worry and walked towards Pinkie, the spiders still dangling from her mane. “Is everything alright?”

“Get away from me!” Pinkie screamed in fright and took a flamethrower out of her mane.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?!” Fluttershy asked her, with almost as much fright as Pinkie Pie had.

Pinkie stopped for a moment to realize what she was just about to do. She looked at the dangerous tool she was holding in her hoofs. Discord put a paw on the weapon’s barrel and pushed it down on the ground. Pinkie only responded with a nervous giggle.

“What has gone into you?” Fluttershy asked her in great concern.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about this before.” Pinkie said, while stuffing the flamethrower back into her mane. “I’m terrified of spiders.”

“Oh, right.” Fluttershy remembered that they did have a talk about this.

“You?” Discord said in disbelief, as the information was new to him. “You of all ponies, are afraid of spiders? What happened to ‘giggle at the ghosties’?”

“Well you see,” Pinkie was bringing up the story of her phobia, “when I was a little filly, I was eating a delicious sandwich and only after a few bites did I see the enormous spider that was crawling all over my sandwich.”

Discord, of course wasn’t impressed with the story. “That’s it!?” He yelled in annoyance. “You almost incinerated both of us, because somebody stepped on you sandwich?!”

“Hey, that spider was huge and very hairy!” Pinkie tried to defend herself.

“He might have been a bit blunt,” Fluttershy stepped in, “but he has point. You really have to stop being so jumpy about spiders, before you harm someone.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Pinkie admitted.

“Tell you what?” Fluttershy continued. “Why don’t you come back tomorrow, so we can deal with this phobia of yours? The alligators won’t be going anywhere.”

“Good idea!” Pinkie said in excitement, which quickly faded again. “Now, could you step away from the door a bit? I’m trying to run away.”

Fluttershy stepped away from the door and as such, Pinkie was running outside, with Gummy flailing along by her tail. Discord rolled his eyes, but Fluttershy was hopeful about her. She then went back inside, so she could find a safe corner for her new arachnid friends.

Chapter 2 - Therapy?

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.

Chapter 4 - Another Failed Session

Pinkie was back at Suguarcube Corner. She seemed to have gotten over morning’s scare already. She just sold an impressive looking cake to somepony, with as much cheer as ever. As the pony left, Twilight entered through the door.

“Hey, Twilight, how’s it going?” Pinkie greeted her.

“I just heard about your phobia treatment with Fluttershy.” She answered. “How did it go?”

“Oh, that...” Pinkie lost her cheer, because she remembered that failed attempt. “It didn’t go as well as Fluttershy planned it.”

“Let me guess, you ran away before it even began.”

“Nope!” Pinkie said proudly. “I ran away, before Fluttershy even got there.”

“Well, I might know how to cure you!”

“You do?”

“Just look at this spider.” Twilight said, as she levitated Fluttershy into Pinkie’s view.

Pinkie screamed and lunged back. “It’s the same huge spider!”

“Well, then you should have no problem...” Twilight attempted to say something, but was rudely interrupted by a cupcake flying her way.

“Get it away! Kill it!” Pinkie screamed.

“Calm down Pinkie!” Twilight’s pitiful attempt at calming her down only made Pinkie throw a few more cupcakes at her. Twilight was trying to keep Fluttershy out of harm’s way. “Pinkie, just stop for a single minute and...” She couldn’t finish, because a cake hit her square in the face, which made her drop Fluttershy on the floor, who then ran away.

That scared Pinkie even more. “Where did it go?!” She said. “Where did it go?!” She said even louder. “It could be anywhere right now!”

Twilight wiped the splattered cake off her face and yelled: “For the love Celestia, Pinkie, stop freaking out!”

But Pinkie didn’t stop freaking out. She screamed and ran out the door, right past Discord, who was waiting by the door.

“Nice going Twilight.” Discord remarked as she walked out the door.

“Shut up and help me catch Pinkie!” Said Twilight and ran into the dust cloud Pinkie left. Discord rolled his eyes and teleported away.

Pinkie was running around, warning every pony she met about the enormous spider that “attacked” her. They all looked concerned, but also somewhat confused. Especially when they saw Twilight running after her. Eventually, Discord appeared in front of Pinkie and caught her with a butterfly net. She seemed to have calmed down somewhat, but she was still breathing heavily.

Twilight caught up with them. “Good, now get Fluttershy.” She said.

“I thought you had her!” Discord responded.

“Giant spider!” A scream was heard down the street. There was Fluttershy, who was attempting to catch up with them, and two other ponies. One of them was standing on top of a barrel, while the other swatting at Fluttershy with a rolled up newspaper. Then a unicorn stepped in and calmly put a bucket over the “giant spider”.

Discord teleported next to them. “Ah, there she is!” He exclaimed, as the ponies around looked at him in confusion. But Pinkie was suddenly there, wielding her flamethrower again. Twilight reacted in time and a purple flash appeared under the bucket, just before Pinkie could unleash her flaming fury. The flame stopped and all the ponies there, plus Discord, were covered in black ash. The bucket was gone completely.

“Pinkie, you maniac!” Discord screamed. “That was Fluttershy!”

“Fluttershy?” Pinkie got confused.

Discord was ready to continue, but Twilight grabbed him by the beard and pulled him away. “Don’t worry Discord.” She said. “She’s fine.”

“Didn’t you see what just happened?”

“I teleported her away.”

Discord calmed down slightly. “Okay, where?”

Twilight paused for a moment. “I don’t know.” She said with shrug.

Discord could only respond with a facepalm.

“Is everything alright?” Asked Pinkie.

“No!” Discord yelled at her, then snapped his fingers and teleported away, taking Twilight with him. The ponies around could only shrug and be both confused and concerned.

Chapter 5 - Gathering the Team

Far away from the happenings in town, in a place where the news about Pinkie’s panic rampage hasn’t gone yet, Applejack was bucking apples, like she does most days. Sweet Apple Acres was quiet, despite what just happened in the morning.

Applejack kicked an apple tree and the apples fell out of it, right into the strategically placed buckets. She was ready to go for the next one, but she heard something skittering in the bucket. She looked at it and saw an enormous spider, holding onto one of the apples. She pushed that apple out of the bucket and the spider fell on the ground.

“You’re a big one, ain’t’cha?” She said upon closer inspection. She was ready to stomp on it, but she was interrupted by Discord slithering out of the tree and coiling around the spider.

“Don’t you dare!” He threatened Applejack, with a loud hiss.

Suddenly Twilight fell out of the tree behind Applejack.

“Twi?” She addressed Twilight, while she was still rubbing her aching forehead. “Why is Discord so protective about that spider?”

Twilight took a moment to gather herself. “Because that spider is Fluttershy!”

“Come again?”

“Just take a very close look.” Twilight insisted.

So Applejack stepped to the spider Discord was protecting and took a very close look.

“Hi Applejack!” The spider said in a faint tiny voice. It was indeed Fluttershy.

Suffice to say, Applejack was rather surprised by hearing Fluttershy’s voice come out of a spider. She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

“Why is Fluttershy a spider?” She asked both of them.

“A spell transformed her.” Twilight answered.

“Discord, was it your spell?” Applejack accused Discord.

Discord got annoyed at the accusation. “Why does everyone think it was me? Do you honestly believe I would put Fluttershy in danger for a prank?”

“Well then just turn her back!” Applejack exclaimed, wondering why they didn’t do that in the first place.

“We can’t.” Twilight responded. “It’s a very complex spell that can only be broken once Pinkie gets over her fear of spiders.”

Applejack was dumbfounded. “What barrel-bottom-licking lunatic came up with a spell that specific?”

“I know, right?” Discord repeated the sentiment.

“Trust me, this isn’t even the weirdest spell I’ve ever seen.” Said Twilight.

“So what now?” Applejack asked. “How exactly do you plan to cure Pinkie?”

“Actually,” Twilight thought for a bit, “we could use your help.”

“My help?” Applejack said somewhat surprised. “I assume you two tried to catch her, but failed.” Twilight and Discord nodded. “Then, how exactly could I help you?”

Twilight thought for a bit again. “I have a plan.” She said. “Applejack, get your rope. Discord, get Fuzzy Legs. We’re going Pinkie hunting!”

Chapter 6 - Therapy!

It was a bit of time to find Pinkie again, but there she was. Prancing along the street, holding a floating balloon with her mouth, cheery as ever, like she forgot about everything that happened that morning. Her prancing was interrupted by Twilight appearing right in front of her.

„Alright Pinkie.” She said. „You don’t like spiders and they don’t like you. But it’s time we end this!”

Pinkie let go of her balloon, letting it fly up into the sky. Twilight stomped at the ground with her hoof. Pinkie hunched down into attack position. They locked stares and stood there for a second, the townsfolk looking in concern.

“Nope!” Said Pinkie, then disappeared in a big cloud of dust.

“Get her!” Twilight shouted.

Discord appeared in front of Pinkie, wielding the butterfly net, but Pinkie managed to avoid it this time. Twilight tried to stop her with a few force fields, but that only made Pinkie run into a different direction. She kicked up a fruit stand and Twilight managed to trip on the fruit rolling around. Discord kept chasing, until two large barrels of even more fruit flied towards him.

Then came a long straight stretch. Pinkie was finally running in a straight line. She seemed to have lost both of her chasers, which she celebrated with a cocky smile. Then suddenly, Applejack stepped out in front of Pinkie, spinning her rope. Pinkie stopped running immediately and slid for a while. She then started running in the opposite direction, but Twilight and Discord were standing there.

“Gotcha!” Twilight silently gloated.

The lasso surrounded Pinkie’s chest, then tightened. She fell to the ground backwards and Twilight quickly put magical hoofcuffs around her hoofs, binding her to the ground.

“You will get over your fear whether you like it or not!” Said Twilight. “Discord, bring her in.”

Discord snapped his fingers and Flutterspider appeared.

“No! Please don’t” Pinkie pleaded and tried to get away. But of course, she was too heavily bound. “Don’t do this!” Discord put Spidershy on Pinkie’s stomach. “No! Get it away!” Pinkie begged further, tears started rolling from her eyes, as Fluttershy’s legs skittered along her belly. She could barely even look at her.

“It’s okay Pinkie!” Fluttershy tried to calm her down, as she got into hearing distance. “It’s me.”

Pinkie stopped for a moment. “Fluttershy?” She looked down at the spider and saw that it was indeed Fluttershy.

“Hi Pinkie!” Fluttershy waved.

“You were the spider all along?” Pinkie asked.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Oh, and I tried to set you on fire.”

“Yes you did.” Said Fluttershy with a somewhat annoyed tone.

“But why?” Asked Pinkie. “Is this part of the therapy?”

“Well, originally no.” Said Fluttershy. “But we decided to make it so.”

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay.” Said Fluttershy, then turned to the others. “You can let her go now.” And surely enough, the magical hoofcuffs disappeared, the lasso widened and Pinkie got up.

“Pinkie, I would like to introduce you to an old friend of mine.” Said Fluttershy, after she jumped off Pinkie and another spider crawled out from the bushes.

Pinkie was scared by the second spider, but she didn’t run away.

“This is Fuzzy Legs.” Fluttershy introduced the spider, who then waved to Pinkie. “I’m sure you can learn to get along well.”

“Hi... Fuzzy Legs.” Pinkie waved to the spider, but was still shaking in fear.

“Come on, Pinkie,” Said Fluttershy, “why don’t you take a closer look at your new friend?”

“A closer look?”

“Yes. Just extend your hoof.”

Pinkie hesitated, then nervously extended a hoof towards the spider. She could barely look at the arachnid skittering up her leg, but she looked at her anyway. Fuzzy Legs stood on Pinkie’s hoof calmly, then took out a tiny flower and offered it to Pinkie. She seemed to have been warming up to the spider.

“Aw, you’re kinda cute actually.” Said Pinkie.

“I have many other spider friends around.” Said Fluttershy. “Would you like to get to know them too?”

“I guess, it wouldn’t hurt.” Said Pinkie nervously.

Fluttershy smiled. “You can come out now!” She shouted with her tiny spider voice.

And sure enough even more spiders crawled forth.

“These are all the spiders I rescued yesterday.”

Pinkie looked around with worry. A very small spider lowered down in front of her and presented a tiny heart made out of web. Pinkie still looked a bit worried, but ultimately, she was touched by the spider’s gift.

“See,” Fluttershy said, “spiders aren’t mean. They might be a bit scary, but they’re real sweethearts if you look at them a bit closer. Just imagine all the way worse insects they catch. And all the spiders you harmed because you were scared.”

She looked around the other spiders and saw their many many sad eyes, one of them even had more tiny spiders on her, another had to use crutches, because some of its legs were missing.

“I’m sorry spiders.” Pinkie apologized. “I didn’t mean to harm anyone. I was just scared of you.”

“But now you see the spiders’ true nature.” Said Fluttershy. “They didn’t mean to scare you either.”

Pinkie lifted Fuzzy Legs closer to her eyes. “Yeah, I guess it was a bit silly of me to get so scared.”

And that was the thing needed to break the spell. A bright light appeared around Fluttershy and she was transformed back into a pony. Upon realizing what just happened, Fluttershy quickly hugged Pinkie.

“You did it!” She exclaimed in happiness. “I am so proud of you!”

“Does that mean we don’t need the horse-eating spider?” Said Pinkie.

“Horse-eating spider?!” Said everyone around.

“Relax,” Said Discord, “that was never a thing.”

“By the way Fluttershy,” Said Pinkie, with multiple spiders dangling from her, “why were you a spider?”

“I don’t know.” Said Fluttershy. “I woke up this morning and I was a spider.”

“You getting over your fear, is what the spell needed to be broken.” Twilight stepped in to inform.

“Wow!” Said Pinkie. “That’s a really specific spell.”

“What I’d personally like to know,” said Applejack, “is who the hay turned Fluttershy into a spider?”

Discord and Fluttershy just shrugged.

“Huh, I guess that’ll remain a mystery.” Said Twilight.

“I’m a bit concerned about the fact,” said Applejack, “that some crazy unicorn is running around turning ponies into spiders.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Said Fluttershy and winked to Discord.

Chapter 3 - The Spell

Inside the castle, it was quiet. It seemed to be a peaceful day and Twilight Sparkle used this short time of peace to read a book. It’s not often she gets the free time to do that, without being interrupted. She flipped a page.

“Twilight, we’ve got a problem!” A face suddenly appeared inside the book. Twilight yelped in her sudden confusion, as Discord began emerging from the face inside the book.

“What is it Discord?!” Twilight said, visibly annoyed.

“Look at this spider.” He said and put Spidershy up to Twilight’s face.

“You scared me, just so you could show me a spider!?” Twilight got even angrier.

“This is important. Just look at it!” Discord insisted.

Twilight rolled her eyes and looked at the spider. She noticed something odd about it. “Huh... This spider looks kinda like Fluttershy.”

“That’s because it is Fluttershy!” The spider spoke, scaring Twilight again.

She took a few seconds to understand the situation, then turned to Discord. “Discord, why is Fluttershy a spider?”

“Well, I woke up this morning...” he answered, “...and Fluttershy was a spider.”

“Did you turn her into a spider?” She asked, getting more annoyed.

“What? And put her life in jeopardy? What kind of friend do you take me for?!”

“So why haven’t you turned her back?”

“That’s just it! I can’t!”

“What do you mean you can’t?!”

“I can’t, that’s what I mean!”

Twilight sighed. “Let me try then.” And so, her horn started glowing, a magical aura appeared around Flutterspider and Twilight tried a transformation spell from memory. She tried very hard, but the magical aura, just unceremoniously disappeared, followed by a tired groan from Twilight.

“See?” Said Discord.

Twilight thought for a bit. “I’m sure it’s some sort of specialized transformation spell. Hold on let me take a look.” She said, while levitating a book full of transformation spells, into the room. She stopped at one page. “Do we know anyone afraid of spiders?”

Discord was somewhat taken aback by the question. “Yes, Pinkie. What does she have anything to do with it?”

“I think I’ve found the spell that turned Fluttershy into a spider.”

“What? Did Pinkie cast the spell?!”

“In a way yes.” Said Twilight. “This spell needs three ponies. One with an intense fear, the one to be transformed and the one to perform the transformation.”

“Great! Now revert it.”

“I can’t. It can only be reverted, if the fearful one gets over their phobia.”

“That is so specific!” Discord said in discontent and took the book from Twilight. “Who came up with this?!”

“I guess, this means we have to help Pinkie with her fear of spiders.”

“That’s just what we were going to do!” Said Fluttershy, with her tiny spider voice.

“Great!” Said Twilight. “Two flies with one stone! Or rather, two spiders with one stone.”

“And potentially Fluttershy!” Said Discord in worried annoyance.