History Fanfic / Dragonshyness

* CourtlyLove: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have been playing at a version of this since they were small fillies.

** Fluttershy is in stark, paralyzing ''terror'' through much of the story, not just simple fear. During the events of the story, she humiliates herself in terms of her own aristocratic Pegasus code of honor, in front of the one whose good opinion matters most to her in the whole world (Rainbow Dash).
** Fluttershy nearly gets her friends ''killed'' in the avalanche zone.

-->Fluttershy screamed and hid in what instincts dimly remembered from her foalhood told her was the safest place possible: behind Mother! She tried to crawl under Mother, but for some reason her mother was too close to the ground, so instead she pressed her own hindquarters against Mother's, crouched to the ground, and curled herself up very small.
-->Her actual mother, of course, was interned in a mental hospital in far-off Cloudsdale, in part because of an even more extreme and irrational fear of Dragons. So how could she be here? As the capacity for logical thought returned to Fluttershy, she discovered that she was, in fact, hiding under Applejack's tail. Applejack, with her usual kindness, tolerated this familiarity.

--->It's not about the odds, thought Pinkie to her sire. I'm not just your Daughter. I'm a Pony. A Pie. And a Pie doesn't cut and run on her friends.

-->One of the most terrifying days in Fluttershy's life to that point began as a fairly normal morning at the start of the September of the Year of Harmony 1500..

* TeamMom: Applejack's tendencies in this regard are strongly on display in this tale. She helps Fluttershy all the way up the mountain, calming and comforting her in every way possible in an attempt to help her get over her paralyzing fear of the Dragon; charges ''into'' an avalanche to save Twilight Sparkle; then on the way back ''down'' the mountain, similarly tends to an injured Pinkie Pie, including taking her watch when they camp that night, so that Pinkie can get a full night's sleep and thus recover more rapidly from her wounds.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the concept that fear is inherently funny. Fluttershy's fear, from her own point of view, is horrifying and humiliating; not only does she suffer the physical effects of extreme fear, but she is fully aware that she is letting down not only her whole [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Kind]] and her TrueCompanions, but also ''Rainbow Dash'', with whom she has a [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Romantic Two-Filly Friendship]].

*** She greatly admires Rainbow Dash as a true exemplar of the best ideals among Pegasi, which increases the [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship powerful]] [[LesYay love]] she feels for her, which also fires her bravery.

* RelationshipUpgrade: A slight one happens with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash -- they don't become lovers, but they do implicitly acknowledge the [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship romantic]] overtones of their [[LesYay strong friendship]].
* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash have a relationship like this. It is tested almost to destruction by the strains of their mission, and then restored after their victory.

* FaceYourFears: What Fluttershy must do in order to save her friends. When she does so [[spoiler:she can Stare the Dragon into submission, a riskier strategy than negotiating with it at the start would have been, but by this point it is the only alternative to further physical combat with the drake]]. Her fear of Dragons is not exactly cured -- she still fears them two years later in [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest "Dragon Quest"]]-- but she knows she can overcome it when she has to, which makes all the difference.

A ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic written by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Jordan179 Jordan179]] in 2014. Set in Season 1, early September 1500, this is a text adaptation of Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E7Dragonshy, told mostly from Fluttershy's POV, with extensive exploration of Fluttershy's character, thoughts and motivations. As in the original episode, when Twilight Sparkle must drive out a Dragon endangering the land with his smoke, Fluttershy is torn between her fear of Dragons and her desire to help her friends.

A ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic written by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Jordan179 Jordan179]] in 2014. Set in Season 1, early September 1500, this is a text adaptation of Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E7Dragonshy, told mostly from Fluttershy's POV, with extensive exploration of Fluttershy's character, thoughs and motivations. As in the original episode, when Twilight Sparkle must drive out a Dragon endangering the land with his smoke, Fluttershy is torn between her fear of Dragons and her desire to help her friends.

* BerserkButton: Both involve their friends being hurt or endangered.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The fanfic makes explicit several rather cruel aspects of the story glossed over for humor value in the episode.
** Fluttershy is in stark, paralyzing ''terror'' through much of the story.
*** She humiliates herself in terms of her own aristocratic Pegasus code of honor, in front of the one whose good opinion matters most to her in the whole world (Rainbow Dash).
*** She nearly gets her friends ''killed'' in the avalanche zone.
** Pinkie Pie wasn't just amusingly bopped offstage by the Dragon, she was struck by a tail-lash that would have shattered her bones and probably ''killed'' her save for her [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] powers (about which the Dragon did not know) and as it is, she suffered severe and painful bruising, and possibly slight internal injuries. She's in agony for hours afterward, even though she never really complains about it.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the concept that fear is funny. Fluttershy's fear, from her own point of view, is horrifying and humiliating: not only does she suffer the physical effects of extreme fear, but she is fully aware that she is letting down not only her whole [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Kind]] and her TrueCompanions, but also ''Rainbow Dash'', with whom she has a [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Romantic Two-Filly Friendship]].
* DirtyCoward: Fluttershy is horribly certain that she is this when she proves helpless before her fear of dragons.

...

* EmotionEater: Because she's [[spoiler:half-Changeling]], Fluttershy draws strength from love. This is one reason why Applejack's kindness toward her is so effective at helping her get up the mountain.
* FaceYourFears: What Fluttershy must do in order to save her friends. When she does so [[spoiler:she can Stare the Dragon into submission, a riskier strategy than negotiating with it at the start would have been, but by this point it is the only alternative to physical combat with the drake]]. Her fear of Dragons is not exactly cured -- she still fears them two years later in [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest "Dragon Quest"]]-- but she knows she can overcome it when she has to, which makes all the difference.

** Fluttershy herself is of the highest birth among Pegasi, of the Wind Clan (the old Mandatial family) and though she is a rebel against her own Kind's martial ideals, she in many ways shares the Pegasus world view. This affects her in three ways:

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first line of the story reads

* LovableCoward: Rainbow Dash's opinion of Fluttershy. Rainbow's love for Fluttershy drops noticeably (as [[TheEmpath sensed]] by [[EmotionEater Fluttershy]] herself!) as Fluttershy's fear creates increasingly-severe problems for their quest.

* TheQuest: And one of the most classic ones -- Twilight is charged by royalty to defeat a Dragon.

-->And behind them, unseen, Pinkie Pie collapsed in exhaustion upon a rock, satisfied in the knowledge that she had succeeded. The effort had drained her -- she had shifted worldline after worldline, grasping at every straw of possiblity, every improbable but conceivable coincidence that could have altered the trajectory of this or that boulder, safely out of sight of any observer and hence not directly threatening causality. She had never done anything this complex on such a scale before -- her mass unweaving of Nightmare Moon's spell in the forest of fear had been by contrast a repetitive effect which merely acted to destabilize an existing alternation of reality. Within Pinkie, her reserves of entangled particles were dangerously depleted; her link with Paradise at the lowest bandwidth it had been since she had gained her Cutie Mark. She would not be able to warp reality again until she had rested for a good, long time.
* [[ReincarnationRomance Reincarnation Friendship]]: Pinkie Pie is well aware that Twilight Sparkle is a reincarnation of G3 Minty, who was the best friend of Pinkie's earlier self, G3 Pinkie Pie (in a world of asexual immortals in which "best friend" was the emotional equivalent of OneTrueLove). Pinkie is not only willing to exhaust herself to save Twilight Sparkle, she will stand by her even when Pinkie's own powers are exhausted and she is close to defenseless.

* [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Romantic Two-Filly Friendship]]: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash have a relationship like this. It is tested almost to destruction by the strains of their mission, and then restored after their victory.

* {{Badass}}: Two particular examples in-story.
** Applejack drags Fluttershy up the mountain, runs ''into'' an avalanche to save Twilight Sparkle, and is prepared to fight a Dragon by ''bucking apples'' at him.
** Pinkie Pie has surprising strength, endurance. But then she was raised on a rock farm and her current career as a party planner forces her to be hyperactive -- she's had a lot of exercise. What's really awesome is that she's willing to walk into danger even when most of her RealityWarper powers are exhausted and she's thus BroughtDownToNormal.

* FaceYourFears: What Fluttershy must do in order to save her friends. When she does so [[spoiler:she can Stare the Dragon into submission, a riskier strategy than negotiating with it at the start would have been, but by this point it is the only alternative to physical combat with the drake]]. Her fear of Dragons is not exactly cured -- she still fears them two years later in [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest ""Dragon Quest"]]-- but she knows she can overcome it when she has to, which makes all the difference.

* FaceYourFears: What Fluttershy must do in order to save her friends. When she does so [[spoiler:she can Stare the Dragon into submission, a riskier strategy than negotiating with it at the start would have been, but by this point it is the only alternative to physical combat with the drake]]. Her fear of Dragons is not exactly cured -- she still fears them two years later in MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest -- but she knows she can overcome it when she has to, which makes all the difference.

* Badass: Two particular examples in-story.

* RelationshipUpgrade: A slight one happens with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash -- they don't become lovers, but they do implicitly acknowledge the [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship romantic]] overtones of their [[LezYay strong friendship]].

** Pinkie Pie also comes of an old family with proud traditions, and when [[DeusEstMachina Paradise]] urges her to cut and run after her RealityWarper powers are exhausted, leaving her vulnerable to the Dragon, Pinkie makes this memorable mental statement refusing to obey her sire and ''god'':
-->It's not about the odds, thought Pinkie to her sire. I'm not just your Daughter. I'm a Pony. A Pie. And a Pie doesn't cut and run on her friends.

* FriendshipMoment: Numerous ones.
**

* TeamMom: Applejack's tendencies in this regard are strongly on display in this tale. She helps Fluttershy all the way up the mountain, calming and comforting her in every way possible in an attempt to help her get over her paralyzing fear of the Dragon; charging ''into'' an avalanche to save Twilight Sparkle; then on the way back ''down'' the mountain, similarly tends to an injured Pinkie Pie, including taking her watch when they camp that night, so that Pinkie can get a full night's sleep and thus recover more rapidly from her wounds.

* FriendshipMoment: Several between Applejack and Fluttershy, most notably when Applejack ''carries'' Fluttershy part of the way up the mountain, and does not complain of having to do so despite the fact that she clearly finds it exhuasting.
* GRatedSex: Happens almost ''literally'' between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash during their turn on watch -- they basically cuddle rather erotically. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because they haven't been lovers before, because they're in a semi-public situation (everypony else is asleep) but most of all each of them, for slightly different reasons, is terrified of her own sexuality and neither wants to spoil the moment by trying to go too far. Afterward, they are still unsure whether they are still just [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship friends]] or something more.

** Fluttershy is in stark, paralyzing''terror'' through much of the story.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The fanfic makes explicit several aspects of the story glossed over for humor value in the episode. Fluttershy is in utter, paralyzing and humiliating ''terror'' through much of the story; she is afraid that her friends will ''die'', and Pinkie Pie in particular gets rather badly hurt, avoiding bone-shattering injuries only by utterly draining her own [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] powers.