Putting Your Hoof Down

Dear Princess Luna...

A Fluttershy focused episode, I can't remember if I've seen one of these yet. Wow, Fluttershy is such a pushover, her own beloved pets walk all over her. It's feeding time at ol' Fluttershy's and her pretentious rabbit is having a fit about being served, you know, rabbit food, like carrots, lettuce, and apples.

Wow, seriously... Twilight, come disintegrate this ingrate rabbit. It just slapped and smashed the cookbook into the face of the kindest pony on the show. Instead of flipping out and throwing the rabbit back into its cage, Fluttershy decides to actually make the weird salad sundae it wants.

Where's Elmer Fudd? He's got some murderin' to do here.

Fluttershy goes to market, and people constantly cut in front of her and be general annoyances to her. She just lets them all treat her like a non-'person'. Pinkie Pie and Rarity are astonished that Fluttershy lets people treat her that way. The last of the asparagus gets bought, and Rarity decides to show Fluttershy how to use her femininity to get whatever she wants from males.

New use for magic: Pickpocketing. Called it that Unicorns are probably naturally attuned to thievery.

The tomato farmer has decided to double the price of tomatoes. Fluttershy meekly agrees to pay, and Pinkie has to come in. Pinkie and the farmer then go into the classic Duck Season/Rabbit Season bit, so I guess Pinkie is more like Bugs in that sense since she wins and only pays 1 bit for the tomatoes.

"What just happened?" You've been Bugs'd.

The three walk away, laughing as they have now taught Fluttershy how to pickpocket and con merchants out of their own goods. At least Rarity paid that poor geek pony for the asparagus instead of outright stealing them.

There's only one cherry left, and you know that rabbit will beat the hell out of Fluttershy if his 'sundae' doesn't have a cherry on top, and Fluttershy starts going on about her situation. The cherry costs 1 bit (and they were complaining about 2 bits for 3 tomatoes) and the guy, being the nice fellow that he is, wants to charge Fluttershy 10 bits for it. Pinkie and Rarity tell her to try doing what they did, and she totally fails. She completely flubs the Duck/Rabbit season bit, and ends up trying to pay 12 bits.

Pinkie and Rarity stop that from happening, and Fluttershy again goes on about how Angel, the ingrate rabbit, needs this cherry. The cherry guy, being the kind hearted soul he is, decides to now charge 20 bits. As this happens, a Unicorn casually strolls along, and buys it for 2 bits, tossing the money onto the counter with magic, then grabbing the cherry as the guy says Sold! The jackass cherry guy tells Fluttershy to stop being such a doormat.

Okay, does Twilight know about this domestic abuse going on at Fluttershy's? Because we know Twilight cares for her friends and wouldn't be letting this happen. She prepares this sundae thing, sans cherry, then stupidly mentions that the cherry is missing as the ingrate rabbit was about to just swallow it whole. Angel then throws the sundae out the door, then Fluttershy, as you hear the classic 'punch' sound effect.

One of these days, Fluttershy, one of these days... BANG, ZOOM, straight to the moon. (But really, nothing funny about this, poor Fluttershy)

As she smashes into her mailbox, she slumps to the ground in a cascade of mail. She just happened to get a brochure from some assertiveness seminar or something. She vows that she will never be a pushover again.

We come back to her going through this hedge maze to where this Iron Will thing is being held. She tries to go to the front of the audience and is physically assaulted and thrown to the back of the crowd.

I like how this crowd is also here for this assertiveness seminar, and they still just beat the hell out of Fluttershy.

Iron Will comes out with great fanfare, and begins hyping up the crowd. Stomp if you're tired of being a pushover, stomp if you're tired of being a doormat, stomp if you want to pay nothing for this seminar. For some reason, that confuses the crowd.

"Free? What? Why, that's the stupidest thing I done heard in a year! Hyah, hyah, hyah!"

The ponies start laughing about it being free, and Iron Will explains that if you're not 100% satisfied it will be free. He then demonstrates his first lesson: Don't be shy, look 'em in the eye. He then calls for a volunteer, and of course he picks Fluttershy, who was trying to cower on the ground.

She gets to the stage and one of Iron Will's goat employees gets in her way. Iron Will asks what she is gonna do about it, she offers up: politely walk around him, gingerly tiptoe past, or give up, go home, and try again tomorrow.

Fluttershy, owned by a goat.

The next lesson is: When some pony tries to block, show them that you ROCK.

What the hell, yet another physical 'attack' on Fluttershy. Someone in the show's staff must really hate this character and tried to think of as many ways to hurt her as possible.

His flick on her rear makes her headbutt the goat. She tries to apologize, and Iron Will gives the next lesson: Never apologize when you can criticize.

I guess that was the end of his seminar, as 'bits' ka-ching in his eyes after Fluttershy trash talks the stricken goat and he proclaims that if his lessons will work on a shy pony like Fluttershy, it will work on any pony.

Next day, or later that day, Fluttershy is feeling better about herself. She goes outside and Mr. Greennose or something is over watering her petunias. He laughs off her concerns, even though the things are flooded, and tells her to leave it to the professionals. At first she was going to just leave him be, then the Iron Will training kicked in: Treat me like a pushover, and you get the once over.

"You're lucky I'm not strapped, or I'd put a bullet in your punk ass."

She stomps on the hose, water builds up, blasts Mr. Greennose or whatever in the face, and he agrees maybe it is enough water. Fluttershy is excited that the Iron Will stuff worked. She then comes upon two cart-pulling ponies that decided to stop in the middle of a bridge to talk to one another. blocking the path.

One of them is trying to tell a joke about a donkey and a mule on an island. So not only are there donkeys, there are mules too, which presumably are treated like 'Polacks' of the Ponyverse. Fluttershy then uses another lesson, showing the blockers that she rocks. She does so by upending their carts and dumping the garbage all over the two bottlenecks.

So, they were both hauling garbage I think, presumably both going to a dump, so instead of talking on the way, they decided to stop on a bridge?

Fluttershy then heads to the Cakes' bakery, and some jerk pony cuts in front of her.

"Didn't you see me?" "I guess, maybe. I mean, I tapped you on the shoulder so you'd be distracted, but I guess you're not really a 'person' so it doesn't matter maybe."

 "Maybe?!? Maybies are for babies!" Fluttershy exclaims. She hits the line-cutter so hard she spins rapidly, then yells at her to get to the back of the line where she belongs. Every other pony in line freaks out and lets Fluttershy go ahead. So, it looks like a lot of ponies were intentionally treating Fluttershy like crap, just because they knew they'd probably get away with it.

Pinkie and Rarity are really impressed at 'New Fluttershy' and her 'feisty' behavior. Pinkie starts laughing about her 'joke' that she's 'proud as pink punch' and Bugs Bunny's up a bowl of pink punch.

*snort* "Oh my god, did you hear what I said Rarity? Proud as pink punch!" *giggle*

Perhaps it's because Pinkie is laughing so hard at her own joke that she is snorting, but this enrages Fluttershy. She applies the lesson: You laugh at me, I'll wrath at you. She smashes the punch bowl, shattering it on top of Pinkie. She then casually strolls out of the shop, not even buying anything.

Her friends stare bewilderingly at Fluttershy as all the ponies outside scatter in terror. For some reason, Fluttershy calls a taxi. Of course, some pony tries to take it instead. Next lesson: Cut in line, I'll take what's mine!

Tired of years of physical and emotional abuse, Fluttershy beats the living hell out of this unfortunate victim.

Most likely it was just some rude pony, but maybe he was just getting in so he could be with Fluttershy, having had a crush on her and had finally got the courage to talk to her. Whatever the case may be, he ended up in a battered heap on the ground. Rarity and Pinkie agree that maybe 'New Fluttershy' wasn't such a good idea.

Back at Fluttershy's, she gives herself a pep talk in the mirror, makes sure her animals know she is the boss, and then rages as the nearly blind mailman delivered the wrong mail to her, again. She confronts him, he says he's sorry, she uses another lesson: You apologize, I penalize! and she proceeds to assault a federal employee, which I believe has it's own criminal charges.

"New Fluttershy doesn't like you, she hopes you like broken bones and internal bleeding."

She smashed the mailman into a mailbox and puts a stamp on his rear, then takes a piece of her mail. The mailman must have called for backup, as a cart-pulling fellow postal employee rushes in to save him from further abuse.

As Fluttershy walks home, a tourist pony asks for directions. She happens to be standing near a puddle of water (which she probably caused with her hose prank earlier, but I suppose that would really be Mr. Greennose or whatever's fault) and drops her letter into the water as she tries to tell the tourist where to go. (If she had been a unicorn, that wouldn't have happened, just sayin' =] )

She then applies another lesson: You make me lose, I blow me fuse! and grabs him by the camera and hurls him towards the landmark he was seeking, though that was probably just luck and not intentional.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie try to explain that New Fluttershy is not such a good thing, and that they want Nice Fluttershy back. Fluttershy must have had a really, really, hard time as she immediately associates 'Nice Fluttershy' with negative aspects like 'do anything to her and she won't complain Fluttershy'.

Pinkie complains about there being 'too many Fluttershys to keep track of' and Fluttershy decides to call her a moron. Rarity tries to defend Pinkie, sort of, by telling Fluttershy not to degrade into petty insults. Fluttershy replies, saying she thought Rarity was all about petty things, like fashion.

Damn, Fluttershy, even I wasn't so cold as to call Pinkie stupid.

Presumably Fluttershy is just finally 'uncorked' and all this time she has really considered her friends to be the 'two most frivolous ponies in Ponyville' wasting their lives on pointless things nopony else gives a flying feather about. Not such a Nice Fluttershy, afterall.

Wow, Fluttershy is one mean motha - Shut your mouth! Just talkin bout 'Shy... We can dig it!

Her friends run away in tears, Fluttershy screams about Iron Will being a minotaur and not a monster, then sees herself reflected in the water. Tears fall as she sees that she is the monster. She sadly walks back to her house then boards herself inside.

For some reason, it seems Pinkie and Rarity are still the only friends that are going to be involved in this plot. I guess because they caused it, they are too embarrassed to get Twilight, Rainbow, or Applejack, or anyone else for that matter, to help.

Rarity and Pinkie blame Iron Will for what's happened, and not Fluttershy, but Fluttershy thinks it is all her fault. She has decided to starve herself to death, vowing to never leave her house again, Angel gladly ties her to a chair.

"I'm too mean to live, just let me die alone, it's what any pony would do."

Iron Will arrives, having heard how well his training has taken to Fluttershy, and wants to collect his money. Here we see perhaps the first con to Unicorns, their horn is an easy handle for big creatures with hands.

It is Rarity though, a well-trained Unicorn would have melted his hand off for even thinking of touching their horn, let alone dropping them off an embankment.

So Rarity tried to use her 'female charms' approach to distract Iron Will and failed. Pinkie uses her Rabbit/Duck Season and successfully tricks Iron WIll into giving them a day before he would collect, but Fluttershy sneezes. Pinkie tries unsuccessfully to distract him, and he uses his 'When some pony tries to block, show them that you rock!' and chucks her off the embankment.

Whoever made this episode really wanted to showcase physical abuse or something, man alive...

To add insult to injury, as Pinkie is lying in mud, one of Iron Will's goats begins to eat her tail. Iron Will busts down the door and demands his money. Oh, also the goat's don't seem able to speak normally, using goat vocalizations, so they must only have semi-'humanity' like the pets.

Fluttershy says she won't pay because she's not satisfied. Iron Will can't believe it, no pony has ever been unsatisfied/ I have no idea how much his seminar costs, but apparently this one customer means a lot to him, as he seems kind of desperate about getting the money. Or it could be that he is really confident in his training and can't believe she's not satisfied. The fact that Fluttershy just stood up to him like that though means the training had to have worked, which means she has to be a little satisfied, not to mention her rampage of terror earlier had to be extremely satisfying.

After Iron Will leaves, dejected, Rarity and Pinkie hug Fluttershy and tell her how proud they are and glad she is back. Rarity says, "In fact, you didn't change at all! You were the same old Fluttershy that we've always loved!" So, yeah, Fluttershy, deep down, does indeed think two of her closest friends are morons wasting their lives on frivolous matters.

Fluttershy writes to Princess Celestia about how she learned that you can stand up for yourself without becoming Diablo, Lord of Terror. We are shown a scene of her feeding the animals. The stupid Angel rabbit starts pulling antics when she gives him cucumbers and lettuce. She glowers at him until he eats it, he apparently likes it and scarfs it all down. Moronic rabbit.

What I learned from this episode:

• Fluttershy has had a horrible life filled with abuse. Even getting physically assaulted by her own beloved pet.
• There are Minotaurs in the Ponyverse, yet goats can't talk.
• One day, Fluttershy will probably snap and get sent to the funny farm, if she doesn't go on a rampage first.
• They should have at least brought in the rest of the 'Mane 6' towards the end so Fluttershy could insult them all instead of just Pinkie and Rarity now forever feeling awkward around her.