New Fluttershy Alone
Resources: [Link]
Hey, uh… I came up with a headcanon. And… I’m a bit scared of posting it because it’s a headcanon on mental health, and that’s a bucket of fire ants right there. I checked with two of my friends and one checked with their own friend who has the disorder in question… so I’m hoping that this will turn out to be good. I really, really don’t want to get into any bad territory. I’m trying my best, though, and I hope it came out well. I’m really sorry if it didn’t… please, be gentle. I’m really, really bad at handling this kind of thing when other people are offended, even if I’m only imagining the offense or the offense isn’t towards me. So keep that in mind, if you can.

I noticed something really… kinda something I can’t ignore about her dealings with ‘New Fluttershy’ and ‘Old Fluttershy’; I believe that Fluttershy has Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder. She has two identities, Fluttershy and New Fluttershy, the one seen most prominently in ‘Putting Your Hoof Down’. I would have considered that it was simply the training gone too far, but it piled up as I looked at the issues that came up, and a headcanon was formed. I didn’t base it on anything but the show itself, and I found a surprisingly large amount of evidence for it.

The cause of DID is mostly believed to be abuse or significant trauma as a child, so it fits with my own personal headcanon; her parents were killed while she was under the bed, hiding. Picture the idea. You sit there quietly and you watch something happen. You get so good at being quiet, you see more than you want. You start wondering if you should be stronger? Could you have been the strong one? Could you have stopped it? What if there was a you that could have stopped it? One who didn’t let things just happen to her? Wouldn’t that have been great?

Her viewing of her parents’ death from underneath the bed gave her both her tendencies towards fleeing and hiding and being quiet, because her life literally depended on it, and gave her a guilt complex that lead to New Fluttershy. New Fluttershy was the pony who could have stood up to them. New Fluttershy would be the one to protect her. New Fluttershy was the one who actually does things instead of hiding like a little foal.

It seems like New Fluttershy is coaxed out by the perception of Old Fluttershy being in danger or unable to handle the situation. New Fluttershy exists to protect Old Fluttershy, and even more importantly, to be proactive. New Fluttershy is the Fluttershy she wanted to be when she was scared. The one who solved her problems on her own instead of hiding. So New Fluttershy becomes a power fantasy… but if she’s allowed to be more than a fantasy…. well, you saw it. Having somepony (or some minotaur) tell her that she could come out and play. Old Fluttershy agreed to go to the seminar, and Old Fluttershy wanted to stop being a pushover. Old Fluttershy needs New Fluttershy now. …That told her that New Fluttershy could come out to play.

NECESSARY VIEWING: [Link] (multiple times would help it get along, too)
The sudden snaps between kind and angry, along with a tendency to refer to herself as two separate entities, and something a bit more substantive is how New Fluttershy acts. New Fluttershy’s entire purpose is as a defense mechanism for Old Fluttershy. Her aggressive tendencies are based entirely upon protecting ‘Old Fluttershy’ from being hurt, whether imaginary or not.

When you compare Fluttershy’s whole demeanor when she’s pissed off to New Fluttershy’s entire appearance, their voices are subtly, but rather radically different in terms of tone. Compare [Link] to [Link]

You hear the difference, right? It’s a scolding tone rather than a demeanor of anger. New Fluttershy keeps a consistently harsh tone with no softer side. Fluttershy has a range of tones when angry, from indignant, to motherly, to righteous, protective, while New Fluttershy relies almost exclusively on pure volume. She doesn’t change her voice when she’s angry from when she’s talking normally, she just gets louder. So she ends up sounding much more one note in her anger, there’s just one tone with New Fluttershy, but many volumes. She growls, she yells, she shrieks, but she never has anything in it other than anger. Her voice is monotone in terms of expression beyond anger.

New Fluttershy also swears, compared to most others, the only ponies that swear in the Mane 6 are Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They’re two very competitive and also easily agitated and assertive ponies. But on the other hoof, New Fluttershy uses one we’ve never heard, which most likely indicates it being a harsher word than others used. “I can’t believe that the two most friendliest ponies in Ponyville are trying to tell new Fluttershy how to live her life, when they are throwing their own lives on pointless pursuits that NOPONY ELSE GIVES A FLYING FEATHER ABOUT!”

She also is, despite radical personality differences in actions, extremely protective of Old Fluttershy. The guy did fail to deliver Old Fluttershy’s mail… and that other guy asking a question made her drop Old Fluttershy’s mail into a puddle. But she goes right back to being Old Fluttershy before the guy dropped the mail.

But when Rarity and Pinkie talk to her, she keeps her act up. And… she really does make her statement about “What?! You just want New Fluttershy to be a doormat like Old Fluttershy! But Old Fluttershy is gone! No, you want Wimp Fluttershy. You want Pushover Fluttershy. You want Do-anything-to-her-and-she-won’t-complain Fluttershy!” She’s pretty clear about defining herself as two entities, and not in the normal way you say ‘you want the old me’ back way. There’s a large difference between going ‘you want me to go back to being a pushover’ to ‘you want Wimp Fluttershy! Pushover Fluttershy!’

I don’t think New Fluttershy had a name before Rarity called her ‘a whole new Fluttershy’ I think she was just the other Fluttershy who could stand up for herself, only different in personality. So she said ‘I like this ‘New Fluttershy’ name’
“Well, they’ve certainly made a difference in the way you carry yourself. You truly are a whole new Fluttershy.”
“Yes I am. And New Fluttershy feels pretty stoked about New Fluttershy.”
And she specifically starts talking to herself in the mirror as possessive of the day to herself. “ You got this, New Fluttershy! This day is yours! And nopony’s gonna take it away from you! Am I right?!” I also noticed another thing. New Fluttershy physically has one trait that’s VERY distinct from Old Fluttershy; she’s almost constantly flying. Fluttershy literally keeps herself grounded at all times, or as often as possible. New Fluttershy prefers to hover or fly, to keep above others, to let them know she is large and in charge. She also uses her wings in her gestures more often, flaring out her wings to intimidate on the ground. You can see that after the poor postman gets carted off, Old Fluttershy comes back for a second, her eyes close and she folds up her wings, but the second the mail drops, and she switches to New Fluttershy, she starts hovering. I suggest you rewatch that bit again and pay attention to the body language that I pointed out. I like watching things again and noticing hints I didn’t before. New Fluttershy is also much more active in her expressions and movement.

We see her again in ‘Return Of Harmony’ when they’re taking down Discorded!Rainbow Dash, [Link] and she still shows more proficiency at flying. Until pressure is put on Fluttershy, she was failing to pull the balloon fast enough, but after Rarity and Twilight both tell her that she needs to fly faster, she becomes enraged and her speed increases. Her switch from sobbing to pure rage is sudden and immediate.
“Oh, Fluttershy, would you be a dear and fly faster, please!”
“I… I can’t!”
“If you can’t catch her, Discord wins!”
“That… BIG… DUMB…. MEANIE!”
Interestingly, her most minor appearance is one that only is brought to light by facial expressions and tone; ‘Griffon The Brush-Off’, [Link]. It seems rather miniscule, but Fluttershy’s whole movements and stance change, as well as her expression and tone. Before Pinkie tells her not to worry, she walks slowly, her head held towards the ground and her stance slanted forward, with a worried look on her face. But she suddenly switches her expression to a glare and stands up straight, not hiding her face behind her mane and her chest out, she makes herself taller in stance to Pinkie and makes an antagonistic comment to what really isn’t much of a threat or demeaning beyond jovial joking. With New Fluttershy in mind, it makes much more sense for her to suddenly act harsh and cold to Pinkie.