//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Cutie Marks and Memories // Story: Cloudsdale: The Flutterfamily Chronicle // by Fluttersnake31 //------------------------------// Cloudsdale: The Flutterfamily Chronicles by: Fluttersnake31 Chapter 1: Cutie Marks and Memories The sky was clear, the sun shining bright, and the young cyan filly was preparing for what will be her most memorable race ever. She was racing against two bigger kids that were picking on her friend Fluttershy, a shy, yellow filly with a pink mane and tail. After taking and giving a few taunts and insults with the bullies, she got into a flying position. She winked over to Fluttershy and she received a timid smile as Fluttershy quietly spoke. “Um… Th.. Thanks for standing up for me Rainbow Dash.” “No problem Fluttershy, now lets get this race going!” Rainbow Dash eagerly said. Fluttershy waived the checkered flag and began the race. Immediately the three ponies jumped into the air and accelerated off past Fluttershy. The sudden blast of air and awkward position she was holding the flag in caused her to twirl around and lose her balance on the cloud, not that she had much balance to begin with, as she wasn’t too good with her wings or legs. She fell off the cloud and started plummeting towards the ground. Rainbow Dash took off and was all focused on defending her friend’s honor. She started off in last for the first few seconds, chasing the two stronger looking pegasi ahead of her. After clearing a few rings of cloud, her acceleration increased like never before. She quickly passed the two competitors ahead of her, one of which accidentally turned too sharp and hit a ring blurring his vision just enough to cause him to crash into one of the many pillars in Cloudsdale. She felt freer and stronger than she ever had felt, with adrenaline pumping through her, the wind flying through her mane, she never felt like this any other times she flew. This was amazing! But then suddenly, the other Pegasus had taken advantage of Dash’s slight distraction and had caught up and shouldered into her. “Hahaha! Take that Rainbow Crash! You can’t beat me!” This move angered her. She had to win! Not for herself, but for Fluttershy! She took off after him and was reaching new speeds she never knew she had in her. She zoomed past him, sending him spiral out in some other direction. She was getting closer to ground and needed to pull up for the last straight path to the finish. She continued gaining speed and gaining speed until she made the sharpest, most crisp 90 degree turn anypony has ever seen and felt an enormous wave of heat and power course though her and was surrounded by rainbow, all she could see was rainbow, color everywhere. She continued on the path to the finish line that she knew by heart and then began to slow herself down. The slower she got, the fewer rainbows she saw, but when normal vision returned, she saw remains of a wave of rainbow leaving out the horizon. What did she do? How on Equestria did she make that? What is that funny feeling on her flank? She noticed she was a good 100 yards past the finish and slowly began flying back in glee realizing she now had her cutie mark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy was falling, falling, falling, and screaming her little lungs out. She rapidly gained speed as gravity sucked her down. She had her eyes shut tightly and couldn’t see how close she was to the ground and feared a young death as she knew she could hardly fly at all. Then she opened her eyes. Either she had fallen so much that her body altogether stopped feeling it, or she was dead. Everything around her was colorful for some reason though. She started to panic slightly. She was claustrophobic. But then she realized that she was softly falling down, still falling, but gentler. The pinks and yellows and blues were all separating, and she noticed she was being carried by butterflies! Thousands and thousands of butterflies were around her. She fell in love! These were the cutest things ever and they saved her life. When they reached the ground, she saw other critters moving about. Was she in heaven? Did she really die? What is going on? She started prancing around and singing in glee and then all of a sudden, a loud boom occurs overhead. She looked up and saw a growing ring of rainbow flying out in all directions. Then she faintly saw Rainbow Dash and smiled in her direction. But then she noticed all the animals were frantically running about, frightened by the boom she suspected. She started to try to calm the animals down one by one. She managed to calm every single one of them down and soon enough, they were playing about again. So I really must be dead, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life! But I saw Rainbow Dash… Does the dead see the living? I don’t know… Fluttershy thought. Soon after, a young, grave looking Pegasus stallion starts approaching her from the distance. He was a dark gold color with a pink mane held back with a headband. As he moved closer, Fluttershy noticed that on the pegasus’ hip was a gun in a holster. Fluttershy slowly stepped back. “Don’t be scared Fluttershy, I won’t hurt you.” The mysterious pony said calmly. The voice was somewhat familiar. “Wh.. Why do y-you know my name?” Returned Fluttershy, who was holding back tears of fear but felt a deep joy somewhere deep inside that she couldn’t explain. “It’s me Fluttershy, your older brother… I’m back..” Fluttershy started remembering when she was even smaller a filly. She had a brother who was only a few years older than her. He’ll be a stallion soon… But what was his name? It’s been so long… and why did he leave to begin with? “Do you remember me? Your own brother, Fluttersnake? Sorry it’s been so long… But our parents had no choice but to send me down here…” Fluttersnake looked at the ground now somewhat sad. “You don’t remember do you…” He said with a tone of sadness and defeat. “Of course I do! I just… It’s been so long, where where you? Why did you have to leave!?” Fluttershy started to cry now as her brother came over to comfort her. “Mom and dad were gonna have to leave Cloudsdale forever if I didn’t… And you too… They knew that I was a good enough flier to survive down here with some family friends, they wanted you to get a good flying education… I’m sorry sister…. There was no other way…” Fluttershy spoke in a whisper now as she’s trying to look strong in front of her brother. She looked up to him all the time when they were littler, she always saw him as invincible and an amazing flier. “But 2 years after you left, they had to leave too… They said they couldn’t come back… So I stayed with Rainbow Dash’s parents…” “Wait, you stayed with Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy… You should be careful of them…” Fluttersnake’s tone returned to a very serious one now. “Um.. Yeah, they’re pretty nice to me. They made me my own little garden and one-pony house!” Fluttershy was now smiling as she was now able to talk to her brother about how generous Rainbow Dash’s parents were. They were one of the top ten wealthiest pegasi in Cloudsdale and it was rare for them to do things like what they did for Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, they are related to the pony that created an empire and nearly destroyed Equestria!” Fluttersnake exclaimed, still retaining some of his childhood ignorance. “Brother, that was like over 2000 years ago… Don’t let some crazy thing like that bother you! They are perfectly fine, and nothing like that could happen here anyways…” “You never know… What if they like ate everyone or something like that?” Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “You are silly…. So am I dead?” Confused, Fluttersnake took a few steps back. “What? Of course not, I saved you… I have this cool butterfly call and wanted to test it out and it happened to catch you out of the air. I also have a bunch of other cool things!” “Speaking of cool things, why do you have a gun?” Fluttershy remembered after Fluttersnake was showing off a belt around him holding various gadgets and stuff. “Oh yeah… Well the real reason I’m on my way back, is that I’ve joined a group of peace warriors that sneak around investigating strange happenings. I found out about the group because the friends of our parents were actually the people in charge of it. We’re called the Espionage of Quick, Intelligent, Neutral Equestrians, also known as E.Q.U.I.N.E. I’m on a mission to find out why so many criminals are disappearing from Cloudsdale’s Prison.” “Oh… But does that mean you can’t take me with you?” Fluttershy looked up to him, sad again. “Don’t worry sis, I’ll be back.” He said, smiling to reassure her, because he had no idea what really was going on that much either. “Hey, you can have my cottage in Ponyville! It may need some grooming but its tucked away out where animals love to play all the time. I think you’d enjoy that, especially with those butterflies as a cutiemark.” Fluttershy was confused at that last statement, she didn’t have a cutie mark… Unless it appeared while she was calming those animals and so many wonders appeared at once she didn’t notice the tingling of it appearing. She walked over to a stream and looked at herself, and there it was! A group of three pink butterflies! She was overjoyed. Fluttershy ran up to her brother and gave him a great big hug. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Without you and Rainbow Dash I’d never have gotten my cutie mark! I can’t wait to see my new cottage! Can you show me it?!” Sadly, her brother replied, “Sorry Fluttershy, but I have work I need to do… I’ll give you a map but other than that, I gotta go… I love you sis.” Fluttershy looked down slightly disappointed and took the map after Fluttersnake drew an ‘X’ where the cottage was. They gave goodbye hugs and started heading opposite directions. Fluttershy said her goodbyes over her shoulder as she trotted slowly away turning to say, “Good luck big brother, please come back safe….” And she was now out of view of the clearing in the forest. Always will, and always do, sis… Thought Fluttersnake as he started flight back to the home he hasn’t seen in 8 years.