Kindness Is Magic, S1E04; early July YOH 1500 (within half a month of the Return of Luna): The formerly almost hermetic Fluttershy Wind has cemented her old friendships with Rainbow Dash and Rarity Belle in the Quest of the Elements of Harmony, become closer to Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and made a new friend in Twilight Sparkle. But she is most especially fascinated by Twilight's adoptive baby brother and personal assistant, Spike the Dragon. Fluttershy decides to do something to him she almost never does toward any civilized creature -- make friends.
Chapters (3)
A story that focuses on Spike's relationship with someone other than Twilight or Rarity? Sign me up for that!
Not that I dislike Twilight or Rarity, far from it. It's just nice to see some variety. Spike has four other friends. What do they mean to him? What does he mean to them? Let's find out.
Well, this should be interesting. Seeing what Fluttershy was up to beyond the bunny census, and how Spike gets involved, should make for a very engaging read, especially with this added biographical depth.
And yeah, Fluttershy's cutie mark realization was definitely one of the most beautiful and surreal moments of her life, regardless of the continuity where it took place. Excellent explanation for the butterfly cloud and portayal of her Flutterpony atavism.
A friendship between Fluttershy and Spike is something seriously unexplored in the show, which is a real shame, because that would have been great to see. I'm glad to see that you're giving some attention to it.
8242496 Hopefully more than just four more -- remember Moondancer, and the Crusaders. But still!
8243142
Point taken. There are a lot of stories where Spike is closer to the CMC, but so few good ones. I'd like to read a few.
I love your characterization of Fluttershy in this story.
And, I'm very curious to see where the story leads with Spike.
8243901
Filly Fluttershy is of course very innocent: she's only 10 in the flashback. Though Season 1 Fluttershy explicitly said that she used to be more "shy," Season 1 Fluttershy (a young mare of 20) is actually more fearful in some ways than she was at age 10, as she's by age 20 had some unpleasant life experiences.
Of course, Fluttershy's victories over real threats such as Nightmare Moon and Discord, and her increasing acceptance by her friends (especially Rainbow Dash and Rarity) lead to her slowly gaining confidence, to a degree she does not wholly grasp until fairly later. Fluttershy still imagines herself timid when she's routinely doing things that would terrify most Ponies, not the least of which, ultimately, is taming Discord.
8242496
Yes ... I've always realized that while the two most important Ponies in Spike's life are Twilight Sparkle and Rarity Belle, he's quite a gregarious Dragon and makes many other friends. Of these others, the four best would be the the four other members of the Mane Six.
There are ample signs of this in canon. It's obvious that the early bond Fluttershy forms with in Friendship Is Magic is strengthened by later experiences: there are a couple of episodes where Fluttershy is either physically-affectionate to Spike or clings to him as a source of emotional strength (in the case of my Fluttershy, quite literally). Pinkie Pie sometims plays with Spike, as they were doing with the little wedding-cake figures in A Canterlot Wedding; Spike is both often still childlike and highly intelligent, points of similiarity he has with her. Applejack likes and respects him, and Rainbow Dash clearly considers him cool.
Other Ponies Spike canonically befriends are the Cutie Mark Crusaders (I would guess especially Sweetie Belle, as he's around her a lot), and Big Mac (with whom he watches games with and roleplays),. There's also the old Canterlot set, including Moon Dancer, Lemon Hearts, Minuette, Twinkleshine and Lyra -- he was once accepted among them, and he's sitting with Moon Dancer watching Twilight's presentation at the start of The Cutie Re-Mark.
He was also presumably close to the other Ponies of his adoptive family -- Twilight Velvet, Night Light and Shining Armor. And, of course, he had a special relationship with Celestia, and in the IDW Comics becomes quite friendly with Luna as well.
Generally speaking, Spike is very charismatic. He's intelligent, gentlemanly and honorable, and makes a very good impression on Ponies. Writers who try to depict him as a lonely misfit miss the point -- he often feels a bit lost as a Dragon who lives in a Pony culture and has only a limited concept of how Dragon culture works, but he is very much accepted by that Pony culture -- and not just by Twilight Sparkle and Rarity.
8242723
Fluttershy and Spike are canonically friends, and were since Friendship Is Magic. If it weren't for the obvious point that Fluttershy loves Discord and Spike loves Rarity, I wouldn't even consider romance between them all that improbable -- though he and Pinkie are probably closer "types," as Spike is something of a party archosaur, when he's off-work.
8242715
Even more so than is normal for a Cutie Mark discovery, Fluttershy's Mark-Finding set the model for the whole rest of her life. Fluttershy can not only talk to animals, she finds them utterly fascinating and is unhappy living anywhere but in an environment where she can be around a wide variety of animals.
In the SWSV, she instinctively forms them into a combination Hive and Love-Source, and learns with them how to safely harvest Love from others without harming them, which is something a Changeling Royal would normally have to be explicitly taught. Being Fluttershy, of course, she finds the thought of even inadvertently harming anyone who feels Love for her horrifying -- she is in many respects the Anti-Chrysalis, just as Chrysalis is the Anti-Rosedust.
In the actual Show from an external-cause POV, I think that Fluttershy is half-inspired by G1 Posey and half by the G1 Flutterponies. The Flutterponies were canonically creatures who lived among Nature, and (though the show didn't say that they were) may well have been some sort of guardians of the ecosystem.
I see them as one of the Five Kinds (Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Sea Ponies and Flutter Ponies) originally created by the Eldren from the Primal Ponies, and having been created as eco-warriors, able in peacetime to maintain the environment, and in time of crisis to fight using the Utter Flutter. The Flutter Ponies were later twisted into the Changelings, but there are Flutter Pony atavistic traits in the other Kinds, which sometimes manifest (Tree Hugger is an example of an Earth Pony with such atavistic traits), and Sweetwing Wind (Fluttershy's mother in the SWSV) had such in her.
The combination of Sweetwing's and Chrysalis' genes produced a restoration of Flutter Pony capabilities in Fluttershy -- but she first has to learn how to Shift into her Flutter Pony form in order to use them at their full potential. She presumably won't learn this during the course of the Show, though she does learn to micro-Shift by the end of Season 3 (due to her third encounter with Chrysalis, in the IDW Return of Chrysalis arc) -- this goes a long way toward explaining how and why Fluttershy starts to become increasingly capable of physical heroism, and also why she's vulnerable to shapeshifting in "Bats!" (Twilight inadvertently geased her to Shift into a more batlike form).
After the events of Windvane's Rebellion in YOH 1512 (twelve years after the Return of Luna), Alicorn Fluttershy has full control over her Shifting powers, and is capable of initiating an Utter Flutter by herself. Though hers is still not as strong of that of a whole Flutter-Pony Swarm.
Is this an AU?
8245010
In which respect? The main one I think that applies to this story is that Fluttershy's mother is Sweetwing (implying, though I don't go into it, that the other family shown for her is adoptive, I have them be her cousins). I of course had her mother be Sweetwing Wind in stories written years before "Flutter Brutter."
8245038
Flutter Brutter is garbage and if you let me, I'll rant about it for ten minutes.
8245136
I was annoyed that they gave Fluttershy a much more mundane familial background than I gave her, and one which didn't answer some important questions about her, such as "What is her means of support when we first meet her?"
While later on Fluttershy is essentially a major security asset to the Realm, and as such might plausibly be getting a Royal subsidy, when we first meet her Fluttershy owns a good-sized, comfortable well-furnished home and does not seem to be doing any work other than tending to wild and semi-wild animals. She not only is not short of food and other supplies, but has enough to help support her animal friends (though they also hunt and gather on their own), including a BIG MALE BROWN BEAR.
She is clearly not poor.
Fluttershy also, from the beginning, speaks with considerable gentility. She has upper-class manners, and she's not the sort of Pony who would learn them to impress others.
Plus, she very much does NOT exemplify traditional Pegasus ideals. A lot of Pegasi would be ashamed to count her kin -- at least, before she becomes a national heroine with a history of doing badass deeds.
I put this all together and got "remittance mare." Her closest kin pay her a stipend to stay away from them and not mention the connection. And thus, Fluttershy Is Free (link on title). She's the bastard child of the highest-born possible Pegasus mare, who both by birth and by behavior embarrasses her kin.
Who are Zephyr Breeze and his family, then? They're her cousins; specifically, the set of cousins among whom she was happiest after her mother Sweetwing was committed and she was bounced from cousins to cousins. They're the ones who are the closest she's ever had to a "normal" family, and -- annoying as is Zephyr Breeze, he's a sweetie compared to her evil uncle Windvane (future leader of the New Pegasus Mandate rebellion) and her equally-evil cousin Ill Wind (the future Dr. Atmosfear, Windvane's minion and inventor of the Pegasus Device).
So, what annoyed you about "Flutter Brutter."
This story looks cute so far
Internalizing honorable and romantic traits of the nobility? No wonder got hit hard by the hammer of twitterpation at glancing upon that most fair lady on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration!
What a pleasant surprise to see the return of this story. And what a delightful look at the upbringing of a young dragon. Very nice.
Yes dragons are K types, but not a strong as ponies I would say. The whole Molt thing is most likely there because since they are long lived and territorial apex predators they need the space. So out goes the offspring when they get to the age to at least fight off most predators. That's also most likely the only reason the world isn't ruled by dragons. Of course like with Ember they can come back latter the life-cycle.
Heh. He always had a thing for that hue.
And yes, Night Light and Twilight Velvet are some of the greatest unsung heroes of Equestria. Any couple who survived Twilight Sparkle's infant surges should be praised throughout the land even before taking her later deeds into account.
In any case, that's the childhoods of both major players in this tale. Now to see how they get along after that first meeting.
Wonderful to see more from you. I was getting increasingly worried.
As for the chapter itself, we knew this in broad strokes, but it's nice to get some further details, especially seeing Fluttershy's first friendships develop. Though it's not all sweetness and light for her between now and Nightmare, even when one discounts Nosey...
(Also, assuming there's room in the SWSV timeline for "Dungeons & Discords," I can't help but wonder what Discord will think of encountering another Skeleton Horde.)
Random Factoid. The US actually has Jr guard programs for children as young as 10. An example would be http://www.seacadets.org/programs
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Maybe he just needed a chance to be friends with Ponies.
Fluttershy resolved to herself that, if she ever met anyone like The Twister, she'd try to make friends with him.
And eventually that's what she did. I like the foreshadowing here of Discord's return and his redemption. The informaton on old pony culture, especially the pegasi, is great too. You really do catch Fluttershy's essential sweetness and loving nature so very well.
How did I miss this chapter? Ugh!
I enjoyed reading about Spike's infant memories, even the ones in the egg. I am guessing he was in that egg for a LONG time.
'Spoiled by dragon standards'. Given what we've seen of their culture, no kidding! It gets worse when you look at 'Sweet and Smoky', see the ignorance of Garble and the other dragons as to why their eggs weren't hatching, you have to wonder if adult dragons tell their kids anything before they toss them out at puberty.
the ability to naturally project destructive effects from their mouths, and sometimes from other parts.
Thanks to this I am now imagining Ember or Spike or even Smolder projecting various fiery, ah, 'effluvia' from their hindquarters. Not a pleasant image.
And are there any Serpent People left? I remember that in the original Howard/Smith stories they possessed near-immortality, or at least some of them did. And they could also put themselves into states of suspended animation that could last for millions of years. If one was still around, woke up, and decided to bring their pets back under control... they'd be a much nastier enemy than almost anyone we've seen in the show save perhaps only Tirek.
Shouldn't this be in the SWSV group?