Chapter 1
It was a beautiful morning in Cloudsdale. Spring was coming to a close, which meant one thing for all the little pegasi: school was starting. Within the city, tucked away in the suburbs rests a young Fluttershy. Her mother quietly walked into the room to wake her sleeping daughter.
“Wake up my little filly,” the mare said softly to her sleepy daughter, “today’s the first day of school.”
Fluttershy tiredly looked up at her mother, “Do I have to go mama? What if the other fillies don’t like me?” Fluttershy always had trouble making friends and since she never had any siblings, it made her even more nervous about her first day at school. She mainly stuck close to her mother and some nights she couldn’t sleep without laying right beside her.
“What’s not to like about you?” her mother replied. Fluttershy timidly looked down at the floor
“Umm…well I could be…umm…” she trailed off like she normally did when she didn’t know what to say. Her mother gave a little chuckle as she pulled the covers off of her small daughter.
They then went about their normal mother-daughter morning routine. They would both go to their rooms and make their beds. Afterward they would head downstairs for some breakfast and catch up on any news that had happened. They had to adjust it a little bit now that school was starting. After Fluttershy had her bath her mother wanted to be sure that she looked good for her first day so she spent her time brushing her hair for her.
“Mama?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes dear?” she responded
“How do I make friends?” Fluttershy said.
“Well honey, you just need to talk to people. Eventually you will know who would be a good friend. Who knows maybe your new friend will talk to you first,” Fluttershy found comfort in her mother’s words. She always seemed to know what to say like all mothers should. Fluttershy’s mother pulled her daughter’s hair back and faced her toward the mirror.
“You look so much prettier when people can see your eyes. Do you like it?”
“Yes mama.” Fluttershy said reluctantly as she looked at her reflection.
“Ok go pack your bags and get ready to leave. I’ll be downstairs come get me and we’ll walk to school together.” Her mother left Fluttershy in the bathroom and proceeded downstairs. Fluttershy looked herself once more in the mirror, she did like her new hairdo but she couldn’t hide behind it with her hair back. She quickly let her hair down and ran off to her room. She packed her bag and met her mother in the kitchen.
“Mama I'm…um, ready to go.” Her mom turned around and gave her daughter a discerning look when she noticed that her daughter had changed her hair.
“Alright,” she said with a sigh, “well we should get going, we don’t want to be late.”
The two left the house and headed toward the Cloudsdale Flight Academy. Fluttershy and her mother always flew everywhere in Cloudsdale so Fluttershy could get more comfortable with flying but they stayed close to the cloud walkway just in case Fluttershy got too nervous.
“Mama, what’s school like? The kids I mean.” she asked trying to keep up with her mother.
Uncertain about how to approach the question she simply replied with, “I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends dear.”
A few minutes later they approached the school. As they approached the school Fluttershy could see the large cloud building, surrounding it she could see the large obstacle course the ponies would eventually have to fly. She then looked down at the other ponies getting dropped off at the school. As far as she could see there was no pony her size, all the other ponies in front of her were close to twice her size. Fluttershy slowly backed up and flew closer to her mother almost hitting her mother’s win as they moved closer to the school. The two landed softly on a cloud then her mother turned to face Fluttershy and bent down to talk to the young filly.
“I want you to do your best today and try to make some friends,” Fluttershy looked up at her mother through the eye that wasn’t cowering behind her pink mane, “don’t worry about these bigger ponies, they won’t be in any of your classes it’ll just be other fillies like you, ok dear?”
Fluttershy looked down at the cloud shyly. She was about to say something when she felt her mother’s muzzle kissing her forehead. She put her hoof under her daughters chin and lifted her daughter’s head.
“I love you. I’ll pick you up right here after school.”
“I love you too mama.” Fluttershy reluctantly flew off toward the school. Once she landed near the steps to the front door she looked back to see if her mother was still there. She caught a glimpse of her mother waving as other ponies walked in front of her trying to get to the school. Fluttershy fought back tears as she walked into the school. On the opposite side, Fluttershy’s mother was fighting back tears herself, once she lost her daughter in the crowd she turned around and started flying toward home.
Fluttershy entered the school; other fillies flew through the halls all around her. The laughter of the young ponies talking about their summer break filled the halls. Everyone seemed to already know one another, everyone except Fluttershy. She stuck mainly to the cloud floors, away from everyone else. Most of the other fillies liked to fly everywhere they went, the only reason they landed was to get into the lockers that reached the floor.
After searching the halls, Fluttershy finally found her classroom. She stood outside of the doorway just looking inside. From where she stood she saw other fillies flying into the room; she silently thought to herself that anyone of these fillies could possibly be her friend. Finally after a few minutes of staring into the room the bell rang. The halls emptied quickly and left the shy filly standing alone in the hallway. Fluttershy took a deep breath and slowly walked into the room.