The small town of Trottingham was rather unexpectant of what was just about to happen to them. They weren’t aware that just outside the town, where a family of six unicorns lived, three of those unicorns were planning a trick like no other. The ponies of Trottingham were about to be part of a prank that would muddle with their minds for a long time.
“No, no,” one of the cream colored ponies fretted, as he laid by his brothers on the grass, sprawled across the grass in front of their small house. “That won’t work. Don’t you remember, we did that last month!”
“Oh, right,” the grey-blue colt sighed. “Clover and Trail Gaze weren’t very happy with us about that.”
The other cream pony looked at the grey-blue pony incredulously. “You know, it’s been two years since we adopted you. Why don’t you just call them mom and dad?”
The grey-blue colt shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand Flim.” He went back to the plans between the three colts. He crossed out a few more things, and tried writing another thing down.
“That won’t work, Muddy!” the first cream colored colt said. “We tried that just last week! And don’t you remember, it did nothing to evoke laughter at all.”
Muddy furrowed his eyes. “Sorry Flam. I guess I’m not the best at planning jokes.”
Flim let out a sigh. “It’s okay Muddy.” He turned to glare at Flam. “Flam is just being a meanie. I thought your past ideas have been funny.”
They continued on trying to figure out what to do, and as they continued, Muddy couldn’t help but thinking of a lot of stuff. As of right now, he was the youngest of his family, and as Flam had pointed out, adopted. He was also currently the only pony in his family without a cutie mark, which was something he was upset about. Flim and Flam both had their cutie marks by the time they were his age.
“Aha!” Flam exclaimed. “I know what we’re going to do!”
“What?” Flim asked, propelling his ears just a little bit further. His olive green eyes seemed interested in what his twin was speaking.
“Just listen in,” Flam spoke, gesturing for his two brothers to lean in closer. They did, and he whispered his plan to both of them.
Muddy had his doubts about it, but when his brothers both seemed like they were on board, even with Flim being a bit doubtful himself, he decided not to speak out against it. The three young colts filled up their saddlebags with the stuff they would need, trying their best not to disturb their mother, Clover, who was mixing medicinal herbs for a patient in town who was extremely ill. Clover was apparently the only pony who knew the herb for curing the poor pony, who was vomiting extremely and kept fainting at random points.
“C’mon Muddy Waters,” Flam said, nudging Muddy on the way back outside, as he was watching Clover mix some of the herbs that she grew in their garden.
With one last look at his adopted mother, he followed his older brothers out of the house, and into the small town of Trottingham, where the ponyfolk were going about their business, not minding the three young colts as they walked through the town.
When they got to the center of the town, Flam turned to Muddy and Flim, and said, “Okay, boys, it’s just as we talked about. You two go and take the envelopes with you. You’re going to have to split them between the two of you because our magic isn’t developed enough for one of you to do it all by yourself. Remember, put the silly string in half of them, and the noisemakers in the other.”
Muddy nodded his head, and he and Flim went to hide in an alley close by to where Flam was. They took the twenty envelopes out of their saddlebags, and as they started sorting the noisemakers and silly string into the envelopes, Muddy couldn’t help but feeling doubtful about everything.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” he told his adoptive brother.
“What’s wrong?” Flim asked, curiously.
“I’m just afraid I’m going to mess this prank up on accident,” Muddy said, looking downward. He couldn’t help but feeling embarrassed about what he was thinking. He couldn't help it though! He may’ve been a unicorn, but he had issues with even the smallest levitation spells at points, and that’s almost exactly what this prank called for!
“What are you talking about? You get what we have to do, right?” Flim couldn’t understand why his brother was freaking out like this. The younger colt was nearly hyperventilating, and Flim knew that he had to calm Muddy down. He just had to figure out how first. His mind went into overdrive, trying to think of a way to do so before Flam’s signal would come.
“It’s not that,” Muddy Waters said, trying to explain himself. “It’s just that, I’m not very good at magic, and I’m kind of afraid that I’m going to mess this up for you and Flam. I know how much you two like pulling your pranks.”
Flim shook his head. “It’s that negative thinking that makes you not good at magic. Every unicorn is born with the ability to do magic, and while some of your unicorns might say you need to read and study, it’s all based on will. Didn’t your birth parents ever teach you that all you have to do to excel at basic levels of magic is just believe you can? The second you start doubting yourself will be the second you fail.”
Muddy looked down at the ground, and murmured, “No.” He didn’t like talking about his parents, even though he missed them so much. While he’d found his perfect fit with Flim and Flam’s family, which was his family now, he couldn’t help but missing his birth parents. They’d tried shoving their talents down this throat, and pushed him hard to the point of exhaustion most days, but they’d been his parents. He may’ve had his days he’d disliked what they did, but in the end, he loved them. And he was getting to the age where he was having a difficult time remembering what they looked like anymore.
“Oh,” Flim said, “I just thought, because Mom and Dad taught us when we first started to become interested in magic. Flam I never wanted to learn anything other than the basics, because that requires a lot of studying on skill at that point, but the basics is what most unicorns learn. But that was when we were both six.”
“My parents died when I was five, and I’d never been interested in magic before,” Muddy murmured, still not looking at his brother. He hoped Flim would understand he didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
“Right, alright,” Flim get, catching Muddy’s hint.
Just then, they heard Flam speaking really loudly, “And I have the greatest thing in the entire world to show you today! Something that’ll make life fascinating and exciting at the same time. It’ll make everything so much easier!”
“That’s the signal,” Flim whispered to Muddy, as they both put the finishing touches on the last two envelopes. “Concentrate now, it’s just a simple levitation spell.”
Muddy did as the cream-colored colt requested, and closed his eyes to concentrate on the envelopes, trying to imagine them in his head flying. He could feel his horn flicker alive with his normal grey glow, which at least meant the magic was attempting to work. When he opened his eyes, he let out a gasp, his half of the envelopes were floating in the air, and while a couple dived down a couple times, they were holding steady.
“Good job,” Flim spoke, and Muddy diverted his eyes to see his older brother was smiling. Then he turned back to his envelopes and invoked the next part of the plan. He imagined the envelopes gliding across the ground, still floating, and they did.
The envelopes crossed around the corner, while Flim and Muddy followed, but staying out of sight of the rest of the townsponies. Only Flam knew where they were.
One of the mares, a pink pegasus with a bright blue mane, spoke, “What are you on about now child? The last time you told us that, you tried to burn down half the town!”
Flam looked nervous, but quickly regained his appear, which was something both Flim and Muddy were used to. Their brother was fast at recovering his composure, especially when it came to these sort of things. His olive-green eyes met the mare’s violent orange ones, and smiled.
“Why, that was an accident of course!” he boasted quickly. “You have to realize that sometimes our grand ideas just happen to need a bit more work. But, this one here, it’s a guarantee foolproof plan that shouldn’t backfire. We’ve planned everything out, and we’ve even tested it a bunch of times!”
The mare’s eyes narrowed, and Muddy couldn’t help but hoping his brother would hurry up. He was starting to strain with his magic, and he had a bad feeling that if Flam took much longer, he would lose control of his half of the envelopes all together.
“Show us then,” the mare demanded.
Flam smiled. “My pleasure.” His tail whacked towards where Muddy and Flim were hiding, and Muddy knew that was his cue. He closed his eyes, and thought about what he was doing. When he opened his eyes, the envelopes were flying across the open area, towards the crowd of ponies gathered.
The mare who’d been doubting everything glanced at the envelopes warily. “What is this supposed to be?” she asked.
“Magically flying envelopes!” Flam exclaimed. “They move on their own, and it doesn’t cause anypony any magical strain to make them fly. Just tell them where you want to go, and they’ll go there. Here, watch.” He gestured to an envelope nearby, one that was surrounded by Flim’s green magical aura. “Go to Whisking Batter,” he told the envelope, and Muddy noticed Flim concentrating particularly hard as the envelope flew over to the pink mare who’d been doubting the entire thing.
“Open it,” Flam told her, smiling.
She did, and out popped a noise maker, causing a loud noise to go off. Suddenly, the other envelopes slid to other members in the crowd, and they popped open, letting off noise makers and exploding silly string everywhere. Muddy and Flim looked at each other, and started to laugh.
Just then, a familiar cream-colored pony came walking through the town, with a saddlebag ladened with heavy-looking medicinal supplies. The laughter died in Muddy’s throat, and he could see Flam trying to back away slowly to where his two brothers were hiding.
“What is going on?” the mare asked.
“Clover!” Whisking Batter exclaimed. “Your son here has set a bunch of exploding envelopes on us!”
“Flim, Flam, and Muddy Waters!” Clover exclaimed, her voice extremely loud. “If you three don’t get out here now, the punishment for this will be much worse!”
Muddy knew what that meant, Clover always threatened that, and he knew that if he didn’t comply with what she wanted, the punishment would be very much worse. He was the first of the three brothers to step forward.
“H-hey, Clover,” he said, a smile flickering at his mouth. “What brings you here? I thought you were going to be busy today.”
“I am. I have come to check on Poetic Writing to make sure she was doing okay, and to give her her daily dose of herbal remedy.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you here now? I thought I told you three to stay out of trouble.” Her eyes glanced over Muddy, and looked around the crowd. “Where are your two brothers at?”
Flim and Flam both came out of the shadows, their heads hung low. They both knew that they were in trouble, and they didn’t want to be punished. They knew it would be better if they just came quietly.
“What were you three thinking?” Clover demanded of her three sons. “Do you not realize how destructive you’ve been? Letting off noise makers and setting of silly string? Don’t you realize ponies have better things to do than to deal with your three’s silly pranks?”
“Sorry, Mom,” Flim spoke, his voice filled with regret. He knew he should’ve told Flam no. He’d had the nagging suspicion that their mother would find out about this prank, and that they would be in trouble. If it had been their father, he would’ve been a mite bit nicer, but because it was their mother instead, they were going to be grounded for at least a month, if not longer. This was one of their more severe pranks, normally they didn’t try to take on the entire town. Most of the time, it was only one or two select ponies (most of the time being Whisking Batter as no one really liked the rude mare) that they focused their pranks on.
“You will be after you’ve been grounded for a month!”
“That’s not fair!” Flam exclaimed. “We have to be grounded just for having a bit of fun? It’s not our fault that there’s nothing to do at home!”
Clover’s purple eyes narrowed. “Really now? Perhaps you can find fun helping me with making Poetic Writing’s herbal remedy! And you may add another week onto your grounding as well, Flam.”
“Clover,” Muddy spoke, quietly, looking at his adoptive mother in worrisome. “I-umm...I was just wondering. I was the first of us to step forward when you said, and you said our punishment would be less if we stepped forward.”
“Of course,” Clover said, smiling at her youngest son, happy he was at least able to ask about the lesser punishment. “Okay, so let’s see. We’ll let you get off a week earlier than Flim for stepping forward when I first asked.”
Just then, Muddy felt something tingling along his flank, almost like somepony was tickling him with a feather. When he looked back, he was actually surprised. On his flank was a grey envelope with black wings.
“You’ve got your cutie mark!” Flim exclaimed. “Flam, Muddy has his cutie mark!”
Muddy couldn’t figure out what his cutie mark meant though. Why was it an envelope? It just didn’t make any sense to him. Was he supposed to be a male pony? But he didn’t want to be a male pony! That was boring!
“What’s it mean though?” Clover mused.
“I know what it means,” Flam said suddenly. Clover, Muddy, and Flim looked at the young unicorn. He smiled, and said, “Obviously it’s a reference to our latest prank. We made it seem like the envelopes were flying, ergo the flying envelope. So, Muddy’s special talent must be playing pranks!”
That was cool sounding to Muddy Waters, although he couldn’t figure out why his special talent was doing something he wasn’t the greatest at. Perhaps he was going to get better at it eventually? Hopefully, especially if it meant that it was his special talent! Being not bad, or mediocre at his special talent wasn’t something he wanted!
“Let’s get back to the house now,” Clover told her three sons. “You can explain to Trail Gaze and Fastpacer why you three got grounded. And perhaps, before your grounding starts, we can throw you a small party for getting your cutie mark, Muddy.” She smiled, proud of her son for getting his cutie mark, although she couldn’t help but being worried. If Flam was right, and Muddy’s talent was pranking ponies, then that would only cause trouble for the boys, because there was no doubt that Flim and Flam would want to help with the prank. And dear Celestia, when that would happen, she hoped that she would have the strength to stop them.
Author's Note
Sooooo, I still don't have a picture of Muddy Waters. I mean I do, but I need to redraw it because it's drawn on a piece of paper that's wrinkly.
But, this was the first glance at his back story, and I hope you all enjoyed it! I have two more one-shots planned for him that will be posted along the time of me posting Love is in Bloom.
By the way, I have two headcanons for Flim and Flam. Muddy's story deals with one version, and Love is in Bloom deals with the other.