An Array of Horrid Events...
A five year old cream coloured filly pranced and laughed on the outskirts of the forest beside her humble home. Her mother was calmly sitting in her rocking chair, smiling at her lovely daughter while she was knitting. Her husband soon came outside and stood beside her, looking at his young, vibrant daughter, laughing and playing with her bunny. Their calm moment was interrupted by the filly's older brother rushing past them to join his beloved sister in her merriment. She smiled and tackled her brother to the ground, laughing and grinning ear to ear at her dear sibling, while her parents chuckled and thought to themselves...
"Our life couldn't be any more perfect than with our children..."
10 years later...
Fluttershy cried in outside her parents room, where her mother lay in bed and her once loving heart beating slower and fading. Zephyr Breeze came out, tears shining in his eyes and his hoof on his hurting heart. He looked upon his sister, and shook his head. She choked on more tears and let her brother hold her before her despair-filled father called quietly to her.
"Fluttershy? Come here please..."
Fluttershy looked at Zephyr again. He nodded, wiping away what few remnants of her tears that he could. She got up and slowly went through the threshold of her parents room. She had to hold back a heartbreaking sob as she saw her mother, looking weak and helpless on her deathbed. Her mother turned her head to her and managed a weakened smile.
"My little filly... Come here..."
Her daughter obeyed shyly and replaced her fathers place beside her bedridden mother. She started to cry again before her mother held her face tenderly.
"Fluttershy... Look at me, dear..."
Again, she obeyed her mothers request and looked at her with red, pained eyes. Her mother undid her necklace around her neck and held out her hoof for Fluttershy's. Fluttershy cried as she gave her hoof to her, feeling the surprisingly warm metal of her mothers locket. As the full weight of her mothers most loved possession lay in her hoof. She laid her head on the bed and sobbed. Her mother stroked her trembling, pink hair and kissed her miserable daughters head. She put her hoof under Fluttershy's chin, urging her to look up. She did and saw her mother smiling freely.
"Fluttershy, can... can you promise me something?"
She couldn't deny her mother that, nor anything in her state, so she nodded. Her mother sighed and gripped Fluttershy's hoof.
"Fluttershy... Your my daughter... my beautiful, loving, and laughing little filly... And... And I could never imagine you being in pain, no mother could... What I want you to promise me, Fluttershy is... is that you don't grieve over me after my death..."
Fluttershy's tears strengthened and made her look down.
"I want you to be happy... I want you to be the kind and caring mare you've always been... I want you to not be burdened by me... And I'll always be here,"
She put a hoof on her daughters heaving chest, making Fluttershy's breathing slow and her hoof reach up to clasp her mothers.
"With you, your brother, and your father... But please Fluttershy, my darling, my one and only daughter... Please promise me you'll do this?"
Although it pained Fluttershy deeply that she couldn't do anything to stop this, she could do one thing... Honour her mothers wish and promise her what she wanted.
"I... I promise... Mama..."
Her mothers face brightened and it seemed her face held less age and weight then before. She smiled and rested her head on her pillow.
"Thank you, darling... Thank you. Thank you..."
Her eyes shut slowly with a smile on her face. Fluttershy grew frantic while her heart sped up in fear. She touched her mothers face with a hoof.
"Mama?"
Her mother didn't respond and simply laid there. She grew worryful all the more and gripped her mother by her shoulders.
"Mama!?"
Nothing. Fluttershy's tears burst, her head laying on her mothers lap and her broken tears leaving her and caressing her now deseased mother. Her father and brother cried with her, their sobs echoing into the night...
1 year later...
Here lies Nimbus Shy and Blossom Shy... Loving husband, wife, and parents. They will be dearly missed...
Fluttershy held her brother, crying her eyes out as she read the tombstones of now both of her parents. Her father had just died during the night and when she had went in to wake him up for breakfast... He hadn't gotten up immediately like usual. She had went to his side and shook his shoulder, but no response. She had grown frantic and tapped his face, trying to get a reaction. When he still laid there, she had put her head to his chest... No heartbeat. She had screamed for her brother as she cried at the loss of her father...
Her brother urged her up as rain started to fall. Fluttershy followed and winced as an all too familier voice yelled at them.
"Fluttershy! Zephyr! Hurry up you lazy, good for nothing's! I don't want my dress to get wet or my daughter to catch her death!"
She whimpered at her stepmothers spiteful tone. Her father had re-married, a promise he had made to mother, a few months after her death to Chrysalis, a recently bankrupt lady. Mother had made him promise that the next most least fortunate and sweet mare he came across would be his wife, so that he may care for her and love her as he had for his dying wife over the past years. Chrysalis had talked with him about his dead wife, his land, and his children before she started to put on the charade of a heartbroken, unlucky, widow with a child to feed. Fluttershy's father bought the act and figured he had found his new wife, thinking that she was a humble, loving, and truly unlucky lady. So he full filled his late spouses wish and married Chrysalis.
She was overly sugar sweet when father was around, but when he went into town or outside to farm the land, she was a cruel and heartless mare to Fluttershy and Zephyr. Now that their father was gone, she and her daughter could treat them however they liked.
"If you two don't hurry up you'll be cleaning the entire house and farm the land in the rain!"
They looked at eachother with worried expressions and walked to their new family, who they knew wasn't going to be as loving and compassionate as their departed parents...
3 years later...
Fluttershy wiped the sweat on her brow from the labour of cleaning the house all day and finally finishing. She looked out a nearby window and saw that her brother was plowing the field, perspiration making his clean linen shirt damp with his own trialling task. She sighed and sat down before she heard the screech of her stepsister, Suri. Suri was just a wicked and hateful as her mother, times two if you were unlucky.
"MOTHER!!!"
Fluttershy sighed and rubbed her temple. It gave her a horrendous headache whenever Suri threw one of her 'fits'. Her brother came in, dripping with sweat and his breath in heavy heaves.
"Sis, I don't know how much more of this I can take. You have no idea what sweat does to your mane!"
He showed her his limp golden locks making her cringe but slightly giggle.
"Brother, you know that we must obey whatever our stepmother says. I feel overworked too but... we must be kind to her and do as she says."
He saw her sad expression and hugged her.
"I know, sis... I know... I miss mom and dad too..."
She smiled faintly despite a few tears that escaped her.
"Zephyr Breeze, I made mama a promise and I intend to keep it... Even though it pains me to do so in the condition we are in..."
An angry looking Suri, followed by her fuming mother, came stomping down the stairs. They both glared at the two siblings.
"What are you two doing? GET TO WORK BEFORE WE MAKE YOU GO WITHOUT SUPPER TONIGHT!"
Chrysalis nodded in agreement before looking around the house and outside. The field was plowed and seeded, the produce brought in, while the house was sparkling clean, like crystals in the moonlight. She looked upon her step children with a scrutinized glare before placing a hoof on her daughters shoulder.
"Suri, be silent."
Her daughter was about to protest before her mother gave her a glare. The two scared siblings waited to hear what their stepmother had to say.
"Since you have done everything we have asked of you, I suggest that a walk to town with all the produce you've harvested is in order."
They looked at eachother, surprised that their stepmother wasn't going to yell at them. They started to grow excited before Chrysalis nipped their happiness in the bud.
"Well? Don't be ignorant fools about it! Go load the carts up while me and Suri get ready!"
They yelped and did what they were asked quickly, while smiling at the tiny freedom that their stepmother had unknowingly given to them...
Author's Note
Ok so here's the first chapter! Sorry it's a little short, but it's just the prologue. I do hope you enjoy it so far, although a little sad. I tweaked the chapter a little to please the rather helpful comment from Toonsgirl!
