"As a Pony grows, it discovers its purpose in life; it is then that they get their cutie mark." Candy Cane explained to her class, the Pegasus pony had a red and white mane, with yellow fur. Her cutie mark was a blue bow tied around a candy cane. She scanned the class with her blue eyes and smiled, she was a new teacher in Cloudsdale, and was happy to teach in her sister, Raspberry Swirl's place while her sister attended a meeting in Ponyville.
"This is boring! Everyone already knows about cutie marks." A young Pegasus called Do Ray Me said, she was a white pony with a purple short mane, her cutie mark was three music notes.
"Ms. Candy Cane?" A small filly with a purple, green, and red main, also white in color, raised her hoof.
"Yes, Grape Vine?" she smiled at her, disregarding Do Ray Me's comment. "will we all get our cutie marks one day?" She asked.
"Yo, don't be such an idiot Viney!" DeTrix, a dark blue colt with a purple mane and a skateboard cutie mark said, taking his head phones off his ears and removing his glasses to show his piercing green eyes. He smiled at her, "Everyone gets their cutie mark eventually. Even you."
The filly blushed gently and looked down, feeling embarrassed.
"Don't be so sure, Mr. Detrix. Not every pony gets their cutie mark." Candy Cane said.
"Huh?"
"Say what?!"
"She's lying!"
The foals began to murmur to one another, the blank flank ponies looking worried now, Candy Cane sighed, "Apologies, perhaps I should explain some more?"
She walked over to stand in the center of the class and picked up some chalk to start writing on the board.
She wrote down three words: "Alex Red Tail"
The children all looked confused as she wrote this nice and large across the board. Candy Cane placed the chalk down then turned to the foals. "It's more than likely that every single one of you will have a cutie mark. But there is always a very small chance that a pony may not get their cutie mark, because they never found what they were good at." Candy Cane said.
"I'm going to tell you about an old settlement of Pegasi. They were unlike any other Pegasus ever known. They were a clan, all born of the same ancestors, who lived on the land, rather than in the sky. These Pegasus all had shiny red coats and dark red manes, and were ruled by a signal family. The Family of Skylar Red Tail, a brave stallion who kept his clan safe, but also kept them separate from all other ponies." Candy Cane said, drawing a picture of a large stallion on the board.
"Skylar had three foals, two daughters named Jen Red Tail, and Crimson Crimrose Red Tail. And a son called Alex Red Tail."
The Class listened intently as their teacher explained the background to them, curious about what this all had to do with cutie marks.
"Skylar was no longer with the clan when Alex was born however, and so Alex never knew his father. His mother was sickly and so she didn't last very long after her third foal. So Jen, the eldest of the two sisters, took care of the two. Although…"
She drew a picture of three z's on the board, and one of a bow. "Jen was very lazy, and often slacked off. She had been taught by Skylar, and was the best Pegasus archer ever known, only rivaled later by her younger Sister, Crimson. So Jen was unable to lead the clan and-"
"Ms?" Grape Vine put up her hoof again. "What does this all have to do with Cutie marks?"
Candy Cane gave her a confused look, then sighed. "I suppose you all want me to get down to the point then, don't you?" she said. The class nodded.
"Very well, back to Alex then. Jen, Crimson, and Alex were unlike the rest of the Red Tails. Though the red tails were all hard working, red eyed ponies specialized in archery and frowned on any form of close combat fighting, Jen was lazy, Crimson had one blue eye, and Alex… well, Alex was blind."
She paused to let the class think over this for a moment, and then continued. "This is where our story really begins. With Alex, soon after his mother passed on."