1985: Rainbow Ponies

FLUTTERBYE

Dark orange pegasus pony with melon/pink/blue/neon yellow mane and tail, glittering orange butterflies symbol

My most distinct recollection of Flutterbye in UK pony stories and comics is a story involving her and a spider. Flutterbye was - as her name perhaps suggests - a butterfly of a pony, somewhat flighty and superficial. She was afraid of spiders because of the way they looked, and could not see beyond the exterior to the kind heart within. However, in the story, Flutterbye flew and hurt her wing, and the spider caught her in it's web, stopping her from crashing to the ground and further injuring herself.

The Fact File gives an even more special characteristic for Flutterbye - a magic trick involving rainbow hair (this is a UK theme. Go with it.) According to the File, when she shook her mane, "dozens of beautiful butterflies magically appear." We might even say, then, considering the Gen3 DVD with Hidden Treasure, that Flutterbye's descendants founded Butterfly Island ;)

There was no UK release of Flutterbye, but a pony very similar to her was brought out around 1987 in Germany and, I believe, Austria. Named "Hummelchen", this pony is identical in all ways but one to the North American release Flutterbye - she has a painted symbol.

HUMMELCHEN (Germany, 1987) Mint On Card
(Thanks to LD for the use of this picture)

Although there is no UK release of Flutterbye, that didn't stop her from being issued on UK card:

FLUTTERBYE, "UK" stamped card
(Thanks to Shivhae for this image)