//------------------------------// // Chapter V: Memories // Story: The Harder They Fall // by DJ Leftwing //------------------------------// Authors Note: This entire chapter is a flashback. I know that flashbacks are usually in italics, but due to the fact that reading an entire chapter in italics can get tedious on the eyes, and there is going to be thoughts in the flashback, I have decided to type it in standard font. Now, without further ado, chapter 5… --- She had just returned from her first year of flight camp, and Rainbow Dash was feeling happy. No longer did she have to put up with her annoying teachers, thinking they knew everything and she knew nothing. She also knew that she needed to find a way to hide the filly that she truly was, and thus gain social acceptance. She hadn’t made any friends though, but that might come later, once ponies got to know the new Rainbow Dash, right now they all still associated her name with the little filly-fooler pegasus they thought she was. She entered her home, only to be met with silence, as her parents were nowhere to be found. They were most likely out drinking, or maybe in police custody, again. ‘Of course they don’t care enough about me to actually be here when I get home after being gone the ENTIRE summer.’ How did she get stuck with parents as horrible as these? Every other pony she knew had nice parents, ones that were actually there for them, that cared. Instead, her parents tried to avoid her, and when they were together, they were mean to her. Dash flew up to the second floor where her room was, her only place of unquestioned refuge in the entire house; even more so now that she had bought a state of the art lock for the room so that her parents couldn’t bother her in their usually drunken state. She fiddled with the various dials until she heard the distinctive click that signified the unlocking of the door and pushed it open. Her room looked exactly as she had left it before camp, empty. She had nothing but a bed, and a small chest with her few personal belongings at the foot of said bed. She opened the chest and dumped her saddlebags into it, sighing as the posters and medals finally filled the bottom layer of the box. She flopped down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow and letting out a soft sob. She would never be able to find a special somepony in her life now, but that was the price she had to pay if she were going to be accepted. Rainbow heard the front door open, and then shut with an ear-splitting slam. Her parents were home. She hoped that they wouldn’t realize that she was home, and just leave her alone so she could wallow in her misery, but no such luck came her way. Within a minute of arriving home, Mr. Dash called up to Rainbow and requested her presence downstairs. Rainbow got out of her bed and walked over to her door. She looked at the condensed panel of cloud separating her room from the outside world and contemplated just returning to the bed. A second shout from her father dispelled those thoughts from her mind though, for she knew that if he chose to, he would not hesitate to buck her door down, lock or no lock. She emerged from the room and looked down the hole between the two levels of the house, and got her first look at her father in the past three months. He hadn’t changed too much. He still had the dark, royal blue coat, the oddly bent right wing, and as it had been for his entire life, a blank flank. Rainbow’s father had never once in his life put any effort into trying to find his special talent, and he honestly just didn’t care. He was perfectly content to go along without a cutie mark, as long as he was still allowed to buy cider without it. He looked up and noticed Rainbow looking down at him. “Hey! Go into your little hidden stash and get a few hundred bits. You’re bailing your mother out again. And if you even think about disobeying, I’ll whip that little flank of yours until it’s as red as the red in your hair.” With a sigh, Rainbow contended to his wishes, knowing that he would have absolutely no second thoughts about following through with his threat. She retrieved a small pouch of about 200 bits from underneath her bed and tossed it down to her father below. She began to turn and return to her room, but his voice stopped her again. “Where do you think you’re going? I told you that you’re bailing her out; so get on down to the station while I see if I’ve got any cider left,” he said while walking towards the kitchen. Again, Rainbow sighed and fluttered down to the main floor. She grabbed her bits and exited through the front door. Rainbow started her journey towards the police station, flying slow so that she wouldn’t have to go home anytime soon, reflecting on how the other pegasi from camp must be happily spending time with their parents right now, while she was off the spend her savings to get her mother out of prison. She considered running away. She had the bits, and it’s not like she had anything at home that she actually needed to keep. She could simply leave and nopony would care about her. There was only one problem with the plan, she didn’t know anywhere outside of Cloudsdale to go and anywhere inside the city would be too easy for the police to find her. It would never work; she would never be able to get away from the tyranny of her parents until she was 16. Rainbow Dash was familiar with bailing her parents, for it was a standard occurrence when living with them. Tonight would probably be the tenth time this year that her mother had been at the station. It was such a common practice that the officers in the Cloudsdale police force were very familiar with the young filly, so much so that they greeted her by name when she entered the small building. “Evening Rainbow, come to collect you mom again?” “Yes sir, just one question. What did she do this time?” “Same as always, got drunk and got violent. It was the barcolt who got her fury this time around. He’s in the hospital with a broken muzzle.” “Oh, it’s that bad? I guess this means the bail is gonna be higher.” “Well that depends; is your father making you pay with your money again, or is it his bits this time?” “Mine.” “In that case, I’m going to go and tell him that he has to come and get her himself.” “No, no, no! Please don’t do that. He’ll know you did it because of me and then he’ll punish me for it. Just tell me what the bail is and I’ll pay it.” With a groan and a shake of his head, the captain named the price and accepted the bits from the young Dash. “I swear Rainbow Dash; he only takes advantage of you because you let him. Stop letting him be such a flankhole to you. I can’t believe I’m telling you to do this; but kid, disobey your parents for once.” Rainbow looked at him with a look that said ‘I wish I could’, and then turned and left the station. She knew that an officer would drop her mother off at her house within the hour, so she could just wander around the city until that happened (no use going home until her mother was there, otherwise her father would think she hadn’t done her job). The little filly decided to visit a small café that she enjoyed, since it was quiet and nopony ever asked her why she was there alone. She entered to the familiar ding that accompanied her opening of the door. There was only one other pony there, a dark grey filly with red hair. Rainbow recognized her from camp, and so decided to try to avoid her, lest she decided to poke fun. She sat at a table on the opposite side of the room and was soon presented with a menu with various smudges of unknown substances on it. She stared at the plastic coated paper, even though she knew exactly what she wanted, reflecting on the previous summer. She had learned her lesson about love. Fillies should only love colts, and colts should only love fillies. Nopony liked it if it were any other way; but if nopony liked it, and it weren’t supposed to be that way, why did she think like that? Why was she so different? Why couldn’t she just be normal like every… “Hey!” Rainbow jumped out of her seat and almost hit her head on the low ceiling above the booth. “Whoa, scared easily?” The grey filly from earlier had wandered across the café and had sat down across from Dash. It was she who had startled the distracted filly so. Rainbow slowly lowered herself back into the booth before replying. “No, you just startled me. What do you want anyways?” “Well, I thought I recognized you from camp, and I just wanted to say hi. I’m Cassandra. Rainbow Dash, right?” the filly asked as she extended her hoof towards Rainbow. Rainbow took the hoof and shook it, albeit warily, still expecting this to be some sort of buildup to a joke about her alleged problem. “Yes, I’m Rainbow Dash. So you just wanted to say…hi? That’s it?” “Well, yah. Just thought I’d at least talk to somepony I recognized before heading back to Las Pegasus. My allergies have been acting up way too much to get any sort of decent flying done here.” After that statement, Rainbow suddenly recognized the filly. She was the one that always had to go to the first aid building after coughing and sneezing fits. Everypony thought she was just sick, but allergies made so much more sense. She also realized that this pony would have been so busy with the medical problems that she didn’t know the rumors concerning Dash. Rainbow relaxed at this, losing the fear of mockery from this strange pegasus. “So, you’re from Las Pegasus? Why’d you come here? I would think the bigger city would be more interesting.” “Oh, it most definitely is, but the flight camp there sucks, and most of the ponies are all stuck up jerks or have had too much to drink. Thanks to my stupid allergies though, it looks like I’m going back.” “How does the camp suck? It couldn’t be worse than Cloudsdale’s.” “There’s absolutely no challenge whatsoever, I was the best in my class by far, and none of the teachers could even think of anything that I couldn’t do. At least here there are actual difficult things to do.” Dash looked at Cassandra, and noticed something that she found intriguing. Throughout her entire tirade concerning the shortcomings of her home city, her facial expression had not changed once. It had simply remained the same, as if it were frozen for eternity into a face that said, “I don’t care”. It was exactly what Dash wanted to feel, as if she didn’t care about the world or what they thought, she just wanted to be able to wear a mask like this filly in front of her was. If she could do that, maybe the world wouldn’t completely shun her. But giving the impression of not caring would probably be way too hard for her, so maybe, just maybe, she could find some other charade that she could adopt as her own. “So, you just gonna sit there and stare into space, or should I wait around in case you say something interesting?” Dash shook her head and replied to the question, “Oh, sorry, just lost in thoughts.” “Nawww, I never would have guessed.” ‘Sarcasm face, exactly the same, surprise surprise.’ “Well, it’s been nice meeting you Cassandra. I think you’ve given me an idea for something, though I’d really rather not explain what.” “Well…okay,” the grey filly said in a drawn out style as she stood up, “I’m just going to try not to think dirty thoughts about what that idea might have been, and say it’s been nice talking to you. Goodnight.” Cassandra wandered back over to her own table and resumed looking at her menu as Rainbow proceeded to return to her world of thought. She tried to think about what she wanted to be like to others, but all that her mind kept coming back to was the taunting that she had received at camp. ‘I want to prove them wrong, prove to them that I’m not a queer. Make them believe that I’m actually someone that they would want to hang out with. But how? I don’t have anything special going for me, everything is actually going against me. My parents hate me for even existing, everypony else hates me for being a filly-fooler, my teachers hate me for being so good and making them look stupid. Wait. That’s it. I’m a really good flyer! I’ll show them up with my flying. Nopony else at camp is as fast as me, and I’ll prove them wrong by being better than them. I’ll take captain Dave’s advice; I won’t let them do this to me anymore. I’m going to stand up for myself and show them that I am a pony worth knowing!’ With her internal monologue out of the way, Rainbow Dash felt as if she were ready to face the world and prove herself. She’d start with her parents. She’d show them that they couldn’t just boss her around just because she was there and was their daughter. True, they might beat her up more than they did now, but if she could prove to them that she wasn’t just a slave, it would be totally worth it. She looked down at the table and saw her fries that she had ordered sitting there. ‘Yum,’ she thought, as she began her assault on the condiment covered culinary creation. Dash arrived back home later than was necessary, simply to spite her parents. As she approached the cloud house, she noticed with satisfaction that the lights were still burning brightly from within the living room. Good, her parents were still awake, probably waiting for her to show up so they could yell at her. Boy, were they in for a surprise. She giggled to herself at what she was about to do, taking off from the cloud and flying towards her window. She entered her room through said portal, and landed lightly as to avoid any indication that she had arrived. It was time to make her parents feel like the stupid ones. She left her room and called down to the first floor, adding a slightly annoyed undertone to create the effect of well, annoyance. “Would you two mind turning the lights off for Celestia’s sake, I can’t get any sleep with them on!” She heard a crash as one of the two stood up, probably shocked that she had apparently been home the entire time. She grinned, thinking of the expression that was probably on their face. Rainbow quickly lost the expression though as she heard hoofsteps approaching. It was her father who had decided to come and confirm that it was actually her. ‘Yes, come on old man. Come and pick on your daughter and yell at her for not letting you know she was home. Just come and see how she takes it.’ “Where the hell have you been all night! Don’t you dare tell me you’ve been in your room sleeping, because I won’t buy it,” he said, practically yelling, his face turning a slightly purple color from the mixture of the blue and red. “Well you’re going to have to believe it, because that is what I’ve been doing, sleeping.” The stallion was shocked, never before had she talked to him in that tone. She almost sounded as if she were mocking him, and nopony got away with mocking him, nopony! Before Rainbow knew what happened, she was being pinned against the wall by her enraged father. Usually in this circumstance, as it happened quite often, Rainbow would break down into sobs and start apologizing, anything to get her dad to let her go and leave her alone. But this time was different; this time, she simply stared at him with a look of indifference, practically begging him to tan her hide. Much to the young Dash’s dismay, he happily obliged. --- Dash had now put up with two years of summer flight camp, and was once again returning home to her parents (keep in mind; it was not until the third year that she met Fluttershy). They hated her even more ever since her change in personality last summer. It was now not solely because they simply never wanted a foal, but it was because she was now proving just how much better than them she was. They hated this, for now she not only lived in their house and took up room and money, but she was making a laughing stock of them at the same time. Rainbow of course loved it, nopony made fun of her for her previous lifestyle, and she found that more ponies actually talked to her now. There were still those ponies that would make fun of her, but it was now mainly because of her tendency to collide with the many semi-solid objects that composed a majority of the city. Dash lay in bed, waiting for her parents to arrive back from their night out at the bar so that she could ignore their requests and just be a general nuisance to them, when he heard a knock at the front door. It wasn’t a soft, “Hi, I’m here for a visit and your doorbell is broken,” kind of knock, but a loud, heavy banging at the door, signifying that if they were not let in, they would come in anyway. Not wanting to have to bother replacing a door, the young pegasus proceeded to leave her room and answer to the unwanted disturbance. Standing on the other side of the door was Dave, the captain of the police force, with his hoof raised in preparation for another barrage at the door. When he saw that it wouldn’t be necessary, he lowered the appendage and asked if he could come in. Nodding, Dash stepped aside and let the light grey stallion through into the dark foyer area. Rainbow set about lighting a few candles as the captain wandered farther into the house, glancing around at the sparse furnishing and multitude of empty beer cans. “I assume you’re wondering why I have to make such an intrusive visit to your home,” the police stallion began, looking back at Rainbow as she entered the room, “but I’m afraid I have some rather unpleasant news for you. Oddly enough, you may take this very well, but both of your parents have been taken into custody on suspicion of child abuse, and due to the circumstances, you being underage and also not having any immediate relatives, we are required to place you in a foster home until a time that they are released.” Rainbow looked at him in shock. Did she hear that correctly? She actually wasn’t going to have to put up with those two ponies that she so much despised? It sounded too good to be true, but she could not think of any reason why Dave would lie to her in such a way, so before she could stop herself, she jumped and let out a cry of joy. A smile was plastered to her face when she landed, and she quickly turned and rushed upstairs to gather her stuff. She was leaving this house! --- The trial had not gone how Dash wanted it to. Somehow, her parents had gotten a decent lawyer, and had been declared not-guilty. She knew what this meant, it meant that she would be moving back in with them, and just as she was starting to get accepted by the others at the foster home. Life never seemed to work out how Rainbow wanted it to, always deciding to throw a curveball directly at her face. She wanted to leave this city, to move anywhere else as long as it was away from here. There was only a single, minor problem with her wish, and the word minor was the problem. She still had a year to go until she was 16, the legal age of becoming an adult for ponies. On the other hoof, she had gotten to spend most of the year without having to deal with her parents, which she liked, and the summer would be good since she was going to her final year of flight camp. Once she got that out of the way, she would be able to carry out her plan, and then she’d never have to see her parents again. All she had to do was get through these last two weeks of the school year, and she knew how fun that was going to be. --- As Dash was leaving for her third year of flight camp, she did not look back at her parents, nor did she hesitate, say goodbye, or show any sign of affection whatsoever. Not that doing any of these things would have done her any good, seeing as her parents hadn’t been there to see her off in the first place. No, they were both at a pub, celebrating her leaving for the summer, and without their knowledge, her leaving forever. She had packed everything she owned, save for the actual bed and chest, into her saddlebags this year and was ready to leave as soon as camp let out at the end of the summer. She would leave sooner, but it just so happened that her birthday was actually on the last day of camp, so she wasn’t allowed to by law. She had even already picked her destination, Las Pegasus. After hearing Cassandra talk about it all that time ago, she couldn’t help but want to visit the city, just to see what it was like. There was only one thing that Rainbow Dash did not count on. One thing that would cause her grand plans to take a side rail that led somewhere else entirely. That one thing was a canary yellow pegasus by the name of Fluttershy.