Interlude
I was told about the moment of my birth by my mother. She would tell it to me every night when I was too scared or too restless to go to sleep, back when I was a scaredy-filly. It was a story of hope; she said I could make it through the night, if I knew that the sun would be there in the morning, like it had come for me when I was born. Everything will always be okay. I will remember this story for the rest of my life. It was the most beautiful story I can remember. I owed my life to whatever miracle happened that day. I loved my mother with all my heart; she gave so much for me.
She gave her life for me…
This next memory is really hazy in my mind. It was so long ago. I’ll tell you the most important parts, because that’s all I can remember anyways.
Chapter 2
I was a little filly, about to start my first year of school. Unlike a lot of other ponies, I wasn’t afraid of going to school as a foal; I never had problems with other ponies. Others seemed quick to like me. I had already made many friends by the time I had made it to the first school year. But none of them would have as much of an effect as the one I met that day.
Even at such a young age, I was already a pretty reckless and radical flyer. Ponies all around Canterlot knew me as the Little Bullet.
On this particular summer evening, I trudged into our small house on the edge of Canterlot. I was sniffling, trying not to cry. I had crashed into Mr. Dew’s cabbage cart, and knocked off one of the wheels. He got really mad, and scolded me for it. He told me he was going to tell my mom about it. I walked home, hoping I wasn’t going to get into too much trouble. My leg hurt really badly, and there was a really bad scrape on it --it was really bad for a young filly, but looking back it probably wasn’t as bad as I thought--. Mom was waiting for me in the living room. She had a concerned look on her face.
“Hey, honey.”
I froze in place, and gulped. As a young filly, I wasn’t used to getting in trouble. I was worried what my mom was going to say.
“ Mr. Dew told me about what happened today. He said you crashed into his cabbage cart. Apparently one of the wheels broke.” I started shaking, “He said you told him you were sorry. That was very polite of you, but I think you need to be more careful when you’re flying. Understand, Rainbow Dash?”
I gave her a sad nod. My bottom lip started to quiver. Tears started pouring out of my eyes. I looked down at my leg. She came over to me and hugged me.
“I’m sorry Mommy, are you mad at me for getting in trouble?”
She gave me another squeeze, “Why would I ever be mad at you? I love you, honey, I just want you to be safe. We’ll wash up that scrape and get you a bandage, and then you should go get in bed. You’ve got a very important day tomorrow.”
Excitement flowed through my small body. Tomorrow would be my first day at the Academy of Canterlot Foals. I momentarily forgot the pain in my foreleg, and rushed into the bathroom. She took care of my leg. Just as she was finishing I heard the front door open. I practically teleported to the door.
“Daddy!”
Valiantwing was standing in the doorway, wearing his gunmetal gray barding he used during work. He scooped me up in his arms and gave me a kiss on the cheek. When I was still young enough for him to still hold me, he would do this every day when he came home from work. He looked at Mom, and smiled at her beauty.
“Alright, Rainbow. I think Mom wants you to get in bed. You’ve got a big day tomorrow! First day of school kiddo!”
He carried me to my bedroom, and lay me down on the soft mattress. My leg still hurt really badly, but I wasn’t tired, I didn’t want to go to sleep. Mom came into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. She leaned over and kissed my forehead.
“Do you want to know why I love you?” she started. I knew where this was going. She knew I was excited and didn’t want to get in bed, so she began her story. The way she started it every time she told it. I listened to the story of my birth, her words of how I was a miracle, born from the storm to bring hope. The story always made me calm, made me feel at rest. I fell asleep halfway into the story. I had heard it so often that I dreamed the rest of it, the sun shining down on me, the rainbow filling up my mane…
School the next day was amazing. The teacher was really nice and I made a lot of new friends. The first day of school would come to be one of the most important days of my early childhood.
Alright, to be honest, I really don’t remember much about the actual first day of school, but what happened when I wasn’t in school.
The class was let out for lunch. I sat in the playground, eating the hay sandwich my mom had packed from home, when something flashed in front of my vision. A red blur flew past me, and crashed into the tire swing on the other side of the playground. I got up to see what had happened and found, amidst the wreckage of the wooden frame, a bright red pegasus colt. He looked messy, and unkempt. His mane was a dark gray, almost black, and was sticking out in random directions. He was about the same age as me, but I didn’t see him in class today. Maybe he went to a different school.
He was dazed and disoriented from the impact. He reminded me of what happened to me the day before, so I decided to help him. I got him on his hooves, and when he was able to see straight, he saw the damage of what he had done. He started to panic. He looked around the playground, and saw that I was the only other pony around.
“Hey, don’t rat me out, ya hear me? I’m gonna have to take you with me, so you don’t go telling somepony on me.” The colt grabbed my tail and pulled me away from the crime scene. We rounded the corner of the school house, and rested on the far wall. He pinned me to the ground so that I wouldn’t try to escape.
“You shouldn’t try to lie about what you did! You should be polite and say you’re sorry. Haven’t your parents taught you anything?” I tried to reason with him, but he laughed at me.
“My parents haven’t taught me anything, other than I have nopony to trust. They didn’t stick around long enough for me to learn anything else.” He was scanning the area for witnesses.
“…You can trust me. I won’t tell anypony what happened…” I didn't want to lie, but this pony was scared, and I didn’t want him to get in trouble.
He leaned around the corner, and looked one more time at the crime scene. He turned to me and whispered, “You swear?”
“I swear.”
He released me from the ground. I stood up and shook the dirt off my coat. He began walking down the sidewalk, away from the school. I followed behind him.
“Shouldn’t we stay here? We have to go back to school after lunch is over.”
“School? I don’t go to school. I don’t have time. I could be spending my days doing more important things, like flying and napping.”
This was a strange pony, but I was really interested in where he was going, “What’s your name?”
“Aero. Aero Rightwing.”
“My name’s Rainbow Dash.”
He stopped in place, I nearly crashed into him.
“…Why are you following me?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to know where you were going.” The school bell began to ring.
“Listen, you seem like a nice filly, but you have places to be, and I have places to be. How ‘bout we meet after you get out of school?”
I thought that over. He seemed different, and I came to like something about him. Maybe it was the way he went so fast when he crashed into the play set.
“Sure, I gotta go, but I’ll see ya later!” I flew in the other direction, back toward the school. I smiled inwardly as I made my way into the schoolyard. I had made my first true friend that day.
The school bell rang, and we were released from class. I walked out of the school house and into the warm sunny afternoon air. Aero was waiting for me, under the shade of the big oak tree in front of the school courtyard.
“That took foreeevver!” he elongated the last word for emphasis. “Let’s go play, I heard there is this really fun hill on the other side of the castle that you can get going really fast on. C’mon, let’s go!”
Me and Aero played all day. We flew down that hill and laughed, until the sun set on Canterlot. He looked sad as I told him I should get home, before mom starts to worry about me. Then I got an idea.
“Hey! Why don’t you come home with me! You can eat dinner with me and my family!” I gave him a smile and ran back home. He followed closely behind.
“Hey, Mom! I brought home a friend!” I burst through the front door to see mom sitting in the living room. Aero walked in slowly behind me. He looked at my mother, then started rubbing his foreleg with his hoof, staring at the floor. “Can he eat dinner with us? Pleeeaase!” My mother looked into my deep, mirrored eyes. I had her in the bag. How could she say no to me, I was the cutest filly in all of Equestria.
“Sure honey.” She smiled at me, then looked at Aero. “What’s your name, young stallion?”
He puffed out his chest, and said, “Aero, Aero Rightwing!” I laughed, and mom chuckled.
“Well, I would be glad to have you eat dinner with us, does hay salad sound good to you?”
“Does it ever!” I heard a loud grumbling sound come from his stomach. We walked to the table, and sat down. Valiantwing walked in right at that moment. I rushed over to him, and he gave me his routine kiss on the cheek, and ruffled my rainbow mane. I looked over to Aero, who was looking at Valiantwing with the widest eyes I had ever seen. He ran straight towards him, gazing at my father with pure excitement.
“You’re a Storm Scout? No way! My name’s Aero, Aero Rightwing.” He looked over Valiantwing’s work barding with admiration and wonder. He started bouncing up and down, pure excitement flowing through his body.
“Hey there sport! What brings you around here at this late hour?” My mom walked up, and pulled me into her arms.
“Rainbow invited him for dinner. She seems to have made a new friend at school today.” We walked back to the table, and Aero walked up next to me.
“Wow… I can’t believe you’re related to a Storm Scout! Everypony knows they’re are the best and fastest flyers in all of Equestria. Do you think you are gonna be a Storm Scout like your dad?” he whispered, quiet enough for my parents not to hear.
“Dad thinks so, and I think it would be really neat. Daddy says, with my speed, I was destined to be a Storm Scout.” He made a “wow” face as we climbed into our chairs.
“So Rainbow, how was your first day of school, sweetie?” mom said between bites of salad.
“It was alright. I really liked the teacher. We learned about all the colors, and she talked about my mane.”
“And what about you, Mr. Rightwing?” my mom turned her magenta eyes on my new friend. I was momentarily distracted by my meal, and didn’t catch what my mom had just asked.
“Oh, I didn’t go to school.” I almost choked on my food. I coughed loudly, and looked nervously at my mother for a reaction.
“Oh my!” she looked at me suspiciously. Did she think that I didn’t go to school? I wouldn’t have skipped my first day of school for anything in the world! I shrunk in my seat. She didn’t ask any more questions. She looked at Valiantwing strangely, though.
I kicked Aero underneath the seat. He gave me a funny look, and then continued to eat his food.
After dinner was over, Aero and I listened to the radio for a little while in my room. Then mom walked in and watched us for a minute, smiling at our silly dancing. After the song was over, she interrupted.
“Hey Aero, I think you need to start heading home, don’t you think your parents are worried about you?” he looked at me, then frowned. Tears started to well up in his eyes. I didn’t want him to go. He looked at my mom, and tears started running down his cheeks. He was a foal, who lived on his streets. He was my friend, and he didn’t want to go back out there. He was scared, and I was scared for him.
“Oh… Where is your home Aero?” she looked at him quizzically. He broke down sobbing on my bed. My mother came over to him and hugged him. I started crying too. He started saying gibberish into my mother’s breast. My mother quieted him, and let him go.
“Wait here, sweetie, I’m going to go talk to Dad really fast.” She walked out the door.
“I don’t want to go, Rainbow.” He was crying hard, “It’s scary out there with nopony else.”
I went to the edge of my room, and put my ear against the wall, trying to listen in on my parent’s conversation. They were speaking in whispers in their room, across the hall.
“…He’s been living on streets, Valiantwing. He’s just a foal. He has nopony to take care of him.”
“I know, honey, but we’ve got our hands full with our own daughter as it is. We can’t just take him in…”
“I know it’ll be hard, but we can’t just leave him out there on the streets. He’s too young to take care of himself.”
Valiantwing sighed, “he can stay here, until we put him up for adoption. He will continue to live with us until a good family comes along to take him.” I got really excited, and looked up at Aero, who was still sobbing on the bed. I flew up to him and hugged him. He sniffled, and wrapped his own forelegs around me. Mom and Valiantwing walked in, and we quickly broke apart.
“Would you like to stay with us, Aero? We have a guest bed one door over you can sleep in.” Valiantwing had his foreleg wrapped around my mother. Aero nodded, and flew over to my mom, giving her a huge hug with a force that sent her stumbling backwards a bit.
“You can stay, on one condition,” chimed in Valiantwing, “You have to start going to school, with Rainbow. Are we clear young man?” Aero looked at me, making a gag face, then turned to my father and nodded once more.
They left the room, and Aero came over and looked at me.
“I guess we’re brother and sister now.” I laughed at the thought. He spat on his hoof and offered it to me.
“I guess so.” I shook his hoof, and smiled.