//------------------------------// // Telling Rainbow // Story: Becoming who she is // by RambleGaze //------------------------------// “Woah woah woah, slow down ‘Scotch. I can't help you if I don't know what you're talking about. Now what exactly do you mean by “wrong”?” Butterscotch absentmindedly pawed at the isolated cloud they stood on, letting his mane fall over his eyes. “I-I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. I’m just not… right.”  Rainbow Dash shot the yellow pegasus a quizzical look. “Okay, but how exactly? You don’t look… not-right.” Taking another quick glance around for any possible evesdroppers that might be hiding in the clouds, butterscotch tried to collect his thoughts. “I think I look very, very not-right. It feels... like I'm not a real pony, more like I'm someone else who just thinks that they're me. Sometimes I’ll look in the mirror and not feel like that's my proper face. I don’t like my nose, my muzzle, my legs, my eyebrows- I wish I could change almost everything about my body. And- and… do you ever get… jealous of other ponies?”  “No, why would I? I’m awesome!”  Almost immediately, Butterscotch’s list of feeling not-right-ness stopped dead in its tracks, and was replaced with a disgruntled expression. “Now is not the time, Rainbow.” The self-proclaimed awesome blue pegasus took a few more seconds of basking in her own brilliance, before returning her attention to her pink haired friend. “I apologize for that. You may continue.” she stated matter of factly. Butterscotch sighed. Rainbow Dash had been a great friend to him ever since he joined the flight camp 3 months ago, But sometimes her ego got in the way. What he had to say next wouldn’t help with that one bit. “Do you remember when you did the uh, what did you call it? the rainboom?” Upon hearing of her signature move, Dash grinned. “The Sonic Rainboom? How could I ever forget! That’s gotta be one of the greatest things that's ever happened in the entire history of-. It's not the time, right. again, I am very very sorry." Butterscotch let his scowl soften. "do you remember what I said happened to me that day?" Rainbow took a moment to ponder, raising a hoof to her chin. "Well, Let’s see, you got knocked down, saw the "place full of wonders" under cloudsdale, made friends with the monsters down there, and got your cutie mark, right?” “they’re not monsters-” Butterscotch protested, “-but yes. That’s pretty much what happened. There were these animals called butterflies- they looked like this-” he gestured to the pink trio sitting on his flank- “I could understand what they were thinking, and... when they first saw me, they thought I was a- a filly.”  “Hmm. yeah, I guess I could see why they'd come to that conclusion.” Rainbow contemplated aloud. Butterscotch seemed to light up a little on hearing that. "When I heard, or felt, or sensed it, however I knew what they though it felt... better. like I had spent my whole life stuck underwater, and that thought they had let me breath air for the first time. I- didn't correct them. I didn't want to." for one of the very few times in her incredibly awesome life, rainbow dash didn't know what to say. "I learned a lot about the animals down there. squirrels, ducks, bunnies, frogs, I love them all. But the Butterflies were my absolute favorite to learn about. When Butterflies are born, they’re a different animal, called a caterpillar. It looks kind of like a fuzzy little worm.”  Rainbow had absolutely no idea what a worm was, but she kept listening. “When the caterpillar grows up, it makes a cocoon, a teeny little casing they shut themselves inside, and they go to sleep for a while. And while they're sleeping, they slowly turn into a butterfly! Then they come out and they’re the most beautiful things you've ever seen. Better than my cutie mark could ever show you. And when I learned about all this on the ground, I wanted to do it too. Except... instead of a butterfly, I wanted to turn into a- a-” “Oh, I get it! You want to be a filly!” Butterscotch flinced, taken aback by Dash’s bluntness. “No! … Maybe… Yes.” He finally conceded, frowning. And That was it. he had told her. no matter what happened next, the was nothing that could undo what had just been said. The blue pegasus slowly trotted closer and rested her foreleg on Butterscotch's shoulder. “I’ll be honest with ya, ‘Scotch. I don’t really get it.”  In the few seconds between that sentence and the next, the shy pegasus was more terrified than she had ever been in his fright-filled life. His mind instantly rushed to the worst possible outcome for the scenario. Would Rainbow Dash stop being friends over this? Would she tell the other flight students? Would she tell the camp counselors, get the police involved and have butterscotch banished, or worse, banished and locked up for his unforgivable being-weird crimes? Soon, but still somehow too long for butterscotch, Rainbow spoke again. “But just because I don’t understand doesn’t mean I don’t care. If it’ll make you happier, be the best girl you can be. I’ll help any way I can. I got a few dresses from my aunt last hearth’s warming, you can have those. seriously, you could not take them off my hooves fast enough. You need me for anything, I’ll be there no matter what.” Butterscotch could feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. Quicker than Rainbow thought the colt could move, he had his forelegs around Dash’s torso, holding her in a sobbing embrace.  A small smile formed on Butterscotch’s face. She felt better. “Hey, you know what? If you’re gonna be a filly, you’ll need a different name, right?” Rainbow cut the hug short, trying to focus as hard as she could. “What about... Butterfly, like you said before? Hm, maybe not actually. It’s close though, definitely something like that. Ooh-ooh, no, wait wait wait something that rhymes with that! Let’s see, what rhymes with Butterfly?”