//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: I'm What?! // by DanishDash //------------------------------// Rainbow and Rarity always had their different interests, different opinions, and different ways of dealing with stress. Today however, Rainbow took out a page from Rarity's book, and was stuffing her face with ice-cream, laying on her couch, crying as she sprinkled more rainbow pops on the delicious dessert.  "Sniff.. It's over.." She sobbed, stuffing another spoonful of Racer Super Deluxe Caramel Chocolate Chip flavored ice-cream supreme into her mouth. "All those years of training, gone.. Sniff... Stupid, stupid, stupid.." She was well aware how whiney she sounded, how selfish she came across, but it was true. Years of training, and after one night, she was going to put all her dreams on hold. Was it the foal's fault? Of course not! This was her fault, she knew that... Though that didn't mean she couldn't cry and guide S.S. Pity to ice-cream island, and transport the goods back to her muzzle. "Goodbye dreams... Sniff.." She sang, guiding yet another spoonful of creamy pity to her mouth. Looking down at her stomach, she gently ran her hoof over it. "Enjoy the ice-cream, kid..."  Sighing, she leaned her head back, trying to clear her head. "You know.." She said after a few seconds of silence, speaking to her still growing foal like if it was actually there to listen. "This is going to be okay, right? I mean sure, I'm going to leave my dreams behind for a while, but, maybe I can join up after a year's time. Then you can join me on tour, sounds fun, right?" Silence. "Shut up, you don't know how cool it would be to have the fastest flyer as a mom, and as a flank kicking Wonderbolt! Yeah, you would have the coolest mom in Equestria!" Rainbow declarers, trying to convince herself she had just made a great point. "You get to see me fly, the other Wonderbolts. Not to mention you get to see the world, kiddo.. You'll even learn how to fly from the best!" Looking down at her stomach again she smiled. "Sounds great, right?" Silence. "I mean, sure, you would have to change schools a lot.." Rainbow continued, waving the spoon around as if to list off the more problematic things about that plan. "And that would make it hard to make friends, but you know, you can have pen pals, and that could-errghhhhhh...." Rainbow started to groan. "Noooo, that would suck.. And make me an uncool mom.." She didn't want her foal to grow up like that, moving from place to place all the time, never connecting with any real friends. Was it even a life she could imagine for herself as a little filly? No.. Her own parents had been there for her every step of the way, they had done everything they could to encourage her to pursue whatever dream she had. She wanted to do that for her foal as well, but it meant sacrificing her own dreams. Was that what it was to be a parent? What did her own mom sacrifice fo- Knock knock knock! Rainbow sighed, then looked into the ice-cream bucket. "Ergh.. Well, we were running low on frozen pity anyway, come on kiddo, lets see if there is more bad news at my door.." She mumbled, floating towards the door and opened it. She was expecting all of her friends, but no, it was only her oldest. "Oh, hey, Fluttershy. What's up..?" "Well, you kinda left in a hurry yesterday, I wanted to make sure you were okay.." Fluttershy replied, then tilting her head. "Uhm, you have some, uhm, right here?" She pointed to her own cheek, and Rainbow Dash did the same, wiping some ice-cream off her muzzle.  "Sorry, uhm, come in.." Rainbow said, walking back inside her cloud home. "You want some ice-cream? There must be some left somewhere.." Fluttershy looked around the many buckets scattered around the living room. "Uhm, that's okay.." She replied, doing her best not to step on any of the few drops of spilled melted ice-cream. "Do you want some tea?"  "No, don't have any.." Said Rainbow as she sat back down on the couch. "So, what is going on..?" "Rainbow, I wanted to check up on you. We haven't seen you since yesterday." Fluttershy moved closer, sitting herself down next to her friend, well, after pushing some buckets off the couch. "We wanted to give you some space, so are you ready to talk?" Rainbow Dash snorted, forcing a pained smile. "Whaaaaat? I'm fine, never better! I've just realized my life is basically over, and I can kiss my dreams goodbye!" Fluttershy frowned, a look Rainbow didn't like. "Alright.." She finally said, sighing. "I feel horrible.. Happy?" "No, but I'm glad you're sharing it with me."  There was a bit of silence after that. Rainbow appreciated the small break in conversation, it was like a small breathing room. Then she continued. "It's just, I've been training my whole life to join the Wonderbolts, and I finally have a legit shot to join up, but now.." She rubbed her stomach, and sighed again. "I just, what, give up my dreams?" "Hm.." Fluttershy thought about it, then turned the question around on her. "Well, what do you want to do?" Rainbow groaned as she leaned her body back. "I don't know.. I want to follow my dreams, but If I'm going to be a mom, I need to be all responsible and stuff, and it wouldn't be fair for him or her if I just took off." She closed her eyes tighter, buried her face in her hooves and let out a muffled scream. It wasn't the kind that was meant to be loud, but to show frustration.   When the screaming had ended, she kept her face buried in her hooves, refusing to look up at her friend. She just wanted to vanish, to melt away. Seeing her friend having reached a mental limit, Fluttershy scooted closer, wrapping a wing around Rainbow Dash and pulled her closer. Rainbow didn't resist, she just rested her head against her friend. She was too tired to cry anymore, or be angry. For the first time in her life she just wanted everything around her to slow down. She was thankful to Fluttershy, even though she didn't want other ponies to see her being comforted like this, it was good to know her friends were still there for her. After some time, she sat back up straight. "Thanks.." She mumbled, a faint smile gracing her lips. "Any time." Fluttershy assured her. "How about you come down and have some tea with me tomorrow morning?" Tea wasn't really her style, but Rainbow could use a good friend, and even she couldn't deny it was always relaxing to hang out with Fluttershy at her cottage. "Sure, sounds good." Then she looked around the battlefield. "Wow.. I should probably clean this up, then perhaps go out on an afternoon flight to burn some of this off." "Uhm, Rainbow?" "Yeah, Fluttershy?" "It's past dinnertime.." "WHAT?!"