“Don’t be so glum, Dashie,” Rainbow said quietly and affectionately, rubbing her sad daughter’s back gently.
Dash didn’t move. She didn’t even throw off her mother’s hoof, even if it did bother her slightly.
She remained lying on her bed, lazing away the day with sadness in her eyes.
Rainbow repositioned herself beside her daughter and placed a foreleg over her back, hugging her slightly.
“I know Fluttershy’s-.”
Dash shrugged her shoulders and looked further away from her mother.
Rainbow sighed and bowed her head sadly.
Dash hadn’t been herself in the past weeks since getting her cutie mark. Usually such a happy occasion, but for her, it hadn’t been. Once Dash learnt that Fluttershy had fallen off Cloudsdale, she too had fallen, but into a pit of sadness. It took over a day for her to stop crying, Rainbow even allowed her to stay home on the Monday, something she wouldn’t do lightly.
What Rainbow never really noticed before was that Fluttershy was not only her best friend, but her only friend. At least Fluttershy was the only one she ever talked about or ever seemed to play with.
Dash hadn’t even gone to Flight Camp. She would barely fly anymore, instead she shuffle along the ground with bloodshot eyes.
“Dashie, look at me,” Rainbow asked her tenderly but sternly.
Dash did as she was told and looked into her mother’s loving eyes.
“Dashie, I know you’re still upset about Fluttershy, but you can’t keep being so sad all the time.”
Dash remained silent.
“I'm sure she’s alright, Dashie. She is a Pegasus after all, and even if she is a weak one, there’s no possible way she could not have flown to safety and land on the ground with absolutely no problem whatsoever.”
Something brightened in Dash’s eyes as she imagined Fluttershy flying in her own unique way.
Rainbow cracked a slight smile as she saw a glimmer of happiness return to her daughter.
“C’mon, let’s run you a nice, hot bubble bath,” Rainbow said quietly but with some enthusiasm. “With all this lazing around you’re getting a little smelly.” She smiled childishly.
Dash smiled in the way only a young filly could, probably finding the word “smelly” hilarious.
Rainbow stood up, and Dash followed in suit.
“Good girl,” Rainbow praised lightly. “A good bath will make you feel better.”
Dash nodded.
They both walked to the bathroom.
Water thundered into the bath, creating a pleasant sound that both Pegasi listened to in silence, staring at the waterfall, transfixed by the calm sounds and mesmerised by the bubbles rising up in the tub.
The sound of a distant doorbell brought them back to their sense, startling them and making their wings pop up involuntarily.
Rainbow managed to coax hers back down. She looked down at her daughter and tittered. With her small, flared wings and strangely long mane that hadn’t recovered from the Sonic Rainboom, she looked comically adorable. It reminded her of herself at that age.
“You keep an eye on the bath. I'm gonna go answer the door,” she informed her daughter.
“Okay, Mummy,” Dash replied back with a little more cheer than she had been using recently.
Rainbow left and headed down the stairs, hearing the door click closed behind her.
A quick turn of the lock and Rainbow opened the front door, and was met by a fierce chill in the November air as the wind blew in the house as well as a thin fog stretching over the city.
Her eyes widened in utter disbelief as she looked down at who rang the doorbell.
A small, yellow filly beamed up at her.
“Is Rainbow Dash here?” Fluttershy asked excitedly, practically wagging her tail with happiness.
Rainbow squealed ecstatically and lost control of herself. She grabbed the small Pegasus and hugged her tightly, probably too tightly.
“Oh, Fluttershy!” Rainbow said dreamily. “I thought you had died! I am so happy to see you!”
“Thank you, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied happily, returning the hug with equal strength.
After an affectionate moment, Rainbow released Fluttershy and placed her back on the ground.
She looked up at Airheart a moment later. Once again she lost control and flew into her, almost tackling her to the ground. She hugged her with a great sense of admiration.
“I'm so glad you found her,” Rainbow muttered in a barely audible whisper. She could feel tears starting to roll down her cheeks.
Airheart hugged back with shaky forelegs, starting to cry herself. She tried to say something but it only came out as teary babbles, so she remained silent in her friend’s grip.
The moment in each others’ embrace seemed unending.
Rainbow’s mind was lost in the moment entirely. The feeling of Airheart’s soft, pink coat brushed against hers, the way her brown mane moved underneath her cyan hoof, the soft breath on her shoulder as her tears became gentle; it all filled Rainbow with very confusing feelings.
Fluttershy stepped towards the mare hugging her mother and gently prodded her leg.
“Err… Miss Rainbow?” she asked sheepishly, being very sure to be quiet and polite.
Rainbow looked down to her.
“Yes?” she asked in a croaky voice, making it obvious she had been crying.
“Can we go inside?” the little filly asked with hope in her eyes and her jaw starting to chatter her teeth together.
“Oh,” Rainbow said as she let go of Airheart. She wiped her eyes on the back of her hoof. “Sure.”
Fluttershy smiled and trotted into the house, keeping to a slow pace as to not appear rude.
Rainbow looked to back to Airheart and her still sad face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked tenderly, combining her words with the action of stroking the mare’s mane behind her ear, which she hadn’t meant to do at all.
“I’ll tell you later,” Airheart said quietly, hanging her head down to look at her awkwardly shuffling hooves.
Rainbow nodded, but still kept a curious eye on her.
They both headed inside after the yellow filly.
Fluttershy and her mother headed into the living and took seats on the sofa.
Rainbow remained at in the hallway, looking up the stairs at the shut bathroom door.
“Dashie, can you come down please?” she asked, trying with all her might to remain emotionless, with moderate success.
“I'm on the toilet,” Dash sang back in a childish manner.
Rainbow chuckled.
“Alright, but hurry up and come down when you’re done please.”
“I'm almost done!” Dash called back.
Rainbow nodded to herself and began to wait.
Shine walked through to the living room with a yoghurt and spoon resting on her back and in her teeth respectively. She headed towards her usual spot on the sofa, and was about to fly up onto it, when she realise it was taken.
“Oh… hello, Fluttershy,” she said with mild surprise. “I thought you moved.”
Fluttershy shook her head and patted the seat next to her, gesturing for the filly to sit next to her.
Shine jumped onto the seat and got into a comfortable position. She took her yoghurt and peeled back the lid.
“So what happened to you?” she asked while licking the lid of the excess yoghurt.
“I fell off Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy replied with a peculiar smugness in her.
Shine paused mid-lick and looked to her side. Her eyes were full of doubt as well as amazement. She gulped down the small amount of yoghurt.
“Really?”
Fluttershy grinned and nodded. “Yep.”
Shine lost all abilities of formulating sentences, and so remained silent for a while. Her mind racked with a question that seemed to have no answer, but she had to ask it.
“How did you survive?” she asked hopefully, begging for an answer.
“I landed safely on a flock of butterflies,” she said with a reminiscent smile.
“Wait, do you mean those little bug things? Like, the ones no big than a hoof?” Shine asked sceptically.
“Ye-huh?”
Shine stared at her confusedly with no idea what to say in return.
“Y’know, this raises far many more questions than it answers,” she informed the filly beside her.
She dipped her spoon into the yoghurt in front of her and began to eat it, the distraction allowed her mind to work on the puzzling question as to how a flock of butterflies could prevent a Pony from falling to their death.
Rainbow looked slowly towards the bathroom door as she heard the toilet flush and the lock click out of place.
The door swung open, and Dash flittered through it.
“Did you wash your hooves?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.
Dash circled round and returned to the bathroom without a fuss, and left it moments later with clean hooves.
“Good girl,” Rainbow said in a flat voice, since it was a reflex by then.
Dash smiled and flew down beside her mother, and landed with a gentle thud on the floor.
“What did you want, Mummy?” she asked with a voice full of innocent; it was obvious she thought she had done something wrong.
“Just go into the living room please,” Rainbow requested politely.
Dash jumped into the air and floated in to the room in question with an unusual, cloudlike grace.
Her eyes came round the corner of the doorway. First she saw Airheart looking very downbeat, and it made her terrified beyond belief.
Secondly she saw her sister, eating a yoghurt and obviously contemplating something.
Her gaze then fell upon the yellow filly, and she fell to the floor as her wings faltered.
She never knew she could smile so wide.
Fluttershy jumped from the sofa and land daintily on the floor. She looked up at the rainbow maned filly and smiled.
Dash sniffed as tears began to well in her eyes.
She exploded forward, leaving a small rainbow trail hanging in the air behind her, and almost forced the terrified filly into the sofa with the strength of her hug.
Fluttershy thought her eyes were about to pop out as Dash squeezed her tightly, but she ignored the sensation and hugged back, sighing contently in the progress.
A short minute later they pulled back from each other, allowing Fluttershy a chance to breathe, at looked into each others’ eyes.
Dash was crying slightly, with tears creating trails down her cheeks.
Fluttershy only smiled as she was far too happy to do anything else.
Dash gulped quietly.
“F-Fluttershy,” she whimpered. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, Dashie. C’mon, I have something to show you,” the yellow filly squealed excitedly.
Fluttershy, in a bizarre bout of assertiveness, pulled Dash up onto her hooves and ran with her upstairs and into a bedroom
Rainbow tittered and shook her head. With a prominent smile on her lips, she walked into the living room and to the now empty seat on the sofa. She sat down with a heavy thud that made the others on the sofa bounce slightly.
She ruffled Shine’s mane, which wasn’t registered with the filly as she was too preoccupied with her yoghurt.
She turned to Airheart and share her happy expression.
Airheart smiled back at her, but it was weak, as if she wasn’t happy at all.
Rainbow furrowed her brow slightly, and the smile faded into a concerned expression.
“What’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.
Airheart took a deep breath, and let it out with a long, quiet sigh.
“We’re moving, Rainbow,” she stated in a flat voice.
“What?” Rainbow gasped.
“We’re moving. I found Fluttershy on the ground in a woodland surrounded by little animals, and she loved it. You should have seen how happy she was. I’ve never seen her so happy before, it just warmed my heart.”
She began tearing up and her voice had become high pitched.
“So,” she continued, “we’re moving. I'm not sure where right now because I haven’t got much money at all. I’ll probably go back to Trottingham and stay with my parents for a little while until the house is sold, then I’ll find somewhere nicer.”
Rainbow stared at her with wide eyes and mouth hanging open slightly.
Shine had glanced to her side while she ate so she could listen in.
Rainbow managed to find her voice.
“You’re going to uproot your whole life for Fluttershy?” she said with a smile of pure admiration. “That’s wonderful!”
Airheart nodded. “How couldn’t I? I'm sure you’d do the same if Shine here looked as happy as my Fluttershy did. Plus, it was where she found her special talent.”
Rainbow perked up. “Wait. She has her cutie mark?” she asked in amazement.
“Oh yes, and it’s adorable. Three little butterflies that match her mane.” Airheart hugged her forelegs to her chest. “It fits her perfectly.”
“Butterflies? I’d almost forgotten they existed.”
Airheart ignored her and continued with more important matters. “We will be moving this week, hopefully. Just have to pack our lives onto the moving truck and then we’ll be off.”
Rainbow leant over her daughter and pulled Airheart into a hug.
“I'm going to miss you, Airheart,” she said quietly as she gently nuzzled the mare’s cheek. “I never thought we’d get along so well. No offence,” she added quickly with a small laugh.
“Same here,” Airheart replied in the same quiet tone, and returned the friendly nuzzle. “I only thought I’d be around you because of our daughters, I never thought I would be as involved as I am now.”
“And you know what?” Rainbow whispered intriguingly.
“What?”
“If I was in the right mood and with a hint of alcohol, you could’ve turned me,” Rainbow said with a childish smile. Her cheeks began to burn red.
Airheart shook her head and laughed. “Damn. I’ve missed my chance,” she said in a sarcastic tone that was only slightly serious.
Rainbow heard some hooves thundering down the stairs.
“They were quick,” Rainbow said to anypony who was listening.
From the hallway walked a singular, rainbow maned filly with a pillow grasped between her teeth.
Swirl took one look at her mother and Airheart and sighed mightily and full of anger. She stormed into the dining room, pulled out a chair and sat on it with a loud thud. She placed the pillow on the table and, after fluffing it up to make it comfier, rested her head on it. She let out a sigh as her ordeal was over and quickly fell into a nap.
Rainbow, who had seen the entire episode occur before her, looked after her daughter confusedly.
“That was random,” she remarked.
Meanwhile in bedroom of three fillies, Dash and Fluttershy were sitting on Dash’s bed.
“What did you want to show me?” Dash asked excitedly. She was barely able to stop herself from bouncing on the bed.
“I got my cutie mark!” Fluttershy squeaked happily. She turned her flank so Dash could get a good look at her mark.
Dash‘s eyes went wide. “I got mine too!” she shouted back with even greater excitement and turned so Fluttershy could look at hers as well.
“We got them together?!” Fluttershy asked with hope in her eyes.
Dash nodded as she grabbed the other filly’s shoulders and started bouncing on the bed with her.
Fluttershy responded in kind.
“How d’ya get yours?” Dash asked.
The bouncing ceased as Fluttershy began to explain.
“Well, there was this huge explosion that came from nowhere! And it scared all the little animals away. So what I did was go and tell them everything was okay and that they could come out. And they did!”
“You can talk to animals?” Dash asked in disbelief as she stared at the filly in awe.
“Well, no.”
Dash frowned.
“But I can communicate with them on another level, I think. So they trust me and they’re so cute!” Fluttershy said dreamily. “Especially the rabbits. I'm going to ask Mummy if I can get one.”
Dash hadn’t the heart or the desire to say that that was a lame way to get a cutie mark.
“What about you? How did you get yours?” Fluttershy asked eagerly.
“For being awesome!” Dash said with all the smugness in the world.
“I knew that’d be the case for you,” Fluttershy stated confidently.
“It was so cool! I even made a huge rainbow appear out of my mane!” Dash lifted a bit of her mane onto her hoof and held it out. “See? It got longer and everything!”
“Aw! That’s wonderfully, Dashie!” Fluttershy chirped joyously. “And you look really cute with a long mane.”
Dash snorted. “Cute?!” she shouted contemptuously. “I don’t wanna look cute, I wanna look awesome!”
Fluttershy giggled behind her hoof. “Oh, Dashie. I'm going to miss that about you.”
Dash lost all sign of glee and happiness from her eyes and her mouth went slightly agape.
“Miss me? Why are ya gonna miss me?” she asked worriedly.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm moving!” the yellow filly exclaimed ecstatically.
“W-what?” Dash asked, sounding confused and lost, but mostly saddened by this news. “You’re leaving?”
“Yep,” Fluttershy responded with a content look on her face as she seemed to not notice Dash’s tone. “Me and Mummy are moving to the ground.”
Dash remained silent. She looked to her hooves as she tried to comprehend.
Fluttershy looked at her friend and the way she seemed slumped and deflated. “Dashie?” she asked concernedly.
“You’re leaving me?” Dash asked solemnly. She looked up at her friend with shimmering eyes.
Fluttershy felt a weight in the bottom of her stomach that she didn’t like one bit.
“Oh, Dash,” she said apologetically. “I'm so sorry. I didn’t mean anything like that. We’re just… moving!”
Dash sniffed. “W-why?” she asked like all hope was lost.
“Oh, Dash,” Fluttershy said sadly. “I love it on the ground! Everything was so wonderful and beautiful that I had to sing a song!”
Dash laughed and smiled at her. “Really? How did it go?”
“Err… I don’t remember,” Fluttershy said forlornly. “It was something like being filled with wonder, I think.”
Dash’s smile grew wider and she dried her eyes on the back of her hoof.
“Do you really have to move?” she asked with hope in her eyes.
“Well, no,” Fluttershy said truthfully. “But I really want to, Dash.”
It felt like a dagger to Dash’s heart. She had never felt so bad.
“Why?” she asked with fresh tears appearing in her eyes.
“Because I’ve never felt so happy about it, Dash,” Fluttershy whispered.
“What?”
“I’ve never felt happier, Dash,” Fluttershy reiterated, only louder this time. “Up here in the clouds I felt hopeless and helpless, all because I can barely fly. But, down there, on the ground, I feel like I don’t have to. Before we flew back here we went to a place called Trottingham and I met my grandparents, and there were so few Ponies flying around. In fact, all of the Pegasi I saw were just walking, not flying.”
Dash could not comprehend the idea of not flying everywhere, as was made apparent by her expression of absolute confusion over her face.
Fluttershy giggled at her. “I know it seems silly to you, but to me it was… it was… I felt normal.”
“Huh?”
“I felt normal, Dashie, like I belonged there on the ground. Nopony was looking at me like the weak little Pegasus I am. Nopony was looking at me whatsoever, and for once I felt at complete peace with everything.”
Dash listened with complete focus, she took in as much as possible and tried her hardest to understand, which was hard for her.
“So you’re saying you prefer it on the ground?” Dash asked as she wanted to make sure she understood.
Fluttershy nodded. “Yep. The only times I’ve ever felt that good about things before were when I was with you. But even then the bullying never stopped.”
Dash looked straight into her friend’s eyes and took a deep breath.“Fluttershy, I want you to be happy, so if that means you have to leave here and go live really far away I don’t mind,” Dash said sadly, but it was definitely clear that she meant it.”
Fluttershy leant forward and hugged her.
“Thank you, Dashie, I'm so glad you understand and aren’t angry at me for leaving.”
“How could I be angry at you, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy laughed slightly.
“I'm gonna really miss you, Fluttershy. Like, really, really miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you loads as well, Rainbow Dash. But no matter what happens, you will always be my best friend. I will always treasure our friendship and you will always have a special place in my heart.”
They heard a loud, angry groan come from across the room which drew their attention.
“Did you guys have to talk about this mushy stuff in here?!” Swirl moaned loudly.
“Err-,” the other two replied, but were quickly cut off again.
“I'm gonna nap on the sofa,” Swirl said moodily as she grudgingly rolled off the bed and onto her hooves.
She looked at Dash and stuck her tongue out at her, and Dash responded in kind. She grabbed her pillow in her mouth and left the room with in a strop.
Dash and Fluttershy waited for the door to close before they broke into a small fit of giggles.
Dash looked back round to Fluttershy. She didn’t have time to react before Fluttershy dived forward and squeezed her tightly, and accidently forcing back onto the bed.
They laughed for a second before they sat back up again.
Dash had more time to prepare than last time, and so didn’t fall over when Fluttershy went for an unusually strong hug for the yellow filly.
Rainbow moved away from Airheart and relaxed back in her seat. She moved her hoof and began to play with her daughter’s mane without realising, but Shine remained entirely focused on the slowly emptying yoghurt pot in front of her.
“So, what’s next for you two?” she asked Airheart.
“What? After today?”
Rainbow nodded.
Airheart looked absently at a wall; she hadn’t thought that far through.
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll go and pack up our stuff and head off to Trottingham. Probably be gone by tomorrow, if I can get a moving van on such short notice.”
Rainbow nodded along with her. She wasn’t quite sure what to say anymore, but fortunately for her, her final daughter and the yellow filly came downstairs.
Rainbow smiled with relief as she saw that Dash had regained the gleam in her eye.
“Are you okay, Dash?”
Dash nodded. “Yep. But Fluttershy is moving!” she said with a hint of despair.
“I know, Dashie. Airheart told me.”
“But we can go see her whenever, right?” Dash asked hopefully.
“Of course!” Rainbow stated enthusiastically. “If that’s okay,” she said as she turned to Airheart.
“Of course it is,” Airheart said with a little chuckle. “Just give us a chance to settle in and then you can come round whenever.”
Dash celebrated quietly with a pump of her hoof.
Airheart stood from the sofa and stepped closer to her daughter. “C’mon, Fluttershy, we better get going. We have a lot of packing to do,” she said with obviously fake enthusiasm and a false smile.
“Okay, Mummy,” said the small filly as she hopped to her mother’s side.
She turned to face her friend. “I’ll see you later, Rainbow Dash,” she said happily.
“Bye, Fluttershy,” Dash replied with as much joy as possible.
Rainbow stood from the sofa and went to show them out.
They stood by the open door, waiting for one of them to do something. It was Fluttershy, of all Ponies, who went first.
Fluttershy leant forward and hugged Dash quickly before letting go and standing back. She began screwing her hoof into the floor patiently.
Airheart exhaled loudly. “I’ll pop by tomorrow before we set off.”
Rainbow shut her eyes and nodded. “Okay. See ya later. Bye, Fluttershy.”
“Bye, Rainbow. And Bye, Dash.”
They turned and gracefully lifted off into the sky. As they flew off they waved at the Rainbows standing below them, and they waved back, before speeding off to their house.
Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief and turned back inside, with Dash right behind her. She shut the door with a gentle click.
“You feeling okay, Dash?” she asked casually.
Dash nodded. “I think so. I mean, I'm really sad that she’s moving, but she said she was so happy on the ground that she burst into song! And if she’s that happy then I don’t care where she is.”
Rainbow smiled. “That’s very grown of you, Dash. And rather touching.”
Dash chuckled in an arrogant way.
The next morning came and brought with it clear skies and a freezing chill in the air. The Rainbows were standing on the doorstep, much to Shine’s annoyance for she hates cold, wishing their farewells to Airheart and Fluttershy.
“I’ll really miss you, Airheart,” Rainbow said with a small catch in her throat. She wrapped a foreleg around her neck and brought her in for a hug.
“Oh, don’t you start,” Airheart said irritably as she returned the gesture. “It’s bad enough Fluttershy crying, but I expected nothing less of her.”
Rainbow forced a chuckle.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Dash and Fluttershy performing a very similar act to herself.
Fluttershy’s breaths were shaky and erratic as she tried to hold back the flow of tears.
Dash, on the other hoof, was smiling as if she was about to laugh. It was probably a defence mechanism to stop herself from joining the filly, Rainbow thought.
“Oh, Dash,” Fluttershy whimpered. “I'm going to m-m-m-m-miss you.”
Dash laughed slightly. “I'm gonna miss you more, Flutters,” she said cockily, as if it was a competition.
Fluttershy laughed, but this only enabled the tears to became stronger and come flooding down her already soaked cheeks once again.
Dash felt a twinge in her stomach as the fact her best friend was crying so badly, so she hugged harder hoping to get rid of the feeling.
The feeling lessened, but it still persisted. She knew what it was, but she didn’t want to appear weak in front of Fluttershy, and so forced herself not to cry. She’d save it for later, she told herself.
A gruff Pegasus stepped behind them and loudly cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the small gathering.
“Err, I don’t mean t’ intrude, but we can’t stand around her all day. We have a long trip ahead of us and we don’t particularly want to be in this cold to long.” He looked over his shoulder at a shivering collection of similar looking Pegasi stallions strapped to a cart which was piled high with cardboard boxes.
Airheart sniffed and nodded her head. “Okay.”
She slowly removed her foreleg from her friend’s neck, but she paused with her hoof gently touching Rainbow’s cheek.
Rainbow’s heart raced as her body was flooded with horribly confusing and very strong feelings. Her eyes darted between Airheart’s hoof and her smiling face. She expected what was coming, but she was not prepared in the slightest.
Airheart’s head moved forward quickly. Her lips hit Rainbow’s and took them both on a whirlwind of passion and great confusion, but the latter was mostly Rainbow.
Rainbow’s mind refused to work anymore. She was lost. She decided not to react at all and allow Airheart to continue.
She hadn’t had another Pony kiss her like that in eight years, and she didn’t know how she survived. She found herself weakening in the knees slightly and almost kissing back, but she fought both feelings. She wished it had been Jet Stream and not Airheart, but she couldn’t deny how good it felt.
Swirl looked at the pair with a look of admiration in her eyes.
Dash and Fluttershy looked up at them with confusion and bewilderment. They were not quite sure what was happening.
Shine had a faint look of disgust on her face as she watched another mare do something strange to her mother.
The stallions pulling the moving cart watched with raised eyebrows and smirks all round. Some even exchanged a hoof bump or two.
It ended a small amount of time later. Airheart pulled back and let her hoof fall to the floor. She looked at Rainbow with a satisfied smile and a loving look in her eye, and saw the exact response she expected; a look of complete stunned silence.
Rainbow stared at her as her brain recovered from the sudden rush of adrenaline and complicated emotions. Her eyes regained focus and she saw the girlish blush in Airheart’s cheeks.
“Err… I-I love you too,” she said patronisingly as she gave her an even more patronising pat on the head.
Airheart giggled as her cheeks became beacons of red. “I'm so sorry about that,” she apologised embarrassedly. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“No no no,” Rainbow said as she waved away her apology. “It’s okay. I can hardly blame you now can I?” she said in an arrogant voice as she tossed her mane back in a sarcastic motion, but regretted it immediately, considering what just happened.
“I-I think this may be an appropriate end to our goodbyes,” Airheart said quickly and politely.
“Yeah… I think I agree there,” Rainbow replied awkwardly.
Airheart breathed with relief and looked down to her daughter. “You ready, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy shook her head. She turned back to Dash.
“Should we do that as well?” she asked as she tilted her head in her mother’s direction.
Dash shrugged.
Rainbow and Airheart stared at them, wide eyed with panic, immediately regretting what had just happened.
“Probably not,” Dash decided.
Rainbow and Airheart sighed quietly with relief.
“I think only grownups can do that stuff,” Dash explained. “But another hug couldn’t hurt,” she said with a smile that screamed “please hug me”.
Fluttershy read her friend’s expression flawlessly and the two of them hugged again.
The gruff stallion cleared his throat again.
Airheart had the sudden desire to give him a piece of her mind, but she decided against it. She knew a reduction in his tip would suffice.
She shot the stallion a dirty look before looking down to her daughter.
“Fluttershy,” she said kindly and gently placed a hoof on her back. “We better get going. It is a long way to Trottingham after all, and I want you to try to fly most of the way.”
Fluttershy nodded and let go of her friend. She sniffed. A fresh round of tears was approaching.
Dash stepped forward quickly and took hold of the yellow filly by the cheeks.
Panic reigned once more in the two mares. Both were sure they had just been very inappropriate in front of the two daughters, and they knew it would come back around and bite them in the flank.
Dash was fast as she moved forward and rubbed her nose against Fluttershy’s.
Once again, the panic in the mares subsided.
“Don’t be sad, Flutters,” she said in a chirpy, reassuring voice. “We’ll see each other real soon!”
Fluttershy broke down into sobs. All she could do was nod along and agree with her best friend.
“C’mon, Fluttershy,” Airheart said as she tried to gently push Fluttershy along. “We have to go.”
She picked her daughter up and placed her on her back.
“Bye, Fluttershy! Bye, Airheart!” Swirl shouted after them with a frantic wave as they trotted down the path.
“Bye,” Shine said unenthusiastically. She wasn’t particularly bothered by them moving away, although she had grown quite fond of Fluttershy.
They watched them all leave until they couldn’t see them anymore. With a heavy sigh from Dash and Rainbow, they turned and headed back inside.
As the door was shut behind them Rainbow bowed her head and exhaled deeply. She looked over her shoulder at Dash, who looked back up at her with a straight face and big eyes.
She smiled.
“You alright, Dash?” she asked in a casually manner.
Dash nodded.
“Good. Do you want to do something? Anything?” she asked in the same tone.
Dash shrugged. She felt slightly lost without Fluttershy. She didn’t know who else she could hang out with.
Rainbow pouted as she tried to think of what they could do. She looked at her daughter’s strangely long mane. It did not suit her at all.
“How about we get your mane cut?” she suggested, although she didn’t think she would say yes.
Dash shrugged again. “Sure.”
Rainbow was taken aback by this. She spun round and looked her daughter straight in the eyes. “Really?”
Dash picked up a length of mane on her hoof and looked at it for a second before dropping it to the floor again. “Yeah.”
“Oh… alright then. Let’s go get your mane cut.”
Hooves stampeded into the hall. Swirl stood next to her sister and looked up at her mother with as much adorableness as she could muster.
“Can I come?” she asked cutely, which made it obvious that she was trying to be persuasive.
Rainbow raised her eyebrow at her. “Why do you want to get yours cut? It really suits you at that length.”
“I know,” Swirl said as she began to play with her mane. “I like the length, but it’s getting a bit thick. So I think I need to get it layered and styled a bit to make it better.”
Rainbow stared confusedly at her daughter. This was an unusual turn for her. “What?”
“Trust me. I know what I'm talking about,” Swirl reassured her.
“Err… okay,” Rainbow said slowly. “Let’s go. Come on Shine!” she called out into the house. “We’re going to the mane dressers!”
“Oh!” Shine moaned back, as was expected.
Rainbow listened as the heavy hoofsteps became louder and louder.
Shine walked into the hallway with her head hanging low. She looked up to her mother with sad, quivering eyes.
“Do we have to?” she asked hopefully.
“I'm afraid so, Shiny. I can’t leave you here on your own. You wouldn’t have Swirl here to savagely beat up any intruders,” she joked.
Swirl laughed menacingly at the idea.
“Don’t worry, Shiny. We won’t be too long. Probably about an hour.”
Shine huffed loudly.
“C’mon, get your coats, girls,” she instructed.
Each of the fillies jumped into the air with varying degrees of enthusiasm and hovered up to the coat hooks on the wall. They took their respective coats and floated back down to put them on.
Shine pulled the fluffy hood up over her head so she could hide away from everypony, for she didn’t want to go outside in the cold let alone to a salon.
Swirl spent a moment adjusting her mane so it wasn’t trapped in her coat.
Rainbow grabbed her coat and scarf and put them on.
Now they all had to wait for Dash as she rolled on her back and struggled with the zip.
Rainbow took her bag over her shoulder and opened the door once Dash had finished with her coat.
She allowed her daughter’s to leave ahead of her so she could lock the door behind them.
Swirl burst out and stopped down the path.
“Come on you lot!” she shouted impatiently.
Dash was close behind her.
Rainbow watched as Shine slowly walked out while staring at her hooves.
Rainbow tittered. “Don’t mope, Shiny. It isn’t very appealing.”
Shine huffed once again.
“I’ll tell ya what, after were done with getting our manes cut we can go out for a nice lunch.”
Shine perked up noticeably.
Rainbow laughed. “It’s always food with you,” she jested.
She locked the front door before all of the Rainbows took wing and flew to the city centre.
As they flew, Rainbow felt a warmth in her heart spread through her entire body, where it ended with a broad smile. She was really looking forward to their outing.
This was the exact reason why she wanted fillies over colts, just so they could do girly things together like spend a while in a salon getting their manes done.
And her three fillies were the best, making this simple trip into the city all the more perfect.