Rainbow Dash was a very odd little foal. Granted, she was also very cute with her wide eyes and fluttering wings, but she was still very odd.
At times, Windy Whistles didn’t quite know what to do with her.
Even as first-time parents, she and Bow Hothoof knew to love and hold her, but they didn’t know what to do when she wouldn’t cry for anything. The only time they had ever heard her cry was when she took her first breaths, leaving them confused.
Weren’t babies supposed to cry nonstop? That’s what they had been warned of, at least. Maybe she was just an “easy” baby?
But it wasn’t that either.
She got into so much mischief. Little Rainbow always investigated everything with a mischievous fervor and seemed to delight in sneaking away from them.
She was also very fussy, oftentimes refusing to nurse, and when she did, she was very messy.
She never played with any toys, except the puzzles and blocks.
And she looked at them with such wary eyes.
Rainbow Dash didn’t like being touched, unless she was sleepy and everyone was quiet. She also didn’t like loud noises, and sometimes flinched at them.
She was also quite... mean for an infant.
She would snap at anyone who wasn’t her parents when they tried to hold her! Bow and Windy soon learned she would only tolerate their touches.
She also refused to make friends with other foals. Rainbow would growl (rather cutely) when they came near, and whap them with her tiny wings if they ignored her.
She sometimes had depressive episodes, where she refused to eat and play, but she always came back when her parents started crying.
They took her to the doctor, which resulted in the closest sound to a cry they had heard from her.
Rainbow, like many babies, hated the doctor. But there was something in her eyes and the way she shivered that unnerved them.
She crouched, diaperless and afraid on the examination table, and wet herself when the doctor approached.
When she was cleaned and examined as she trembled, the doctor also expressed his concern.
Rainbow Dash was very odd.
———
Whirl did not like the doctors.
In this tiny body, everything felt huge and intimidating, especially the figures whom haunted his memories.
The only doctor he had ever felt anywhere near comforted by was Ratchet, whom he would never see again. These new ones were untrustworthy.
Their strange horns with floating auras that picked up utensils... To his shame, he wet himself in their presence. They could do anything to him, as helpless as he was.
He heard his parents talking to them.
“No, doctor... as f as we know, she’s nv xprd anything like that.”
“Hm... wl, in ddtn to shng some sgs of tsm, Rainbow is... wl... shng sgs of trm.”
“What... What ds that mn for our baby?”
Whirl perked slightly. He almost completely understood that, and from context...
“Sgh... it mn I ms rl rcnd a thpt. For now, kp a cls eye on her.”
Keep an eye on him... was he ill, or...?
He hoped not. If he was going to die, he didn’t want it to be from illness again.
When his mother wrapped him in her wings, for once he completely accepted it, sheltering himself from the eyes of the doctor.
Within her grasp, he almost felt safe.
———
Rainbow Dash was a odd little filly.
Like many her age, she was toddling after things that caught her interest.
What seemed to most intrigue her was wind-up toys, books, and mirrors.
She spent several minutes at a time making faces in the mirror, seeming to recognize herself much earlier than most foals. She especially took interest in her large cerise eyes, blinking and winking them repeatedly.
Wind-up toys she eagerly chased after and dismantled with her tiny, just growing teeth. She would then watch, enraptured as Bow put them back together again. They were her favorite toys.
Books she happily consumed (thankfully never literally) with her mother. Windy would read to her, until she started noticing Rainbow would flip ahead before she was even done.
“Best! Reader! Ever!” She and Bow would exclaim to her, causing little Dash to pout, as she always did when they said their oft parroted phrase.
And of course, like many baby pegasus, she would flap her tiny wings and try in vain to flutter up to the countertop and get into more mischief (though she got farther than most).
But she still never cried. She still didn’t like playing with other foals, or meeting new people. And she still fell into depression occasionally. It still worried her parents.
But she was their baby, their little Rainbow Dash.
———
As time passed, Whirl grew to like his parents. He didn’t consider them family like he did with Cyclonus and Tailgate, but he still loved them.
He had long since learned that his mother “Windy Whistles”, and father “Bow Hothoof”, called him “Rainbow Dash”, and that biologically, he was the same as his mother.
He didn’t particularly mind being a girl, or “filly”. Their entire trio had girl holoforms, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with it either. And while he had usually gone by “he”, Whirl didn’t really mind being called “she”, even before being reborn.
It was mostly just weird to only have a valve, though he obviously wouldn’t be using it for quite some time (if ever).
Being a quadruped was pretty weird too. At least his legs were basically the same?
Yet another dose of weirdness was his wings. They felt so alien compared to the rotors he knew in his previous life. Flapping up and down instead of spinning... weird! At least he would presumably be able to fly still, if his parents were any indication.
But probably the weirdest of all? They lived on a slagging cloud. Not in the clouds, as in on a mountain, but ON a cloud! How the absolute slag did that work? Whirl had flown through enough clouds to know that even the thickest had less resistance than wet paper. First time his parents had stepped off the porch had nearly given him a spark- er... heart attack.
Anyways, for the most part, life was... surprisingly good. He still had moments where grief overwhelmed him, but it was hard to feel completely alone and unloved with his rather goofy parents and things like wind-up toys to amuse him.
He still missed his partners dearly, though.