Chapter 5: Perspective
Scootaloo didn't like the look in Rainbow Dash's eyes, not one bit. Her body suddenly felt heavier as she realized the weight of disappointment in the polychromatic mare's gaze. The realization clicked in her head almost instantly. Rainbow knew. And she was not happy about it.
Before she could respond, the door to Scootaloo's home swung open to reveal Melon Cream, who had seen her daughter arrive at the front door and had been surprised to see Rainbow Dash swoop in to talk to her. "May I ask what's going on?"
Rainbow looked up, a solemn expression Melon had never seen on her face before, even when Rainbow had been talking about her bitter memories of Flight School. "Hey there. Can I borrow your daughter for a moment?"
Melon tilted her head slightly, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Of course, may I ask why?"
Rainbow sighed. "Scootaloo and I have to talk about some...things. I'm sure she can tell you just as well as I can. In fact, that's why you're home so early today, isn't it squirt?"
Scootaloo wanted to shrink into herself until she vanished from the face of the earth. While she had been kept for an hour after school, she would normally have been out for another two hours, maybe more, afterwards crusading with her friends or learning to fly from Dawn. Turning around, she reached into her saddlebag and produced the note from Cheerilee, explaining the situation. "Here mom," she said.
Melon took the note wordlessly. At a nod from Rainbow, she began to read. For a moment, there was silence as Rainbow and Scootaloo waited for Melon to finish. When she did, she looked at her daughter with a disappointment mirroring Rainbow's. She briefly considered scolding Scootaloo, punishing her too. However, a single look at Rainbow changed her mind. Rainbow Dash knew. And if anything, she seemed even more disappointed in Scootaloo's behavior than Melon was. If anything was punishment, getting scolded earnestly by her idol would be more than enough for Scootaloo.
Melon nodded her assent. Rainbow nodded back and silently gathered Scootaloo in her hooves. She shot skyward, leaving the filly's saddlebags on the ground. Melon sighed and picked them up. She had never been much for scolding her daughter, especially when Scootaloo received more than enough of that from Cirrus Stratus. Given how much he berated her, Melon had always found it hard to work up the wherewithal to scold Scootaloo when she actually did something wrong. That was going to have to change apparently.
Scootaloo felt her hooves settle on the soft surface of a cloud. Looking around, she saw that she was now in the weather team's holding area. Other clouds dotted the sky, all carefully spaced out to keep them from condensing before the team had set up a storm. Rainbow settled on the cloud in front of her.
"Scootaloo, I know what happened with you and Rumble."
For a moment, the foreboding feeling Scootaloo had felt building within her was flushed out by a sense of anger and indignation. That snitch! He must've run right to Rainbow Dash and spilled everything. Is this his idea of getting back at me?
"I found him, right here." Rainbow jabbed a hoof into the cloud they were standing on. "He was here, crying his eyes out when he should have been in school. I asked him what happened and got him to tell me the truth."
Rainbow's gaze was smoldering with anger now. "Scootaloo. What you did was. Not. Cool. I don't think I can find the words to express how unhappy I am with you now."
And just like that, Scootaloo's anger was extinguished. Now she felt a new weight settling on her soul, shame.
"Scoot, why in Equestria would you say something like that?" asked Rainbow desperately, "That was cruel. You were bullying Rumble. I thought -scratch that- I know you're better than that. So why?"
"He makes me mad!" snapped Scootaloo, unable to hold it in anymore, "It's not fair! I've been wanting to fly for the longest time, but I can't. I'm a lame pegasus with some kind of freakish defect who's only starting to learn how to fly. But Rumble's been able to fly since the day he was born! He has that awesome talent and what the hay does he do with it? Nothing! He just sits on it and does nothing with it! He could be totally awesome. But instead he totally ignores it and acts like a pathetic wimp. It's like he's rubbing in my face how easy it is for him. He's got what I've wanted my entire life and he won't do anything with it! Why would I want anything to do with a loser like him? He's just gonna end up as some kind of washed-up failure who could've been something great, but just threw it away."
"Squirt," said Rainbow, her eyes almost tearing up, "Do you have any idea how much you're starting to sound like your father."
Scootaloo froze. Now she realized why Dawn had found her words familiar. He’d heard Melon Cream describe exactly the kind of mindset that Scootaloo herself had been tapping into when she was venting about Rumble to describe why Cirrus wasn’t a part of their life anymore. To hear Rainbow’s unconcealed horror and sadness in her voice made Scootaloo sick to her stomach.
"You're jealous because Rumble has the kind of talent you'd been hoping for all your life. That's understandable. What's not understandable is how much you hate him because he doesn't do what you would have done if you had it. It's his life. There's no reason for him to live a certain way just because you think so. You don't get to force your expectations on another pony like that."
"My dad got to," muttered the petulant filly, "He got to shout and scold me because I wasn't doing what he wanted to me to do all my life."
Rainbow let out a defeated sigh. "And we were wrong to let him get away with it for so long. But that's why you're not living with the jerk anymore. But Scoots, I think your dad rubbed off on you a lot more than we thought. The fact that he got away with it for as long as he did doesn't make it right. And that certainly doesn't give you the right to do the same thing to someone else."
At that moment, Scootaloo wanted to sink into the cloud.
"And I especially don't like how you think Rumble's some kind of failure. I know the kid. Heck, I like him. Even if he doesn't become a Wonderbolt or a hero of the Royal Guard or whatever, he's still gonna be alright in my books. With his skill, he could be a first-rate weather manager that any town would kill to have running their skies. If he can find a life that he's happy with, then he's succeeded enough. Not everypony has to be some kind of celebrity."
Scootaloo sighed. "But that's not what I want with my life."
"That's fine," said Rainbow, "No one said you had to be satisfied with that kind of life. It's just wrong for you to hold it against Rumble for not wanting the same kind of things out of his life that you would want. Nopony said that doing anything with Rumble meant you had to be tied down to that kind of life."
"Why do I even have to be with him?" snapped Scootaloo, "I don't want to do anything like that with colts yet."
"You don't have to," answered Rainbow, "If you're not interested, just say so. What's not cool is turning this whole thing into some kind of vendetta against Rumble."
Scootaloo lowered her eyes to look forlornly at the cloud beneath her hooves. Rainbow gently ran a hoof through her mane. "Look squirt, this isn't about me or anyone else trying to run your life. It's about you hurting Rumble just because something about him rubs you the wrong way. That's not cool, that's what a bully would do. And you are not a bully."
The filly sniffed loudly. Rainbow picked Scootaloo up and set the orange filly on her back, giving her a smile of encouragement. "Come on squirt, let's get you home." She soared through the sky to take Scootaloo home.
Fluttershy listened intently as Dawn recounted the day's events over the dinner table. "Scootaloo said that?" she asked in shock, "How could she be so cruel?"
Dawn tilted his head. "I've noticed that ponies don't seem to be aware of how cruel they can be. It seemed comparatively minor to me."
Fluttershy froze, Red River's comment from the previous day sitting in her mind. He's too detached. While Dawn was aware of how much Scootaloo's words had hurt Rumble, to him, it was an abstract issue. He hadn't perceived Scootaloo's anger or Rumble's suffering with his heart. It was the condition of a pony who had dealt with enough suffering of his own and emotionally distanced himself from the pain and anger of others, even when it wasn't directed at him.
"Why didn't you stop her?" she asked.
Dawn shrugged. "I didn't really feel that I should. I was uncertain as to what input I could have on the situation, much less what way I could affect it or what way I should affect it."
Dawns words confirmed her fears and Red River's assertions. His heart was numb. And while the ebony colt was beginning to reopen his heart to feelings of love and affection, anger and pain still didn't have any bearing on him.
Fluttershy sighed and shook her head, not quite sure how to approach the problem. "Dawn. I feel like you're distancing yourself from other ponies. What happened with Rumble and Scootaloo was something you might have been able to stop."
"But why should I?" asked the colt, "Especially if I don't fully understand the situation."
Fluttershy smiled sadly, "Because you understand, better than anypony, what it's like to have your feelings hurt, what it is to be rejected, insulted, attacked...you know what that's like. That's why you want to keep it at a distance. But Dawn...other ponies can feel those things too, so if you can protect other ponies from those sorts of things, you should."
Dawn looked away. "I don't understand," he said, "That won't help me master myself."
"What do you mean?" asked Fluttershy, "Are you talking about that thing your Master and Princess Celestia talked about?"
"My Master said that truly mastering the Gale King can only be achieved through being at peace. My emotions, especially the negative ones, are a source of turmoil." Dawn turned to look back at Fluttershy. "Those things are a burden I can't afford to carry."
"That's not true," said Fluttershy, surprised by the certainty in her own voice, "We need our emotions, even the negative ones...No...especially the negative ones because they are important. Dawn, what you're talking about isn't peace. It's emptiness. That's no different from being dead!"
Dawn leaned back, his eyes widening in shock at what Fluttershy said. For a moment, he sat silent, still trying to process her words. When he spoke, his voice was hesitant and uncertain. "I...I need to think about this..."
Dawn left the table and fled the cottage. Fluttershy only caught the barest glimpse of him taking to the air before he was gone. A few tears leaked from her eyes as she began to clear the table, praying silently that she hadn't driven him away.
Sweet Apple Acres was a realm of darkness. The setting sun extended the shadows of the countless apple trees, causing the darkness to wash across the hills, turning the normally vibrant colors of the trees and apples dull without the light to illuminate their beauty. In another hour or so, it would be too dark to see much off anything without a lamp or torch.
Red River didn't mind as he stood in front of a single tree. He had picked one close to the farmhouse, allowing him to return easily once night had fallen. Picking a more secluded location had appealed to him, but he opted out since the Apple Family tended to worry if he was out of sight when the darkness of night fell and he wanted to reassure them.
In the branches of the tree hung several strings, about as thick as yarn. Dangling as they did, they swayed and danced in the slightest breeze. Red River eyed them calmly as he hefted his spear in one hoof. The azure stallion burst into motion. The tip of his spear was a silvery blur shadowed by the crimson blur of its tassel and the tan blur of the shaft. The weapon danced as Red River wielded with one hoof or the other, sometimes both of his front hooves at once, rearing onto his hind legs.
After a series of rapid movements, Red River settled back into a crouch, holding his spear in his right fetlock, the shaft stretching diagonally across his back while the tip, held low, almost penetrated the ground. In front of him, the hanging strings now sported a single small knot each. After pausing for a breath, Red River exploded into motion again. This time, when he came to a halt, the strings dangled freely, their knots untied as neatly as though they had never been touched to begin with. There wasn't a single sign of fraying that would have indicated that the spear's blade had cut the strings.
A smirk spread across the stallion's face as he relaxed his stance and returned to a resting position. "I thought I'd be seeing you around here sooner or later," he said cheerfully.
Dawn silently landed on the ground behind him. "That was brilliant," observed the colt, "I never imagined that you could wield a spear with such finesse."
A low chuckle escaped Red River's lips. "You didn't come to see me practice did you? Why don't you go ahead and ask me what you really want to?"
"You know why I came here?"
Red River snorted, turning away from the strings. "I knew you would be here after I had a quick talk with your mother about you. I noted some problems you were having. I figured that after she tried talking to you as mother to son, you would be here to talk to me, as one martial artist to another."
"Then what exactly is this problem?" asked Dawn.
"Oh I think you know, you just don't want to admit it."
"Then please spell it out for me."
Red River yawned. "You're numb. You're numb to fear, to anger, to pain, all those things you experienced in such heaping quantities in that dark period of your life, you've taught yourself to shut it all out."
"Is there something wrong with that?" demanded Dawn, "My Master said that peace was critical to mastery. He said that I must be in control of my heart in order to truly obtain that peace."
Red River adopted a relaxed stance, resting the shaft of his spear on his shoulder. "How naive of you. I didn't realize you would misinterpret your Master's teachings that badly."
Dawn blinked, shocked into silence.
"Don't go mistaking the peace you seek for the apathy you have. You won't accomplish anything by cutting off your emotions...let me amend that...you might end up sending yourself into an early grave, but that's about it. Seeking peace has nothing to do with surrendering your emotions."
"Are you saying that my emotions are the key to peace?" asked Dawn, "But my Master said my emotions could lead me to ruin."
"They could," agreed Red River with a shrug, "If you let them. If you allow them to control you. But you don't have to."
"I don't...have to...?"
The azure stallion rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Your emotions are only a component of yourself. They don't exist to dominate your will. They are a part of your heart and soul, a component, critical to its function but not absolute in its existence."
Dawn tilted his head slightly. "I don't follow..."
"Think of it in terms of your body. Are your muscles everything? Your bones? How about your blood? No. It's all those things together, and much more besides, that make up your body. No single component has absolute importance. So it is with your heart. Your emotions are a critical part of your being, but they are not absolute.
"Both pain and pleasure serve their purposes. Fear alerts you to danger. Anger can give you power. Love and friendship connect you to others. What is essential is that you do not allow them to control you."
"How do I do that?" asked Dawn, his head spinning in confusion.
"By becoming one with your heart, by feeling emotion, experiencing it, and, above all else, understanding it. When you do, you will achieve the level of awareness of self that you need in order to obtain true mastery. Otherwise, you can go through your forms as many times as you like and never reach what you seek." Red River gave the colt a cheeky grin before rapping him on the head with the shaft of his spear. The movement had been so swift and unexpected that Dawn was utterly unable to react. "If you weren't so numb to your fear, you would have been able to dodge that."
Dawn stood there blinking as Red River stepped past him and ambled up to the farmhouse. "You should probably get home," the stallion suggested over his shoulder, "I'm sure your mother's worried about you."
Dawn bowed his head. "I will. Thank you for your advice, you've given me much to think about." He started walking, towards the border of Sweet Apple Acres. Dawn always felt he was able to think better when his hooves were on the ground. Its solidity reassured him.
His path took him along the edge of the farmhouse. As he went past its rear, he saw a small vegetable patch where the family grew various foods to supplement their meals and as ingredients for their baked goods. Despite the failing light, Granny Smith was out tending some of the vegetables, using a small spade clutched firmly in one fetlock. As Dawn went past her, her gaze shifted in his direction.
The colt was suddenly beset by the sensation of an impending attack. His body reacted instantly, wings spreading, a burst of magic carrying him back away from the elderly mare. Dawn immediately cast about, looking for any sign of the attack. Granny Smith was the only pony in his vicinity, the only one the signal could have come from. But she had not moved an inch, merely continuing carefully work her way through the vegetables.
"What was that?" he asked, "Why did you suddenly act as though you were about to attack me? I thought you were about to stab me with that spade."
A wheezing chuckle forced its way out the lips of the old green mare. "Ah didn't do a thing. That was all you."
Dawn stared at her for a moment. "I don't understand."
Granny Smith sighed and took up her spade and began her slow amble out of the vegetable patch, heading for Dawn, whose coat was beginning to disappear into the surrounding darkness. "Here Ah was, tendin' to mah garden, mindin' mah own business when ya come along. All 'o a sudden, Ah feel a kinda tension in the air, felt it gatherin' right at the tip 'o mah spade here. So ah thought Ah might have to defend mahself. What ya felt was a reflection of yer own fightin' spirit. Yer much too strong sugarcube."
Dawn sat heavily. "Too...strong..."
"Yer too strong, if ya really want to master anythin', ya need to make yerself weaker first."
"Make myself...weaker?"
"Are ya a pegasus or a parrot whippersnapper?" Granny Smith grinned, her white teeth shining in the darkness. "Ah understand. Yer always on guard. Ya can't even look at a pony without thinkin' 'o him or her as a possible enemy. Yer always on the lookout, always watchin'. But sugarcube...that's no way to live. Yer spirit's wound up like a spring. If ya keep it up, yer gonna snap and it ain't gonna be pretty.
"So, in order to really use that strength of yours, yer gonna have to make yerself weaker."
Setting an easy pace, Granny Smith walked into the farmhouse. Dawn watched her go, his eyes narrowed. There was none of the usual shakiness he had previously seen in her movements. Her gait was smooth and measured, though slow. Turning his head, Dawn examined the garden. The ground was mostly untouched. And who goes out to tend to a vegetable patch at this time of night? Her gardening had simply been an excuse. The ancient mare had been waiting for him.
Dawns knees began to shake, then quake, quickly escalating to the point where he could only just barely remain standing. He felt as though he had been standing close to something truly immense and that he was beyond fortunate to have been passed by without harassment. It was hard to believe that this was the same shaky pony who’d shambled into his hospital room all those days ago. Who is that mare? She’s like a colossal mountain.
Rumble was silent throughout class the next day. He remained completely unresponsive to any attempts by Cheerilee or the other foals to engage his interest. It was clear that school was the last place he wanted to be right now, but he had not been given a choice in the matter. He wasn't the only one.
Scootaloo looked positively miserable. Every few moments, her gaze would wander over to Rumble, linger for a few seconds, before turning back to her desk. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom seemed quite troubled as well. The distressed state of the four foals formed an oppressive atmosphere that hung over the class like an unscheduled storm. It was a welcome relief when the midday bell signaled to the students that it was time for lunch and recess. The mass exodus was less like a group of foals trying to rush to the playground and more like ponies fleeing a burning building.
Dawn had observed quietly throughout the morning. He had tried to remain as active as he could. But the state of his three friends and the other pegasus colt had been troubling in ways that perplexed him, especially Scootaloo. Whenever he found himself noticing her troubled state, Dawn felt a tugging on his heart, a sensation that reminded him of the pain that had beset him when Applejack had broken his wing. He didn't like that feeling, not one bit. Initially, his instincts screamed at him to stifle that feeling. There was no need to be so anxious for Scootaloo after all. She was merely his student. That was what he had tried to tell himself, even though she was his friend as well. But as he tried to distance himself from the pain, the words Red River had said to him echoed in the back of his skull. You're too detached.
As he walked sedately out the doors, Dawn cast his glance around the schoolyard. Rumble sat in one of the furthest corners of the yard, staring emptily at his lunch, not bothering to even touch it. On the swing set in the center of the schoolyard, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat limply in the swings, gently pushing themselves back and forth as they stared vacantly at the ground. Scootaloo sat alone in the group's usual spot, eating her lunch, but barely paying attention to what was going on around her. Dawn's eyes flicked between all three locations and he made his decision.
Rumble looked up at the sound of approaching hooves to see Dawn coming to a stop next to him. A smoldering fury kindled in Rumble's gut, but was quickly quenched under the weight of his own depression. "May I sit here?" asked Dawn.
The other colt nodded wordlessly and Dawn set his lunch down. For a moment, he ate silently, not bothering to say anything. Scootaloo was watching, eyes wide with shock, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked on in confusion.
Dawn finished the last piece of his meal and turned his head ever so slightly to look at his companion. "So, Rumble was it?"
Rumble stiffened, his head shooting up. He appeared to be shocked by the question.
"May I ask why you seem to dislike me?"
For a moment, Rumble's mouth worked soundlessly, unable to come up with a response. "I...what do you mean?"
"You seem to dislike me for some reason. I simply asked why."
Rumble lowered his head. "How did you know that? I never said or did anything."
Dawn turned to look at the other colt full on. "I have a great deal of experience with ponies disliking me." His dragon-like eyes bored into Rumble. "Before I came to Ponyville, I had to deal with regular threats to my life. I can easily detect hostility when it's directed at me. You've been watching me ever since I joined the class. Can you explain why?"
"I..." Rumble's voice choked. "I was jealous of you, okay?" There was no point in hiding it any longer.
"Jealous?"
"Yeah! I liked Scootaloo. But whenever I was around her, all she did was get angry and mean. Sweetie Belle said it was because she was upset that I could fly and she couldn't. I tried a bunch of different ways to try and get her not mad at me. I used to make sure I wasn't flying when I was around her because I was afraid she might think I was trying to rub my talent in her face. When that didn't work, I just tried to be as nice as I could, but she never gave me a chance."
Rumble whipped his head around so he could return Dawn's dispassionate gaze with his own glare. "And then you come in out of nowhere and she's all excited and happy. You can fly too, but she never gets angry with you like she does with me. It made me mad. What's so great about you? What makes you so special?"
Dawn turned away from Rumble and looked down, contemplating what the colt had told him. "It seems odd to me," he remarked, "Scootaloo has been my student and the first friend my own age I have made since I came here. I certainly can't say that I know her well enough to speak for her. But...I thought that perhaps, we could be friends."
Rumble had to pick his jaw up off the ground. "What?"
"I don't see any reason we couldn't," Dawn continued, returning Rumble's startled stare, "And I think it might be good for both of us, Scootaloo as well. When I see everyone like this it...saddens me."
Rumble blinked. "You don't sound sure of that."
"I'm not," Dawn admitted readily, "I've had to deal with negative emotions like fear, anger and sadness so much that I gave up on trying to deal with them. I became numb. But mom and others have told me that's not right or healthy, that I shouldn't shy away from them. I'm only beginning to understand how to do that. I can reason things about what other ponies feel quite easily, but I can't actually feel it, or at least I couldn't."
Rumble wasn't sure how to respond to that. He wasn't even sure he knew what Dawn was talking about. Hay! He wasn't sure Dawn knew what Dawn was talking about. However, he did understand something. Dawn was completely out of his depth and trying something new and different, something that was uncomfortable for him. Rumble knew how that felt.
"I guess we could be friends," he said a little hesitantly.
The two of them looked at each other silently for a moment. "So, now that we're friends...what do we do?"
Rumble shrugged. "Not sure. What kind of things do you like to do."
"I meditate and practice during most of my free time. Otherwise I've been teaching Scootaloo how to fly." Dawn shrugged back. "I understand that most of those are not popular hobbies."
Rumble nodded and thought for a moment. "Well, if you fly, we could always go flying together."
"We might want to hold off on that until Scootaloo can join us," suggested Dawn.
"Good point," agreed Rumble before stopping to think, "By the way, how good a flyer are you?"
"Competent," answered Dawn simply.
"Then maybe we should try racing after school."
"Racing..." mused Dawn, "I've never done that before."
"You'll like it," said Rumble, a smile spreading across his face as the topic of the conversation shifted to something that he liked, "I race with my brother all the time. It's nothing serious, but we improvise some obstacle courses through Whitetail Woods fairly often. It's a lot of fun."
"What's this about racin' now?" The two colts looked up to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle join them. Faced with the prospect of doing something fun that afternoon, Rumble gleefully explained his plan to them. Unnoticed by all, except Dawn, Scootaloo watched the proceedings with a great deal of misery and frustration.
Rainbow Dash swooped through the clear blue skies, her eyes casting around for any clouds in her area. She was working one of the sectors right up at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Sadly, it seemed that all the clouds in this space had already been rounded up. That didn't bode well in the slightest. Looking over, she saw that Cloud Chaser and Flitter were having better luck over the reservoir, where natural evaporation had upped the humidity sufficiently for condensation to occur, resulting in naturally forming clouds occasionally appearing.
For the last storm, the weather team had been able to recycle many of the shade clouds previously sent from Cloudsdale. But there hadn't been any further deliveries since, leaving the weather team to make up for the lack by clouds harvested from the wild weather of the Everfree when they drifted over. Looking out over the forest, Rainbow sighed and wished she could fly out and gather some of the clouds from over the forest instead of waiting for them to drift out into Equestrian territory. But her hooves were tied. She had even briefly considered having the weather team make their own clouds from the reservoir water. It wasn't impossible. The team's efforts would essentially amount to a simplified version of what the weather factory at Cloudsdale did anyway. But she knew that wasn't a possibility either.
The legislation governing weather management was strict. The factory owners in Cloudsdale and other pegasus cloud cities jealously guarded their monopoly over cloud production. After all, if any team of weather pegasi could make their own clouds, then the economy supporting cities like Cloudsdale would collapse. The same was true of allowing ponies to harvest weather from places like the Everfree. Weather teams were legally forbidden to do either. It was for similar reasons that there were laws in place to limit things like groundwater irrigation.
The obvious problem was that when the weather factory failed to meet its needed output, the consequences could be severe. Rainbow Dash had been forced through a small mountain of red tape just to enact the water conservation efforts she had set up. Anything more than what she could do now was a pipe dream short of actually defying the law, which would get her fired, or worse, slapped with a fine and a criminal record, something that would really put a damper on her efforts to get into the Wonderbolts.
Rainbow cast a worried glance in the direction of Cloudsdale, which was a white blur on the horizon. Things couldn't stay like this forever. They had to get better eventually...right?
Cirrus Stratus glared at the rainbow-maned mare hovering by the edge of the Everfree Forest. In the days since his wife and daughter had left him, he had sunk into a sort of angry lethargy. He could barely work up the energy to leave the house anymore, much less do important things like work. He had recently received notice of his termination at the Post Office due to the fact he hadn't come in at all. Before long, he would run out of bits to continue paying the bills. He might even lose the house at some point.
And, as far as he was concerned, there was one mare responsible for it all. Rage formed a burning lump in Cirrus's belly as he continued to stare at Rainbow Dash from the cover of a nearby stand of trees. He fully intended to find a way to give her what he felt he owed her. Then, perhaps, he would take back his wife and his daughter and live the life he was meant to.
Having had his fill of stalking, Cirrus slunk away from his cover before taking to the air, flying low until he was in Ponyville proper. He avoided contact with other ponies. Apparently word of his family leaving him had gotten out and they were taking the side of his wife and daughter, in spite of the fact they had abandoned him. Cirrus let out a low growl. He would show them. He would show them all.
The stallion returned home, oblivious to the fact that he himself had been watched. High above, a different pegasus stallion wearing a silk shirt wheeled about and returned to the section of sky he was supposed to be patrolling.