Rainbow's Parents: The Truth

by Songbrony


One Last Trip

I took a deep breath as I was escorted to the Princess' throne room. My mom was able to set up a time for me to meet with her about Clarrise. In the past I wasn't nervous to meet her, but now, I felt like I was about to fly out of skin. I was hoping that maybe we could do something to get Fluttershy out of the situation without putting her under constant surveillance.

"Just remember that you may not get exactly what you want, Rainbow." my mom said as she led me through the halls.

"I know. All I want is for Fluttershy to be able to live without fear or worrying about when she'll have to run off again." I said.

"I understand. I've been trying to get her to force the Doctor to leave you out of his affairs. But it seems he has issues following orders." she said. We came up to the large double door with a guard on each side. "Agent 083, Firefly, to see Princess Celestia. Reason is classified." she said.

The guard nodded and let us in. Once the doors closed behind us, I turned to my mom. "Classified?" I asked.

"There's more going on with you here than you know. She didn't say, but I think she may be having you and Fluttershy going someplace safe."

We walked up to the glass windows where the Princess was standing. "Welcome, Rainbow Dash. I've been waiting for this meeting for awhile now." she said.

"Me too. I have a request I want to ask of you." I said, getting straight to the point.

"As do I." she said, turning to Firefly. "I understand that she is your daughter and that you want the best for her, but may I please speak to her alone?" the Princess asked.

I saw my mother tense up and take a deep breath. "Of course, your Highness." she said and looked to me. She turned and walked out of the room, closing the doors behind her.

"Forgive me for having to exclude your mother from our conversation." she said calmly. "But I'm afraid she would intervene if she knew."

"Knew what?" I asked.

"What I need you to do. I need you and Fluttershy to go with Twilight on her next test in the upcoming days." she said.

"Why?" I asked. I didn't like the sound of a test.

"Because it involves Fluttershy's mother."

"Wait, you're going to send Twilight to fight her?" I asked, surprised and annoyed.

"No. We believe that Clarrise has allied herself with a dark pony from long ago. He was a being of pure evil, and if they are working together, you two are in more danger than ever." she said.

"So, what? You want us to go find this dark pony?" I asked confused.

"No. We know where he is, but what I need is something that's more dangerous for you." she said.

I waited for her to explain. "Which is?"

She sighed. "By sending you two there, I am hoping that maybe she will be tempted to come out and show herself." she explained.

I stood there with my mouth open. "You want us to act as bait?"

She walked over to me. "I know it doesn't sound good, but if she shows herself, the Doctor can neutralize her, and you two will never have to do anything like this again." She put a hoof on my shoulder. "This could be the time we finally catch her for good."

I sighed and lowered my head. "No disrespect, Princess, but if anything happens to her, I swear I'll never forgive you."

"I know. But we need you to do this." she said quietly. "Don't tell Fluttershy about this. All your friends will be going to help Twilight with her test, but you two will also be there for the reason I just gave you."

"So you're not just putting Fluttershy in danger, you're putting everypony else I care about in danger too?" I exclaimed.

"They will be fine. Have faith in Twilight to keep them safe." she said.

I couldn't believe her. She was going to send all of us to some random location where all of us could be injured or worse. "Fine." I said angrily. I know it was rude and disrespectful, but I didn't care. I was too ticked off at her to worry about it.

"One more thing." she said. "You can't tell Fluttershy anything about this. If her mother suspects anything from Fluttershy, she will not show herself."

"What?!" I exclaimed, really angry now. "First you say you'll send me and Fluttershy as bait for her murderous mother, and now I can't even warn her of what could happen?"

"Rainbow Dash." she said sternly. "I know you're upset with me, but you have to do as I say. If you don't, Fluttershy could be in more trouble than you could imagine."

I looked her in the eye as I said my next sentence. "You're going to get us both killed." I said calmly. "I'll do it, but just keep in my mind that we may die because of this." I turned back and walked out the door. I was done talking to her. As I walked out, I must have slammed the door shut because my mom was quick to jump on me.

"What happened in there?" she asked.

"Nothing." I said.

"Rainbow. You can't lie to me." she said.

"Nothing happened." I said.

She stepped in front of me and glared at me. "What. Happened." she said with extra force.

"I was ordered not to tell you because she thinks you might intervene." I said.

"I'm your mother I have every right to intervene if your safety is in danger." she pointed out.

"And I'm a full grown mare who can look after herself." I said and stomped off. I didn't want to talk to her. I didn't want to talk to anyone. So I did the one thing I could do that would let me be by myself. I jumped out through an open window and flew into the open sky.

I flew high above the clouds. I knew not many ponies would be willing to follow me because of the thinner air, but it didn't bother me. It allowed me to be by myself and just fly. There wasn't a soul in sight. I flew for a few miles to make sure that I would be totally alone and landed on a cloud. I laid down and buried my head in my in its puffiness.

It's not fair. It's not bucking fair. I thought. Just as we had some peace and had some normalcy back in our lives, I hear that we are bait to a trap that could kill us. Why is it my life that has the crazy psychopath trying to kill us and ruin our lives? I thought. I sat there for a few minutes just crying lightly. I haven't cried in awhile, but I had a terrible feeling about this mission the Princess had in mind. I couldn't help but feel like she was sending us to our deaths.

I sniffed and wiped my eyes. I took a deep breath and recollected myself. "Are you okay, Rainbow?"

I jumped in surprise. "Ahh!!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! Did I scare you?" Derpy asked.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked, shocked.

"Well I noticed that you were flying away from the castle. I knew that the Princess was talking to you about the plan, and the Doctor told me not to follow you." she explained.

"Then why did you?" I asked.

"Well...you looked mad and upset. I wanted to see if you were alright." she said.

"Well I'm not. She's using us as bait to lure a snake." I said, annoyed again.

"It's not just that." she said. "The Doctor and her think that you and Fluttershy work well together, even when you don't think you are. So they decided that instead of just sending one of you to lure her out, that if both of you went, you would be safer."

"Why?

"Because you two look out for each other. You when there's imminent danger, and Fluttershy when it comes to your overall well being. Remember what she did in the forest with her mom to keep you safe? The Doctor told me what happened. I believe the only reason she did that was because she wanted to keep you safe." she said. "I've never seen two ponies care for each other like you two do, or willing to do so much for the other. I'm pretty sure most ponies would give up after nearly being killed multiple times from their marefriend's mother, or after they killed their mom."

"I guess..." I said, thinking about it. "But it's different. I'm the only pony Fluttershy has ever really had as a friend. Before me, she was always picked on, her parent's were complete jerks, and nopony cared what happened to her."

"But that's what makes it so special." she said. "You were there for her when she was a filly. Even now you are there for her when she's in danger. You two have never given up on the each other and will never leave each other's sides."

I smiled. "Since when did you become so smart in relationships?"

"I'm not. It's just easy to tell when two ponies are so crazy for each other that they are willing to do anything for the other." she said, returning my smile.

"Well, I won't ever let someone hurt her. Never." I said.

"I know." Derpy said.

A thought came to me. "Hey, how are you even able to fly up here? The air is so thin that I thought barely anypony could fly this high."

"I thought I was the only who could fly this high. It's where I always went when the other kids picked on me and bullied me." she said quietly. "It was a safe place for me to just be myself and watch the scenery around me. It was peaceful."

"I understand that. It's beautiful up here." I said as I looked around us. Mountains peaked past the clouds, Canterlot glistened below us, and above the cloud layer was a beautiful sky.

"I know you're worried Rainbow, but you shouldn't. The Doctor will keep you two safe there. And if he doesn't, I'll beat him." she said.

"If I don't get to him first." I replied.

"You should probably head back to Ponyville. I think your friends are about to get a letter." she said and prepared to fly away.

"Hey, Derpy?" I called.

She turned to me. "Yes?"

"Thanks." I said. "You're a lot cooler than the other ponies around here."

She smiled at me. "Thanks. But I'm not as cool as you." she said and flew off the cloud towards Canterlot. I looked down towards the ground and decided to have some fun. I jumped off the cloud and did a straight nose dive to the ground. I flapped my wings to gain some momentum and pulled them in close to me. It was the fastest I've gone in a long time. And it felt great. I popped open my wings and felt the wind rustle through the feathers. I pulled up quick as I came within meters of the ground. I shot towards Twilight's house and landed in front of her door as the others walked up.

"You get a letter from the Princess too, RD?" Applejack asked.

"Yep." I said.

"Any idea why we're needed for Twilight's test?" she asked.

"Nope, but I'm not looking forward to it. I hate tests."

"Well, let's see how Twilight is handling the news about the test." she said as she knocked on the door. Spike was the one who opened it up before quickly being called back in.

"Is she having another nervous breakdown?" I asked.

"Where are my quills?" Twilight asked frantically. She found them and sent them flying towards Spike. He jumped in the air and caught them in the bag. "I need the Magical Compendium volumes 1 through 36! Where is it?!" she exclaimed, searching for it. She threw a bunch of the books off of the shelf and pulled a giant encyclopedia out. I couldn't believe the size of this book. And I had a feeling that Twilight had read it about 50 times.

She pulled it out and Spike readied himself to catch it. And it squashed him like a bug. "Flash cards! I should make some flash cards." she said, running over to a drawer. "Spike, I'm gonna need you to quiz me. On everything. Everything I've ever learned. Ever." She pulled out what I think are around 1,000 flash cards and threw them at Spike. "That isn't going to be enough cards."

"Twilight, calm down. It's just a test." Spike said.

"Just a test?" Twilight asked.

Uh oh. I thought, thinking back to when she was worried about being tardy.

"Just a test?! Princess Celestia wants give me some kind of an exam, and you're trying to tell me to calm down because it's just a test?!" she shouted at him.

He covered himself with pillows and a helmet quickly. "Uh...yes."

I saw Twilight's face turn a little red and I swear smoke was rising from her ears. "I'd say she's handling things pretty well, considering." Applejack said. I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. Next thing I know we're launched in the air as Twilight let out a loud groan.

We quickly walked to the train station, mainly because Twilight was in a hurry to get their on time. The ride was full of talk about what the exam was going to be about. I sat in the corner staring at the passing mountains thinking of what Derpy had said.

It was true. We really did look out for each other. I was the only one there for her when she was a filly, I was her best friend all through school, making sure she wasn't dealing with the bullies, and then she tried to reason with her mother to save me, even though she would have to work with that abomination, only to then go crazy and tackle her once she broke her deal. I smiled. It was amazing that no matter what Clarrise threw at us, we never stopped helping each other and we never abandoned the other.

One last fight. I thought. And then we'll have nothing to worry about.