//------------------------------//
// Mother Of... 
// Story: Parental Problems 
// by Speven Dillberg 
//------------------------------//

	Post Haste watched in amusement as Rainbow Dash and Thunderhead argued for the ten minutes it took for them to get to Hippogriff. It was probably wrong to find so much amusement in the situation, but the fact that their argument was over a moustache, of all things, just made it even funnier.
“Postie!” Rainbow yelled, making the stallion jump.
“Wha-huh?” he asked, now noticing that both Rainbow and her father were staring at him.
“What do you think?” Thunderhead asked, looking at the younger stallion with a raised eyebrow.
“About what?” Postie asked, already knowing what the response would be. 
“Dad’s moustache!” Rainbow replied loudly. “It looks ridiculous!”
“No it doesn’t!” Thunderhead’s response was just as loud. “It looks sophisticated,” he said in a way that implied that he didn’t know what real sophistication actually was.
Post Haste now faced a dilemma: Agree with his fillyfriend and possibly lose favour with her father, or agree with her father and risk angering his fillyfriend. After a few seconds, he decided that honesty was the best policy and took a deep breath. “Thunderhead,” he started, knowing the storm-grey pegasus would prefer being addressed that way, “without that... thing on your face, you’d look scarier than an angry manticore. With it, though, it’s like somepony took that manticore, shaved off its mane and stuck it in a dress. Completely ridiculous,” he finished, the last two words coming out louder than he had intended.
Rainbow stared at him, shocked at just how much he had said, along with what he had said. Thunderhead was just as shocked, and simply stared. Eventually, he managed to find his tongue. “A manticore in a... A manticore in a...” 
Postie took a few steps back when he saw that he was shaking. The mailpony began to panic. Oh crap, he’s angry. Oh no, oh no, oh no...
“BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Thunderhead suddenly let out a loud, booming laugh. Postie and Rainbow stared, both having taken wing in shock. “A manticore in a... hahaha... in a...” After close to a minute Thunderhead managed to calm himself down enough to string together a coherent sentence. “That... that was the funniest thing I’ve heard in years,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye.
Rainbow and Postie glanced at each other. “It wasn’t that funny,” the stallion said carefully, not entirely sure what else to say.
“Don’t put yourself down, kid. That was good.” Thunderhead took a deep breath and sighed. It was only then that they noticed the number of weird stares they were getting, from pony and griffon alike. “We better go,” the older stallion said, looking around awkwardly. He led the small group away from the curious stares.
“Why did you move to Hippogriff?” Postie asked, hoping to fill the void that had arisen.
“The Weather Factory in Cloudsdale sent me out here to help supervise the weather. Because this is still a relatively new town, and the griffons usually work around the weather, I end up doing most of the work.” The storm-coloured stallion rolled his eyes. “I swear, they’re lazier than you, Dashie,” he said with a sly smile.
“Hey!” the rainbow mare replied indignantly. “I’m not lazy!”
“Rainbow, I see you napping away half the day all the time on my mail route,” Postie replied, unimpressed.
“If you didn’t keep me up half the night I wouldn’t need to -” Rainbow clapped a hoof to her mouth to cut herself off, having forgotten who she was around. She and the mailpony both turned a deep red.
“I don’t want to know,” was all Thunderhead said as he shook his head and continued walking.
The progressed in awkward silence until they stopped in front of a rather plain, uninteresting two-story house. “I think your mother is in for a nice little surprise,” Thunderhead said with a smile.
“How is mom, anyway?” Rainbow asked.
“Well -” he was cut off then the door was pulled open, revealing a pegasus mare, slightly shorter than Rainbow. Her mane was a very interesting shade of purple, almost identical to Rarity’s, though it lacked the styling and care the unicorn was infamous for. Her coat was almost the exact same colour as Rainbow’s was. On her flank was a spotlight, though that didn’t really do much to tell Postie what her talent was.
“Thunderhead!” She sounded angry. “You said you were going to be home half an hour ago!”
“She’s perfectly fine,” Thunderhead said, looking at the pair who were out of view to the occupant.
“Who are you talking to?” The purple-maned pegasus poked her head out and caught sight of Rainbow Dash wearing great big grin and Post Haste, smiling awkwardly. “Rainbow!”
“Hey mom!” She was pulled into a hug as the smaller pegasus leapt at her.
“Oh, Rainbow!” her mother said as she kissed her on the cheek. Postie watched this display of love with a sad smile. “I’m so glad you could come! A little warning might have been nice,” the mare said.
“Postie, this is my mother Tranquil Sky,” Rainbow said, still wrapped in her mother’s forelegs.
“Quite handsome, isn’t he?” Tranquil Sky said teasingly as she looked Postie up and down. 
“M-mom!” Rainbow exclaimed, blushing in embarrassment. The stallion, though, was too preoccupied with his thoughts to immediately realise what Tranquil Sky had said.
“Oh, thanks,” Postie said, thinking that the older mare had been completely serious. He failed to notice Rainbow facehoof and shake her head and Thunderhead give him an incredulous look. After a few seconds he realised the intent behind Tranquil’s words. “I can’t believe I just did that...” he muttered as his hoof met his face.
Tranquil wore a smile as she let go of her daughter. "I suppose you can rely on him to deliver, can't you?" she asked as she led them all into the house.
Rainbow and Postie stared at her in mild disgust. “Mom, that is really creepy,” was all that Rainbow could manage.
“So, what’s for dinner?” Thunderhead asked, either oblivious or uncaring towards his wife’s behaviour.
“I was thinking just a simple salad,” Tranquil said, “but I don’t have enough in the house for four ponies, especially a stallion that can keep up with Rainbow.”
Postie paused for a moment, trying to identify any possible traps that had been laid. There was the obvious one, but he couldn’t be sure if it was accidental or not. “Well, sorry about that,” he said, confident that a simple apology couldn’t be taken out of context.
Tranquil let out a light snort in amusement. “And he’s polite! Where did you find this one?” she asked her daughter. “He much better than the colts you used to bring home.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Thanks for reminding me of that, mom,” she said bitterly. “Can we just get some food? We flew non-stop to get here.”
“You always were pushing yourself too hard,” the violet-maned pegasus said, shaking her head.
“No pain, no gain,” was Thunderhead’s contribution to the conversation. “Let’s go, there’s a nice place run by a griffon I know.”
“Can we get rid of this stuff first?” Rainbow asked, gesturing to the saddlebags that she and Postie were still wearing.
“You can have the spare room upstairs,” Tranquil said. “The bed should be big enough.” There was something in her tone that seemed to suggest that there was a reason she knew.
“Thanks,” Postie said as he ascended the stairs, keeping an eye on the older mare. Rainbow was close behind.
“Your mother is a pervert,” the mailpony blurted out when they were out of earshot. 
“You think I don’t know? I had to grow up with that,” Rainbow retorted. “I have no idea why she does that, either.” She pushed open the door and blinked. “Woah.”
To say the bed was large would be a practice in understatement. It could have easily held five ponies and still leave room to spare. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else in the room itself, the bed taking up almost all the floorspace, leaving a gap barely three inches wide around the feather-filled monstrosity.
“Well this is overkill,” Postie said.
“Yeah,” Ranbow said, stepping onto the mattress. She bounced on it a few times. “It’s good,” she said as she sprung up higher and higher. “Give it a shot.”
Postie jumped on as well and let out a yelp when he bounced. He let out a laugh as he landed. “Oh wow!” He bounced again, and again, and again, imitating Pinkie Pie. Unfortunately, he failed to realise that the ceiling was, compared to what he was used to, incredibly low. It wasn’t long before he slammed into it with a crunch. “Oh sweet Celestia!” he yelled out as he fell into a heap, clutching his head. 
“Postie!” Rainbow yelled out, rushing to her coltfriend. She rolled him over onto his back and stood over him, trying to get a look at where he had hit himself. “Are you okay?”
“I hope you two are ready to -” The air was filled with a deep, uneasy silence as Thunderhead stood at the doorway, surveying the scene within. Both younger ponies were suddenly hit with realisation as to just how compromising their position seemed.
They stared at each other for a few moments before Post Haste broke the silence. “This isn’t what it looks like.”





Author's Notes:
Another short chapter.
Again, sorry for the delay. I blame that on the fact it took me and a mate a whole day to come up with colours and name for Rainbow's mum.
And I hope you Americans appreciate me going out of my way to use your stupid American spelling for 'mom'!