//------------------------------// // The Rainbow at the end // Story: The Rainbow At The End Of The Storm // by Bakmah Genesis //------------------------------// The big one. The years biggest downpour before winter. Dash, already having finished her work, had nothing to do except sit in her cloud home and wait it out. The sky above the clouds were just as dangerous as below it. So that equalled no flying. It was an odd sight. Sitting in a cloud home when all the sudden a bolt of lightening raced upwards. Yes, up. No, Discord was not messing with the weather system, again. It was the natural design of thunder heads. Large black clouds that shot lightening in all directions and even passed it on to another thunder head and set off a chain reaction. A Pegasus would have to be insane to fly out in a thunder storm, especially the largest of the year. Not even Rainbow Dash dared its skies. She did want to live. Rainbow Dash sighed and got off of her cloud couch, walking towards the stereo system set in the far wall of the manor like cloud home. The plus side of being able to work with clouds and having enough space to do it is that you could pretty much make a shopping mall to live in if you were talented enough. Dash was able to make herself a large cloud manor for herself. "Let's see. Metallicolt, Green Hay, Sliphoof, I haven't listened to that new All Hope Is Lost album by them, yet. Pinkie got me it last year and I still have yet to check it out." She shrugged and pulled out the metal album and placed it in the stereo. The disc turned and the music kicked in. She bobbed her head and walked over to the small book shelf that held only one series. Daring Do. She sighed contently as she flopped back down on the couch with Daring Do and the Temple of Nightmare Moon. It was one of the newest books and a present from Twilight since she knew Rainbow would be bored all day. Though, the unicorn hoped she could rope the Pegasus into another action series. About three chapters in, a rather loud crack of lightening proved to be against her reading as it tore through the sky ten feet away from the house. A screaming Pegasus was also joining in, it seemed. Rainbow shrugged an-wait, screaming Pegasus! Rainbow marked her spot and bolted to the window. Sticking her head out, she scanned the lightening filled skies for the source of the scream. She was about to give up when something hit her front door, possibly going through it by the sound of it. She hopped off of the window sill and switched off her Sliphoof, stopping it mid-way through Snuff. Sad, she was enjoying that song. She huffed and walked over to her door. "Seriously, who is stupid enough to fly through the largest thunder-" she stopped mid rant as she saw the fiery orange mane sticking through the middle of the door, trying to free itself. The head gave up and looked up at her. Rainbow Dash had to do everthing she could from freaking out like a school filly who met their idol as the head revealed itself to be Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts. "Spitfire?! Ohmygoshohmygosh. Wait, what are you doing in my front door?" she asked, finally having the situation catch back up in her head. Spitfire looked away. "I may have crashed." she said, blushing slightly. Dash wanted to argue that couldn't be true because she was a Wonderbolt, but she reminded herself that wasn't true. Even our idols that we place higher than anything have mistakes. Spitfire was no exception to this. So Rainbow settled for a shrug. "Alright. This might hurt." She turned around and prepared to buck Spitfire out of the door. The Pegasus panicked and started trying to forcefully pull herself out, trying to escape the hindlegs ready to kick her face into next week. Her struggle met successes as the door released her and she fell on her back. The door opened to reveal a laughing Rainbow. "Oh Celestia, your face was priceless!" said the cyan Pegasus, trying not to fall over. Spitfire stammered as she tried to work her brain. "You weren't actually going to kick me in the face?" she asked, still trying to figure out what was happening. Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Nope. I would never mess up a prett-I mean another mares face unless they really deserve it." said Dash, blushing madly at her slip up. "You, um, want to come inside? If you crashed because of what I think, you might not be able to fly for a while." Dash motioned to Spitfire's, gaining her attention. Her eyes widened as she that the feathers on her left wing were partially black and messed about. She was going to need major preening. She was about to extend it when a cyan hoof stopped her. "That would just cause more pain." said Dash, noticing her actions. "You have to either let it heal a bit then preen or have some other pony preen it enough to allow some flight. Come on in, I'll get you settled down a bit." She guided the injured Pegasus into what Spitfire hadn't realized until now to be the largest cloud manor she has come to see. "How did you get the bits to afford this place?" she asked in awe, scanning the rooms. Rainbow Dash brought her into what she must have guessed was the living room. It was a large room could have a held a medium sized party if she wanted to. There was what looked like a spiral stair case leading to who knows where. "No where. I've spent the last six years building it with clouds my dad lent me from the cloud factory or clouds I picked up on the job that were scheduled to be cleared. After all the years of hard work, I got me a house." said Dash with a huge grin. Spitfire sat down on a surprisingly comfy couch and was about to be joined by Rainbow Dash when a bell sounded over by the staircase. "I thought she was home." said Rainbow, frowning. She walked over to the base of the stairs and looked up them. "Scoots! Ya home?" Silence. Rainbow frowned and stomped over to the trapdoor by the stairs. She whipped it open and kicked down the rope ladder. "Get your flank up here, Scootaloo Dash!" she yelled, causing Spitfire to recoil at the sudden loudness of her voice. "Scootaloo Dash? Wait, you have a daughter!?" she asked, shocked. She had done some research on the pony that piked her interests back when she originally joined the Wonderbolt academy but dropped out for unexplained reasons, but she saw no records of a foal nor siblings. "Well, um, yeah. Wait, how did you figure out Scoots is my daughter? I didn't even tell you my name." said Dash, confused. "Hard to forget the name of the Pegasus who had preformed the Sonic Rainboom, dropped out of the Wonderbolts academy despite being in the top of her class, and also represents the element of loyalty." she said with a smirk. Rainbow smiled sheepishly. The trap door closed, drawing the attention of the two Pegasus. An orange filly with a purple mane stood at its entrance. She was dripping wet and had her face turned away in shame. Rainbow frowned and sat on the floor, crossing her forelegs "And where were you for the last three hours in which you were supposed to be home?" asked Dash. Scootaloo, at least that's what Spitfire thought her name was, winced. "Crusading with the girls." she said, still refusing to look at her prismatic mother. "In the middle of the biggest thunder storm of the year?!" asked Dash, completely horrified that she even thought that it was even a good idea. "We thought it wasn't going to be this bad!" she said defensively. Rainbow frowned once again. "What did I tell you last night?" Scootaloo looked away. "Well?" she asked again, tapping her hoof. "The big one, which is the biggest thunder storm before winter, is the severely dangerous due to the large amount of rain it pours down and because the thunder heads are extra charged from storage." said the filly, looking away once again. Dash sighed and walked over to her. "Scoots, that lightening is strong enough to hospitalize even me and fry a filly. I just don't want you to get hurt. I just got you, and I don't want to loose you so soon." she said, almost crying. The small filly was actually crying and wrapped her hooves around her mother. "I'm sorry, mom." she said, squeezing her tighter. "It's okay. Go upstairs and do your homework. I'll call you down for dinner." "You're not going to cook again, are you?" asked the filly. Dash chuckled. "I think I can give the oven a rest and cook microwave pizza. Spike needs to do a better job on teaching me how to cook." she said with a chuckle. The filly nodded and ran up the stairs. Dash shook her head and sat down on the chair in front of Spitfire. "So how did you come by her? You are still pretty young to have a filly that old." said Spitfire, nodding up to the staircase where Scootaloo went. Dash gave a small sigh and looked out the window. "I was what you would call a 'teen mom'. I got pregnant and had her in my senior year. Had no bits to take care of her so I gave her up for adoption. Last time I saw her, she was just born." A tear made its way done her cheek. "The jock who kept bragging that he got 'the Rainbow Dash' knocked up got a chair to the side of the head and was stuffed inside a locker. I then sued him for the three thousand bits it cost me to give birth in the hospital. "When I moved to Ponyville, I just wanted to get away from the place I abandoned my daughter. Who would have known that she was transferred to Ponyville? When the cutie mark crusaders first banded together, I thought that the name was a coincidence that AJ said one of their names was Scootaloo." She smiled sadly and looked up at the ceiling to where Scootaloo's room supposedly was. "I first met her when I saw this beautiful orange Pegasus filly with a purple mane that looked exactly like my daughter crying under a tree. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me it was her turn to bring her parents to school for parents day or whatever it was." Her voice hitched slightly. "She told me her parents abandoned her and that they must've not loved her. I wanted so badly to pick her up and tell her mommy loved her, but what would she think? So I went on for another year. "Finally, we went camping one night with Rarity, AJ, and their sisters. She ran off the second night to prove she wasn't try to prove she wasn't afraid like me. She ended up falling in the river and almost falling off the edge of a water fall." Spitfire gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves. Dash continued. "She didn't know until later that I do get scared and there wasn't a time until then that I was more scared. I thought I was about to lose my only daughter. That night she asked me that she wanted to be my sister. "When we got back to Ponyville, I decided we should take a chariot ride to Cloudsdale. I showed her around the city and even took her to the Wonderbolts show that was in town that night." She smiled. "The very last tickets. She was more than excited. "The next morning, I was a bit more, reserved, which concerned her as you could imagine. When she asked why, I took her to the Cloudsdale hall of records. Right to the birth certificate section." Spitfire saw where this was going. "I pulled out hers and she was confused until I pointed out mother of birth. You have no idea how hard it is to tell a foal that her mother had to give her up and knew that she was there for a year but never acted." "How did she take it?" asked Spitfire softly, seeing how sensitive the subject is. "I didn't see her for a week. No doubt because of what I showed her. One day, however, I was napping in when a apple was thrown at my head. I was about to yell at who threw it when I saw her at the bottom of the tree, staring at me with watering eyes. "The school bullies were torturing her for not having a mother again and she wanted me to prove them wrong. I was happy that she accepted me somewhat, but still worried if she still hated me. So, after chewing out to stuck up rich kids, I asked her if she still did. The only thing she said is that she wanted her mom." Dash smiled. "I still have the adoption papers framed in her room along with the certificate of birth. Just to prove to her it isn't some dream and her mother is there and she loves her." "I can very well say you deserve to have a mother of the year award." said Spitfire, smiling. Dash chuckled. "Pinkie Pie tried to make me one. I just refused." She looked over at the clock and stood, trotting to the kitchen. "Well, we need to eat sometime." ~~~~~~ A few hours later found Spitfire and Dash back by the couch with full stomachs and a sleeping filly upstairs in her room. Scootaloo was literally bouncing around in join when she saw that Spitfire was joining them for dinner. Dash didn't give herself as much credit for being a mother that she deserved. She was clearly perfect for the filly even if she didn't believe so. The reason she was by Dash's house popped in her head. She bit her lip and looked back at the mare with the prismatic mane. She was currently watching the last few lightening strikes as the biggest storm of the year was starting to come to a close. She had a slight smile on her face. "What are you thinking about?" asked Spitfire. Dash turned to her and shrugged. "Nothing really. It's just, it's amazing how peaceful the sky is starting to look now that the sun is setting. The lightening ruins it a bit, yeah, but it's still beautiful. Something pegasi only get to see is the constant shift between day and night. It gives the skies a more peaceful state." Spitfire was shocked. In public, Dash was self-confident and would never back down from a challenge. At times, it would seem like she has no fear. Yet, she fears for her daughters safety, she never bragged once in her presence, and she seemed to know what she was doing when she bandaged up Spitfire's wing. In private, Rainbow Dash became a whole new pony. And this didn't make her love her any less. In fact, it made Spitfire fall deeper in love with the Pegasus she barely knew. "I can think of more beautiful things." she said. She quickly covered her muzzle as she realized what she had said. Too late, however. Dash looked over at her and arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Like what?" asked the cyan mare, curious. Spitfire sighed as she knew she was stuck. She could lie and come up with some bullshit answer, or confess and risk setting off the mare who she knew not of her sexual preference. "There was more of a reason why I crashed through your door than me getting hit by lightening. I was actually coming by to see you because." She took in a deep breath, preparing for what was next. "Because I wanted to tell you I love you." There, she said it. She looked away, waiting for her reaction. "Cool." Spitfire's head bolted upright. "Cool? A pony who barely knows you just said she loved you and you say cool? And I'm a mare! You aren't mad or shocked?" she asked, shocked by the mares choice of words. "Well, it's not hard you feel something for me by the way you were staring at my ass when I was grabbing supper." said Dash with a smirk. Spitfire blushed. "Plus, I'm gay. I was drunk the night I got knocked up. Other than that, I prefer mares over stallions. Mares can't get you pregnant after one night. "Honestly though, I wouldn't say you don't know anything about me. I just spilled a large part of my life to you. You know a lot about my right now." "So, you are totally okay with me loving you?" asked Spitfire, still confused. "Why? You want me to say no, throw your ass out in the rain, and forget that you were brave enough to venture out in the most dangerous thunder storm in recorded history just so you could tell me you love me? I don't think so. I would say I'm more than willing to see how this all turns out." "You mean that?" asked Spitfire, smiling wide. "Equestria's fastest flier and the Captain of the Wonderbolts? Most awesome couple ever." said Dash, grinning. She yelped as the injured Wondetbolt pounced on her, tackling her into a kiss. She laid there for a moment before melting into it, letting the mare have her fun. She finally broke away and hugged her. "Thank you." she whispered into Rainbow's ear. She smiled and kissed her forehead. "You're welcome."