Rainbow Dash woke up.
She wasn't startled, nor did she have a nightmare. She just woke up.
And, boy, was she unusually hungry. Her mother had always told her she ate like a griffin, but she had never really thought about it until Gilda had come to town a few years back.
Maybe her return had forced Rainbow's subconscious to draw lines and make connections, like one of her connect-the-dots books when she was a child, growing up in her small apartment in the Cloudsdale slums with an alcoholic father and promiscuous mother.
Maybe Gilda's mean behavior had reminded her of the way her father would come home, drunk out of his mind, and let his hooves do most of the talking.
Maybe Fluttershy being afraid of Gilda had reminded her of whenever Fluttershy would come over to visit, only to have her arrival be met with slurred threats from Rainbow's dad on one end, and moans of pleasure from a random stallion and Rainbow's mother on the other. Rainbow's dad didn't care about his betrothed's sex life, as her decision to whore herself out was the family's main source of income.
Maybe Pinkie's helpful interference had reminded her of one night when she stumbled in on her mother and a stallion, going at it. She had heard her mother's cries, and went to check up on her.
"Ah, fuck, a kid?" the stallion had said as soon as he noticed the small filly looking on in horror at the scene before her. "Who the fuck let a kid in here? I can't even finish now." He hopped off of the bed and started to dress. The stallion turned to Rainbow's mother. "I'll pay you five bits. I still gotta buy food for my family, ya know." The stallion was happily married and had a colt named Thunderlane.
"Please, baby, don't go," her mother had said, trying to get her hard-earned bits. "She's not right in the head, baby, she's a little weird, don't go, we can finish."
The stallion tossed five golden coins on Rainbow's mother's lavender coat. "Hah! You're worth one bit, honey. Be glad I'm feeling generous today." He galloped out of the room. Rainbow's father called out to the fleeing stallion.
"Enjoy the ride?" he said, chuckling to himself. He poured another shot of his favorite whiskey, Cloudsworth's. He had already had eleven.
"You BITCH!" Rainbow's mother cried to Rainbow. "You just blew my sale!" She brought a fast hoof to Rainbow's face. It stung, and Rainbow started to cry.
"Mommy, I thought he was hurting you!"
"I should've listened to everyone and gotten the abortion!"
"Mommy, please! I'm sorry!"
"Shut up!" She slapped Rainbow again. This slap in particular stung the worst.
Eventually, Rainbow's mother found a pimp who she worked for for about seven years. By the time she had gotten out of the prostitution game, Rainbow had taken up a residence in Ponyville, a wonderful little town. Rainbow's mother had gotten out of the game in a body bag. Her pimp had shoved a dishwashing-soap, rat poison, and bleach cocktail down her throat. Her body was found in a place affectionately known as Whore Alley, near the intersection of Crassham Boulevard and Witcham Street on the Crassham side.
When Rainbow Dash had gotten the news, all she could say was, "Good." This was five years before she had met Applejack at Sugarcube Corner. She'd have met Pinkie the day she came to Ponyville if Pinkie wasn't already so busy welcoming Pokey Pierce to town. Instead, Rainbow met Pinkie the day after she had moved to Ponyville.
Rainbow snapped out of her reminiscing and remembered her goal: breakfast. She half-walked, half-fell down the stairs and sauntered into the kitchen. She made her way to her fridge, where she removed eggs, butter, mushrooms, green peppers, and cheese. With her ingredients tucked beneath her wings, she slowly, carefully, gingerly walked towards her range. She placed her ingredients on the counter, took out a pan from the shelf above her, coated it with PAM, and cracked the eggs.
The white and yellow innards flowed like a river into the pan, much akin to the tears Rainbow was blissfully unaware of that she was crying. She then placed the rest of her ingredients into the pan, making sure not to drop any on her floor. She couldn't do the same for her tears. Her omelette had eventually finished, so she wrapped her hoof around the pan's wooden rubber handle and was about to empty the pan's contents onto a porcelain plate she had received as a going-away gift from her mother when she stopped herself.
She felt her face get hot. What the hell was a gift from that bitch doing in her house?
In a fit of rage, she picked up the plate and whirled it across the kitchen. It hit a wall and shattered into thousands of tiny fragments. Rainbow became aware of her tears. She sat down on a chair in her kitchen, put her head into her hooves, and wept.
Across Ponyville, in a small apartment on Kossuth Lane, Thunderlane wakes up.
He’s not as hungry as Rainbow is, however. Instead, he feels remorse. Yesterday was his brother’s birthday, and he forgot to get him something.
It reminds him of his childhood.
His well-to-do childhood, where he lived with his ignorant mother and father, and eventually his little brother, Rumble, who had to endure five years of neglect.
His childhood, where he would romp around with his friends Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker and Fluttershy, the last of the three who was never much of a romper, but could romp, given the right circumstance.
His childhood, where his father cheated on his mother with the city whores, one of whom, unbeknownst to Thunderlane, was Rainbow Dash’s mother.
His childhood, where he was teased for having friends who were only girls from the summer of sixth grade and onwards, and everypony knew that girls were gross, that girls had cooties, that you would shrivel up and die if you caught cooties from a girl. Thunderlane didn’t think the same way.
His childhood, where being shoved in lockers was a daily occurrence, and Rainbow Dash had to bail him out, and he would blush because she had saved him, even though everyone was afraid of her. The other boys said it was because she had the most cooties, but they knew that Rainbow would ruffle more than a few feathers if she was provoked. He blushed because she was pretty, too, but he would just die if anyone found out.
He remembers a day, the last day of school, the last day of sixth grade. The teacher was calling kids up to get their report cards. “Thunderlane,” she called. He got up from his seat, stole his one last look at Rainbow Dash before summer (or so he thought then), and walked up to receive his marks. He had always been a good student, and his report card this year was no different. All As and Bs for Thunderlane, oh yes indeed. He walked out of the school and took a deep breath, inhaling the warm, crisp summer air. Rainbow Dash followed close behind him.
“Heya,” she said.
Thunderlane jumped out of his skin. “Oh, um...hi,” he responded.
She giggled. Thunderlane loved her laugh. He also loved her eyes, her muzzle, her teeth, and her mane. He loved her eyes because they were pretty and you could get lost in them, her mane because of how she wore it, so loose, like she didn’t have a care in the world. Other girls pointed and laughed, because little Dashie was secretly a boy, they said, and she had boy parts, they said, and they would all blush and giggle. “Hey, did I scare ya? Sorry.”
“No, it’s...it’s okay. So, um...what’s up, I guess?”
She giggled again. He was kind of cute, she thought. “Nothing,” she said, biting on her bottom lip. “You?”
“Well, I…” He wanted to shout ‘I love you!’ but he couldn’t because he was afraid and girls hate chickens who are afraid, right? “...I got my report card.”
“How’d you do?”
“All As and Bs. You?”
“Same here.”
Thunderlane giggled nervously. “It’s, um...Rainbow Dash, right? Your name?” Stupid Thunderlane, he thought, stupid, stupid, stupid!
“Yeah,” she said. “You’re Thunderlane, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Thunderlane,” she continued, “do you have any friends?” Stupid Dash, she thought, stupid, stupid, stupid!
“Well...I…” He sighed. “No,” he said. “I’m an only child, and no one really likes me. I don’t know why.”
Rainbow felt bad for the kid. She had Fluttershy, and Cloud Kicker, so why didn’t he have any friends? “I think other kids are jealous of you.”
“Really? Why?”
“You got good grades. How many other boys do you know who did that good?”
“Not many…” he said, looking at the ground.
“Exactly. Hey, do you wanna go somewhere? Maybe get some food? I have some friends that could come, too.”
He looked surprised. “Really? You’d do that? For me?”
“Yeah.” She looked over her shoulder. “Here they come now.”
Thunderlane looked behind him. He saw a yellow pony with a long pink mane and a purplish pony with a yellowish-orangish mane come out. When he made eye contact, the yellow pony hid behind her mane, and the purplish pony smiled.
“Hey, guys,” Rainbow called out. “This here is Thunderlane.”
“Hi, Thunderlane,” the purplish pony said. “I’m Cloud Kicker. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh...um...hi…” the yellow pony mumbled. “I’m Fluttershy…” Thunderlane was a good listener, so he didn’t need her to say it again.
“Hi,” he returned, smiling a small smile.
“Thunderlane here is gonna come with us to get some ice cream. That cool?” Rainbow asked.
Cloud Kicker and Fluttershy nodded their heads.
Thunderlane smiled. He finally had a friend. Or friends. Not long after this fateful day, Rumble would be born.
When the four of them had reached the ice cream parlour, it was 4:30 p.m. Thunderlane’s parents wouldn’t notice he was gone until he had walked through the front door in an unusually happy mood. Rainbow’s parents would be too busy being either drunk or making illegitimate bits through sex to care about their daughter.
Thunderlane ordered two scoops of chocolate, Rainbow ordered two scoops of Supermane, justifying her purchase by saying she liked the taste and the color of the ice cream. Fluttershy ordered a vanilla milkshake, and Cloud Kicker ordered a strawberry slushie.
They found a booth with a red-and-white-checkered pattern, which was admittedly more fit for a pizza parlour than an ice cream parlour, but bits were tight, and the owners had to settle for what they could afford. Rainbow Dash sat on the inside, across from Fluttershy, while Thunderlane sat on the outside, next to Rainbow Dash, and across from Cloud Kicker. Cloud tried to start up a conversation.
“So...um...how’d you do?” she asked to no one in particular.
“What do you mean?” Thunderlane asked.
“Like, your report card. How were your grades?”
“Oh. All As and Bs.”
“Same here. How about you, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, I had all As and one B. The B was in flying,” Fluttershy responded. She was becoming more comfortable around Thunderlane already. He was nice. She had only known him for a few hours, but she could tell that he wasn’t mean or anything.
“All As and Bs,” Rainbow said. “All of us did okay, huh?”
“I guess.”
Thunderlane, finally, had friends.