Part 3
Rainbow Dash leaned against the wall of her room. She was a little taller now, and her mane was as wild as the teenager that wore it. There were many posters on the walls of the Wonderbolts, sporting their blue suits that had lightning bolt insignias on their flanks. Most of the posters in the room had wrinkled and torn edges.
There was a knock on the door and the cyan pegasus turned toward it and sighed. “Yeah?”
The puffy white door was pushed to the side and into the room walked Star Shine. There were a few silver strands in her mane, and she’d gained some girth around the middle. Heavy bags were under her eyes. “Rainbow, I heard about what happened at school.”
“Yeah? What about it?” Rainbow scowled.
Her mother sighed and shook her head. “Rainbow, why did you hurt that sweet filly? What did she do to you?”
“She tried to steal my stallion,” Rainbow said with an angry edge.
“Your stallion? Aren’t you a little too young to have a stallion?”
“I’m thirteen, I’m not too young to do anything.” Rainbow flared her wings.
“You’re thirteen, just a little too young to be considering a having a serious coltfriend.”
“You had a coltfriend when you were thirteen.”
“Who in the world told you that?” Rainbow’s mother cocked an eyebrow.
“Dad did, last time he was here.”
Star Shine gritted her teeth. “What did I tell you about listening to what that stallion had to say?”
“You said not to pay attention to what he says,” Rainbow hollowly reiterated her mother’s words.
“So, what do you think you should do?”
“I think I should do what I think I should do,” Rainbow said haughtily. “I’m not going to let you decide what I listen to and don’t listen to.”
“I’m not trying to tell you what to listen to Rainbow, I’m trying to protect you from that worthless stallion’s lies.”
Rainbow stomped her hoof on the soft, cloudy floor. “Don’t talk about my father like that!”
“Your father isn’t a father,” Star Shine’s speech was underscored by a growl, “he’s never around!”
“So,” the cyan pegasus shrugged, “he’s still my father.”
Star Shine let out a long breath through her nose, trying to put a lid on the boiling anger in her stomach. “Look, I’m not here to talk to you about your father, I’m here to talk about what you did to that poor filly. Do you know they had to give her stitches?”
“Damn right they did,” Rainbow said with a grin. “I made sure she’ll never mess with my stallion again.”
“How did she mess with your stallion anyway?”
“I caught them bucking in the locker room, he was laying down against the bench...”
Star Shine gasped and cut her daughter off. “They were what?”
“She was bucking him in the middle of the locker room! That’s why I beat her down.”
The elder mare rapidly worked her mouth, shocked that her daughter could speak about such a thing so matter-of-factly. “They were having sex? Oh my goodness uh...I...you shouldn’t have beat her down, you should have beat him down!”
“Why would I beat him down? She was the one bucking him.”
“It takes two to tango dear...and..." Star Shine shook her head. “Either way, that makes no difference. You shouldn’t have done anything at that point, except to just walk away. No stallion is worth getting in trouble over.”
Rainbow’s muscles stiffened. “You’re wrong, he didn’t buck her, she bucked him. I’m not gonna just let some mare take my stallion. If I do, then all the fillies at school will just walk all over me.”
“It doesn’t matter who did who,” Star Shine said with a frustrated sigh. “She didn’t force him to have sex. Believe me, she didn’t. Unless she knocked him out and tied him down. Was whoever this colt was knocked out and tied down?”
Rainbow dug a fore hoof at the floor. “No.”
“Then she didn’t force him. If I was a gambling mare, I’d say he was probably more excited about the prospect than she was.”
“No he wasn’t, he was all sorry and everything.” Passion was creeping into the filly’s voice.
“Now if you keep talking like that you won’t have to worry about the fillies walking all over you, it’ll be the stallions that will walk all over you. You can’t let yourself be so gullible Dash.”
“I am not gullible!” Dash growled through gritted teeth.
“You sure aren’t proving your case by me,” her mother said sarcastically. “Some stallions will do anything they want to a mare and lie to their face about it. Take it from somepony who knows. Take whatever a stallion tells you with a grain of salt. Look, this stallion you call your ‘coltfriend’ cheated on you, pure and simple. When they do that, and you let them get away with it, then they’ll do anything to you. The best thing to do at that point is to walk away.”
An icy realization begin to crawl into Star Shine’s mind. “Rainbow,” her voice became a croaky whisper, “you haven’t been...having sex, have you?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, what about it?”
Star Shine had to fight to keep her jaw from falling to the floor. “Rainbow! Why? Why in the hell would you do that?”
“Because I love him,” Rainbow said seriously.
“You’re thirteen Rainbow, thirteen! You are way too young to know what love is, and you are way too young to be having sex!”
“I know what love is,” Rainbow shouted, “and besides, you had sex when you were thirteen!”
Star Shine’s anger was about to bubble over, she knew the stallion who told Dash that piece of information. “Yes, and I regret it every day of my life. I wish I wouldn’t have done the things I did.”
“Then who are you to tell me what to do?” Rainbow snidely asked.
“First of all, I’m your mother. Secondly, I don’t want you to end up like I ended up when I was a few years older than you.”
“I won’t be like you, because I won’t get pregnant at seventeen.” Rainbow’s words were rapiers.
“You don’t know that Rainbow, you don’t know anything. Those condoms don’t always work. I got pregnant because one of those little things broke.”
Rainbow scowled. “Wait, what? You getting pregnant was an accident?”
Star Shine nodded sadly.
“So, you’re saying I’m an accident? I shouldn’t exist?” New anger rose in Rainbow’s voice. “I knew it, I always knew it! You never wanted me.”
Rainbow’s mother shook her head. “I never said that at all.”
“You might as well have, because it’s what you meant,” Rainbow shouted.
“It’s not what I meant at all,” her mother shouted back.
“You lie.”
Rainbow’s mother turned away from her daughter and faced the wall. A faraway look came into her eyes. The anger in her stomach quickly evaporated, and was replaced by a sudden calmness. “Did I ever tell you I thought about having an abortion?”
The anger fell from Rainbow’s face. “What?”
“After I found out I was pregnant,” Star Shine said slowly, “I thought about having an abortion. Your father urged me to, and at first I thought it was a good idea.”
“That’s what I thought,” Rainbow growled.
“Let me finish.” Star Shine held up a hoof. “But after I thought about it, I realized having a foal was a blessing, and it would be stupid to get rid of a blessing. I knew it was going to be hard raising you, but felt it was the right thing to do. I hoped that, maybe, I could be a better mother to you than my mom was to me. I hoped,” her mother swallowed heavily, “that I could be a good mom and raise you to become a good mare.”
Rainbow looked away, failing to ignore the squeezing in her chest guilt brought. “Well you’re not doing a great job.”
Star Shine closed her eyes and lowered her head. A single tear slowly ran down her muzzle, as she faced her daughter. “I’m doing my best Rainbow, I’m sorry it’s not good enough for you.”
Star Shine slowly walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Rainbow Dash threw herself on her pillow and started to cry.
She started punching her cloud bed, wailing into her pillow so her mother couldn’t hear her. What the hell? Why was she feeling this way? She knew she was right and her mom was wrong! She knew that she was smarter than anyone that would get pregnant at seventeen and have a baby! Right? Dash found it very difficult to lie to herself. The icy tendrils ravaging her stomach told her she was wrong, but she didn’t want to admit it.
After several minutes, she slowly rose from her tear stained pillow, opened the door to her room, and walked to the front room where she thought her mother would be.
Sure enough, when she arrived in the living room, her mother was sitting in her rocking chair, looking off into space. When Star Shine heard her daughter enter the room, her anger returned. However, the crestfallen look on her daughter’s face made her rage vanish. “Is there something you need?” her mom asked curtly.
“Uh..yeah..I...” Rainbow had a million thoughts in her mind, but she didn’t know how to vocalize them. Her mother calmly looked at her daughter, letting her continue.
“I’m...er...sor..um..I just wanted to tell you that...you’re not a bad mom,” Rainbow said, fumbling over her words.
Rainbow’s mother felt her throat tighten, but she stiffened her muscles to keep her emotions at bay. “That really wasn’t the apology I was looking for.”
Rainbow scowled and turned away.
“But,” her mother said with a small smile, “that will do.”
The room was quiet for several minutes as mother and daughter looked at each other, not knowing what to say. The rainbow maned pony slowly took a couple of steps toward her mother and her rocking chair and then froze.
Her mother smiled. “You know, there’s no one around.”
Rainbow’s head drooped and she slowly nodded, covering the rest of the distance between her and her mother. She then crawled into her Star Shine’s lap and her the elder mare slowly began to rock. After a few moments, Rainbow quietly spoke. “So, is your and dad’s divorce final yet?”
Her mother shook her head, hugging her daughter close. “Not yet, it will be in three days though.”
There was a little more rocking before Rainbow spoke again, “I’m gonna miss dad. I know he wasn’t around much, but he was fun when he was. I guess...I guess he loved me.”
Star Shine sighed. “Maybe he did love you in his own way, he tried to anyway. I wish you had a better dad Rainbow, you deserved a better father.”
“That’s okay.” Rainbow smiled a little. “I got a cool mom.”
Rainbow’s mother felt warmth enter her chest. They both rocked together, listening to the squeak of the old wooden chair. This time Star Shine broke the silence. “I don’t want you talking to that colt again.”
Rainbow looked down at her mom and shook her head. “I won’t. I guess you’re right about...all that you said.”
Her mother nodded. “I am, and I hope you’ll never have to learn the hard way like I did.”
Rainbow looked into her mother’s eyes. “Will you be mad at me if I uh...accidentally...you know, get pregnant?”
Star Shine closed her eyes and smiled, and recited the verse that Rainbow had heard so many times before.
You will do things that make me sad
You will do things that make me mad
You will do things that puzzle me
and things that I wish wouldn’t be
You will make my hair turn all gray
with the things you do everyday
and you will make me all wrinkly
a long time before I should be
But no matter the things you do
something will always be true
your mommy will always love you
because that’s what mommies do
Even though Rainbow thought the old rhyme was corny, this time it made her feel special and warm. She hugged her mother tightly as Star Shine continued to rock her in the chair.