//------------------------------//
// Prompt #53: Past Tense 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
//------------------------------//

“No, seriously, Rare, you don’t need to meet my parents. I’m sure they would be totally cool with you.”

“Rainbow Dash, these are two very important ponies, who were part of forming who you are, who helped, in their own way, shaped the mare I fell in love with.”

“They didn’t help that much.”

“What was that, dear?”

“Nothing! Just saying that meeting my parents will be totally boring for you. You won’t like it much.”

“I highly doubt that, Rainbow. Now, can I assume that your parents are up in Cloudsdale?”

“Uh, dad’s actually in Canterlot. No idea where my mom is, though.”

“Well, that makes things a little easier. I’ll be heading up to Canterlot to check on the Canterlot Carousel on the weekend. We can drop in and see your father, and you can organize a time when I can meet your mother while we’re there.”

“That’ll be difficult.”

“What was that, Rainbow?”

“You’ll find out on the weekend.”

*******

Rarity stared down at the gravestone engraved with the name of Rainbow Dash’s father.

“I was pretty young when he passed on. Spent most of my time after that bouncing around a few foster homes or orphanages and getting into a whole lot of trouble. Basically, he was working with some liquid rainbow, and something went wrong. Coulda been a bad batch or something, because it exploded, and he ended up falling all the way from Cloudsdale to the ground unconscious,” said Rainbow, staring at the headstone herself. “All I remember is that one day, he went off to work, and then one of the police ponies picked me up from school, saying something bad had happened to my dad.”

“Rainbow,” began Rarity, but Rainbow cut her off with a shake of the head.

“Don’t, Rare. I already did my grieving. Not like he was there a whole lot for me even before, anyways.”

“And what about your mother, Rainbow?” asked Rarity, placing one hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Never knew her,” said Rainbow, her voice flat, “she died in childbirth. Docs say that she was already sick with something, and it basically came down to a choice between saving her life, or saving mine. Not a whole lot of records, either, so I don’t even know her name. The pegasus who was supposed to do a delivery of all that week’s records to Canterlot got caught in a wild storm over the Everfree. It’s actually a pretty common thing from around then. Lots of pegasi about my age don’t have records of birth or whatever.”

Rarity, who had barely managed to restrain her tears so far, pulled Rainbow Dash into a hug, her tears running down her face and ruining her mascara.

“Rarity?”

“I can’t help it, Rainbow!” cried Rarity, “I’m just so sad for you, that you grew up with such circumstances.”

“Seriously, Rare, I’ve had time to learn to live with it. And sure, it’s kinda depressing sometimes,” said Rainbow, prying Rarity off her, “like knowing that I’m never gonna get a hearthswarming card from them or whatever, but seriously, you girls, and all of my friends in Ponyville and from Flight Camp make up for it, like, a thousand times over.”