• Published 8th May 2016
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Moving On - Manitive



This is the story of William Wright, a normal person who wants to live a peaceful life, but is doomed to make big crucial decisions. Follow his tale through the hardships of life and other...rather uncommon things.

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Chapter Twenty-Seven - Dash's Apology

"Oh for...fucks sake..." I muttered, trying my dearest to fill my lungs with the much-needed oxygen again, lest I'd suffocate. Bending over in exhaustion, I took slow, deep breaths in order to accomplish that goal.

Not a second later, I heard approaching hoofsteps. "Are you okay, Dad?"

I slowly lifted my head up a little to look into the face of Scootaloo, giving her an exhausted glare that told her everything she needed to know. "I don't...know...Do I look like it?"

She looked at me sheepishly, ears splayed back, maybe finally realizing that she just made me run after her for a whole five minutes.

Without a break.

Through the whole fucking town.

She lifted a hoof up to her helmetless head, giving it a scratch. "Heh, sorry."

It took me a minute or so to finally regain my breath, though I was still incredibly exhausted from the little sprint I did. But once I did catch my breath, the first thing I did was take a good look around. My best guess was that we were in a park if the small playground to my right and the bench to my left were enough indicators for that, though we could've been anywhere. "So, where are we and why are we here?"

"Well, we're in the park and..." Scootaloo trailed off, staring at something to her right.

"Aaand?" I repeated in an attempt to make her finish her sentence, which quickly turned out to have exact opposite effect.

Instead of voicing her answer, she nodded her head in the direction she was looking. Following where her head was pointing, between two trees and a foliage of orange bushes and hanging branches, I was barely able to spot what looked like the beginning of a narrow trail. Everything else that could've been hiding behind the bushes was hidden to me, which gave that trail a mysterious vibe.

Scootaloo walked over to the two trees that marked the entrance to the trail, stopping there and leaving a confused me behind. It was only when she turned her head to look at me from over her shoulder that I realized she was waiting for me follow her - which I gradually did.

Upon seeing that I was starting to follow her, she pushed some of the vegetation out of the way and vanished behind it, with me following shortly after. Once we were on that, as I guessed right, narrow trail, we walked for another two minutes through rather thick foliage and low-hanging branches that occasionally managed to touch the top of my head, before finally arriving at a clearing.

At least, at first sight it just looked just like a normal clearing, until I took a look at what exactly was at the center of it.

There was a big pond in the middle of the clearing, nearly occupying the whole space, with only a little path that led around it. The pond itself looked like one of the cleanest ones I've ever laid my eyes on, the water being of an almost crystal-clear blue color while its mirror-like surface reflected the sun perfectly.

One the shore all around it were bushes of what looked like cattails and other plants that you'd see typically growing around ponds, except for one part where a small wooden gangplank was protruding into the water.

The pond looked mostly untouched, except for the gangplank, and natural. The whole clearing had a strange, calming tone to it, one that I was sure I experienced not so long ago. It made me think clearly, all worries that were hiding in the back of my head just disappearing. I took a deep breath, relishing in the feeling of fresh air filling my lungs.

It felt like I was finally able to clear my mind for once, though there were was still one major question I really wanted to ask Scootaloo. So, I turned my head into the direction of the filly, opening my mouth to ask, "Where are we?"

It took Scootaloo a moment to answer my question, her eyes seemingly searching the air above the clearing. "We're at Rainbow's favourite spot, I think..." She answered, briefly turning her head at me before resuming her search.

Upon her explanation, a metaphorical light bulb lit up above my head. At least now everything made some kind of sense, though I was still a little bit confused. "That's why we're here?" The only thing that assured me that she had heard me was a slow, almost reluctant nod. "But why here, exactly? Shouldn't we have started at her house, first?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "Good luck with that, her house's above Ponyville."

"What?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. "You're joking, right?"

Scootaloo turned her head at me, blinking once in confusion before slowly furrowing her eyebrow. "She hasn't told you?" I shook my head again, this time in a 'no'. "Well, she lives in a cloudominium."

"Cloudo-what now?"

"Really?" She rolled her eyes because of my lack of knowledge, a silent sigh escaping her lips. "House made out of clouds? A pegasi's traditional home?"

I frowned a little. "Hey, don't act like I'm stupid! That word doesn't even exist in-"

"Celestia damn it, I'm trying to take a nap here!" A very familiar, raspy voice exclaimed from above me and Scoots, effectively cutting me off mid-sentence. "Can't you two down there just shut the buck-"

I looked up as the voice suddenly stopped, locking eyes with a pair of magenta ones that were peeking over the edge of a small, low-hanging cloud. The eyes of the cyan-coated pony went so wide that I momentarily feared they'd pop out of their sockets, though I quickly found out that, thankfully, that wouldn't be the case. Her mouth opened, closed and opened itself again, mimicking a breathing fish before it finally settled and formed a silent 'Oh'.

Surprise or confusion, I didn't know which of these two things was dominating her feelings as her expression was a mix between the two, but I knew that I was looking at her with a blank expression on my face.

"Hey there, Rainbow." I greeted casually, giving her a one-handed wave.

Scootaloo was quick to follow suit, though she replaced the wave with a simple nod of her head. "Hey Rainbow."

"Wha-what...?" She managed to stammer out before falling into silence once again. The air got thick with awkwardness the longer she stayed silence. Uncomfortably awkward.

A small chuckle, barely even loud enough for me to hear it, managed to slip past my lips at the relatively cute display she was giving us. She was completely speechless, something you wouldn't really expect from someone with her ego.

"I think we broke her." I said, briefly turning my head to look at Scootaloo, the corner of my mouth curving upwards in a small grin. Scootaloo's only answer to that was a small giggle.

A giggle that finally managed to snap Rainbow out of it. She blinked, then blinked again before finally shaking her head in a small, urgent manner, desperately trying to get a grasp on the situation. "What are you doing here?"

Her tone made my grin vanish at an instant. She sounded like she was slightly suspicious of us, like we were just there to toy with her feelings.

In response to her question, I slowly started tapping at my chin with one of my fingers, releasing a 'hmm'. "I don't know, maybe to talk with you?" I sarcastically responded, already getting a tad bit annoyed at her behavior.

She responded with a snort, curtly vanishing from view before jumping from the back of the cloud, slowly and safely gliding down to the ground. She gradually got closer to the ground, me and Scootaloo following her way down with our eyes, before she finally landed on her four hooves in front of us, a small thump echoing through the clearing. "And what do you two want to talk about?" She asked, sounding slightly annoyed, one eyebrow raised.

I frowned. She was apparently trying her best to get on my nerves with her downright rude behavior, especially since all Scootaloo and I came for was to clear up some things with her, tell her that we weren't angry at her - which we clearly weren't! But her behavior was starting to have the opposite effect on me, the air between us slowly thickening.

I ignored it to my best abilities as I responded, "You know about what."

For a moment, it looked like she felt incredibly bad, her ears splaying back for just a seconds or two in what I guessed was regret for her past actions. But it was gone as quick as it came, her expression changing back into that frown from before. "I don't want to talk about that." She grumbled, looking down to the ground.

Now, I had a relatively good start in the day, maybe one of the best since I left earth. A perfectly peaceful breakfast with a good friend and my daughter was really the best start in the morning I could've imagined at that point, but Rainbow was downright ruining it with her ignorant behavior! All we came to the pond for was her so that she could maybe apologize to us, but all she was doing was avoiding exactly that to her best abilities.

I took a deep, long breath through my nose in an attempt to stay calm and collected. Under her hard, ego-filled and tough to crack shell she was a pony just like any other. She was sorry, I knew her good enough to know that. It was just a matter of words and time until that same shell would begin to crack.

"Well, if you don't want to, we'll just go." I said calmly, taking a look down to Scootaloo who looked back at me with a small frown, but nodded in agreement nonetheless. I turned around and walked back into the direction of the entrance to the clearing, Scootaloo following beside me.

But it was an almost inaudible, shy sounding 'No' that stopped both of us dead in our tracks. I turned around to face Rainbow, raising one eyebrow and pretending to not have understood what she'd said. "Did you say something?"

She was hesitating for a moment, obviously having an inner fight with her ego that told her not to show any kind of what she probably considered as weakness. But then, after just a few seconds, it seemed like she knew that it was her only chance to plead for forgiveness, to tell us that she really was sorry.

She gulped once, mentally preparing herself. "I said no. Don't leave." She said, almost managing to sound confident.

"Huh?"

"I-I..." She interrupted her stammering with a heavy sight, seemingly trying her best to collect her jumbled thoughts. "Okay, I'm not good at this whole apology stuff, but... I'm sorry, okay?"

Seeing that I wasn't going to say anything anytime soon, she continued, "I'm sorry for not telling you two earlier, even though I should have. I thought that the two of you would've been much happier if didn't tell you that the whole adoption thing wouldn't work out, at least not immediately, but after that night when you-" She locked her magenta eyes on mine curtly before looking back at the ground. "-asked me to leave, I instantly regretted that decision. I still do."

"I knew by the way you looked at me that I really screwed up that time. I couldn't sleep that night, not one second. And when I talked to Scootaloo yesterday, all I could think of was that I was never going to see the two of you again."

After she was done, something that sounded like a small sob managed to escape her mouth and just a second later, a small drop of a shiny lidquid hit the ground below her face, dampening the earth where it hit slightly.

"I really thought that I would never see the both of you again. And, now that I finally see you, all I did was act like a filly!" She exclaimed in obvious hate with herself, her voice trembling as she lifted her head back up slowly, almost reluctantly so. Once her eyes were visible to us again, I saw that they turned a bright red and were getting damper with each second that passed, glimmering in the faint morning sun that managed to shine into the clearing. She quickly realized her little breakdown, lifting one foreleg up to wipe the wetness out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry...I-I'll just go." She turned around, quickly spread her wings and crouched down, preparing herself to dart away. But before she was able to do exactly that, Scootaloo galloped over to her left side, putting one of her small hooves on her shoulder, to which the cyan pegasus flinched a little.

"I forgive you." She said softly with a small smile on her face, much to Rainbow's obvious surprise, giving the side of her face a short nuzzle. Rainbow visibly tensed at first, but after just another second of hesitation and another of silent questioning if she had heard right, returned the affectionate gesture. "And I'm sorry for yesterday...I wasn't thinking clearly."

"You don't have to apologize for that, silly." She answered, stopping her nuzzling to give Scootaloo a small smile and promptly pulling her into a hug, to which the filly released a small giggle. "I'm just glad you don't... you know, hate me..."

Scootaloo whispered something that amost sounded like 'never', though I also could've been wrong. Maybe it was just a combination of the sounds created rustling leaves and the faint breeze that traveled through the clearing.

Whatever it was, I still had something to say.

"Speaking of hating you." I started in a rather awkward attempt to remind them that I was still there, though it was apparently enough to gain both Scootaloo's and, most importantly, Rainbow's attention as they promptly turned to look at me. "I don't hate you either."

A smile started building on Rainbow's face, a smile that showed relief and happiness, and she almost looked like she was ready to pounce me and pull me into a bone-crushing hug. But before her smile was able to fully develop and before she was able to treat me like a giant teddy bear, I continued. "But I'm not sure if I'm ready to forgive you completely yet."

Her face fell and she relaxed her muscles again, the smile that was so dangerously close to showing gone, but she didn't look incredibly sad nor surprised. She looked more... understanding, although I was still able to see a small hint of what could've been sadness, or even disappointment, hiding behind her neutral expression.

Then her neutral expression, if it was even one before, quickly turned into one of determination.

"I'll make it up to you." She turned her head to look at Scootaloo. "To the both of you. Whatever it'll be, it's going to be so awesome that you're going to forgive me right away! I promise!"

I didn't know if she said that more for herself, or if she just wanted to let us know that she was willing to make it up to us. The pose she struck, her chest puffed out and head held high, something she may have thought looked confident but turned out to look just plain adorable, made me believe that it was the latter. Whatever the reason may have been, her offer of doing something awesome, as she put it, for the both of us in redemption, sounded really...

Rainbow-ish.

I smiled, a small, probably inaudible chuckle managing to slip past my lips as she relaxed again. It seemed just like everything was alright, "Awesome? Well, that can only mean bad things, can't it?" I joked, scratching my head.

She grinned a little, eyes darting between me and Scootaloo before finally settling back on mine. I swear that if she would've had hands, she would've rubbed them together like those stereotypical villains you sometimes in bad movies. "You'll see."

Scootaloo and I looked at each worriedly, sure that I just led us into our end. 'Welp, at least it's going to be an awesome one.' I thought.

"Anyways, I really like it here, but-" I started in order to steer the conversation away from the approaching silence, luckily realizing that I still had some other things to do that day, things that were more important than having a little small talk with Rainbow. "-I still have some things to do, sadly. You can tag along if you want and we'll catch up on what happened, or you can, you know, get back to being lazy."

"Dude!" She exclaimed angrily, a sudden but unsurprising and totally excepted change in demeanor, giving me a half-glare. "I totally wasn't being lazy!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure, and what exactly were you doing up there?"

"...Important weather business!" She answered after just a few too much seconds of silence, maybe just a tad bit too loud. The sudden interest she found in the sky was making her statement even less believable. She obviously just thought of that, just to have an excuse for being lazy.

I understood, though. I wasn't lying when I said that it was nice there in that clearing. It was definitely nice enough to take a nap in the shades of the trees that surrounded it.

"Yeah, like I said, sure." I stated with more than just a hint of doubt, but in the end chose to not press the matter - not that I particularly cared. It just wasn't important, and I wasn't too keen on getting on her nerves already. "So, you coming or not?"

"Eh, why not?" She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Where first?"

I lifted a hand up to my chin, scratching where a rather advanced three-day beard was growing like a fire in a hayfield. Okay, actually, that may not be the best comparison, but I think you understand what I'm trying to get at.

"Uhm, I think it would be the best if we were to go to Rarity first." I asked aloud, the question directed not only at Rainbow, but also at Scootaloo, though both of them gave me a nod in agreement anyways. "I need to pick up some clothes she brought to the laundry shop for me yesterday." I informed the both of them, though I was not sure if I had already told Scootaloo about that.

Scootaloo made a gagging noise all of a sudden, much to mine and Rainbow's confusion.

"You should've smelled him yesterday." She said to Rainbow, her face scrunched up a little in the memory of my manly-smelling clothes. "That was probably the second most disgusting I've ever smelled."

"Wait wait wait...-" Rainbow said in quick unison, stopping me from asking Scootaloo what smelled even worse than I did. Rainbow then looked at me with one of her eyebrows raised. "Dude, did you, like, wear the same clothes all week long or why did you smell bad?"

I rubbed at the back of my head in a small display of shame, being reminded of how disgusting I must've smelt. Poor ponies. "Well, I've got new ones from Rarity yesterday, as you can see, but...yeah."

Rainbow's face scrunched up slowly before it suddenly turned into a grin. "That's disgusting, but kinda funny."

"How's that funny?" I asked, slightly puzzled from her sudden change of demeanor. She opened her mouth to give me an answer, but I quickly shook my head and said, "Look, actually, don't answer me. I don't think I want to know."

She closed it again, grin growing bigger.

I sighed and quickly turned around, my cheeks flushing a bright red. "Just... let's go, this is getting freakin' awkward."

****

"-and then I jumped over that ramp and BOOM,-" The orange filly beside me threw one forehoof in the air, her scooter still carrying her alongside me and Rainbow. "-I was flying through the air! It felt like I was flying! It was awesome, but then I landed and nearly hit the wall... Really close, but I managed to evade just in time."

"You're right, that really sounds like it was awesome, kiddo." Rainbow answered with a bright smile after Scootaloo finished her little tale of the totally not dangerous little stunt she did that morning on her scooter.

"It was awesome, alright." I agreed, adding my two-cents. "But she kinda forgot the part about nearly giving me a heart attack."

"Pff, dude, like she said, she had everything under control." Rainbow said, rolling her eyes at me. "You're just too big of a chicken."

"Yeah, sure, me a chicken when I see my daughter heading straight for a wall at what could've been mach one for how fast she was going." I deadpanned, giving her the best blank stare I could muster and a shrug. "But I'm a chicken, apparently."

"Dad, you really can be a chicken sometimes." Scootaloo said, agreeing with Rainbow.

"I'm okay with being a chicken as long as it means that my daughter's being careful and not going to hit a wall with her scooter anytime soon." I stated with a nod. "Or anything else, for that matter."

"So you accept being a chicken?" Rainbow asked, almost sounding surprised.

"I wouldn't call it being a chicken but more being a father, but I guess if you want to put it like that-" I shrugged. "-yeah, then I guess I'm a chicken."

The Carousel Boutique slowly came into view, pompous and girly just like I remembered it from yesterday.

I doubled my pace, all too eager on escaping the conversation that I knew was soon going to turn into more of a mocking thing because I admitted that I feared for the well-being of my daughter.

Not twenty seconds later and I stood in front of that violet wooden door that led into the boutique. I knocked twice, pushed it open and stepped inside, being immediately greeted by the undeniably strong smell of perfume. The smell wasn't as bad as the day before, though, probably because I was prepared for it.

But that didn't mean that the other two were prepared for it. A raspy cough from behind me was enough to know that Rainbow definitely wasn't prepared for it.

"I'll never get used to that smell." She said, her face probably scrunched up a little. "It's just so...girly."

I walked over to the counter to my right in order to ring the silver bell and announce our presence to Rarity, ignoring Rainbow's whining. But something seemed off about it... Something I couldn't quit-

"Well darling, you would get used to it if you were to visit more often."

I nearly jumped up in surprise, but was able to just prevent that from happening and instead just took a step back in surprise coupled with a totally manly shriek. Rarity's sudden appearance from behind the counter was really jump-scare worthy and more than a little surprising.

"Jeez, Rarity!" I exclaimed, ignoring the two behind me that were snickering uncontrollably, clutching at my chest just above where my, for the second time that day, rapidly beating heart was. "Where did you come from?"

She blinked, once and then twice, looking at me in a way that asked if I was being serious. "I was behind here the whole time?"

"Haha, you should've seen your face!" Rainbow exclaimed aloud, walking up to my side and looking up at me. She then made her best impression of a surprised me, before her snickering quickly turned into full-blown laughter.

Scootaloo was quick to join her, though she wasn't nearly laughing as hard as Rainbow was. It was more on the border to giggling, a relatively quiet and collected laughter.

"Why is everyone trying to give me a heart attack today?" I asked annoyedly, trying to drown out the laughter to my best abilities.

"Sorry darling, I did not want to scare you." Rarity at least was a little sympathetic, her apologetic tone letting me know that she really didn't want to scare me to death. "And Rainbow, could you please stop laughing? It is not very kind to laugh just because William got a little surprised."

To my amazement, Rainbow actually stopped laughing...

For a whole five seconds...

And then she started laughing even louder.

Rarity rolled her eyes before directing a small smile at me. "I take it you are here for your clothes?" She correctly assumed, lighting up her horn. A second later, Rainbow suddenly and without a reason went quiet, much to my confusion. A quick glance to my side in order to see the reason behind the sudden quietness showed me that her mouth was enclosed by a blue-shimmering bubble, and the look she was giving Rarity was enough for me to realize that it the fashionista's doing.

Scootaloo was quick to stop giggling after that.

Rarity seemed unfazed by the glare coming from the cyan pegasus, or simply didn't see it, but damn did Rainbow look angry. Her glare could've melted steel, and by the way her muscles were tensing up she looked like she was ready to pounce Rarity at any moment.

I was curious on who would've won, pegasus or unicorn.

"Dear, are you alright?" Rarity interrupted my thoughts of an epic battle between the two that involved a lot of explosions and magical gunfire, maybe a bit too much, with the help of her voice.

"Uh yeah, I'm fine." I quickly answered, shaking my head in order to fully function again. "And yeah, I'm here for the clothes you wanted to bring to the laundry shop yesterday."

Rarity nodded her head. With a magical 'pop', a neatly folded set of clothes appeared on the counter, my set of clothes that I left behind in the boutique.

I picked the clothes up, fortunately finding out that they were indeed washed. They strongly smelled of blueberries, actually. "Thanks again for helping me out with that."

"It was no problem, William." She said, waving a hoof at me in a dismissive manner. "But please, from now on, remember to wash your clothes regularly."

I blushed, chuckling nervously. "Yeah, I will. Not going to repeat that."

I was sure that if Rainbow would've been able to speak, she would've said or done something to make me feel even more embarrassed. Fortunately she couldn't muster much more than a simple 'Hpmf' and a smirk.

Rarity answered with a smile before turning her head towards Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash, can I expect you to not make fun of William again if I let you speak again?"

All Rainbow could do was nod and grumble a response, but that was apparently enough of a confirmation for Rarity. The blue hue around Rarity's horn vanished instantly, as did the bubble in front of Rainbow's mouth.

"Never do that again, Rares." Rainbow muttered angrily, still giving the unicorn a half-glare.

"That completely depends on how you will behave in the future, darling." Rarity asked, smirking slightly.

It was funny to see Rainbow positively fuming, especially since she didn't look really frightening. It was more the adorable kind of angry, especially once she realized that Rarity had the upper hand with her unicorn magic and a pout formed on her face.

"Well, I don't want to be rude, but I still need to finish an order for a couple from Canterlot." Rarity said, making me realize that I had been staring at Rainbow a little longer than what could've been considered normal. Rarity lightened up her horn again, this time teleporting a pair of glasses onto her nose and a measuring tape around her neck. "Maybe we can continue our talk tomorrow at the Running of the Leaves?"

I nodded my head, giving her a smile. "Sure. Don't want to stop you from doing your job, after all."

"Actually, Rarity?" Scootaloo, for the first time since we arrived in the boutique, spoke up. "Do you know where Sweetie Belle is?"

Rarity lifted a hoof under her chin, seemingly rummaging through her memories. "She wanted to meet up with Apple Bloom at the club house, if I'm not mistaken."

"Cool, thanks!" Scootaloo chirped, smiling brightly before turning to me. "C'mon dad, you wanted to go to Applejack anyways, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah?" I asked, partly confused on what that had to do with their club house.

Her little wings buzzed in excitement. "Cool! Then I can finally show you how it looks!" She bit into my pants' legs, already tugging me towards the door. "C'mon!"

I let her lead me out of the door, but not before giving Rarity one last wave with my hand.

"Ta-ta, you three!" The fashionista called back, closing the door behind us.

Author's Note:

Hey guys! :pinkiehappy:

I don't have much to tell you guys this chapter, so I'm just going to take the opportunity and point out that I'm currently doing free commissions.
If you haven't read my latest blog post, I do highly suggest you do if you have an idea for a cool story that you would like to see written down.
Also, this story is somehow getting popular. :rainbowhuh:
I literally have no idea why, but hey, I don't mind. It actually makes me quite happy.


Special thanks!

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