Everyone has a Story
Rainbow Dash returned to Ponyville. As she flew over the town, a certain purple alicorn met her in the air.
“Hey Rainbow, where you been?” she asked in a happy tone.
“Wherever I want, I don’t report to you.”
“Okay, that was snappy,” Twilight said. “You don’t have to say.”
“Something you want?”
“Just to talk… Rainbow- you think I’m wrong don’t you?”
“Safe assumption,” Rainbow replied.
“We can still be friends though right?”
“Depends how far you take this,” Rainbow said. “I see you hurting someone it’s over and we’re throwing down.”
“You know I wouldn’t do that Rainbow.”
“Apparently grabbing little fillies is okay in your book.”
“I… so you were watching… look she was a teenager and I didn’t hurt her. I wasn’t going to, I swear… though… not gonna say I don’t understand why I have this shiner,” she pointed at her right eye, which was heavily swollen. “You don’t just grab someone else’s kid, I get it… Rainbow, what am I doing? Help me figure this out.”
“That’s a question we’re both asking ourselves.” Rainbow flapped her wings and pulled ahead. “You’ll have to answer it yourself.”
Rainbow flew on, her wings feeling like they had a will of their own to go back, but she denied them. She had just seen the result of what Twilight said wasn’t a problem. She had seen suffering children and a huge camp of ponies that… forgiveness wasn’t going to come easy.
She got home, realizing just how late it was. She checked on Scootaloo in her bedroom, the filly was sleeping soundly. Rainbow thought back to Fire Sky and spoke quietly to herself. “It’s easy to say he’s wrong… but what would I be like if I lost you like that?... I love you squirt…”
(***)
The next day, Rainbow dropped Scootaloo off at school, having a blast playing in the air beforehand. Scootaloo still couldn’t fly of course, but that meant tossing her around was probably more scary for the filly, thus, more fun. It was how they worked, no risk, no fun.
Rainbow flew away, feeling pretty good, Scootaloo having that effect on her usually. “So who’s the lucky dad?” came a voice.
“Hey Silent,” Rainbow said. She rounded a corner behind a small house she knew was empty. “There is no father, at least not with me. Scoots is adopted. Her mother pretty much abandoned her and her dad hit her- yes he really did, that wasn’t made up.”
“Why would I think it was?”
“Not sure how like Fire Sky you are,” Rainbow said.
“Considering she’s a filly, Fire Sky wouldn’t be averse to her being beaten… for the record, he hasn’t hurt anyone in the camp, filly or colt.”
“You want to save him right?” Rainbow asked. Silent, who was currently wearing some kind of body paint that made him look green, nodded. “I just- I don’t sense good things coming from him.”
“I don’t either. But there’s a chance I can stop him from going off the deep end. Let me handle it okay? He was a good stallion before, he deserves a chance.”
“I’m not involved to tell you how to manage your subordinates… though yea, letting that guy out in public won’t help your image.”
“He’s a guard, not public relations.”
Rainbow chuckled. “I had time to think last night. You got those flyers going to get the word out right?” he nodded. “Well all you got out was an abstract concept. Pretty sure if you want to motivate ponies to start getting angry about the plight of abused stallions, they’re gonna need something to hold on to, ya know, real stories… real stories, ironically… like Fire’s. Otherwise Twilight is gonna preach the same crap she preached to me, that the abuse just doesn’t happen.”
“How would we distribute these stories?”
“Make a few copies, and I’ll start dropping them like newspapers around town.”
“You really want to do that? Rainbow you’re not part of this. Celestia is going to be angry with us and if you’re seen as on our side-“
She interrupted. “I’ll keep a low profile. Besides what are they gonna do? Kill the element of loyalty?”
“They could just lock you up. You have a child to watch over. I’m not gonna tell you that you can’t help, but you’re sure?”
“I want to help you guys okay? There are a couple stallions in my life that I care about. I don’t want them to end up like you guys. Looks like that means I have to fight for them, so I will.”
“I don’t know how this ends Rainbow.”
“I don’t care, I’ve chosen my side.” She nodded. “Now tell me a few stories, I’ll judge what we can use.”
“You good with stories?”
“Terrible. That’s more Twilight’s department, but take a wild guess where her loyalties lie. I’m what you’ve got… now… let’s start with that green guy who attacked Twilight. What’s his story?”
Silent sat down. “His name is Cloud Strike, his daughter is Falling Star. Before he came to the camp, for years his wife had been verbally abusive towards him and his child. Things got so bad, one day Cloud Strike came home from work to find his daughter using a pair of scissors to “punish” herself for upsetting her mother. Not knowing any alternative, Cloud took her and ran, living on the road for a few months, claiming to be a single father, changing the color of his coat and hers. His wife came after them eventually, with the royal guard in hoof, charging him with kidnapping. Silver found him and fought the guard, using a few pegasi to help them escape. Now he’s terrified to return, because he knows Celestia doesn’t practice impartial custody during abuse cases.”
“I got it pretty easy with Scootaloo.”
“One, you’re not a stallion and two, how good was the evidence?”
“Well… pretty good.” Rainbow thought back on Cloud Strike. “Doesn’t he have a scar from an iron?”
“Yes, though to be fair, that kind abuse from that freak wasn’t common.” Rainbow looked at him almost going cross eyed. “What?”
“Common? You mean there are instances where that IS common?”
“You went to a mare abused shelter, you tell me.”
Rainbow thought back to when her father took her to a few mare shelters, really to teach her charity. The first time she hadn’t questioned what happened to the mares, and the second time they just said a few stallions were mean. However, the third time she was older and started asking more specific questions… she quickly regretted doing that. Her father never took her back again. “I guess you have a point.”
“You saw the Speed Team, the three colts that were playing in front of the bushes you hid behind. There used to be six of them. Let’s see… The parents of Far Shot divorced and he suffered serious neglect under his mother. When his father found him half-starved on a visit, he broke the bitch’s jaw and ran for the hills with the colt in toe. Unfortunately Far Shot died of acute asthma not long after meeting his friends in the camp. His father was overcome by grief and dive bombed the ground… he’s gone too.”
This was rather sad to hear, but Rainbow waved for Silent to continue. “We need stories like that.”
“Don’t exploit them… well… guess we have no choice. Hold Fast was the second colt, his mother hit his father repeatedly, but his father did nothing about it until he found her hitting their son. He tried to run to a shelter, but letting in stallions is illegal there so… well yea so we got them. Hold died in a rock slide when we had to move our camp over some treacherous areas, his father died trying to save him.”
He continued. “Then there was Deep Blue, the earth pony with the black eye and his little sister Lilly Pond. Their mother’s abuse was of a… sexual nature. Deep tried to stand up for his sister, and that’s where he got his shiner from... it used to look a lot worse… The courts wouldn’t listen to their father, so he took them and ran. Silver found them living on the street. She was actually too late for Lilly. Deep always said Lilly was a member of the Speed Team, even if she never left her bed. She died of an infection, but we’re not sure what it was.”
“White Light is the white one. His mother had a mental disorder. She only meant to rough house with him, but when she sat on him she crushed his rib cage. His father really only asked that she lose custody and get treatment, as she couldn’t handle the responsibility of having a child. He said he would be fine with supervised visitation. But when she got on the stand and cried for her son, they wouldn’t listen. She said it was an accident -it was- the third serious one she had. Before she had burned him playing with an iron and a month after that she dropped him down a flight of stairs. Her husband told us she was schizophrenic, which she developed a few years after their son was born. Eventually she was put in an asylum a few months after her husband ran, but her husband is still on the run from a charge of kidnapping… no forgiveness, even when they know for damn sure he’s right. Silver brought them to us as well.”
“Finally there’s Clear Sky- earth pony, but they called him that anyway. His father came home one day to hear the child arguing with his mother. The colt threatened suicide and the mother demanded he go through with it. She had been belittling him on a regular basis, along with his father for a while, but his father always thought of it as nagging until that day. He took the child and tried to go to the guards. They told him to return home until there could be an investigation. Well as you can imagine that wasn’t an option. He pretended to go along until he was out of sight and ran. He and his son stumbled upon the group… actually the broken leg came from falling out of a tree the colt was climbing, completely unrelated to abuse.”
“Well at least not everything comes from abuse,” Rainbow commented.
“Actually most deaths in the camp don’t. They come from exposure and suicide. Guess I’m lucky, I don’t know most of the stallions that killed themselves. When the impulses came to the camp, many of the stallions started to have hope that we could force Celestia to listen to us. Normally, apparently, the camp had to move every time they were found. With the impulses, we actually engaged them a few times in the last few months. We still had to run, but at last, so did they. We were found in our current location two weeks ago… well… Fire Sky got to those guards… Rainbow, leave that guy alone okay? He incinerated four of them and scared the fifth so bad he killed himself.”
“You- seriously you have got to deal with that guy.”
“How? What should I do? We don’t have a prison or asylum and if I try to excommunicate or kill him, half the camp will turn on me. He might be scary, but many of the stallions see him as their protector- or rather, their commander. Truth is, he and I have had to fight for leadership several times. Technically each time I win, but many of the stallions are more loyal to him than me. His intense hatred of mares is actually what draws some of them to him, it gives him passion and humor when he speaks- basically it gives him charisma. I wish I could say otherwise, but Celestia’s hate is breeding hate in us. Sometimes in fact, we’re far worse.”
“What exactly is the danger he poses?” Rainbow asked.
“I can’t tell you how many impulses the camp has, but trust me, it’s a considerable number and… unfortunately, with the torture we all were subjected to under Gray, a number of us went insane. Far more of the impulses are loyal to Fire than are loyal to me.”
“But you have control of Fire Sky right?” Rainbow asked, getting nervous. Rainbow had fought impulses when Gray attacked. It was NOT a pleasant experience.
“For the moment. Fire and his stallions want change and we don’t have much time to get it to them. If you didn’t notice, Fire’s respect for me isn’t exactly because he’s afraid of me.”
“Great…” Rainbow shook her head. “So we’re racing the clock to reform Equestria before another crazy stallion like Gray attacks?”
“Yep… only ya know, sure you got the vibe, Gray was a tad more sane than Fire.”
“Oh I got that much, he’s not exactly subtle.”
“To be fair, neither was Gray. You weren’t in his lab.” Silent replied.
“No, I had to fight him hoof to hoof. Trust me, I know as well as you how terrifying another impulse uprising could be.” Rainbow bit her lip. “Get all of those stories written down- in fact write as many as you can. Make a kind of newspaper, and ready about seven editions then make a lot of copies, I mean A LOT. Deliver them here tomorrow and I’ll distribute them.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“A little something I learned from Twilight. It’s called creating a counter narrative. We have to get your plight into the minds of the ponies around here. Whether they agree with you or not, in a few days they’ll all be thinking about it.” Rainbow said.
“There’s a danger in this.”
“I’m not afraid of being caught,” Rainbow said, putting her hoof down and holding up her head.
“Um… we already addressed that. What I’m afraid of, is that Celestia will think of our camp as a major threat. In the past her guards have only attacked us if they stumbled upon us. We do something like what you’re talking about, they’ll be looking for us directly.”
“Sure your guard dog will take care of them.”
“He won’t let them live. Fire wants a war and you’ll be handing it to him.”
Rainbow gritted her teeth. “Always got to be another complication with you guys. Just lay low okay? I’ll think of something to keep them off you.” he raised an eyebrow to her.
“Rainbow, I appreciate the help, but just because we’re victims, doesn’t mean we’re helpless. I can help you-“
“I’m not saying you’re helpless okay? I’m counting on you keeping your crazies on leash, I figure that’s responsibility enough. I’ll wing it, but we haven’t got much time either way do we?” He shook his head. “Go. And don’t forget to get me those papers.”
“Thankyou for this.” Silent flew into the air and off into the sky.
(***)
(Meanwhile)
The day slowly passed for Twilight. Her conscience was killing her, but she didn’t know what it wanted. What was right?
She lay on her back in her bed as the sun rose, trying to think of what to do. Twilight hadn’t thought about the issue of domestic abuse in more than a decade, it just never came up. Now someone, she didn’t know who, was forcing the issue to come to light.
Best she could tell from her encounter with the green stallion, at least some of those pushing this were victims themselves. If that were true, it would only make sense for her to be fighting on their side. However, what if they were lying? Celestia had told her that abusive mares were rare- save where children were concerned.
Again thoughts about the weaknesses in Celestia’s explanation of domestic abuse came to her head. According to Celestia, stallions abused mares and foals, but for the most part mares only attacked foals. This came about because of a system of power and control, mares were exerting control over those physically weaker than themselves, and since stallions were usually physically stronger and better connected financially, that didn’t work so well with them.
Trouble was, that just didn’t sound like psychology as she knew it. Different ponies did things for different reasons. Some ponies would abuse because they were mentally insane while others because they were lashing out because of deep seated emotional issues just to name a few examples. Some ponies, when they acted violently, were looking for control, in fact, maybe most were, but just because someone is bigger and stronger than you, doesn’t mean you won’t try to control them. In fact, seeing yourself as weak was often a pretty good reason for someone going violent like a cornered animal. Fear and feelings of inadequacy were just as good at motivating you to fight as feelings of dominance. In studying child psychology, Twilight had seen many cases of smaller foals attacking larger foals both verbally and physically. It wasn’t rare either, and it had nothing to do with gender, fillies could be just as vicious as colts. Bullies didn’t necessarily look for someone physically weak, just someone not likely to fight back, like someone with a docile personality. Wouldn’t that mean in a marriage, if the stallion loved his wife, and wasn’t likely to hurt her, she easily take advantage of him?
But then, this was Celestia. Why would she try to teach her something if it was that transparently wrong?
Twilight grunted to herself and rolled out of bed. By her bed stand she had a picture of her mentor Celestia, the great leader of the country of Equestria. Next to her was an image of her and her friends, Pinkie having tackled her in a hug that photo. All five of them were with her in that photo, including Rainbow Dash with Scootaloo on her back.
Twilight remembered Rainbow adopting Scootaloo. Rainbow came to her over and over for advice and help. Twilight was so proud of her friend, going from athlete to mother, and only because someone needed her. How could she be losing the loyalty of Rainbow Dash? Was Twilight right about these interlopers, and they were just trying to cause strife? Or was Rainbow right and… just what would did that mean Twilight herself was being?
She pushed the image down. “Rainbow, I swear it, I’ll figure this out. You’ll be back by my side, I know it. I’ve gotten to love all five of you, I’m not losing any of you, you’ll see… I’ll figure this out.”
She looked at Celestia. “Celestia… you loved me right? Why would you lie to me? Or would you? You’ve been alive much longer than I have, can you have come to understand something over all that time that I just can’t now? This seems so black and white. If it were anyone but you…” Twilight shook her head and walked away.
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Not sure if anyone will answer, but I'm gonna throw this out there. I'm going ahead and adding this to writing groups here on Fimfic. Yep, brace yourselves for the controversy you know is coming when more people see the story.
Here's my question.
Here goes, spoiler alert. A romance is about to bloom between Rainbow and Silent. They're two young ponies of opposite genders who believe in the same cause and are starting to admire each other, not a hard story of attraction to understand. Romance is obviously not the focal point of this story, though it will be a BIG part of it. So then, should I consider adding it to shipping groups, or not?
8144561 Well, I'm excited.