Chapter 7: The Argument
Interlude
Valiantwing was very important to me during my young childhood. His letters were what kept me from giving up during my days at flight school. I missed him terribly, almost as much as I missed my mother. I regret to this day the things that I said to my father. This next memory brings me in full circle. Ponies never wonder how I ended up in Ponyville in the first place. It never even crossed the minds of my closest friends. Why did an amazing flyer such as myself leave Cloudsdale and end up in a nowhere town like Ponyville?
Throughout my years of school, I had lied to my father, saying that I enjoyed my time at the Flight Academy. I didn’t want to disappoint him. Every year before the start of classes, I would dread having to spend more time in a place where nopony cared about me. I kept strong for him and for Aero. But eventually strength will wane.
Chapter 7
Three years had passed.
Three years I had spent at that school, and nothing had changed in that time. Ever since the incident that happened so long ago, the one that granted me my cutie mark, ponies have been treating me differently everywhere in town. Some acted scared or sheepish around me; others would just ignore everything that I said to them. My nickname had returned in earnest, and even some of the teachers began calling me Rainbow Crash.
My only friends had left. Aero was at home, and gave me his support through letters and pictures. I hadn’t heard from Fluttershy since the letter, and everypony in Cloudsdale presumed that she had either fallen to her death, or just disappeared into thin air.
Luckily, at this point and time, I didn’t have to worry about school. I didn’t have to worry about Fluttershy. I was home.
I was sprawled on the rug, counting the squares on the ceiling for third time. I rolled over to lie on my stomach and buried my face into the carpet, sighing deeply. My eyes cast around the living room I spent a large portion of my fillyhood playing in. It looked so small now. Back when I was a filly I thought that my house was gigantic. I had come back every year for summer and Hearth’s Warming, but for some reason it only seemed to have shrunk in the last few months since last winter.
I loved every moment I spent in house away from that school, but at that moment I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of weariness caused by the lack of nothing to do. I wish that Aero and Valiantwing would come home soon.
They both worked the same job, and came home together, often times leaving the house before I woke up in the morning and coming home late in the night, too late for me to want to stay up on a regular basis. I had exhausted myself from a day of practicing tricks, and found nothing better to do with myself than wait for them to come home.
It was early in the summer. It had only been a week since I had come home for three months until my senior year of Flight School in the fall. The summer classes were still going on, but I couldn’t bring myself to take them and be ridiculed by pegasi for an entire summer on top of the awful school year.
Aero and I acted like nothing had happened all those years ago on the day he left for home. The kiss he had given me never resurfaced in conversation, and he acted like he had just said goodbye and left it at that. In recent years he has acted a lot nicer to me, paying for lunch whenever we were out and making sure that I didn’t get hurt or upset at anypony. I found it a little bit annoying, but I didn’t say anything to him. He was still my best friend, and I didn’t want to take him for granted, even if he did get on my nerves from time to time.
Tonight was the night they were both supposed to come home early. The small den was getting progressively dimmer as the sun set over the horizon. The boredom I felt, coupled with my empty stomach was wearing on my patience.
I heard the tell-tale sound of the door swinging open and hooves connecting softly with the carpet. I stood immediately to my legs to see Valiantwing and Aero standing in the doorway, looking guilty for arriving so late.
“Sorry, honey,” Valiantwing said, sparing me a guilty grin, “Planning for the Storm of the Century took a little longer than we intended. Let’s go out to eat and do that catching up we haven’t had the time to get to. I hear there’s a really great new diner on the other side of town.”
“So how has school been going Rainbow? It must have felt like only yesterday when you first stepped foot into the courtyard!” We sat at a table in a small diner, the quiet sounds of other ponies creating a soft din that added to the atmosphere of whole restaurant experience. I decided to keep the truth from my father for the time being.
“It’s been going great, Dad. I’m one of the fastest flyers of the school! We started doing advanced weather control, and my teachers are convinced that I would be great for climate management.”
“That’s great to hear, Honey.” The general awkwardness that sometimes arises when relatives talk for the first time in months reared its head. We sat silently, enjoying our respective meals, looking about the décor of the dim café. Aero was eyeing me, looking nervously between me and my father.
Aero cleared his throat, and stood to hooves, “I need to use the restroom really fast, I’ll be right back.” He walked away slowly, looking from table to table at the various groups of ponies enjoying their meals.
Valiantwing instantly turned his gaze on me, a look of sternness in his eyes, “Aero has been telling me you have been aspiring to join some performance group called the Wonderbolts, is this true?”
“Yeah, it’s been my dream ever since the first day of Flight Camp.”
He took a sip of his cider and sighed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment before returning his gaze on me, “Rainbow, I don’t have any problem with you having a dream of joining a top notch pegasus flight group, but you have to understand that to keep your life on track, you have to keep your primary focus set on a more… attainable goal.”
I was taken aback by what he had just told me. I wanted more than anything in my young life to become one of the Wonderbolts. I practiced every day in the hopes that someday I would join their rank.
“Listen Dad, I’ve been working hard for hours after class every day to get me ready for tryouts after I graduate. I know I can do it, but you have to believe in me.”
His eyes widened, he looked shocked. Hurt was displayed on his face, “Why would you think I didn’t believe in you honey?” He opened his mouth to say more, but Aero had returned from the restroom. Valiantwing shut his mouth, clearly not wanting to talk about this with Aero present.
The rest of the evening had gone terribly. Other than Aero occasionally bringing up little bits of conversation, Valiantwing and I had stayed silent, not saying a word to each other.
A few days had gone by, and the conversation still lingered over the house. Neither Valiantwing nor I wanted to bring it up. I knew that something had to be done about this situation, even if I had to swallow my pride and apologize. I told Aero about it while we were out walking, and he said that Valiantwing just wants her to have a safe future and to not put so much faith in a dream.
It was raining. The Storm of the Century was scheduled earlier in the year because of a small drought. Valiantwing, Aero and I were sitting around the table, wordlessly eating our meals. The tension between my father and I had spread to Aero. We sat in complete silence, trying not to bring up the elephant in the room. The one that had caused my father and I to lose out on quality time we could have been spending together those first weeks of summer.
After a dinner of complete silence, Aero had retired to his room, and Valiantwing made his way to his recliner to read before going to bed. I sat at the table, resting my head in my hooves. I inhaled deeply, knowing that I would have to say something to my father to set this right. Collecting my thoughts, I walked slowly toward the den, thinking hard about what I was going to say to my father.
“Dad?”
He looked up from his reading and gave me a hard questioning look.
“About what happened…”
He interrupted, “honey, I just want you to make smart decisions with your future. It’s just not practical to hold onto a lofty dream. What if you don’t make it? What are you going to do with your life then?”
“But Dad, it’s not just a dream. I want this with my whole body, with my whole mind. I know in my heart that this is what I want to do with my life. The ponies who say they have a dream and doing nothing about it, those are the ones who are throwing their life away. I’ve chased my dreams from day one, and I know I have what it takes, but I need you to understand that.”
“I’m sorry Rainbow, but you’re taking a huge risk with this. I can’t let you chase some lofty goal and see you fail. I’ll be making sure that you take courses next year geared toward finding what you are truly good at. A cutie mark in speed is a joke.” He instantly regretted saying that.
I exploded, “I’m not going back to that academy, Dad! The ponies there treat me like dirt! I spend every day getting ridiculed by everypony, even some of the teachers. They think I’m a freak of nature, all because of some stupid event that happened three years ago. I know I can make my dreams come true, and if you can’t see that, then I can do it without you! I can do it without that school.” I turned away as I choked up on those last words. I couldn’t contain streams of tears from falling down my cheeks.
I turned toward the door and walked away, trying to keep my composure.
“Rainbow…”
“I need to go for a walk.” I didn’t look back. I took a step out of the door frame and into the soft warm summer rain. I didn’t know where I was going and it didn’t matter. I unfurled my wings and took flight. I flew straight up into the sky, the rain soaking my mane and masking the tears running down my face. I thought about my father’s words, how much they stung. I just needed some time to think. Some time alone.
I landed in the muddy streets, unintentionally landing in a deep puddle of water. I shook it off in misery and contemplated my bad luck. I walked down the path passed the closed shops and dark windows of the homes of sleeping ponies. The rain began to pick up speed. I tried to keep my mind set on being angry with my father, and failing. He didn’t mean what he said. I should apologize for what I said.
I heard hoofsteps behind me. A spike of fear caused me to turn and see who my pursuer was. Aero was looking at me with pleading in his expression.
“Why don’t you come home, Rainbow? You’ll catch a cold.”
“He c-can’t send me back there. I’ve put up with so much crap. I can’t go back to that school.”
“You have to. Do it for me."
"But I can't do it without you. I'm not as strong as I want to be. I try to tell them to leave me alone, but it's h-hard. I need you there with me. I just want to stay home with you."
"If you want to come home, Dad is going to make you go back no matter what you say.” He came close to me and wrapped a wing around my shoulders, pulling me tight against his warm body.
“T-then… then I’m not coming home. I can’t go back there Aero. I’m so alone there. Nopony cares about me there. I wish I could just stay home and get some job around town until I can get into the Wonderbolts. Dad’s not gonna let me do that. I’m sorry, Aero.”
He bit his lip. If he was crying, there was no way I could tell.
“I believe in you Rainbow. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. Please, just come home with me and we’ll see what we can do.”
I was thinking irrationally. I was terrified of going back there and facing my father. I was terrified about going back to that awful cloud academy.
“I can’t do that Aero.” I wanted to say more, but couldn’t find the words. I shrugged him off of me, and flew away before he could react. He called out to me, shreds of desperation hanging in his pleas.
The rain was blinding me.
I had flown farther from home than I had ever flown before. The downpour had picked up dramatically, making my rain-soaked bones weigh me down slightly. I couldn’t see in any direction more than a few feet. I had flown out over the forest that surrounded the mountain that was home to the foundation of Canterlot. My breathing was short and labored. I began to panic due to the disorientation and not seeing where I was going. I couldn’t think about anything other than flying straight, a task that I wasn’t even sure I was performing correctly.
I regretted my decision almost instantly after leaving the city walls. By the time I had truly come to my senses I had lost all sense of direction, and at this point was trying frantically to find somewhere safe to rest for the night. I was scared out of my wits, flying blind in the heavy wind and rain.
I cried in vain. I was sure nopony was around to hear me, but I was beyond afraid. The darkness surrounding me played with my mind, making me see things and sending me further into a state of pure fear.
"Somepony help me!"
Suddenly I hear a loud crack resonate a few yards away on my right side, accompanied by a loud flash of light that dilated my pupils, causing any adjustment to the night sky to be thrown out the window. I lost all sense of direction and careened toward what I assumed was the ground. Before I could tell where I was, I wave of sharp intense pain shot through one of my wings as it collided with a hard object. I pulled it in close to my body as I had no other choice than to hope that whatever I landed on wouldn’t end up killing me.
I touched down on the wet ground with a painful thud that resonated through my mind as darkness closed around my vision. The last sensation I can remember before blacking out was a warm stickiness running through my mane, and a burning heat spreading through my crippled wing.
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YES! New chapter!
OH GOD DAMN CLIFFHANGERS
Edit: Gratz on being featured!
Poor Rainbow. I can tell that by her fillyhood that she obviously acts tough to hide her pain. If she was real, I'd hug her so hard, her eyes would bulge out.
whomever had the guts to dislike it and break my streak.
I commend you.
Not afraid to take me down a notch.
Awesome chapter of an awesome story. Keep this great work!!
Also I've got a question:
There was a romance tag on the story while it only had 5 chapters (and it was shown as completed bur then you released a new chapter and it changed..) what was meant with this romance tag? The love between Rainbow Dash's parents or the kiss at the end of chapter 5?
1164470
I put it on the story with the intention of putting more romance later on in the story. It won't be a romance heavy story. It's more of a tragedy. But yes, there will be some romance a little farther along.
1164480
Thanks for the fast reply!
I hope you won't focus too much on this romance thing as I don't like shipping in My Little Pony...
well l guess it's part of growing up so RD has to find her first love :D
1164143
But you almost got a 100 like streak!
Oh well, you can still go for a 100:1 like to dislike ratio.
1163422
You.....you lied!?!
Disliked, Unsubscribed, reported for terrorism
But, wooo all the same.
Eh, I'll give you the centennial like.
Also: Storm of the decade would be more fitting, no? Century implies once every hundred years...
1164480 I clicked on this story because of romance tag...
Oh my Celestia I've loved this story ever since it was posted. I neverr want it to end.
I really love the build up that's happening so far, I just wonder where it's all leading to...
1164143 trolls... well at least you got to 100 before you got disliked. I got 2 early dislikes but now I'm 34:1.
1166313
I have a reason behind the naming. It will be revealed in part two
1167932 Roger. Keep on keeping on.
kept me giving up. from is what you need there. :Twilightsmile: No other errors though, as far as I can tell.
i cannot wait for the next chapter :P
Moar
1164143
One more like added to the thumbs up.
1164480
Let me guess. Rainbow is gay?
1227335
nope! Good ol' Rainbow Dash is straight this time! I realize that I'm practically breaking canon with this, but hey, you know... whatever. To be honest, lesbianism in ponyfiction doesn't make any sense with any of the main characters, but it makes some damn cute fanart. I'm not against it, I just find it to be bad reading and kind of played out.
1227359
Excellent. Don't get me wrong. I got nothing against gay people, but the Rainbow as a lesbian is so over done.
1227389
As is all the Lyra x Bon-Bon shipping. Totally overdone.
.... there seem to be a lot of storms of the century, I am pretty sure that the point of a storm... of the century... is that it happens once a century?
Anyway, it's been good so far, although I do wonder where and when future narrator Dash is, and who she is talking to.
FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
"The last sensation I can remember before blacking out was a warm stickiness running through my mane, and a burning heat spreading through my crippled wing." Ummmm.....