The Colorful Aftermath

by Comma Typer

Brush Out

On stage, Bow and Windy were fixing up the microphone, testing it out and causing massive feedback shrill, forcing ponies to cover their ears and back away.

Rainbow plugged her ears, too, seeing her parents there and the exhibit beside them, still shocked.

She clanged her teeth, close to gnashing them. "Wh-What will I do? My shameful moments are coming to light, and it's all because of them! This should've been my day—they said so themselves! But, they're doing just the opposite, which is great! I'll be the laughingstock of Cloudsdale before nighttime! If there's a way I could cancel the show with some kind of catastrophe—"

Raised her brows.

She clasped her forehooves. "Thank you, Pinkie!"

And she dashed down, past the "ground", and back into the sky.

---

"Don't thank us, everypony," Bow said, his voice booming through the speakers. "The pony you should thank is our wonderful daughter, Rainbow Dash!"

Windy grabbed the mic from his wing. "We haven't seen her in a while, though, so if you could help us find her...but, she's a very punctual pony! She'll be here in a minute or two!"

The audience whispered to themselves, muttering and mumbling with concern about where she could be.

Then, balloons floating from the ground.

Everypony looked at them.

Those balloons rising higher.

Pinkie Pie rose from beneath the clouds, balloons tied to her torso.

Everypony looked bewildered at this flying Earth pony.

"Yeah, your eyes aren't deceiving you!" Pinkie declared and held out her forehooves. "Look, Ma'! No wings! So, I heard you're having carrots and onions on a stick for evening lunch, to which I say 'Evening lunch?'"

"And what are you doing here?" somepony from the audience shouted, pointing at her like he was an accuser.

Pinkie took out a note from her mane. "While I was falling helplessly toward the ground, Rainbow Dash swooped in and saved me from getting hospitalized! Not that I would be, but—just to be on the safe side...."

The parents on stage gasped.

"Rainbow's at it again!" Windy said through the microphone, exhilarated. "She just saved the life of this poor innocent pony—"

"Wait a minute!" another pony yelled from the crowd. "Isn't that one of the other ponies who defeated Nightmare Moon?"

Windy then dropped the mic, opening her mouth in surprise.

Lots of feedback, lots of ponies protecting their ears from certain doom.

Pinkie nodded. "Well, that's good and all, but I'd like to—"

And the crowd moved forward, swarming her and taking care not to pop any of her balloons.

"Well, while we wait for the mare of the day," Bow said, picking up the mic, "what about we talk with, uh...Pinkie Pie! Yeah, I could tell because you're pink!"

Pinkie snickered while hedged by several hooves holding out papers for her to sign and stamp her hoofprint on. "Heh, but as much as I want to hang out with all of you pegasuses, I still have this note from her when she saved me."

Most of the crowd went silent.

"What does it say?" yet another pony asked.

Pinkie held it out and read.

"'Hi, Mom and Dad! I'd really like to stay and chat with you and do the cool speech you're doing, but there's been an emergency back in Ponyville. I could smell something burning from up here, and I'm going to save the poor and innocent ponies trapped in a fire! Looks like I'll be missing the rest of the party, but I hope you'll end up just fine. Love, Rainbow Dash.'"

Chatter once again set in among the audience, with some voicing their disappointment that Rainbow Dash would be gone for the night and how they would miss their opportunity to interact with her again anytime soon.

Bow and Windy put on smiles for them.

"Well, there she goes," Windy said, resting a head on her husband as they stood on stage. "Our hero, going off to save lives! Let's all remember her this day—oh, and Fluttershy, too."

She sniffed.

Seeing the crowd interrogating and talking with Pinkie Pie about her friendship with Rainbow and the other Elements, all the while being served with free samples of cakes and pies and even cakepies from the saddle bag she was wearing.

"I feel like it was only yesterday that she was a wee little filly," Windy said, whispering to his ears and trotting down stage with him. "She's only getting better at everything she does. It's finally paying off for her."

Bow stopped, looked at her. "But, when was the last time we saw her?"

Windy shuddered. "Months and months ago."

Bow closed his eyes. "How time flies, honey. She's gone from an overachieving foal to an overachieving mare to an overachieving Element of Harmony, and we haven't noticed it until now."

Tears welling up again in his eyes.

"I-If we only had the time to tell her everything we wanted to tell her," he said, choking up. "Writing encouraging letters to her everyday could only get us so far. She doesn't see our faces, our smiles—doesn't see us cheering and shouting and rocking the furniture for her. It doesn't have that...impact."

Windy nodded. "I agree, dear. What if she gets caught up with so much crime-fighting, she never has the time to visit us or even read our letters?"

Laid a hoof on her head, sweating in worry.

"Why, she would be devastated! Without a daily reminder that she's the best and better than the rest, how could she go on?"

Bow patted her on the back of her neck. "And it's been a long time since she's moved out. It's a tough world out there, but she's been meeting it head on...if saving the world says anything about it, which it does."

Windy sniffed again, wiped her wet and reddened eyes. "Y-Yeah...it's just...I m-miss my baby, our Dashie..."

Bow hugged her.

She hugged him back.

Silent for a time.

With closed eyes, just being with each other.

"Hey, we'll visit her next week at her place," Bow said, now in a quieter and milder tone. "This time, we won't be telling her—if she's down in the dumps, we'll surprise her with our presence!"

Windy nodded, grinning. "Yeah! That would do!"

"Uh, anyone taking care of the mic?" a pony from the audience asked, pointing at the mic on the floor.

Everyone then looked at the two parents, Pinkie Pie still floating over the cloudy ground.

Bow and Windy smiled, nervous.

"Eh, we'll show you our Dash-mentos first!" Bow said, motioning towards the stall with enthusiasm. "Leave your bits at the door because nothing's for sale here!"

---

"Agh! Somepony help!"

Davenport, a calm and collected pony in his cool-as-a-cucumber vest and shirt, ran out of his burning Quills and Sofas shop screaming—fires bursting out of the broken windows and consuming his rows of sofas and his shelves of quills, both of them melting into black char under the heat.

Twilight Sparkle teleported, meeting a haggard Rarity rushing to the building.

"What happened?" Twilight asked, alarmed while facing Rarity who had brought over a dozen buckets of water.

Rarity splashed them on to the window, hampering the fire a bit. "Spike came over to the boutique for a break from his firefighting duties and wanted some moissanite for snacks. I've never fed him that before, and...well, you know the rest."

Twilight moaned, teleporting in more buckets of water and hurling them at the blazing fires inside.

Rarity panted, throwing her last ounce of water at it. "This isn't working. What fire is this?! Can you tell me how a baby dragon digests gems?! Is it with sulfur?!"

Twilight nodded, a sheepish smile on her face. "I think that worsens the problem!"

Then, a sharp shout:

"Here I come!"

A rising roar from behind.

Twilight and Rarity whirled their heads around.

Saw a fast-moving storm cloud, spitting out lightning bolts all the way while dripping rain drops, approaching the shop with the help of a pegasus flapping her wings like a bug.

"Make way!" Rainbow yelled, pulling the cloud at high speeds. "Make way!"

The two unicorns ducked.

And the cloud was chucked into the building.

It burst into a full storm, raining the whole establishment inside and soaking it wet, drowning the fire out.

It was no longer in danger, though the sofas and the shelves and other parts of the store were drenched and soggy on top of being charred and scorched in black, damaged.

Twilight grinned. "Nice one, Rainbow Dash! But, couldn't you have done that a little earlier and maybe saved at least half of his stock?"

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "Best I could do. I was busy with an urgent letter."

Davenport appeared from behind a nearby tree. "D-Does that mean I don't have to pay for damages? I'm i-insured, right?" He pointed at Twilight. "C-Could you write a letter and ask Princess Celestia if I'm insured for this?"

Twilight groaned. "What do I look like to you? A butler?"

Davenport gulped.

Rarity trotted to Rainbow dusting herself off from residual cloud. "Well, that is good and all, fine and dandy, but you should learn the prospect of urgency when it comes to more pressing matters like...a fire."

Rainbow giggled. "I've slacked off on worse. Take my word—if you think that's late, then you don't know the half of it!"

Rarity flicked her head away. "Nevermind. We're alive and nothing much has been lost. No need to whine about the minor details."

Davenport gasped. "But, this is major for me! This is my business and—"

"I'll give you more than enough bits to bounce back," Rarity said. "You're our prime supplier of quills and sofas—our only supplier of quills and sofas—so it is only necessary that I chip in to help you out."

Davenport nodded.

"And, I am sorry for the 'ruckus', as they say," Rarity said, taking a brief look at the run-down store. "I must've fed Spike some gems he shouldn't have eaten."

Davenport shivered, unable to bear the sight of his beloved store scalded and singed.

Rainbow breathed easy, slumping on the wall. "Boy, that was close!"

Twilight looked her way, then walked up to her. "It sure was!"

Glanced at the products' burned remains inside the store.

"OK, maybe too close for comfort, but...look on the bright side, heh-heh?"

Rainbow smiled. "Yeah!"

Twilight turned her head upward. "So, how did the festival at Cloudsdale go? I'm sure it went great."

Rainbow bit her lip, trying to stifle the jolt on her face. "Yeah, it went very great! It was superb, blew the roof of my expectations or something like that!"

"Alright! That's good to hear. So, you're coming with us for dinner at Sugarcube Corner? I heard Pinkie's got lots of stories to tell from her trip there."

Rainbow placed a hoof to her chest, breathing hard. "Uh, what was that?"

Twilight frowned. "I was asking if you were coming with us to eat at Sugercube Corner."

Rainbow rubbed her head. "Totally! It's not like I'm hiding anything!"

Twilight's ears drooped. "I didn't ask if you were hiding anything."

"Exactly!"

"Huh?"

Rainbow looked at her foreleg. "Whoops! I'm running late for a thing! I gotta go and, uh, see if my rainbow pond's sprouted any flowers lately!"

And she flew off into the sky.

Leaving Twilight alone once again along with Rarity comforting miserable Davenport who was blubbering about the precious valuables he had lost there.

---

It was nighttime.

Rainbow Dash's home was a two-story house made of clouds. Like ordinary clouds, this house floated in the air, spruced up with several columns and smaller clouds connected by a rainbow road of sorts. Near the entrance was the aforementioned rainbow pond—a pond of pure rainbow leaking out into a few smaller multi-colored streams trickling into raindrops, dousing the grass below with fresh water.

Past the door resided a big, spacious foyer with a round balcony near the dome-like top. Open windows allowed the cool evening breeze to rush in and permeate this home with its pleasant chill. By the door was a statue of a Wonderbolt in flight, complete with goggles.

The living room to the right had a carpeted floor, some sofas made of clouds, and a glass window with open curtains which included lightning bolts in their design.

Rainbow Dash laid down on one of the bigger sofas, relaxing.

"Phew! I'm glad that's over!" she said to herself. "After that, everypony's going to forget about what just happened and they'll talk about how I saved Ponyville again! Go me, go me!"

She pointed to herself, sat up on the sofa.

"I hope they understand," Rainbow went on, her smile fading and sounding cautious. "It's not like they'll catch on quickly, but I shouldn't be too suspicious. With this saving-the-world job, it's gonna be easier to find excuses—they're loud enough with me saving Equestria once. What if I have to save it multiple times? Then, what about just keeping Ponyville safe from danger? That will be more than enough to keep them quiet whenever I want to so they won't have to bring those pictures up again! And, when there's guards, they'll have no choice but to act properly and not hold my cheeks like a foal!"

She grinned.

"Rainbow Dash, you're a genius sometimes! I don't see how this could possibly go wrong!"

And with that, she flew away from the living room, into the foyer, and up the stairs into her bedroom.

Comments

[zaku666]

pretty damn gud

[MixMassBasher]

A nice little story that kinda puts the context of the episode Parental Glidance with the aftermath of season 1