A Story of Love (Among Others)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

The Curse of the Cat People

After my father gently asked me to put another dress on since mine was stained with soil of the bonzais, I went to the living-room where my family members were all gathered. My father was pouring a drink to everyone. Passing by Scootaloo playing a video game on her phone, whom I smiled warmly to, I sat near the coffee table in the middle of the room. Quickly, I noticed that it was difficult for me to get into their conversation. Everyone was speaking about their problems at work, or with their children and here I was, confused, not sure of what I could add to what they were saying. I was feeling rather displaced, like a mouse in the middle of wild cats.

"What do you want to drink, Dada?" Surprise suddenly called me.

I had forgotten. Dada was the nickname they gave me after Scootaloo started to speak. Rainbow Dash was long and hard for her to say, so she used to call me "Dada" and soon, all my siblings adopted it. It was the only place in the world where people were allowed to call me like that.

"I don't know... Rum and coke?"

"What? You're drinking... rum?!!" A horrified Spitfire cried.

"Hello, twenty-two, remember? It takes more than a simple rum and coke to get me drunk and acting all over the place if that's what worries you so much."

They all stared at me, stunned, as if I had said I was for death penalty for children under ten or something as serious as that. Then, my father shrugged and poured the drink I asked. And so, I got an idea in my mind. Maybe I should kill them right now by telling them that I wasn't a virgin anymore. I chuckled like a fool, just to think about it. Well... That could had been some excellent idea. If they all fainted from the revelation, I could maybe drink that bottle of liquor all alone and call Pinkie with my father's landline phone to tell her everything. Does it sound cruel if I say I was very satisfied of the picture?

"So," Wind Wake started, taking a big fistful of dried cranberries. "What's going on out there?"

"What?" I answered, looking at him.

"In Canterlot... What's going on? What do you do?"

"I'm playing music. Cello."

"I mean, what do you do that is serious?"

I squeezed my new dress in my hands. Wind Wake have always been very scornful about everything I liked, my activities and my liking of old movies and vintage. He couldn't even understand why I wanted so much to go to Paris. I breathed in in order to get together and not throwing my precious rum and coke at his face.

"I'm recording a CD and I'm paid for this which means I've turned professional. There are many people who think classic music is rather serious, you know."

"So, no medical school?" Misty Fly asked. "I thought we were gathered here to celebrate your return in Cloudsdale."

I glared at my father, who shrugged. It had never been in question that I would be definitely back and that this was why everyone was here tonight. And Misty Fly supposedly knew it, since I had sent her the same message that I sent to all the others, who seemed to be completely aware of the truth of the situation.

"Actually, I'm not. I'm here because I haven't been back since five years and I've turned older one week ago. I'll go back to Canterlot in two days. I had a contract, remember?"

"In two days!" Spitfire cried. "We haven't seen you for years and you're staying only five days..."

I looked down. They really all were thinking I was going to stay. I didn't know what they hadn't understand in my message yet I was sure I had been pretty clear.

"I'm sorry... The record company couldn't give me more than that. I can't allow myself to be lazy. It's a real work, which takes a lot of my time. It's not only a leisure or I don't know what."

"Don't be so upset, Spit!" Wind Wake said, taking another huge fistful of berries. "She likes Royalties more than she loves us, that can't be helped!"

I took a long sip of my rum and coke, under everyone stunned eyes. Conversely to what my brother insinuated, I really loved them with all my heart. But they had to understand that, just like theirs, my life was different now and that there wasn't anything they could do to hold me back where I didn't want to be, even if that was because they missed me and wanted to see me more.

But since that was Wind Wake who cast barbs against me, the way he always did, I decided there was no reason for me not to give him a taste of his own medicine.

"At least, I'm going to be paid for something that I did with my own hands, I don't work twice a year when I feel like it and my friends and father have been able to pull strings for me!"

Smash! Take that! Maybe it wasn't nice from me but it felt so good, especially as I saw Wind Wake, his mouth wide opened and all my sisters started to laugh at him and tell him he deserved it. From that moment, the rest of the night was more relaxed and I no longer had the sensation that I was in a house full of strangers. That didn't mean I wasn't eager to go back to Canterlot, with my second family, the one I have chosen myself.

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It was almost midnight when everybody had left. Conversely to what I thought at frist, the dinner wasn't as long and hard to handle as the one I had with Thunderlane. I hadn't felt like I was Sayuri from "Geisha" when she's sent to a kimono factory during the war. They didn't give me time to think about the record company, or about Soarin, or about the fact maybe I had forgotten to close the window of my bedroom before I left my apartment.

I was putting away the dishes in the dish-washer when my father arrived behind me. It wouldn't have felt much awkward if he hadn't start to stare at me in a way I couldn't quite describe.

"You look so much like your mother! The more it goes, the more..."

He never finished his sentence. I didn't know whether it was because it was too emotional for him and I guess I'll never know. After a short while, he finally sat at the kitchen's table. In my father's language, that meant we had to have an eye-to-eye conversation. So I sat down as well, staring at him too.

"Do I really look like her?"

He sadly smiled, and stroke my cheek with the same melancholy, before getting his hand off like I were a scalding hot piece of metal.

"You don't even know."

"Daddy... I think I'm going to leave tomorrow instead of on Monday. And I don't know when I'll be back. Tonight was fun, and I love you all but this isn't my world anymore. Are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you, Rainbow Dash. It's your life and now I can see I don't have to interfere in anything. But still, I can't help wondering... Is it absolutely necessary that you live this life so far away?"

"It's not because it's away. It's because it's... not Cloudsdale," I admit with a sigh.

The sad truth was that I had too many bad memories here and not enough good memories to create a balance. And I had started things that couldn't be done in Cloudsdale. Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Coloratura, Fire Streak, Soarin, they all were in Canterlot.

My father took his cigarette packs and lit one. He was smoking fake cigarettes, that weren't made with nicotine but with another substance, said to be more natural. I always thought it smelled like burned leaves. But that helped him relax, he always said.

"I always knew," he said, spitting out a puff of smoke. "I knew one day you would leave, and I wouldn't be able to hold you back. Even when I made you promise to go to medical school if you failed, I knew you would slip through my fingers one day."

"I'm sorry, daddy," I said stretching my hand to stroke his. "I love you all and I don't want to hurt you but I have a life, a good life there and this is where I feel I belong. There's my friends, my job..." and Soarin "Can you forgive me?"

"I can't forgive you since I'm not mad at you at all..."

Pause. He seemed to want to tell me something but looked like he wasn't sure of how he could say it.

"Do you love someone? A boy, I mean, or anyone who you fancy..."

I wanted to answer, I swore I wanted it more than ever. If there was someone who I could let myself go with and cry without shame it was my daddy. But I didn't have that chance. His personal landline phone rang right at the moment I was going to open my mouth. It probably was one of my siblings who had forgotten something...

My father crushed his cigarette in the golden ashtray at the center, then got up to answer. I stayed where I was, waiting for this conversation to be over so we could resume ours. But he quickly came back with the phone in his hands.

"It's for you, Rainbow... A man..."

A man? Why would a man want to talk to me? I didn't know any man... Yet I took the phone and answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Dash? It's Fire Streak!"

"Fire Streak? Why the hell are you calling me at my father's?"

"You gave me this number in case of emergency..."

"Fine. What's your emergency?" I asked nonchalantly, sure that he had nothing whatsoever urgent to tell me.

"You're invited to my wedding, in two weeks!"

What did I say?

"Wow! That's so urgent I'm pinned to my chair right now."

"Hey stop that, I'm serious! You're invited with all your friends. Even Soarin is invited, but..."

"Forget about it!" I said with a lump in my throat. "He's still touring for promotion, in a different theater every day. It won't be possible. But... Can I bring a very good friend as a plus one instead?"

I was thinking of Cheese Sandwich. He was the only boy I wanted to come with me, especially as there were no risk he would try anything. And I knew it would be a great occasion so he could grow closer to Pinkie. Weddings were supposed to be romantic, aka the ideal atmosphere for lovers to get together.

"Of course. So, how's the weather in Cloudsdale? Maybe I should have come with you."

"And try to shag my sisters? Keep dreaming, loverboy! Go there while touring and do whatever the hell you want to do when I'm not there."

"That's some good idea, Kitty. I'm going to hang up. Good luck for the rest of your stay, you boasty minx."

"Sure... Good luck for the rest of your life, you serial oaf."

He laughed than hung up. I was happy I had talked to him although it had been a little awkward. I hadn't realized but everything related to Canterlot got me very much happy. I couldn't wait to go home, all while hoping my family would come and visit me as well, one day.