Even Rainbows Falter

by Pracca

The Fight

The pale shimmer of Luna’s moon gave peaceful bliss to Ponyville, cloaked in a layer inches thick of snow. The black air of night glimmered with the slightest silver beaming down, contrasting with the pure crystals beneath them. A single shadow in motion blotted out a small portion of snowfall at a time, ever moving as fast as its wings could beat. It passed building after building, cut through streets and alleys, and dove around obstacles, until it came to a hover over the tree containing the Ponyville library.

Rainbow Dash examined the home carefully, dread prickling her like a ghoul just out of sight, breathing down the back of her neck. Shaky as they were, her wings kept her afloat beyond the door as she looked. The lights were all off in the tree, left leafless and oddly skeletal on the frigid winter night. They were likely asleep, then. A grim suggestion was posed: should she even go inside? Perhaps this was a confrontation better left alone until the morning.

She grimaced, truly contemplating the idea for a moment. Though with a heavy sigh, she touched down and hung her head. This had to be done, now. Though she could always hope Twilight would not be awoken by her entry.

Rainbow approached the door, cringing each instance her left front hoof touched the ground beneath her. Her rib was definitely broken, and in such a position that the motion gave her a new jolt of pain with every step. As she came closer and closer, the door seemed to grow, looming over her like a leering, judging sentinel waiting there just for her. Just to criticize her. A voice in her head repeatedly told her the choice she had made was correct. That she had saved lives, and done right. But another voice countered. What had she honestly done? Gotten herself smacked around and torn up by a creature she couldn’t hope to beat. She hadn’t even been the one to finish it off; the rookie had done that. THE rookie. She had contributed less than the greenwing, and that somehow justified wrecking her own daughter’s birthday plans?

She silently opened the door, closing it behind her as quietly as she could. But in the darkness, she heard a voice. Malice, and a fury she could scarcely believe came from such a sweet pony filled the room like poison.

“Seven. Hours. You show up seven. Hours. Late.”

“Twi!” Rainbow exclaimed, stumbling over her own words as she desperately tried to say something, anything to make it right. “I’m sorry! L-listen, I—“

She was cut off as a hoof she could not even see in the inky blackness slammed over her muzzle, eliciting a tiny squeak of sore pain that went unheard.

“No, you listen.” Twilight hissed. Dash’s ears were pressed tightly back now as she tried to lean away from her wife. “Listen very closely, and tell me what you hear!”

As much as reflex urged her to keep them down, Rainbow’s ears slowly inched up, and she held her breath keeping vigil for any sounds to be heard. And to her dismay, she found one.

From somewhere upstairs, came the faintest noise. Not noteworthy if not for its incessant rhythm. Erratic, yet continuous. Shallow, gasping breaths punctuated with the tiniest of whimpers, a dichotomy of a voice wishing not to disturb, and wishing for the whole world to hear. Rainbow knew she was no model parent, but she’d have to be heartless not to recognize the cries of her own daughter.

“Opal…” Rainbow whispered. “She’s…”

“She’s doing what she’s been doing since the minute you broke your promise to her, and that little gold-coated brat from her class got all of her friends to laugh at her!”

Rainbow felt a pain in her chest that, for all she knew, may very well have been a dagger in her heart. The full realization of how badly she’d let down her daughter was finally sinking in. On top of that, the rage of her beloved was hardly abating.

“And I thought the promises you used to break were bad!” Twilight continued, now clearly pacing from the sounds of her hooves clopping on the floor. “But little did I know you’d manage to completely crush your daughter’s spirit in a single day! She worships you, and you repay her like this?”

Rainbow was hurt. She knew the truth behind what the mare was telling her. But a pegasus’ pride could only stand so much. By instinct or what, she did not know, a sliver of frustration was growing inside of her mind, piercing her thoughts.

“Twilight,” she said with some attempt at assertion. “just listen! I—“

“You what?” Twilight asked, almost mocking the use of the phrase with her tone. “You ‘lost track of time’? You ‘just had to get a bit more practice in’? You ‘were so busy with your pals you completely forgot about your wife and daughter’?! I don’t want to hear a single excuse abo—“

“You know what?” Rainbow grumbled, her voice beginning to rise. “No. Just, NO.”

She walked over to where she knew a candle was located and grabbed a match in the corner of her mouth.

“You want to know where I was? You wanna know what I was really, doing, ‘goofing off’? Take a good look!”

A match flared to life, and a moment later a candle wick joined it. In the warm orange light, the full extent of Rainbow’s injuries became as plain as day. She could see Twilight a few feet away, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, warbling with shock and horror as her mouth dropped open.

“Oh, Celestia!” she yelped. “Rainbow, what happened?!”

“I almost DIED is what happened!” Rainbow growled, leaning in close, inadvertently giving Twilight and even better look at her blood-red eye. “I had to fight a giant gargoyle and I almost died! Is that good enough for you? Am I still some kind of monster for missing a stupid party?”

Twilight’s sympathy and terror leaked away, and what remained was a face full of righteous fury. “That stupid party you’re talking about was for your own daughter, how the hay could you even say that?! Moreover, it was a party you promised to show up to!”

“Oh,” Rainbow said, offended, not even noticing her rising volume. “because obviously I should have seen an attack by an extinct species coming!”

“You should have seen SOMETHING coming!” Twilight screamed, her own voice cracking with the purely desperate tone. “Oh, Celestia help me, Rainbow, you always do this! You make these big, grandiose goals you can’t possibly achieve, and then you blame somepony else when it all falls apart because you can’t possibly live up to your own expectations! I knew this would happen the night you accepted that stupid job…”

“So now my job is STUPID?” Rainbow growled, her wings shooting out and flapping once for need of some kind of animation. “The job I’ve spent my whole life dreaming about means that little to you?”

“If you’re gonna keep putting it in front of your family, then yes! It does!”

“WHAT?!” Rainbow bellowed, her expression one of utmost outrage. She leaned in, and her voice not dropping a single decibel began to rant, “After everything I’ve done for you—for Opal—you try and pull THAT on me?! Try and tell me I don’t care?! What have YOU done, huh? When was the last time YOU saved Equestria? When was the last time you did anything but sit there and BITCH about how you don’t get your way? The biggest promotion of my LIFE, and all you’ve done is ho-hum, and seethe, and—and—GAH!”

She leaned forward, letting out her frustrations in a single roar. But she wasn’t prepared for Twilight’s reaction.

She flinched back, cringing. Her ears went flat, her expression one that Dash could hardly comprehend. The look in her wife’s eyes, wary and skittish.

Was that…

Fear?

All at once, Rainbow’s momentum was gone. The pegasus stood, mouth agape and quivering as she tried to understand that emotion. That fear. Questioningly, warily, her mouth tried to form words.

“You…” she hesitated. “…you thought I was going to hit you…didn’t you?”

Twilight did not respond verbally. But her face was the only tool of communication needed. It told Rainbow everything with its quivering eyes.

The pegasus, though anger was still present, was moving and speaking as if hollow. Going through motions, passion lost.

“After all of this… fourteen years of marriage… and I’ve known you even longer than that. And you would honestly think, for even a second, that I would hit you?”

Her voice began to tremble, though whether it held back tears or rage even she did not know. “…You really don’t trust me at all.”

Twilight steeled herself. The next words were difficult to say, but they were needed.

“If you can fail your own daughter like this… do you even deserve trust?”

And that was difficult, indeed. Though it was so small as to go unheard, a voice in Rainbow’s mind acknowledged that. Did she deserve to be trusted? After this?

But it was just a mote in an abyss. A lost thought in a growing turmoil. The anger, the indignation, it was all coming back.

“Oh, who the hay are YOU to—“

“P-please… stop…”

And at the same moment for both mares, all passion of the moment was lost. The offense, the anger. It was as if they had hit a brick wall, all progress in their growing anger unable to proceed against it. They shared a look of shock and devastation as they simultaneously realized just how loud, how thunderous their argument had become. They both slowly turned to the staircase, to see a confused, hurt pegasus filly at their foot. The low candlelight gave a shimmering effect to the tears on her cheeks.

“Opal…”

Numbing shock jolted through Rainbow’s mind. Opal had heard everything. Rainbow had ruined her party, and she had, even if unintentionally, forced her daughter to listen to… to that.

Oh Celestia… I really am an awful mom.

Rainbow turned to look at her wife, who was every bit as mortified as she was. And in that shared glance, an agreement was made. Rainbow understood. It didn’t matter who was right or wrong right now. This had to stop.

“Mom, why are you hurt? What happened?”

Rainbow Dash did not respond. She wasn’t sure what she would say if she did. It wasn’t right for her daughter to be worrying about her, not after she’d let her down like that. She turned away, and began to walk towards the door. She tried not to limp too visibly.

“Mom, wait!” Opal yelled, more imploringly as she tried to catch up to the older pegasus. Twilight placed a hoof in her path, and stopped her from going to her. When the filly looked up at her, confused and increasingly frantic, all she could do was shake her head with a subdued expression.

Rainbow reached the door, and pulled it open. The still, frigid winter night was there to greet her, like an old friend or a stiff drink. And even still, the cries of her daughter were going unanswered.

“Mom, don’t go!”

Rainbow’s shoulders shrugged, unable to stand the weight she felt. She couldn’t bear to turn around and face her, but she managed to say two words as she closed the door behind her.

“Sorry, Squirt.”

The library door shut behind her with a subdued, almost anticlimactic click. Even the gust of wind that followed it was more pronounced, more powerful and blistering against Rainbow’s raw skin. She opted to stand for a moment, and stare at the bright and beautiful moon above, oblivious to her, before spreading her wings and flying away. She wasn’t sure where she was going yet. But there was certainly no going back.

Inside, Opal tried to form words but found none. She looked up at her mother, pleading with her eyes for some kind of answer, some solution to make everything better. But all she found was the same defeated expression on Rainbow’s face when she turned away.

“…Go to your room, Opal Dart.”

“B-b-but, what about m—“

“Go. To. Your room.”

Her mother’s tone was not angry, but forceful nonetheless. She was young, and perhaps naïve, but the desperation behind it was not lost on the filly. With nothing else in her power, Opal turned and ascended the stairs to her bed. There was no way for her to sleep tonight, but there was nothing more for her down there.

Twilight waited, unmoving, as he watched her daughter walk away. It wasn’t until her door shut, and she was clearly and securely in her room that she allowed herself to move. She drifted, listlessly towards the table, setting herself down beside it. Alone and unguarded, she buried her face in her hooves and let go. She began to sob uncontrollably, her body shaking with little, unstoppable tremors.

And unseen in a cracked doorway, an adolescent purple dragon watched his surrogate mother cry, with fear and despair in his eyes.

His whisper went unheard by anyone but himself.

“I’ve gotta do something.”

Comments

[Pracca]

Just as an interesting little thing to note, the gold-coated colt that's been accosting Opal Dart didn't exist in the original draft. His role went to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. And instead of being alone to defend herself, Opal was going to be backed up by the CMCs and Featherweight, who would both have several scenes of palling around with Opal. But then I remembered something.

My own continuity.

It's been, like, 14 years since the show by now! Those foals are all grown up! Mid-to-late 20s adults picking on a 12-year old is a tad weird, so the bullies got significantly reworked, and the friends were cut out entirely. I admit, this leaves Opal's role in the story a bit more bare-bones than I intended. But eh, whatcha gonna do. I may come back at some point and re-write her scenes to give her a bit more depth.

[Shadow_Wolf]

Hoo boy... gotta say I kinda expected this outcome based solely on the title of the chapter but sheesh... wasn't expecting it to get quite so ... intense there for a few minutes. Been following this fic since it started and plan on following it to the end. Keep up the good work! Can't wait for more.

[Poniard Dagger]

1312480 well, you could alsays have opal find a friend.

[Pracca]

1313345 I do intend to attempt to salvage that in later chapters. But I think it's worth coming back and adding something to the earlier ones once I get around to it.

[Darastrix]

By the gods of old and new I love your stories man. They get me right in the feels every time. Keep it up .

[Cynical]

Rainbow turned to look at her life,

I'm no expert, but that might want to be wife,
unless, you know, Dash is some sort of self-time traveller or something.

But still,
Love the story so far

[Pracca]

1363344 Ah, the joys of doing all your writing after midnight

Glad you like it, though!

[Squiggly Cup]

Love it so far, although I think its kinda lame that Twilight got scared of Rainbow hitting her. Yet from what I could tell Twilight hit her? That's not exactly fair, Rainbow should have pointed that out lol. "She was cut off as a hoof she could not even see in the inky blackness slammed over her muzzle, eliciting a tiny squeak of sore pain that went unheard." It's like how a girl will hit their boyfriend, but the guy can't hit her back. Not to say anyone needs to be hitting anybody, and I get that guys are typically stronger but its kind of dumb. The girl can easily lay a hand on her significant other without a second thought, but it's very different for the guy. A guy can usually take it better, but still. Either way I kind of ranted there lol, it all just popped into my head.

Love the story though, especially since its about them after getting together. Too many stories are about asking the other out, we need more that focus on life after getting together :)