Motherly Dash

by Void Streak

Inspection

Rainbow Dash looked down at the list while she walked through the town. The list stated that she would need: a cot, a pack of formula milk, foal clothes, nappies, a blanket and several milk bottles.

The first place she decided to stop by was the Carousel Boutique, walking inside she greeted, “Hey Rarity.”

“Hello Rainbow Dash, what brings you and little Void Streak to my shop.” Rarity asked while stroking the foal's blue mane, making Void give a little giggle.

“Are you able to make some clothes for Void?” Rainbow asked.

“Of course, darling, put him on the table, so that I can take his measurements.” Rarity said, patting a spot on a clean wooden table that was in the corner of the room.

Rainbow took the foal and placed him in the indicated space on the table, while Rarity went to find her measuring tape.

Returning with her magic full of supplies, she started to measure the colt. However, if she thought that, Void would make it easy for her, she would be poorly mistaken.

The foal squirmed and attempted to pull at the measuring tape causing Rarity to release a frustrated groan. “Please do excuse my shoddiness, I don't typically make foal clothes.” she apologised but was disappointed to find Rainbow Dash laughing her head off.

Rolling her eyes Rarity asked, “Instead of laughing could you be a dear and hold him while I measure him?”

“Sure Rares,” She said, taking hold of the squirming foal’s hooves.

After taking, his measurements, Rarity instantly got to work. “How long is this going to take? I have places to be.” Rainbow asked irritable.

“Rainbow, please have patience, this shouldn't take long,” she said.

After five minutes of waiting, Rainbow exclaimed, "While you're making that, I'm gonna head into town and pick up the rest of everything, that I need."

Rarity merely rolled her eyes at the departing pegasus.

***

Walking into town, Rainbow was glad to find a foal supplies shop. The store sold everything that a foal could need, with stock ranging from blankets to different types of prams. Rainbow walked over to the section that contained the foal milk and gapped at all the different brands that sold formula. "Why are there so many different types?" Rainbow asked herself in astonishment. She didn't even know where to start.

It was at that moment, when a voice asked, "Hello there dear, do you need any help?"

Rainbow turned around to see an elderly, orange, earth pony mare, holding a basket filled with various supplies. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief and replied in slight embarrassment, "Yeah, this is my first time buying formula, and I don't know which one I would need."

"Really, well my name is Honey Due and I am more than happy to help. How old is your foal?" She asked with a warm smile, peering down at the small colt, who was currently fast asleep.

"Thanks, the name's Rainbow Dash and he's a newborn," Rainbow explained, happy that somepony was able to help her.

She then asked, "Does he have any allergies or other eating disorders?"

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head, awkwardly, "I'm not sure. To be honest, I don't know much about him, I found him on my doorstep"

"That's terrible. Well until you get a confirmed diagnosis, I recommend using Happy Foal Milk. I've used it with all of my children and grandchildren and they all grew up big and strong. You'll soon realise that Happy sells a lot of different foal supplies." She explained holding up a yellow container with a picture of a smiley face inside of a sun, the words Happy emblazoned in large, gold letters.

"Thanks, now I just need the actual bottles," she said, looking down at the list.

"Those are just this way, have you got a steriliser yet?" She asked while showing Rainbow to the milk bottles.

"What's that?" Rainbow asked.

"A sterilizer is what cleans your milk bottles, If you don't sterilize your bottles then they could become a breeding ground for bacteria." She explained.

"Oh," Rainbow muttered, she was beginning to question, if she was the right pony for the job; she was worried that her lack of knowledge could potentially harm her foal.

"Here we are" Honey exclaimed, showing the different array of milk bottles, she then added, pointing to several large boxes that contained sterilizers, "We can also get a steriliser while we are here too."

Rainbow decided to get a pack of six medium-sized, blue milk bottles that had a picture of lightning bolts on them. She then also picked up a steriliser.

"Now all I need are nappies," Rainbow said.

She followed Honey to, the aisle that sells nappies, similar to the foal formula, there were many different brands. Rainbow then spied a jumbo pack of eighty newborn Happy Nappies.

"You read my mind," Honey joked as Rainbow picked the pack up off the shelf.

Analysing the list, Rainbow said, "That should be everything."

They then headed to check out where she gazed in shock at the total price, "SEVENTY ONE BITS!" She shouted in shock, "That's scandalous."

Honey laughed, "Taking care of foals isn't cheap." She then held her hoof out and said, "It was good meeting you Rainbow Dash, but I need to head home."

Rainbow shook her hoof, saying "Thanks for this, I couldn't have done this without you."

"Aw shucks, well goodbye, I'm sure we'll bump into each other again," Honey said before, they both went their separate ways.

Waving one last goodbye, she then started to head back towards Rarity's, where she hoped that the clothes were ready for her.

***

“Are the clothes ready yet?” Rainbow asked, walking into the store to find Rarity working on her sewing machine.

“Yes, they are right here. And Rainbow, please do get more patience.” Rarity said, pointing to a pile of foal clothes.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, however, it was at this moment that Void Streak started to cry.

Rainbow, picked the wailing foal up and held him in her arms, “Shhhhh, what’s the matter?”

Rarity couldn’t help but smile at the heartwarming scene, thinking about how much Rainbow had matured over the years. She then suggested, “I think he might be hungry.”

Rainbow took out one of the new milk bottles that she had bought and went to make Void some foal milk. After mixing the formula and the hot water, she squirted a tiny bit onto her hoof and winced at the heat. She reassured the sobbing colt, "Not long now, just need to wait for it to cool down."

She started rocking Void from side to side, calmly shushing the crying child. "What's up," she asked upon noticing Rarity's look of amazement.

"Oh nothing, It's just that I never expected to see you acting so motherly." She stuttered in shock.

Rainbow didn't know what to say to that, so instead she went to check on the milk and was happy to feel that it was much cooler. She placed the teat into the foal's mouth and was delighted to see that he had quietened down and was hungrily devouring the milk.

"So what do you need to do next?" Rarity asked quietly, so as not to disturb the foal while he was eating.

"I just need to set up his crib," Rainbow whispered, staring down into Void's golden eyes. She couldn't help but think that the foal did look cute.

"So when is the inspection?"

"Tomorrow morning," Rainbow grumbled, unhappy at the fact that she was going to have to wake up early. Noticing that the milk bottle was empty, she sat the colt up and began lightly patting his back, in between his wings, causing Void to release several large belches.

Happy that the foal was now fed, she packed everything away and then told Rarity, "Well I'd best set off and build this crib before it gets too late."

Rainbow exited the store as Rarity was waving goodbye, Rainbow returned it with a wave of her own before launching into the sky towards home.

***

After arriving back home Rainbow walked into the kitchen and started to set up the sterilizer, she then placed the milk bottles in their allocated cupboards before walking to the cupboard under the stairs, where she kept her spare clouds.

Grabbing a pile of clouds, making sure that they were the comfiest that she had, she took Void, who was still inside of his cloud pram, into her bedroom. She began to mould the clouds into the shape of a basic cot, once it was in the perfect shape, she then added a thick layer of cloud to the bottom of the cot, forming the mattress. She then positioned the cot so that it was next to her bed and where she could easily see and reach into the cot without having to move much.

She then picked up the sleepy colt and placed him onto a cloud changing mat. Her nose crinkled at the smell that was being emitted from the nappy that he was wearing. Her face morphed into a look of disgust, removed the nappy before grabbing a foal wipe and then beginning to wipe his bottom. Once his bottom was cleaned, she then breathed a sigh of relief, happy that, he hadn't peed on her or worse... She then placed a clean nappy around his bottom half before putting a blue foalgrow onto him. She then placed him into his cot, where she put a light blue blanket on him. After this was done, she fell into bed herself, however, it hadn't been five minutes before her eyes snapped open at hearing the sound of Void crying. Groaning, she knew that it was going to be a long night...

***

Rainbow woke up to the sound of knocking, looking around at her alarm clock, her eyes went wide as realised that she had overslept, "Nononono," She repeated to herself as she hastily jumped out of bed and quickly whisked Void, who was already awake and was happily speaking to himself in gibberish, out of bed before running to the front door, to find Sunbreeze standing on the other side.

Rainbow quickly apologized, "I am so sorry, I've been up all night and I've only just woken up."

Sunbreeze gave her a warm smile and said, "I can tell, there's no need to worry, taking care of a foal can be very tiring."

“So what’s gonna happen?” Rainbow asked, while mentally scolding herself for not getting up earlier.

“Well, we’re just going to have a look around to see if your house is suitable for a foal and if everything is in order then we can go to the courthouse and get those adoption papers signed,” she explained with a smile.

Rainbow jokingly said, “You make it sound so easy.”

Sunbreeze nodded, “it's a piece of cake.”

Rainbow then led her into the living room, where she examined the corners of the coffee table along with several other potential hazards. Smiling, she jotted some notes down onto a clipboard. Rainbow silently cursed herself for not properly tidying up.

They then went from room to room, each time Sunbreeze wrote something down onto her clipboard after inspecting a piece of furniture.

Finally, they entered Rainbow’s bedroom where Sunbreeze couldn’t help but marvel at all the trophies, that lined the display cabinets. She then asked, “What did you win all these for?”

“From different races,” Rainbow explained, her chest puffing out in pride.

“Impressive,” she exclaimed before examining the cloud cot, she tested how much cloud was used along with the structural integrity. Happy, she made one final note on the clipboard before turning to Rainbow Dash.

“I must say, I am impressed at how you have used clouds for your cot and pram.” Sunbreeze acknowledged.

“Thanks,” was all that Rainbow could muster.

Sunbreeze then announced, "Well we had better get down to the courthouse"

Rainbow gave a confused look and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sunbreeze gave her a happy smile and told her, "Rainbow Dash, I am happy to say that you passed with flying colours, pun intended."

Suddenly Rainbow Dash jumped into the air shouting, "YES!" while doing a celebratory dance, causing Void to give little giggles.

***

Rainbow Dash was sat in the stand inside of Ponyville courthouse, which was actually a large room inside of the town hall. Her friends were sat in the back, cheering her on, to the judge's dismay.

Judge Justice then cleared his throat, before asking Rainbow Dash, "Do you think that you are capable of looking after a foal?"

Rainbow hesitated but then after mulling it over, looking towards the colt that was in Sunbreeze's arms, she confidently replied "Yes, your honour, I do."

"And will you, take care of Void Streak and keep him safe?"

Without any hesitation, Rainbow said, "Yes, your honour."

Banging his gavel Justice announced, "Then with the power invested in, I hereby declare Rainbow Dash as the rightful parent and guardian of Void Streak. Court is adjourned."

Judge Justice departed to his chambers while Pinkie Pie shouted, “ADOPTION PARTY!”

They all laughed and left for Sugar Cube Corner.