A family divided, a secret revealed

by Altia Sky

Chapter 5 : Back then

The tension in the room was palpable, with Applejack silently supporting Rainbow Dash as best she could.

"Why?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"It was a long time ago after flying school," Windy recounted, "Wind Bow and I were all three of the best in the school at the end of our schooling, there was also another pegasus called Light Darkcloud with her we formed a very good quartet but where me and Light got on well there was friction between Bow and Wind over who was the best, At the time, your father was much stronger than Wind, and during our last race, which closed our flight tests for the diploma, Wind and Bow fought fiercely for first place, and Wind made a rather dangerous manoeuvre by going off-course through storm clouds. I was as scared as Light when we took off into the clouds. After a moment we saw him emerge from the clouds and in the end he came second behind your father who was first, I came third and Light fourth," said Windy.

"In truth, we were very good and our flying diploma was assured, but let's just say that Wind took it very hard. He accused Bow of having put him off the track in the clouds, and Light and I stepped in to stop them at that point, I couldn't bring myself to choose one of them, and I resented him for accusing your father, so I pushed him away. I don't need to explain how he reacted. "Windy recounted

Applejack and Rainbow Dash listened attentively to the story; they had their own opinions on the situation at the time, but with hindsight it's easy to judge, in the moment much less so.

"Two years later I tried to renew the dialogue and went to his house and found it empty, that's how I found out he'd left Cloudsdale, he hadn't told anyone so I never knew where he'd gone. I also went to see Light, but she'd left too. What I didn't tell you is that Wind and Light were together at the time and I think she followed him. Me and Bow always got on with Light, but she supported Wind, so it doesn't surprise me that she followed him without telling us, to respect Wind's wishes I suppose," recounted Windy.

Rainbow Dash decided to get up and leave the house, followed by Applejack, who confounded himself with customary politeness before catching up with Rainbow Dash.
Applejack managed to catch up with Rainbow Dash, who had already flown away from the house.
After a few minutes' flight, Rainbow Dash landed near the edge of a cloud and sat down.

"If you need to talk I'm here," said Applejack, who came trotting up.

"All lies, how do you expect me to trust them after this, no excuse or justification can excuse them." replied Rainbow Dash.

"Indeed" said Applejack frankly.

Rainbow Dash turned on her heel as if in a rage and began to raise her wing in order to strike Applejack, except that she had seen the blow coming, Applejack bent down and tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground.

"You're angry ok, now it's your turn to act and move on, are you going to let your anger get the better of you and destroy the love of your parents and friends?" shouted Applejack.

At her words, Rainbow Dash froze, Applejack staring straight into her eyes, tears beginning to fall to such an extent that she could no longer see anything fogged up by the tears. Applejack took her in his arms, she had to get rid of all this anger and emotion before considering what to do next, a difficult and painful but necessary step. It was something Applejack had experienced with her own parents.

An hour later, Rainbow Dash had finished crying but remained silent while sniffling, Applejack telling her that no matter how long it took, she'd be by her side.
Rainbow gradually came to her senses.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Applejack.

"Right now, I'd rather avoid my parents and figure it out for myself, I don't think Wind Rider would be willing to talk to me, so I think we need to find the fourth pegasus Light Darkcloud" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Okay partner, I'm with you" said Applejack, helping Rainbow Dash to her feet.

It had been a trying day, but Rainbow Dash was more determined than ever to shed light on this forgotten past.

---

The next day, Rainbow Dash and Applejack met at Twilight's castle, and asked Twilight for help in tracing Light Darkcloud, a pegasus from Cloudsdale. As Princess, Twilight had certain advantages: she had managed to retrieve most of Cloudsdale's administrative documents so she could carry out the necessary research.

After several hours of searching, Twilight took advantage of Applejack's absence, who had gone to get a drink, to have a chat with Rainbow Dash.

"What are you going to do next?" said Twilight.

"I'm not sure, at the moment I'm not ready to forgive, I just want to find out the truth" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Even if it means getting away from your family?" said Twilight.

"What do you mean?" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Because you're not ready to forgive your parents, which I can understand, but if they've never told you about your uncle and Light Darkcloud, maybe it's because they don't want to know. Are you prepared to be rejected by those you seek?" replied Twilight in a serious tone.

"We'll see, Twilight" replied Rainbow Dash.

"You're already forgiving your parents, aren't you?" said Twilight.

"Huh, not at all" replied Rainbow Dash annoyed.

"You've discovered that they lied to you for the first time, you've lost the trust you had in them and if today you're looking for answers it's to excuse them, unconsciously you're looking for arguments to excuse them" says Twilight.

"I..." Rainbow Dash said nothing more, just turned her head and resumed her search.

"Your friends are here too, don't forget that" Twilight mumbled, turning back to a pile of documents.

A heavy atmosphere settled in for a while before a noise broke the silence: Applejack had just returned with several tankards and a barrel of cider. She soon noticed that the mood was not quite right. True to form, Applejack took matters into her own hands.

"Let's take a break, there's no point putting pressure on ourselves" said Applejack.

After a moment's pause when Rainbow Dash looked as if she'd come down from the barrel alone, Twilight and Applejack had just taken a mug and knew that Rainbow Dash loved cider, so had left her the rest of the barrel as an involuntary sign of compassion towards her.

After a short while of searching, where Rainbow Dash seemed to have made little headway, she leafed through the documents with a blank stare, doing so more out of boredom than real conviction. Applejack was doing her best to search, but then, all those administrative documents were more Twilight's passion than hers and she was quickly lost, but she was doing her best to find out, she couldn't give up now. Twilight's research was in another world for all practical purposes.

Suddenly, a booming voice broke the melody of rustling sheets of paper.

"I've got it!" shouted Twilight, proud of herself.

Author's Note:

This chapter was hard to finish because I lack of inspiration of how going further in the story (but I know where it goes).

And when I'm trying to be logic, the MLP Gen5 come with the chapter 5, Misty get a flashback and "Oh I found my dad". I was like "What ?" like the good old thing when you play paper RP game like Dungeon and Dragons and the GM say "Sh*t up it's magic".

But I really liked the chapter 5. Misty deserve to be happy.

So what Twilight have found ?