• Published 26th Nov 2012
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Rainbow's Parents: The Truth - Songbrony



Rainbow Dash has been living on her own since she was a filly. Nopony knows what happened. Until now

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The Tale of a Griffon

We walked into Sugar Cube Corner and was greeted by a very happy Pinkie Pie. "Gilda!" she exclaimed. "I'm so honored to throw you one of my signature Pinkie Pie parties, and I'm really truly sincerely hope you'll feel welcome here with all us pony folk." she held a hoof out to Gilda, who gingerly took it.

I saw her feathers stand up on end as she took an unsuspecting hoof buzzer. Pinkie and I laughed as Gilda recovered. "Oh Pinkie Pie. The old Hoof Shake Buzzer. You are a scream." I said.

"Uh, yeah. Haha. Good one, Pinkie Pie." Gilda said.

"Come on, G. I'll introduce you to some of my other friends." I said and walked over to where Twilight was standing.

"Right behind ya' Dash!" I heard Gilda shout behind me.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Gilda, a long time dear friend of Rainbow Dash. Let's honor her and welcome her to Ponyville." Pinkie announced. There were cheers and whoops welcoming her. I walked back to her and put a hoof over her shoulder. "Please help yourself." Pinkie said as she stood next to the snack table.

"Vanilla Lemon Drops. Don't mind if I do." Gilda said as she took one out of the bowl. What she didn't know is that I had put pepper in them. They were so hot that I swear I saw fire spew from her beak.

"Hot!!" she exclaimed.

"G! The punch!" I shouted. I couldn't help but laugh as she rushed over to where the dribble glasses were.

"Well whaddaya know? Pepper in the Vanilla Lemon Drops and punch served in a dribble glass!" Pinkie said, laughing.

"Ha! Priceless." I laughed again. She ran to another table and found a cup with water in it.

"Yeah. Hilarious." she said.

"Hey G, look! Presents!" I said and pointed to the table with wrapped up 'gifts.' She ran over with a huge smile on her face. She grabbed one and opened it. It was a Spitting Snakes prank that I had placed there just for her.

"Someone pulled that prank on me last year!" I heard Applejack say.

"Ha ha. I bet I know who that was." she said as she looked at Pinkie. I was surprised that she didn't think it was me, but I wasn't about to let her know just yet. We hung out for a little bit as the party picked up speed. Fluttershy was conducting her birds as Pinkie brought out a cake.

"Cake time everypony!" she said.

"Hey, can I blow out the candles?" Spike asked excitedly.

"Why don't we let Gilda blow out the candles, Spike? She is the guest of honor after all." Twilight said.

"Exactly." Gilda said as she shoved Spike out of the way. That's a little harsh... I thought. She took a deep breath and blew out the candles. They relit though and Gilda tried to blow them out again, but they kept relighting despite her best efforts.

"Haha! Relighting birthday candles! I love that prank!" Spike said as he gripped his stomach from laughing.

"Now I wonder who could've done that?" Pinkie asked sarcastically. I know I didn't, but Pinkie had her own little pranks hidden around, so I had a feeling it was her.

"Yeah. I wonder." Gilda said as she glared at Pinkie. I know Gilda loves pranks, but she was rarely on the receiving end, unless they were from me.

"Hey G? You're not upset about some silly candles are you?" I asked.

"No way Dash. Like I said, I'm always down for a good prank." she replied.

"Alright then." I said, glad she wasn't upset over something like that. "C'mon, let's have some cake." I ran over to grab a plate for myself when I heard AJ call everyone over for some Pin the Tail on the Pony. It was a favorite of Gilda's when we were at camp, even though she always missed the mark.

I grabbed myself a slice and didn't pay much attention to the conversation behind me. When I turned around I saw Pinkie spin Gilda around in a circle to make her dizzy. "Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail." she instructed.

"Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail." she said mockingly. "Yeah right. This is another prank, isn't it? Well I'm going this way!" she said as she turned around and started walking to the door.

"Wait! The poster is-" Pinkie began to say, but was interrupted when Gilda slipped on some dropped icing and slid out of the door. She crashed and walked back in covered in icing. She had the tail pinned to her beak giving her a nice purple mustache.

"Uh, Gilda? You pinned the tail on the wrong end." Pinkie said with a light chuckle.

Gilda let out a roar that surprised me so much that I dropped my cake on the ground. "This is your idea of a good time?" she said angrily. "I've never met a bunch of lamer dweebs in all my life! And Pinkie Pie. You are Queen Lame-o with your weak little party pranks!" she shouted as she pointed at her. "Did you really think you could make me lose my cool? Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together." she said as she walked over to me and put a claw around my shoulder.

"C'mon Dash. We're bailing on this pathetic scene." she said and headed for the door. Gilda... I thought, shocked that she did that. "Come on Rainbow Dash! I said, we're leaving!"

I stood my ground. "You know Gilda? I'm the one who put those weak pranks at this party." I pointed out.

"What?" she said, surprised.

"So I guess I'm Queen Lame-o."

"Come on Dash. You're joshing me."

"They weren't all meant for you specifically, you just happened to set them all off." I was really hurt by what she had said earlier, but I was also really ticked off about what she said to Pinkie Pie. She was my pranking gal pal for pony's sakes!

"I should've known! That dribble glass had Rainbow Dash written all over it!" Pinkie said to Spike.

"N-no way. It was Pinkie Pie! She set up this party to trip me up! To make a fool out of me." Gilda said.

"Me? I threw this party to improve your attitude." Pinkie said hurt. "I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down."

"And you sure didn't need help making a fool of yourself. You know, I didn't think this was how my old friends would treat my new friends! If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should find some new cool friends someplace else." I hated breaking a friendship that I've had for this long, but she had completely blew up on my friends in Ponyville!

"Oh yeah? Well, you...you are such a...a flip flop! Cool one minute, then lame the next. When you decide not to be lame anymore, call me." she said and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

"Not cool." I said.

"Wow. Talk about a party pooper." Spike said.

I looked down feeling guilty that I brought Gilda here. "I'm sorry everypony for bringing Gilda here. I didn't know how rude she was. And Pinkie Pie? I'm sorry she ruined that awesome party you put on for her." I apologized.

"Hey, if you want to hang out with party poopers, that's your business." she said. For some reason it made me happy.

"I'd rather hang out with you." I said as I quietly slipped on a hoof buzzer. "No hard feelings?" I asked as I held out my hoof.

"No hard feelings." she said with a smile. She took my hoof and we both got zapped. We flipped our hooves over and revealed that both of us had put on a hoof buzzer. We laughed and began the party up again. It was a blast and after everypony had left, I caught up with Fluttershy. I couldn't stay and talk to Pinkie Pie because the Cakes had a rule about her parties. She could have them, but only as long as the party was cleaned up before midnight. It ended at 11:55.

"Hey Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy said to me.

"What's up?" I replied with a smile.

"Um, well, I just wanted to know how you knew Gilda? I mean, I can't believe someone as nasty and mean as her was actually your friend." she said quietly.

"Yeah. Well she wasn't always like that." I said. "Did you meet her before the party?" I asked.

"Umm...yes." she whispered.

I waited for her to add more. "What happened?" I asked when I knew she wasn't going to say anything extra.

"Well, I was walking the ducks through town making sure nopony accidentally stepped on them. I was walking backwards not paying attention to where I was going and bumped into her. I apologized and then she roared really loud right in my face." she said as she quivered a little.

I stopped walking and stood there shocked. I was hurt that Gilda would do that. I may not have been as hurt if it happened to anypony else, but this was Fluttershy. Fluttershy turned to look at me and must have saw the hurt on my face. "Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" she asked.

I ran over to her and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry she did that." I said. I didn't know what else to do. Apologizing just didn't seem to be enough. I felt her hug me too as we stood there.

"Rainbow?" she asked. "I had another dream last night, and it was about us..." she trailed off.

I pulled out of the hug and moved her pink hair out of her eyes. "Let's get back to your cottage first, okay?" I said. She nodded her head and we walked back to her place.

When we arrived, Angel was there holding the door open looking out. As soon as he saw Fluttershy, he ran out with his food bowl pointing to it. I rolled my eyes. "Does this bunny ever show any respect or gratitude?" I asked.

"Oh's he's not so bad. He's just grumpy because he's hungry." she said. She took the food bowl and flew into the cottage. I followed her into the living room and was hit by a memory of her parents. I remembered them throwing pictures of Fluttershy and hitting them with baseball bats.

"You okay Rainbow?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." I said, shaking the memory from my head. I took a seat on her couch and laid down on my back. "So, what was this dream of yours?" I asked.

She took a seat next to me on the couch, just in reach of my hoof to touch her mane. "You and I were fillies and we were laying in my room playing a game. A strange pony came in and started asking questions. He told me about my father and then my mom came in and started yelling at you, blaming you for it." she said.

That's awfully vague. I thought. "Is that it? No details?" I asked as I ran a hoof through her hair.

I saw her blush a little. "Well, after that I had another one. This time we were back in the hotel room, just like in one of my other dreams. Your brother, Felix, went out to get a drink. We were all alone in the room and were sharing a bed. We were so close it was like I could feel your heart next to mine." she said. My heart quickened as I recalled that night. "And we..." she trailed off.

"We what?" I asked.

"We might have kissed a teeniest, tiniest bit." she said. Her face was a bright red. I kept rubbing my hoof through her hair and looked into her eyes.

Should I do it now? I thought. I had thought about what the Doctor had said about acting on the feelings myself but I wasn't sure if now was good or not. "Um...what, uh... what was it like?" I asked.

She turned her head away from me and stayed quiet. "You know I won't tell anyone if you're ashamed of it. And I won't think any less of you." I said reassuringly.

She nodded her head and turned back to me. "It felt right. I can't explain it, but it felt like I was doing the right thing."

"But how did it feel?" I asked.

"I'm not sure... It's hard to explain..." she replied quietly.

I pulled myself upright so I could pull her in for a hug. "Well, maybe we can test it out and see what happens?" I offered, nervously.

She slowly withdrew from my embrace. "What?" she asked shocked. "You mean, like, actually kiss?"

"Of course, what else? In fact...I was kind of curious too."

"In kissing me?" Fluttershy said, pointing to herself.

"Well...yeah." I said. I felt myself starting to blush. Damnit, why are you nervous, Rainbow? I thought to myself. It's not like you haven't kissed her before...

"Are...are you sure? I mean, it's a little taboo...right?" she said as she averted her eyes away from me.

"You'd be surprised just how cool ponies are with it." I said as I scooted closer a little bit.

"Are...are you sure...I don't want anything to get weird between us..." she said quietly.

I put a hoof around her. "Nothing's going to get between us, Fluttershy. I promise you." She looked at me and I gave her a reassuring smile.

"Okay." she whispered. She looked into my eyes and saw that familiar look she used to give me from time to time. The look of longing. My hooves were shaking uncontrollably as I leaned forward to give her a kiss. We were so close that I could feel her breath against my face.

And then Angel decided to knock over a glass vase. Fluttershy jumped and looked to where Angel was. "Angel! You should know better than to jump around fragile things." she said as she flew off to clean up the mess. "You could have hurt yourself."

"Yeah. We wouldn't want that to happen now would we, Angel?" I said as I glared to the little white rabbit. He stuck his tongue out at me and hopped away.

"I'm sorry, Rainbow. I need to clean this up. I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?" she said as she swept up the mess.

"Sure." I said, disappointed. "I'll catch ya' later." I said and walked out of the cottage. I never seem to catch a break in this relationship...thing. I thought.

As I walked back to town, I noticed that there was a shadow following me in the moonlight. I couldn't recognize the outline, but her tail had given her away. "What do you want Gilda?" I asked annoyed.

"Well, I kind of wanted to talk to you." she said.

"About what? If you've come to apologize about what happened at the party, forget about it. And I already know what happened to Fluttershy. Is there anything else I should know about how rude you were to my friends?" I asked.

She walked up next to me. "I did want to apologize. I knew I acted like a total manticore there, but I couldn't help it." she said.

"Doubt it." I retorted. I had a short fuse with her right now. It was going to take a lot of explaining for her to be able to fix that.

"Well, whatever you believe, I still want to talk to you and explain what's been going on with me." she replied cooly.

I looked to her. "And if I don't care what happened to you in the past?"

"Just hear me out."

I glared at her for a little bit before saying, "Fine. Let's go to my house." We flew off to the night sky and arrived at my house a few minutes later.

"Take a seat." I said as we entered the kitchen. She took a seat across from me and began to look into her claws. "Well? Didn't you have something you wanted to talk about?"

She sighed. "Remember back at flight camp when you asked me about my family?" she asked. I nodded my head. She told me that they were international mailers. "Well, I lied about that. You see, they died before I can remember. The Griffon Kingdom didn't have an orphanage at the time, and when they finally made one, it was only open to those who didn't want to keep the kid, not those of us who lost them by other means. I was tossed into the streets for a majority of my childhood."

I knew the Griffons were harsh on their kids, but I never suspected that they would abandon them into the streets. I thought.

"After I was tossed into the streets, a gang let me in after I snagged a few bits from a cash register. I needed them to pay off a debt I owed. Once they let me in, I felt like I had a family for the first time. They fed me, gave me a warm place to sleep, and took care of me when I was sick. We did a lot of things that I'm not really proud of, such as hijacking mail carts, robbing stores, and hazing other rival gang members. They made me tough and made me able to stand up for myself. I didn't take crap from anybody. I was the toughest of the group now that I think about it. They told me that if anybody ever touched me or hit me, that I was to let loose and wail on them.

The only reason I went to flight camp was because they needed me away once the cops started chasing us. They were my family and they made sure I didn't get caught. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been at flight camp or have met you. Hay, I probably wouldn't even be alive if they hadn't taken me in." she said.

Where did all this come from? I thought. I hadn't known much about her past. It didn't seem important at the time when I first met her.

"When I met you at flight camp, I immediately latched onto you. You were tough, loyal, cool, everything that they had been. It was like you were a part of our gang already. When we left, most of the gang had been arrested. There wasn't much of us left, and they didn't want me to be caught. I had my life ahead of me, so they let me go. I hated them for it. It was like being abandoned again. I didn't have a home, I didn't know where my next meal would be from, and I had no clue if another rival gang member would recognize me and attack me in the middle of town.

I took up a job with the mail service and was able to work enough to get a small house and a meager meal every once and a while. Once I had enough money to move out of that town, I headed for Equestria. I got a passport and a home in Las Pegasus. Hitched up with another mail service group here and was allowed to fly a few errands around. I earned some leave and decided that I should visit an old friend. So I came this way and found you." she said.

I didn't know how to react. All I knew was that she was from the Griffon Kingdom. She was such a strong griffon that I hadn't given a thought as to what made her like that or what made us click like we did. It might have been the fact that both of us were considered cool and big hot shots. I was cool for my speed and competitiveness. But Gilda was cool just for being cool.

"Well are you just going to sit there Queen Lame-o? Or are you actually going to say something?" she said.

I gave a small smile at that. It quickly disappeared though and was replaced by anger. "Why the hay did you roar at Fluttershy?" I asked.

"Fluttershy?" she asked.

"Yes. Fluttershy. The only one at the party who didn't say much of anything. She's yellow and has long gorgeous hair that always tends to cover one side of her face. She has three butterflies on her flank that represent that she is great with animals. She's kind, sweet, beautiful, and has always been there for me. She has the ability to take the darkest days of my life and make them a way better than they should be. She's the only one who I can trust with anything. I'd do anything for her. Now you tell me why you roared at her." I don't know what got over me. I just hated knowing the fact that Gilda had done that to Fluttershy.

"Oh...the yellow one..." she said, lowering her head. "Yeah about that...I'm sorry. I was just annoyed and angry with Pinkie Pie that I wasn't okay with being bumped into. I had a short fuse and I needed to blow off some steam. If you want, you can blame the gang. They made me what I am today. So if you want to throw a punch at someone, save it for the boys back at my home."

I looked down at the floor. What she said didn't change the fact I was still ticked at what she did. "Why didn't you tell me that when we were at camp? I mean, I thought you told me everything? I told you everything." I said, trying to change the subject.

"I was trying to keep up the cool ideal then. I figured I wouldn't be as cool if you guys all thought I was homeless until I got in with a gang. It's pretty lame when you think about it." she said.

"What's funny is I know when your telling the truth and not putting on an act." I said. When you were talking about your past, not once did you say 'lame' or the other words you usually use."

"It's called slang. One thing I'll never be rid of once I left home." she said.

"Well, whatever it is, you didn't use it once. I just can't believe you were part of a gang. We don't have many of those around here in Equestria." I said.

"You guys don't need them here. It's much more peaceful than where I'm from." she said. "Look, I know you won't forgive me what I did to Fluttershy, but I hope you don't completely hate me for it."

I looked at her. "Don't sweat it. I'm sure I'll be over it when I'm busy fighting off another Manticore or something like that."

"Yeah right. You may be cool, but you aren't that cool." she said. I gave a small chuckle as she poked fun at me. "So, how long have you liked Fluttershy?" she asked.

"Huh?" I asked surprised. "What do you mean liked? She's my friend, of course I like her."

"No, dill weed. I mean how long have you like liked her?" she said.

"Umm..." I said, trying to avoid it. Even though she is my friend, I didn't grow up around her so it was a little difficult for me to tell her how I really felt about Fluttershy.

"Oh for the love of... How long have you fancied her?" she said. I knew she hated using words like that, so I caved in and finally told her.

"Ever since the start of high school I think." I replied quietly.

She gave a low whistle. "That's a long time. And does she feel the same to you?"

"Uhh...it's complicated..." I said.

"It's a relationship. Of course they're complicated."

"No, I mean... I feel like she does, but she can't remember if she does..." I said.

"Whatever. You've lost it." she said with a wave of her claw.

"How did you know I liked her?" I asked.

"The way you spoke of her. You never spoke like that about somepony unless you really loved them. I saw it when you talked about your crush when we met."

Oh. Right. Him... I thought to myself as I remembered Ghost Flier. "That was nothing but a childhood crush." I said, blushing a little. She never let me live that down.

"It was more than that. You had so many-" I cut her off.

"What about you? I don't remember you not having any crushes." I said.

"I was too cool for a crush. I was busy in sports and other athletics." she replied. We sat there quietly. "What about your parents? Did they hit the big lottery or something?" she asked.

"Uhh...yeah! Who would've guessed right?" I said with a laugh.

"Where are they? Are they usually out this late?" she asked inquisitively.

"Um...yep! They actually went out on a date tonight." She gave me a look like she didnt believe me. "What?

"You're a really bad liar Dash." she said. "What's going on?

"Nothing. They're on a date tonight, that's all."

"It's past midnight. There isn't much open past midnight in Ponyville." she said.

"Well yeah but...they're, uh, in Canterlot!" I said quickly.

"What are they doing there?" she asked.

"How should I know? I don't ask about their love life." I said.

"Dash..." she said with a sigh. "Is everything alright? I was in a family where loyalty was everything. we didn't lie to each other and we trusted each other. They taught me how to find a lie in one of our gang members. Dash, you've been a friend for a long time now. I talked about you to my friends back home. Now, as a friend, tell me what's going on." she said a bit more forceful.

I sighed. "Fine. But you can't repeat any of it." I told her.

"Fine just spill the beans."

I looked her in the eye. "They're dead."

Her eyes grew large. "Really? Are you serious?" I nodded my head. "I'm... I'm sorry Dash. It's hard, isn't it?"

"It comes and goes, but the pain has subsided a little. Felix handled it a lot better than I did. He burrows himself in his work and rarely comes home. It gets pretty lonely here some nights." I explained. I left out the part about my mom falling through time and space and nopony remembering her. It would be hard to explain all that "timey wimey" stuff to her. Hay, I hardly understood it.

Gilda walked over to me and put a claw on my shoulder. "Listen. I work with mail, so you can write to me and I'll get it right away. If you ever need someone to talk, write me up." she said.

"Okay. I will. Thanks." I said with a smile.

"Anyways, I'm glad I was able to talk to you. I was supposed to be back at the mail center by midnight tonight. Looks like I'm going to get my butt chewed out for it. But it'll be worth it."

"Yeah. We need to hang out more. You know, when you decide not to be a jerk to all my friends?" I pointed out, sarcastically.

She glared at me. "Let's just forget today ever happened." she said and flew out the door.

"As if." I said quietly to myself. I was back to being angry at her. I don't know why. Maybe it was because it was Fluttershy she had roared at or because she embarrassed me in front of all those ponies back at the party. I closed the door that she had rudely left open and walked up to my room. I looked out my window and since there wasn't a cloud in the sky thanks to Gilda and I earlier, I could see Fluttershy's cottage. None of the lights were on, which meant that she had finally filled that annoying rabbits belly and fallen sound asleep.

I thought about how close we had been to kissing again today. But then that darned rabbit broke something. I wonder how much Rarity would pay me for some fur. I thought to myself. She doesn't have to know it came from Angel...

I felt sad again. What is going on with me today? I thought. I met an old friend, found out she was a jerk, the Doctor noticed that somepony tried to erase a diary, almost kissed Fluttershy, and found out that Gilda's parents are dead and that she grew up with gangs. Why do everyone's parents end up dead? I asked myself. Fluttershy, Applejack, me, and now Gilda. I walked back inside and sat on my bed.

"Why is my life so darn messy?" I said to myself as I looked to a picture of Fluttershy and I. I sighed and closed my eyes. I imagined what might happen if Fluttershy and I did end up getting dating again. I smiled as I felt myself drift off to sleep.

Author's Note:

I would like to thank CountDerpy for editing these chapters. He is one of the reasons I'm able to get these out so fast. Check him out! He's a great writer!