Seven
Grounded
Seven
“And then I dumped the drinks all over him!” Rainbow Dash finished with a triumphant rising of her hoof, as if she had won a fight rather than snuck up on one of her old co-workers. Still, she found it to be successful, however slightly. It made her laugh, at least.
Fluttershy, however, did not see such amusement behind it. While smiling, it was a very small one. “Oh, my. Don't you think that was a bit... much?”
“Nah!” Dash answered with a swift motion of her hoof, claiming it silly. She sat back down in her chair. “It was just something random that popped in my head. And it was totally worth it.” Her grin widened.
“But if you go back, won't you lose your job?”
“Maybe.” Rainbow's huge emphasis on it only made it easier to figure out the true answer she was thinking of. A small blush arose in her cheeks, but she tried to brush it off, saying, “But until then, I think I'm good here.”
Dash had been living in Ponyville now for three whole weeks. She had yet to get a place on the ground to stay yet, since she could only work so much as a single mother. Still, Rainbow had been searching for several places to stay, so it was only a matter of time before that was settled. Cobalt had yet to complain once again about this, but she knew inside he'd rather live where he was comfortable; as in, someplace where it wouldn’t spell disaster if he took one wrong step.
But that wasn't one of her concerns now. Cobalt was in perfect harmony with the woodland creatures that he played with while he and Rainbow Dash visited Fluttershy for the afternoon for lunch. He giggled as a bunny tickled his sides with its whiskers. Rainbow smiled, satisfied that he was doing fine, and turned back to Fluttershy.
“So, seriously, enough asking about me. What's been going on with you?”
This seemed to unsettle Fluttershy in every way possible. She might as well have fallen out of her seat and escaped from under the table. Her face was more red than yellow, her eyes wider than usual.
Rainbow's eyes flashed, a sly smirk pulling onto her face. She flew over to the other side of the table where Fluttershy anxiously sat. “You're hiding something,aren’t ya? C'mon, let it out.” She nudged her playfully.
“Oh, it's nothing,” Fluttershy attempted to dodge the subject with a helpless, desperate giggle.
Rainbow just made circles with her hoof, gesturing for Fluttershy to go on. She would not let this go, not in a million years! Hopefully, Fluttershy would understand this and just say something.
“Just... I've been writing... to this guy in Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash's heart skipped a beat. She had guessed a number of things that had happened, even going as far as saying she joined the weather team and was a highly praised member! But this was not at all what she anticipated. And she didn't know what to think of it. Her mind drew a blank as to what she should feel about this. Her lips moved constantly, as if it were struggling, choosing between a smile or a frown.
She stuck with a straight line of a stoic expression. With a clearing of her throat, she said in the best composed voice she could muster, “... R-Really? Tha-that's cool—I mean, just writing? Have you at least seen his face?”
“Sure, I have! You actually... well, we all know him pretty well,” Fluttershy added.
She thought of many stallions of Ponyville—or as many as she had seen. Now that she thought about it, there weren't as many stallions around, much less stallions they knew well, so that brought it down to such a small list. The first name that popped into her head made her face scrunch. “Please tell me it's not Spike.” While he wasn't a stallion, he still counted as a male, obviously, but she couldn't quite imagine those two together.
Fluttershy nearly jumped from her seat and into a branch of a nearby tree. Her face was very red at this point... again. “Of course not! He's nice and all, but he's not somepony—or, somedragon, I suppose, I’d really want to be with. B-but, oh, umm... I should probably just tell you. It's-it's Big Macintosh,” she blurted hurriedly.
She raised a brow in response, as vague a response as she could make. While Spike was one she couldn’t see with Fluttershy, Big Macintosh was another one, but for different reasons. Just imagining it, she saw them sitting next to one another at Sugarcube Corner. Both were too quiet to say anything, thus making it entirely awkward and embarassing. She grinned to herself as that thought came to her. Fluttershy made no comment on it. “No way... He can write?”
Fluttershy shot her a look. “Just because he doesn't talk much doesn't mean he doesn't know how to write and read,” she stated quietly, though the tiniest hint of testiness could be heard. Dash hardly considered it threatening, though.
“I know. I'm just sayin' that he seems more like a brawny kind of guy than a brainy one, you know?”
“Well, I admit, he's not the best writer. Some of his letters are pretty hard to understand sometimes and—but he's getting better!” she defended him at the last second.
Rainbow just chuckled, tapping her friend lightly on the shoulder. “Hey, I don't care. Just know that if he messes with you—in a bad way—come to me, and I'll sort him out.”
“Oh, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, a bit exasperated, but she dropped it anyway.
They quickly discussed how it started. Rainbow Dash always knew Fluttershy felt something about Big Macintosh, but of course, due to her shy nature, Fluttershy never told anypony directly, and kept it a secret. Two years after Dash left, though, Fluttershy found herself wanting to be closer with him, getting the most courage she ever could—by watching Macintosh from the distance in a cloud when he worked in the fields. Rainbow Dash decided now was not the time to jokingly call her a stalker.
“I think the first time I really did anything was... well, I can't remember that much. I only know that it was after I went to your house to clean up and-”
“You did that?” Rainbow realized, cutting off her friend, her jaw fallen slack. She remembered how spotless it was, how it shocked her that it looked nice. Now it made far more sense, and yet she remained confused, though now for a different reason.
Fluttershy's shyness overcame her, and she blushed. “Well, I wasn't sure when you'd come back, so I decided to clean up every once in a while just because... well, I had a feeling you would come back eventually. I mean, you wouldn't just leave forever, right?”
While Rainbow Dash wanted to remark about that, denying this face, she thought it over. If it weren't for Twilight, she wouldn't be here in the first place, and wouldn't find any reason to be here. But for the rest of her life, would she really never see them again? Over five years, she knew that much, but what about ten years? Twenty? Rainbow thought it over, and honestly wasn't sure. But the uncertainty alone was enough.
“Nah, maybe not,” she said. There was a pause, and she remembered just why she had thought about this. “Well, cool. Thanks... for, y'know, cleaning up my house.”
Fluttershy smiled a little. “It's no problem. Anyway, that day, I thought about if you liked a stallion. You wouldn't just sit in the background. I wanted to try to be like you for once and went up to him. I-it didn't go so well, at first, but he was very nice about it. The next day, I visited him, and we had something to eat. After that, we... sometimes, we'd meet up, but most of the time, we write, since it's easier for us to do that rather than talk out loud.” Her smile grew as she thought about how it happened.
Rainbow Dash nodded, only paying half attention at this point.
Cobalt screamed, and Rainbow Dash's instincts made her immediately turn. Now her attention was caught. Her wings flared for any oncoming danger. It was in vain, however, for she saw what made her son scream. It stood in deep confusion where Cobalt once stood to observe the animals. A smile slowly pulled onto her lips as she tried really hard not to laugh.
“Oh, Cobalt,” said Fluttershy, walking over to Cobalt, who hid at the corner of the cottage. His eyes were huge, shivering with fear. Rainbow Dash joined them as Fluttershy guided the squirrel over to the three. “Is he what scared you, sweetie?”
Cobalt's head perked up. He was reluctant for a moment, but his softened eyes steeled, even if it was forced. “No! I-it surprised me, th-that's all!” he said, stepping out. His chest puffed out a little, as if this would rise his colt-liness.
However, when the squirrel leaned in with a sniff, Cobalt let out a squeak and cringed away. Rainbow snickered. “C'mon, Cobalt, squirrels aren't scary. They won't bite,” she said after regaining control in her laughter. She leaned down to him and rubbed his head soothingly. “Unless you're an acorn.”
Cobalt snickered for a moment, but then his ears deflated. His feigned pride died away. “He tried to bite me.”
“Oh, I'm sure he didn't! None of my animals would ever harm a soul,” Fluttershy defended her creatures, picking up with squirrel in her arms. “You didn't, did you?”
Dash let out a small noise of amusement. She just placed a hoof on his shoulder. She gave him an encouraging grin. “It's nothing to be ashamed about. Everypony has fears... except me, of course.”
Cobalt just chuckled behind his hooves.
“I'd like to stay and all, but Rarity's already got me tryin' on dresses for Twi's wedding. You know, 'cause that's what I'd rather be doing,” she muttered the second part in a lower tone. “You sure you don't mind watching Cobalt while I'm at Rarity's?”
She didn't trust many ponies with her child; she always worked while at school and otherwise, never went out. She despised leaving him alone with someone she barely knew. Hay, she didn't want Spike to watch over him at first; it was just her strange protective side coming out. But Fluttershy was different. She had faith in Fluttershy for these things, the nurturing side of her personality strong.
“Of course, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “I'll take good care of him.”
“Good. Now don't cause trouble, Cobalt; no screaming at innocent squirrels.”
Cobalt's mouth opened, but unable to argue about it, he blushed instead.
Fluttershy and Rainbow laughed, before the latter flew off.
“Does the dress flow smoothly, dearie?” Rarity questioned, pacing around Rainbow Dash as the Pegasus stood stiff on the circular stand. Wearing her red-rimmed working glasses, Rarity's look showed her determination for nothing under perfection. “How does it feel?”
“Yeah, it's fine,” Rainbow Dash, lacking interest in the straightjacket Rarity called a dress. While she actually did feel free in this dress, her legs free to move about in a comfortable way, being forced into clothing that she didn't believe suited her well was not her thing. She could think of numerous other things she'd be doing at this moment. Like battling a dragon... with no weapons... and tied down to a tree.
But she made the promise to at least get her dress done and over with a while ago. And that dreadful day had finally arrived.
“Oh, I don't want it to be just fine, Rainbow Dash. Granted, it's Twilight's special day, but I want everypony to be perfect,” she declared with a wave of her hooves as she gestured to the four other dresses aligned neatly on four identical mannequins. At that time, there was one stripped down, while Rainbow Dash wore its outfit.
“It's okay, Rarity. I swear,” said the Pegasus, knowing her exasperation wouldn't help her in this. But standing stiff for several minutes in a dress she did not want to wear was aggravating, time dragging. If this dragged any longer, she'd start begging.
“Really? Because I feel as if something is missing, that's all. Be honest, because I'd hate to see that, in several months, that it looks awful,” Rarity continued to probe.
The Pegasus sighed with a shake of her head. “Yeah. It flows good,” Rainbow said flatly, nodding in confirmation.
“Well, dearie.”
“... Well, what?”
Rarity blinked. “Never mind. You can take off the dress now. We'll probably check out how it is in several months, but other than that, it should be ready to go,” she announced proudly, fluffing her hair as she placed all her equipment to the side on a large table.
Rainbow Dash let out a large sigh. “Thank goodness!” She jumped off the stand and nearly pulled the dress off like she were ripping off a paper from a notebook. There was the tiniest sound of a tear to the side.
Rarity winced at the noise. “Here, let me help.” A hue of gentle blue encompassed her horn, as did the dress. It was a struggle, but soon, Rainbow's body felt free to breath much more easily. She let out another sigh.
"I can't help but note, Rainbow Dash, that you have a great figure for a mare who had a child. Some mothers just blow up and stay that way—I can't imagine that horror. You look just about the same since you left," Rarity complimented, the dress floating beside her.
Rainbow blinked, not having anticipated that; as if anyone could. "Well, it wasn't something I was too worried about, but thanks. Heh. I don't even need to try to look awesome.” A grin crossed her face.
Rarity chuckled under her breath. "I suppose so."
She put the dress into a closet alongside four other light purple dresses. Taking off her red glasses, she walked passed Rainbow Dash, who sat in a comfortable velvet couch, and to the table. As she organized a line of her designer tools, she asked, "So what do you plan to do after the wedding?”
"Huh?"
"Are you staying here or heading back to Manehattan after the wedding?" Rarity specified. Before Dash could ask, she added, “Just drawing up conversation, dearie.”
Rainbow's eyebrows tilted down. "Of course I'm not staying. This is just a visit for a few months. I still have stuff to do back there."
Rarity smiled, but it wasn't comforting. "I've never heard a worse lie, and dear, we know Applejack," she told her softly, leaning down toward Rainbow as the latter's eyes fell to the floor. A questioning gaze brushed onto her face as she waited for another, better response. “You don't exactly seem so intent on leaving, is all.”
"Look, I dunno. I just don't want to stay." Rainbow's head snapped up as her own words processed into her mind. Wincing, she added, "What I mean is-"
Rarity's nose scrunched. "It's not because of us, is it, dearie? I'd like to think we've been awfully supportive for you and Cobalt. Haven't we?" she asked, her lips pouting out.
"Totally. C'mon, I didn't mean it like that!" Rainbow defended herself, jumping off the couch and walking up to Rarity, who had marched away with her nose pitched into the air, a true sign of her air of brisk melodramatics. "You guys are great—even if Applejack isn't all for it.”
"No, though Applejack can definitely compete with you for stubborn heads," Rarity said with a light grin. “She'll come around soon.”
Rainbow gave her a look but continued. "But the worst thing is that she actually has a reason to be mad at me," the Pegasus let slip.
The seamstress's ears perked up. "Pardon?"
Rainbow Dash sighed, feeling no regret with her words, which surprised her. She dreaded telling anyone before, but with a friend like Rarity, perhaps there were exceptions. And she was tired of hiding it, actually. Several weeks, she held it in, but she could only hold it in for so long. It didn't feel as bad to let out the truth a bit, not now. Still... "Can you, uh, keep a secret?"
Rarity gave her a narrowed eyed stare. "Rainbow Dash, I really don't like this. You've already kept secrets from us. Why bring in more?"
"Rarity, I'll tell everyone eventually.” She tried to believe her own lie but couldn't bring herself to. She hid her eyes in her rainbow mane so Rarity couldn't try to detect any lies. “Just this one time, okay? That's it.”
An exasperated sigh fell from Rarity's mouth. Defeated, she said, "Alright, then. What is it?"
"Uh, he—the father. I met him at AJ's family reunion," she revealed, thinking back to that night about six years ago. She remembered heading to the Apple farm, knowing that the family reunion equaled all the food and drinks the Apples worldwide made for the event. And that meant an eager, esurient Rainbow Dash, even though eventually, Applejack kicked her out.
"Oh, my. Does she know about him?" she asked in a whisper as if it were conspiratorial.
"Nope. At least, I don't think so." She prepared to steel herself for any questions that might have to do with—
"Well, does he ever mention her?"
Crap. Silence. An awkward shuffling of cyan hooves. Rainbow refused to meet her friend's probing eyes. The silence was painful.
"Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said accusingly.
She bit her lip, feeling as if something was rising in her chest. "That's another thing." Might as well get this over with, she considered. "I never told him."
“About?”
“Cobalt.”
"WHAT?!"
Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, and stayed that way, when Rarity pretty much yelled in her face. Her face showed how much she believed this to be a wide scandal. Dash took a step away and glared at her, begging that she keep quiet before anyone near the boutique bring up questions. There was far too much explaining to do to be interrupted—that, and calming Rarity a bit before she did anything such as pass out.
“He left the reunion way before I could. Besides, I didn't even mean to do it with him. We were both pretty drunk at their little reunion.” Her lips pursed a little, thinking back to that little incident. It gave her a headache just thinking about it, so she put it away for now. “But it doesn't matter now. I don't care about him, so the last thing I need is to be forced to be with him because we accidentally had a kid!” Her arms crossed over her chest before she landed back on all four hooves.
Rarity looked disappointed at her. “Oh, dearie, you've dug yourself into a very deep hole. I mean, why would you not try to at least find the father? Didn't Cobalt ever ask about him?”
“A few times, but it wasn't ever something he bothered with for long, so we didn't do much about it.” Or at all, Dash added grimly to herself. She started a path to the kitchen but stopped. “Hey, you mind if I have a drink?”
Rarity didn't seem interested in Rainbow Dash's thirst at the moment. “You can't get out of this, Rainbow Dash, now that you told me.”
“Oh, come on! I thought I was done with everypony interrogating me like I've committed a crime!” Dash groaned. She planted all four hooves on the ground and bowed her head down. Already, the stress was getting to her. Why couldn't she have one peaceful day without being attacked with questions? She should have seen this coming. Tell Rarity, of all ponies, about something that no doubt would get a huge reaction. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea.
No backing out of it now, dumbo.
“If you told us all of this beforehand, at any time when you came back, maybe it would have been fine. But this is big, Rainbow Dash. You never told the father of your son that, well, you had a son! Why in Equestria did you never think to tell him?”
“What do you care about him? You don't know him.”
“I know he's Cobalt's father, and that's more than enough.” Rarity struck her nose into the air, as if taking a whiff of air. “You need to think these things though, dear, before they get out of hoof.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?
“Find him. Do you know where he lives?”
“But...”
“But what?”
Rainbow Dash immediately thought of Cobalt, her ears falling. “It's nothing. Look, I just know how he'll react. Or Cobalt.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what if Cobalt wants to be with him instead of me?” Dash asked, grimacing.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash, you shouldn't think like that.”
Rainbow Dash did not answer. Rarity turned and found her eyes, glancing down. They were glossed over in disdain as they thought over that scenario. Cobalt meeting his father, wanting to be with him more than her, or worse, getting mad at her for never telling him. Rainbow Dash sighed, and Rarity could feel the worry coming from her. Nopony had seen Rainbow Dash like this. It was a different side of her.
Rarity smiled at her warmly. “Rainbow Dash, we're all very proud of what you have accomplished. To be perfectly honest, I never quite expected you, of all ponies, to be a mother.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Rarity gave her a look, still smiling. “Oh, come on, darling, it's the truth. Did you ever see yourself having children a few years ago?” she challenged her.
Rainbow didn't have to think long about that. With a grimace, she silently agreed with that. Before Cobalt, she wanted to work with the Wonderbolts, not care for a kid. She would have complained and groaned about all the hard work that came alongside any newborn. She would never have the freedom to do as much as she wanted.
Yet, it felt totally different now. “Well, yeah, but that was years ago. Now... he means a lot to me, so I don't regret it,” she said rather timidly, playing with her hooves to distract herself.
“If he means that much to you, and I'm sure he'd want to see his father. No matter what happens, maybe you could do that much for him, at least.” Though her back was turned, for some reason, Rainbow imagined a grin on the unicorn's face.
Oh, man! She's using the Cobalt card! Before you know it, everypony will try it out. Just keep fighting it.
“I...”
Rarity watched. The next words that came from her mouth weren't exactly planned. They were blurted out without a second thought, though slow and clear.
“I'll try.”
Darn it!
Rarity turned back to her, smiling. “I'm so glad. It'll be good for you and Cobalt.”
“It's not like you've been through this before... right?” she added a bit worriedly. After all, after over five years of not seeing her, there were probably some things she didn't know everything about her friends' current lives just yet.
Rarity giggled. “No, I'm not there yet. But someday... anyway, I just think that would be the best thing to do.”
“Thanks, Rar. I mean it,” she said. There was a pause. “I know where he lives.”
“Then start from there. And anytime, dear,” Rarity said with a wave good-bye.
Dash waved back before departing from the boutique, a new kick in her wings. She had a whole lot of thoughts racing in her mind, racing faster than she ever had flown before. There was much planning to do, now with something she realized needed to be done.
First, to the train station, to check the times for the next day.
Rainbow Dash got up that morning a bit late, but since it was the weekend, Cobalt slept in as much as possible. She knew she'd never hear the end of it from Cobalt when she shook him awake. She tried to explain to him they were visiting someone, and she grabbed him before he could whine about being woken up. Picking him up and placing him on her back, she started their flight together toward the train station. She went at a slow, careful pace. Behind her, Cobalt struggled to pick a side between awake and asleep.
Dash laughed and continued, though she found herself distracted a hoofful of times on the way. She didn't know much about him except his name and what town he lived in. Did he even remember her, or the night they shared?
She couldn't imagine telling the stallion the truth, but it had to be done, another thing to start her new life of no longer hiding in the shadows.
She thought about him a bit. Only two things she knew about him came to mind:
He lived in Appleloosa, and his name was Cortland. From there, she had no idea what to think of him, or what he'd do once she told him about Cobalt. But she had to do something.
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Oh Dash
MOAR! 
2293590 I thought that'd be too predictable. So I used an OC. Kind of was in between sides on that, but my pre-reader convinced me it was a good idea.
Jesus christ! Frankenstiens monster!!
AJ's gonna beeee pisssssssssed...
Interesting so far. This chapter, more than the others, suffers from "tell" rather than "show". As in, you're spelling it out to us how the character feels, rather than showing it from the point of view of the character themselves. Could use a fair amount of tweaking to fix.
)
Other than that though... definitely interested in the story itself. I like how Dash is dealing with things, even if the running away part is a bit odd... but in her situation, perhaps understandable.
Definitely keeping a watch on this! (although I hope that earlier rarijack blush was just a small thing. That stuff's my kryptonite
2294297 Ah, that blasted "show, don't tell." I'll do my best not to do that in other chapters.
2294305
It's definitely something to watch out for. I didn't notice it much in earlier chapters, but there was definitely a fair amount of it in this one
2293974
Not as badly as she could be.
For a few minutes there, I thought it might have been Mac.
Finally another update! Need next chapter.
2294496 If I did make it Big Mac, it would turn this into a soap opera, IMO. Hah. But still, it's a cousin, and I'm going to say she and Cortland were close when she was a kid, so she will have some kind of reaction. I wouldn't just pop a name out of thin air and not try to at least make it work.
Damn, was hoping it would not be an OC....but anyway, I think it's beforehoof, not hand. Gods, this is getting crazy, WHHHOOOOOOO GO FLUTTERMAC
And at least you thought of putting Shy and Spike together, can't wait to start on my new fic 
Poor Rarity she was only....wait, what am I saying? I hate Rarity, she's a bitch. Moving on.....I can't wait for the next chapter and I LOVE DERPY!!!!!
And need a smoke
I'm going away now
2329220 That's a lot of a adverbs.
Guess you don't realize it until someone puts it right in your face. I will change those things up a bit. As for "deadpanned," I guess I'll just keep in mind to make sure to not be repetitive next time. Thanks for pointing those out.
All of my yes.
2330278
I thought it was stupid at the time, but at least someone liked it.
2330294 Psh. Any jab at the ill-named "Twilight Saga" is good for me.
So there's this part in Ch. 5 when it seems like Dash remembers Twi's walking-on-clouds spell ("It was something so painfully obvious..."). But I seem to remember Dash saying/thinking in an earlier chapter that she shouldn't let Cobalt wander the cloud house 'till they see Twi, an I assumed that meant the cloud-walking spell. Just a bit of confusion.
Raindrop's dialogue at the beginning of Ch. 6 is a bit repetitive. For a filler chapter, it was pretty interesting.
This mood shift in Ch. 7 was rather sudden.
2336079 Man, you're good.
Just thought I should put that out there. I think I made two of those work. Can't really do much with Raindrop's dialogue--at least, I don't feel I can do much with that. Thanks.
Wow, this is far too good to have so little views.