Rebuilding a Rainbow

Soarin was rested on the couch, looking over at Rainbow who was talking to him. He was trying to pay attention to their conversation and her in general, but his mind kept wondering off in thought, thought about his lovely family. He knew who was coming tonight, his oldest sister, Harmony and her family, which consisted of her stallionfriend and their two foals, his other sister, Starfire and whatever low life trash she was dating this week, and his mother, Glide. He never worried about Harmony and her family because he had always loved their company, it was Starfire, her plus one and his mother that he was worried about and they should all have been here a couple minutes ago.

He glanced at Rainbow, who was laughing currently and he laughed along, pretending he was paying attention, then there was a knock at the door. His ears perked up, his fake laughter stopped and he stood. "Come on," he said, glancing to Rainbow and then headed after the sound of the knocking. Rainbow following not far behind him. He had wanted her to come so that he could introduce her to whoever was waiting on the other side of the door, figuring they couldn't do that much damage that fast.

He arrived at the door and reached a hoof out to open it then smiled, seeing Harmony standing on the other side, though her stallionfriend and foals seemed to be no where in site. She flashed him a smile and then he opened his mouth to ask about the missing ponies, but before he could spotted two unicorn fillies charging from their father and towards him.

"Uncle Soarin!" They yelled in unison, big smiles printed on their faces as they ran towards him. They then latched onto him, giving him big hugs and giggling.

"Hey, guys," he greeted, peeling the two of them off him because after all his back was still sore from the crash and then turned to sit them down inside. Once they were sat down he moved out of the way, allowing their parents to enter. "Hey Harmony," he said, turning to face his sister.

"Hey Crash," she said with a smirk as she wrapped her purple hooves lightly around him, careful not to bump her large stomach against his. She was expecting her third child with Arctic Scale, her stallionfriend, a white coated unicorn. The two had met right after Harmony started college, and studying for the same profession caused them to spend a lot of time together. Soon Soarin was seeing him when Harmony came back from college to visit her family and before he knew it his first niece was born. That was years ago and Soarin still couldn't find anything wrong with Arctic, except for the fact that he got far too excited about math problems, but Harmony had still refused all of his marriage proposals. Actually, he couldn't think of reason why the two shouldn't get married at this point, but his sister had seemed to and after all it was her decision to make, so he decided he wasn't going to get in the middle of it.

"It wasn't really a crash," he said with a chuckle. "More like a fall...Yeah! I just fell out of the sky," he corrected with a smile.

"A fall that gave you a concussion and a bruised up back," Rainbow added with a chuckle, accidentally alerting Soarin's family to her presence in the room. She was trying to give the family their space, but had let one of her comments slip out accidentally.

"I haven't done that much damage yet and i'm not even a professional flier," his sister commented with a chuckle. She then brought her attention back to Rainbow and walked over to introduce herself. "It's Rainbow Dash, right?" She asked. "Either that or the newsponies have their news all wrong," she added with a chuckle.

"Well, they don't have my name wrong," Rainbow responded with a chuckle as she held her hoof out to Harmony.

Harmony bumped her hoof against Rainbow's and said, "Well then, let me introduce myself. I'm Harmony." She then felt a filly holding onto one of her back legs and chuckle. "Oh, and this little one's Mythic Spell," she added, glancing at the light purple, unicorn with her hooves wrapped around her back leg. "The other filly's Storybook and the stallion's Arctic Scale, my stallionfriend," she finished with a smile.

Storybook or Story as she was often called for short glanced up and smiled as her name was mentioned. She then caught sight of Rainbow's mane and stared at it, clearly deep in thought. She knew she'd seen one like it before, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it, though for some reason the name Daring Doo kept coming to her mind. She gave up on trying to figure it out on her own and asked. "Do you read Daring Doo?" Glancing away from Rainbow's mane for a second to look at her face. She was not as polite as her mother with others and ended up staring whenever she liked, like her father. She also had no problem questioning things, again another trait from her father and so she started with a storm of questions for Rainbow.

"Yes," Rainbow responded with a smile.

"Do you remember her book, Ring of Destiny?" She questioned. ( My name is in this sentence!!! :raritystarry: Oh, yeah...back to the story, let me just slip out of my fangasm here, i'm acting a lot like Rainbow :twilightblush: )

"Of course! I helped Daring in that book, don't you remember?" Rainbow asked with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the white coated unicorn's mouth stretched into the biggest smile she could manage and practically yelled, "You got to work with Daring Doo?! Awesome! That's where i know you from!" She was really excited to be talking to Rainbow all of a sudden, now that she knew she had gone on such a cool adventure with a well known literary hero."Nice to meet you in pony," she added. (You know like in person xD)

"You too," Rainbow said with a chuckle. She liked the way the had seemed to envy her, even after knowing her for only a few minutes. She then caught a glance of the smallest filly who simply waved at her and stood rather close to her mother.

"Oh, Spell, stop being so shy," Arctic said, scooping the mentioned filly up on her back and then holding a hoof out to Rainbow. "Nice to meet you, Mrs.Dash," he greeted with a smile as they bumped hooves.

"Well, now that we all know each other, lets go to the living room," Soarin suggested to which all the adult ponies and Story nodded to then they took off on the familiar path to the living room. Spell bounced up and down on her fathers back as he walked, not nodding because she knew she had no real say in it, after all she was being carried by her father, so wherever he went she did as well.

All of them had settled into the living room quite quickly. Story and Spell where off, playing with each other while the adults chatted and Soarin was seated on the far left of the couch as he chatted with Arctic, who was sitting right next to him.

Rainbow was having no trouble getting along with everyone, but had taken more of a liking to Harmony than anypony else. In fact, she was seated closer to Harmony then Soarin was. The two were facing each other, chatting as if they'd known each other forever, but that was simply because Harmony was easy to get along with. She had always been that way, but it had become more apparent when she took the job as a school teacher and now within seconds of being around her, one would know she worked with foals. Rainbow didn't like being talked to like a foal, but she let it go, figuring Harmony only talked that way because of her foals and had learned to ignore it once she figured out said mare was a school teacher as well, so she really couldn't blame her for talking like that.

Everything was going great, which put Soarin's nerves at ease, but they seemed to pop right back up when another knock came from the front door. He knew behind that door had to be either his mother who he hadn't really gotten along with ever since the night he had caused her love life to come to a sudden stop or his sister, Starfire. The one that he always got in arguments with because she always seemed to have bruises from whatever stallionfriend she had now hitting her and he was sure to voice his opinion on it, unlike his family members, which upset her. He wasn't looking for an argument tonight, so he'd bite his tongue now, but he would get his opinion out there eventually, you can bet on that.

He walked to the door and opened it to reveal his mother and an unfamiliar stallion, which was quick to get rid of his nerves because now he was just angry. His was mad because he thought he had stopped her from dating so long ago and yet here she was with another stallion he didn't know, bruises, cleverly hidden on her face, though he knew she had them. His mother never had the best taste when it came to stallions, like his sister and they often hit her, so he knew where to look for bruises and the her chest was one of those places. She had a chain with a large cloud charm hanging from her neck, which was supposed to cover them, but he could see half of one and was furious at this point. He lifted a hoof to swing at the stallion, but stopped it midway and settled the hoof back on the ground, controlling himself for Rainbow who had apparently followed after him to the door.

"Who's this?" She questioned, coming up beside him and hitting his shoulder lightly with her hoof.

"My mom....and her date," he said with no real emotion. He didn't even bother to glance over at his marefriend he instead stared straight at his mother with a look of disbelief.

"Well, aren't you gonna let her in?" Rainbow questioned on and this time received no answer from him. "Soarin," she said, tapping his shoulder again, but all he did was continue to stare straight at his mother, lost in his memories. He just couldn't believe she's tried dating again, not after what happened that night so long ago.

Soarin was on his way home, chatting with some friends from his track team that lived close to him. He walked and chatted with them until no more of them remained, all having turned in another direction at one point in time to reach their own houses. So, in only a few minutes he'd gone from chatting with three of his teammates to walking quietly on his own.

His house wasn't that much further away, but having never liked being alone he'd picked up his pace to get there quicker. Now he was almost there and had stopped to unbuckle his saddlebags and grab his house keys. They were dangling from his mouth as he walked up the path to his front door, but soon found themselves on the ground when he noticed said door flung wide open.

"Mom!" He yelled, taking to his wings. He flew as fast as he could through that door and searched for his mom, hoping she had just forgotten to shut the door and wasn't in any danger. But, that hope was soon shattered when he saw her unconscious on the kitchen floor. "Mom!" He repeated, landing next to her to check for a heartbeat. He felt one and smiled a bit, happy that she was at least alive. The smile was quickly replaced with a sad expression as he sat by her, now in tears, taking in her physical appearance.

She had obviously been beaten, he could tell that from the bruises that were all over her body, but what he couldn't figure out was if they were from this attack or not. You see, his mother had the worst possible taste in stallions and often chose one that wasn't against hitting her or him for that matter. As a foal he put up with it, unable to even protect himself, never mind his mother, but as he got older he learned to stick up for her, weather it meant he got his flank beat or not. As he got older, his schedule got busier and he didn't spend a whole lot of time at home, rather he was at track practice, leaving her open for abuse.

He wasn't stupid though, he noticed the marks on her body whenever he was home and got into fights with whoever was causing them this time. The track practice payed off as well in this case because it helped build him up, stopping the flank beatings he got because he could now dish them out. Unfortunately, he wasn't always home and now he had let this happen.

As he stared down at her he couldn't help, but blame himself for the whole thing and his eyes started to water, that's when Starfire finally made her appearance. "What are you sobbing about, you big foal! Your supposed to be cleaning the house up for Harmony's visit!" She yelled, walking through the front door, his keys dangling from her muzzle. "You left your keys out there by the way," she added, throwing the keys into the kitchen. She didn't bother to look in on her sobbing brother, instead she walked towards her room, not intent on even bothering to try and comfort him.

"Get down here you idiot!" He yelled after, getting on his hooves and walking to the door way, yet she still ignored him. "Dam it, Starfire! Look at me!" He yelled, standing outside the kitchen now and staring at the back of his sister, more angry then sad at this point.

"What?!" She yelled, snapping her head around to look at her brother, a mad expression on her face. But, that mad expression soon faded and was replaced with a worried one. "Did one of those stallions hit you again?" She asked, noticing the blood stains on his light blue fur.

"No, but they got mom. Stay with her while i go get help," he instructed, turning to dash off for help.

"You should have done that in the first place instead of sobbing on the floor," she said, flashing him an annoyed expression and that running in after her mother.

"I hate you," he snorted before dashing off. How dare she tell him he should have done something else, he did his best in the situation. He couldn't help that he had emotions. Emotions that caused him to break down, instead of getting the help he knew his mother needed. After all he did think the whole thing was his fault.

As he flew he kept coming up with what ifs. What if he had skipped practice that evening. What if he hadn't talked to his friends on the way home and gotten there faster. What if he'd told mom that he'd found Starfire and her boyfriend hooking up a few nights ago, maybe then she'd have been grounded and home to attempt to stop it. Ugh! Why are we so stupid!? His mind shouted at him, causing him to tear up even more as he charged through the hospital's doors. "I n-need h-help!" He yelled, causing three ponies to run out of a room and towards him.

"Lead the way kid," one of them had said and not a second to soon because he dashed off right at those words.

His mother ended up having two broken wings, a black eye, and swollen lip,  yet he was the only one who stayed in the hospital room with her that night and that pissed him off. He knew Harmony wasn't due home for at least another hour, but now that Starfire knew her mother was going to be okay thought nothing of it. Actually, she was probably off letting her stallionfriend beat the crap out of her anyway and the pony who had done it was missing.

Soarin paced in front of her bed when the nurses weren't in the room to check on his mother, trying to stop the thoughts that told him to storm out and beat that stallions flank, since he didn't want her to be there alone. But, his mind was screaming at him now and he had tunnel vision from the pure rage boiling in his body. We're wasting time! He could be on the other side of Equestria by now, not a scratch on his stupid little head! Dam it Soarin grow a pair and go after him! Don't be the stupid colt that watched his mom get beat and took beatings himself, too afraid to stand up for anything! I thought we killed that little wimp! We clearly haven't though, since he's pacing like an idiot in this stupid hospital room! "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!!!" He yelled, letting his head bang against the bed's foot-board, horrible timing too since a nurse happened to walk in that exact moment.

"Mr. Skies, are you okay?" She asked in a soft voice, approaching him. She lifted a hoof to pull his head away from the bed, but he lifted one of his own and pushed it aside.

"I'm fine! Perfectly fine!" He yelled at her, before turning and starting for the door. "Keep an eye on her for me a-and if a purple mare comes in to visit her then asks where i am, tell her i'm beating some flank," he added before taking to his wings and dashing off.

"Sir! Sir! I can't let you do that!" She yelled after Soarin, but it was no use, he was out of the hospital by now. Little did any of them know his trip was going to be short lived and that he would be right back here very soon.

Soarin had found the stallion at his favorite place, the bar and despite the guard trying to keep him out because he wasn't old enough to be in there he charged in. He walked right in and swung a hoof at that stupid stallion, screaming and yelling as he attacked him. He still had tunnel vision and wasn't even thinking about how bad he was fighting he instead kept throwing punches blindly, the stallion throwing some of his own at him and throwing him around. Each time he was thrown he came right back and threw more punches. The fight happened in slow motion in his mind and seemed to go on forever, but in reality it took only a few minutes for him to be pulled off the guy, and thrown into a ambulance cart to go right back to the hospital. He screamed at the stallion as he was drove away, blood spitting out of his busted up mouth, not feeling anything thanks to the pure anger he was running on.

He ended up in the same room as his now conscious mother, who stared him down and yelled at him softly as to not attract any curious nurses all night, clearly mad that he had gone after her stallionfriend. His sister, Harmony was trying to stop his mother from being so vicious to Soarin, but had no success. She claimed he had ruined her love life now because no stallion would want to even go near a mare with a insane son, not even caring that he had done it all for her. But, in all honesty he didn't hear half of what she said, since there was constant ringing in his ears from all the punches his head had taken was much louder than her complaining. He simply rolled his eyes and fought his sleep as instructed by the nurses because he could possibly have a concussion. Artic sat beside him, trying to keep the stallion awake with some funny stories, well they were funny in his eyes anyway. Soarin's not so much, in fact they made sleeping come easier to him. He did appreciate the stallion he'd never met before being so kind though and didn't bother to stop him because he seemed to be having way to much fun laughing at his own jokes currently.

Thankfully, he'd avoided a concussion and was out of the hospital in two days. He then returned to school with a messed up face and banged up body, telling everypony who asked that he just went through a really bad crash and was fine now. This attracted a lot of mares he didn't even know existed, but he could care less about them for the time being and more about making sure nopony found out what really had happened.

Of course he was benched for a while on his track team, but that wasn't what hurt the most, neither was his injuries. No, it was the fact that every time he came home his mother would glare at him like he was a piece of trash and refused to even give him the time of day. Eventually, she'd gotten over it and tried to play mommy again. Coincidentally, it happened to be around the time he became a Wonderbolt and he knew it had to due with his money and fame, but he didn't care as long as he had a mom again even if she wasn't the nicest to him.

That was when he was barley in his twenties, now almost thirty the whole thing seemed so distant to him. His mother hadn't dated since then and he liked that because it meant his mother wasn't getting beat up when he didn't stop by to visit her. Which, is why he was so shocked to figure out it had started again and instead of letting his mother and date inside he stared at her, a disbelieving expression.

"Soarin. May we come in?" His mother asked, accompanied by more than just her date by now. His sister, Starfire and her date had also joined them and were all waiting for his okay to enter. "Oh, um sure," he said, putting on a fake smile and moving to the side with Rainbow so that they could walk in. "Everypony else is waiting in the living room," he added, still staring straight out the door as they entered. His sister was the last one in and the one that snapped him out of his shocked state with a hoof to the chest.

"Equestria to Soarin," she said, snapping his eyes to hers. "Thought we lost ya for a minute," she added with a chuckle, following the others to the living room.

"I know i'd liked to loose something and it's not myself," he grumbled to himself, closing the door.

"What?" Rainbow asked, having not quite caught what he grumbled.

"Oh, nothing. Come on," he said, tapping her shoulder reassuringly with a hoof before he started off to the living room.

Rainbow didn't say anything else, but she was still trying to figure out what he'd grumbled in her mind. She'd heard it, but not so well and didn't really understand what he'd said. That didn't stop her from trying to figure it out thought as she followed off after Soarin.

By the time Soarin got to the living room Harmony had already forced her family member's dates to introduce themselves to her and her family and she was smiling at them, introducing herself. Arctic was now sitting by his marefriend and so he took a seat by his own, draping an arm over Rainbow who sat beside him. He watched as Starfire rolled her eyes, not caring much for her brother's relationship or any relationship in general, since she thought nothing of them. He then turned his attention to his mother who was waving and flashing Rainbow a big smile, playing nice, probably because she knew Soarin had seen her marks and didn't want her injured son fighting a loosing battle.

He rolled his emerald eyes in his skull and then felt a tap on his chest. Apparently, Rainbow and his Starfire had been chatting and now she was tapping his chest and asking, "Right?"

He smiled and laughed at her eagerness for his reply, seeing she was trying hard to get along with this difficult pony, so he nodded, pulled her closer to him and said, "Right."

In response his sister asked, "Oh, so you enjoy this time off then?"

"No! Who said that?" He asked, his happy expression becoming confused.

"You did," Rainbow responded, chuckling some more. "Starfire and I knew you weren't paying attention, so we pulled one over on you," she explained. At least she and Starfire had pranking him in common, it seemed.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, chuckling slightly with her before glancing to his sister who was sporting a smirk. He rolled his eyes at her, shaking his head and laughing. He really couldn't stand her, simply because she let stallions run all over her like his mother had and he hated that. He wanted her to turn out better like any father would, since he seen himself as one to his sisters, even if they had a good amount of years on him.

None of them ever had a father, since they were just accidents and their abusive fathers had split just weeks after they were born or in Soarin's case when he found out about him. So, he felt like he had to be the stallion of the house and looked after his sisters until they left. Harmony had turned out fantastic in his eyes, having a loving stallion friend and a happy little family, but Starfire was way down the wrong path and there was no getting her back, trust me, he'd tried. As a result the two often butted heads and never really got along, justifying in his eyes how he acted towards her.

As quick as his family had come they left. Harmony and company having to head home early because she was exhausted from her foals and being pregnant at the time, Starfire had left because she simply didn't want to be there and his mother had left last, feeling awkward with the looks he kept giving her. While they were there they'd discussed Soarin's injuries, wished he got better, some more than others and everypony got a long for the most part all for Dash. He didn't want to scare her off with his crazy family and so he kept all comments to himself, until he'd shown them out the door. That's when he'd whispered little comments to them all.

"Good luck you," he'd said to Storybook, Spell, Harmony and Arctic as he gave them each a hug before they left.

"Oh, he's a keeper," he's whispered to Starfire as he hugged her quickly before she left. She's hit his chest hard and then stormed out the door, leaving him chuckling in her wake, knowing she wouldn't change like his mother hadn't so why bother trying anymore.

And he'd muttered, "I seen the marks," to his mother when he gave her a hug. She simply sighed and said nothing, walking out the door with her date silently. He too sighed as he closed the door behind her, sad that he hadn't gotten through to her as he thought he had all this time. He stayed there for a moment, trying to stop himself from worrying about her anymore, knowing there was nothing he could really do to stop her from having these abusive stallionfriends. He also pushed the rage aside and put on a smile as he returned to where Dash was waiting for him in the living room. "So, what did you think?" He asked, sitting down next to her again.

"I liked them," she replied. "But, i don't understand how your related to them. None of you look alike."

"Well, we have different fathers and i'm guessing we all look like them," he said with a shrug. Not having ever seen his or his sibling's fathers. "My sisters do say i look a lot like my father, anyway."

"You mean you never met your father?" She asked to which he shook his head. "I'm sorry," she said, looking to her hooves, clearly embarrassed she had even asked about such a touchy subject.

"No, it's fine Rainbow," he said, lifting her chin back up with one of his own hooves. He'd convinced himself long ago he hated his father, though he'd never met the stallion and really didn't care if anypony brought him up at this point.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I didn't want to know him anyway, since he treated my mom the way he did," he said with a dismissing hoof gesture.

"What do you mean?" She questioned, now feeling the topic was safe enough to explore.

He then went into the explanation of his mother's choice in stallions and how his sisters told him his father was no different, but he didn't just stop there, he really spilled his guts to her. He went into detail about the whole night he thought he stopped his mother from dating these men and how shocked he was to see her with another one today. He also told her of how hard he tried to be different his entire life and how difficult some mares had made it for him. He told her of his horrible temper, which was hard to keep at bay even with her. He told her how his temper made him think about swinging at her sometimes when she broke into tears or freaked out when he was obviously trying to get some from her. He apologized for even thinking that way, knowing what she had gone through beforehoof. He told her how he almost cheated on her with fans after every show, just wanting what she couldn't give him and stopped himself though it was so hard for him with Wave Chill and Fire Steak's influence. He told her how he'd almost done it when Surprise, Fleetfoot and/or Spitfire stopped him. He also told her how hard it was for him to play the good guy he strived to be when in the end he was just like his father, just cleverly hidden behind his self control. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he sobbed and asked for forgiveness though Dash seemed unfazed by it all.

"Soarin, it's fine," she said, her hooves wrapped around him, despite his protest. "After all you are you father's son, i mean it's like in your make-up to be feel like that, as Twilight would say. Just remember your not like your father, your better because you stop yourself, unlike he did. You don't lay a hoof on any mare, even if your mind screams at you to do so and you don't cheat even though you really want to. So, don't be sorry because you have nothing to be sorry for," she explained to him. She'd known he got mad every time she stopped him in bed, since he wasn't very good at hiding his anger in that area, so that wasn't much of a surprise to her, but what she didn't know about was all the times he almost cheated. That had taken her off guard, but she hid it, figuring it was her time to be there for him and after all he hadn't really done it. She'd lost a bit of trust in him after this, but she kept quiet about it, wanting to comfort him for all the times he'd done the same for her. She just kept stroking his mane and denying all his request for her to leave him as she tried to clam his tears when an idea finally came to her mind.

"Soarin, i think you should see the counselor about you anger, maybe he can help you get rid of it. You know, for good," she'd said it partly for his own good, knowing living with such anger was probably as hard as living with the fear she had to deal with and partly because she wanted to have a safety blanket of her own. One that guaranteed he wouldn't go off and cheat on her out of anger for her not complying with his wants. But, she knew she couldn't just expect him to do this when she had refused to see the counselor for her fear and nightmares, which is why she pushed away her pride and decided to make a deal. "I'll go with you and talk with him about the fear and nightmares i have, so please, go with me," she pleaded, pulling him off her chest to look him in the eye.

"R-really?" He asked between his sobs.

"Really," she said with a smile. She then ran through a Pinkie Promise, both verbally and physically to prove to him she was stay true to her words.

He smiled back at her and said, "Deal," then ran through his own Pinkie Promise. By then he was calming down, his tears stopping as he had forced them to do, trying not to look like such a foal in front of his marefriend, even though he couldn't help it, he had to let it all out after all these years and she was the perfect listener.

"We can go tomorrow after my practice," she offered, wiping his tears away for him.

"I'll meet you there," he replied with a smile, the was quickly wiped off his face as he noticed her leaning in for him, meeting her half-way for the kiss. Once they'd pulled away from each other he caught a glimpse of the clock and said, "Whoa, D-Dash you g-gotta go. Your g-gonna miss your train."

She turned to look at the clock and nodded. "Yeah, but i can't just leave you," she said with a smile.

"I'm fine, just go meet up with your friends. And hurry," he said, flashing her a smile of his own.

"You sure your okay?" She asked and he nodded. So, she gave him one more kiss and picked up her saddle bags. "See ya tomorrow," she said, turning to smile at him once more. He smiled back, nodded and then she took off out the front door.

Once he was sure she'd left, Soarin slumped himself back against his couch and sighed. He didn't like spilling his guts like that, but it just kinda happened and now he had to do it again, in order to make sure Dash got the help she needed. Something he thought was far more important then the help he needed, but if pushing his pride aside and spilling his guts to some counselor made her spill hers and get that help, it was all worth it in his eyes. His horrible puffy and sore eyes at the moment that he was rubbing at with his ruff hooves, clearly not helping the situation at all, but you couldn't tell him that.