A night alone (Piper and Strawberry Swirl)
A Secret Revealed
The ponies in the room stared in shock at the two before them.
"Uh...so...when were you planning on telling us about this?" Rarity asked, wincing as Applejack punched her shoulder gently.
"Don't mind her none, but uh...this is kinda suprisin Dashie, why didn't ya say anythin t' us sooner?" Applejack asked.
"Well would you guys have believed me?!" The rainbow maned pegasus demanded of them. Four of them glanced at each other, realizing Rainbow Dash was right. None of them would have believed her. They turned their attention to the fifth pony who had frozen in shock as the announcement had reached her ears. Twilight Sparkle had been known to overreact on several occasions, though this one could be somewhat justified.
"Hey look, i'm really sorry I didn't say anything sooner but...you guys wouldn't have believed me and I woulda just looked stupid. I don't like talkin about it anyway." They could tell it was hard for her to speak of it even now.
"But...but..." Pinkie Pie mumbled trying to find the words to say and failing. Rainbow lowered her head, surprised as the figure beside her rested a wing over her shoulder comfortingly.
"So why tell us now Dashie? After all this time, what would make ya spill yer guts?" Applejack asked softly.
"Well...ya see...Theres this big family reunion coming up...all of my relatives and their friends are gonna be there...and...well...I kinda HAVE to go and..."
"But first, somepony should help Twilight"
"I got it!" Pinkie Pie walked up to the frozen mare and gave her ear a slow lick, making the pony shiver and blush, quickly shaking her head. She stared at Rainbow Dash for a moment, opening her mouth to speak, only to have it slam shut on her, open again and once again slam shut.
"Twi..." Rainbow bit her lip.
"No, I'm not mad at you Rainbow Dash. I understand your reasons. But you..." Twilight turned her attention to the figure beside Rainbow Dash.
"Why didn't you tell me Rainbow was your daughter Princess?"
It was just like any other day in Ponyville. The cutie Mark Crusaders crashing into a bush together and laughing as if they hadn't almost broken their necks yet again, Pinkie Pie bouncing about merrily, delivering happiness and sweets to any who passed by her, Rarity working on a 'fabulous' new dress, Applejack preparing for Cider Season and Rainbow Dash taking a nap. Twilight smiled as she turned her gaze away from the window, letting it fall upon the rows and rows of books that lined the walls of the Library in which she resided.
She wasn't the tallest of mares but she wasn't quite the shortest either, her purple bangs broken by several stripes of lighter shades near the middle. A soft smile touched the lavender mares lips as she walked through the Library. Today was just like any other day, though unlike most days Twilight had no schedule for today, due to her excellent planning and time management skills she had finished ahead of schedule by two whole days. The thought made her smile grow even wider.
To think that she was getting ahead of even her own schedules, it was foalish of her but it excited her to know she was doing so well that she could even outdo herself.
"Look at me, boasting like Rainbow Dash." she thought aloud with a small chuckle. Twilight blinked as a scroll appeared in front of her.
"Huh? A letter from the Princess? But...why didn't she send it through Spike?" she thought aloud as she unwrapped it in her magic.
Twilight Sparkle, you are cordially invited to the Royal Family Gathering in Canterlot one week from Today. As an honorary Member of the Royal Family we look forward to seeing you and your friends there
That was all it said. It didn't have The Princess' signature, nor the writing Twilight had come to recognize as that of her mentor. This wasn't from the Princess herself, this was most likely sent by somepony under her though.
"Wait, Royal Family Gathering? Honorary Member? Friends?!" Twilight screamed and rushed out the door, bumping into Pinkie Pie and her friends.
"See?! I told ya she was gonna freak out!" Pinkie Pie said, helping Twilight to her hooves.
"Pinkie! Letter! Canterlot!" Twilight's thoughts were moving faster than her mouth could and thus instead of a well thought out explanation she appeared to be babbling nonsense. Pinkie put a hoof to her mouth and nodded.
"Deeeeeeeeeeep Breath Twilight" She said soothingly. Twilight took a delibrate slow breath and let it out to calm herself.
"Good, now tell us whats going on" Twilight nodded and quickly explained the letter, showing it to them.
"Hey, this looks kinda like that paper ya'll threw away Rainbow. Did ya'll get an invite too?" Applejack asked. Rainbow coughed and shrugged.
"Uh, well, I dunno. Maybe they just gave it to the wrong pony." She said quickly, keeping her gaze focused anywhere but the eyes of her friend. She jumped in surprise as a letter appeared in front of her in a poof of magic fog, landing at her hooves. The letter carried the seal of Princess Celestia herself.
"Uh..." Dash looked at her friends and lifted up the letter, opening it and reading over it slowly. Pinkie Pie slowly peeked over shoulder, only to be shoved away. Rainbow's face paled as she read over the letter, quickly crumbling it up.
"What was that about Dashie?" Pinkie asked.
"Its nothing! Geez! Why won't everypony just leave me be!?" she huffed.
"Rainbow Dash, that was a letter from the Princess herself, I know it was. I get letters from her all the time. If she sent it then it must have been important. What did it say?" Twilight asked.
"Its none of your business!" she yelled, flaring out her wings and taking off. The five remaining friends all looked at one another in confusion. Just what did Celestia say in her letter to Rainbow Dash?
Rainbow sighed heavily as she rested on a cloud, another letter appearing out of the air in front of her. She glared at the closed letter, knowing full well another would appear as soon as she destroyed this one. She had run away from this for her entire life and even with her speed she couldn't run from it forever. With a sigh of defeat she opened the letter.
Rainbow Dash, I know you don't want to read any of these letters and I know you don't want everypony to know the truth. But this is important and time is short. There is more to this reunion than everypony knows. I am sure you remember the changelings and the threat they posed to Equestria, they have sided with the Gryphons and are planning to return. I have received word by way of Gryphons still loyal to us that the Gryphons will be joining us on the day of the reunion to talk peace terms. They will be bringing with them their Crown Princess and expect us to do the same and be on equal terms with one another. Luna and I cannot do this as the Gryphon King sees us as more than Princess'. You are my only option Rainbow Dash, I know I promised I would leave you be to live your life, but I need you. Equestria needs you, now more than ever. I'm sorry and I hope you will help me. If not for me, then for your friends, for Equestria. With Love.
Signed - Your Loving mot. Mom. Princess Celestia
There were bits and pieces of the letter that had been scratched out. As she squinted to make out the scribbled words she could just barely make out 'with love' and 'my daughter'. Things that upon reading over them Celestia must have thought would only anger the pegasus. As she thought of it, seeing such things might have made her angry, though after having read the entire letter, a small part of herself wished she hadn't removed them. She rolled the letter up and stood up on the cloud she rested on.
She didn't have a choice anymore. She had to help, she had to go. She wouldn't be the Element of Loyalty if she abandoned Celestia to the Gryphons. Though she was dreading meeting a certain Gryphon again, as well as revealing her darkest secret to her friends. A deep breath and a slap to the face later, she dove off her cloud and took off towards canterlot, her Sonic Rainboom loud enough to draw the attention of her friends and lead them right to her.
Twilight gasped as a massive boom outside threw her off her ladder, Spike quickly snatching her out of the air and setting her down gently on the ground. She sighed in relief, grateful for the growing drakes wings for once.
"Heh, and you said all these were good for was knocking over books and lamps" he said proudly, standing upright, his left wing knocking over a lamp, which he deftly caught in his claw with a sheepish chuckle.
"Well they are good for that and for saving my neck." The unicorn said with a small smile, though it faded away as her gaze fell outside the window behind Spike. Through it she could easily see a rainbow trail headed towards Canterlot.
Twilight zipped downstairs, her friends already heading for the door. Rainbow Dash was hiding something from them, and they were going to find out what.
Guards rushed into the garden where a large crater sat, smoke drifting up from it. From the crater came a single Rainbow Maned pegasus, a bit dazed, but otherwise unharmed.
"Stand down." Celestia commanded her guards, smiling a little.
"Have...have you decided to help me?" Celestia asked, fearing she would say no.
"Well...to be honest...I don't feel like I have a choice." Rainbow admitted.
"Guards, leave us, let nopony disturb us." Celestia ordered the guards, keeping her gaze on the young pegasus before her. The guards nodded, quickly leaving. Celestia waited a moment longer to be sure everypony was gone before pulling Rainbow into a gentle hug.
"I've missed you..." she whispered. Rainbow grumbled something under her breath and sighed.
"I guess I missed you too...Though I really really really don't want anything to do with all this princess stuff."
"I know...I hate to break my promise..."
"But who knows Gilda better than me huh?" Rainbow asked halfheartedly.
"My reports tell me her father intends to cause a war between us, she seems to have kept him from doing so, but I cannot be sure what HER intentions are. Perhaps you and your friends can turn the tide of this." She said with a smile. Rainbow Dash froze.
"M...My friends? Y...You aren't gonna tell them are you?"
"Well...as the Elements of Harmony they are all invited to the Reunion. Twilight would come anyway, being my student and Royalty by way of her brothers marriage to Cadence. She is as much family as any of us."
"Oh please don't say that..." Rainbow mumbled. Celestia smiled a little to herself.
"Oh? Could it be you have a crush on Twilight?" Celestia mused, earning a quick glare from the pegasus.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." She sighed and sat down.
"Rainbow Dash..."
"I might care about her but thats none of your business...i'm just here because I can't just walk away. I can't leave anypony to face something this big alone. It just wouldn't feel right."
"I understand..." Celestia said softly. Rainbow sighed and stood in front of her stretching her neck up enough to rub her cheek against Celestia's. The elder mare smiled returning the gesture.
"I know you think I hate you. But thats not true. I just hated the thought of being a Princess or being like Blueblood...I just wanted my own life." Rainbow said softly, never leaving the embrace.
"I know...I wish it hadn't come to this. You seemed so happy in Ponyville." they sat there for a while together in silence, Rainbow Dash eventually speaking up.
"Well...we might as well get started. I dunno the first thing about being a princess and the reunion is only so far away." That wasn't completely true. She had been primped and pampered as a filly and had a basic understanding of what would be expected of her. Though a refresher course couldn't hurt.
"Then we should hurry and get you ready."
"Ready fer what?" Applejack asked. Celestia and Rainbow Dash turned to find four ponies out of breath, the fifth still bouncing slightly with a serious look on her face.
"Um...hey guys...uh...how long ya been there?" Rainbow asked.
"Jus' got here actually, mind tellin us whats goin on here?" the work pony asked, speaking for the others as they tried to catch their breath. Rainbow Dash looked up at Celestia who gave her a small nod. The pegasus sighed and took a deep breath.
"I'm...a princess..."
Forbidden Love(Applebloom X Applejack - unrequited)
A mothers nightmare
All was silent between them. Finally Celestia spoke up.
"I am sorry my faithful student, But I had promised I would never speak a word of this to anypony." Celestia admitted, ashamedly. Twilight's eye twitched.
"Just how long ago did you make that promise?! I've never seen the two of you together before! Did you even take care of her as a filly?!" Twilight shrieked. Celestia hung her head.
"Hey Twi, let up already! You wanna know the truth!? You wanna know what happened!? I RAN! I ABANDONED MY OWN MOM AND FAMILY! ARE YOU HAPPY?!" She screamed. The ponies fell silent as Rainbow panted a little from her outburst.
"w..why..." Pinkie asked softly.
"I never wanted this. Any of it. As a little filly...before I met Fluttershy at Flight school. I was just another pony being pampered in the castle and I hated it. I couldn't fly anywhere without guards dragging me around or telling me it was improper to be flying around like a foal when there were royal whatevers to be done. And to top it all off I rarely even had anytime with Celes..my mo...the Princess..." she mumbled. It was still hard to speak up about such a thing.
"One day...we went to a Wonderbolts show...it was amazing. I got to sit right next to her and watch all the tricks they did and they even offered to teach me some. But the guards wouldn't allow it cause I was so small and had to be the princess everypony was expecting me to be. I was sick of it. So...I left a note and ran..."
Celestia bit her lip as her eyes scanned over a stack of papers. Her thoughts were elsewhere, on her daughter who had thrown a massive tantrum that day when the guards refused to let her fly with the wonderbolts. She could have told them to leave her be, to let her fly. But she worried that the pegasus was too young to fly just yet. She could hurt herself and there was too much riding on that young pony's back.
She felt horrible thinking that way. She had to be the mother that foal needed and she was going to start doing the right thing, right now. She shoved the papers aside and threw her doors open, taking a detour through the kitchens to snatch up two cupcakes and matching cups of hot cocoa. There would be no work, just a mother and daughter enjoying an evening together. She stopped at the doors to her daughters room. She smiled at the rainbow stripes that marked the door and gave a gentle knock.
"Its me, may I come in? I brought you a cupcake." she said gently through the door, though she heard no answer.
"Are you awake?" she gently nudged the door open and gasped, the cupcakes and cups falling to the floor. She stared in horror at the empty room and open window. Her eyes scanned the room frantically for any sign of the pegasus, hoping that it was just a prank. But deep in her heart she already knew her daughter was long gone. Her eyes stopped on a note on the bed. She lifted it in her magic and began to read.
Mom...I can't take being here anymore. I wanna fly, I wanna have fun! You're always so busy helpin' everypony an doin' court stuff...I'm sorry but I just can't do it anymore. I dun' wanna be a princess, no dresses, no makeup, no shoes, none of it! I wanna be a Wonderbolt! I'll show those guards and I'll make you proud someday. Just...promise you won't come after me...Not until I've become a Wonderbolt and made you proud. I know I can do it. I can make it to the flight school in Cloudsdale and I'll become a really amazing flier and then I'll show the Wonderbolts' what I can do! You'll see! But I don't want anypony coming after me. so...please don't tell anypony who I am. I wanna do this myself without getting my way 'cause I'm a princess. I wanna earn it and prove I'm not just a pretty face stuffed in a clingy dress. I wanted to say goodbye...but you were busy...so I just left this for you. Goodbye...
The paper was soaked with tears in several places and at the bottom a single tiny blue feather had been stabbed into the page. Just after the word goodbye was a kiss mark from the lipstick her daughters maids had put on her. She could see a smudge of it on the side of the bed where she had wiped it off before leaving. She folded the letter with her magic and composed herself as she left the room with the feather and letter tucked under her wing.
"Guards, remove everything from this room, including the door. Nopony is to ever know it was here. Do not speak of the one who lived in it and do not search for her. She is away performing her duties and is not to be bothered by anypony and you are not to come near her, make sure this is known to everypony in the castle. Am I understood?" the guards nodded, making quick work of the young princess room.
Celestia managed to keep her calm facade until she reached the safety of her own room, slamming the doors shut and collapsing onto the floor as she held the letter to her chest. It was impossible for her to hold back the flood of tears any longer as the realization that she had lost her only daughter set in. If she had only acted sooner, she could have kept her from leaving, if she had only seen the signs.
She had been so blind, so stupid. She should've learned her mistake when she lost Luna and now she had lost her daughter. Finally the tears subsided, leaving her whimpering and sniffing as she pushed to her hooves. She opened a small chest with her magic, tucking the feather and letter inside, placing a magical lock on the chest and hiding it under her bed.
"I promise...make me proud..."
"It was only two years later that I discovered you Twilight. I had known your parents already, with your brother training in the royal guard and quickly proving his worth. But I never thought another star would come from your family so quickly. I had lost myself in wandering that day and a certain sonic rainboom as well as a giant dragon caught my attention. I must admit...I became quite attached to you Twilight. I wanted a chance to make things right, to raise the daughter I never had a chance to raise. You are very special to me Twilight, I do not think I would have made it through the years without your compainonship."
"So...you...used me...to fill the emptiness Rainbow Dash left?" Twilight asked in shock. Celestia hung her head once more and sighed.
"I admit I did, though I still wished to teach you to control your magic. Yours truly is the most powerful I have ever seen. None since Starswirl the beared possess as much magic as you do, not even Starswirl himself. If left alone it could have been dangerous, hundreds of thousands of ponies could've been hurt."
"So ya'll fixed two problems at once, nothin' t' be mad 'bout Twi'. Ah'm sure ya'll woulda done th' same in her place." Applejack said to ease the tension in the air.
"Ok so this still isn't adding up I'm afraid. We know you took in Twilight as your student and in a way your daughter and that Rainbow Dash is your...real daughter? As in...well..blood related?" Rarity asked.
"Yes..." Celestia said, not sure what Rarity was getting at.
"Well what about her dad?!" Pinkie Pie interjected.
"Well..." Rainbow began, her head low.
"Lets not dwell on it. When the time comes we will tell you. There is much to be done. We have only a week to prepare."
"A week? Why is this reunion of yers so gosh darn important Princess?"
"Its not just a reunion AJ. This is the time when they gotta redo all those peace treaties and keep everypony happy so they don't start a war. If a treaty is broken before the fifty years is up then basically you just declared war on everypony and they are all comin after you. But this is when all bets are off and anypony can do anything. If i'm not here then the Gryphons will take advantage of us not bein on even terms." Rainbow explained, a little proud she knew at least this much from her forced studies as a filly.
"While a few things have changed since you were here, you are for the most part correct Rainbow Dash. The Gryphons will attempt to seize more land, seeing it as rightfully theirs to begin with but if we are on even terms it will be a bit harder for them to push us."
"To be honest Princess...I don't understand." Twilight said.
"Gryphons see power in numbers my faithful student. They have a king, a queen, and a princess. The king and queen see Luna and I as their Equals but as we have no other with us they believe that since they are the greater number..."
"That they should have more than everypony else." Rainbow finished. Twilight sat down, letting it all sink in.
"So...what do we do?" she asked.
"Well Twilight, unlike Rainbow Dash, you have experience being in royal gatherings. As her friend I will need you're help to prepare her for the Reunion." Twilight was silent for a moment, looking at her friends, noticing for a moment that Fluttershy had been extremely quite during the entire conversation before turning back to Celestia.
"Alright, lets get started." She said quietly. Celestia nodded, Rainbow gulped. It was going to be a long week.
As they entered the castle, Rarity paused and pulled Fluttershy aside. It didn't take much, a simple flick of her magic and a gentle yank of the pegasi's tail was enough to get her attention.
"Fluttershy, I've known you for quite a while and in that time I have learned to tell when there is something you are hiding from us. You knew about Rainbow Dash, didn't you?" she asked softly. The pink maned pegasus lowered her head, hiding behind her mane and squeaking quietly.
"Fluttershy, I am not angry with you dear, just a little peeved that you would hide something like this." She admitted. Fluttershy seemed to shrink a bit more, trying to back away from the unicorn. Rarity sighed and chanced a glance around the corner, smiling when she saw their friends hadn't noticed them yet.
The unicorn stepped forward, placing her hooves on either side of the pegasi's face and gently pressing her muzzle to hers, unable to hold back the moan that coursed its way through her body as the mare before her gave a squeak of surprise. She smiled as she pulled away, looking into her marefriends eyes.
"I understand your reasons darling, I just wish you could've said something about it sooner. Then we might've been better prepared for this."
"B..But Rarity..." the pegasus said softly, her back to the wall and her wings giving a light twitch as her eyes met that of the unicorn.
"I...I just couldn't tell anypony...Rainbow didn't even mean to tell me...it was an accident. I couldn't betray her..." she managed to squeak out, her voice falling into squeaks and mumbles near the end. Rarity sighed with a smile. Fluttershy would always be Fluttershy, but thats why she loved her.
"Fluttershy, its ok. Its simply a sign that you are indeed a true friend" she said comfortingly, gently nuzzling the pegasus until she smiled.
"Now, we have work to do dear, our friend needs our help." Rarity smiled, walking alongside Fluttershy and quickly catching up with their friends.
It must have been difficult for Rainbow to admit such a thing...she truly is a brave mare...now if only Fluttershy and I can tell the truth about our own relationship...
