It was storming incredibly hard, rain pounding against the window of the Golden Oaks library. My rainbow tail swished back and forth as I read the latest Daring Do book. Normally, I'd be risking my life clearing this up, but this was scheduled, giving me the day off. Just as the story started turning South, Twilight rapped a scroll on my head.
"What was that for?!" I yelped, dropping the book and losing my place. "Luna darn it, now I have to find the page again!"
"Page 217, now I have something to tell you." The book was encased in a magenta glow as I pouted at the lavender unicorn. "Princess Celestia is coming."
"Okay, so?" I shrugged. When you personally write to the princess, and your best friend is her personal protegee, it's hard to be overly excited after the fifty-seventh time.
Or I'm just not that girly to be excited over the princess. Now if it was Daring Do...
A goofy grin crossed by face as I imagined what would happen if I met my ultimate hero. Well, second ultimate hero.
Twilight hit me with the scroll again. "Are you even listening."
She groaned and facehoofed at my blank stare. "She wants to talk to you."
"Really? About what?" This peaked my curiosity.
"Your mother."
"DO NOT TALK ABOUT THAT TRAITOR!!" I screamed dashing upstairs in a colorful blur before she could stop me. I hid in the very top of the tree, in the leaves, drenched by the rain. It blended with my tears as I thought of the horrible pony everypony insisted on calling my mother.
It took Twilight fifteen minutes to find me, not that I was counting.
"Rainbow, come down!" She yelled over the rain. "You'll catch a cold."
I sat hugging myself, making sure the rain washed off the last of my tears before coming down. Twilight wrapped a towel around me and gave me a hug. We didn't speak as we made our way to the fireplace, the flames warming my rain-frozen bones from a comfortable distance. Spike came up with three steaming mugs of hot chocolate. I wrapped my hooves around my cup, breathing the sweet, milky smell of the indulgent drink. Spike always made the best hot chocolate. He is insanely competent, and rather helpful and funny despite what some ponies think.
"So, what about your mom?" He asked, Twilight glared at him.
"Spike," She scolded, "She obviously doesn't want to talk about it."
"Actually, I think I do." I murmured, my wings ruffling a bit. Thanks to Scootaloo's contraption, my wings got stronger after my surgery. I didn't need it anymore, but kept it just in case. In fact, Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders made another to fit Scootaloo. I remember how proud I was when she first flew with her mechanical wings. We were all very surprised Applebloom didn't get her cutie mark in building things, but she didn't seem too hurt. Maybe their previous failures toughened her up.
Twilight put her hoof on mine, levitating a whole bunch of books, and a clipboard and pen. She had gone into therapist mode, but I think I needed it. "Rainbow, when your ready, please tell us about your childhood and parents."
I took a deep breath. This was going to be hard, but with Twilight and Spike smiling at me warmly, I knew I could.
"My dad, Lens Flare, was one of Princess Celestia's personal guards. He met my mom that way. She was a unicorn, named..." I scrambled for the forbidden name in my memory. "Sunny. Sunny Skies. She was a Canterlot snob, but dad loved her. A lot. They-they dated for a few months, then Sunny found out she was pregnant. They weren't married, but dad was going to propose. Darn good he didn't, she was a-"
Twilight covered Spike's earflaps, her eyes widening.
"RAINBOW!"
"Okay, okay, sorry. Well, they were apparently really, really happy. Not happy enough, because mom left me with dad. I don't even think we have any pictures of her." My angry expression softened as I remembered one thing, though. "But... I do have a picture of my dad holding me in the Maternity ward."
"Please show me, if you'd like." Twilight said gently.
"It's at home, and I can't risk getting it wet." I said, fearing for the precious picture.
"Then let's go!" Twilight held Spike and I close to her body, and next thing I knew, I was in my room. My ears hurt an insane lot from the teleportation spell.
"Oops, sorry." The unicorn blushed. "Now go grab the- Princess Celestia!"
The mare ran up to a larger white alicorn. The two shared an embrace as Princess Celestia gave out one of her kind, heartwarming chuckles. Her gentle pink eyes drifted over to me, and her face nearly burst in glee.
"Rainbow Dash!" She hugged me. I felt... odd, to say the last. My stomach felt funny, but I liked it, I think.
"Princess Celestia," I tried to bow, but she pushed me back up.
"No, call me... Tia." I tell she liked that name, like nopony called her it in a long time. "Or whatever you'd like."
"O-okay, Pr- Tia." That made her smile deeper, a glint of nostalgia in her eyes. "Can I ask why you're in my house?"
"I've been waiting for you." She said, sitting down. "Surely I don't need to tell you to get comfortable in your own house."
I sat down across from her, while Twilight and Spike found themselves comfy next to the regal alicorn.
"I assume you know why I'm here." Tia said. I nodded.
"About my... mom... right?" I said the word like it was forbidden. She must had noticed the shadow in my eyes, because she looked a bit downtrodden.
"Yes, yes I am. And your father is here to help."
"Daddy?" I looked around. I hadn't seen Dad in a long time. "Where's Dad?"
"Here I am, Dashie." I twisted towards the familiar voice... to see Discord.
"Stop joking, Discord." I growled. "Where's Dad?"
"I'm serious, I am." He said, pain prodding in his voice.
"Tell me something only Dad would know."
"When you flew for the first time, you went so fast you crashed into a tree and fell. You were crying so hard you wouldn't let the doctors touch you." He smiled at me as he remembered. "And I sang you Soft Kitty and the doctors managed to put you under anesthesia. I flew home and got you your kitten toy, and you hugged it so hard when you woke up."
"But you were in stone when that happened." I argued, not wanting to believe it.
"I'm the immortal god of chaos and disharmony, who could switch his body to anything else. What makes you think I was bound to stone when I could create a new body and walk away?" Da- Discord replied boredly. I pressed my face to his, determination filled every fiber of my being.
"My Dad's name."
"Lens Flare,"
"His age?"
"Right now he'd be... oh, forty-two."
"Mom's name?"
"Sunny Skies,"
"Race of both?"
"Sunny was a unicorn, I, Lens Flare, pegasus."
"Physical description."
He pulled out a picture, one I wanted to see all my life. A white unicorn mare with a frazzled pink mane and exhausted eyes held a small, blue, rainbow-maned pegasus filly. A purple stallion with amber eyes and a mane like the filly's stood beside them, on the verge of tears.
I sniffled, Discord- no, Dad- pulled me into a hug.
"Daddy," I sobbed into his shoulder as he stroked my mane with a paw. When I looked back up, he was the stallion the in picture, the one I knew as the image of my Dad. I looked back at my friends. Twilight and Spike were crying, and a white-and-pink unicorn sat where Tia was. No, wait, it was her! Princess Celestia... is my mom.
My mom, the pony I hate most, is Princess Celestia. The kind, benevolent ruler of Equestria. The one who abandoned me.
She opened her hooves, a teary smile. But I scowled.
"Why?! Why would you just... just abandon me? Was I not good enough? And you, Discord, Lens Flare, whoever you wanna be, why didn't you come when I was in the hospital?! When I was dying? Same for you, Celestia." The anger seemed to cascade from my mouth like a waterfall. "Where were you, in fact, my whole life? And don't start simpering and say you love me soooo much because if you did, you'd have been a mom and not the lame excuse you are now."
"RAINBOW DASH!!" I cringed as Twilight screeched my name. "You are screaming at not only the ruler of Equestria, but your own mother. Your. Own. Mother."
It sunk it very painfully, unicorn Celestia crying in my Dad's chest. What did I do? But she deserved it, she abandoned me, just like Scootaloo was. But no, Scootaloo's case was worse. Much worse. Why was I comparing myself to her. I couldn't do it, I couldn't even think of the pain my daughter went through. I had to thrust her out of my mind for now if I wanted to power through this.
"I deserve it," Celestia's croaky voice said, slowly lifting her head. She was a mess, eyes red and puffy, mane fly-away and tangled. "I deserve every word."
"Princess, you don't..." Twilight started, but the slightly larger unicorn put her white hoof on the purple's muzzle.
"I do, and I deserve every pain I've felt." She sigh, Dad wiping her eyes. "I started by thrusting my lover away because he looked like a monster, then I let jealousy overtake my sister then I locked her away, too. When the only one I truly loved came back, I left our foal with him out of fear of what everypony would say if the regal Princess Celestia had an illegitimate foal with a member of the Royal Guard. I couldn't, I just couldn't."
She sniffled, curled up against Dad. I felt bad, so bad, but the anger remained.
"How about when I had cancer? Why did nopony come then?" I asked. Both of their eyes widened in shock.
"You have cancer?" Dad gulped, the ultimate fear filling his eyes.
"I did, in my wings. They removed it, making me unable to fly alone for a couple months. Scootaloo helped me by building a flying contraption." I said, anger still inside me, ready to erupt like lava.
"I never knew," He hung his head, M- Celestia stroking his mane. "If only I knew."
"Well, you didn't, so buck off!" I yelled, standing up with my wings flared. "Now get the buck out of my house!"
"Just let us explain first." Dad said calmly.
"Fine, fine. Be quick though." I growled.
"It started twenty-three years ago. I was getting bored of being trapped in stone, so I was able to create secondary physical body to explore in. Well, it gave me a eighteen year old pegasus colt. Perfect body, just smoking hot."
Celestia smacked him on the shoulder, which earned a laugh from him.
"Well, I decided to enroll in the Royal Guard, and Tia here must have known who I was, because I got sent straight to the tippy-top of her personal guard, the one who personally guarded her during the day. At night, though, she turned into a unicorn mare, and we went on adventures through Canterlot, her false name Sunny Skies. She'll always be my Tia, though." He brushed a lock of mane behind Celestia's ear lovingly. I wasn't sure whether to puke or still look peeved. "We fell so deeply in love, just like when we were in our immortal bodies nearly a thousand years previous. Well, Tia got pregnant with you. It even showed in her alicorn body, so she herself created the rumor of being addicted to cake to hide from everyone the truth. When she gave birth to you, we finally decided I would resign from being a guard, and go to Cloudsdale to raise you. I know it hurt her so much, but know she watched you every second. The twenty-two years you have been alive, we both watched every second. She loves you, just like I do."
"If you loved me, what about when you broke free and possessed all my friends." I snarled, but now it was a show. The anger and hatred left, the feeling of knowing I was a mistake filled in instead.
"Oh, that," Dad coughed, "I, uh, it was to teach you a lesson... mmmhmmm, eeyup!"
"I think he had too much cider, then when the foals came it gave him enough strength to break free and wreak havoc while drunk." Celestia said, Dad blushing rather hard.
"One of those foals was my daughter, so tread carefully." I warned.
"You had a foal?! Who was that ba-" Dad stood up, but I pushed him back down.
"No, she's adopted. But even if she's not genetically mine, she's still mine." My eye twitched.
"Mom?" A heard a voice, and a soft knock at the door. "Mom, I'm home."
I wiped my face and opened the door, Scootaloo soaked to the bone.
"School ended early, but now my homework's destroyed." She explained as I ushered her in, grabbing blankets and towels to dry her off and warm her up. Everypony else seemed to freeze as they watched me ask her about her day and make her hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows and whipped cream, like she loves it.
We sat together, sipping the warm beverage, not too hot, I don't want Scoots getting her tongue burned, and we talked. When we were done with our chocolate, Scootaloo had a whipped cream mustache. She licked it off when I suddenly asked her something.
"Scootaloo, you never met my dad, have you?" I asked, looking at my beautiful orange daughter.
"You told me about him. He was a part of Princess Celestia's personal guard, right?" She said, her purple eyes curious.
"He's in the living room, go give him a hug." I smiled as she nodded and flew into the living room, her target a purple, rainbow-maned stallion.
"Grandpa?" She asked as Dad scooped her up in a hug.
"Yes, Scoots?" He smiled, calling her by her nickname.
"Is it true that you were a part of Princess Celestia's royal guard?" She asked excitedly, her little wings whirring.
"Definitely, it was a great time in my life." He smiled, and proceeded to tell her everything, the twinkle in the young filly's eyes never fading. Celestia quietly slipped away, and stood next to me.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Celestia?"
"D-do you forgive me?" She gulped. It was hard for her, asking for forgiveness after her worst crime. "I don't even deserve to ask if you will, but... but if you do..."
"I'll always forgive you... Mom." I hugged Cel- no, my mom. She will always be my mom.
"Wait, guys, do you know what today is?" Spike suddenly spoke up.
"Today is... June sixteenth." Twilight said, looking up from her humongous length of parchment she was writing on the entire time. "So... Father's Day."
"It can't be raining on Father's Day." I smiled at my Dad, who grinned back.
"C-can I help?" Scoots asked, looking at me hopefully.
"Of course, squirt." Dad said, who opened the door. Scootaloo picked up her artificial wings which she had carelessly dumped on the floor, fastening them on. All three of us dove off my cloud house, into the rainstorm.
"Be careful!" Mom cried, her hoof to her mouth. I grinned, pumping my hoof as we kicked away clouds.
We swam through the clouds, dodging the lightning bolts, kicking the stormy things into oblivion. It was grand, seeing Dad swoop around like there was no tomorrow, Scoots chasing after us, the rush of adrenaline every pegasus got no matter how many times they flew through a storm. The excitement, the joy. I did with everyday, but this time it was different. It was because this time I had my dad and my daughter, with Mom having a panic attack.
With my family.
The only thing I ever truly wanted, and it was right here.
With that thought, I opened out the sky so Mom's sun could shine on all the families below, so they could have as sunny a Father's Day as mine.
Because really, no matter who we get, even for those who might now be genetically related, we always have the best dad ever.
