A loud alarm woke Rainbow Dash up promptly at five a.m. Groggily, she raised her right hoof and pounded down on the 'snooze' button several times until the infernal machine stopped its buzzing. Rainbow Dash smiled and quickly went back to sleep, only to be awoken yet again ten minutes later. This time, Rainbow literally rolled out of bed. She stood up on all fours and studied the alarm clock for a few seconds before realizing where the 'off' switch was: right where it was every morning.
She stumbled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. She grabbed a mug out of a cabinet and set it on the kitchen table. She put some coffee on for herself and, while it was heating up, went outside to grab the paper. The news was boring as it always was. Some gossip about Princess Sparkle's fast-approaching due date, some cheating scandal some famous sports celebrity was caught in, the latest sports headlines, and boring plans made by the councils on improving the city of Cloudsdale were all included. She reached out, grabbed the pot, and poured it into her mug. She turned the page of the newspaper. Nothing new. She took a drink of her coffee only to discover that it was just hot water.
After drenching her copy of the newspaper, which she wasn't going to read the rest of anyway, she called out to her wife. "Fluttershy!" she yelled, "We're out of coffee beans!" She picked up a dirty rag and tried her best to clean up the mess of water. "At least now I'm awake," she said out loud to herself, but quietly enough so she wouldn't disturb anyone else. Still, thinking that she should at least drink something, she opened the refrigerator to grab a bottle of The Apple Family's Apple Cider. Her hoof met the plastic shelf of the fridge. "Honey," she called again, "we're also out of cider!"
Rainbow Dash gulped down some cold water and threw the cup into the sink. She was about to leave for the day when she heard some rustling coming from one of the bedrooms. She tiptoed her way over to the door and peeked inside. There he was, Lightning Dash, curled up in bed, sound asleep. Rainbow Dash quietly closed the door, trying not to awake their adopted child. She made her way back to the front room. She opened the front door, breathed in the early morning air, and called out one last time to her wife that was surely still asleep, "I'm off now! Bye!" She flapped her wings twice and took off.
That same routine happened every day for the last five years. Though some of the details were different, the general outline was the same: wake up, drink coffee, read the paper, say goodbye, and leave. Nothing ever changed. It was boring and monotonous. To be fairly honest, Rainbow Dash was sick and tired of it. She was a pony that needed dynamics in her life, not the mundanity of the real world. She needed something more.
She should've been careful what she wished for.
-
"Nice work, everypony," Spitfire congratulated them as they trotted back into the locker room. The members of the Wonderbolts took off their uniforms and threw them into the laundry bin to be washed of their sweat. Spitfire gave each of them a hoof bump on their way out, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who was still getting out of her uniform. "Hey, Rainbow," Spitfire started, moving closer to her teammate, "are you okay? You seemed tired out there today."
"Yeah, captain, I'm fine. I just had a rough morning."
"Dashie, call me Spitfire."
Rainbow Dash looked at Spitfire questionably. She closed the door to her locker and turned to face her captain, who was now acting more chummy than usual and, frankly, out of character. Not once in the eight years Dash has been on the Wonderbolts has she been told to call her captain by her first name. It was strange. "Okay... Spitfire." Rainbow Dash didn't like it.
Spitfire continued with the questions. "So, how are things at home?"
"Things are fine, I guess." Rainbow Dash turned around to throw her uniform into the laundry basket.
"What do you mean by, 'I guess'? Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just that..." Rainbow turned around to face her captain who suddenly seemed interested in her personal life. "...everything's the same. Nothing ever changes. I just live in this boring world. It's the same routine over and over again. You know what I mean? It's cool and all, but it's hard for it to be cool and awesome for such a long time. It gets dull." She turned around again to push the bin into the adjacent room.
"I know exactly what you mean, Dashie." Rainbow Dash internally shuddered. Only Fluttershy called her 'Dashie' nowadays. "You know," she continued, "if you ever are looking for something... exciting, you could always come talk to me."
Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks. She gave the bin one last shove and closed the door to the laundry room before turning around. That's when she noticed something different about Spitfire. She had gotten her hair done. She was actually wearing makeup. Even under the fluorescent lights of the locker room, Spitfire looked nice. "What do you mean by that?" she cautiously asked.
Spitfire took a step forward. "You know, Dashie, I've always found you attractive ever since you showed up at the Wonderbolts Academy all those years ago. I can't deny that I've been harboring a little... crush on you." Spitfire continued to come closer to Rainbow Dash as Rainbow Dash backed away worriedly.
"This is really uncool. You know I have a wife, right?"
"Oh, what does she need to know?"
"Yeah, um, no, just, no. I've gotta go, like, now." Rainbow Dash quickly turned around and bolted for the stairs. Spitfire's voice called out at her, and she stopped.
"Hey, one last thing..." Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes, sighed, and turned around.
"Yes, capta-" Mid-response, Spitfire lunged at Rainbow Dash. Her mouth met Rainbow's. Dash's eyes opened widely with surprise. When she finally pulled away, Rainbow Dash was left staring at her captain who had just kissed her. Spitfire stared back into Rainbow Dash's big eyes. They held this gaze, Rainbow Dash freaked out and Spitfire freaked in, for several moments, until they heard a small whimper come from the doorway of the locker room.
Fluttershy had come to surprise her wife with dinner. She too felt that there was a certain amount of mundanity in their life, so she decided to do something about it. When she had arrived, she found Spitfire locking lips with Rainbow Dash. Tears welled in her eyes, and she let out a small whimper. When Rainbow Dash and Spitfire turned to see the source of the sound, all they saw was a blur of yellow and pink. Rainbow Dash bolted out of the room, leaving Spitfire alone. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Rainbow Dash cried out in despair, but to no avail.
-
Fluttershy sat on a cloud overlooking a river. In fact, it was the very same river she and Rainbow Dash had sat on ten years ago. The froth of water, particles of cloud, and now tears cascaded off the cloud face and into a large lake below Cloudsdale. Tears flowed as if from a faucet down Fluttershy's face. She tried wiping them away multiple times, but they kept coming. It was understandable. She had just walked in on the love of her life, her own wife, kissing another mare. Ten years of marriage whisked away in a few moments.
As she sat there crying, she couldn't help but recall all of the things that people had said about her and Rainbow Dash: "Them? Really? Okay..." "Out of all the ponies in the world, that's the one Rainbow Dash chooses? She could literally have anypony in Equestria, and she chooses her?" "I just don't understand this at all. Rainbow Dash, one of the coolest ponies ever, chose Fluttershy, one of the lamest and most boring ponies ever. It doesn't add up." "Just you wait, this'll be over soon. Rainbow Dash will drop her in a few years' time. She needs excitement. I don't see her providing that for Dash." et cetera.
She convinced herself. "Rainbow Dash doesn't deserve me. She does deserve someone as thrilling and exciting as Spitfire. She deserves someone who is the exact opposite of me. Dashie is just better off without me, and I have to face that fact. I've been running from it for ten years. I have to do what would make her happy. She is the happiest without me."
Fluttershy finally flew home. With red eyes, she greeted her neighbor who was watching Lightning Dash for her while she was gone.. When her neighbor saw her, she asked, "What's the matter, Fluttershy? Have you been crying? Where's Rainbow Dash?"
"Oh no, it's okay, Airheart. Everything's fine," she lied. Airheart was convince, though. Fluttershy had never been known to lie before. So she gladly returned care of Lightning to Fluttershy and flew off. Fluttershy gripped her colt tightly before saying, "We have to go now, Lightning. Get your things."
His purple eyes shone up at his mother. She looked down at the big eyes and tried her hardest to keep from crying, especially when he asked her, "Where's other mommy?"
She couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him how terrible things had become in the past hour. He shouldn't know. He couldn't know. She just stroked his mane motherly and told him again, "Get your things. We have to go now."
-
Rainbow Dash had been looking for Fluttershy everywhere. She had checked every crack and crevice she could find, but with no luck. She had even checked the cloud they had sat upon ten years earlier, but she didn't find anything. When she had returned to her cloud home, she grew even more depressed and desperate when she realized that Fluttershy had taken their colt. She was all alone for the first time in ten years.
How she wished she could find Fluttershy and explain everything that had happened. She wished that she could explain to her wife about how Spitfire had kissed her and that it would never happen again, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything. So, she did the only thing she could think to do. She sat on the edge of her bed and cried into the clouds. The salty water passed right through the vaporous material and fell all the way to the ground.
The next day, she tried yet again to find Fluttershy, but this time going through Ponyville. She visited all her friends who still lived there (including Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie since Twilight was now living in Canterlot), but none of them had heard from her since their last get together. She asked around town, but no one had seen her recently. Growing even more desperate, she searched through Cloudsdale once more, this time being more thorough and in broad daylight. She found nothing that hinted to where Fluttershy had gone.
Doing something she had not done in several years, she decided to write a letter to the expert of love: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. In it she described the predicament she was in and asked for advice on how to get Fluttershy's attention, explain what happened, and get her to return home. She waited several days before the response finally came in the mail. She opened it eagerly, knowing that out of all ponies Princess Cadence would have the solution to her problem. Instead, it was what appeared to be a formatted letter telling her about how busy the princess was and how she would get to the letter in a few weeks. Rainbow Dash crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it out the window, making one passerby on the ground very confused.
-
A hoof was going through the mail of the day. Finding one that might be of interest, the pony which the hoof belonged to brought the letter to somepony else. The pony grabbed the letter and looked at its sender. Without opening it, the pony threw the letter into the fire, without first shedding a tear out of despair. The envelope's corners curled up in the flames. Very quickly it was all just ashes and soot, nothing more.
-
Princess Twilight Sparkle was not surprised when she heard a knock on her door. She had been badgered by royal subjects for the past few weeks. The citizens were all good-natured, they were just giving their congratulations or dropping off gifts for the coming baby, but it got tiresome. She needed some time alone, now that she was only a few weeks from the due date. It had been quite an eleven months. There were whole magazine tabloids devoted to the foal that was growing inside her. There were articles about what dresses she wore with her foal bump, what possible names were, and whether or not it was going to be a colt or a filly. Honestly, she was concerned for the citizens of Equestria.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, however, was surprised when she opened the door and discovered that it was instead one of her dearest friends, Rainbow Dash, who had done the knocking. Rainbow Dash quickly and desperately asked her if she had seen Fluttershy at all.
Still surprised, Twilight responded, "I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I haven't seen her since our last reunion."
Rainbow Dash turned around and cursed. "Where is she, then?" she yelled at the stars. The stars didn't respond.
"Wait a minute, you don't know where your wife is?" Twilight questioned.
With tears in her eyes, Rainbow Dash turned to her royal friend and recounted the whole story to her. Twilight didn't interrupt once, except to bring her friend a box of facial tissues and to invite her inside once it began to rain. When Rainbow Dash was done, Twilight calmly suggested, "What if I write the letter to Cadence? She'll respond to me."
-
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was concerned. A few days ago, her old friend Fluttershy and her child Lightning Dash had come to the palace in the Crystal Empire, looking for help. Fluttershy was an emotional wreck and didn't tell the princess why she had come. She only requested that no one would know that she was here, especially not her wife, Rainbow Dash. This was the first troubling part for Cadence. She tried to offer her services to help Fluttershy, but she refused all of it. Most days, she just curled up in the guest room.
When a servant of Cadence had brought a letter to Fluttershy with her wife's name on it, thinking she might want to read it, she simply tossed it into the fire. She knew this would make Rainbow Dash happier. She didn't have that detailed of a plan in her mind. It was mostly just to hide out until Rainbow Dash forgot about her, then return to Ponyville and live there with Lightning Dash.
Several days had gone by when, one night, Cadence called Fluttershy into the throne room. The princess had a letter from her sister-in-law, telling her that Rainbow Dash was at her house, looking for Fluttershy. Fluttershy broke down crying and begged the princess not to respond, claiming that this would make Rainbow Dash happier in the end. The princess sadly complied.
Just outside of the throne room, peeking through the cracks in the large doors, was Lightning Dash. He saw how unhappy his mother was without his other mother. He also knew where Rainbow Dash was now. He knew the general direction to fly, and had visited Princess Twilight's place enough times to pick it out. Determined, he set off flying. Fluttershy didn't notice he was gone for an hour. By that time, he would already be halfway to Canterlot.
-
Lightning Dash was wet. He was also kind of an idiot, but that's a mean thing to say to a five-year-old. He hadn't learned enough about the world. He still had plenty of time before deciding if he wanted to be an idiot or not. But he was wet nonetheless, and he was flying in a thunderstorm. He was also alone. It was also very dark outside. He also didn't know exactly where he was supposed to go. It wasn't the brightest idea he had ever had. It's surprising he wasn't dead already.
Five years ago, Fluttershy, after a long and tedious time of talking with Rainbow Dash, convinced her that they should adopt a foal. When they had first gone to the adoption center and the overseer put the foal into Rainbow Dash's hooves, she fell in love instantly. Fluttershy insisted it take her wive's second name. While pondering the first name, Rainbow Dash was wondering could possibly be faster than herself. At that very moment lightning struck in the distance. Instead of fearing the lightning, Lightning Dash loved it. The brightness of it and the loud noise, which would most of the times scare children away, attracted him. The name stuck.
This is why when lightning struck a tree less than a mile from where Lightning Dash was flying, he was thrilled, not scared. He looked down to the ground, looking for the train tracks that would guide him to his mother. His rough plan was to follow the tracks until he got to Canterlot, and then he would find Twilight's house, and then he would go inside and meet his other mother. For a five-year-old, this was a very challenging thing to do.
After an hour of flying, which is when his mother noticed he was gone, he flew to the ground to get a breather in. He was extremely tired, and he wasn't sure how much longer he would have before he reached Canterlot. He considered giving up and flying back home so that he could sleep in a warm bed. He almost fell asleep there, right by the train tracks. Just as he was about to nod off, a huge bolt of lightning hit a nearby tree, causing it to crack and splinter. The lightning motivated him to press on. By the time the tree fell to the ground, he was already off again.
-
A puff of green smoke later and Rainbow Dash's response was in. She opened it eagerly to find that it was the same exact letter that she had received yesterday. In anger, she crumpled up the letter and threw it into the fireplace. She wept openly. She feared that she would never get to see her wife ever again. She had messed everything up, and there was no way to fix it. Twilight simply put her hoof around Rainbow Dash. When Flash Sentry came down the stairs to see what was wrong, Twilight just smiled at him nervously and he left again. The princess looked back at the weeping pegasus sadly.
Suddenly, a large, thumping noise came from the front porch. "What in Equestria was that?" Twilight exclaimed. She went to the front door and yanked it open. A small, gray colt with a bright, yellow mane had collapsed on the porch. She quickly levitated the colt into the living room and set him down by the fire. When Rainbow Dash looked up through her tears to see what was causing all of the commotion, her eyes widened and a large smile formed on her face.
"Lightning Dash!" exclaimed his mother.
When Lightning Dash heard his mother's voice, he opened his eyes. A smile crept upon his face as well. "Mommy?" the little colt said.
"It's me, Lightning Dash!" Rainbow could hardly keep her excitement levels down. She gripped her son tightly. "Oh, Lightning. Where were you?"
"Princess Cadence's house. It's really biiiig."
Rainbow Dash released her child and looked at him questioningly. "How did you get here?"
"I flew."
"By yourself?"
"Yeah. It was really fun." The little colt yawned.
Rainbow Dash was frozen. She looked at Lightning with what looked like worry. She then leaned in next to her son and exclaimed quite loudly, "That is... so... bucking... cool!" For the next several minutes Rainbow Dash and her exhausted son were yelling at each other about how cool it was. She was the proudest mother in the world at that moment. Her son had just flown two hours in a thunderstorm just to see her. Twilight was more concerned, however. She slowly looked down at the large bump near her stomach with worry.
-
The doors flew open to reveal the interior of the Crystal Palace. A loud crack of lightning illuminated the three ponies who had just walked in. Lightning Dash was riding on the back of his mother and Flash Sentry was sent by his wife, who couldn't fly, to make sure that they were alright. Quickly, a servant to the princess came running in to se who the sudden visitors were. When she saw that they were accompanied by Flash, she let them enter.
Fluttershy didn't move from the spot she was lying in on her bed when she heard the front doors swing open. She just went on crying tears of sorrow for her presumably lost colt. She didn't look up even when the door to her room swung open. She only looked up when she heard the voice of her son, who was now bouncing on the bed in joy. She followed the colt with her eyes when she suddenly saw Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash had tears in her eyes. All she could muster out was, "Hi, Fluttershy." Fluttershy squealed and pulled several pillows forward to hide her. "Fluttershy..." she sighed out sadly.
"Please go away," said the pegasus that was quivering in fear behind throw pillows.
"Fluttershy... I-"
"Just please go away, alright? You're obviously happier without me."
"Flu-"
"Just go away! You don't deserve somepony like me. You deserve someone fun and exciting like that Spi-" she couldn't finish the sentence because of all the tears.
"Just let me explain. I-"
"There's nothing to explain. Just go."
Rainbow Dash put her head in her hooves in frustration. "Fluttershy! That stupid Spitfire kissed me! I didn't want anything to do with her! She forced herself on me! I didn't ask for any of that!" She paused before adding, "I looked everywhere for you, Fluttershy. I asked everypony. I almost put out a missing pony alert. I almost put up fliers. I almost died coming here. Our son almost died bringing me here." She bowed her head. "I missed you, Fluttershy. I couldn't stand living without you." She looked up again and said, "I love you, Fluttershy. I always have loved you. I don't care if other ponies' lives are more exciting because I don't want more excitement if it means I can't be with you."
Fluttershy finally drew her head out of the pillow. "Do you really mean that?"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
Fluttershy flew out of bed and into the hooves of her wife. Hugging her, she said, "I love you too, Dashie."
-
And they lived happily ever after.
