Readings on Dashing, Literature, Mom

"And Mom, you won't even believe it, Gilda and I are totally going to the biggest airshow ever, there'll be flying and shooting and whizzing and-"

"Your assignment for Equestrian?" Firefly asked gingerly.

"Urgh, I can finish it later. You know that!"

Rainbow Dash's eyes shifted somewhere away from this sentence and back again.

Gilda was her chance. She was cool, tough, and best of all, new to Cloudsdale. She didn't have to know about how Rainbow Dash is the best flyer in her grade but never participated in a single sport. She didn't have to know about that time when her bud RD defended gangly Fluttershy from a bully and nearly got expelled. Take it or leave it.

"I can't drop out. I made a commitment", Dash said, hoping that the heavy word would help her case, "and I have to stay loyal to my friend."

That part was true enough, but Firefly shook her head. "You sure do make a lot of commitments. It's sounding like the clocks all over again."

"I swear the second one was an accident! You've got to believe me!" Rainbow Dash pleaded half-jokingly.

"The third was hit with a sledgehammer."

"The alarm was loud!"

This was probably a losing argument. Rainbow Dash lashed her tail and stalked off. They could talk while they were flying to the stadium.

"I thought you'd be all over the sports."

Firefly was keeping good pace. "Sports are great when you have time for them."

"I'm doing my other homework. What more do you want from me?"

"It's just, I'm worried about how well you're doing at school. I'm a mother. It's my job."

Rainbow Dash strove to fly faster. "You want me to be perfect?"

The wind whipping around her required her to raise her voice to shouting level. The entrance loomed before her eyes. "Great! It worked so well for preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school! Don't change a thing. Like what you taught me; I can endure. I can endure right into Tartarus!"

Firefly slowed down, letting Rainbow Dash rush ahead of her. Dash saw her turn back in the corner of her eye, and looked down at the clouds. They seemed to run the air in patterns like lines on a road. It was a good center when she wasn't sure what she was actually thinking.

Gilda didn't have to know.

It's hard coming back from the world where everything is cool in Rainbow Dash's life to the world where she said some pretty awful things to her mom and has no idea what she's supposed to be doing.

No. There is something she can do.

Rainbow Dash bit down on a pencil and pulled out a roll of paper. She skipped the title; that was always a trap. Titles suck in your time like a tornado and spit it out into the air.

Marenheit 451. All she got out of it was that it was a book that told you to read, which sounds totally stuck up. The rest of it made no sense. There was this mare at the beginning who died probably, some magic dog tried to kill the main dude, and Canterlot blew up at the end.

She's going to explain how great reading is if it kills her.

I think

^Readings good you learn stuff create a new world you can escape you can read ponies long ago and more

That is definitely wrong.

I think reading's good. You learn stuff, create a new world, can escape, can read ponies from long ago and more.

Rainbow Dash wonders if writing what other ponies say about reading counts as cheating.

You learn from books because they have information.

It's not like that's false.

Information is important so that you know about equestria. When you know about Equestria then you can apply that to your life. Like if somebody asks you about history, you know the answer.

What did they learn in history today, anyhow?

When you know more it brings you better life opportunities. When you have books you have power.

That part's probably the most truthful one here. In fact...

When your good at reading, you don't have to disappoint anypony. You can do whatever you want.You can create new worlds and escape because of that. When you are not good at reading, you can't. You don't have time to understand the words and so you can't. If you can read you can explore books but there is no exploring when you are bad at reading. You can read ponies from long ago when you are good at reading. You dont have to think about how bad you are at reading when you are good at reading. When you read it is fun and it makes you feel better. That's what escaping is thro books. Theres no such thing as escaping through books when you are bad at reading. You can't get anything from reading when you are bad at it.None of it makes sense to you. Everypony else can do something easy that you can't and you are left behind.

After that, she was pretty sure that she just reiterated the whole spiel until her eyelids were being held open by sheer will. But she made it.

In conclusion that is why it is good when you can read, because it makes your life better.

She also somehow made it into bed, but that part was a mystery.

Rainbow Dash slumped her way through the front door.

"Hiya..."

Blink.

"I got a D on my essay. It's not better than an F because the teacher doesn't believe in Fs."

Firefly moved. "You wrote the essay?"

Blink.

"Yeah, last night."

"I'm tired," she added.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash felt like she was getting hugged and her mom was looking guilty. What.

"I'm sorry."

What.

"Rainbow... you don't have to get good grades to make me happy and I'm sorry that I ever made you think that you did."

This confused Dash. Mom said before that she was worried about the grades. Now she's not?

Rainbow Dash looked in her head for a response. "I'm tired," she produced.

She smiled, though, in a small, sleepy way.