Great Expectations
“Girls!” Princess Twilight Sparkle burst through the heavy doors of the Ponyville Palace where most of her friends were already assembled.
“Yes? What is it, darling?” Rarity worriedly looked up from filing her hooves, comfortably reclined in the throne marked with the same three gemstones that adorned her flank.
“Everythin’ okay, sugarcube?” Applejack put in, showing similar concern. It took a lot to get Princess Twilight worked up, but she looked like she’d just seen a ghost.
“Is Rainbow alright?” Fluttershy softly piped, alarm creeping into her voice, possibly due to her skittish demeanor. All of the girls had been called in for a meeting, but when Rainbow Dash never showed, Twilight had wandered off in search of her. So when the alicorn returned in a frenzy, they naturally assumed the worst.
“The baby!” Twilight panted. “The baby’s coming!”
* * *
Soarin’ paced in the waiting room. He’d left Dash only for a moment while he ran down to Sugar Cube Corner. He hoped to surprise her with breakfast in bed, complete with her favorite treats before her meeting with Princess Twilight at the castle. The next thing he knew, he was receiving word from Nurse Redheart that his wife was in the delivery room, their first child on the way.
‘I never should have left her,’ he chided himself. Why, Dash must’ve had to fly herself to the hospital, with child! Sure, Dash was tough, and she could take care of herself, but still. He should’ve been there. He’d wanted to be there. This was a big moment for them both, and he had strived to be there every step of the way. But since Dash was in the middle of the delivery when he arrived, the doctors wouldn’t let him in to see her until the baby had been delivered.
Was it a boy or a girl? Would it look like him? Would it look like Dashie? Soarin’ smiled at the thought, and decided it would be much better for their foal to take after its mother. She was so beautiful, so strong, so free-spirited. She was also the fastest pony he’d ever met. With Soarin’s own genes added into the mix, this baby was sure to make an incredible athlete.
Soarin’ shook the thought from his mind. While the thought of his young protégé following in their hoofsteps made his chest puff with pride, he remembered what pressure his parents had put on him when he was training to become a Wonderbolt. They placed so much weight and responsibility on his shoulders that his daily workouts actually became unenjoyable. Everyone expected him to make the Wonderbolts, win championships, and just generally become the best, so all he ever did was train. That was the only thing he had time for. It consumed him, and as he watched the other colts and fillies play and hang out with their friends, he was beginning to wonder whether or not joining the Wonderbolts was really for him. It wasn’t until he found his cutie mark, made the team, and found that happy medium between training and spending time with his pals that he realized he was on the right path after all.
All the same, he never wanted to put that kind of pressure on his own son or daughter. He wanted to support their child in whatever it was s/he decided to take up, be it star gazing, construction, or athletics. Soarin’ winced as he realized it might be a bit harder to convince Dash to do the same.
“No worries, Junior, I’ll keep her off your tail,” he bemusedly smiled to himself, quite enjoying the idea of a Soarin’ Junior. Then he frowned. Oh, Celestia! They hadn’t even thought of a name yet!
“Has the baby arrived?” The doors to the waiting room was nearly flung off its hinges, and a group of five familiar and flustered mares charged in. Soarin’ chuckled. Of course his wife’s closest friends would be the first on the scene. Besides him, of course. He was about to address them when Nurse Redheart emerged, beaming wide.
“Soarin’?” she summoned, the look on her face relaying all that the proud father needed to know. He gleefully pranced after her as she led him to Rainbow’s room, not even bothering to conceal his joy. The girls squealed vivaciously behind him and frolicked along. They were acting so garishly, childishly even, that Redheart instantly picked up on their trying to tag along. The earth pony stopped dead in her tracks, turning on the hitch hikers.
“Immediate family only,” she flatly informed, shooing the girls back. One of Redheart’s most outstanding features was that she wasn’t afraid of being blunt. Not even to the princess.
“But-!” Twilight started to argue. Before she could protest further, she and the rest of the girls were pushed back out to the lobby. Soarin’ cast her a semi-apologetic glance through the window, too elated to extend true remorse. Without further ado, Nurse Redheart led Soarin’ to greet the newest member of his family.
* * *
“Soarin’!” Rainbow looked exhausted and slightly disheveled from the ordeal of birthing the baby, but that didn’t keep the joyous glow from returning to her eyes as her husband sprinted through the door. Her face flooded with relief when she saw him- it was evident that even the strong-willed, independent Rainbow Dash needed support at a time like this.
“Dashie! Is the baby-?” Soarin’ didn’t get to complete the thought before he laid eyes on the crib, the face of his beautiful baby boy swaddled in a blanket. “Oh, Dash, he’s beautiful!” A tear slid down Soarin’s blue-tinted cheek. Never before had his eyes met a sight so exquisite. The foal was sound asleep, already snoring quietly. Soarin’ sniggered. He’d been scolded multiple times by his wife for the same offense- his son must be taking after him in that respect. In fact, the colt already took after him not just in mannerisms, but also in appearance.
The baby had a pale coat, even paler than Soarin’s. He was nearly cloud white. He had only a wisp of navy hair atop his head, but when Soarin’ looked close, he could see scattered stripes of Dashie’s spectrum flecked throughout the thin locks. Soarin’ would soon learn that their son had inherited his wife’s gorgeous rose colored eyes. “I’ve never seen something so perfect,” he crooned, tugging away the blanket to get a better view of the baby’s face.
“Soarin’, there’s something you need to know,” Dash bit her lip, face flushing with what might have been shame. Soarin’ didn’t seem to notice.
“What are we going to call him?” the father went on. “Look at his coat! It’s as white as a cloud! What about Nimbostratus?”
“Soarin’-” Rainbow protested.
“You’re right, too long. How about just Stratus? Or Cirrus? Hay, we could call him Fog, short and sweet. What do you say?”
“Let’s not name him after a cloud,” Rainbow played with her mane.
“Well, okay…” Not deterred at all by his wife’s lack of enthusiasm, Soarin’ continued to try and think up the perfect name for his perfect son. “He is more of a snow white, isn’t he? How about Snow Drift? Blizzard?”
“It might be a good call to stay away from weather-related names, too.”
“What for?” Soarin’ was finally becoming a bit confused. “Pegasi specialize in monitoring the weather! How could you go wrong?”
“He’s not a pegasus, Soarin’.”
“W-What?” Soarin’s pupils constricted in both shock and surprise. How could his son not be a pegasus? He and Rainbow were both pegasi, were they not? She hadn’t… she would never…
“Did you… Am I…?” Soarin’ gulped at the words that were about to escape his lips. “Am I even the father?”
“Of course!” Dash burst, her voice almost tinged with anger. “What kind of mare do you think I am?! Hay, I’m the Element of Loyalty! I wouldn’t abandon my husband for some stallion that’d stoop low enough to have an affair with someone else’s wife!”
“Good,” Soarin’ heaved a shaky sigh of relief, and returned to the crib. “Then how did this happen?”
“Your family has been purebred pegasus for generations,” Rainbow slowly reasoned, guilt flooding her whole disposition. “Which means it must have come from my side. My great grandfather was an earth pony. Soarin’… I’m so sorry! I should’ve told you I came from a mixed bloodline. But I was just afraid…” she bit her lip and willed the tears not to fall.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Soarin’ bounded to her bedside in an instant. “What could you possibly have been afraid of? That I wouldn’t be interested after learning that you aren’t a purebred?” He actually snorted in amusement and held her close, cradling her head, and running his hooves through her glorious mane as her warm tears slowly soaked his own fur. “What does that matter? I love you for who you are, Dashie. I couldn’t care less if you were purebred or inbred. You’re you, my one and only, totally unique Rainbow Dash.”
“But it’s not just me, Soarin’,” Rainbow sniffed, pushing him off. “Think of the baby! Only pegasi can walk on clouds- we live in a cloud!”
“So we’ll move,” Soarin’ assured. “Find a cozy cottage somewhere local. I kinda like the quaint apartments down Horseshoe Bend in Ponyville. That’ll keep you close to the castle and the both of us that much closer to Cloudsdale for practice.”
“Speaking of which, the both of us are Wonderbolts, now. Everypony expects our foal to follow in our hoofsteps. An earth pony can never qualify!”
“Dash, we talked about this.” Soarin’ forced her fearful, wet orbs to meet his gaze, gently wiping away her tears while he was at it. “Yes, we’re Wonderbolts, so naturally everyone assumes he’s going to take after us. But that’s his choice- his destiny. No one is going to choose his path for him. He may not qualify for the Wonderbolts, but that doesn’t leave him without options. If he does decide to become an athlete, there are still plenty of competitions and teams for ponies of all types. At any rate, our speed and his earth pony strength will give him a leg up in whatever he decides to do.”
“I’m scared, Soarin’,” Dash softly wept. The stallion’s heart wrenched within his chest. It took a lot to shake up Rainbow, and he couldn’t stand to see her like this. She was usually so strong and bold and proud. Now she was completely lost. Parenthood was still a new concept to them both, but even he had to admit, this did pose a few new creative challenges to the mix. He wanted more than anything to take her in his arms, rock her, and assure her that everything would be okay. But truthfully, he couldn’t even be sure that things would be okay.
He had no idea how to raise a child, let alone one of another breed. Would it be the same as raising a pegasus or completely different? Would they share any of the same interests? Now, he would never know the joy of teaching his son to fly, to navigate the wind currents and dance through the sky. He would never be able to shape cloud sculptures and tour the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. Soarin’ wouldn’t get to watch him clear the sky for the first time, or experiment with tornadoes and rainstorms.
“I’m scared too, Dash,” he confessed. Rainbow’s weary frame sagged even more, as though hoping for another answer. For Soarin’ to reassure her, comfort her, ease her uncertainty somehow. Realizing that he didn’t have the answers she sought just caused the existing anxiety to worm even further into the pit of her stomach, tying more knots and scaring up even more butterflies.
“I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do with a pegasus colt, honestly, and I’m totally lost when it comes to earth ponies. But he’s still our son,” he again forced their eyes to meet. “And I will love him with every fiber of my being, regardless of breed. Earth Pony? Unicorn? He’s still our perfect boy. And we’ll figure it out along the way, I promise. Somehow, we’ll make it work.” These words finally seemed to soothe Rainbow Dash, as the tears had stopped falling and she was no longer slumped but snuggled into Soarin’s side.
“Thanks, babe,” she almost inaudibly sighed, starting to drift off into sleep. “I love you.”
“You can’t go to sleep yet, Dash. We haven’t picked out a name yet, and Nurse Redheart will be back any minute to fill out the birth certificate,” he laughed, gently shaking her back to reality. As if on cue, the mare waltzed in with the slip of paper clenched between her teeth.
“So? What’s the cutie’s name?” she expectantly whispered, fearful to wake the resting child.
“How about Scout?” Soarin’ suggested.
“Scout?” Rainbow’s nose wrinkled as she considered the suggestion. A smile tugged at the corners of Soarin’s mouth. She looked so cute when her face scrunched up like that.
“Think about it. A scout is sent out to come back with information, usually about how to navigate through an area. Well, we sure need all the help we can get navigating our way through parenthood. Our son is probably the best pony we could ask.” Rainbow looked over their boy one last time, finally able to proudly beam at the precious life they’d just brought into the world.
“Scout it is then,” she barely had time to murmur before sleep finally overtook her. Nurse Redheart acknowledged the request with a slight dip of the head, quickly scrawled Scout’s name and signed hers on the line, and departed.
Soarin’ lightly kissed the top of Rainbow’s head, one arm wrapped around her shoulder while the other cradled their newborn.
“Welcome to the world, Scout.”
