Rainbow Dash was going crazy. There was nothing to do. She’d already read through every Daring Do book three times. She’d read through books recommended for Daring Do lovers, and even her ‘so bad it’s good’ stash of Sunset Silk’s romance novels. She beat the hoofheld videogame Scootaloo had loaned her, even doing all the sidequests that let you beat the final boss in under a minute.
She realized she was truly bored when she began cleaning just because it was something to do. The line was drawn at reorganizing.
She looked out the window and sighed, stretching her wings, longing to jump into the sky and fly a few laps around the city. If she could, she would be at the Wonderbolt headquarters, training for the next show, maybe trying to add more flair to her Sonic Rainboom.
But she couldn’t. Even if she could perform a Rainboom as she was, no pony wanted to risk what supersonic speeds could do to an unborn foal.
Standard Wonderbolt procedure is to put a mare on maternity leave as soon as she knows she’s pregnant. Dash wasn’t listening when Spitfire had listed off the reasons, but she knew a bad crash could do a lot of damage. Not to mention that even though the Wonderbolts mostly did stunt shows, they were still a specialized military group, and would never put a pregnant mare in battle.
Though she hated not being able to perform, she completely understood. She knew what she was getting into. She was a grown mare, with a husband and everything. A child was the next step in that, and not just because society says so. She wanted a kid, and so did her husband. And between a Wonderbolt and a Doctor there wasn’t a question of ‘affording’ a child.
She did keep flying for a while, even though she restrained from stunt flying and only flew above city limits when making a trip to Cloudsdale. As time went on though, the combination of tiredness, pain, and weight gain, any physical activity began to feel more strenuous than it should. But Rainbow Dash is incredibly stubborn. If she could save the world a few times over, she could manage flying around. Though she did take a few pregnancy-safe painkillers at times.
Then, with the due date growing closer, she was banned from anything more than a gentle hover. She might have protested more if she still lived in a cloudhouse, but eventually she agreed. It used to be that if it doesn’t cause a lot of pain, and no pony had explained the long term effects of not following orders, she would brush off any instructions a doctor would give her.
She chuckled at the thought. After all, ignoring doctor’s orders is exactly how she met Bright Heart. He was the only one who would chase her through town if he knew she was endangering her health. A part of her wondered if she could fly a few laps around the house without him knowing.
She didn’t, of course. It wasn’t just about her anymore. She groaned and went back to finding something to do. Unfortunately, the only thing was to continue cleaning.
She made her way to the next room, her Husband’s ‘office’, and began putting away the books that had been left out, making sure to bookmark any that were left open. There was a small stack of papers on the desk. Unsure on what to do with them, she settled for putting them in piles. Some were bills, of course, and there were a few letters from family and friends.
Most of it was various medical stuff, which went into two piles: Medical files relating to her and the foal, and those that had been Bright Heart working overtime on his patients. She reigned in her curiosity to read those, though she doubted ‘leaving a paper on your desk when your wife barely even dusts the coffee table’ violated patient doctor-patient privilege. Still, she did read through her own papers, stumbling through medical jargon that Bright had explained in terms that made sense to anyone who didn’t go to medical school.
There was one paper in particular that she was incredibly happy about. Well, actually it was a photograph. Like every other expecting parent, they were given pictures from the ultrasound. Theirs showed a developing filly, healthy so far, with no signs of future complications.
As she stared longer, another emotion began to creep in. She wasn’t sure what to call the emotion. It felt a little sad, but she didn’t want to be sad. She shouldn’t feel anything negative looking at this, but she couldn’t really keep it from her mind. She knew exactly what was causing it.
Rainbow Dash had never been one to be called ‘maternal’ in the past. The closest she had gotten was being Scootaloo’s sister-figure. Even so, there were a few times in her life where she imagined her future, with a potential husband and a kid or two. Of course, the husband usually changed depending on who she was interested in. When she was little it had been a guy in her class, when she finally joined the Wonderbolts, she had a short time where she put Soarin in that spot. Since she had fallen for Bright Heart, he’d taken the place in her fantasy.
The imaginary children changed even more than the husband. She came up with different combinations of features; some had her mane and his coat, some were the other way around, some even had her mother’s mane! While they each looked different, the fantasies were always the same. She thought about the kid watching her from the crowd at a show, about seeing them off on their first day of school, the rite of passage that is embarrassing her kid in front of their date. She imagined teaching her kid to fly.
She especially thought about that part. When she taught Scootaloo how to fly, they had bonded to the point where ponies who didn’t know them thought they were siblings by blood. Flight training would be a perfect way to bond with her kid and show her exactly why she loves it so much.
But that was the problem.
According to the tests, her foal was like the father. An Earth Pony. Her kid would never fly. It’s not exactly a ‘problem’, she reasoned to herself. She didn’t hate Earth Ponies like some Pegasai did. She wasn’t angry or disappointed. She was just…
Unprepared. Scared.
That’s the word for what she felt. Rainbow Dash had thought to be prepared for everything that could happen when having and raising a foal. She was prepared for the foal to be tomboyish like her, girly like Rarity, or even an un-athletic bookworm like Twilight. She was prepared for the foal to be any gender, or identify as any gender, or have any sexuality. She was prepared for any disorders or mental challenges the foal could be born with. She was even prepared for any complications that could happen during birth, thanks to Bright.
Yet she hadn’t expected that her foal would be anything other than a Pegasus. Somehow, she hadn’t ever thought that her child could have been something other than a Pegasus.
She wasn’t worried about not loving the kid. Unless they turned into some kind of evil supervillain, it would be pretty hard to not love her. But how would she connect to her? She’d always thought that even if they had nothing else in common, they’d be able to fly together.
Flying is her whole life, it’s so important to her. Stars, she was a Wonderbolt! One of the best Wonderbolts ever! Spitfire had even told her that the only reason she won’t be making her Second in Command and replacement Captain, is because her Status as Element of Loyalty meant that if they were needed for battle, she couldn’t command the group.
She didn’t want her child to think that she had to fly to be loved. If the filly ended up having issues with her lack of flight, because of her, she’d never forgive herself. She’d hate herself even more if it became true, if some part of her began to resent the child who never understood her life’s passion.
What about the reverse? What if her child grew up, and Rainbow never got to know her? Her own child, but a stranger to her because she never understood what she cared about? What if she-
Rainbow was snapped out of her darker thoughts by a kick. The baby’s kick. Still in the womb, and that Earth Pony Strength was already there.
“Trying to tell mom to calm down?” Rainbow said, softly looking down at her very obviously pregnant belly. “Don’t worry. I’m not the anxiety type. Maybe you will be?”
With a sigh, she shuffled through more letters, trying to bury her worries for now. At the bottom of the stack were recently dated letters that were still unopened. She rolled her eyes. In her mind was a clear image of Derpy delivering their mail early while Bright was going over some of his notes, and he just put these at the bottom of the pile to go through later, but forgot them in favor of another cup of coffee.
The first letter was from Bright’s cousin, a mare who almost seemed like ‘the other side of the coin’ to him, being a therapist named ‘Bright Thought’ with far more patience than her cousin. Rainbow still thought their parents should've coordinated the naming better, because she got caught in a loop of ‘this Bright and that Bright’ at every family event.
Putting that one aside, she opened the next one. Her parents had been writing every day the past few weeks, hoping to hear the news that they’d officially be ‘Grandma and Grandpa’. The Due Date wasn’t for another two weeks, and they were sure that this ‘adorable little bundle of joy’ would be just as impatient as their ‘little Dashie’ had been. With a sigh, she wrote a quick letter back and reminded them that she’d be sending Scootaloo or Flash the moment she went into labor, so writing to ask was pointless. She also sighed knowing that wouldn’t stop said letters.
The next was a name she didn’t recognize at first. Flipping it over a few times, she realized it was heavier than most letters. Looking again at the name, it clicked. Velvet, Twilight’s mother. Even though Rainbow had no idea why Twi’s mom was writing to her, she opened the envelope.
Inside was mostly pictures. Shuffling through, she found the letter. Apparently Velvet had found a camera while cleaning, forgotten in a coat winter coat. Out of curiosity she’d developed the film, and found pictures from their last Hearth’s Warming in Canterlot. Velvet, being Velvet, decided to make copies and send them out to everyone.
There were quite a few pictures. Some were snowball fights, others were baking in the kitchen. There were even a few from the Royal Hearth’s Warming Party, with Rainbow and her friends in outfits Rarity had designed, all in Hearth’s Warming reds and pinks.
Somehow, just looking at the picture, one of just her and the girls, she felt her earlier fears melt away.
These five were her closest friends, ponies that might as well be family. She loved them, would do anything to protect them, and knew everything about them, yet they were so different.
Fluttershy had been her friend since Flight Camp, and everyone called them ‘opposites’ in so many ways. Quiet and loud, shy and attention-seeking, calm and angry. Sure, Fluttershy could fly, but there was never the appreciation for it in the way Rainbow had.
Applejack had been both easy and hard to make friends with. They were rivals at first, yet rivalry had quickly turned to real friendship as they spent time in more and more competitions, showing up early or just hanging and talking once both were too exhausted to move, or bickering about music choices and Rainbow’s habit of sleeping in just the wrong tree at the wrong time.
Pinkie had been an easy friend, because she was Pinkie. The mare loved parties, and Rainbow loved going to said parties, always talking as she made rounds. She was a good companion for fun, and a better one for pranks, even if she did zone out when she talked sometimes.
She thought Twilight was a bit of a nerd when they first met, and she was right, but there was this sarcastic streak she loved. While Rainbow would never get the point of reading all of the books that Twilight had, she was glad for an introduction to Daring Do.
And then there was Rarity. In a way, Rarity not only calmed her fears, but almost gave her a kind of hope. Because as much as she cared for Rarity, she couldn’t think of a single thing they had in common. Rarity was the definition of ‘girly’, while Rainbow barely tolerated dresses when she needed them. Rainbow didn’t understand ‘fashion’ and ‘makeup’, but Rarity didn’t understand a thing about sports or even things like Daring Do. Rarity couldn’t fly.
They had nothing in common. And yet, they were best friends. And the thing that hit her most? They did try and understand it, even if they never did. Rarity came to nearly every Wonderbolt show to cheer her on, and despite Rainbow’s internal debate about asking for a tux, she had let Rarity go nuts with the dress, hair, and makeup for her wedding to Bright Heart.
And even her and Bright Heart were different in many ways, other than a stubborn streak so bad that the entire town had to yell at them after they both proposed at the same time and fought over who did it ‘first’. He couldn’t fly either, and would never understand why ponies would willingly pull off stunts that could land them in the hospital, but loved her enough to encourage her career of stupid stunts continued.
She laughed a little at that, thinking that it would have been perfect for one of those old ‘friendship lessons’. You don’t have to have any ‘common interest’ to make a friend, or even a spouse. You just need to care, and to try and understand, even if you don’t. And sure, the relationship would be a bit different, but that should count for a parent and child too. As long as she tried, it should be okay.
The filly moved again, though it felt less like a kick this time. It was more of a tumbling feeling, one she tended to do most often. It felt almost like a heartbeat in a way. Rainbow tapped out the rhythm on the desk, only to feel the filly repeat the action.
“What, find a move you like?” Rainbow talked to the baby. “How about your first Wonderbolt show includes a lot of barrel rolls?”
The filly moved again, making that same heartbeat feeling. Any lingering fear melted away as she talked of exactly what kind of stunt show she’d put together just for her little one’s show. She spoke of not only barrel rolls, but dives and flips, and of course a Sonic Rainboom that she’d make even cooler for her.
Maybe she went on too long, but to be fair, it was better than going back to cleaning.
She wasn’t quite as impatient as ‘little Dashie’ had been, yet after a good few hours of pain and now a lot of exhaustion, there was a little filly in her arms.
The little Earth Pony was now sleeping, but Rainbow knew she had her dad’s bright green eyes. Her coat matched Rainbow’s perfectly, a blue that she would never call ‘pretty’ when referring to herself, but looked beautiful on her tiny girl. The mane was a little surprising, as it hadn't been fully one way or the other. She could pick out the six different colors of the rainbow, but all desaturated due to the father’s grays. Combined color genetics in offspring were rare, but Rainbow just boasted that it was her own awesomeness rubbing off on the kid already.
Bright had left the room for a moment, attempting to calm down Rainbow’s parents excitement a bit before letting them into the room to meet their granddaughter. On one hoof, she knew it wouldn’t work. On the other, she knew they’d wake her up, and she wanted just a little more of this peaceful moment. Preparing herself a bit more, she used her wing tip to brush the filly’s mane, never imagining that she’d be the ‘fussily tidy up the kid’ type of mom.
“Hey there, little Heartbeat,” Rainbow smiled.
Author's Note
This has been in my drafts for a while, and I finally managed to finish it. A lot of fun over all thoguh.
By the way, here's picture references for Bright Heart and Heartbeat~~(Actually, that's an old pic and I desaturated her mane a bit more, but it's still relatively accurate)~~
