Perfect Storm: Fall of Rainbow Dash

Rainbow laid face down in the wet grass, rain pounding her from the dark sky. The violent wind ruffled her fur and feathers and whipped her soaked mane against her neck. She needed to get up… Her satchel… Her books… All the brochures.

She spent some time shaking the wet off of her outside of the diner in the light of the neon, trying to look like she didn't live on the streets or had just finished having a little mental breakdown where she stopped caring about everything.

Sitting in her usual spot with her coffee she read through her small collection of pregnancy crisis brochures. She hid them in a larger book to ward off nosey waitresses. The storm raged outside, sending creaks and and shudders through the building.

“I can't be a mom,” she whispered to herself. “Not right now, not like this.” That was a hurdle she just couldn't clear in her mind.

Rainbow picked at a hay burger and fries over the next couple of hours. Her appetite had been waning as of late but she wanted to remain on good terms with the diner staff since it was the only place in town she wanted to hang out at night besides her apartment.

The storm held solid and at one in the morning she left the diner and soldiered back to her apartment. She walked down the dim hall but as she got to her door she was surprised to find a pony waiting for her return. He looked like a derelict seeking shelter from the storm but not the one she feared.

“Rumble?”

The hagared gray Pegasus looked up from his spot sitting against the wall by her locked door.

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled weakly, still damp from the storm after waiting for however long.

“Um… Thunderlane went out drinking again,” he murmured. “Can I stay here just for tonight?”

Her forehead creased. “Why? You can't just run away. I'm probably the first pony he'll ask when he starts looking for you.”

“He won't look for me. I left him a note saying I went somewhere else but that friend is out of town. If he comes home at all tonight, he's just going to yell at me again for something till he passes out. I don't want to be there.”

It felt like every move she made was wrong because everything and everyone was all caught in the same spiderweb.

“He yells at you?” she asked.

“Only when he's drunk. But then he apologizes in the morning.

“He apologizes?” she blinked in disbelief.

“Well he… buys me ice cream or something.”

She felt bad for him, but was this really the best idea? But she couldn't just send him away to… wherever. He probably shouldn't even be outside in such weather.

“Please? I'd rather sleep under a bridge in the rain than go back tonight.”

“You don't have to beg,” she sighed. Rainbow got the key in her mouth and unlocked the door. The two entered her darkened apartment. Rainbow switched on the light and set down her satchel.

Rumble looked around curiously. He'd only been in her home once before. He stopped in front of the couch but before he could decide if he was dry enough to sit, a towel hit him in the face. He looked to rainbow who was already drying herself off.

“You like tea or cocoa better,” she asked, rubbing down her mane.

“Cocoa.”

“I thought so.”

She filled up a kettle and switched on the gas stove.

“So things haven't been going well at your place?”

Rumble threw his damp towel over the back of a kitchen chair and sat down. “Thunderlane is really sad. Like, I've never seen him so sad.”

This was a little surprising. He didn't seem like the type to drown in sorrow. He felt emotionally stunted to her. Maybe that was still true but there was more underneath and the only thing he felt comfortable showing was anger.

Rainbow sat down across from him. “You know what it looks like when we both leave relationships at basically the same time and then you show up at my door late at night?”

Rumble frowned. “Uh, well… when you put it that way-”

“Did you break up with Scootaloo because I broke up with your brother?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn't know what to do at first. I knew we couldn't say anything and I thought maybe we could just forget it happened and move on like normal but everything felt so fake and empty between me and Scootaloo after that. Keeping it a secret felt like it put us in two different relationships. When Thunderlane told me you broke up with him, that's when I finally knew what I had to do. It still doesn't feel right but it feels more right than what I was doing.”

“Yeah, that sounds familiar,” she nodded. “Did you ever think maybe we should tell everyone what happened?”

“Yeah… But I don't want to. It's scary. I don't know what would happen.”

“Welcome to the coward club,” sighed Rainbow. “It's just us.”

“I also feel like that's something we'd have to agree to do together. It's not like one of us can be out while the other stays in.”

“You're pretty smart for your age.” She suddenly felt like she needed to level with him, to tell him why she wasn't flying with the Wonderbolts anymore and why she'd finally dumped Thunderlane. He was safe to confide in and he could handle it, right?

Before she could apply any critical thought, the words were spilling out of her mouth. "You got me pregnant," she asserted flatly.

Rumble stared back at her as the moment coasted to a glacial standstill. "You're joking," he finally retorted.

Rainbow returned a deadpan stare as the conversation sputtered out again and she wished she could just evaporate from existence already. "Yeah," she backpedaled. "Did I get you?" The question came without any of the expected punchline mirth that accompanied most of her pranks and her delivery exemplified all the grace of dumping an old couch by the roadside in the night.

"Almost. A little bit," he admitted as he tried to smile.

The kettle whistled and Rainbow got up. She poured two mugs of hot water and scooped powdered cocoa mix into them. Then she added some cold water to cool them down before stirring.

“Thanks,” said Rumble, receiving his drink over the table. “I wasn't expecting to get cocoa tonight.”

Rainbow slipped her mug as she stared off into infinity.

“It's not okay what I did,” she began morosely. “Drunk as I was. I shouldn't have been drinking at all. I'm really sorry about all this. I hope it hasn't messed you up too much.”

“I could have said no,” he replied.

Rainbow swallowed. “I think legally you can't say yes so it doesn't matter if you don't say no.”

“Yeah, I get that but… I still could have said no. I could have made it impossible.”

Her jaw set with anxious tightness. “What are you saying?”

Rumble stared down at the steam wafting up from his hot cocoa, unable to look at her.

“I- I'm saying if I really didn't want it, I would have told you in some way. You make it sound like you took advantage of me or something but I screwed up too and I wasn't even drunk. I never thought you and me would be in a situation like that and when it just happened I couldn't let that moment get away. I forgot about Scootaloo and I regret that.

Rainbow shook her head in dismay. “I don't know what to say to that. Did you feel that way before you were with Scootaloo?”

Rumble scratched his hoof nervously on the table. "Yeah,” he admitted. “Even before you and Thunderlane were together. I knew it was always just a stupid little fantasy that would never mean anything and I'd never tell anyone. I know where my place is. That's why I was with Scootaloo but then I noticed how dating her actually got me more attention from you and… I liked that but kind of felt guilty about it."

Rainbow’s stomach dropped.

“And then… having things turn out like they did… I didn't want it to be like this. I feel like I ended up trying to use her as a stepping stone or something but that's not what I wanted at all. I really like her. Does that make me terrible?”

Rainbow tried to untangle her brain from his unexpected admission of having a crush on her for some time apparently.

“Rumble, you're brand new to this whole thing so you're going to make mistakes. That's just how life goes. The most important thing I think is that you recognize when you screwed up and you try to be a better coltfriend for the next girl. But if there's only one lesson you take away from all this it's something we didn't even talk about and that's never do a drunk girl you're not dating. That's super important. A drunk pony can't be trusted to make that decision, as you can see.”

“Okay.”

Rainbow scratched her head, wanting to find a distraction to keep them from getting into a discussion about what she thought about Rumble. The situation was already more than enough. “Well, it's late,” she blurted abruptly. We should go to bed.”

She chugged the rest of her drink to help facilitate the process.

“Uh… oh… yeah,” agreed Rumble as if in accord with her thought process. Then he finished his drink too.

Rainbow got up and went to switch the light on in her bedroom. “You can have the bedroom. I'll just-”

“You're letting me have your bed?” he asked, appearing in the doorway behind her.

“Yeah, I'll just sleep on the couch out there. It's fine.”

He looked to the bed with its rumpled, twisted comforter which rarely looked any other way.

“Yeah, sorry it's not made. I wasn't expecting company.”

“I don't mind,” he replied, crawling cautiously onto the bed.

“Goodnight.” Rainbow switched off the light abruptly but left the door open. She turned off the other light and flopped gracelessly on the couch before pulling a fleece blanket over herself and nestling into the seat.

Outside the storm still raged. Graveyard shift would probably let it peter out before morning. Rumble rolled his head onto the pillow and breathed in, almost startled by how much it smelled like Rainbow.

“I feel bad about taking your bed though,” he continued.

“You're the guest,” she grunted apathetically. “So you get the bed. I think that's how it works.”

“But then you don't have a bed. It's not fair.”

Rainbow sighed. She didn't want to make him sleep on the couch or the floor but she also didn't want him to keep fretting about it.

Rumble’s eyes popped open in surprise as the mattress creaked and sank with Rainbow's added weight. Their backs touched with a gentle spark of warmth.

“Does this make you feel any better?”

“Yeah,” he whispered.

Rainbow's eyes opened to the soft, cool light of early morning. The clock said five-forty-eight. Outside it was quiet, quiet enough to hear Rumble breathing in his sleep. They'd migrated in their slumber and his face was now buried in her chest.

She was still tired and wished to go back to sleep but wondered if she should roll back over or just put a foreleg over him and let it be.

Life was now just a daisy chain of shocking events she didn't know how to respond to anymore. Her lament turned from this to that on a dime but at that moment she wished she could rewind so they could just be normal, wholesome friends again without the weight of their mistake. She could tousel his mane again without it meaning anything untoward.

Having a serious conversation with Thunderlane had been scary and emotionally draining but she did it. But talking to Rumble about his feelings for her was somehow even more daunting. She wished she could face her issues one at a time on her own terms. It would be nice if she could just write her thoughts down in a book beforehoof, edit out all her stupid extra stuff and then just read it to him.

Somewhere high in the misty skies above she could hear the distant honking of geese as they passed over Ponyville. They were kind of late to migrate, she thought. Winter was just a few weeks away. But they were going to make it and that was really all that mattered she supposed.

The frenetic sound echoed in her mind, jarring loose an idea. Rainbow’s eyes widened as clarity finally struck her like lightning. She didn't have all the answers but she has a direction and that was all she could ask for. She stole a somber hug from the still asleep Rumble and rolled quietly out of bed.