Grounded

One

There are certain kinds of horrors, not just scary images or jump scares in horror films. A spine tingling horror where fear and realization envelope you as one. They don't necessarily haunt your nightmares with creepy faces dangling before you nor do they scream right in your face.

Instead, they were a smack of reality. Reality, being a cruel demon to all, was something many wanted to avoid, such as herself. She hid behind any chance to accepting the consequences of her decisions. Four years ago, she left to start her life over for what she was certain was for the better. She did not expect anything to happen beyond that, especially when nopony bothered her in the last few years.

She had no idea how wrong she was, for reality would come to bite her in the flank.

She had just gone through the mundane customs of her everyday life in Manehattan. Having just left work and getting dinner, she walked through the street she went though each and every day, her eyes traveling to the skies above. The clouds dusted the skies with a soft, gentle white. Overall, it was a fairly nice day.

Checking the time on a clock not too far away to be noticeable, she realized it was six fourteen. She had plenty of time to roam around but found it best to just head home and relax. She let out an overdue yawn, work having bested her once again. Who knew serving ponies could be so tiring? Then again, she had done overtime recently for the sake of paying her bills alongside having more cash.

Sighing, she was ready to take the rest of the day to do nothing but sit down and read. Of course, she knew that when he came home, she'd most likely be too busy to do anything. Oh, well.

As she made her way through the rest of the city, she had no idea who was staring at her from a fair distance... until her eyes drifted toward the street the pony stood.

On the other side of the street, the pony just stood and stared; that was all. Ponies hardly ever gave her trouble here unless she asked for it. And they were never so rude as to just stare at her, especially looking for a long period of time. She was about to walk up to the mare when she stopped in her tracks, heart pounding.

Putting simple puzzle pieces together, she realized who it was who stared at her, putting a name to those purple that belonged to matching coat and a violet flowing mane—minus a few pink strands—that almost entirely concealed her horn that proved her unicorn status. It was impossible not to recognize her, even after several years.

In a single moment, upon meeting the eye's of somepony, a life can change. Never is it instant, and hardly anypony can feel just how much a moment like this can bring a new fate about a pony. But one thing she did now was that the mare she was staring at stayed where she was, looking nearly endlessly at poor her, as if her gaze would break her somehow.

Though the fact the mare was motionless unsettled her. While not the most jubilant in their group, she still expected the unicorn to run up to her and encase her in a warm hug, like good friends do. But, no, she did not; at least, not yet. It was as if she was waiting for her to do something. But what?

That much should have been obvious. She should have walked up to that pony, say hi as if it were nothing, as if they hadn't spoken in a long time. They could have enjoyed their reunion since several years, talk about their lives from that point on—

Only it wasn't that case, either, so she found no way to word her explanation for... well, everything. Sweat dropped onto her forehead as she gulped. She, ever the strong and confident, felt no ounce of courage in her to talk to the mare as they played the game of who would move first.

Finally, the mare on the other side of the street lost her patience as well as the game. Her expression was hard to distinguish. Confusion? Relief of seeing her old friend? It didn't matter. What would she do? Accept fate and stay where she was, talk with the pony like the latter wanted to? Well, that in the end, was not significant, either, for she did what she felt best to do... and run.

The pony ran home as fast as her legs could muster. She only slowed when bystanders got in her way, and she barely bothered with apologies, doing everything she could but the obvious to head back home; there, she was certain she would feel safer. Her hooves clicked against the ground it hurried, scattered noises, and she refused to look back.

If the other mare followed her, she made no notice of it, and found the small building she happily called home. She shut the door behind her inappropriately loudly and had an urge to lock the doors, but after some bits of remembrance, kept them unlocked.

After a few seconds of silence reigning and peace beginning to return to her, she released an overdue sigh. Her head gently banged onto the top of her head, wisps of her mane dangling into her vision. Wiping them away, she headed deeper into the room she stood in; the living room. Occupied only with a couch, a wide table and , it was otherwise empty. Being alone made her feel uncomfortable, yet she felt thankful a little. Time to... think.

Though trying to think failed horribly. Only a single one touched her mind, throwing away any other attempts of thinking of what to do now.

Why?

Why, why, why? She couldn't understand. It had been three years; three long years since she had spoken to any of them. It hurt her to leave them so suddenly, yet she was certain she had done the right thing. And she was also certain that once they hadn't talked to her in the course of those couple years, then they had decided to let her go on with her life, the very reason she left.

Or that was at least a small part of it. She checked the clock lying on the wall she was closest to. With it being twenty minutes after four (not at all much change since noticing her), she expected somepony to arrive anytime within twenty minutes. Would the mare try to find her and talk to her in that time? She shuddered at confronting what she tried to hide all these years...

A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought. If it wasn't him, then no doubt it was the unicorn who followed her here. She nearly panicked as an instant reaction but told herself to calm down. To be afraid of talking to this mare was like being afraid of small animals; she never intended to hurt her. Obviously, she was there for a visit, to say hello to her.

Though... why? It had been several years since they even spoke, let alone seen each other. Why now did she decide to pop out of nowhere?

Sighing, she knew that not only her questions could not be answered by herself, but that she could not leave the visitor gone unnoticed. She knew she was here, and not talking to her would only draw up more suspicion. Walking up to the door, she anticipated what would happen once they began talking, knowing questions would pop up. Especially the one she had been asking herself just a few minutes ago: why?

She opened the door to reveal a gently smiling purple pony. The pony's smile widened at the sight of the mare who had moved to Manehattan years ago.

"Rainbow Dash, it's good to see you!" The purple coated mare gave her an embrace.

She backtracked but caught herself, gradually accepting the hug by tapping her hooves against her friend's back. She said as casually as she could, "Yeah, good to see you, too, Twi'."

They separated, and Rainbow brought Twilight in with a hint of hesitance that Twilight did not catch. While she had no grudges against her friend, having her here brought unwanted nervousness about her. Would there be enough time to talk and have her leave before he came home.

"My goodness, I had no idea I'd find you here. Honestly, I thought you had run off to Las Pegasus or something," Twilight chuckled a little. "I mean, you wrote to us in your letters that you were here, but when we tried to visit, we couldn't find you."

Rainbow Dash could only shrug, afraid any other action would involve wincing. She knew exactly what Twilight was talking about. "Well, those were just days where I was busy and stuff. Or I was out of town. Just bad timing, I guess." Be glad your not Applejack, 'cause then you'd be screwed!

"So, how's it going in Ponyville? I must've missed a lot." She sat in the chair opposite to Twilight, grinning in what she hoped was a casual way. She also really wanted to drop this subject.

Twilight took a moment to respond, her face indistinguishable. "Actually, there is, um, something, but I'll get to that later." Rainbow suddenly had a word she hated: later. And still, Twilight remained oblivious to Rainbow's reactions; maybe not as much as changed as she believed. "I mean, not much really has happened that's newsworthy. … Although Pinkie's now in charge of Sugar Cube Corner all by herself."

"No way; what happened?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake just got too busy, and they had another kid, Cream Cake. I think... they're actually here somewhere."

"Seems a lot of ponies from Ponyville like to move here," Rainbow grumbled under her throat.

There was an awkward pause for a minute after Twilight just nodded in agreement. Rainbow cleared her throat, and Twilight kicked her hooves gently against the floor. Finally, Rainbow just stood up and asked, "Want something to eat or something?"as if that didn't make things any less awkward.

Twilight shook her head but thanked her. Silence followed for about the next few minutes, though it felt like decades had passed before Rainbow's patience waned. She groaned and decided to not beat around the bush. "So what did you want to tell me before, anyway?"

Twilight's abrupt reluctance to answer bothered her. She should have known this would happen. Friends just did not pop into your new town for a simple cup of tea and a talk, especially with the way she left. "Why did you leave?" was the obvious question she knew would come around soon.

The Pegasus sighed. If she could make a book of what happened, she very well could—except she'd need someone with writing skills, but that was besides the point. Thoughts of those past years flashed into her mind, but she forced them away, needing to answer her friend before Twilight became concerned and/or suspicious.

"It's, uh, kinda hard to explain."

"Please, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said. "We were all really confused when you left like that. You just left us a note, and that was that. I know it might be hard, but like the others, I really want to know."

"Maybe it's personal. How 'bout that?" she challenged with a sort of snarl releasing from the corners of her lips. The tension in Twilight's voice bothered her.

Thankfully, the unicorn calmed a bit. "Then I understand, but as your friends, we just didn't expect this to happen. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary before you left."

Really? That was debatable. Before the time she left, were the signs that oblivious, or was it just Twilight being, well, Twilight; unable to see things right in front of her face? Did the others think this, though?

Despite Rainbow Dash spacing out with her thoughts, Twilight went on. "You just left a note for us and said to never come find you. We tried to once but never found you. We were actually really worried, but you kept sending letters. The only reason we didn't do anything was because... well, I don't know, but we trusted you were doing fine on your own, I suppose. But... we felt like we had done something to make you leave." Twilight blinked up at Rainbow. "Did we?"

With a flicker of her tail, she groaned aloud. That was taken so wrong. "No, no, that's not why I left at all! I don't hate you guys or anything, seriously; you didn't do a thing. It's... something else. And I don't need anypony shoving it in my face, that's all."

Twilight's face fell. "I wouldn't want to do that. Rainbow, what—?"

There were a number of knocks against the door that disrupted their conversation and, once again, her thinking. There was a pattern to it:

Knock... knock knock... knock.

Rainbow's face paled under her coat, but she had to get the door, of course; who was behind there could not be waited on. Twilight waited on the couch with a blank expression. No turning back, the truth literally awaiting beyond the house entrance.

Shakily, her hoof reached the doorknob, and she gave Twilight a nervous glance, and in response, the unicorn just tilted her head to the side.

Rainbow opened the door and struggled to keep a smile that could be described at least as nice.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash," said the mare standing beside the colt that barely stood up to her chest level. Her smile was welcoming, and Rainbow Dash was grateful she could say somepony in this town was nice enough to be her friend. She was sure her name was something involving a flower of sort. "How's your day been goin'?"

"Eh, fine. Uh, actually, I have somepony over."

The mare peeked into the room, and noticing Twilight, blinked. "Okay, I'll leave you two with Cobalt, then. See you tomorrow, Rainbow Dash," she said, her Manehattan accent noticeable but not as severely thick as she thought when Rainbow first came to the city.

"Cool. See ya' then." With that, Rainbow Dash shut the door with her hind hoof as she let the colt in. At the sight of his bright, wide eyes, her whole mood just changed. It was something about young colts; while not necessarily a newborn filly anymore, his cherubic features remained. They gave him a kind of look that worked a different kind of magic that can just bring joy to anyone who stares.

"Hey, buddy," greeted Rainbow with a wide smile, ignoring the fact her company would question this, the inevitable. She hugged his light blue body with one arm, getting in reaction a burst of laughter. "How was day care?"

"It was awesome!" His words were inspired by an obvious figure. His smile stretched almost entirely across his face.

Twilight, of course, heard this. Her ears perked up, and the gears in her head could probably be heard shifting and moving around. When she processed it all, her pupils shrunk until they were close to being all white. "Rainbow Dash?" Her mouth dangled, any words beyond those two unspoken.

Rainbow didn't know quite what to say at this moment. It was the moment of truth set free into the air.

"Twilight... this is Cobalt, my... kid."

If jaws could drop beyond the capacity bones could move healthily, Twilight's would have cascaded to the floor—no, not even that, but through the floor and into the center of the earth. No words, though her reaction was enough to get what she was thinking. What else could Rainbow Dash say in this situation, this sudden burst of the verity coming out?

"Surprise."

The slightly revised yet still much cleaner version of this chapter can be found on Fimfiction-by all means, go check it out, and tell me what you think, of course.