"Rainbow, I really don't want to do this."
"I don't care if you wanna do this or not." was the response from the rainbow-maned pegasus as she pushed her coltfriend towards the door of his parents' house. "You are going in there to talk with your mother and clear out this retarded misunderstanding." It was now early evening. Paint's mental breakdown occurred a few hours ago, and despite having already decided to literally make him talk things out with his mother Rainbow Dash knew she better wait a while for him to calm down.
"Dash…"
"Don't 'Dash…' me, it's not going to work this time." She sighed and stopped shoving him towards the door. "Look, I can't force you to tell me why you ran away and I can't force you to go there and talk to your mother either, but I think you can't just keep yourself isolated from them now that they've moved here. If you ask me, you should go there and tell her exactly how you feel or you'll end up regretting it." There was a short pause during which he looked at her undecidedly. "Trust me."
Paint could suddenly remember how he had never met Rainbow Dash's parents or heard talk of them before, and something made him feel as if his marefriend knew what she was talking about. "Alright."
She smiled and he smiled back before walking over to the door and knocking. "You're doing the right thing."
They both expected one of the maids to the door but it was actually Paint's mother who opened it. "Hey dear!" she exclaimed, sounding cheerful as ever as she embraced the two pegasi in front of her. "Come in, come in!" before either of the two had a chance to react she had her hooves around them and pulled them both inside, kind of in the manner Pinkie Pie would have pulled them. After closing the door she smiled at them and said, "Come this way, I just made a fresh jug of tea!" she went ahead and walked down a corridor which was probably the one that led to the living room. Paint felt somewhat embarrassed. His mother was the awkward type of mother. Some of you might know what I'm talking about. Rainbow Dash only chuckled and nudged him in the shoulder before they both followed the older earth pony.
The corridor was long, which once again added to the whole picture of the house turning out to be even larger than what it appeared to be on the outside. They eventually reached the living room, which was quite big. It was already filled with furniture, very fancy furniture indeed, but despite that it was still very roomy. There were comfortable looking chairs as well as a long sofa which were located in half a circle around a fireplace. Between the chairs and the fireplace was a small table on which the jug of tea and a few cups were placed. "Sit down dears!" said the jolly mare, pouring tea into three cups before sitting down as well. The cups and the jug had big handles, which allowed anypony to simply hold it by putting his / her hoof through the handle. "Paint, you left so suddenly without saying everything earlier today that I was worried for a moment. But Rainbow Dash said that you had some work to do."
Rainbow Dash noticed the mare was looking at her and smiled, feeling rather awkward. "Yeah, uh, he did."
"You're such a dear." said the mare with a smile, causing the cyan pegasus' cheeks to turn slightly red. She looked back at her son, "I was planning to write to your father and brother to tell them that you're here, but you seem to have beaten me to it. Elisa came back a while ago with a letter to your brother which she said you've written, so I made sure to have it sent right away."
"Thanks mom." To be honest he didn't have any problem being in his mother's company at all. He never did.
Rainbow Dash meanwhile looked at the cup of tea in front of her. She sat there examining it as if it was an alien, just like she stared at almost everything in the Carousel Boutique the first time she had been there. She slowly picked it up and again stared at it as if it was something disgusting like mascara, having never tasted tea before. After a short hesitation she went ahead and slowly tasted it. It wasn't bad like she thought it would be. In fact it was quite tasty. Paint was about to say something else but didn't know how to say it. Rainbow Dash noticed and got up, "Will you excuse me for a moment? I'll be right back."
"Of course dear." said Paint's mother with a smile. Rainbow Dash placed the cup down and began to leave the room only to return after a few seconds, pick up her cup of tea again, smile apologetically and then leave, closing the living room's door behind her. Paint's mother chuckled, "What a nice girl!" she nudged her son with an elbow (or front knee, however you feel like calling it), "Didn't I always tell you you're good looking?"
"Mom…" he said nervously as he rubbed the back of his head with a hoof, feeling his cheeks turn red.
"Sorry dear, you know I can't help it." They both fell silent for a while before she noticed that her son looked a little troubled. "Is there something on your mind that's bothering you?"
Her son hesitated for a moment before taking in a deep breath, realizing that Rainbow Dash was right and that he would feel better after he had said what he had in mind. "Yes."
"Well, tell me honey; you know I'm here for you."
Again he hesitated. "It's… It's about Emerald…"
"Your baby sister?" asked his mother before smiling, "Isn't she just the cutest foal you've ever seen?"
"Yes mom, she's really cute, but that's not it…"
"Then what's wrong?" asked she, again looking concerned.
"I…" he didn't know how to say what he wanted to say. How was he going to say that he felt as if he was replaced as soon as he was gone? "Look, mom, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. You know that I haven't been too happy before I ran away." He saw her opening her mouth to say something but he cut her short, "Please mom, we both know it's true. I just can't help but… With how you became pregnant as soon as I left… I can't help but feel as if I've been replaced…"
His mother's jaw dropped. "Honey, you know it's not true! I missed you terribly; I was worried sick about you!"
Paint began feeling a little bad for saying what he had just said, because he could tell that his mother was telling him the truth. After all, she was so happy when she saw him that she cried! "I know you were mom, I know you were." There was a short pause, "But I wasn't talking about you."
His mother looked at him silently for a moment before realizing what he meant, "Oh, dear, you can't be serious…"
"I am serious mom. Let's face it. No matter how I tried I could never please him. He never once told me he loved me or even smiled in my direction."
"Is that why you ran away?" she asked, again after a pause.
"Yes…" he looked away from her with a sigh, "I just… I just couldn't handle it anymore to the point where I was sick, don't you remember?"
"Yes, I remember." A few weeks before Paint ran away he would often fall ill as a result of distress. There was even one time where he was seriously ill to the point where it concerned the doctors. "Honey, I'm so sorry… I can't believe I've never noticed that you were so unhappy…"
"I don't blame you mom, I know how much you love dad." It can actually be emphasized into saying that Paint would have been the happiest pony alive if he could have had just one percent of the affection his father always gave to his mother. His father was a caring husband as well as a loving father to his brother, but never to Paint himself.
"I'm sure he'll be more than happy to find out we found you again."
"Do you really think so?" he asked, not sounding too confident in what his mother had just said. He was about to ask whether his father missed him, but felt as if he shouldn't for the sake of his own fragile mental condition.
"Of course he will! And your brother will be so delighted that he'll drop everything and come to see you as soon as he finds out you're here!"
"Mom, isn't Silver always busy studying?"
"Don't be ridiculous, you were always more important to him than anything else in the entire world! If only you had seen how upset he was when you were gone!"
Paint's ears flattened against his head. He knew that he could believe that. "I know…" His mother smiled and embraced her son. "I'm sorry mom… I'm sorry I just ran away like that without even saying goodbye…"
"Oh, it's okay dear, we're back together now." There was silence after that and the hug ended after a few moments. While Paint was feeling a lot better like Rainbow Dash expected, he was still a little upset. Everything seemed great now, but he was quite apprehensive about how everything will look once his father and brother moved there from Canterlot. Rainbow Dash re-entered the room after a few more moments. Paint figured that she was waiting for him to finish talking with his mother so to not interrupt their conversation. Once she was sure that the "hard" part of the conversation was over she went ahead and came back into the room, and she was happy to see that Paint really was feeling better than he was before. The rainbow-maned pegasus went ahead and sat down on the chair closest to the one her coltfriend was sitting on. Paint's mother smiled at them, "Aren't you two the cutest couple!"
The two pegasi's cheeks again turned red. "Mom…"
"Sorry, sorry!" she said, chuckling. "I guess that's why you came here then? To talk to me?"
"Pretty much…" he felt like he should give his marefriend the credit she deserved, "Well, Rainbow Dash was the one who encouraged me to come… I didn't really want to but she convinced me that I should."
"Aw, that's just so sweet of you!"
"It's the least I could have done ma'am…" said Rainbow Dash with a somewhat timid smile, because being around her coltfriend's mother was quite weird.
Paint had his saddlebag on him, and it was still packed with all of his belongings. His mother noticed the saddlebag he was carrying and became confused. "Are you going anywhere?"
Paint became a little nervous and didn't know what to say, because it actually seemed as if he was about to run away again. Rainbow Dash went ahead and said, "Oh, it's nothing ma'am, he's… He's moving in to live with me."
"Oh." She smiled, "That's just wonderful!" Paint only looked at Rainbow Dash with a look of 'I am?', but he had to admit that it was a pretty nice save. "How long have you two been together?"
"Six months." said Paint.
"Six months!" exclaimed the older mare in delight.
"Yes mom…" he said with a sigh, feeling rather embarrassed by her.
"Sorry, sorry!" she looked at Rainbow Dash, "Where do you live?" she looked concerned for a moment, "Not far away right?"
"Oh, no," said Rainbow Dash, "it's located right above us; you'll be able to see your son every day."
"Oh, that's just grea- wait, above us? Oh! Right! Pegasi live on the clouds, how could I have forgotten that!" she chuckled, "Silly me!" She looked outside the window and noticed that it was getting quite dark outside. "It's getting quite late. How time flies from time to time!"
"Yes mom, it does." Said Paint with a chuckle, "I guess we should head off now."
"Of course dear, of course." They all got up and she hugged him again, "Promise me you'll come see me again tomorrow."
"Of course I will mom." said he with a smile.
"Do you need me to show you to the door?"
"No mom, we'll be fine." His mother smiled at them once more before leaving the living room. Paint looked at Rainbow Dash with a smile. "You were right; I do feel better, thanks."
"See? I told you it was nothing but a misunderstanding." She chuckled and walked over to him, "This only shows that you should listen to me more often."
"Yes, looks like I should." He grinned and nuzzled her, causing her to giggle. "It really is getting late, we should probably get going."
"Yeah, probably." She played with his mane with one of her hooves, chuckling. "I bet I'll get there before you do."
Paint raised an eyebrow, "Get to where?"
Rainbow Dash giggled again. His clueless expression was always amusing. "My house."
"Oh, I forgot…" he smiled, "You know, living together sounds like it's going to be great. We'll be able to see each other much more often."
"What about Sweet Apple Acres?"
"I told Applejack I'll still come help them out from time to time. It's the only way I can repay them for all they've done for me until now." He would also need to find an actual job in order to pass his time with and in order to make some money.
"Well, we should hurry."
"Hurry?"
"Yeah…" she said, looking at him in the eyes, "You know, so that you can… settle in…"
Paint stared at her for a few moments before realizing what she was saying. "Oh, settle in…" he smiled at her and she smiled back at him.
Their moment was interrupted when the voice of Paint's mother reached them from the other room. "Make sure you use protection!"
Paint facehoofed.
The two pegasi arrived at the door of Rainbow Dash's cloud house later that evening. Paint was still feeling extremely embarrassed because of what his mother had said just before they left. "Look, uh… I'm really sorry about my mom being… Well… embarrassing in every possible aspect of the word."
Rainbow Dash chuckled as she opened the door and they both walked inside. "Don't worry about it." Sure, it was probably the most embarrassing situation in the entire universe, but that was already part of the past. "I like your mom, she's so nice."
Paint sighed as he closed the door of the house after entering, "I know, but sometimes I wish she would be less awkward…"
"Why don't you take off that saddlebag already? I'm getting tired just by looking at you carry it."
"Where can I put it?" even though he didn't have many belongings, it still felt great to finally take that thing off his back.
"Wherever you want, just don't leave it on the floor. I think the bedroom will do." She shot a wink in his direction which caused him to laugh nervously, but he went ahead and listened to his marefriend anyway.
He had been in her home a few times and therefore had already seen it before, but everytime he was there it amazed him how everything was made out of clouds, even the furniture! The stallion smiled as he entered the bedroom and saw Rainbow Dash's pet turtle lying on the floor. The first time he was there he was quite confused about how was the turtle able to live in a house that was made entirely of clouds without falling down, and Rainbow Dash explained that Twilight found a way to put her cloud-walking spell on Tank's food. Rainbow Dash would often take him down so that he could walk around a little rather than sit on clouds all day long. The blue stallion liked the turtle, because anypony had to admit that he was adorable. More importantly Tank didn't seem to dislike him, so all was well and peaceful.
Rainbow Dash entered the room after a few moments. She flew over to Tank and picked him up with a smile, "I just noticed that your water bowl was empty so I filled it up." She rubbed her nose against the turtle's for a few seconds and then carried him outside, probably so to help him quench his thirst faster and to save him the walk. Paint couldn't help but smile whenever he saw her with her pet. The cyan mare returned after a few moments and closed the door behind her. "You know, your mother's really happy to have you back now."
"I know she is." He said, nuzzling her as she sat down beside him. "I couldn't help but notice that you came back into the living room as soon as we were done talking though…"
"Okay, I kind of listened…" her ears flattened against her head, "I'm sorry, it's just that I couldn't bear not knowing anything about your past, especially now that your family moved into Ponyville…"
"I'm not angry Rainbow. Besides, now you know why I ran away." he sighed, "My father hates me."
"I'm sure you're overreacting…" she said, rather hopefully.
"Trust me. You'll see, when he and my brother move here in a few weeks I'm quite sure you'll dislike him." He chuckled, causing her to smile.
"See; it's not all that bad. You'll see your brother again soon." She licked him on the cheek once before walking over to her bed, "You can put your bag here in the corner so that we can unpack it in the morning."
Paint placed he saddlebag in the corner like he was told before looking around. "Rainbow, where am I supposed to sleep?" he turned to face her and saw that she had already climbed into bed.
"Here, with me." She said, letting out a fake yawn and looking at him with a smile.
"Oh…" he went ahead and lay down beside her, but something was telling him that they weren't going to go to sleep anytime soon.
A/N: Sorry about having Paint's mom shout that last one right before Paint and Rainbow Dash left, I just thought it would be funny and I felt like I had to do it. Thanks again to those of you who follow and review!
