A/N: sorry about the title, I couldn't think of anything better T_T
Chapter ten: Talk of Maternal Instincts
As morning came, Pinkie started waking up. She usually wakes up around 6:30, to help with everything in the bakery downstairs. "Lucky, you have school. You gotta wake up.", Pinkie said. Lucky opened her eyes, then looked at Pinkie. "What time is it?" "6:30", Pinkie answered. Lucky then nodded, then her and Pinkie got up, Gummy had stayed in his bed last night.
They went downstairs, Lucky saw the Cakes. "Mornin'.", Lucky said. "Well good morning you two. Did you sleep ok Lucky?", Mrs. Cake asked. Lucky nodded. As Lucky was eating, Rainbow came in. Lucky grinned widely when she saw Rainbow. "Hi Rainbow!" Rainbow smiled, "Hey kiddo. How did you like sleeping at AJ's, Twilight's, and Pinkie's?" "I loved it. I had fun.", Lucky replied. "Good, I'm glad. Pinkie wasn't too energetic for you was she?" Lucky shook her head.
"Ok. Did you meet the twins?" Lucky smiled and nodded, then said after she finished her mouthful, "They're so cute. It's funny though. One's a pegasus and one's a unicorn, though their parents are earth ponies." Rainbow tilted her head. "They didn't explain why?" Lucky shook her head, "No, because I didn't ask." "Hmm, well. It's because some relatives of theirs are pegasi and unicorns." "Oooh. Ok." Lucky then finished up eating, so she could fly again.
"Oh Lucky, I made an appointment for the doctor's. You go on Friday in the morning. 10:00." Lucky groaned. "Why?" "You have to get checked up. We need to see where you're at in everything. He also asked if you had your medical records." Lucky thought for a second. "I think so." "Well, we'll check when you get home from school. You can't now because you need to get your things." Lucky smiled. "They're already ready. I didn't have homework yesterday, so everything stayed in my desk at school.
"Alright. It's about 7 right now, so we have a little bit of time." Lucky nodded, "I also met Zecora for real yesterday. She talked funny. I knew what she was saying though. I also met Pinkie's pet alligator Gummy. He's cute." "Glad you think so. A toothless alligator still kinda is weird to me. I never even heard of one like that." Pinkie then said, "Me either, until I found him. I got used to it as time went on. Now I find him adorable." Rainbow shrugged.
"Want to fly to school?", Rainbow asked. "Yeah, let's go. It'll take me a little bit if I fly." Rainbow and Lucky went outside after thanking Pinkie and Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and grabbing the saddlebags. Then Rainbow went 6 feet in the air. Lucky did the same. Then she hovered for 5 minutes, the time being then 7:10. "Alright, let's take off." They flew all the way to school. "Great Lucky. By the time you're 10 you might be able to pull of all my tricks I learned throughout the years."
"That would be awesome!", Lucky said. "Yeah, it really would be." "Well, I should go in. Bye Rainbow, see ya later.", Lucky said, as she went in the school. Rainbow waved, then she took off for Rarity's as soon as she knew Lucky was in the school. 'I hope Rarity doesn't rope me into modeling her dresses again. That last experience was awful, yuck.', Rainbow thought to herself. She arrived at Rarity's place and fluttered down to in front of the door. Then she knocked. "Just a second!", she heard. Almost a minute and Rarity opened the door. "Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. What brings you here?" "Nothing.", Rainbow said.
Rarity raised an eyebrow. She knew something was up, just by the tone of Rainbow's voice. "What's wrong Rainbow? Something's on your mind." Rainbow walked in. "It's nothing, really." "Stop right there Rainbow. Tell me, or I'll force it out of you." Rainbow gave Rarity a look. "You wouldn't dare." Rarity shrugged and said, "Desperate times do call for desperate measures. This seems desperate enough." Rainbow huffed. "Ok fine. I don't know Rarity. I just don't." Rarity looked confused, "What don't you know?" "I don't know. This feeling of mine I guess."
"Ok, that's a start. I guess. What feeling towards who?" Rainbow looked seriously, "Don't take it the wrong way, but Lucky. I always feel so protective, I always looked through the clouds at her playing, making sure she didn't get hurt when I was on weather duty. It's a feeling unlike any other that I've felt. Like, it's kind of like a feeling of bonding. I always call her 'kiddo', no pony else does though, right? Well, and also, me taking care of her in my own home, I'm her primary caregiver, but I kinda feel like I'm something more of a primary caregiver. And the times she's called me 'mama' though she didn't know she was, I felt happy. I kinda liked the idea of being called that I guess you could say….. I dunno."
Rarity looked a little surprised, but then she thought about what Rainbow told her. "Well, if I am thinking correctly….. I could call up Twilight to come over and give another opinion on my thought, but I'd say that you have a feeling of maternal instinct. You know she doesn't have parents, she's only 5 years old, which is really young for a foal to be without any parents, and even the fact you're her main caregiver. You feel attached to her like she's attached to you. She sees you as a parental figure, as well as Applejack, and you see her as your own foal. It isn't rare for anypony to feel like that in your situation.
"I'd say what you feel would be natural. Picture this, a pony who is out on her own, old enough to be out of her parent's house, has found a very young foal who is parentless, and taken that foal into her care. After a while of having the foal in her home, say maybe 5 months, she starts feeling attached to the foal, feeling her maternal instincts kick in. Yours just happened to kick in sooner than expected really. That though is basically the gist of it." Rainbow lets what Rarity said to her sink in. Rainbow then nodded slowly, seeming to let that idea sink in.
"Ok… ok, let's say you're right. What do I do?" "Just keep doing what you're doing." Rainbow looked a bit skeptical at Rarity's answer. "That's it? I thought your answer would be more than that." Rarity just shrugged and said, "I don't know what else to tell you Rainbow. You can't really adopt her can you? You're only…. 17 right? You'd be lucky to even be old enough to be her big sister." Rainbow just raised an eyebrow this time. "Ok, you're how old? 20 right? Yeah, you're 20 and your little sister is 7.
"That's a 13 year difference Rarity. I'm 17 and Lucky's 5. that's….. um. That's 12 years difference. Oh…. well… I guess my point is moot then hehe. My bad. I guess you're right. Well…. unless she starts calling me mama or at least Rainbow-mama, I guess I'm fine for now. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and not tell anypony else about my maternal instincts with her, well…. maybe except Applejack." Rarity just said, "Yes, well… somepony might find out eventually, the way you are with her. Some ponies can see right through you sometimes Rainbow dear." Rainbow looked at Rarity in disbelief. "Are you kidding? Tell me you're kidding. I am not somepony who can be seen through. I am a solid wall of feelings. I can hide my feelings really well."
"Oh yeah? We all saw how you were with Applejack, we all knew it was a matter of time before you two ended up together. So don't tell me you can hide your feelings, because sometimes you can't." Rainbow just let it go, "Fine, well… I should probably get going. I wanna see Fluttershy too. See how Tank is. Knowing he's in Fluttershy's care he'll be good, I just want to see him." Rarity nodded. "Ok then, think about what I said though, ok?" Rainbow nodded, then flew off towards Fluttershy's place as soon as she got out the door. Fluttershy was outside when Rainbow arrived. "Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy looked to where she heard her name be called. "Oh hi Rainbow. What brings you here?" "I wanted to see Tank. Where is he?" Fluttershy led Rainbow to her pet. "Hey Tank, sorry I haven't seen you lately buddy. I just been busy with a small filly and weather duties." Tank blinked and smiled, just happy that he can see his owner. "Rainbow, your expression, it looks like a cross between happy and thoughtful.", Fluttershy said. "Huh?"
Rainbow shook her head. "It's nothing Fluttershy. I just talked with Rarity about something and I'm happy with the results of our conversation and am thinking of it." "Oh, ok then." Rainbow's glad her shy friend don't press matters. "Oh yeah. Lucky flew from Sugar Cube Corner to school this morning. She also flew that from 6 feet in the air. I think 6 feet will be the highest it'll stay until I think she can take the higher altitude." Fluttershy smiled. "That's great. It seems she's getting better everyday." Rainbow nodded, then played with Tank for a while.
A little later was when Twilight arrived with Rarity and Applejack. Applejack went up behind Rainbow sneakily, the others watched in amusement. Applejack looked at Tank, who looked at her, Applejack made a 'shushing' motion. Tank understood, so when Applejack was right behind Rainbow, Applejack said, "Howdy partner!" Rainbow literally jumped at most 3 feet in the air, spread her wings, hovered, and put a hoof to her heart, which was beating pretty fast from what Applejack just pulled.
"AJ! You scared the daylights out of me!" Everypony's laughing. Rainbow came back down, "Not funny. Coulda given me a heart attack." "Sorry Rainbow, but that was the perfect opportunity to give you a good fright. Gotta admit, I did get'cha, didn't I?" Rainbow sighed, then started chuckling herself after she got over the shock. "Yeah, you did get me good." Applejack nuzzled Rainbow. "Now don't be takin' things seriously Rainbow if I do that again in the future. I'm only tryin' to poke fun at'cha. Don't mean ta actually harm ya." Rainbow nodded, "Yeah yeah. Hey, I got an appointment for Lucky at the doctor on Friday at 10 in the morning. Wanna come with?" Applejack looked confused and happy at the same time.
"When did ya do that and sure. I'll come. Don't think I got anything goin' on that day." "I did that yesterday. Today is Tuesday so I would have done that at a good time. You found Lucky on a Wednesday I do believe…. Because about 2 days later she started school, which was Friday. So between the time you found her to yesterday would be….. 6 days, right?" Twilight nodded, "Just about, yes. So not too bad. Good thing too the doctor had an opening so soon." Rainbow and Applejack nodded, also happy about that.
"Think Lucky's at a healthy weight?", Rarity asked. "I dunno. We'll find out Friday.", Twilight said. "Oh shoot, we're gonna hafta write a note ain't we?", Applejack asked Rainbow. Rainbow facehoofed, "Aw I forgot about that. You're right Applejack. Anypony got a quill and paper?" "I do inside.", Fluttershy said. Everypony went inside and when Rainbow was given the paper and quill, she started writing the note.
"Miss Cheerilee,
Lucky Fire will have to be absent for school on Friday, October 18. She has a doctor's appointment for a check up.
Rainbow Dash"
Twilight looked over Rainbow's shoulder and read it. "Pretty good Rainbow, I think that should suffice." Rainbow looked at Twilight oddly. "Ooook? I'll take that as a passing grade." "What I meant was that note should be good enough for Miss Cheerilee to let Lucky go to her appointment." Rainbow just nodded this time. Twilight folded it and set it back on the table. "Rarity, does Miss Cheerilee stay after school or does she go straight home after school like the others?" "She usually stays after until 3:30. Why?"
"I wanna give her the note after school." Rarity nodded, thinking that's a good idea. It was about 11:15 now, so Rainbow had plenty of time. Rainbow asked Applejack to step aside with her. Rarity knew what Rainbow was doing, so she occupied the others with the latest dress she was working on. So, when Rainbow felt they were well enough away so none of the others could hear, Rainbow told Applejack everything her and Rarity discussed earlier. Applejack looked stunned, yet impressed at Rainbow for admitting her maternal instincts were starting to come out.
Applejack knew Rainbow well, and knew she wouldn't want ponies knowing she was the maternal type, especially with her acting like one of the guys and all she does. "Well….. I might be startin' to feel the same, but…. I don't think as much as you Rainbow. Yeah, I feel like she's one o' my own, and I'm pretty much protective. If she ever called me mama though, I think that'd melt my heart. I even call her squirt sometimes, I don't even call Applebloom that." Rainbow smiled gently, which surprised the hay out of Applejack. Applejack never thought she'd ever see that side, well, other than Rainbow with Lucky, but never thought she'd see it when Rainbow's not with Lucky.
Then Applejack smiled as well. "That would just be too cute wouldn't it?", she asked. Rainbow nodded. "Any day now I kinda expect Lucky to call me at least Rainbow-mama or something. If she ever did call me that, I wouldn't be surprised at all." Applejack shrugged and said, "Ya never know." Rainbow agreed, ya never know. "Ya know… now that I think of it… I don't know everything about Lucky. Maybe one of these days, I should sit down, or we should sit down with her and ask her to tell us everything about her.", Rainbow said.
"That's a good idea Rainbow. Maybe on Saturday we'll do that." Rainbow nodded, "That sounds good. What time though? No doubt she would want to sleep in." Applejack thought a bit, "How about noontime, come have lunch at my farm, I have a pond in one of the parts of my acres of trees, we keep it clean so we can swim in nice water when it's hot out. Though we can't swim in it, it is autumn after all, we can sit by it, have a bit of a picnic." "That sounds great. Lucky sure would like that idea probably." AJ nodded.
"Hehe, hey, I just thought of something. When Lucky gets older and a better flier, we should measure her wing power.", Rainbow said. "That seems like a cool idea, I bet Lucky would be curious as to what hers would be. We'll ask Twilight about it when we get back to the others." Rainbow nodded in agreement. "I still remember my wing power, 16.5." Applejack looked impressed. "Really now? Did ya get Fluttershy to test hers?" Rainbow sighed, "Hers is 2 point something. I think it was 2.6 or something like that." Applejack didn't know what to say about that.
"Hey girls, do you want lunch?", Fluttershy asked. "Oh, sure.", Applejack said. So Applejack and Rainbow followed Fluttershy into her home where the others. "Oh Rainbow, the zap apple harvest is comin' up soon. Wanna stay at my place so you and Lucky can see how the zap apples come and how we make things out of 'em?" Rainbow looked at Applejack curiously. "Zap apples?" Applejack nodded and said, "Zap apples are special apples Granny Smith discovered when her family moved here to Ponyville, well actually, I'll let Granny Smith tell you the story."
"Ok. I can't wait to hear what they are." "You and Lucky will love the story, it's actually the founding of Ponyville. Granny's one of the founders." Rainbow stopped and looked at Applejack incredulously. "So that means your family is practically famous! Well, you really aren't, but you should be." Applejack blushed lightly and stopped as well and looked at Rainbow, "We don't want to be famous for making Ponyville. We're just settler ponies who settled down in an unoccupied land to make our own place. Actually, I should say Granny Smith, I'm just the granddaughter of one of the founders of Ponyville. Still, our family is just fine with being treated as normal civilians. None of the fawnin' over stuff."
"You are the coolest pony I've ever met." "Aw shucks. I dunno about that, but like I said, I'm only the granddaughter of the founder of Ponyville. Well, Granny Smith was only a filly herself, though she'd gotten her cutie mark already, she was still young. Probably a little older than Applebloom." Rainbow then went into the kitchen with Applejack. The others waited for them, then as they sat down, everypony ate. "I heard you telling Rainbow you're granny helped discover Ponyville, that's so cool.", Twilight said. "Yeah, hey Twi. Rainbow had an idea when she was talkin' privately with me. When Lucky gets older, think we could measure her wing power?" Twilight looked at Rainbow, "That's a good idea. Sure, that would be interesting."
Rainbow grinned. "Thanks Twilight. I bet Lucky would love to know her wing power, if it's anything near mine." Everypony shrugged, then Rarity said, "Who knows Rainbow, who knows. Though I do say, she certainly is a gifted filly. Only the second I've ever met. Twilight, of course, being the first. She could be close to you in wing power." "Can't wait to see if she is.", Rainbow said. After lunch everypony walked around town, nothing else better to do. They see ponies putting out Nightmare Night decorations out. "I love Nightmare Night. I love scaring everypony.", Rainbow said.
"Now Rainbow dear, that isn't nice. Some ponies might be like Fluttershy, delicate and sensitive.", Rarity said. "Don't worry your pretty little head Rarity, I know who to scare and who not to. Besides, I really don't want to hurt their feelings, and really, some ponies like being scared, like Pinkie." Rarity just looked a little skeptical. "If you say so." Rainbow just chose to ignore that comment. As time went on, it came time for Lucky to get out of school, so they arrived at Lucky's school to pick her up. Lucky came out with the other foals. She saw everypony outside waiting for her.
"Hi girls!", Lucky said. She went up to Applejack and Rainbow and nuzzled them, then she nuzzled the others. "This is a surprise. I didn't expect you all to pick me up." "Eh, well we had nothing to do really. We walked all around town then it became time for you to get out of school, so we came to pick you up.", Rainbow said. "Oh.", was all Lucky said. "I have homework yes, but only in two subjects. Shouldn't be hard because I have notes with me this time."
"Ok, well, I gotta give a note to Miss Cheerilee for Friday, then we'll head home. Well guys, this will be where we'll say goodbye. I had fun today, see you all tomorrow." "Bye Rainbow, bye Lucky." The two ponies waved and went inside the school. Rainbow went to Miss Cheerilee and heander her the note. "It's for Friday. She has a doctor's appointment for that day. I just confirmed it today." Miss Cheerilee read the note and nodded, "Ok Rainbow. Thank you. Good luck with your appointment Lucky."
Lucky and Rainbow nodded, then her and Rainbow went out of the school and Lucky hopped on Rainbow's back and Rainbow took off for their home. When Applejack saw them finally fly off to their home, she said to herself, but the others heard, "Wish I could walk on clouds. I'd love to be there with them and see Rainbow's home. I'd also help the little one with her homework." Twilight said, "Uh, Applejack, remember the cloud walking spell? I could do that, though you'd have to have Fluttershy take you up or even the hot air balloon would work."
Applejack blinked, "Uh, was I speakin' out loud? Sorry 'bout that. Uh, I appreciate the offer Twilight, but I don't want ta trouble ya. I guess I could stay down here, besides, they'll be comin' to my place soon fer a while. I invited them to come fer a while so I also could spend time with the little squirt." Twilight just smiled, "Oh, alright. It's ok. At least you can see them soon." Applejack nodded. "Well, I'll be gettin' on home as well. See y'all later." So everypony went to their homes for the rest of the day.